ECT Application in Heavy Oil Multi­phase Flow System: Part 1 Static Measurements

E.Zorgani, H. Al­Awadi, W. Yan, S. Al­lababidi, X. Li and H. Yeung Cranfield University, UK. e.e.muftah@cranfield.ac.uk

ABSTRACT

Keywords: Electrical Capacitance Tomography, (ECT), Oil/Sand, Oil/Water, Permittivity

Multiphase flow exists widely in the chemical and petroleum industry. The understanding of flow patterns and determination of phase concentration are of great importance for the design and control of multiphase systems. Motivated by the rapidly increasing interest in heavy oil production and transportation pipeline design, this work aims to experimentally investigate the capability of using Electrical Capacitance Tomography (ECT) to indentify the flow pattern and obtain the phase concentration for heavy oil (i.e. oil of high viscosity and density close to water) related multiphase systems (heavy oil/sand and heavy oil/water). This paper reports on some preliminary results of static tests. Further data analysis for static tests and the results of dynamic (flowing) tests will be discussed in future papers.

The results of the preliminary investigations showed that ECT system provided by ITS (Industrial Tomography Systems, UK) is capable of reasonable detection of phase distribution in heavy oil/sand and heavy oil/water systems. In addition, preliminary studies showed the capacitance of oil had less dependence on oil temperature, which indicates ECT could provide stability and consistency for the measurement of heavy oil system where the oil properties (viscosity in particular) vary dramatically with temperatures. Interesting reconstructed images were obtained for heavy oil/water system from software provided by ITS. However, comparing the actual concentration and those obtained from the software, the discrepancies are high, especially when water is present. More analysis and tests are required before drawing any definitive conclusion.