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Applied Sciences
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Advances in Enhanced Heavy Oil Recovery Technologies
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Advances in Enhanced Heavy Oil Recovery Technologies

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Applied Industrial Technologies".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2024) | Viewed by 5808

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Yanyu Zhang

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Guest Editor
School of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580, China
Interests: enhanced heavy oil recovery; oil and gas reservoir engineering; reservoir simulation
Prof. Dr. Pengcheng Liu

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Guest Editor
School of Energy Resources, China University of Geosciences, Beijing 100083, China
Interests: enhanced heavy oil recovery; fluid flow in porous media; reservoir simulation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Xiaofei Sun

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Guest Editor
School of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580, China
Interests: improved heavy oil recovery; additives for steam assisted gravity drainage; foamy oil flow; multiphase flow in porous media
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Xiang Zhou

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Guest Editor
Petroleum Engineering School, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, China
Interests: thermal methods; numerical simulation; enhanced heavy oil recovery
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Long Xu

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Guest Editor
School of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580, China
Interests: chemical flooding; colloids and interface chemistry; unconventional resources development
Dr. Min Yang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580, China
Interests: enhanced oil recovery; thermal recovery of heavy oil/bitumen resources; steam assisted gravity drainage
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The rapid decrease in production from light oil reservoirs is increasing the importance of heavy oils, which represent approximately 10% of worldwide oil production. However, there are substantial challenges in developing these heavy oils due to their fundamental characteristics, i.e., high density, high viscosity, and high contents of resins and asphaltenes. Currently, the large-scale development of heavy oils is achieved by thermal technologies, which mainly include cyclic steam stimulation, steam-assisted gravity drainage, and steam flooding. However, in order to achieve environmental and economic objectives, conventional thermal technologies might be not enough, and enhanced heavy oil recovery might be required.

Several variations of steam, chemicals, and solvent injection technologies will play a crucial role in the coming years to achieve the defined oil recovery. Technologies known as solvent vapor extraction, steam injection using chemical additives, and expanding solvent-steam assisted gravity drainage, are examples of this class of methods.

This Special Issue, entitled Advances in Enhanced Heavy Oil Recovery Technologies in the journal of Applied Sciences, addresses the important role of these new technologies to enhance heavy oil recovery. The issue covers original reviews, experimental and modelling research, and case studies related to enhanced heavy oil recovery technologies. All aspects related to new developments and challenges in this research area will be included.

Dr. Yanyu Zhang
Prof. Dr. Pengcheng Liu
Dr. Xiaofei Sun
Dr. Xiang Zhou
Dr. Long Xu
Dr. Min Yang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • heavy oil
  • enhanced oil recovery
  • mechanisms
  • modelling
  • optimization
  • experimental analysis
  • techno-economic feasibility
  • Harmful gas emissions
  • future development
  • novel technologies

