Combination Effect of in-Situ Combustion and Exhaust Gases Recirculation on 1D Combustion Tube: Numerical Approach

Despite the widespread use of renewable and green energy, the demand for fossil fuels is also rising due to increasing global energy demand. Therefore, unconventional solutions, with safe environmental impacts, are being pursued to solve this problem. Instead of getting rid of the exhaust gases in the surroundings, one solution might be to inject them with the oxidizer into the oil reservoir, to initiate an in-situ combustion (ISC) process to enhance oil recovery. A numerical study of a 1-D combustion tube has been conducted and validated to simulate the in-situ combustion process using enriched air as the oxidizer. The effects of injecting exhaust gases with the oxidizer are studied. Different ratios of oxygen to nitrogen are used in the enriched air as well as different ratios of exhaust gases. If enriched air which is mostly oxygen, i.e. 95% O₂ +5%N₂, is used, it is found that replacing 10% of the enriched air with exhaust gases can increase the oil recovery factor (ORF) from 94.7% to 94.9% and replacing 20% can improve oil recovery to 95.1%. For another enriched air, 60% O₂ +30% N₂, it is found that replacing portions of the enriched air with exhaust gases will reduce the oil recovery factor. In all previous cases, it was found that replacing the proportions of enriched air with exhaust gases reduces the amount of fuel burned and increases hydrogen production.