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SeeGeeWhy · 07-25-2012, 01:38 PM

I just submitted a paper to the world heavy oil congress on how to better utilize nuclear fission for steam generation for thermal oil production.

In the scheme we are proposing, heat is generated by a fission reaction in the thermal neutron spectrum (Th -> U) and captured by melting Fluoride salts. The liquid salt is then heat exchanged with water to generate steam. This is essentially GHG free steam production for SAGD... and eliminating GHG emissions from SAGD production would make the practice far more "sustainable" by cutting a huge impact to the surrounding environment.

This reactor uses so little uranium over its life that the costs for raw fuel, enrichment, processing and waste handling are an order of magnitude less than what you would spend to burn natural gas and pay the carbon compliance costs. The difference in these costs is so large that we estimate that the heat requirements for a standard 30,000 bbl/d SAGD project would be paid for when natural gas prices are between $1.09 - 2.32/mcf (so... at today's prices).

Because this is Alberta and gas is so important to the economy, we thought of how to still use the gas volumes we've effectively offset in this scenario. We figure the best use is to "consume" the natural gas and use excess heat from the reactor to produce hydrogen for upgrading the bitumen. This would reduce the need to ship SCO and/or gas condensates to site (reducing pipelining and energy requirements for producing/moving/processing these fluids).

The heat can also be used for other processes such as water treatment and producing low pressure utility steam. This would offset electricity consumption, and in Alberta that is a good thing because our grid electricity has a fairly high carbon emission intensity associated with it.

Other things I've done to minimize environmental footprint on SAGD projects include:

- Reducing pipeline and access road ROW (as described above)
- Choosing water treatment technologies that maximize produced water recycle rates
- Designing access to avoid ungulate mating areas and increasing the height of pipeline racks to allow for animals to cross under (taking advantage of natural variations in the topography to do so)
- Designing wellpads to have a minimum disturbance on surface and gather as many wellpairs as possible
- Choosing water treatment/steam generation technologies that can accept feedwater with a higher salinity (avoiding the need to draw from surface or near surface "fresh" water sources)
- Proposing aquifer storage and recharge for near surface fresh water aquifers when using these volumes cannot be avoided
- Using source water test volumes for construction and drilling volumes
- Recycling drilling mud
- designing comprehensive groundwater monitoring schemes to observe changes in environmental markers
- surveying environments with development potential for sensitive/rare plant and animal life and avoiding areas which contain either
- burying source water wellheads to avoid using heating during cold winter months
- cross exchanging hot produced fluids with various processes to minimize the amount of gas that needs to be burned to provide process heat
- heat tracing waste heat sources with glycol to recover waste heat to be used in other processes
- designing facilities to be as modular as possible to centralize production and maximize construction efficiency
- site specific management of drilling/construction camp waste

And so on, there are lots of interesting environmental initiatives in the oil patch.

To me the concept of sustainability can be extended even further beyond environmental footprint. What does this word actually mean? How can you design a business to succeed and be productive on an ongoing basis in a variety of business conditions? How can you link your project with other companies/initiatives/projects in order to convert waste from another into a useful input for yours, and have waste from your project become a useful and valuable input for another company, human social construct, or natural process? How can you be continually improving what you do and how you do it? There are literally a hundred questions you can ask along these lines to challenge the way one thinks and operates in this world in order to become "more sustainable".

To me, this all comes down to extending value and prosperity up and down the value chain in your industry and by critically examining where you can take something that was once thought of as a linear process (open system... clear begining and end), and re-designing it to become a closed system. To me, that is the ultimate goal of sustainability and a principle I maintain in all of my engineering and business efforts. The truth is, the more "sustainable" your business is, the more efficient (read, profitable)your operation will be, and you can count on it being that way for as long as possible, under as many conditions as possible. Why is this not the goal of every business?

07-25-2012, 01:38 PM	#9
SeeGeeWhy #1 Goaltender Join Date: Mar 2006 Exp:	I just submitted a paper to the world heavy oil congress on how to better utilize nuclear fission for steam generation for thermal oil production. In the scheme we are proposing, heat is generated by a fission reaction in the thermal neutron spectrum (Th -> U) and captured by melting Fluoride salts. The liquid salt is then heat exchanged with water to generate steam. This is essentially GHG free steam production for SAGD... and eliminating GHG emissions from SAGD production would make the practice far more "sustainable" by cutting a huge impact to the surrounding environment. This reactor uses so little uranium over its life that the costs for raw fuel, enrichment, processing and waste handling are an order of magnitude less than what you would spend to burn natural gas and pay the carbon compliance costs. The difference in these costs is so large that we estimate that the heat requirements for a standard 30,000 bbl/d SAGD project would be paid for when natural gas prices are between $1.09 - 2.32/mcf (so... at today's prices). Because this is Alberta and gas is so important to the economy, we thought of how to still use the gas volumes we've effectively offset in this scenario. We figure the best use is to "consume" the natural gas and use excess heat from the reactor to produce hydrogen for upgrading the bitumen. This would reduce the need to ship SCO and/or gas condensates to site (reducing pipelining and energy requirements for producing/moving/processing these fluids). The heat can also be used for other processes such as water treatment and producing low pressure utility steam. This would offset electricity consumption, and in Alberta that is a good thing because our grid electricity has a fairly high carbon emission intensity associated with it. Other things I've done to minimize environmental footprint on SAGD projects include: - Reducing pipeline and access road ROW (as described above) - Choosing water treatment technologies that maximize produced water recycle rates - Designing access to avoid ungulate mating areas and increasing the height of pipeline racks to allow for animals to cross under (taking advantage of natural variations in the topography to do so) - Designing wellpads to have a minimum disturbance on surface and gather as many wellpairs as possible - Choosing water treatment/steam generation technologies that can accept feedwater with a higher salinity (avoiding the need to draw from surface or near surface "fresh" water sources) - Proposing aquifer storage and recharge for near surface fresh water aquifers when using these volumes cannot be avoided - Using source water test volumes for construction and drilling volumes - Recycling drilling mud - designing comprehensive groundwater monitoring schemes to observe changes in environmental markers - surveying environments with development potential for sensitive/rare plant and animal life and avoiding areas which contain either - burying source water wellheads to avoid using heating during cold winter months - cross exchanging hot produced fluids with various processes to minimize the amount of gas that needs to be burned to provide process heat - heat tracing waste heat sources with glycol to recover waste heat to be used in other processes - designing facilities to be as modular as possible to centralize production and maximize construction efficiency - site specific management of drilling/construction camp waste And so on, there are lots of interesting environmental initiatives in the oil patch. To me the concept of sustainability can be extended even further beyond environmental footprint. What does this word actually mean? How can you design a business to succeed and be productive on an ongoing basis in a variety of business conditions? How can you link your project with other companies/initiatives/projects in order to convert waste from another into a useful input for yours, and have waste from your project become a useful and valuable input for another company, human social construct, or natural process? How can you be continually improving what you do and how you do it? There are literally a hundred questions you can ask along these lines to challenge the way one thinks and operates in this world in order to become "more sustainable". To me, this all comes down to extending value and prosperity up and down the value chain in your industry and by critically examining where you can take something that was once thought of as a linear process (open system... clear begining and end), and re-designing it to become a closed system. To me, that is the ultimate goal of sustainability and a principle I maintain in all of my engineering and business efforts. The truth is, the more "sustainable" your business is, the more efficient (read, profitable)your operation will be, and you can count on it being that way for as long as possible, under as many conditions as possible. Why is this not the goal of every business? Last edited by SeeGeeWhy; 07-25-2012 at 01:41 PM.