Experimental Program to Test the Feasibility of Obtaining Normal Performance from Combustors Using Oxygen and Recycled Gas Instead of Air.

摘要

Injection of carbon dioxide (CO2) can be used to increase the production from oil wells. The recovery of oil is enhanced by pumping CO2 into oil reservoirs at pressure to dissolve the CO2 in the oil. This causes the oil to expand as well as decreasing its viscosity and surface tension. The viscous oil can then be more easily recovered from the oil wells. This recovery process requires CO2 gas that is at least 90 percent pure. One plentiful source of CO2 is fossil fuel combustion, such as industrial and utility boilers. Ordinarily, the products from the combustion of fossil fuels with air is only about 15 percent CO2 , with the balance being mostly nitrogen, 8--10 percent water vapor, 3--5 percent O2 , and trace quantities of NOx and SO2 . Conventional approaches to recovering CO2 from combustion sources utilize various processes to separate CO2 from the stack gas. Disadvantages to such separation techniques include: (1) the relatively low concentration of CO2 in the stack gas and (2) the presence of gaseous species (O2 and SOx) which may interfere with the separation process. These issues, and the measures to resolve them, tend to increase the cost of the separation process. 8 refs., 44 figs., 32 tabs. (ERA citation 14:002785)