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A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "H: Geo-Energy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 May 2024 | Viewed by 12368

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Xiaopu Wang

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Guest Editor

School of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao, China
Interests: underground oil remediation; enhanced oil recovery; carbon utilization and storage; microfluidic applications

Dr. Bin Pan

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Guest Editor

School of Civil and Resource Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, China
Interests: multi-scale underground hydrogen storage (UHS); CO2 capture, utilization and storage (CCUS); unconvetional hydrocarbon recovery
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Dr. Naser Golsanami

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College of Energy and Mining Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, China
Interests: digital rock physics; natural gas hydrates; reservoir geomechanics; rock mechanics; machine learning
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Dr. Yujie Yuan

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Guest Editor

School of Earth Sciences, Yunnan University, Kunming 650500, China
Interests: unconventional resources; shale formation evaluation; sustainable energy; CO₂ geosequsation
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Dr. Yujing Du

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Guest Editor

John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, 9 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Interests: enhanced oil recovery; microfluidics/nanofluidics; transport in porous media; hydraulic fracturing; CO2 sequestration

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

As the oil and gas industry develops, certain accidents, including the 2010 Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill, are bound to occur. A large number of harmful components, such as aromatics, polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), etc., enter the surrounding environments and pose a great threat to the ecosystem and human health. Therefore, efficient remediation and treatment methods should be developed to clean the contaminants.

Besides the existing environmental problems in the oil and gas field, as the global awareness of environmental protection increases and the relative regulations and policies become stricter, there is an urgent need to improve the environmental monitoring and control during the drilling and production process and to develop environmentally friendly materials and techniques.

Furthermore, the worldwide agreement on controlling carbon emission stimulates the research and field study in CO₂-enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and sequestration, and also promotes the study of low-carbon energy resources (such as natural gas hydrates and related issues in sustainable energies, including underground hydrogen storage (UHS), geothermal exploitation, etc.).

This Special Issue focuses on topics including, but not limited to, issues listed above, and we invite authors to submit original and high-quality research and review articles addressing these issues using experimental methods, computational tools, or theoretical analysis.

Dr. Xiaopu Wang
Dr. Bin Pan
Dr. Naser Golsanami
Dr. Yujie Yuan
Dr. Yujing Du
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. Energies 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 2600 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

oil and gas contamination/remediation
environmental monitoring and control
environmental friendly materials and techniques in oil and gas development
environmental issues regarding the exploitation of natural gas hydrates
Enhanced oil recovery (EOR)
microbial enhanced oil recovery
CO₂ enhanced oil recovery
CO₂ capture, utilization and storage (CCUS)
Underground hydrogen storage (UHS)
geothermal exploitation

Published Papers (9 papers)

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Research

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38 pages, 19588 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Sedimentary Characteristics and Basin Evolution of a Compartmentalized Foreland Basin—Internal Ionian Zone, Western Greece

by Ioannis Vakalas, Efthymios Tripsanas, Constantinos Tzimeas and Panagiotis Konstantopoulos

Energies 2024, 17(2), 315; https://doi.org/10.3390/en17020315 - 08 Jan 2024

Viewed by 664

Abstract

This study is based on the detailed sedimentological analysis of eleven sections and one well through the late Eocene–Oligocene flysch formation of the Internal Ionian Zone (IIZ) in Western Greece. The sections are spread from the northern parts of Epirus to the north and Aitolokarnania to the south. Sedimentological data combined with biostratigraphic analyses resulted in a five-stage evolutionary model for the basin. Unit I corresponds to the lower part of the examined sections, indicating the onset of clastic sedimentation. Regarding depositional environments, it is regarded as a basin plain where lobe distal fringe accumulations occur. Unit II consists almost exclusively of heterolithic facies, marking the advance of a lobe complex system. Massive sandstone facies dominate unit III and can be considered a more proximal submarine fan system. Unit IV reflects a calm period of the basin, where mud-dominated heterolithics and hemipelagic mudstones were deposited. Hemipelagic mudstone facies with intervals of heterolithics, conglomerates, and deformed and massive sandstone facies characterize unit V. The architecture resembles a slope system incised by canyons and channels. The sand-rich intervals in Units III and V could act as the most favorable reservoir levels. In contrast, the sand-rich intervals in Unit II are considered less promising due to their higher heterogeneity. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Subsurface Energy and Environmental Protection)

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23 pages, 17785 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Polymer-Coated Nanoparticles and Pickering Emulsions as Agents for Enhanced Oil Recovery: Basic Studies Using a Porous Medium Model

by Christina Ntente, Anastasia Strekla, Zacharoula Iatridi, Maria Theodoropoulou, Georgios Bokias and Christos D. Tsakiroglou

Energies 2023, 16(24), 8043; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16248043 - 13 Dec 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 668

