In situ recovery

L. K. Jang, T. F. Yen, G. V. Chihngarian, and E. C. Donaldson. Bacterial migration through nutrient-enriched sandpack columns for in-situ recovery of oil. In E. C. Donaldson, G. V. Chihngarian, and T. F. Yen, editors. Microbial enhanced oil recovery, volume 22 of Developments in petroleum science, pages 151-164. Elsevier Science Ltd, 1989. 

There are numerous in-situ recovery methods that include steam injection, the most common ones being cyclic steam... 

Of the above-mentioned challenges of oil-sands production, the heavy dependence on natural gas is among the most critical. Table 3.5 shows the specific natural gas demand per barrel of bitumen for mining and extraction, (thermal) in-situ recovery and upgrading operations, as well as for the production of hydrogen. Depending on the recovery process, up to 25% of the energy content of the SCO is used in the form of natural gas. 

Tar Sands Canadian tar sands either are strip-mined and extracted with hot water or employ steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) for in situ recovery of heavy oil (bitumen). The bitumen is processed into naphtha, kerosine, and gasoline fractions (which are hydrotreated), in addition to gas (which is recovered). Current production of syncrude from Canadian tar sands is about 113,000 T/d (790,000 B/d) with expected increases to about 190,000 T/d (1.7 MB/d) by 2010. 

Musts. A At least one in-situ recovery process for each major oil sand reservoir type. 

Much remains to be learned about the reactions of organosulphur compounds at the elevated temperatures and pressures that can be readily achieved in in situ recovery processes. The use of the natural formation as the chemical reactor permits the attainment of reaction conditions that have previously been out... 

The TPVE technology is not applicable to the in situ recovery of metals. Dissolved metals, however, can be recovered with the extracted groundwater and treated appropriately. 

In regions where tar sand deposits are covered by dense rock or other formations, in-situ recovery may be more practical. Steam injection and underground combustion processes may be used for oil recovery. 

Fig. 23.4 Organophilic pervaporation (PV) for in situ recovery of volatile flavour compounds from bioreactors. The principle of PV can be viewed as a vacuum distillation across a polymeric barrier (membrane) dividing the liquid feed phase from the gaseous permeate phase. A highly aroma enriched permeate is recovered by freezing the target compounds out of the gas stream. As a typical silicone membrane, an asymmetric poly(octylsiloxane) (POMS) membrane is exemplarily depicted. Here, the selective barrier is a thin POMS layer on a polypropylene (PP)/poly(ether imide) (PEI) support material. Several investigations of PV for the recovery of different microbially produced flavours, e.g. 2-phenylethanol [119], benzaldehyde [264], 6-pentyl-a-pyrone [239], acetone/buta-nol/ethanol [265] and citronellol/geraniol/short-chain esters [266], have been published...

Fracturing Oil Shale with Explosives for in Situ Recovery... 

Drive—A Process for In Situ Recovery of Oil from the Athabasca Oil Sands, Athabasca Oil Sands K. A. Clark Volume, Res. Coun. Alberta Inf. Ser. 45 (Oct., 1963). 

Two options for the recovery of oil from tar sands are of importance mining of the tar sands, followed by aboveground bitumen extraction and upgrading and in situ extraction, in which the bitumen is released underground by thermal and/or chemical means and then brought to the surface for processing or upgrading. Because the processes of in situ recovery are similar to those employed in the enhanced recovery of crude oil, they are not discussed. 

Integrated bioprocesses can be used to enhance the production of valuable metabolites from plant cell cultures. The in situ removal of product during cell cultivation facilitates the rapid recovery of volatile and unstable phytochemicals, avoids problems of cell toxicity and end-product inhibition, and enhances product secretion. In situ extraction, in situ adsorption, the utilization of cyclodextrin, and the application of aqueous two-phase systems have been proposed for the integration of cell growth and product recovery in a bioreactor. The simultaneous combination of elicitation, immobilization, permeabilization, and in situ recovery can promote this method of plant cell culture as a feasible method to produce various natural products including proteins. 

Oil shale represents an enormous reserve of fossil fuel for domestic and foreign needs (1,2). Shale oil production can be divided into direct and indirect heating processes (2). In direct heating, some of the products or some other fuel is combusted to raise the oil shale to the necessary temperature for conversion to gas and oil while an indirect process transfers heat from an outside source. Although high yields have been demonstrated in some indirect procedures (3), the application to in situ retorting has been limited. Direct processes developed for in situ recovery of shale oil have not demonstrated sufficient control of the underground combustion for reliable operation. 

Late in 1975, personnel from Laramie Energy Research Center (LERC), then of the U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration, conducted an in situ recovery experiment in the Northwest Asphalt Ridge deposit near Vernal, Utah. Reverse combustion was chosen as a recovery method because it was felt that this method was more likely to succeed for in situ recovery of tar sands hydrocarbons. 

In the future, novel developments of liquid membranes for biochemical processes should arise. There are several opportunities in the area of fermentation or cell culture, for the in situ recovery of inhibitory products, for example. Another exciting research direction is the use of liquid membrane for enzyme encapsulation so that enzymatic reaction and separation can be combined in a single step. Chapter 6 by Simmons ial- (49) is devoted to this technique. The elucidation of fundamental mechanisms behind the liquid membrane stability is essential, and models should be developed for the leakage rate in various flow conditions. Such models will be useful to address the effect of parameters such as flow regime, agitation rate, and microdroplet volume... 

These applications include the in-situ recovery of fermentation products. This would be particularly useful in fermentations where the major product inhibits growth or production rates. Examples include those systems which produce organic acids such as acetate and lactate. Perhaps the most useful application would be the down-... 

Rheology. The viscosity of Athabasca bitumen in place is so high (about 1,000,000 mPa-s at reservoir temperature) that the bitumen in oil sand is practically immobile. This feature makes the bitumen difficult to displace in attempts at in situ recovery (18, 42). When mined and benefi-ciated, bitumen viscosity is reduced but still has some important influences including a contribution to froth viscosity. 

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