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COMPOSITIONS
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11 is essential for a successful hydrocarbon miscible project thai and tie lines joining equilibrium gas and liquid compositions are :_"
accur~tely determined either experimentalJy or analytically. The
the design 0/ the miscible solvent composition be accurate so as
to balance technical and economic constraints. -When Q single graphical pseudoternary representation merely enables the
solvent is under considerationr laboratory experiments alone are calculation to be plotted for visualization purposes_
adequate. But. when a range of solvents must be considered or TIle solvent is assumed to be obtained by blending specific dry
when the compositions of the make-up streams can varYr 0 gas and LPG liquid streams which are proportioned to satisfy a
reliable predicti\-'e method becomes invaluable. miscibility criterion with a given reservoir oil at reservoir temper-
A methodology has been developed for accurate and rapid ature and a design pressure. For simplicity, with reference to
.,;-.
design 0/ a miscible solvent composition_ Using an adequately Figure 1, the LPG components (basically intermediates) will aU
be contained in the upper vertex and the dry gas stream will be ,.
~tuned' equation-aI-state for predicting phase compositions at a
design pressure and temperature, lhe proposed technique contained in the lower lefl vertex. Thus. all possible solvents
presents a unique method for constmcting a pseudolemory that can be determined by blending dry gas and LPG are repre-
diagram that incorporates bOlh so/l'enr and oil properties. sented by compositions lying on the left side axis of the diagrarn_
~ Unlike other procedures which require specification 0/ a solvent
Note that e~en though they are plotted respectively on the same . "
composilion 10 generate the phase behaviour for eoc11 solvent venices, the intermediate and dry gas pseudocomponents
being examined, this method reqUires only thai the composition originating from the oil are invariably different from the LPG
0/ LPG and dry gas streams which combine to form the solvent and dry gas stream compositions.
be specified, thus allowing the final composition to be de/er- . Located within the diagram is an envelope which separates
mined explicitly. The proposed procedure has been applied in smgle-phase and two-phase behaviour as indicated_ \Vithin the
three pools_ The success 0/ this new technique for predicting two-phase envelope, liquid and gas compositions that coexist at
solvent gas compositions has been verified experimentally. equilibrium are joined by a tie line that extends from the bubble
point line at the right to the dew point line at the left. The
Background bubble point and dew poinllines join at a Plait or critical point.
In its simplest form, a ternary diagram can be used to uniquely Solvents with compositions lying between the intermediates
represent the phase behaviour resulting }vhen three components vertex and the first contact miscible (FCM) limit are sufficientlY
are combined in various proportions, either experimentally or rich t?at a mixing line joining such a solvent composition with
using equation-of-state calculations. Because reservoir fluids are the all composilion lies entirely within the single-phase region.
comprised of numerous components, it is necessary for the pur- The two fluids are miscible in all proportions and are designated
pose of visual representation to group components so that the as being first contact miscible (FClvf). The minimum FCM
ternary diagram represents the phase behaviour of three pseudo- enrich~ent is obviously dependent on the exact bubble point
components. The components are grouped according to the curve SInce it determines the location of a tangent line drawn
physical properties of each component at the reservoir tempera- From the oil composition to the left side base line_ It is therefore
ture and operating pressure. For a miscible hydrocarbon pro- essential that the two~phase envelope be accurately located in
cess, the pseudocomponent5 arc generally dry ga.<ies, intermedi- this region.
ates or LPGs and heavy ends. \Vhile the resulting diagrams can Solvents slightly leaner than the FCM limit can, through
be useful for developing qualitative understanding of process several stages of mass transfer Whereby the solvent enriches the ,~ .. : ..
behaviour, their application in specific situations requires that oil, also become miscible with the oiL In this region the process (.
they must be constructed for that specific need. This paper is is termed multiple contacl miscible (MCI\.1). The leanest solvent .. : -
intended to indicate limitations inherent in and a suitable co~po.sition that results in miscibility is that at the MCM limit,
method for developing pseudotemary representations of the which 10 an equilibrium situation is given by the intersection of -.-..
enriched gas or hydrocarbon miscible gas process. The proposed the limiting tie line with the left side axiS{I)_ For each of the
construction method is both accurate and rapid. A typical above processes, vinually all of the oil contacted by solvent will
pseudoternary diagram is pictured in Figure 1_ be displaced.
