Water treatment process for thermal heavy oil recovery

摘要

A method of recovering energy in a reservoir containing heavy oil and water for treating water used in the recovery process includes treating a water feed stream to generate a steam fraction and a liquid fraction, providing a steam separator 130 to separate the steam fraction and liquid fraction, providing an oil-water separator 165 and a water distillation apparatus 180, injecting the reservoir with the steam fraction, collecting heavy oil and produced water from the reservoir in the separator 165, separating the oil and water, providing thermal energy contained in the liquid fraction to the water distillation apparatus 180 and treating the produced water with the distillation apparatus. Because the produced water is distilled, it can be re-used in the steam generation process. This eliminates the need to dispose of the produced water in subsurface disposal wells and, accordingly, provides an increased level of recycling.