Development of digital oil for asphaltene aggregation

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K06988
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Earth system and resources engineering
• Research Institution: Fukada Geological Institute
• Principal Investigator: Matsuoka Toshifumi 公益財団法人深田地質研究所, その他部局等, 主席研究員 (10303851)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: 油層工学 / 重質油 / 増進回収法 / アスファルテン / デジタルオイル / 分子動力学 / QMR法 / オイルサンド

Outline of Final Research Achievements

As the Canada Oil Sands, heavy oil is produced by injecting the steam into a reservoir to reduce its viscosity. However, the idea of incorporating a chemical solvent has also been proposed. Although it is necessary to evaluate what kind of solvent is optimum, selecting the optimum one economically in a short time is challenging. To solve this problem, in our study, we examined the construction method of digital oil for heavy oil, which is a molecular model of crude oil. We established a way of creating a molecular model based on the NMR data. Our approach made it possible to evaluate chemical solvents using molecular dynamics without conducting chemical laboratory tests on crude oil.

Free Research Field

石油工学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

重質油は現在世界で広く存在しており、炭化水素資源としての重要性はまだまだ高い。しかしながらその生産には、重質油の貯留層にスティームの圧入など経済的に高価な面もあり、その十分な利用には至っていない。本研究で確立されたデジタルオイルによる重質油のモデル化は、個々の油田の原油に対して、粘性を低減させるに必要な温度・圧力条件、さらに最適な化学溶剤の種類について示唆を与えるものであり、将来における重質油の広い利用の道を開いた。