Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Schulich School of Engineering, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 1T4, Canada.
Molecules. 2023 Jan 24;28(3):1162. doi: 10.3390/molecules28031162.
One of the primary methods for bitumen and heavy oil recovery is a steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) process. However, the mechanisms related to wettability alteration under the SAGD process still need to be fully understood. In this study, we used MD simulation to evaluate the wettability alteration under a steam injection process for bitumen and heavy oil recovery. Various oil droplets with different asphaltene contents were considered to determine the effect of an asphaltene content on the adsorption of the oil droplets onto quartz surfaces and wettability alteration. Based on the MD simulation outputs, the higher the asphaltene content, the higher the adsorption energy between the bitumen/heavy oil and quartz surfaces due to coulombic interactions. Additionally, the quartz surfaces became more oil-wet at temperatures well beyond the water boiling temperature; however, they were extremely water-wet at ambient conditions. The results of this work provide in-depth information regarding wettability alteration during in situ thermal processes for bitumen and heavy oil recovery. Furthermore, they provide helpful information for optimizing the in situ thermal processes for successful operations.
一种主要的沥青和重油回收方法是蒸汽辅助重力泄油（SAGD）工艺。然而，SAGD 工艺下润湿性变化的相关机制仍需要充分理解。在这项研究中，我们使用 MD 模拟来评估蒸汽注入过程中沥青和重油回收过程中的润湿性变化。考虑了具有不同沥青质含量的各种油滴，以确定沥青质含量对油滴在石英表面上的吸附和润湿性变化的影响。基于 MD 模拟结果，由于库仑相互作用，沥青/重油和石英表面之间的吸附能随着沥青质含量的增加而增加。此外，在远高于水沸点的温度下，石英表面变得更亲油，但在环境条件下，它们则极度亲水。这项工作的结果提供了有关原位热过程中沥青和重油回收过程中润湿性变化的深入信息。此外，它们为优化原位热过程以实现成功操作提供了有用的信息。
