Solar Enhanced Oil Recovery

So many methods are suggested and considered for primary and secondary recovery . In heavy oil reservoirs because of the viscosity and inapplicable methods of water flooding and also the high expenses of the miscible gas injection, thermal methods are so important . Thermal methods are one of the most important methods especially in heavy oil , the most important methods are steam injection, hot water injection, the periodic water and steam injection, and electrical heating .Thesemethods decrease the oil viscosity with thermal energy so oil production is more easier . Steam injection is one of the best in thermal methods .The amount of energy that is needed for boiling water to steam usually provided by burning the natural gas . Solar EOR method is a new technology for extracting the heavy oil with thermal process . This method is done by steam injection into reservoir but has different sources of energy for boiling the water (Sun light & Natural Gas) . In this article we introduce solar enhanced oil recovery.

Keywords:

heavy oil , steam , solar energy , Solar tower , Linear Fresnel , Stirling dish , Parabolic trough , mirror