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University Daily Kansan, April 24, 1981
Profs help improve oil recovery methods
By BOB MOEN Staff Reporter
The University of Kansas is in the on business. But it is not drilling for dollars.
Rather, KU is developing new, and improved ways to extract the black gold from Kansas reserves through its Tertiary Oil Recovery Project.
TORP, which began in 1974, is funded by the Kansas Legislature to conduct research into tertiary oil recovery technologies—processes used to produce oil from reservoirs after primary and secondary methods, such as waterflooding, are no longer economical.
THE KU PROGRAM is co-directed by Don W. Green and Paul Willhite, professors of chemical and petroleum engineering. The departments of Chemistry and the Kansas Geological Survey are also involved with the research.
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TORP was the basis for two Department of Energy grants, bringing
the budget of the program to about $500,000 a year, Greensaid.
Oil production in Kansas has been declining since 1966 because of insufficient technology in extracting the oil. Out of the 15 billion barrels of oil in the state's reservoir, only about 4.5 billion barrels have been produced. An additional 30 billion barrels will be recovered by primary oil wells means, leaving about 10 billion barrels of oil, which may be recovered by tertiary methods.
The tertiary methods involve techniques such as injecting special chemicals and heat into the rockbed to force the oil out of it.
KU is studying both of these methods in a laboratory in Learned Hall.
The chemical method involves experimenting on the use of surfactant substances which are detergents, to deterse their effectiveness on crude oil in Kansas.
Thermal experiments involve the use of a six-foot combustion tube that stimulates the burning of part of the oil in the rock to recover a large portion of the oil.
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"We are not set up to do field tests," Green said. "We are set up to research the technical processes and apply them to Kansas."
MOST OF THE RESEARCH is conducted in the lab, although it is being applied to recover underground oil.
There are 10 to 12 full-time graduate students, three undergraduate and about 10 faculty members from KU reseraching for TORP.
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POLYMER CHEMICALS are used to create a thick, gel-like solution to slow the flow of water channelling through the oil-saturated rock in order to pick up important single researcher in this project are Willis Dairy Terry, assistant professor of chemical and petroleum engineering, and Shaun Vosoug, assistant scientist.
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The first grant, awarded in 1979, was for $237,000 and was to study the removal of oil by carbon dioxide methods.
TORP has received two three-year Department of Energy grants to help with the study of methods for extracting the oil.
The second grant was awarded in 1980 to study the use of polymer chemicals in oil extraction.
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Green, and chemical and petroleum professors George Swift and Floyd Preston have been working on the carbon dioxide process, mixing carbon dioxide with oil making it easier to remove.
"We think the use of polymers has a good deal of the potential," Willhite said. Green and Willhite said that a $20 million pilot-test station using the experimental methods was instituted by City Service Oil Co. and was expected to start producing oil sometimes next year.
Green said the tertiary methods have worldwide implications as well.
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"We're trying to focus on processes in Kansas, but those processes are applicable elsewhere," Green said.
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