You have no items in your shopping cart.
ABSTRACT
Unconventional petroleum reservoirs such as shale, coal, bitumen, tight sand, and oil sand contain enormous amounts of oil and natural gas, but pose a technological challenge to geoscientists and engineers in terms of producing on a commercial scale. Bitumen for example, has relatively limited mobility due to its high viscosity. Oil recovery involves three stages of extraction: primary, secondary and tertiary. Since mobility is a ratio of effective permeability and phase viscosity, the productivity of a well is directly proportional to the product of layer thickness of the reservoir rock and mobility. Nanotechnology is one of the methods which attracts great attention nowadays in enhancing oil recovery because it is cost-effective and environmentally friendly. Nano Particles such as Aluminium oxide exhibit special characteristics that could be very pivotal in the future of Oil Production. In this research we tested the efficiency of the Aluminium Oxide nanoparticle in Viscosity reduction for Bitumen. The concentration of Aluminum Oxide in this research lies from 0.1g to 0.5g, with temperatures ranging from 50°C to 120°C. Aluminum Oxide reduces the viscosity of bitumen between 50ºC -120°C and reduction can be within 22% to 89%. The viscosity of bitumen was determined and plotted for various aluminum oxide concentrations and temperatures, and the best combination was identified. Results obtained from this experiment indicate that Aluminium oxide is good for IOR/ EOR. Aluminium oxide reduces oil viscosity.
