Abstract
Increasing the efficiency of thermal recovery methods is an important and relevant task. This study is devoted to reducing heavy components (resins and asphaltenes) and quality improvement of heavy oil by catalytic hydrothermal treatment. The object of this study is a bituminous sandstone sample from the Ashal’cha reservoir. The catalytic (iron tallate) hydrothermal simulation was carried out under reservoir conditions (200 °C, 30 bar). The composition and physicochemical characteristics of the products were studied using elemental and SARA analysis, MALDI, GC-MS, FT-IR. Moreover, the extracted rock is analyzed in XRD and DSA (Drop Shape Analyzer). The introduction of catalyst in combination with a hydrogen donor reduces the content of resins by 22.0%wt. with an increase in the share of saturated hydrocarbons by 27%wt. The destructive hydrogenation leads to a decrease in the sulfur content of upgrading products. This is crucial for the oil reservoirs of the Tatarstan Republic, as their crude oils are characterized by high sulfur content. According to the wettability data, the hydrophilicity of the rock surface increases due to inhibition of the coke formation after the introduction of the catalytic complex. Thus, the oil recovery factor can be increased due to the alteration of the oil-wetting properties of reservoir rocks.
Highlights
Steam treatment remains the most popular method for improving the recovery efficiency of unconventional hydrocarbons, high-viscosity oils, among other enhanced recovery methods
The study results of the elemental composition indicate a slight decrease in the H/C index in the non-catalytic experiment compared to the initial sample No 1
The introduction of a catalyst and a catalyst with a hydrogen donor increased the hydrogen content. This was because of the involvement of H-hydrogen in the aquathermolysis reaction and the provision of a catalyst for the transfer of hydrogen from naphthene-aromatic compounds that make up oil
Summary
Steam treatment remains the most popular method for improving the recovery efficiency of unconventional hydrocarbons, high-viscosity oils, among other enhanced recovery methods. It is relevant to investigate technologies of increasing the efficiency of steam treatment using catalytic systems that can significantly reduce the viscosity of hard-to-recovery oils. It is important to study the upgrading of heavy oil under the influence of steam when various mineral components are presented in the surrounding reservoir rocks [4,5,6,7,8]. According to [11], the oil reservoir comprises sands, clays, and non-clays rocks, mainly including quartz, feldspar, and clay minerals, such as montmorillonite.
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