Modeling of Direct Contact Condensation in the Water-Saturated Zone of the Soil Exposed to Steam Injection

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

Computer-Aided Process Engineering (CAPE) Laboratory, School of Chemical, Petroleum & Gas Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, I.R. IRAN

Abstract

In this research, the phenomenon of direct-contact condensation in porous media has been investigated based on the computational fluid dynamic technique, CFD, for hydraulic and thermal phenomena assessment. This phenomenon occurs in soil remediation by steam injection. The main contribution of this research is developing a new combined model for considering steam condensation in the saturated porous media systems using the direct contact condensation model, DCC, and Navier-Stockes equations rather than solely using Darcy’s law-based model. For the first time, a two-resistance DCC model for porous media application has been included, predicting the propagation of steam front and condensation. The corresponding source and sink terms due to the calculated condensation rate is added to each phase continuity equation and enthalpy equation of the liquid phase by user-defined functions, UDFs. Pressure drop due to flowing fluids in the porous structure was considered by lumped approach model using viscous and inertial loss terms added to momentum equations of the model. Heat loss from the sandbox is considered a sink term based on the calculated overall heat transfer coefficient and local temperature differences. The model results meet acceptable predictions for steam saturation content and temperature distributions over time and the predictions are qualitatively similar to the experimental and simulation results of the previous literature. The quantitative values of the sandbox-covered thermal areas, extracted from propagated saturated temperature fronts over processing time, are compared for both DCC simulation results and available experimental measurements. After elapsing 12 and 18 minutes from the beginning of the process, the simulation values of covered thermal areas are 0.049 m2 and 0.082 m2. The corresponding experimental values are 0.059 m2 and 0.098 m2, respectively. Evaluated absolute values of the relative change percent of covered thermal areas are 16.3% and 16.9% over processing times of 12 and 18 minutes.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

