Batı Raman petrolü kullanılarak buhar- alkali (borax) solüsyon enjeksiyonunun deneysel incelenmesi

An experimental study has been conducted to compare the effect of steam injection and steam-alkali solution injection in improving the recovery of heavy oil. Bati Raman oil is used for the experiments. The API gravity (11.6º) and viscosity are typical of a heavy oil. Steam injection is used to increase the temperature in the reservoir reducing oil viscosity thus increasing the mobility of the oil. On the other hand, the target of alkali flooding is to reduce the residual oil saturation by generating surfactants in situ. Alkali solution is prepared by using Borax which forms weak alkali solutions. Borax mineral resources are abundant in Turkey and it is one of the least studied alkali solutes. Therefore, Borax is chosen in this study for the experiments. A laboratory setup was designed and built for the purpose of steam injection. The experimental setup consisted of four main systems; steam injection system, injection tube, fluid production system, and data measurement and recording system. The steam injection system consists of two reservoirs that hold the water and the alkali solution, an electrical pump, and an electrical steam generator. The injection tube is a stainless steel cylinder with a length of 1 meter and an internal diameter of 7.3 centimeters and a thin wall (1.5 mm) with flanges at both ends. Twenty-one thermocouples are placed at specific distances in the injection tube to record temperature profiles. To represent the reservoir rock and fluids, the injection tube is packed with a mixture of sand, oil, and water. The fluid production system consists of a condenser, a sand trap, and two separators. The produced samples are collected from the bottom of the separators in graduated tubes. Data measurement and recording system consisting of a data logger and computer to record the steam injection temperature and injection tube profile temperatures. Six runs are conducted as follows; water flooding, alkali solution flooding, conventional pure steam injection, cyclic injection of steam and alkali solution (4.0 wt %), cyclic injection of steam and alkali solution (4.0 wt %) with different cyclic injection period, and cyclic injection of steam and alkali solution (8.0 wt %). No oil is produced from water flooding and alkali solution flooding runs. Conventional pure steam injection recovered 8% OOIP. Experimental results show that, using of Borax solution results in a decrease in recovery of oil from 8% (pure steam injection) to 3 % (steam-alkali solution, 4.0 wt %) and 5.5% (steam-alkali solution, 8.0 wt %).