IN-SITU CATALYTIC UPGRADING OF HEAVY CRUDE AND BITUMEN: OPTIMISATION OF NOVEL CAPRI REACTOR

重质原油和沥青的原位催化升级：新型卡普里反应器的优化

• 批准号: EP/E057977/1
• 负责人: Joseph Wood
• 金额: $ 53.86万
• 依托单位: University of Birmingham
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2007 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FE057977%2F1
• 关键词: SITU; CATALYTIC; UPGRADING; HEAVY; CRUDE

Heavy crude oil and bitumen are a vast, largely unexploited hydrocarbon resource, with barely 1% produced so far, compared with more than 50% of conventional light oil (like the North Sea). More than 80% of this heavy, unconventional oil, lies in the Western hemisphere, whereas more than 80% of conventional light oil lies in the Eastern hemisphere (mainly in the Middle East). Over the next 10-30 years, geopolitical factors, and also the emerging strength of Asian countries, especially India and China, will create increasing tensions and uncertainty, with regard to the availability and supply of crude oil. Alongside gas, nuclear and renewables, crude oil will continue to be an important part of the UK's 'energy mix' for decades to come. How will the crude oil we need for industry and transportation be obtained and will it be as secure as it was from the North Sea?The huge Athabasca Oil Sands deposits in Canada (1.5 trillion barrels) provides an opportunity for the UK to secure access to a long-term, stable supply. The first step towards this was the development of a new technology, THAI - 'Toe-to-Heel Air Injection', to produce Oil Sands bitumen and heavy oil. It was discovered by the Improved Oil Recovery group at the University Bath, in the 1990's, and is currently being field tested at Christina Lake, Alberta, Canada. In 1998, in collaboration with the Petroleum Recovery Institute (PRI), Calgary, Canada, the Bath group discovered another process, based on THAI, called CAPRI. The THAI-CAPRI processes have the potential to convert bitumen and heavy crude into virtually a light crude oil, of almost paraffin-like consistency, at a fraction of the cost of conventional surface processing. A surface upgrading plant has recently been proposed for the UK, at a cost of $2-3 billion.The advantage of CAPRI is that it creates a catalytic reactor in the petroleum reservoir, by 'sleeving' a layer of catalyst around the 500-100 m long horizontal production well, inside the reservoir. The high pressure and temperature of the reservoir enable the thermal cracking and hydroconversion reactions to take place, so that only light, converted oil is produced at the surface. Apart from the cost of the catalyst, which can be a standard refinery catalyst, the CAPRI reactor is virtually free! All that is needed is to inject compressed air, in order to propagate a combustion front in a 'toe-to-heel' manner along the horizontal production well.In collaboration with the University of Birmingham, the project will investigate the effectiveness of a range of catalyst for use in the CAPRI process. The University of Birmingham team, led by Dr. Joe Wood, will investigate the long-term survivability of the catalysts, which is critical to operation of CAPRI. Once the catalyst is emplaced around the horizontal well, it will be expensive to recover or replace it. Previous 3D combustion cell experiments conducted by the Bath team, only allowed catalyst operating periods of a few hours, whereas in practice, the catalyst will need to survive, remain active, for days, or weeks. The Bath team will undertake detailed studies to characterise the internal pore structure of the catalysts used in the experiments, to obtain fundamental information on catalyst deactivation, which can be related to the process conditions and oil composition. They will also develop a detailed numerical model of the CAPRI reactor. This will provide a tool to explore 'fine details' of the THAI-CAPRI process, which will aid in the selection/optimisation of the most suitable catalysts. The model will be incorporated into a larger model using the STARS reservoir simulator. Preliminary reservoir simulations will be made to explore the potential operating conditions for CAPRI.

