Improvement of Heavy-Oil/Bitumen Recovery Efficiency by New Generation Chemicals and Optimization Models

建议书摘要： 石油和天然气是加拿大最大的自然能源资源，石油和天然气的开采和收入无疑是经济的重要组成部分。随着全球对石油和天然气的需求增加，再加上油价跌至最低点，高效的重油和沥青回收和提取方法已成为政府、石油行业、研究中心和大学的优先事项。针对开发经济和生态上可行的开采或开采非常规石油储量和资源的技术，艾伯塔大学开展了一项重大研究活动，Babadagli博士自2011年以来一直在NSERC工业研究教席(非常规石油开采)的两期和NSERC的三期发现补助金(2003至2017年)下开发和执行这项倡议。 这些举措旨在通过就地方法(热、溶剂和化学注入)为高效回收重油提供直接解决方案和新技术。作为这些尝试的继续，低成本材料和降低成本的策略将在这个项目中寻找和测试。这可以通过在现有操作(蒸汽或注水)中添加新材料来提高重油/沥青回收率并降低蒸汽成本来实现，并使用考虑到流体和岩石特性的复杂性质的数值方法来优化工艺以实现最低成本和最大利润。同时，重点将是通过基础研究方法了解具有成本效益的回收过程的物理学和新一代化学添加剂的行为。 在此背景下，该项目旨在解决以下技术问题，并提出一项新的研究方案，利用诸如微(孔)到千兆(场)尺度的实验和数值模拟以及可视化研究等先进技术： (1)在前一次NSERC发现授权期内进行实验测试的稠油开采工艺的优化； (2)用蒸汽添加剂降低界面张力，提高蒸汽稠油开采技术的效果； (3)冷热水注入化学剂，提高稠油注水效率。

Summary of Proposal: Oil and natural gas are the largest natural energy resources in Canada and there is no doubt that the extraction and revenue from oil and natural gas is an imperative component of the economy. As the demand for oil and gas increases globally, and, furthermore, as oil prices reached their lowest value, an efficient recovery and extraction method of heavy-oil and bitumen has become a priority for the government, the oil industry, research centres, and universities. A major research initiative undertaken by the University of Alberta in response to developing economically and ecologically viable technologies for extracting or tapping unconventional oil reserves and resources has been developed and executed by Dr. Babadagli under two-term NSERC Industrial Research Chair (in Unconventional Oil Recovery) since 2011 and three-term NSERC Discovery Grants (between 2003 and 2017). These initiatives have aimed to provide immediate solutions and new technologies for efficient recovery of heavy-oil by in-situ methods (thermal, solvent, and chemical injection). As a continuation of these attempts, lower cost materials and strategies to reduce the cost will be searched and tested in this project. This can be achieved through the addition of new materials to the existing operations (steam or water injection) to improve heavy-oil/bitumen recovery and reduce the cost of steam and optimizing the process using numerical methods considering the complex nature of the fluid and rock characteristics for minimal cost and maximum profit. Meanwhile, the focus will be on the understanding of the physics of the cost-effective recovery processes and the behaviour of the new generation chemical additives through fundamental research methodologically. In this context, this project is designed to address the following technical issues and proposes a new research program using advanced techniques such as micro (pore) to giga (field) scale experimental and numerical modeling, and visualization studies: (1) Optimization of the heavy-oil recovery processes tested experimentally in the previous NSERC Discovery Grant period; (2) Steam additives to reduce the interfacial tension and improve the performance of steam based heavy-oil recovery technologies; (3) Cold and hot-water injection with chemicals to improve the efficiency of waterflooding of heavy-oil.