Energy Integration of Steam-assisted Gravity Drainage Facilities with Carbon Capture

Abstract

The in-situ extraction of bitumen is one of the most energy-intensive processes and a large natural gas consumer in the Canadian oil sands industry, contributing significantly to Canada’s anthropogenic GHG emissions. In this regard, industry and technology developers are constantly looking for ways to reduce CO₂ emissions from their operations through process improvements and more efficient heat production and utilisation. Post-combustion carbon capture (PCC) is one of the solutions available to achieve significant GHG reductions. This work focuses on improving the energy performance of integrated steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) processes with PCC technologies. Three typical SAGD configurations have been selected, all with different water treatment and steam generation systems that are representative of active facilities, and simulated using Aspen HYSYS^®. Analysis of the selected SAGD configurations revealed that significant energy savings and GHG reductions could be achieved through optimised heat recovery. The proposed retrofit projects could decrease natural gas consumption for steam generation by up to 10%. Then, several PCC technologies were considered to analyse the systems aspect when integrated into SAGD facilities, with a view to maximising the synergies between the two processes from an energy and water standpoint. The results revealed that the SAGD process configuration, the type of PCC technology, and the level of heat integration within the SAGD plant have a direct impact on the amount of CO₂ that can be captured.