An-Najah Staff

Water-in-vacuum gas oil microemulsion containing ultradispersed multimetallic colloidal nanoparticles can facilitate in situ delivery of nanoparticles into a heavy oil reservoir. This study investigated the transport of multimetallic nanoparticles (W, Ni, and Mo) of potential catalytic value suspended in vacuum gas oil using different oil-sands-packed bed column breakthrough experiments at a typical pressure and temperature of the steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) recovery process. The nanoparticles (34 ± 0.5 nm) were transported into two different permeability oil sands. Experiments were performed at a pressure of 3.5 MPa, residence time of 36 h, and temperatures from 300 to 320 °C in both low- and high-permeability-oil-sands-packed beds. At full breakthrough, a constant normalized concentration plateau was achieved, ranging from 0.50 for low-permeability oil sands to 0.60 for high-permeability oil sands. Deposition and transport of nanoparticles were strongly dependent upon their metallic type, temperature, and porosity of oil sands. Despite aggregation of nanoparticles at a high temperature, neither major permeability reduction nor pore plugging were observed. Therefore, propagation of multimetallic ultradispersed nanoparticles in oil sands media seems feasible under a typical pressure and temperature of the SAGD process.