Combustion in miscible displacement for high-pressure air injection

Abstract

This paper describes miscible displacement upon air injection in a porous medium saturated with oil corresponding to conditions of high-pressure air injection (HPAI). We assume that injection fluids and produced fluids are fully miscible with the oil at the prevailing high pressure. We use three pseudo-components, viz., oxygen, oil, and an inert component, which includes nitrogen, carbon dioxide, etc. To model the fingering instabilities, we follow a similar procedure as proposed by Koval (SPE J. 3(02):145–154, 1963) and include the reaction between oxygen and oil in the Koval model. The equations are solved numerically, using a finite element software package (COMSOL). The results show that a combustion wave is formed. We study the performance at low and high viscosities and show that the reaction improves the speed and degree of recovery at later times.