In-Situ Combustion for Heavy Oil and Oil Sands Recovery: Recent Progress, Field Applications, and Future Perspectives

Heavy oil and bitumen resources are estimated to account for about 70% of the global oil reserves. Recovery of these resources economically and environmentally is crucial to satisfy the crude oil demand in the next few decades. Steam injection-based techniques encounter challenges of large water usage, high operating costs, and huge greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In-situ combustion, which utilizes the heat generated by oxidation reactions between crude oil and oxygen, is an alternative and promising thermal technique to recover heavy oil and bitumen resources with the expectation to reduce water usage and lower operating costs. But complexity of oxidation behavior and uncertainty of in-situ combustion (ISC) performance prediction have restricted the field application of the ISC process. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the most recent studies about the ISC process and updated field projects. Various experimental studies are first presented to investigate the oxidation mechanisms of crude oil and the ISC enhanced oil recovery (EOR) mechanism. Based on the experimental advances, recent progress on reaction kinetics models and field scale modeling of ISC is presented. Subsequently, currently active field projects have been updated to provide the best practice of field operation. Finally, future perspectives of ISC for heavy oil or oil sands recovery are identified with a focus on in-situ catalytic upgrading and hydrogen generation.