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 8861 KiB  
Article
Wettability Alteration of Limestone Carbonate Cores Using Methylene Blue and Alumina-Based Nanofluid: Implications for EOR
by Abdul Majeed Shar, Muhammad Furqan Qureshi, Darya khan Bhutto and Faisal Hussain Memon
Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(14), 8474; https://doi.org/10.3390/app13148474 - 22 Jul 2023
Viewed by 1053
Abstract
Wettability is a key parameter for optimizing the residual oil recovery from geological rock formations and it provides a path for improved oil recovery and geo-storage of energy. Thus, the key motive behind wettability alteration from hydrophobic to hydrophilic is to enhance the [...] Read more.
Wettability is a key parameter for optimizing the residual oil recovery from geological rock formations and it provides a path for improved oil recovery and geo-storage of energy. Thus, the key motive behind wettability alteration from hydrophobic to hydrophilic is to enhance the oil productivity. Thus, this work concentrates on Sui main limestone reservoir core samples’ wettability alteration (altering their surface wetting behavior from an oil-wet to water-wet state) for enhanced oil recovery. Hence, we examine the effectiveness of alumina nanofluid as well as a new chemical methyl blue to alter the wettability. Methyl blue is released on a large scale from various industries, i.e., pharma, textile, and food industries, which is a key environmental concern; subsequently, it contaminates the water table. Hence, the study explores the effects of MB and alumina nanofluid on wettability. The effect of nanofluids formulated via dispersing the alumina nanoparticles in aqueous solutions at various concentrations (0. 0.05, 0.3, 0.50, 0.75, and 1.0 wt. %) were tested for wettability modifications under different physio-thermal conditions. Subsequently, the wettability change was examined for these samples treated with different concentrations of MB (10, 15, 30, 50, and 100 mg/L) for 7 days at two different temperatures (25 and 50 °C). The results show that the hydrophobicity of the SML carbonate rock significantly reverses while treating with alumina nanofluids and MB. Thus, the wettability modification/reversal via the treatment of MB and alumina nanofluids can be an effective mechanism for hydrogen injections and EOR processes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Enhanced Heavy Oil Recovery Technologies)
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15 pages, 5914 KiB  
Article
A Novel Methodology for Predicting the Production of Horizontal CSS Wells in Offshore Heavy Oil Reservoirs Using Particle Swarm Optimized Neural Network
by Lijun Zhang, Haojun Xie, Zehua Fan, Yuting Bai, Jinpeng Hu, Chengkai Wang and Xiaofei Sun
Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(4), 2540; https://doi.org/10.3390/app13042540 - 16 Feb 2023
Viewed by 1053
Abstract
Cyclic steam stimulation (CSS) is one of the main offshore heavy oil recovery methods used. Predicting the production of horizontal CSS wells is significant for developing offshore heavy oil reservoirs. Currently, the existing reservoir numerical simulation and analytical models are the two major [...] Read more.
Cyclic steam stimulation (CSS) is one of the main offshore heavy oil recovery methods used. Predicting the production of horizontal CSS wells is significant for developing offshore heavy oil reservoirs. Currently, the existing reservoir numerical simulation and analytical models are the two major methods to predict the production of horizontal CSS wells. The reservoir numerical simulation method is tedious and time-consuming, while the analytical models need many assumptions, decreasing models’ accuracy. Therefore, in this study, a novel methodology combining the particle swarm optimization algorithm (PA) and long short-term memory (LM) model was developed to predict the production of horizontal CSS wells. First, a simulation model was established to calculate the cumulative oil production (COP) of horizontal CSS wells under different well, geological, and operational parameters, and then the correlations between the calculated COP and parameters were analyzed by Pearson correlation coefficient to select the input variables and to generate the initial data set. Then, a PA-LM model for the COP of horizontal CSS wells was developed by utilizing the PA to determine the optimal hyperparameters of the LM model. Finally, the accuracy of the PA-LM model was validated by the initial data set and actual production data. The results showed that, compared with the LM model, the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of the testing set for the PA-LM model decreased by 4.27%, and the percentage of the paired points in zone A increased by 2.8% in the Clarke error grids. In addition, the MAPEs of the training set for the PA-LM and LM models stabilized at 267 and 304 epochs, respectively. Therefore, the proposed PA-LM model had a higher accuracy, a stronger generalization ability, and a faster convergence rate. The MAPEs of the actual and predicted COP of the wells B1H and B5H by the optimized PA-LM model were 8.66% and 5.93%, respectively, satisfying the requirements in field applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Enhanced Heavy Oil Recovery Technologies)
