Jitendra Sangwai

Natural gas hydrate is considered to be an attractive sustainable energy resource for the world. Hydrate as a technology can be of immense importance for various industrial processes, such as multicomponent natural gas separation, gas storage and transportation, and carbon dioxide capture from flue gases and sequestration. A variety of hydrate additives, which includes promoters (thermodynamics and kinetics) and porous media, are being researched to improve the hydrate formation kinetics. However, studies involving the combinations of these are rare in the open literature. In this work, the formation kinetics of methane hydrate/semiclathrate hydrate using tetra-n-butyl ammonium bromide (TBAB) and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) aqueous solutions at various concentrations in a porous medium containing silica sand at initial hydrate formation pressures (7.5 and 5.5 MPa) and temperatures (273.65 and 276.15 K) have been investigated. All the experiments were conducted using 75% water saturation. Various kinetics parameters, such as gas uptake, gas-to-hydrate conversion, and induction time, have been reported. It was found that the combination of TBAB+ SDS showed favorable hydrate formation kinetics in porous media than the TBAB system. This work provides information for further studies involving semiclathrate hydrate applications for various industrial processes.

Increasing maturity of the crude oil reservoirs across the world have led to the production of waxy crude oil which need economical and efficient methods for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). The studies on the performance of bacteria in the presence of waxy crude oil is rare. In this study, experiments were performed to understand the efficacy of thermophillic microorganism Bacillus subtilis on the biodegradation of waxy crude oil for EOR applications. Bacterial growth, changes in crude oil composition, viscosity reduction, and surface and emulsification activity have been monitored to evaluate the oil degradation capabilities of the bacteria. This study also presents the effect of temperature, salinity, pH, and pressure on the stability of the produced biosurfactant for EOR applications. The biosurfactant produced by bacteria in the presence of crude oil was found to be stable up to 120°C, 10 MPa, 15% salinity, and wide range of pH, and thus favorable for reservoir environment. The crude oil composition before and after degradation at 75°C was determined using gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy and observed to be 60% in one day, while the maximum viscosity reduction was found to be 60% from initial values. Experimental results showed that the bacteria used in this work are capable of surviving at reservoir conditions, and are easy to grow on the waxy crude oil for enhanced oil recovery operations.

Drilling operations in oil and gas industry are associated with issues such as pipe sticking, poor wellbore cleaning and high fluid loss. Mitigation of such problems in water-based drilling mud (WBM) necessitates the application of nanotechnology in improving their filtration and rheological characteristics. In the present work, an attempt has been made to analyze the effect of nanofluid prepared using copper oxide (CuO) nanoparticles (NPs) dispersed in chia seed solution on WBM characteristics. Therefore, three samples of chia seed based nanofluids are synthesized using two-step method by varying the concentration of CuO nanoparticle from 0.2 wt% to 0.6 wt%. The resulting nanofluids are then mixed with WBM to prepare Nanofluid enhanced Water based Drilling Mud (NFWBM). The synthesized nanofluids are then characterized for their stability and thermal decomposition respectively using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and Thermo-Gravimetric Analyzer (TGA). The NFWBMs are then analyzed for rheological and filtrate-loss properties at different temperatures of 30 °C, 50 °C, 70 °C and 90 °C. The hot roll aging process is carried out at 90 °C for 16 h maintaining the pressure at 0.1 MPa. The analysis projected a significant enhancement in the thermal stability of the WBM, with a reduction in viscosity of about 61.7% at 90 °C, which is critically observed to recover back to a significant extent of about 14% for chia based 0.4 wt% CuO nanofluid enhanced WBM and 19% for chia based 0.6 wt% CuO nanofluid enhanced WBM. Such improvement is observed in the rheological properties post hot rolling too. Further, the API fluid loss is observed to reduce from 7.2 ml to 6.8 ml, 6 ml, and 4.8 ml, respectively, before hot rolling, while the same reduced from 12.4 ml 11.4 ml, 10.2 ml, and 9.4 ml, respectively, for chia based 0.2 wt%, 0.4 wt%, and 0.6 wt% of CuO nanofluid enhanced water based drilling muds (NFWBMs). The present study aids in the development of novel and green additives for water-based muds to enhance their properties.

