Wells – Processes – Separating material entering well
Patent
1988-09-19
1990-06-05
Novosad, Stephen J.
Wells
Processes
Separating material entering well
166267, 166272, E21B 4324, E21B 4340, C01B 334
Patent
active
049305743
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a method for tertiary oil recovery, with utilization of the escaping petroleum gas. This invention is of particular interest for refineries in the vicinity of existing oil fields.
It is known to make further use of oil fields that have typically been exhausted with pumps (that is, by primary means), by introducing water or inert gas (secondary means) or steam or hot water (tertiary means); by increasing the temperature, the viscosity of the petroleum oil present in the ground is decreased, and the oil is also positively displaced by water or gas. By these methods, even in oil fields already exhausted by primary means, not only the desired oil but a component of hydrocarbon-containing gases is liberated, which before now was burned off or used for heat recovery by combustion. Generating steam merely to introduce it into already-worked oil fields is very expensive, and the energy expenditure is considerable. Burning valuable raw materials merely for the sake of generating steam for a single use is problematic both from the standpoint of the economy and in view of the environment, and also entails technical problems.
It is the object of the present invention to overcome these disadvantages, by providing for more economical tertiary oil recovery and for the use of the escaping petroleum gas as a valuable raw material.
To attain this object, there is provided a method for tertiary oil recovery and gas utilization by the introduction of steam into a petroleum field and the removal, separation and preparation of the escaping oil-gas-water mixture, wherein the heat of a high-temperature reactor is utilized for heating a cracking furnace and for steam production, and this steam is carried into the oil field, and the methane escaping, after being trapped and with the addition of water vapor and after preheating is split in the cracking furnace into hydrogen and carbon monoxide. A gas-cooled high-temperature reactor, for instance like that described in the journal "Atomwirtschaft" [Nuclear Economy] of March, 1986 on pp. 157-159, called a modular reactor, could also furnish process heat at a temperature that is adequate for methane cracking. The medium leaving the cracking furnace is still at such a high temperature that with it, water vapor can be generated at high pressure and at a temperature of the kind required for tertiary oil recovery. However, the nuclear heat produced with a high-temperature reactor solely for steam production in the present case does not exploit the upper temperature range, while nuclear gas cracking alone cannot exploit the heat produced in the lower temperature range. Viewed overall, favorable costs are attained by combining these two quite different methods. In attempting to make use of petroleum gases, the initially obvious concept of splitting off one part of the gas by combusting the other is problematic not only from the standpoint of the economy and the environment, but technically as well. Heating a cracking furnace by direct combustion of petroleum gases is inappropriate, because of the corrosion resulting from the sulfur content. Desulfuring of the petroleum gas, which the present invention also requires, necessarily entails particular expense, which is not justified merely for the ensuing combustion, yet is justifiable for an ensuing utilization of the gas, because the desulfured petroleum gas is a valuable product. Another advantage of the gas-cooled high-temperature reactor with spherical fuel assemblies that is preferably proposed here is its great availability. While gas-cooled high-temperature reactors with block-shaped fuel assemblies, like pressurized water reactors with fuel rods, must be shut down at regular intervals in order to change or replace the fuel assemblies, this reactor can be operated for a longer time, because fuel assemblies are removed from it at the bottom and returned to it at the top continuously during operation. This aspect is particularly important in terms of continuous operation of oil fields and refineries.
The dra
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Jager Walter
Schreiber Dietmar
Greenberg Laurence A.
Interatom GmbH
Lerner Herbert L.
Novosad Stephen J.
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