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14 pages, 3726 KiB  
Article
Experimental Measurements and Numerical Simulation of H2S Generation during Cyclic Steam Stimulation Process of Offshore Heavy Oil from Bohai Bay, China
by Taichao Wang, Renfeng Yang, Lijun Zhang, Wei Zheng, Yan Sun and Yuting Bai
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(15), 7488; https://doi.org/10.3390/app12157488 - 26 Jul 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1156
Abstract
Cyclic steam stimulation (CSS) is successfully applied to increase heavy oil recovery in heavy oil reservoirs in Bohai Bay, China. However, during the CSS processes, hydrogen sulfide (H2S) was detected in some heavy oil reservoirs. The existing literature mainly focused on [...] Read more.
Cyclic steam stimulation (CSS) is successfully applied to increase heavy oil recovery in heavy oil reservoirs in Bohai Bay, China. However, during the CSS processes, hydrogen sulfide (H2S) was detected in some heavy oil reservoirs. The existing literature mainly focused on the H2S generation of onshore heavy oil. There is no concrete experimental data available, especially about the level of H2S generation during CSS of offshore heavy oil. In addition, there is still a lack of effective reaction kinetic models and numerical simulation methods to simulate H2S generation during the CSS of offshore heavy oil. Therefore, this paper presents a case study from Bohai Bay, China. First, the laboratory aquathermolysis tests were conducted to simulate the gases that are produced during the CSS processes of heavy oil. The effects of the reaction temperature and time on the H2S generation were studied. Then, a one-dimensional CSS experiment was performed to predict H2S generation under reservoir conditions. A kinetic model for the prediction of H2S generation during the CSS of heavy oil was presented. The developed model was calibrated with the experimental data of the one-dimensional CSS experiment at a temperature of 300 °C. Finally, a reservoir model was developed to predict H2S generation and investigate the effects of soaking time, steam quality, and steam injection volume on H2S generation during CSS processes. The results show that the H2S concentration increased from 0.77 ppm in the first cycle to 1.94 ppm in the eighth cycle during the one-dimensional CSS experiment. The average absolute error between the measured and simulated H2S production was 12.46%, indicating that the developed model can accurately predict H2S production. The H2S production increase with soaking time, steam quality, and steam injection volume due to the strengthened aquathermolysis reaction. Based on the reservoir simulation, the H2S production was predicted in the range of 228 m3 to 2895 m3 within the parameters of this study. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Enhanced Heavy Oil Recovery Technologies)
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12 pages, 2000 KiB  
Article
Experimental Investigation of Steam Conformance Evolution in Vertical-CSS and Optimization of Profile Improvement Agents
by Chunyan Lei, Yongbin Wu and Guo Yang
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(14), 6989; https://doi.org/10.3390/app12146989 - 11 Jul 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1118
Abstract
Production performance of heavy oil deposits in Xinjiang oilfield developed by vertical-well cyclic steam stimulation (CSS) is increasingly challenged by reservoir heterogeneity, which is comprised of original sedimental heterogeneity and steam-induced heterogeneity. In order to understand the impacts of sedimental heterogeneity and high-speed [...] Read more.
Production performance of heavy oil deposits in Xinjiang oilfield developed by vertical-well cyclic steam stimulation (CSS) is increasingly challenged by reservoir heterogeneity, which is comprised of original sedimental heterogeneity and steam-induced heterogeneity. In order to understand the impacts of sedimental heterogeneity and high-speed steam injection to steam conformance, and strategies to maximize steam swept volume, a series of experiments were designed and implemented. Three-tube coreflooding experiments were performed to study the steam displacement dynamics under heterogeneous conditions, and a high-temperature plugging agent was developed. The coreflooding experiments indicate that the injection conformance deteriorates once the steam breakthrough occurs in a high-permeability tube, leaving the oil in the medium and low permeability tubes being surpassed. The optimized plugging agent could resist high temperatures over 260 °C and its compressive strength was 13.14 MPa, which is higher than maximal steam injection pressure. The plugging rate of high permeability core was greater than 99.5% at 220–280 °C with a breakthrough pressure gradient over 25 MPa/m. The field test validated its profile improvement feasibility with cyclic oil, 217.6% of the previous cycle. The plugging agent optimized in this study has significant potential for similar heterogeneous reservoirs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Enhanced Heavy Oil Recovery Technologies)
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