Abstract

Globally the overall oil recovery factors for primary and secondary recovery range from 35% to 45%, and a tertiary recovery method that can enhance the recovery factor by 10–30% could contribute to the energy supply. The use of nanoparticles in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes comprises an emerging and well-promising approach. Polymer-coated nanoparticles (PNPs) were synthesized through the free radical polymerization (FRP) of the monomers 2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid (AMPSA) and dodecyl methacrylate (DMA) on the surface of acrylic-modified spherical silica nanoparticles. The obtained PNPs were characterized using Attenuated Total Reflectance-Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Dispersions of PNPs were prepared in salt (NaCl, CaCl₂) aqueous solutions, the static oil/water interfacial tension were measured using the Du Nouy ring method, and changes caused based on the oil/water contact angle were recorded optically. The PNP dispersions were used to stabilize and characterize shear-thinning oil-in-water Pickering emulsions. The capacity of the PNP dispersions and Pickering emulsions to mobilize the trapped ganglia of viscous paraffin oil, which remained after successive tests of drainage and primary imbibition, was tested with visualization experiments of the secondary imbibition in a transparent glass-etched pore network. The synthesized SiO₂-P(AMPSA-co-DMA) nanoparticles were stable even at high temperatures (~200–250 °C) and displayed excellent stability in aqueous dispersions at high ionic strengths with the presence of divalent cations, and their dispersions generated stable oil-in-water Pickering emulsions with a shear-thinning viscosity. The oil-recovery efficiency is maximized when the most viscous Pickering emulsion is selected, but if energy cost factors are also taken into account, then the less viscous Pickering emulsion is preferable. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Subsurface Energy and Environmental Protection)

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32 pages, 6135 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Hammerstein–Wiener Model Identification for Oil-in-Water Separation Dynamics in a De-Oiling Hydrocyclone System

by Stefan Jespersen, Zhenyu Yang, Dennis Severin Hansen, Mahsa Kashani and Biao Huang

Energies 2023, 16(20), 7095; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16207095 - 14 Oct 2023

Viewed by 814

Abstract

To reduce the environmental impact of offshore oil and gas, the hydrocarbon discharge regulations tend to become more stringent. One way to reduce the oil discharge is to improve the control systems by introducing new oil-in-water (OiW) sensing technologies and advanced control. De-oiling hydrocyclones are commonly used in offshore facilities for produced water treatment (PWT), but obtaining valid control-oriented models of hydrocyclones has proven challenging. Existing control-oriented models are often based on droplet trajectory analysis. While it has been demonstrated that these models can fit steady-state separation efficiency data, the dynamics of these models have either not been validated experimentally or only describe part of the dynamics. In addition to the inlet OiW concentration, they require the droplet size distribution to be measured, which complicates model validation as well as implementation. This work presents an approach to obtain validated nonlinear models of the discharge concentration, separation efficiency, and discharge rate, which do not require the droplet size distribution to be measured. An exhaustive search approach is used to identify control-oriented polynomial-type Hammerstein–Wiener (HW) models of de-oiling hydrocyclones based on concentration measurements from online OiW monitors. To demonstrate the effectiveness of this modeling approach, a PI controller is designed using the Skogestad internal model control (SIMC) tuning rules to control the discharge OiW concentration directly. The identification experiment emulates an offshore PWT system with installed OiW monitors, which is realistic with the legislative incentive to include online OiW discharge measurements. The proposed approach could enable the application of OiW-based control on existing offshore PWT facilities, resulting in improved de-oiling performance and reduced oil discharge. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Subsurface Energy and Environmental Protection)

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11 pages, 5413 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Evaluation of the Performance of a Composite Water Control Process for Offshore Bottom Water Fractured Gas Reservoirs

by Dianju Wang, Zhandong Li, Haixiang Zhang, Shufen Liu, Fahao Yu, Ji Li, Xingbin Liu, Yingjian Xiao and Yunshu Lv

Energies 2023, 16(18), 6736; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16186736 - 21 Sep 2023

Viewed by 680

Abstract

Natural gas, as one of the main energy sources of the modern clean energy system, is also an important raw material for the chemical industry, and the stable extraction of natural gas reservoirs is often affected by bottom water. It is difficult to control water in natural gas reservoirs, while fractured gas reservoirs are even more demanding. This is due to the complexity of the seepage laws of gas and water in fractures, resulting in the poor applicability of conventional processes for water control. Continuous research is needed to propose a process with effective control capabilities for bottom-water fractured gas reservoirs. Aiming at the above difficulties, this paper is based on a large-scale three-dimensional physical simulation device to carry out physical model design and simulation results testing and analysis. The water control ability of the combination of density-segmented sieve tubes and continuous packers in fractured gas reservoirs is explored. The physical simulation results show that the fracture distribution characteristics control the upward transportation path of bottom water. According to the segmentation characteristics of the fractures at the horizontal section location, optimizing the number of horizontal well screen tube segments and the density of boreholes reduces the cone-in velocity of bottom water before connecting the fractures to a certain extent. And the combined process has different degrees of water control ability for the three stages of bottom water transportation from the fractured gas reservoir to the production well. As the degree of water in the production well increases, the water control ability of the process gradually decreases. After the implementation of the water control process, the water-free gas production period was extended by about 6.84%, and the total production time was extended by about 6.46%. After the shutdown of the horizontal wells, the reduction in daily water production can still reach 21% compared to the natural extraction. The results of this research can provide process suggestions for water control in offshore fractured reservoirs and further ensure stable production in offshore fractured gas reservoirs. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Subsurface Energy and Environmental Protection)

