TM6002

TRANSPORT PHENOMENA
PR # 1

NAMA

: Billal Maydika Aslam

DOSEN

: Ir. Utjok W.R. Siagian, M.Sc., Ph.D.

22216008

TANGGAL PENYERAHAN: 19 Januari 2017

PROGRAM STUDI TEKNIK PERMINYAKAN

FAKULTAS TEKNIK PERTAMBANGAN DAN PERMINYAKAN
INSTITUT TEKNOLOGI BANDUNG
2017

TM 6002 Transport Phenomena

Why Do I Have to Take Transport Phenomena Class?

Transport phenomena is happening on every moment of interest in petroleum

engineering, from the fluid transport in subsurface porous media into wellbore and finally in
surface facilities and flowline. Momentum, mass and heat transfer are always acting during the
production of petroleum fluids, during the use of drilling fluids on drilling operations, injection of
chemicals in Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) and well stimulation operations and so on, hence the
understanding of transport phenomena is the utmost importance to be a good petroleum
engineer.
During the course, I expect to discuss and review basic concepts of momentum transfer,
heat transfer (conduction, convection, radiation), and mass transfer (especially molecular
diffusion phenomena) and its application on petroleum industry using actual field problem cases.
Some of the concepts on the course were already discussed during bachelor degree level
Introductory to Transport Phenomena, but for master degree level I wish there would be more
discussion on transport phenomena on porous media since for introductory transport phenomena
the emphasis was more on fluid flow in pipes (viscous flow) and surface facilities (i.e. absorber,
heat exchanger). I also hope that we are able to grasp the required mathematical skills to model
and solve equation regarding unique phenomena that might be encountered, but not so deep that
it is discouraging or impractical.
The reason why I need more comprehensive discussion on transport phenomena for
porous media is that I am interested on the transport of chemicals/injectant in porous media such
as surfactant, polymer, CO2, steam, chemical tracers and so on which undergone adsorption,
diffusion, dilution, partitioning and phase changes which is very important in understanding and
designing EOR processes in the reservoir, especially on how the components will be distributed in
porous media. On the course of my professional experience on conducting reservoir simulation
for EOR scenario, failure to incorporate the correct processes that is captured in laboratory
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experiment (i.e. coreflood, phase behavior test) will give misleading history match or worse,
overpredict oil production forecast result.
Another reason why I need to dig deeper on transport phenomena in porous media is that
I am planning to work on a thesis with topics related to Lattice-Boltzmann Method for flow in
porous media. Particularly on validating the permeability derived from Lattice Boltzmann
Simulation of core sample with those measured on the lab. The idea of Lattice Boltzmann Method
is learned in transport phenomena principles, which are the conservation of momentum and mass.
The equation itself is using the same principle with Navier Stokes equation but unlike Navier
Stokes, Lattice Boltzmann Method can be computed numerically by updating nodes velocity in
each timestep. It is somehow more rigorous than diffusivity equation since it can also incorporate
tortuosity effect according to the rock pore structure which with current technology can be
constructed by instruments such as micro-CT scan so it is expected to better characterize fluid
flow in complex geometry such as porous media. In the future, I hope I am able to use this tools
to simulate interesting phenomena in EOR processes such as miscible displacement and so on.
By any means, the importance of other topics on transport phenomena course cannot be
underestimated. The mastery of transport phenomena as a whole will not only help us to be a
good petroleum engineer but can also be extended to other field of engineering especially
mechanical, civil and chemical engineering. I am eager to go through the first part of the course
started with fluid static, which could be applied to calculate pressure or stability of submerged
bodies. It could be interesting if we discuss some problems like the stability of gravity based
platform or calculating buoyant force of semi-submersible rig. Moving on to Bernoulli equation,
there are also important application that can be implemented using the equation such as the
design of flowmeter, chokes and also jet valve that is installed in jet pump for artificial lift.
The next chapter which is also of equal importance are finite control volume and
differential analysis of fluid flow. In this chapter I would like to review again the concept of control
volume analysis and the conservation of mass and momentum on fluid flow. The control volume
analysis is especially important on designing pipeline configuration with bends and hoops. The
ignorance of such analysis, could lead to pipeline failure or instability due to high momentum of
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flowing fluids. On this chapter, I think that we might benefit from a brief review on solving partial
differential equation (PDE) since on differential analysis of fluid flow, equations such as Navier
Stokes equation took form on PDE. I hope that on this chapter we could also learn about the
rheology for non-newtonian fluid as a complement for Newtonian fluid flow behavior. The use of
differential analysis on non-newtonian fluid could lead us to an understanding of application of
non-newtonian fluid in petroleum industry such as drilling fluid for cutting transport, or polymer
flow in pipe for EOR application (i.e. predicting the viscosity of polymer under different shear rate
in pipe). It might also be correlated on how some rheology measurement tools with different types
of spindle measure the viscosity of a non-newtonian fluid.
The next chapter that we should discuss is dimensional analysis, similitude and modeling
which is based on Buckingham Pi Theorem. It will be interesting to discuss the way to propose or
formulate the dimensionless parameter, and also discuss the limitation of such approach and also
