Experimental and Numerical Study of the Convective Mass Transfer of Solvent in Expanding Solvent-SAGD

Abstract

In the Expanding Solvent-Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (ES-SAGD), the mass transfer of dissolved solvent in mobile oil zone is critical to oil production performance. The mechanism of the solvent mass transfer, however, still remains unclear. Experimental and numerical simulation approaches are used to investigate the transverse movement at the steam chamber edge in ES-SAGD. The findings confirm that the transverse movement by gravity-driven convection exists in the interfacial flow both in the experiment and reservoir-scale simulation model, which is in contrast with previous studies. Experimental results show that the transverse movement of solvent increases with higher permeability and decreases with higher flow rate and higher viscosity. Diffusion has a small effect on the solvent mass transfer process and oil recovery factor. Fine grid block size is essential for reservoir-scale simulations of ES-SAGD to capture the convective flow of solvent at the steam chamber edge.