Life Sciences & Biotechnology
Title : | Development and Demonstration of Biochemical Enhanced Oil Recovery (BcEOR) Technology for Marginal Oil Wells of Western India |
Area of research : | Life Sciences & Biotechnology |
Focus area : | Oil Recovery Technology |
Principal Investigator : | Dr Akhil Agrawal, Assistant Professor, Central University of Rajasthan, Rajasthan |
Timeline Start Year : | 2019 |
Contact info : | akhilagrawal@curaj.ac.in |
Details
Executive Summary : | Fossil fuel contributes more than 80% and renewables contribute approximately 8-10% of the global energy supply. As per the projections, both will remain a major source of energy (678 Quadrillion BTU) till 2030 with fossil fuel contributing 78% of the total energy consumption. Gaining access to economical and eco-friendly sources of energy is a major challenge in both, the developed and developing world. For a growing economy like India, it has become important to ensure that there is an unhindered supply of energy in tandem with decreasing the financial burden of imports from OPEC countries. Oil recovery is done in two phases i.e., the primary phase which uses natural stored energy and the second phase which includes injection of water to force oil recovery contributes to a recovery of about 30-40% of original oil in place. The crude oil remaining in the oil wells after primary and secondary recovery makes up to 60% of the total oil reserves.
In this study, Investigators will experimentally investigate the feasibility and the potential of using a novel biopolymer along with adjuvants (electron acceptors like nitrate) that can increase the sweep efficiency of oil, promote surfactant production and selective biomass plugging to increase oil production. Hence, this new recovery method which will use both biological and chemical approaches together to increase the oil recovery from marginal wells is to be known as BcEOR (Biochemical enhanced oil recovery). The biopolymer under investigation has better rheological properties and sweep efficiency. The addition of adjuvants can promote surfactant production and selective biomass plugging to enhance oil recovery. To achieve this, initially rheological and chemical properties of the biopolymer with oil and produced water will be studied. Further additional recovery by the BcEOR process will be estimated by injecting the biopolymer into oil fields' simulated bioreactors and original cores. |
Total Budget (INR): | 1,07,01,377 |
Publications : | 4 |
Patents : | 1 |
Organizations involved