IN-SITU CATALYTIC UPGRADING OF HEAVY CRUDE AND BITUMEN: OPTIMISATION OF NOVEL CAPRI REACTOR

重质原油和沥青的原位催化升级：新型卡普里反应器的优化

基本信息

批准号：
EP/E057977/1
负责人：
Joseph Wood
金额：
$ 53.86万
依托单位：
University of Birmingham
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2007
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2007 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FE057977%2F1
关键词：
SITU CATALYTIC UPGRADING HEAVY CRUDE

项目摘要

Heavy crude oil and bitumen are a vast, largely unexploited hydrocarbon resource, with barely 1% produced so far, compared with more than 50% of conventional light oil (like the North Sea). More than 80% of this heavy, unconventional oil, lies in the Western hemisphere, whereas more than 80% of conventional light oil lies in the Eastern hemisphere (mainly in the Middle East). Over the next 10-30 years, geopolitical factors, and also the emerging strength of Asian countries, especially India and China, will create increasing tensions and uncertainty, with regard to the availability and supply of crude oil. Alongside gas, nuclear and renewables, crude oil will continue to be an important part of the UK's 'energy mix' for decades to come. How will the crude oil we need for industry and transportation be obtained and will it be as secure as it was from the North Sea?The huge Athabasca Oil Sands deposits in Canada (1.5 trillion barrels) provides an opportunity for the UK to secure access to a long-term, stable supply. The first step towards this was the development of a new technology, THAI - 'Toe-to-Heel Air Injection', to produce Oil Sands bitumen and heavy oil. It was discovered by the Improved Oil Recovery group at the University Bath, in the 1990's, and is currently being field tested at Christina Lake, Alberta, Canada. In 1998, in collaboration with the Petroleum Recovery Institute (PRI), Calgary, Canada, the Bath group discovered another process, based on THAI, called CAPRI. The THAI-CAPRI processes have the potential to convert bitumen and heavy crude into virtually a light crude oil, of almost paraffin-like consistency, at a fraction of the cost of conventional surface processing. A surface upgrading plant has recently been proposed for the UK, at a cost of $2-3 billion.The advantage of CAPRI is that it creates a catalytic reactor in the petroleum reservoir, by 'sleeving' a layer of catalyst around the 500-100 m long horizontal production well, inside the reservoir. The high pressure and temperature of the reservoir enable the thermal cracking and hydroconversion reactions to take place, so that only light, converted oil is produced at the surface. Apart from the cost of the catalyst, which can be a standard refinery catalyst, the CAPRI reactor is virtually free! All that is needed is to inject compressed air, in order to propagate a combustion front in a 'toe-to-heel' manner along the horizontal production well.In collaboration with the University of Birmingham, the project will investigate the effectiveness of a range of catalyst for use in the CAPRI process. The University of Birmingham team, led by Dr. Joe Wood, will investigate the long-term survivability of the catalysts, which is critical to operation of CAPRI. Once the catalyst is emplaced around the horizontal well, it will be expensive to recover or replace it. Previous 3D combustion cell experiments conducted by the Bath team, only allowed catalyst operating periods of a few hours, whereas in practice, the catalyst will need to survive, remain active, for days, or weeks. The Bath team will undertake detailed studies to characterise the internal pore structure of the catalysts used in the experiments, to obtain fundamental information on catalyst deactivation, which can be related to the process conditions and oil composition. They will also develop a detailed numerical model of the CAPRI reactor. This will provide a tool to explore 'fine details' of the THAI-CAPRI process, which will aid in the selection/optimisation of the most suitable catalysts. The model will be incorporated into a larger model using the STARS reservoir simulator. Preliminary reservoir simulations will be made to explore the potential operating conditions for CAPRI.

重质原油和沥青是一种巨大的、大部分未开发的碳氢化合物资源，迄今为止产量仅为 1%，而传统轻质油（如北海）的产量则超过 50%。 80%以上的非常规重油位于西半球，而80%以上的常规轻质油位于东半球（主要是中东）。未来10-30年，地缘政治因素以及亚洲国家尤其是印度和中国的崛起，将在原油供应方面造成日益紧张和不确定性。除了天然气、核能和可再生能源之外，原油将在未来几十年继续成为英国“能源结构”的重要组成部分。我们将如何获得工业和运输所需的原油？这些原油是否会像来自北海的原油一样安全？加拿大巨大的阿萨巴斯卡油砂矿藏（1.5万亿桶）为英国提供了获得石油的机会。长期、稳定的供应。实现这一目标的第一步是开发新技术“THAI”——“从头到脚的空气注入”，用于生产油砂沥青和重油。它是由巴斯大学的改进石油采收率小组于 1990 年代发现的，目前正在加拿大艾伯塔省克里斯蒂娜湖进行现场测试。 1998 年，巴斯集团与加拿大卡尔加里石油回收研究所 (PRI) 合作，发现了另一种基于 THAI 的工艺，称为 CAPRI。 THAI-CAPRI 工艺有潜力将沥青和重质原油转化为几乎具有类似石蜡稠度的轻质原油，而成本仅为传统表面处理的一小部分。英国最近提议建造一座表面升级工厂，耗资 2-30 亿美元。CAPRI 的优势在于它在石油储层中创建了一个催化反应器，通过在 500-100 的周围“套上”一层催化剂。米长的水平生产井，位于油藏内部。油藏的高压和高温使热裂化和加氢转化反应发生，因此地表仅产生轻质转化油。除了催化剂（可以是标准炼油厂催化剂）的成本之外，CAPRI 反应器几乎是免费的！所需要的只是注入压缩空气，以便沿着水平生产井以“从头到脚”的方式传播燃烧前沿。该项目将与伯明翰大学合作，研究一系列燃烧前沿的有效性用于 CAPRI 工艺的催化剂。由 Joe Wood 博士领导的伯明翰大学团队将研究催化剂的长期生存能力，这对于 CAPRI 的运行至关重要。一旦催化剂被放置在水平井周围，回收或更换它的成本就会很高。巴斯团队之前进行的 3D 燃烧室实验只允许催化剂运行几个小时，而在实践中，催化剂需要存活并保持活性数天或数周。巴斯团队将进行详细研究，以表征实验中使用的催化剂的内部孔隙结构，以获得催化剂失活的基本信息，这些信息可能与工艺条件和油品成分有关。他们还将开发 CAPRI 反应堆的详细数值模型。这将为探索 THAI-CAPRI 工艺的“细节”提供一个工具，这将有助于选择/优化最合适的催化剂。该模型将使用 STARS 油藏模拟器合并到更大的模型中。将进行初步油藏模拟，以探索 CAPRI 的潜在运行条件。