EVALUATION OF FLARE GAS &

FLUE GAS INJECTION FOR EOR

Tjokorde W. Samadhi, Stephanie L.U. Sutoko & Utjok
W.R. Siagian*
Chemical Engineering Program
*Petroleum Engineering Program
Bandung Institute of Technology

Fossil fuel trends in Indonesia

Decline in oil & gas

production
Indonesia has become net oil

importer since 2004

Increasing demand for

petroleum fuel
Flare gas emissions from oil
& gas production sector is
very significant
Ranked 4th in total gas flaring
(Pallone, 2009)

volume in 2003

Miscible Gas Flooding EOR

MGF-EOR relies on the flooding of oil reservoir with an injection gas

at high P
Dissolution of the gas in the oil increases oil mobility
Use of waste gases as injection gas
opportunity to reduce gas flaring while increasing oil production!

(Ref.: Amarnath, 1999)

Background
Feasibility of an MGF-EOR system is reflected upon its

minimum miscibility pressure (MMP)

Threshold value at which a complete, multiple-contact
miscibility between injection gas & trapped oil is achieved
Previous study has highlighted the excessive MMP in flare
gas injection
higher compression costs
potential damage to reservoir formation

High methane content of flare gas inflates the MMP

Objectives & Scope

Evaluates effect of adding flue gas to flare gas on the

miscibility development of a model oil

Increased CO2 content from flue gas is expected to lower
MMP
Employs a simulative approach using the multiple-mixing
cell model
Material streams:
Model oil: 45% n-C5H12 - 57% n-C16H34
Model flare gas: 91% CH4 - 9% C2H6
Model flue gas: 79% N2 21% CO2

System temperature: 323.15 K

Multiple-mixing Cell Model

Contact between injection gas & oil is represented by a series of

equilibrium mixing cells

Excess fluid from a cell is transferred to the next cell
Equilibrium tie lines are identified in each cell by P,T-flash calculation
VLE compositions are calculated using Peng-Robinson EoS
MMP computation package developed on Fortran platform

MMP Determination
For system with n components,

gas miscibility is controlled by

(n-1) key tie lines
When P is increased, length of
key tie lines decreases
At MMP, one of the key tie lines
becomes critical (approaching
zero length)

Results Flare gas injection

3 key tie lines are identified as

constant-length zones
shortest line (crossover TL)
becomes critical as P is increased
MMP ~ 35.8 MPa

Tie line length vs. cell number computed

for injection of flare gas (91% CH4 9%
C2H6) to model oil (43% C5 57% C16)
T = 323.15 K, P = 34 MPa

Results Flare-flue gas injection

In mixed flare-flue gas
injection, a crossover tie line is
the critical tie line
At 50/50% flare-flue gas
composition, MMP~61.1 MPa

C5-C16 model oil injection by

50/50% flare-flue gas mixture at
323.15K & 10 MPa

CO2 enhancement of flare gas

CO2 enhancement of

flare gas attempted by

mixing with flue gas &
pure CO2
flue gas addition
dramatically increases
MMP due to high N2
critical pressure
computation failed at
flue gas content > 50%
flue gas is an unlikely
source for CO2
enhancement of flare
gas

Summary & Acknowledgment

Combining flare gas with flue gas for MGF-EOR injection

gas produces unacceptably high MMP

While flue gas does contain a substantial amount of CO2,
the effect of high-critical pressure N2 predominates
The feasibility of using flare gas as an injection gas is
contingent upon the availability of a relatively pure CO2 to
reduce MMP
This research has been funded by the Osaka Gas Foundation for
International Cultural Exchange Research Grant 2012