Heat transfer of mid-deep ground source heat pump for crude oil gathering and transportation

Abstract

Wax precipitation in crude oil gathering and transportation (COG&T) causes substantial decrease in oil flowability and thus blockages of pipelines, presenting high safety risks and dramatic economic loss. Conventional oil/gas blending and low-temperature transport are inefficient and energy-intensive. Geothermal energy released from abandoned oil wells may be used as renewable heat source, but remains unexplored. This study focused on feasibility of utilizing geothermal energy from abandoned oil wells by mid-deep ground source heat pump (MD-GSHP), so as to alleviate wax precipitation for short-distance COG&T. Numerical models of ground heat exchanger (GHE) were established by using finite difference method (FDM) based on validation of engineered examples. The results demonstrated that, to enhance geothermal extraction, it was essential to increase fluid flow rate, lower inlet temperature, use materials with high thermal resistance, and optimize the pipe dimensions. Additionally, the impacts of operational parameters of GHE and COG&T subsystems on MD-GSHP system performances were also analyzed. Increasing inlet temperature by 8 °C resulted in 39.5 % reduction in system load and 89.4 % increase in coefficient of performance (COP). This study provides a proof-in-concept demonstration for extracting geothermal energy from abandoned wells by MD-GSHP to mitigate wax precipitation in COG&T project.