INVESTIGATION OF MULTISCALE AND MULTIPHASE FLOW, TRANSPORT AND REACTION IN HEAVY OIL RECOVERY PROCESSES

Abstract

This is final report for contract DE-AC26-99BC15211. The report describes progress made in the various thrust areas of the project, which include internal drives for oil recovery, vapor-liquid flows, combustion and reaction processes and the flow of fluids with yield stress. The report consists mainly of a compilation of various topical reports, technical papers and research reports published produced during the three-year project, which ended on May 6, 2002 and was no-cost extended to January 5, 2003. Advances in multiple processes and at various scales are described. In the area of internal drives, significant research accomplishments were made in the modeling of gas-phase growth driven by mass transfer, as in solution-gas drive, and by heat transfer, as in internal steam drives. In the area of vapor-liquid flows, we studied various aspects of concurrent and countercurrent flows, including stability analyses of vapor-liquid counterflow, and the development of novel methods for the pore-network modeling of the mobilization of trapped phases and liquid-vapor phase changes. In the area of combustion, we developed new methods for the modeling of these processes at the continuum and pore-network scales. These models allow us to understand a number of important aspects of in-situ combustion, including steady-state front propagation, multiple steady-states, effects of heterogeneity and modes of combustion (forward or reverse). Additional aspects of reactive transport in porous media were also studied. Finally, significant advances were made in the flow and displacement of non-Newtonian fluids with Bingham plastic rheology, which is characteristic of various heavy oil processes. Various accomplishments in generic displacements in porous media and corresponding effects of reservoir heterogeneity are also cited.