Systems and methods for separating oil and/or gas mixtures
View Patent ↗A system for producing oil and/or gas from an underground formation comprising a well above the formation; a mechanism to inject an enhanced oil recovery formulation into the formation, the enhanced oil recovery formulation comprising water and a solvent; a mechanism to produce the water, solvent, oil, and gas from the formation; a separator to separate the oil, water, and a first portion of the solvent from the gas and a second portion of the solvent; and an absorption tower to expose the gas and the second portion of the solvent to water to remove the second portion of the solvent from the gas.
1. A system for producing oil from an underground formation comprising:
a first well located above the formation;
a mechanism located at the first well to inject an enhanced oil recovery formulation into the formation, the enhanced oil recovery formulation comprising water and a solvent;
a mechanism to produce water, solvent, oil, and gas from the formation;
a separator to separate the produced oil, produced water, and a first portion of the produced solvent from the produced gas and a second portion of the produced solvent;
an absorption tower to expose the separated produced gas and the separated second portion of the solvent to water to remove the second portion of the solvent from the separated gas; and
a stripper to expose the produced water and the first portion of the produced solvent to a gas to remove the first portion of the produced solvent from the produced water wherein a first conduit passes the separated gas from the absorption tower to the stripper.
2. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a second well a distance from the first well, wherein the mechanism to produce the water, solvent, oil, and gas from the formation is located at the second well.
3. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a turbo expander in the first conduit to lower pressure of the separated gas and to extract energy from the separated gas.
4. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a second conduit to pass the produced water from the stripper to the absorption tower.
5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the solvent comprises a chemical having a solubility in water of at least 1% at a temperature of 25° C. and a pressure of 0.101 MPa and a octanol-water partitioning coefficient of at least 1 at 25° C. and a pressure of 0.101 MPa.
6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first well comprises an array of wells from 5 to 500 wells.
7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the solvent comprises a chemical having a solubility in water of at least 2% at a pressure of 5 MPa and a temperature of 25° C.
8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the solvent comprises a chemical having a crude oil-water partitioning coefficient of at least 2 at a pressure of 5 MPa and a temperature of 25° C.