An experimental study to investigate the role of pyrolysis reaction on in-situ hydrogen generation from sandstone oil reservoirs

Abstract

In-situ combustion gasification (ISCG) is a technology in the field pilot stage used for hydrogen generation from oil reservoirs. ISCG is implemented by injecting an oxidant (pure oxygen, air, …) into the reservoir to trigger in-situ chemical reactions responsible for hydrogen generation. Pyrolysis reaction is one of the significant reactions triggered by in-situ combustion (ISC). This study used a fixed-bed micro-activity test (MAT) unit to investigate hydrogen generation from crude oil through pyrolysis. Crude oil pyrolysis experiments were conducted in the MAT unit under different temperatures (300°C, 400°C, 500°C, 600°C), atmospheric pressure, and under a flow of a nitrogen gas. The results showed that the threshold initiation temperature of hydrogen generation and coke formation was about 500°C. The experiments demonstrated that the introduced sandstone enhanced hydrogen generation and coke formation at high temperatures. The maximum volume of hydrogen generated with sandstone effect reached 8.15 mL at 600°C, while that without sandstone was only 6.39 mL at 600°C. The study provides deep insights into the in-situ hydrogen generation from crude oil through pyrolysis. In addition, the obtained data of various pyrolysis products provide a comprehensive representation of crude oil pyrolysis that could promote the existing reaction models of in-situ hydrogen generation from the gasification of crude oil. The findings demonstrate the potential of adopting pyrolysis of crude oil for direct hydrogen generation from reservoirs.

Keywords

Hydrogen generation / Crude oil / In-situ pyrolysis / Sandstone mineralogy / Pyrolysis products

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Mohamed Abdalsalam Hanfi: Writing-review & editing, Writing-original draft, Methodology, Investigation, Formal analysis, Data curation, Conceptualization. Olalekan Saheed Alade: Writing-review & editing, Validation, Resources, Project administration, Methodology, Conceptualization. Abdulkadir Tanimu: Writing-review & editing, Validation, Supervision, Resources, Methodology, Investigation. Mohamed Mahmoud: Writing-review & editing, Supervision, Project administration, Methodology, Funding acquisition, Conceptualization. Sulaiman A. Alarifi: Writing-review & editing, Validation, Supervision, Project administration, Methodology, Conceptualization.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the College of Petroleum Engineering & Geosciences at King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM) and Mr. Ramzi Hadi Al-Shuqaih of the Interdisciplinary Research Center for Refining and Advanced Chemicals at KFUPM.

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