Energy industry apps improve efficiency

A team of researchers from the University of Houston has developed a range of digital applications to make energy industry processes more efficient. Three innovative online calculators, most recently the UH Hydrocarbon Gas Minimum Miscibility Pressure (MMP) Calculator, are available free of charge to industry professionals.

With industry focus shifting towards carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) and net-zero economy, gas injection can play an important role. MMP is the key property that determines the feasibility as well as the efficiency of a gas injection project, which is one of the most effective methods for enhanced oil recovery.

In addition, it will provide calibration points for carbon dioxide separation projects when hydrocarbons are present. The new calculator for Hydrocarbon MMP, Carbon Dioxide MMP and Viscosity can help engineers in the field save time, resources and money by enabling rapid screening and calculations.

The team includes American Association of Drilling Engineers Endowed Professor Birol Dindoruk in Petroleum, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at UH; Mohamed Soliman, Chair of the UH Department of Petroleum Engineering; and Utkarsh Sinha, who earned a master’s degree in petroleum engineering from UH in 2018. The three researchers met when Sinha was a graduate student.

Sinha said, “These apps provide a quick, robust way to provide MMP values ​​during gas injection with readily available inputs at hand and provide significantly higher accuracy than existing methods used in the industry.” Are.”

Carbon dioxide and hydrocarbon gases are the most common gases used for gas injection processes. These gases serve several purposes, including facilitating carbon dioxide separation and optimizing pressure levels for maximum efficiency.

“The carbon dioxide/oil phase behavior is very different from the hydrocarbon gas/oil phase behavior,” Dindoruk said. “Therefore, we had to develop different instruments with a wide range of capabilities. We are offering different methods for the measurement of MMP.”

Given the fast-paced energy industry and recognizing that engineers and technical personnel may not necessarily be available to test and implement the ideas shared in academic papers, the research team wanted to put these tools “at users’ fingertips”. was determined to bring Dindoruk.

“We do not want our ideas and conclusions to exist only on paper,” he said. “We want our tools and techniques to be deployed and used by others to improve the efficiency of these processes.”

By making the apps freely available, researchers hope to learn from users’ feedback to improve and even develop new apps.

UH Viscosity Calculator

The Viscosity app calculates the viscosity of crude oil in its natural state, also known as dead oil, which requires very little input. It is a full-range method that can measure a wide range of oil viscosity – from a fraction of a centipoise (cp), a unit measurement of viscosity, up to one million cp.

“If we know a viscosity at one temperature, we can get a viscosity at any temperature within that domain that we’ve established,” Dindoruk said. “It’s really useful because it helps us work around the limitations in measuring the viscosity of oil at high temperatures.”

More details about this app are available in the article “Machine Learning Augmented Dead Oil Viscosity Model for all types of oil”.

The researchers integrated machine learning into their work, which led them to collect copious amounts of data with the help of various contributors. The team used this data to build optimal versions of subsequent models.

“We have gained valuable knowledge and insight through this work, and we are grateful to all who helped us along this journey,” said Dindoruk.

uh carbon dioxide mmp calculator

Carbon dioxide and hydrocarbon gases are commonly used in gas injection processes, particularly for carbon dioxide separation and enhanced oil recovery. However, carbon dioxide behaves differently than other gases so special methods are needed to calculate the MMP for carbon dioxide gas streams. The most widely accepted method is using a slime tube apparatus, but this has limitations in time and material requirements. Researchers have also developed correlations using regression techniques to estimate MMP, but they also have limitations.

The UH team explored two different methods to quickly calculate the MMP for carbon dioxide injection using statistical and machine-learning methods described in the published paper “Predicting CO.”₂ Minimum miscibility pressure using enhanced machine-learning-based models.” These models consider oil composition and temperature as input parameters. The proposed hybrid model outperforms existing correlation and machine-learning methods, That includes a wide range of MMP values, Dindoruk said.

UH Hydrocarbon MMP Calculator

Hydrocarbon gases are a good choice for gas injection because they are readily available in many situations. When the gases mix well with the oil, it helps in extracting more oil from the reservoir. Additional advantages of using hydrocarbon gases for injection are:

They can be locally compressed to high pressures.

This minimizes flaring, which is burning off excess gas, or venting when there is no practical way to transport it over relatively long distances. Both flaring and venting, where carbon dioxide is generated as well as methane, contribute to greenhouse gas emissions.

Since these gases are already in the oil, they are less likely to cause corrosion problems.

To improve oil recovery and calculate the correct amount of gas needed, the researchers focused on MMP. In this most recent study, “Physics-guided data-driven model for estimating the minimum miscibility pressure (MMP) for hydrocarbon gases,” the team used Light Gradient Boost (LightGBM) to estimate the MMP for hydrocarbon gas injection. ) model was used. They also determined the minimum amount of heavy hydrocarbon gas required to reach the target MMP.

“This helps achieve the desired pressure without the need for expensive compressors or without damaging the reservoir,” Dindoruk said. “We tested our model and compared it to other methods, and it outperformed in accuracy.”

UH models consider the physics of mixing gas and oil and consider important input factors that affect the miscibility pressure. The second MMP model is for hydrocarbon gases, and this completed the range of equipment.

“Using these two MMP apps, users can do calculations with different mixtures,” Dindoruk said. “We strive to provide end-to-end solutions to practical problems.”

The UH research team is already working on designing a more practical tool to measure carbon dioxide solubility in realistic brines with mixed salts, an important topic for evaluating carbon dioxide sequestration in deep saline aquifers. Stay tuned for that tool.