The Degassing Processes for Oil Media in Acoustic Fields and Their Applications

Abstract

Numerous experiments on the effect of acoustic fields on oil media have shown the changing nature of oil physicochemical properties. In the present paper, we present a concept of internal airlift for oil medium with dissolved gas which could be propelled by external acoustic field. The mechanism determining gas bubble size as a function of pressure change is discussed. Model of interaction for the growing bubbles with acoustic fields is presented. Relationships specifying the characteristics of both the required acoustic field and oil medium are derived. The use of these relations makes it possible to define the available range of parameters for the system under consideration where one can obtain the expected effect on oil medium. It is demonstrated how the change in pressure and oil saturation (namely, the density of oil particles in the entire flow) of the medium is associated with temperature fields in the system. In particular, it is shown that the maximum deviation between the temperature change in oil and gas and gas–liquid media reaches a significant value, namely 10−2 K for a gas–liquid medium, while this difference is −0.1 K in an oil-and-gas medium. Using this approach, thermograms of oil producing wells have been analysed at a qualitative level.