[1] Tirandaz H., Shaeyan M., Ghanbarpour S., Seyedipour N.A., Khodaverdi H., Dastgheib S.M.M., The Succession of Dominant Culturable Hydrocarbon-Utilizing Bacteria During Bioremediation of Oil-Based Drilling Waste, Iran. J. Chem. Chem. Eng. (IJCCE), 38: 267–277 (2019).
[2] Koteswara R.G., Kiran Y., Vijaya L.U., Reducing Agents Enhanced Electrokinetic Soil Remediation (EKSR) for Heavy Metal Contaminated Soil, Iran. J. Chem. Chem. Eng. (IJCCE), 38: 183–199 (2019).
[3] M. Arbabi, S. Nasseri, A. Chimezie, Biodegradation of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Petroleum Contaminated Soils, Iran. J. Chem. Chem. Eng. (IJCCE), 28(3): 53-59 (2009).
[4] Shirdam R., Daryabeigi Zand A., Nabi Bidhendi G., Mehrdadi N., Removal of Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons (TPHs) from Oil-Polluted Soil in Iran, Iran. J. Chem. Chem. Eng. (IJCCE), 28: 105–113, (2009).
[5] Ezzatian R., Voussoughi M., Yaghmaei S., Abedi Koupai J., Borghaei M., Azuki G.R., Abedi Koupai J., Borghaei M., Pazuki G.R., Effect of C/N Ratio on the Phytoremediation of Crude Oil Contaminated Soils by Puccinellia Distance, Iran. J. Chem. Chem. Eng. (IJCCE), 27: 77–85 (2008).
[6] Janfada T.S., Class H., Kasiri N., Dehghani M.R., Comparative Experimental Study on Heat-up Efficiencies During Injection of Superheated and Saturated Steam into Unsaturated Soil, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf., 158: 119235 (2020).
[7] Ochs S.O., Steam Injection into Saturated Porous Media–Process Analysis Including Experimental and Numerical Investigations, (2006).
[8] Smith J.M., Van Ness H.C., Abbott M.M., "Introduction to Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics", 7th ed. McGraw-Hill, (2004).
[9] Class H., "Models for Non-Isothermal Compositional Gas-Liquid Flow and Transport in Porous Media", Habilitationsschrift, Stuttgart University (2007).
[10] Kleinknecht S.M., "Steam Injection Technique for In Situ Remediation of Chlorinated Hydrocarbons from Low Permeable Saturated Zones-Experiment and Numerical Approach", M.Sc. Thesis, Stuttgart University (2011).
[11] Emert M., "Numerische Modellierung Nichtisothermer Gas-Wasser Systeme in Porösen Medien (Numerical Modelling of Non-Isothermal Gas-Water Systems in Porous Media", Ph.D. Thesis, Inst. Model. Hydraul. Environ. Syst. Stuttgart University (1997).
[12] Helmig R., Class H., Färber A., Emmert M., Heat Transport in the Unsaturated Zone – Comparison of Experimental Results and Numerical Simulations, J. Hydraul. Res. 36: 933–962 (1998).
[13] Class H., Helmig R., Bastian P., Numerical Simulation of Non-isothermal Multiphase Multicomponent Processes in Porous Media. 1. An Efficient Solution Technique, Adv. Water Resour., 25: 533–550 (2002).
[14] Class H., Helmig R., Numerical Simulation of Non-Isothermal Multiphase Multicomponent Processes in Porous Media. 2. Applications for the Injection of Steam and Air, Adv. Water Resour., 25: 551–564, (2002).
[15] Schmidt R., Gudbjerg J., Sonnenborg T.O., Jensen K.H., Removal of NAPLs from the Unsaturated Zone Using Steam: Prevention of Downward Migration by Injecting Mixtures of Steam and Air, J. Contam. Hydrol., 55: 233–260 (2002).
[16] Gudbjerg J., Remediation by Steam Injection, (2003).
[17] Ochs S.O., Class H., Färber A., Helmig R., Methods for Predicting the Spreading of Steam below the Water Table During Subsurface Remediation, Water Resour. Res., 46: (2010).
[18] Dhir V.K., Condensation, Access Sci. (2014).
[19] Babanezhad M., Nakhjiri A.T., Rezakazemi M., Shirazian S., Developing Intelligent Algorithm as a Machine Learning Overview over the Big Data Generated by Euler–Euler Method to Simulate Bubble Column Reactor Hydrodynamics, ACS Omega., 5: 20558–20566, (2020).
[20] Rezakazemi M., Shirazian S., Development of a 3D Hybrid Intelligent-Mechanistic Model for Simulation of Multiphase Chemical Reactors, Chem. Eng. Technol., 41: 1982–1993 (2018).
[21] FLUENT 13 Documentation, Fluent Inc., (2013).
[22] ANSYS Help 18.2, ANSYS Inc., (2018).
[23]  Ranade V.V., "Computational Flow Modeling of Chemical Reactor Engineering", Academic Press, (2002).
[24] Ranz W.E., Marshall W.R., Evaporation from Drops, Part I, and Part II, Chem. Eng. Prog, 48: 173–180 (1952).
[25] Shah A., Chughtai I.R., Inayat M.H., Numerical Simulation of Direct-contact Condensation from a Supersonic Steam Jet in Subcooled Water, Chinese J. Chem. Eng., 18: 577–587 (2010).
[26] Shah A., Chughtai I.R., Inayat M.H., Experimental and Numerical Analysis of Steam Jet Pump, Int. J. Multiph. Flow., 37: 1305–1314 (2011).
[27] Tortike S.M., Farouq Ali W.S., "Saturated Steam Property Functional Correlations for Fully Implicit Thermal Reservoir Simulation", SPE, University of  Alberta (1989).
[28] Brucker G.G., Sparrow E.M., Direct Contact Condensation of Steam Bubbles in Water at High Pressure, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf., 20: 371–381 (1977).
[29] Ahmed T., "Reservoir Engineering Handbook",  5th ed., Gulf Professional Publishing (2019).
[30] Bastian P., "Numerical Computation of Multiphase Flows in Porous Media", Habilitationsschrift, Kiel University (1999).
[31] Jambhekar V.A., "Forchheimer Porous-media Flow Models - Numerical Investigation and Comparison with Experimental Data", M.Sc. Thesis, Stuttgart University (2011).
Iranian Journal of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
Volume 41, Issue 3 - Serial Number 113
March 2022
Pages 1003-1021

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics