Patent ID: 8616294

Claim:
An in-situ apparatus for generating carbon dioxide gas near an oil site for use in enhanced oil recovery, comprising: a steam generator adapted to boil and superheat water to generate a source of superheated steam; a source of essentially pure oxygen; a steam reformer, located adjacent to the oil site, adapted to react a carbonaceous material with the superheated steam and the pure oxygen, in an absence of air, to generate a driver gas comprising primarily carbon dioxide gas and hydrogen gas, wherein at least a portion of the carbonaceous material is obtained from a location outside the oil site; a separator adapted to separate at least a portion of the carbon dioxide gas from the driver gas to generate a carbon dioxide-rich driver gas and a hydrogen-rich fuel gas; a compressor for compressing the carbon dioxide-rich driver gas for use in enhanced oil recovery, wherein the compressed carbon dioxide-rich driver gas, with substantially no oxygen, is injected to a predetermined depth in order to enhance oil recovery at the oil site; and a control system adapted to control an operation of the apparatus based on a temperature, a pressure, and a gas composition of the driver gas in real-time by controlling an input oxygen-to-steam ratio.