Thermal recovery methods are frequently used to enhance the production of heavy crude oils. Steam-based processes are the most economically popular and effective methods for heavy oil recovery for several decades. In general, there are various mechanisms over steam injection to enhance and have additional oil recovery. However, among these mechanisms, steam distillation plays pivotal role in the recovery of crude oil during thermal recovery process. In this study, an experimental investigation was carried out to investigate the role of various minerals present in both sandstone and carbonate formations as well as the effect of steam temperature on steam distillation process. Two different types of dead-heavy crude oils were tested in a batch autoclave reactor with 30 % water and the content of the reactor (crude oil, 10 % rock and mineral). The results were compared as the changes in the density, viscosity and chemical composition (SARA and TPH analyses) of heavy crude oil. Five different mineral types (bentonite, sepiolite, kaolinite, illite and zeolite) were added into the original crude oil and reservoir rocks to observe their effects on the rheological and compositional changes during steam distillation process. Analysis of the results of experiments with Camurlu and Bati Raman heavy crude oils in the presence of different minerals such as Bentonite, Zeolite, Illite, Sepiolite, and Kaolinite in both sandstone and limestone reservoir rocks indicate that steam distillation produces light end condensates which can be considered as solvent or condensate bank during steam flooding operation. It was also illustrated that minerals in reservoir formations perform the function of producing distilled light oil compounds, resulting in enhancement of heavy crude oils recovery in steam flooding. Measurements showed that the remaining oil after steam distillation has higher viscosity and density. On the other hand, the effect of steam distillation is more pronounced in limestone reservoirs compared to sandstone reservoirs for the given heavy crude oil and steam temperature. Among the five different minerals tested, kaolinite found to be the most effective mineral in terms of steam distillation.

Submitted by Alison Vanceto (alison-vanceto@hotmail.com) on 2016-10-21T11:06:49Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DissCFY.pdf: 2690718 bytes, checksum: 3c8c5c6ae684c123ba4438797595d4b4 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marina Freitas (marinapf@ufscar.br) on 2016-11-08T18:37:01Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DissCFY.pdf: 2690718 bytes, checksum: 3c8c5c6ae684c123ba4438797595d4b4 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marina Freitas (marinapf@ufscar.br) on 2016-11-08T18:37:07Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DissCFY.pdf: 2690718 bytes, checksum: 3c8c5c6ae684c123ba4438797595d4b4 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-11-08T18:37:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DissCFY.pdf: 2690718 bytes, checksum: 3c8c5c6ae684c123ba4438797595d4b4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-02-27 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) / The increase on the price of fertilizers, and the high Brazilian importing dependency of this material, raise the cost of cultures. Such cost may be reduced by more efficient and efficiently used fertilizers. From an economical point of view, urea is one of the most interesting commercial choices available for nitrogen based fertilizers. However, using it in its pure form is not appropriate, for the loss of nitrogen through volatilization into the atmosphere may reach extreme values, diminishing its efficiency when applied on the ground's surface. In this work, nitrogen losses can be reduced by condensation polymerization of urea and formaldehyde, and by adding mineral clay to this nanocomposite to act as a diffusion barrier and to adsorb urea. Extrusion shows to be an advantageous process to produce in one step a bead with satisfactory strength and easy handling. A solid precursor of formaldehyde (paraformaldehyde) was successfully used to facilitate the polymerization process, and the reaction occurred in the bead due to the formation of formaldehyde in situ owing to the temperature rise and water addition. Incubation soil tests showed that the higher content of polymer phase in the material trended to cause a higher delay in the release of total N applied. It was also observed an increase in mechanical strength and Young modulus by flexural bending strength tests to higher content of polymer phase compositions. Although the final bead fertilizer has a lower N content than pure urea, its use is potentially interesting owing to extrusion mass production process and the subsequent polymerization step in moderate temperature. / O aumento do preço dos fertilizantes e a forte dependência brasileira da importação desses insumos aumentam o custo de produção das culturas. Este custo pode ser reduzido pelo uso eficiente dos fertilizantes. Do ponto de vista econômico, a ureia é uma interessante opção comercial disponível para a adubação com nitrogênio. Porém, utilizá-la na forma pura não é adequada, pois a perda de nitrogênio por volatilização para a atmosfera pode atingir valores extremos, diminuindo a sua eficiência quando aplicada sobre a superfície do solo. Assim, neste trabalho a redução destas perdas pôde ser alcançada pela polimerização por condensação da ureia com formaldeído e através da formulação deste polímero como nanocompósito, no qual argilominerais atuaram como meios de barreira difusional e de adsorção química da ureia. Para a produção deste material, o processo de extrusão se mostrou vantajoso, permitindo a formulação do produto como grânulo, em etapa única e com resistência ao manuseio satisfatória após processo. Para facilitar o processo de polimerização, um precursor do formaldeído em fase sólida (paraformaldeído) foi utilizado com sucesso, obtendo-se a reação no grânulo final pela produção in situ do formaldeído pelo aumento da temperatura e reação com a água de mistura. Foi verificado em ensaios de incubação em solo que ao aplicar o fertilizante com maior teor de fase polimérica, o material apresentou tendência de maior retardo na liberação total de N aplicado. Ainda, foi observada a tendência de aumento de módulo elástico e resistência mecânica através de ensaios mecânicos de flexão por três pontos para composições com maior teor de fase polimérica. Apesar do fertilizante final ter menor teor de N que a ureia pura, seu uso é potencialmente de interesse devido ao processo de produção em massa conseguido pela extrusão contínua e posterior polimerização à temperatura moderada.