Oil sands in situ gasification recovery process design

加拿大艾伯塔省的重油和沥青量估计约为1.7万亿桶。这种石油的原地粘度通常在数十万到数百万厘泊之间，其开采是能源密集型的，需要大量温室气体排放和水消耗。艾伯塔省生产的大部分重油和沥青经过提炼后，表面提炼成合成原油，然后在标准炼油厂转化为燃料、润滑油和石化产品。升级沥青需要氢气。在目前的实践中，大部分氢气是通过甲烷的水蒸气重整和水-气变换反应产生的。这意味着，就像目前所做的那样，重油和沥青的升级需要大量的天然气来产生氢气。沥青储藏气化就地产生氢气的潜力提供了一种有吸引力的能源回收替代方案，可以替代油砂回收+升级，这也可以同时具有经济和环境效益。例如，沥青气化产生的氢气也可以用于现场升级，以及合成氨和其他化学品的原料。水-气变换反应还会产生二氧化碳，二氧化碳可能会被隔离在地层水中，并在原位气化过程中作为固体矿物，因此通过表面改良剂减少了对大气的排放。原位气化技术提供了一种潜在的清洁方法，可以从沥青中生产燃料和原料(氢、甲烷)，沥青是一种相对“肮脏”的燃料，此外还有一种更节能的方法来提取石油(由于温度升高，石油产品可能会升级)。在碳中性社会的背景下，沥青转化为氢是非常可取的，因为作为一种能量载体，沥青每单位质量包含的能量比任何其他可燃燃料都要多。该研究计划的主要目标是制定操作策略和井位，以优化能源回收和原料化学品(H2、CH4)的回收、热效率和排放强度，作为当前基于蒸汽的沥青回收和改质工艺的替代方案。

The volume of heavy oil and bitumen in Alberta, Canada is estimated to be about 1.7 trillion barrels. This oil has in situ viscosities typically in the hundreds of thousands to millions of centipoise and its extraction is energy intensive with large greenhouse gas emissions and water consumption. After extraction, most of the produced heavy oil and bitumen in Alberta is surface upgraded to synthetic crude oil which in turn can be converted to fuel, lubricant, and petrochemical products in standard refineries. To upgrade bitumen requires hydrogen. In current practice, much of this hydrogen is generated from steam reforming of methane together with the water-gas shift reaction. This means that heavy oil and bitumen upgrading, as is currently done, requires huge amounts of natural gas to generate hydrogen. The potential for in situ generation of hydrogen by gasification of bitumen reservoirs offers an attractive energy recovery alternative to oil sands recovery + upgrading which can also have both economic and environmental benefits. For example, hydrogen generated from bitumen gasification can also be used for in situ upgrading as well as feedstock for ammonia and other chemicals. The water-gas shift reaction also generates carbon dioxide which could be potentially sequestered in formation water and as solid mineral in an in situ gasification process so that emissions to the atmosphere are reduced over surface upgraders. In situ gasification technology provides a potentially clean method to produce fuel and feedstock material (hydrogen, methane) from bitumen, a relatively "dirty" fuel in addition to a more energy efficient way to extract oil (potentially upgraded oil product resulting from elevated temperatures). In the context of a carbon-neutral society, bitumen conversion to hydrogen is highly desirable since as an energy vector, it contains more energy per unit mass than any other combustible fuel. The key goal of this research program is the development of operating strategies and well placement to optimize the recovery of energy and feedstock chemicals (H2, CH4), thermal efficiency, and emissions intensity of an in situ oil sands gasification process as an alternative to current steam-based bitumen recovery and upgrading processes.