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17 pages, 3747 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Reactive Transport Modeling of Chemical Stimulation Processes for an Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS)

by Li Ma, Zhenpeng Cui, Bo Feng, Xiaofei Qi, Yuandong Zhao and Chaoyu Zhang

Energies 2023, 16(17), 6229; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16176229 - 27 Aug 2023

Viewed by 1063

Abstract

An enhanced geothermal system is a kind of artificial geothermal system, which can economically exploit geothermal energy from deep thermal rock mass with low permeability by artificially created geothermal reservoirs. Chemical stimulation refers to a reservoir permeability enhancement method that injects a chemical stimulant into the fractured geothermal reservoir to improve the formation permeability by dissolving minerals. In this study, a reactive solute transport model was established based on TOUGHREACT to find out the effect of chemical stimulation on the reconstruction of a granite-hosted enhanced geothermal system reservoir. The results show that chemical stimulation with mud acid as a stimulant can effectively improve the permeability of fractures near the injection well, the effective penetration distance can reach more than 20 m after 5 days. The improvement of porosity and permeability was mainly caused by the dissolution of feldspar and chlorite. The permeability enhancement increased with the injection flow rate and HF concentration in the stimulant, which was weakly affected by the change in injection temperature. The method of chemical enhancement processes can provide a reference for subsequent enhanced geothermal system engineering designs. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Subsurface Energy and Environmental Protection)

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11 pages, 2335 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Structural Design and Sealing Performance Analysis of a Nanofluidic Self-Heating Unsealing Rubber Cylinder

by Yafei Zhang, Taihao Fan, Pengbo Zhang and Yihua Dou

Energies 2023, 16(13), 4890; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16134890 - 23 Jun 2023

Viewed by 917

Abstract

As a crucial component for temporary blocking of layer segments in the segmental fracturing process, bridge plugs are difficult to unseal by conventional methods and may cause major downhole accidents if not handled properly. In this paper, a nanofluidic self-heating unsealing rubber cylinder is designed, which is equipped with a nanofluidic self-heating unsealing sandwich inside the conventional rubber cylinder, consisting of a nanofluidic system and an annular flexible heater. When unsealing, the nanofluidic self-heating unsealing sandwich is heated by the annular flexible heater, and the nanofluidic system can help the bridge plug rubber cylinder shrink in volume and unseal smoothly by the characteristics of heat shrinkage and cold expansion. The nanofluidic system, consisting of porous carbon with an exceptionally large specific surface area and glycerol, serves as a prime example for filling the sandwich layer, and the design parameters calculation was carried out. The sealing performance of the designed nanofluidic self-heating unsealing rubber cylinder was analyzed based on the Mooney–Rivlin principal structure by finite element modeling. The results show that the maximum contact stress between the nanofluidic self-heating unsealing rubber cylinder and the casing wall increases by 9.73%, the compression distance reduces by 24.47%, and the maximum equivalent force decreases by 12.17% on average compared with a conventional rubber cylinder under the same seating load. The designed nanofluidic self-heating unsealing rubber cylinder can satisfy the requirements of pressure-bearing capacity and sealing performance and performs better than a conventional rubber cylinder. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Subsurface Energy and Environmental Protection)

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25 pages, 7336 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Coal Properties and Coalbed Methane Potential in the Southern Part of the Upper Silesian Coal Basin, Poland

by Sławomir Kędzior and Lesław Teper

Energies 2023, 16(7), 3219; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16073219 - 03 Apr 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1452

