An Accelerated Oxidation Experiment of Crude Oil at Low Temperature
1. Petroleum Engineering Institute of Xi'an Shiyou University, Xi’an 710065, China;
2. Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Advanced Stimulation Technology for Oil & Gas Reservoirs (SLAST), Xi’an 710065, China;
3. Hekou Oil Production Plant, Shengli Oilfield Company, Dongying 257200, China;
4. Exploration and Development Research Institute of PetroChina Xinjiang Oilfield Branch, Karamay 834000, China
Abstract Air-injected thermal oil recovery technology is widely used in oilfield production. In order to give great function to the oil recovery potential of high temperature oxidation stage, the reaction rate and degree of low temperature oxidation stage are usually required to be high. Ferrocene [Fe(C5H5)2], an organic compound of transition metal Fe, was selected as catalyst to carry out low temperature air-injected experiments. The effects of the amount of the ferrocene, reaction temperature, reaction pressure and the kinds of additives as catalysts on the catalytic performance were investigated. The experimental results showed that ferrocene could reduce the activation energy of oxidation reaction. The best result was obtained when the amount of ferrocene was about 0.6% of the mass of catalyst aqueous solution. Furthermore, the temperature and pressure also played a synergistic role with ferrocene in the oxidation reaction. In a certain temperature and pressure range, the higher the temperature and pressure were, the faster the oxidation reaction rate became. Transition metals, such as copper and iron, and ditch oil could also significantly shorten the reaction time of low temperature oxidation.
