Oxidation wave structure and oxygen breakthrough for air injection into light oil reservoirs

Abstract

This paper combines analytical and numerical studies of light oil recovery by air injection. We investigate in detail the internal structure of oxidation fronts in two-phase flow in a porous medium, taking into account reaction, vaporization, and condensation of liquid fuel, with longitudinal heat conduction. Our solution shows that between regimes of total and partial oxygen consumption there is a change in the oxidation wave, which may have negative implications for oxygen breakthrough in light oil recovery process. In spite of the simplifications used to derive the analytical solution, the latter agrees with direct numerical simulations. Finally, based on our analytical solution, we provide a phase diagram to predict conditions for total or partial oxygen consumption in light oil recovery process.