In the oil and gas industry, upstream and downstream hydrocyclones are used extensively to separate heavy or dense particles from the formation water/reservoir fluids. These hydrocyclones, after a long period of operation, can fail as a result of wear-initiated leakage, thereby needing maintenance or replacement. A detailed investigation of this failure was carried out using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). One-way and two-way coupling of a discrete phase model was used along with the Reynolds stress turbulence model (RSM). Experimental studies were conducted to understand the flow dynamics within the hydrocyclone and to validate the computational model. Key findings, such as bifurcation of the inlet flow, local acceleration of fluid within the hydrocyclone, the impact of the sand drain pipe on fractional efficiency, and the impact of multiple particle sizes and density interactions on the degree of particle entrapment, are discussed in detail. The approach and results presented in this work provide useful insights and a systematic basis for improving the service life and separation efficiency of the hydrocyclone.

Matured reservoirs are being targeted for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) operations in the hope to recover the residual oil that remains trapped within the porous media. Chemical enhanced oil recovery is one of the successful oil recovery methods which is being employed for the recovery of the residual oil. Many of the conventional chemicals fail to perform under high temperature and high saline reservoir conditions. These situations lead to the search for alternate flooding techniques which could efficiently produce the crude oil to the surface. The present work investigates a possible solution for the recovery of trapped crude oil using lactam and imidazolium based ionic liquids (ILs) specifically targeted towards recovery in high saline environment. Initially, the interfacial tension of the crude oil-water system has been investigated using various chemical agents, such as sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), and six different ILs at varying high saline concentrations as a function of temperature (283.15–353.15 K). Subsequently, flooding experiments with only polymer, only SDS, only IL, SDS + polymer and IL + polymer at zero and high saline conditions were performed. It was observed that the IL + polymer flood performed very well in both zero and high salinity conditions as compared to all other flooding systems. The present investigation also portrays an intuition on the evaluation of ILs based on their alkyl chain length.

Families of various quaternary ammonium salts (QAS) have been of great interest to gas hydrate based investigations. In this work, an attempt has been made to understand the effect of QAS of the bromide family with increasing alkyl chain length, such as tetra-methyl, tetra-ethyl, and tetra-butyl ammonium bromide (TMAB, TEAB, and TBAB) at two different concentrations (0.05 and 0.1 mass fraction) in an aqueous solution on the hydrate-liquid-vapor (H-L-V) phase equilibrium of the methane hydrate system. Various experiments were performed to capture phase equilibrium data in the equilibrium pressure range of 7.6-4.2 MPa and temperature range of 282.4-276.8 K. It has been observed that the addition of TMAB and TEAB shifts the phase equilibrium curve of methane hydrate to higher pressure and lower temperature conditions. TMAB and TEAB have shown thermodynamic inhibition unlike TBAB which has shown a promotion effect. The Clausius-Clapeyron equation is used to calculate the enthalpy of dissociation of methane hydrate in various QAS aqueous solutions to examine the effect of QAS on methane hydrate structural information. The electrical conductivity measurements were also made to correlate the hydrate inhibition effectiveness of QAS on methane hydrate system. In addition, a phase equilibrium model has been extended to predict the phase behavior of methane hydrate + (TMAB, TEAB, or TBAB) aqueous solutions for a total 91 experimental phase equilibrium data points obtained from this work and the literature. The absolute average relative deviation in equilibrium pressure (AARD/P (%)) observed from the proposed model with the experimental equilibrium pressure data produced in this work and from several sources in the literature have been observed to lie within ±3.2%, indicating the robustness of the model.

