Thermal kinetics investigation on light oil oxidation during high-pressure hypoxic air injection process

In this work, the effects of oxygen concentration and reservoir cutting on thermokinetic characteristics of light oil were analyzed using thermogravimetry (TG/DTG). Results show that three consecutive oxidation reactions of distinct chemical mechanism (low-temperature oxidation [LTO], fuel deposition [FD], and high-temperature oxidation) are detected for all tested samples. Hypoxic air weakens the LTO and FD process and causes a poor FD performance, while reservoir cutting positively influences the thermal characteristics of oil. Kinetic parameters comparison exhibits that the positive effect of reservoir cutting on oil oxidation is significantly stronger than the negative impact caused by hypoxic air. The existence of reservoir cutting greatly reduces the activation energy of oil oxidation in hypoxic air environment, which is a positive signal for the implementation of high-pressure hypoxic air injection process.