A Detailed Report on Carbon Dioxide in Enhanced Oil Recovery

This report discusses the application of carbon dioxide in enhanced oil recovery (EOR), a technique used to extract crude oil that cannot be recovered through conventional methods. It focuses on gas injection, where carbon dioxide is used to displace oil within the rocks by dissolving and reducing its viscosity. The efficiency of this technique relies on factors such as oil site pressure, crude composition, and temperature, requiring substantial volumes of carbon dioxide through storage systems and carbon capture. The report also addresses the environmental impacts of EOR, including potential water contamination from toxic metals and land degradation due to deep earth digging for carbon dioxide injection. These issues can lead to health problems and pollution, highlighting the need for careful management and mitigation strategies. Desklib provides students access to similar solved assignments and resources.

A REPORT ON CARBON DIOXIDE IN ENHANCED OIL RECOVERY
INTRODUCTION
Cakisi & Palo (2011) discovered that Enhanced Oil Recovery can be described as extracting
crude oil from the oil pool that can never be in any way taken out from the extraction area. In
most fields where oil is being extracted, a major common method or technique used is gas
injection where carbon dioxide and some other natural gases are applied so as to displace the
oil found within the rocks. Carbon Dioxide is being injected within the recovery area so as to
dissolve and displace the oil within the extraction field. Carbon dioxide used in this process
can be obtained from natural underground fields where they are channelled to the oil pools to
aid in enhanced oil recovery process.
DISCUSSION OF THIS TECHNIQUE
Gas injection is one of the techniques used in the enhanced oil recovery process. In this
technique, Carbon dioxide is commonly used as a miscible displacement fluid due to its
ability in reducing the viscosity of the oil being extracted. It is also true that this type of gas
(carbon dioxide) is less expensive as compared to liquid petroleum gases that can also be
used in the recovery process. The displacement process of the extracted oil through the
injection procedure of carbon dioxide gas is majorly dependent on the stage actions of the
combination of crude and the fluid which also relies on the oil site pressure, crude
composition and temperature (Mungan, 2009).
However, for this technique to be efficient and cost effective, the requirement of large
volumes of carbon dioxide should be made available. This can be through installation of
carbon dioxide storage systems and extensive utilization of carbon captures.
The technique discussed above has some of the impacts to the surrounding environment as
discussed below:
George and Ebenezer (2014) stated that water that is being produced from the enhanced oil
recovery springs may contain some compositions of toxic metal substances which may
contaminate sources for drinking water on the earth surface. This may lead to spread of
diseases like cancer that are so detrimental to health. In addition, some of the processes that
are carried out during enhanced oil recovery procedure would require digging deep the earth
surface to allow for easy injection of carbon dioxide pipes into the oil reservoir. This may
cause land degradation and pollution factors since some toxic inorganic substances are
released to the land.

REFERENCE
Cakisi A. & Palo Alto (2011), Enhanced oil recovery, Electric Power Research Institute;
Final report, NO: TR-113836
Mungan N. (2009), Carbon dioxide as an Enhanced Oil Recovery Process, Canada; p.4, vol.
3
George Z. & Ebenezer T (July 4, 2014), Produced water treatment technologies, vol. 9