Although the grouping of components into pseudocom- Based on these considerations, it can thus be seen that the
two-phase envelope needs to be most accurate in the top portion
at and above the location of the FCM tangent in order to obtain
Keywords: Hydrocarbon miscible nooding, Miscible solvent design, an accurate and reliable design composition. ,;.; r·:
Phase behaviour, Pseudo ternary diagrams. For solvent compositions leaner than that at the MCM limit,
Paper reviewed Bnd accepted for publicBtion by the Edilori.1 Bo.rd of lhe Journ.1 o f eBnB
d "11m P
elroI Technology.
eum
mass transfer between solvent and oil still occurs, causing the oil This paper applies the Peng-Robinson equation-of-muelll LO
to swell, which effectively increases oil saturation and hence calculate the equilibrium two-phase gas and liquid compositions.
mobility in a reservoir rock. The displacement process in this Before proceeding WiLh the development 0 f a pseudo ternary
region is immiscibl~. Neglecting the effects of gravity and diagram, it is essential that the reservoir oil be ch<lracLcrized 10
viscous fingering, the residual saturation would go from a maxi- permit accurate represenlation of the phase behaviour. This
mum for a dry gas displacement to nearly zero at the MCM limit means that the experimentally measured bubble point pressure
as the solvent-oil interfacial tension is reduced. (P b), the gas-oil ratio (GOR), and the atmospheric flash com·
The exact location of the MCM limit, as determined positions of either a bottomhole Or recombined lcS[ separator
dynamically from core or slim tube displacement experiments. sample of the reservoir fluid, must be matched usinJ~ the
can differ from that found using equilibrium considerations!') equation-oF-slate. Tuning is basicallY the process of adjusting
onty. Variations occur as miscibility is being developed during the binary interaction parameters and critical properties of the
displacement because the gas and enriched oil phases each have heavy ends. Such a process, while enabling represcnt<uion of the
different mobilities and hence velocities within the reservoir. low molecular weight gas-liquid na~h phenomena, is nol capable
One mighL expect this as the ga.'i moves ahead of the liquid and of simulating dense-phase separations such as asphaltenc prc~
the system composition at any point ....ill be different than that cipiLation. For the purposes stated here, the equalioll-of-slaLc is
of the original phase behaviour envelope. The degree of depar. considered to be reliable if computed values of
ture from equilibrium-type behaviour will also depend on the - the bubble point pressure, P b •
rate of change in gas compositions as the system becomes richer - lhe flash concentrallons of major components (methane in
in intermediates. Even though these limitations are recognized, the gas and heavy ends in the liquid). and
they can only be quantified by rigorously conducting andlor - the gas-oil mlio (GOR) maLch the experimenLall~r-deri\'cd
simulating MCM experiments. Additional discussion on the data. The ordering indicaled here is based on increasing experi-
complexities associated with miscible displacement are sum· mental uncertainty.
marized in Stalkup(2). The work presented here essentially
If these condiLions are satisfied, a Lwo-phase envelope can bc
represents a starting point for MCM solvent design that must be
generated. In addtLion LO the method proposed, many other
verified using dynamic displacement tests.
techmques have been developed to construct phase envelopes.
The simplest approach is to simply group and normalizc lhe oil
Pseudoternary Diagram Construction components into three pseudotomponents and sequentially vary
The construction of a pseudotemary diagram can be approached the amoUntS of each pseudocomponent by, for example, 10
using either experimental vapour-liquid equilibria (VLE) data or mole per cent increments, and then perform flash calculations
those rlerived from equation-of-state (EOS) flash calculations. for each composition. This process is illustrated In Flgurc 2.