Session: 11-08-01 Advances in Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS)

Paper Number: 125089

125089 - Viscosity Modeling of Solvent-Heavy Oil/bitumen Systems at High Pressures and Elevated Temperatures 

Heavy oil resources have gained increasing importance in recent years due to the decrease in conventional oil production and the increasing global energy consumption. It is widely accepted that viscosity reduction via heat transfer and/or dissolution of solvents (e.g., CO₂) plays a crucial role in enhancing heavy oil recovery (EHOR). To quantify the viscosity for such a solvent(s)-heavy oil/bitumen mixture, various correlations have been proposed but each of them has its own limitations and may lead to large deviations under certain conditions. In this work, a new framework has been developed to dynamically reproduce the measured viscosity of solvent(s)-heavy oil/bitumen systems as a function of pressure and temperature. More specifically, the Peng-Robinson equation of state (PR EOS) is incorporated with modified alpha functions as well as binary interaction parameters (BIPs) for such a purpose by treating heavy oil as a single pseudocomponent (PC) and multiple PCs. Additionally, volume translation (VT) strategy is employed to correct the PR EOS limitations in accurately predicting molar volume of the liquid phase. By introducing effective density for the gaseous phase, the six commonly used mixing rules (i.e., Arrhenius’ mixing rule, power law mixing rule, Cragoe’s mixing rule, Lobe’s mixing rule, Shu’s mixing rule, and double-log mixing rule) have been evaluated and compared. The volume-based and weight-based power law, and weight-based Cragoe’s mixing rules are found to perform better than other mixing rules for predicting viscosity of solvent(s)-heavy oil/bitumen mixtures with an AARD of 16.0%, 16.5%, and 29.4%, respectively. It is noted that the volume-based mixing rules with the effective densities are much more accurate than those with real densities, indicating that the dissolved gas in heavy oil/bitumen should be treated as liquid at low pressures and high temperatures. Also, it is found that estimating viscosities by treating heavy oil/bitumen as multiple PCs has a better accuracy than using one PC only and that the prediction accuracy increases with an increase in the number of PCs. Furthermore, utilization of the VT strategy effectively corrects the calculated molar volume of the liquid phase, leading to the AARD between the measured and predicted density less than 9.0%. This newly proposed framework allows us to not only dynamically and accurately predict the viscosity for the aforementioned mixtures under various conditions, but also seamlessly integrate it with any reservoir simulators for accurately evaluate and optimize the performance of a hybrid solvent-steam process in a given heavy oil reservoir.

Presenting Author: Daoyong (Tony) Yang University of Regina

Presenting Author Biography: Daoyong Tony Yang is a professor of Energy Systems Engineering program in the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Regina. Previously, he worked as a petroleum engineer for 3 years in the PetroChina TuHa Oilfield Company with the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and as a reservoir engineer for 4 years in the Software Development and Information Centre of Petroleum Engineering, CNPC. Also, he worked as a senior visiting research scientist for one year with the Imperial Oil Resources Limited. Yang’s major research areas include reservoir description and dynamics, phase behaviour, mass and heat transfer, transient pressure/rate analysis, assisted history matching, formation evaluation, production optimization, CO2 EOR and storage, reservoir geomechanics, artificial-lift methods, transport phenomena, interfacial interactions in EOR processes, heavy-oil recovery, and unconventional resources exploitation. He has authored or coauthored 201 refereed-journal articles and 127 conference papers and holds three patents. Yang holds BSc and PhD degrees in petroleum engineering from the China University of Petroleum and a PhD degree in petroleum systems engineering from the University of Regina. He is the recipient of the 2011 SPE Canada Region Regional Formation Evaluation Award, 2013 SPE Canada Region Regional Reservoir Description and Dynamics Award, 2018 SPE Canada Region Regional Distinguished Achievement Award for Petroleum Engineering Faculty, and 2022 Outstanding Technical Reviewer Award (SPE Journal). He was an associate editor for the Journal of Energy Resources Technology (2015-2021). Yang is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), the American Chemical Society, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the Society of Petrophysicists and Well Log Analysts, and is a registered professional engineer with the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Saskatchewan, Canada.

Authors:

Bingge Hu University of Regina
Daoyong (Tony) Yang University of Regina