the effect of scale. It might also beneficial to discuss the history of development of important
dimensionless parameter (or numbers) that are widely used for petroleum engineering such as
Reynolds Number, Weber Number, and so on
The last but not the least chapter on fluid mechanics part of transport phenomena course
is viscous flow in pipes. This might be the most important chapter that support production
engineering since most petroleum fluid will be transferred via pipeline. I hope that we can cover
the effect of pipe components such as fittings and valves in detail (i.e. entrance effect). It will also
be interesting to discuss pipeline network configuration and booster pump installation alternatives
(i.e. pump power and how much pump required) and how to avoid bottlenecking or its solution
for such network. It will also be interesting if such flow assurance problem can be extended for
real field cases such as flowing oil-water emulsion or flowing two phase fluid and how to calculate
or simplify calculation of pressure drop in such cases. The pressure drop of non-newtonian fluid in
pipe is also will be challenging to be studied.
The second part of the course which are heat and mass transfer is even more challenging.
Heat transfer phenomena that will be discussed are consists of radiation, conduction, and
convection. These three phenomena could be acting simultaneously such as during the fluid flow
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of wellbore streams in pipe. The importance of predicting heat losses is also related to flow
assurance issues that is dependent on temperature such as in high pour point oil (HPPO) due to
wax deposition which can cause pipe plugging. Similar issues could also happen for gas with water
content in low temperature (i.e. Offshore Fields) where hydrate formation could occur. The other
issue with gas transport is condensation which could happen at the temperature below dew point,
this is avoided since it could give higher pressure drop or even plugging due to condensed liquid.
Such problems could be mitigated by placing special insulation on pipe body or install electrical
heating equipment/coils on certain part on the pipe. For engineering purposes which are always
constrained by economic profit, it is important to optimize how much (or how thick) the
installation that is needed, or which part of the pipe is needed to install electric heating and how
much power the heater should give. I think it will be interesting to solve engineering alternatives
such as described based on real field data as group project.
The benefit of learning heat transfer phenomena extends to surface facilities component
such as heat exchanger. Heat exchanger has many applications in oil and gas processing such as
gas dew point control, natural gas liquids (NGL) recovery, Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) liquefaction,
LNG regasification, high temperature recuperators, sour gas compression cooling and so on. It is
also widely used in geothermal plant. It will be necessary to learn how to design heat exchanger
and compare how different type of heat exchanger is used.
The next part is mass transfer which mostly comprised of the application of Ficks Law for
molecular diffusivity phenomena which is analogous to conductive and convective heat transfer.
Many aspect that involves chemical in oilfield operations will deal with mass transfer. Liquid-liquid
diffusion happened during injection of acid (acidization) for well stimulation. It also occurs during
the injection of CO2 (supercritical state) into the reservoir. The proper use of diffusion concept can
be useful to predict or simulate component transport and distribution on porous media. Diffusivity
also plays role on determining mixing rate of species for example surfactant in water, so it can also
be useful to predict how much time it is needed to mix certain chemical.
Mass transfer concept is also important to understand and develop separation processes.
Since most of fluids in petroleum production came as mixtures, to separate desired component
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from the original mixture, it must be contacted with another phase so that a solute or solutes can
diffuse into one another. The most common two-phase pair usually are gas-liquid or liquid-liquid.
There are several types of separation processes such as absorption, distillation, liquid-liquid
extraction, absorption, leaching, membrane processing, crystallization and adsorption but for
surface facilities design, absorption is one of the most common separation processes.
Absorption is a separation process to separate liquid solute from gas through contact of
gas and another liquid. The unit is called absorber. It is mainly used in dehydrator facility to
dehydrate or reducing water content of sales gas to meet certain specification. Glycol or TEG is
usually used for absorbing liquid in tray packed tower in counter-current system with the gas
stream. The water-rich absorber liquid is then distilled and recycled to absorb more liquid from
the gas. It is important to understand the absorption process so that we could determine the
optimum theoretical stages of tray required for desired separation level.
In summary, the importance of transport phenomena knowledge for petroleum
engineering cannot be overemphasized. There are several reasons why I need to take transport
phenomena class, amongst them are my own curiosity on species transport in porous media which
is encountered during tracer injection or EOR operation, how this class should help me on recalling
basic theories that are necessary on developing my master thesis and the benefit it gives on many
petroleum engineering related application. My expectation is that Transport Phenomena class
does not only discuss common application problem but also actual field cases that is incorporating
transport phenomena aspect which could be given as class project or homework (but not too
many). I also hope that we could get integrated understanding on many simultaneous aspect that
occurs in transport phenomena problem and some technology updates on how transport
phenomena is applied in the development of petroleum engineering technology nowadays.