Mark E. Blue

Modeling Phase Change Heat Transfer of Liquid/Vapor Systems in Free and Porous Media

Effective Solvent Extraction Incorporating Electromagnetic Heating (ESEIEH) is a relatively new concept that relies on Radio Frequency (RF) heating and solvents to replace steam in current thermal processes for the purpose of extracting bitumen from oil rich sands. The work presented here will further the understanding of the near wellbore flow and phase behavior of the ESEIEH process in order to better predict solvent vaporization dynamics and heat rates delivered to the pay zone. This numerical study details the aspects of phase change of liquid/vapor systems confined in porous media heated by electromagnetic radiation, and approximated by a volumetric heat source term in the energy equation. The objective of this work is to utilize the numerical methodology presented herein to predict liquid penetration depth in a heated isotropic porous matrix to avoid the over-saturation of liquid solvent in the pay zone. Results demonstrate the sensitivity of the liquid solvent penetration depth to the solvent delivery rate and the resulting temperature.Copyright