Ilyas Al-Kindi

PhD student

Research topic: "Thermodynamics and Phase Behavior of Hydrocarbon Solvents at Capillary Conditions"

PhD Thesis

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Micro fluidic technology is an approach used to visualize and quantify fluid flow and oil recovery dynamics in real-time through glass chips. The main advantage of this technology is the pore-scale quantification of fluid phase dynamics under reservoir conditions. In thermal EOR, micro fluidic technology is usually used to understand the effect of chemicals, such as solvents, surfactants and alkaline, on changing the interfacial characterises between heavy oil and water/ steam.  The main focus in this research is to observe the oil recovery and solvent retrieval under thermal conditions. The quantification of the efficacy of solvent steam additive will be done by using micro fluidic approach.

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Initially, measuring the boiling temperature of liquids such as solvents and oil solvent mixtures will be the focus.  To do so, two approaches were implemented; i.e., glass chip approach and vapour pressure measurement. Each approach had its own experimental setup and equipment. Also, procedures of the two methods were slightly different from each other. In overall, vapour pressure measurement was more accurate and reliable comparing with the first approach.

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Publications:

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1. Al-Kindi, I. and Babadagli, T.: “Revisiting Thomson Equation for Accurate Modeling of Pore Scale Thermodynamics of Hydrocarbon Solvents ,” SPE 187384, 2017 SPE Annual Tech. Conf. and Exh., San Antonio, TX, USA, 9-11 Oct.

2. Al-Kindi, I. and Babadagli, T.: “Revisiting Thomson Equation for Accurate Modeling of Pore Scale Thermodynamics of Hydrocarbon Solvents,” vol. 31, 122004-1/16, Physics of Fluids, 2019 (promoted as an Editor’s Pick : https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/10.0000462).

3. Al-Kindi, I. and Babadagli, T.: “Thermodynamics of Hydrocarbon Solvents at the Pore Scale during Hybrid Solvent-Thermal Applications for Heavy-Oil Recovery,” SPE 190469, 2018 SPE EOR Conf., Muscat, Oman, 26-28 March.

4. Al-Kindi, I. and Babadagli, T.: “Thermodynamics of Hydrocarbon Solvents at the Pore Scale during Hybrid Solvent-Thermal Applications for Heavy-Oil Recovery,” submitted to J. of Fluid Mech., 2020 (in review).

5. Al-Kindi, I. and Babadagli, T.: “Revisiting Kelvin Equation for Accurate Modeling of Pore Scale Thermodynamics of Different Solvent Gases,” SPE 195319, 2019 SPE Western Reg. Meet., 23-26 Apr., San Jose, CA, USA.

6. Al-Kindi, I. and Babadagli, T.: “Effect of Wettability on Vaporization of Hydrocarbon Solvents in Nano Capillaries,” SPE 201258, 2020 SPE Annual Tech. Conf. and Exh., Denver, CO, USA, 5-7 Oct.

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