Abstract

The area studied covers unmined Pennsylvanian Ćwiklice and Dankowice coal deposits located in the southern part of the Upper Silesian Coal Basin, Poland. The geological structure of the area clearly affects the current distribution of methane. The content of methane is lower in coal seams lying within porous and permeable sandstones (Łaziska sandstones), whereas it is higher in seams that occur in sequences (Mudstone Series) where impermeable shales and mudstones occur. Due to the previous attempts to extract methane from boreholes, this area, characterized by a dense network of exploratory and prospecting drillings, is worth analyzing with regard to the conditions of methane occurrence in terms of extraction possibilities. Using contour maps, cross-sections and profiles, the variability of methane content and resources, as well as the moisture and ash content of coal seams, were analyzed. Methane content isolines are parallel to the boundary between the Cracow Sandstone Series and the Mudstone Series and to main faults. Coal moisture contents clearly reduce methane contents. A high methane content >8 m³/t coal^daf is typical for coal seams in which moisture contents do not exceed 5%. High- and medium-volatile bituminous coal in the area is characterized by low methane saturation, though saturation increases with depth. Coal permeability is variable (from 0.2 to more than 100 mD), but, below a depth of 1200 m, a clear trend of decreasing permeability with depth is evident. From the point of view of coalbed methane (CBM) recovery, relatively low coal permeabilities and methane saturation levels could make CBM output problematic in the studied area. Methane production will be more probable as a result of demethanation of the Dankowice 1 deposit, where coal mining is planned. This will result in the emission of methane into the atmosphere from ventilation shafts and methane drainage stations. Therefore, effective use of the gas captured by the methane drainage station is highly desirable for environmental and economic reasons. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Subsurface Energy and Environmental Protection)

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10 pages, 1624 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Big-Data Analysis and Machine Learning Based on Oil Pollution Remediation Cases from CERCLA Database

by Hangyu Li, Ze Zhou, Tao Long, Yao Wei, Jianchun Xu, Shuyang Liu and Xiaopu Wang

Energies 2022, 15(15), 5698; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15155698 - 05 Aug 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1455

Abstract

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Superfund—the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) database—has collected and built an open-source database based on nearly 2000 US soil remediation cases since 1980, providing detailed information and references for researchers worldwide to carry out remediation work. However, the cases were relatively independent to each other, so the whole database lacks systematicness and instructiveness to some extent. In this study, the basic features of all 144 soil remediation projects in four major oil-producing states (California, Texas, Oklahoma and Alaska) were extracted from the CERCLA database and the correlations among the pollutant species, pollutant site characteristics and selection of remediation methods were analyzed using traditional and machine learning techniques. The Decision Tree Classifier was selected as the machine learning model. The results showed that the growth of new contaminated sites has slowed down in recent years; physical remediation was the most commonly used method, and the probability of its application is more than 80%. The presence of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene (BTEX) substances and the geographical location of the site were the two most influential factors in the choice of remediation method for a specific site; the maximum weights of these two features reaches 0.304 and 0.288. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Subsurface Energy and Environmental Protection)

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Review

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48 pages, 5003 KiB

Open AccessReview

Overview of Methods for Enhanced Oil Recovery from Conventional and Unconventional Reservoirs

by Boris V. Malozyomov, Nikita V. Martyushev, Vladislav V. Kukartsev, Vadim S. Tynchenko, Vladimir V. Bukhtoyarov, Xiaogang Wu, Yadviga A. Tyncheko and Viktor A. Kukartsev

Energies 2023, 16(13), 4907; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16134907 - 23 Jun 2023

Cited by 45 | Viewed by 2977

Abstract

In world practice, the role of reproduction of raw material base of oil production by implementing modern methods of oil recovery enhancement (thermal, gas, chemical, microbiological) on the basis of innovative techniques and technologies is rapidly growing and is becoming more important. It is concluded that at present, the priority of increasing oil reserves in world oil production is the development and industrial introduction of modern integrated methods of enhanced oil recovery, which can provide a synergistic effect in the development of new and developed oil fields. This article presents a review and comparative analysis of theoretical and practical methods of improving oil recovery of conventional and unconventional reservoirs. The paper examines in detail methods of improving oil recovery, taking into account the factors of enhanced oil recovery of oil reservoirs. Considered the main methods and technologies currently used to develop oil fields and recommendations for their effective use, taking into account the variety of external factors of oil production: the geological structure of the reservoir, its volume, and properties of oils. It is shown that there is no universal method of oil reservoir development, and it must be chosen after a thorough feasibility study among several proposed models. When describing the methods of enhanced oil recovery, special attention is also paid to the physical processes that occur as a result of applying the technology. In conclusion, the positive and negative characteristics of the presented methods included in EOR are presented, and recommendations that may influence the choice of practical solutions for engineers and oil producers are given. Conclusions are made that development systems, placement and choice of operating mode of wells essentially depend on the geological structure of the reservoir, its volume and properties of oils. An important role in this is the construction of a geological model of the production facility. The used hydrodynamic models of development are based on physical laws, about which oil producers sometimes don’t even suspect, and the authors of the models are not always able to convey it to the real producers. The authors consider it reasonable to make a logical generalizing conclusion that understanding processes occurring in the reservoir and taking appropriate measures for optimization and intensification of oil production will allow making oil production as effective as possible. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Subsurface Energy and Environmental Protection)

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