This study presents an investigation of the concept of harvesting geothermal energy that remains in heavy oil reservoirs after abandonment when steamflooding is no longer economics. Substantial heat that has accumulated within reservoir rock and its vicinity can be extracted by circulating water relatively colder than reservoir temperature. We use compositional reservoir simulation coupled with a semianalytical equation of the wellbore heat loss approximation to estimate surface heat recovery. Additionally, sensitivity analyses provide understanding of the effect of various parameters on heat recovery in the artificial geothermal resources. Using the current state-of-art technology, the cumulative electrical power generated from heat recovered is about 246 MWhr accounting for 90percent downtime. Characteristics of heat storage within the reservoir rock were identified. The factors with the largest impact on the energy recovery during the water injection phase are the duration of the steamflood (which dictates the amount of heat accumulated in the reservoir) and the original reservoir energy in place. Outlet reservoir-fluid temperatures are used to approximate heat loss along the wellbore and estimate surface fluid temperature using the semianalytical approaches. For the injection well with insulation, results indicate that differences in fluid temperature between surface and bottomhole are negligible. However, for the conventional production well, heat loss is estimated around 13 percent resulting in the average surface temperature of 72 degrees C. Producing heat can be used in two applications: direct uses and electricity generation. For the electricity generation application that is used in the economic consideration, the net electrical power generated by this arrival fluid temperature is approximately 3 kW per one producing pattern using Ener-G-Rotors.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:09:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 EdneyRVPG_TESE.pdf: 5370155 bytes, checksum: 315c7c0efbbd205da67094e4ae12330e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-09-03 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior / A significant fraction of the hydrocarbon reserves in the world is formed by heavy oils. From the thermal methods used to recovery these resources, Steamflooding has been one of the main economically viable alternatives. In Brazil, this technology is widely used by Petrobras in Northeast fields. Latent heat carried by steam heats the oil in the reservoir, reducing its viscosity and facilitating the production. In the last years, an alternative more and more used by the oil industry to increase the efficiency of this mechanism has been the addition of solvents. When co-injected with steam, the vaporized solvent condenses in the cooler regions of the reservoir and mixes with the oil, creating a low viscosity zone between the steam and the heavy oil. The mobility of the displaced fluid is then improved, resulting in an increase of oil recovery. To better understand this improved oil recovery method and investigate its applicability in reservoirs with properties similar to those found in Potiguar Basin, a numerical study was done to analyze the influence of some operational parameters (steam injection rate, injected solvent volume and solvent type) on oil recovery. Simulations were performed in STARS ("Steam, Thermal, and Advanced Processes Reservoir Simulator"), a CMG ("Computer Modelling Group") program, version 2009.10. It was found that solvents addition to the injected steam not only anticipated the heated oil bank arrival to the producer well, but also increased the oil recovery. Lower cold water equivalent volumes were required to achieve the same oil recoveries from the models that injected only steam. Furthermore, much of the injected solvent was produced with the oil from the reservoir / Uma por??o significativa das reservas de hidrocarbonetos atualmente existentes no mundo ? formada por ?leos pesados. Dentre os m?todos t?rmicos utilizados para a recupera??o desse tipo de recurso, a Inje??o Cont?nua de Vapor tem se constitu?do como uma das principais alternativas economicamente vi?veis. No Brasil, essa tecnologia ? largamente utilizada pela Petrobras em campos localizados na regi?o Nordeste. O calor latente transportado pelo vapor aquece o ?leo do reservat?rio, reduzindo sua viscosidade e facilitando a produ??o. Nos ?ltimos anos, uma alternativa cada vez mais utilizada pela ind?stria para aumentar a efici?ncia desse mecanismo tem sido a adi??o de solventes. Quando coinjetado com o vapor, o solvente vaporizado se condensa nas regi?es menos aquecidas do reservat?rio e mistura-se ao ?leo, criando uma zona de baixa viscosidade entre o vapor e o ?leo pesado. A mobilidade do fluido deslocado ? ent?o melhorada, implicando num aumento da fra??o recuperada. Para melhor compreender esse mecanismo de recupera??o avan?ada e investigar a sua aplicabilidade em reservat?rios com caracter?sticas semelhantes aos encontrados na Bacia Potiguar, foi realizado um estudo num?rico, onde se verificou a influ?ncia de alguns par?metros operacionais (vaz?o de inje??o de vapor, volume de solvente injetado e tipo de solvente) sobre a recupera??o de ?leo. As simula??es foram realizadas no m?dulo STARS ( Steam, Thermal, and Advanced Processes Reservoir Simulator ) do programa da CMG ( Computer Modelling Group ), vers?o 2009.10. Verificou-se que a adi??o de solventes ao vapor injetado n?o s? antecipou a chegada do banco de ?leo aquecido ao po?o produtor como tamb?m incrementou a recupera??o de ?leo. Menores volumes de ?gua fria equivalente foram requeridos para se obter as mesmas fra??es recuperadas dos modelos que s? injetaram vapor. Al?m disso, boa parte do solvente injetado foi produzido juntamente com o ?leo do reservat?rio