Title: Evaluation of vapour extraction process and its prospect as an enhanced oil recovery method

Authors: Ali Esfandyari Bayat; Radzuan Junin; Riyaz Kharrat; Shahab Hejri

Addresses: Department of Petroleum Engineering, Faculty of Petroleum and Renewable Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), 81310, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia ' Department of Petroleum Engineering, Faculty of Petroleum and Renewable Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), 81310, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia ' Petroleum University of Technology (PUT) Research Centre, Ghasemzadian St., South Khosrow St., Sattarkhan Ave., Tehran, Iran ' Kish Petroleum Engineering Company (KPE), No. 12, 6th Kouhestan St., Nobanyad Sq., Tehran, Iran

Abstract: The vapour extraction (VAPEX) process is a promising technique to extract heavy oil and bitumen while minimising environmental pollution and capital costs compared to conventional thermal processes. This paper comprehensively reviews the literature on the vapour extraction process to elucidate why VAPEX is not yet operational at the field scale. It was found that unfeasibility of the VAPEX process is mainly attributed to operational issues. A sufficient number of parameters that are associated with these two issues and affect the VAPEX process are evaluated in this paper. [Received: March 11, 2013; Accepted: October 17, 2013]

Keywords: enhanced oil recovery; EOR; vapour extraction; VAPEX; heavy oil extraction; solvents; non-condensable gas; bitumen; environmental pollution; capital costs.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOGCT.2015.069628

International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology, 2015 Vol.9 No.4, pp.394 - 421

Received: 12 Mar 2013
Accepted: 17 Oct 2013

Published online: 29 May 2015 *

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