Abstract

Reservoir containment of the injected fluids is essential in the solvent-aided thermal recovery of bitumen from oil sands from an environmental perspective. Containment is particularly important when new chemicals/solvents, known as Contaminants of Potential Concern (CoPCs), are coinjected with steam to improve the recovery process. In this work, numerical simulations are conducted to study the fate of the injected CoPCs such as propane, butane, hexane, field condensates, ammonia, dimethyl ether, and ethyl acetate. The results reveal that among the CoPCs studied, hexane, field condensates, and ethyl acetate are contained in the oil sands formations, whereas other CoPCs could potentially migrate upward. While upward migration of water-soluble CoPCs such as dimethyl ether and ammonia is limited to the top vicinity of the oil sands formation, propane could migrate upward significantly and reach shallow groundwater resources. Our findings also reveal that injection of solvents/chemicals, such as hexane, field condensates, and ethyl acetate, and to a great extent butane, eliminates migration of the in situ generated gases such as methane. In contrast, other solvents/chemicals such as propane, dimethyl ether, and ammonia allow significant upward migration of methane. These findings improve our understanding of the long-term fate of the injected CoPCs. In addition, the results find applications in the design of cleaner recovery techniques, risk assessment, and the development of regulatory frameworks for improved control on CoPCs.

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