重质原油和沥青是一种巨大的、大部分未开发的碳氢化合物资源，迄今为止仅生产了1%，而传统轻质油（如北海）的产量超过50%。超过80%的这种重质非常规石油位于西半球，而超过80%的传统轻质石油位于东半球（主要是中东）。在未来10-30年，地缘政治因素以及亚洲国家，特别是印度和中国的新兴力量，将在原油供应和供应方面造成越来越多的紧张局势和不确定性。除了天然气、核能和可再生能源，原油将继续成为未来几十年英国“能源结构”的重要组成部分。我们工业和运输所需的原油将如何获得，它会像北海那样安全吗？加拿大阿萨巴斯卡油砂储量巨大（1.5万亿桶），为英国提供了获得长期稳定供应的机会。第一步是开发一项新技术，泰国- '脚趾到脚跟空气注入'，以生产油砂沥青和重油。它是由巴斯大学的提高石油采收率小组在20世纪90年代发现的，目前正在加拿大阿尔伯塔的克里斯蒂娜湖进行现场测试。1998年，Bath集团与加拿大卡尔加里的石油回收研究所（PRI）合作，发现了另一种基于THAI的工艺，称为卡普里。THAI-CAPRI工艺有可能将沥青和重质原油转化为几乎与石蜡相似的轻质原油，而成本仅为常规地面加工的一小部分。英国最近提出了一个表面改质工厂，成本为20 - 30亿美元。卡普里的优点是，它通过在储层内的500-100米长的水平生产井周围“套管”一层催化剂，在石油储层中创建一个催化反应器。储层的高压和高温使热裂解和加氢转化反应能够发生，因此在地表仅产生轻质转化油。除了催化剂的成本（可以是标准的炼油厂催化剂）外，卡普里反应器几乎是免费的！所需要的只是注入压缩空气，以便沿着水平生产井以“趾到跟”的方式传播燃烧前缘。该项目将与伯明翰大学合作，研究卡普里工艺中使用的一系列催化剂的有效性。由Joe Wood博士领导的伯明翰大学团队将研究催化剂的长期生存能力，这对卡普里的运行至关重要。一旦催化剂被放置在水平井周围，回收或更换它将是昂贵的。Bath团队进行的先前3D燃烧室实验只允许催化剂运行几个小时，而在实践中，催化剂将需要存活，保持活性，几天或几周。巴斯团队将进行详细的研究，以确定实验中使用的催化剂的内部孔结构，以获得与工艺条件和油成分有关的催化剂失活的基本信息。他们还将开发卡普里反应堆的详细数值模型。这将提供一个工具来探索泰国-CAPRI工艺的“细节”，这将有助于选择/优化最合适的催化剂。该模型将被纳入一个更大的模型，使用STARS油藏模拟器。将进行初步的油藏模拟，以探索卡普里的潜在运行条件。

项目成果

Effectiveness of Different Transition Metal Dispersed Catalysts for In Situ Heavy Oil Upgrading

• DOI: 10.1021/acs.iecr.5b02953
• 发表时间: 2015-11-04
• 期刊: INDUSTRIAL & ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY RESEARCH
• 影响因子: 4.2
• 作者: Al-Marshed, Abdullah;Hart, Abarasi;Wood, Joseph
• 通讯作者: Wood, Joseph

Investigation of the problems with using gas adsorption to probe catalyst pore structure evolution during coking.

研究利用气体吸附探测焦化过程中催化剂孔结构演变的问题。

• DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2012.10.025
• 发表时间: 2013
• 期刊: Journal of colloid and interface science
• 影响因子: 9.9
• 作者: Gopinathan N

In Situ Catalytic Upgrading of Heavy Crude with CAPRI: Influence of Hydrogen on Catalyst Pore Plugging and Deactivation due to Coke

• DOI: 10.3390/en11030636
• 发表时间: 2018-03-01
• 期刊: ENERGIES
• 影响因子: 3.2
• 作者: Hart, Abarasi;Wood, Joseph
• 通讯作者: Wood, Joseph

Effect of cyclohexane as hydrogen-donor in ultradispersed catalytic upgrading of heavy oil

• DOI: 10.1016/j.fuproc.2015.07.016
• 发表时间: 2015-10-01
• 期刊: FUEL PROCESSING TECHNOLOGY
• 影响因子: 7.5
• 作者: Hart, Abarasi;Lewis, Charlotte;Wood, Joseph
• 通讯作者: Wood, Joseph

Optimization of Heavy Oil Upgrading Using Dispersed Nanoparticulate Iron Oxide as a Catalyst

• DOI: 10.1021/acs.energyfuels.5b01451
• 发表时间: 2015-10-01
• 期刊: ENERGY & FUELS
• 影响因子: 5.3
• 作者: Al-Marshed, Abdullah;Hart, Abarasi;Wood, Joseph
• 通讯作者: Wood, Joseph