Impact of Thermodiffusion on the Initial Vertical Distribution of Species in Hydrocarbon Reservoirs

Guillaume Galliero (1) , Henri Bataller (1) , Fabrizio Croccolo (1) , Romain Vermorel (1) , P.-A. Artola , B. Rousseau , V. Vesovic , M. Bou-Ali , J.M. Ortiz De Zárate , S. Xu , K. Zhang , F. Montel (2)

1 LFCR - Laboratoire des Fluides Complexes et leurs Réservoirs
2 CSTJF - Centre scientifique et Technique Jean Feger

In this work we propose a methodology, based on molecular dynamics simulations, to quantify the influence of segregation and thermodiffusion on the initial state distribution of the fluid species in hydrocarbon reservoirs. This convection-free approach has been applied to a synthetic oil composed of three normal alkanes and to a real acid gas. It has been found that the thermodiffusion effect induced by the geothermal gradient is similar (but opposite in sign) to that due to segregation for both mixtures. In addition, because of the combined effect of thermal expansion and thermodiffusion, it has been observed that the density gradient can be reversed, in the presence of a geothermal gradient. These numerical results emphasize the need of improving our quantification of thermodiffusion in multicomponent mixtures. The SCCO-SJ10 experiments will be a crucial step towards this goal. © 2015, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.

Mots clés: Multicomponent mixtures; Thermodiffusion; Molecular dynamics; Segregation; Oil and gas

Domaines: Géophysique [physics.geo-ph]; Mécanique des fluides [physics.class-ph]

Guillaume Galliero, Henri Bataller, Fabrizio Croccolo, Romain Vermorel, P.-A. Artola, et al.. Impact of Thermodiffusion on the Initial Vertical Distribution of Species in Hydrocarbon Reservoirs. Microgravity Science and Technology, 2016, 28 (2), pp.79-86. ⟨10.1007/s12217-015-9465-6⟩. ⟨hal-01804384⟩