Imperial College London
Alternate

DrJonathanWatson

Faculty of Engineering, Department of Earth Science & Engineering

Research Officer in Organic Geochemistry and Mineralogy
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 6399jonathan.watson Website

 
 
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Location

 

2.60Royal School of MinesSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Montgomery:2015:10.1038/srep08159,
author = {Montgomery, WB and Sephton, MA and Watson, JS and Zeng, H and Rees, A},
doi = {10.1038/srep08159},
journal = {Scientific Reports},
title = {Minimising hydrogen sulphide generation during steam assisted production of heavy oil},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep08159},
volume = {5},
year = {2015}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - The majority of global petroleum is in the form of highly viscous heavy oil. Traditionally heavy oil in sands at shallow depths is accessed by large scale mining activities. Recently steam has been used to allow heavy oil extraction with greatly reduced surface disturbance. However, in situ thermal recovery processes can generate hydrogen sulphide, high levels of which are toxic to humans and corrosive to equipment. Avoiding hydrogen sulphide production is the best possible mitigation strategy. Here we use laboratory aquathermolysis to reproduce conditions that may be experienced during thermal extraction. The results indicate that hydrogen sulphide generation occurs within a specific temperature and pressure window and corresponds to chemical and physical changes in the oil. Asphaltenes are identified as the major source of sulphur. Our findings reveal that for high sulphur heavy oils, the generation of hydrogen sulphide during steam assisted thermal recovery is minimal if temperature and pressure are maintained within specific criteria. This strict pressure and temperature dependence of hydrogen sulphide release can allow access to the world’s most voluminous oil deposits without generating excessive amounts of this unwanted gas product.
AU  - Montgomery,WB
AU  - Sephton,MA
AU  - Watson,JS
AU  - Zeng,H
AU  - Rees,A
DO  - 10.1038/srep08159
PY  - 2015///
SN  - 2045-2322
TI  - Minimising hydrogen sulphide generation during steam assisted production of heavy oil
T2  - Scientific Reports
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep08159
UR  - http://www.nature.com/srep/2015/150211/srep08159/full/srep08159.html
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/19628
VL  - 5
ER  -
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