Microwave heating as an alternative lifting method for the heavy oil deposits

Abstract

In providing solution for lifting the viscous oil which is immensely concerned in mature field, thermal recovery is commonly applied to recover the oil with API gravities approximately 20 0API by using steam injection and in situ combustion. It had been the way out to lower enough the viscosity so that the oil would flow toward more effortless than the viscous one for the recent times. Applying electromagnetic microwave to heat up the reservoir can overcome the depth limitation which is often found in conventional thermal recovery methods. This method uses the Nano-ferro fluid as a stimulant that conveniently radiate heat in a reservoir. It is important to analyse the brine formation in affecting the optimization of thermal period while the Nano-ferro fluid being directly introduced to formation fluid. Therefore, NaCl solution becomes variable which was used to represent brine formation in investigating the heating time of saturated artificial cores. Meanwhile optimal concentration of Nano-ferro had been recognized. The microwave was also varied in sequence of power, 378-Watt, 468-Watt, 657-Watt, 792 Watt, and 900 Watt. For example, applying 50,000 ppm, 100,000 ppm, and 350,000 ppm in performing investigation that would give significant performance while thermal process. When 657 Watt was set to heat up the compartment contained artificial core, the temperature could reach up to 90 °C in 110 seconds, 82 seconds, and 54 seconds consecutively from low to high NaCl solution. In that way, the sensitivity of this variable was proved that NaCl solution greatly affect the temperature increment in times. Furthermore, this research can be considerable study in finding out the behaviour of formation fluid which contribute in optimizing for Nano-ferro fluid thermal recovery.