Impact of Thermodiffusion on the Initial Vertical Distribution of Species in Hydrocarbon Reservoirs

In this work we propose a methodology, based on molecular dynamics simulations, to quantify the influence of segregation and thermodiffusion on the initial state distribution of the fluid species in hydrocarbon reservoirs. This convection-free approach has been applied to a synthetic oil composed of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inMicrogravity science and technology Vol. 28; no. 2; pp. 79 - 86
Main Authors Galliero, Guillaume, Bataller, Henri, Croccolo, Fabrizio, Vermorel, Romain, Artola, Pierre-Arnaud, Rousseau, Bernard, Vesovic, Velisa, Bou-Ali, Mounir, Ortiz de Zárate, José M., Xu, Shenghua, Zhang, Ke, Montel, François
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.05.2016
Springer Nature B.V
Springer
Subjects
Aerospace Technology and Astronautics
Classical and Continuum Physics
Computational fluid dynamics
Density gradients
Earth Sciences
Engineering
Engineering Sciences
Fluids mechanics
Geophysics
Geothermal
Hydrocarbons
Mechanics
Natural gas
Original Article
Reservoirs
Sciences of the Universe
Segregations
Simulation
Space Exploration and Astronautics
Space Sciences (including Extraterrestrial Physics
Thermal expansion
Vertical distribution
Molecular dynamics
Oil and gas
Segregation
Thermodiffusion
Multicomponent mixtures
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Summary:In this work we propose a methodology, based on molecular dynamics simulations, to quantify the influence of segregation and thermodiffusion on the initial state distribution of the fluid species in hydrocarbon reservoirs. This convection-free approach has been applied to a synthetic oil composed of three normal alkanes and to a real acid gas. It has been found that the thermodiffusion effect induced by the geothermal gradient is similar (but opposite in sign) to that due to segregation for both mixtures. In addition, because of the combined effect of thermal expansion and thermodiffusion, it has been observed that the density gradient can be reversed, in the presence of a geothermal gradient. These numerical results emphasize the need of improving our quantification of thermodiffusion in multicomponent mixtures. The SCCO-SJ10 experiments will be a crucial step towards this goal.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
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ISSN:0938-0108
1875-0494
DOI:10.1007/s12217-015-9465-6