Carbon dioxide injection for methane replacement from hydrate reservoirs is considered as one of the effective techniques for both methane production and carbon dioxide sequestration. To understand the gas exchange process, a thermodynamic model based on the classical fugacity approach has been utilized to predict the phase behavior and the cage occupancies of both binary CH4+CO2 and ternary CH4+N2+CO2 mixed gas hydrate systems in three phase (L-H-V) equilibria. A total of 256 experimental phase equilibrium data points on binary CH4+CO2, and ternary CH4+N2+CO2 gas hydrate systems have been selected from various literatures. For the ternary system, various compositions of CH4+N2+CO2 gas mixtures with varying N2/CO2 gas ratio, i.e., 0.13, 0.19, 0.27, 0.33, 0.37, 0.5, 0.98, 2.6, and 4, and varying CH4 compositions, i.e., 20, 50, 60, 70, 80, and 90%, have been considered. The absolute average deviations (%AAD) in the predicted equilibrium pressures with the experimental results are observed to be within 2.9% and 6.4% for binary and ternary mixed hydrate systems, respectively. For CH4+CO2 mixed hydrate systems, the average distribution coefficient of methane has been found to be 2.06, which indicates that the CH4 molecules are selectively replaced by CO2 molecules preferentially from large cages. For the ternary CH4+N2+CO2 mixed hydrate system, the N2/CO2 ratio in small cages of the hydrate is found to be almost 20 times larger than that in the large cages revealing the capacity of N2 and CO2 molecules to replace most of the CH4 molecules from small and large cages of the hydrate, respectively. The N2/CO2 ratio in small and large cages is temperature independent at low N2/CO2 gas ratio, which becomes temperature dependent at higher ratios, i.e., 2.6 and 4. From this study, we conclude that the injection of N2/CO2 gas mixture having ∼1:3 ratio is a good choice for enhancing the production of methane gas and carbon dioxide sequestration deep into the hydrate reservoirs.

Detailed studies on asphaltenes from Indian sources are scarce. In this study, nC7 asphaltenes were extracted from an atmospheric tower bottom and a low waxy crude oil using IP143-based method and characterised using elemental analysis, nuclear magnetic resonance, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, matrix-assisted laser desorption-time of flight mass spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscopy. Results show that both asphaltenes differ widely in structures and molecular weights. It was deduced that both asphaltenes might have formed from kerogen degradation process resulting in higher oxygen content. Lower molecular weight and structural parameters (NMR) of atmospheric tower bottom asphaltene could be due to degradation of aliphatic part during preheating before atmospheric distillation process. Although dispersed, the XRD derived aromaticity of petroleum asphaltenes seems to vary inversely with stacking height and average diameter of the aromatic sheets, possibly due to compact structure of the cluster resulting from decreased stack height.

Gas hydrates have been the nucleus of research from a sustainable engineering standpoint, considering their unique applications in a broad spectrum of scientific contexts. One such application is the sequestration of gaseous CO2 as solid hydrates under the seabed. Low temperature and high pressure are prevalent below the seabed, making it a thermodynamically feasible process. Furthermore, improved CO2 hydrate kinetics will facilitate technological development for carbon capture, storage, and sequestration. This study focuses on comprehending the CO2 hydrate kinetics with organic aliphatic amines, particularly methylamine, amylamine, and decylamine. Additives were tested in concentrations of 0.1, 1, and 5 wt % to meticulously comprehend their impact. A 300 mL stirred tank reactor was used for the investigations at 3.5 MPa and 274.55 K with pure water, which are the typical temperature and pressure conditions that one encounters in shallow subsea sediments. All additives showed considerable promotion in induction time, assuring faster CO2 hydrate nucleation. In addition, decylamine resulted in faster uptake of CO2 in our experiments compared to the other two additives. Hydrate dissociation studies up to 293.15 K were performed to assess the effect of the considered additives on CO2 hydrate dissociation. The decylamine system also delayed the gas release rate, showing better stability than the pure water system. This study also proposes a suitable well design for enhanced subsea CO2 sequestration as solid hydrates.

In this experimental work, three different types of nanofluids were evaluated for their stability using dynamic light scattering and particle morphological study using scanning electron microscopy. The nanofluids used in this study are zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticle in water and 5 wt% polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as a dispersant, and ZnO with polyethylene glycol (PEG 600) and CuO with PEG 600 with 5 wt% PVP at different concentration of 0.1, 0.3 and 0.5 wt%. Thermal and electrical conductivities were determined by KD-2 Pro® and PC 700 Eutech®. The result shows better enhancement in the thermal and electrical conductivity in the ZnO+PVP+Water system, followed by the CuO+PVP+PEG and ZnO+PEG systems. The highest percentage enhancement in thermal conductivity found to be 35.5% of ZnO+ PVP+water systems. The thermal conductivity results were compared with a theoretical model and show good agreement with results predicted by the model. The proposed model of Nan et al. (1997) is based on a hypothesis regarding the physical mechanism in heat transfer for nanofluids. This study is expected to form the basis for the development of nanofluid-based technologies with PEG as the primary additive in the upstream oil and gas industry especially in gas hydrates and drilling technology.