Stability Of Forward And Reverse Wet Combustion Fronts In Porous Media
Authors: Krantz William, B. , Keyashian Morteza , Zollars Richard L. , Gunn Robert D. 
Published: December 2007

A linear stability analysis shows that reverse wet combustion is unstable for nearly all physically realizable operating conditions for the special case of coincident steam and combustion fronts. Expansion effects due to gas generation from combustion and vaporization are found to have a stabilizing influence on reverse wet combustion.

Forward wet combustion is also found to be conditionally stable. Significant expansion effects at the combustion front can overwhelm the stabilizing influence of a favorable mobility ratio and effect destabilization with respect to oscillatory long wavelength modes.

Introduction

In situ combustion processes are being considered for a variety of recovery schemes for underground fossil fuel deposits. These include combustion processes for secondary recovery of highly viscous crude processes for secondary recovery of highly viscous crude oils, tertiary recovery of lighter oils, in situ retorting of oil shale, oil recovery from tar sands, and in situ coal gasification. It is useful to categorize all in situ combustion processes as either forward or reverse combustion. In the former the combustion front travels in the same direction as the flow of gases, whereas in the latter it travels countercurrent to the direction of gas flow.

Forward combustion is by far the more widely used; in such applications as secondary and tertiary oil recovery, it is effectively the only combustion process us However, reverse combustion offers particular advantages for in situ thermal recovery schemes for relatively impermeable media such as subbituminous coal lignites, and tar sands. The reason for this is that during forward combustion, tars vaporized at the combustion front are convected into cooler regions ahead of the front where they condense and thus reduce the natural permeability of the bed. In contrast, for reverse combustion the vaporized tars, or other high molecular weight compounds generated by the combustion, travel toward the production well through a heated region whose permeability is usually greater than the natural permeability of the bed since the front has passed through it. In technologies such as the linked passed through it. In technologies such as the linked vertical well process for in situ coal gasification, a reverse combustion linking step is used to create a highly permeable link through which the combustion gases from subsequent forward gasification can escape. The use of reverse combustion as a preparatory step prior to forward combustion is also being considered prior to forward combustion is also being considered for tar sands.

Forward and reverse in situ combustion may also be either a dry or wet combustion process. In the former only air is injected into a relatively dry fossil fuel deposit such that any vaporization of water due to conduction of heat from the combustion front, has no effect on the process. In a wet combustion process either water is injected along with air or there is sufficient water naturally present in the deposit, such that the steam front is in relative close proximity to the combustion front. If enough water is present, the steam front can be coincident with the combustion front and thus depress the combustion front temperature to the saturation temperature of steam at the prevailing pressure.

Forward wet combustion has some advantages for secondary recovery processes for highly viscous crude oils because less air is required for the front to traverse a given distance thus making it more economically attractive. The authors are particularly interested in the influence of wet combustion on the sweep efficiency of both the reverse and forward combustion steps for the in situ coal gasification process. This process is being considered for the gasification of process is being considered for the gasification of western subbituminous coal seams which can contain considerable moisture.

The sweep efficiency of many in situ combustion processes is related to the stability of the process. processes is related to the stability of the process. In a stable combustion process any perturbations in the combustion front, due to heterogeneities in the properties of the porous media, flow rate pulsations, properties of the porous media, flow rate pulsations, or a variety of other possible causes, die out very rapidly and the progressing flame front is more or less planar. In an unstable combustion process these perturbations grow rapidly and create a fingered perturbations grow rapidly and create a fingered combustion front which can bypass much of the potentially recoverable fossil fuel, thus making the process quite inefficient. Unstable in situ combustion is not always disadvantageous.