Investigation into atomization spray blending property in heavy crude oil extraction under laboratory conditions

In this study, the atomization blending property for heavy crude oil extraction was systematically investigated both numerically and experimentally. In the experiment conducted, the blending behavior was simulated using hydraulic oil and spray with 1:10 light phase-gas atomize volume flow rate ratio in an equipment sharing the same scale as the on-site production. A Malvern Insitec droplet size analyzer was applied for the droplet size measurement, and a quick closing valve method was applied for the phase fraction measurement. A numerical simulation combined with a population balance model and the RNG k-epsilon model was performed under both the corresponding operating conditions and a high-pressure drop environment to further investigate the blending procedure. The results show that the atomization spray blending performs better than the equivalent pure gas lifting method with more crude oil carried at the exit. Under 0.6 m(3)/h light phase inlet conditions, spray blending brings 8% more heavy crude than gas lifting, and the improvement rises as inlet flow rate increases. Both a droplet and liquid film are present in the casing space before blending for the spray liquid phase. In addition, the light phase droplet diameter decreases with an increase in the inlet flow rates in the lifting pipe after blending. Moreover, the blending behavior differs under various light phase inlet flow rates, while the mixture viscosity is reduced by 50% for the atomization spray method. Each of these factors was shown to be beneficial for refining the blending used in a heavy crude oil extraction technique.