DOI
https://doi.org/10.25772/ERG1-9F28
Defense Date
2015
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Department
Engineering
First Advisor
Professor B.F. Gupton
Second Advisor
Emeritus Professor M.A. McHugh
Abstract
Knowledge of thermodynamic fluid properties, such as density and phase behavior, is important for the design, operation, and safety of several processes including drilling, extraction, transportation, and separation that are required in the petroleum. The knowledge is even more critical at extreme temperature and pressure conditions as the search for more crude oil reserves lead to harsher conditions. Currently, there is dearth of experimental data at these conditions and as such, the predictive capability of the existing modeling tools are unproven. The objective of this research is to develop a fundamental understanding of the impact of molecular architecture on fluid phase behavior at temperatures to 523 K (250 °C) and pressures to 275 MPa (40,000 psi). These high-temperature and high-pressure (HTHP) conditions are typical of operating conditions often encountered in petroleum exploration and recovery from ultra-deep wells that are encountered in the Gulf of Mexico.
This PhD study focuses on the fluid phase behavior of a low molecular weight compound, two moderately high molecular weight compounds, three asymmetric binary mixtures of a light gas and a heavy hydrocarbon compound with varying molecular size. The compounds are selected to represent the family of saturated compounds found in typical crude oils. Furthermore, this study reports experimental data for two "dead" crude oil samples obtained from the Gulf of Mexico and their mixtures with methane from ambient to HTHP conditions. A variable-volume view cell coupled with a linear variable differential transformer is used to experimentally measure the high-pressure properties of these compounds and mixtures. The reported density data compare well to the limited available data in the literature with deviations that are less than 0.9%, which is the experimental uncertainty of the density data reported in this study.
The phase behavior and density data obtained in this study are modeled using the Peng-Robinson (PR), the volume-translated (VT) PR, and the Perturbed-Chain Statistical Associating Fluid Theory (PC-SAFT) equations of state (EoS). The EoS pure component parameters, typically obtained from the open literature, are derived from fitting the particular EoS to, critical point, or to vapor pressure and saturated liquid density data, or to HTHP density data. For the density data reported here, the PREoS provided the worst predictions, while the VT-PREoS gives an improved performance as compared to the PREoS. However, the PC-SAFT EoS provided the best HTHP density predictions especially when using HTHP pure component parameters. The situation is however reversed in the modeling performance for the phase behavior data whereby the PC-SAFT EoS with HTHP parameters provided the worst vapor-liquid equilibria predictions. Better predictions are obtained with the PC-SAFT EoS when using parameters obtained from fit of the vapor pressure data and is comparable to the PREoS predictions. This reversal in performance is not surprising since the phase behavior data occur at moderately low pressures. The performance of the PC-SAFT EoS is extended to the experimental density data reported for the dead crude oil samples and their mixtures with methane. The PC-SAFT EoS with either set of pure component parameters yield similar predictions that are within 3% of the reported crude oil density data. However, when using the HTHP parameters, the PC-SAFT gives a good representation of the slope of experimental data, which is crucial in the calculation of second-derivative properties such has isothermal compressibility.
The PC-SAFT EoS is also employed to model the crude oil HTHP density data for both the dead crude oils and their mixtures with methane using correlations for both the Low-P parameters and the HTHP parameters. The Low-P parameters are derived from fitting the PC-SAFT EoS to pure compound vapor pressure and saturated liquid density data, while the HTHP parameters are obtained from fitting the PC-SAFT EoS to pure compound HTHP liquid density data. Interestingly, the PC-SAFT EoS with the Low-P parameters provided better HTHP density predictions that are within 1.5% of the experimental data for the dead oils than the HTHP parameters that are within 2 to 4% of the data. Density predictions for the dead oil mixtures with methane are however comparable for both sets of parameters and are within 1% on average. However, the PC-SAFT EoS with HTHP parameters clearly provided better representation of the isothermal property, a derivative property obtained from density data, within 10% while predictions with the Low-P parameters can be as high as 37%.
The successful completion of the thesis work expands the current knowledge base of fluid phase behavior at the extreme operating conditions encountered by engineers in the petroleum industries. Furthermore, the reported HTHP experimental data also provide a means to scientists and researchers for the development, improvement, and validation of equations with improved modeling performance.
Rights
© The Author
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives
Is Part Of
VCU Theses and Dissertations
Date of Submission
8-7-2015