Surface properties of slotted liners and associated interfacial interaction mechanisms in oil sands extraction process

拟议的项目重点解决了加拿大和全球石油行业面临的一个具有挑战性的问题：开槽衬垫的失效，开槽衬垫已被广泛用于现场开采沥青过程中的有效防砂。加拿大拥有世界第三大石油储量，仅次于沙特阿拉伯和委内瑞拉。蒸汽辅助重力排水(SAGD)等原地开采技术被认为是最有前途的沥青开采方法，它可以在地下深处开采沥青，而且与传统的露天开采作业相比，具有显著减少的环境足迹。开槽衬板在疏松稠油油藏和原地开采工艺中得到了广泛的应用，可以有效地滤除采出油中的砂粒等污染物。在水、沥青、砂、粘土和开槽衬砌等复杂的多相体系中，由于砂土的沉积、沥青的吸附和沉积以及电化学腐蚀等原因，开槽衬砌面临着许多有害的问题。所有这些都会导致衬垫的性能失效(最终导致衬垫材料的机械失效)，并对石油生产造成严重的负面影响。SAGD操作中沥青提取的效率、开缝衬里的防砂性能、衬里表面潜在的污垢形成和衬里缝隙的堵塞，从根本上取决于固体砂、粘土、沥青、水和衬里表面之间的分子间和表面相互作用，以及局部流体动力条件。这项拟议研究的目标是与RGL油藏管理公司(RGL)合作，表征开槽衬里的物理化学表面特性，阐明油砂开采过程中导致衬里结垢和失效的相关界面相互作用机理，并帮助为油砂行业现场提取沥青过程中更好的材料和涂层选择提供更好的综合解决方案。

The proposed project focuses on a challenging issue confronting the Canadian and global petroleum industry: failure of slotted liners which have been widely used for effective sand control during in situ extraction of bitumen. Canada has the third largest oil reserves in the world, after Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. In situ extraction techniques such as steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) are considered as the most promising methods for bitumen extraction, which can extract bitumen deep in the ground and have a significantly less environmental footprint than the conventional surface mining operations. The slotted liners have been widely used in unconsolidated heavy oil reservoirs and in situ extraction processes, which can effectively filter out the sands and other contaminants from the oil produced. In the complex multi-phase system including water, bitumen, sands, clays and the slotted liners face many detrimental issues such as fouling and plugging due to deposition of sands/clays, adsorption and sedimentation of bitumen, and electrochemical corrosion. All these would lead to the performance failure of the liners (eventually lead to mechanical failure of the liner materials) and cause serious negative impact on oil production. The efficiency of bitumen extraction in SAGD operation, sand control performance in slotted liners, potential fouling and scale formation on liner surfaces and plugging of liner slots, are, fundamentally, determined by the intermolecular and surface interactions among the solid sands, clays, bitumen, water and liner surfaces, as well as the local hydrodynamic flow conditions. The goal of the proposed research, in collaboration with RGL Reservoir Management Inc. (RGL), is to characterize the physicochemical surface properties of slotted liners, and elucidate associated interfacial interaction mechanisms in oil sands extraction process that lead to the fouling and failure of the liners and to help provide comprehensive solutions for a better material and coating selection with improved performances in the in situ extraction process of bitumen for the oil sands industry.