It seems that fossil fuels will continue to be the primary source of energy in the decades to come. However, solutions for the accompanying problems—for example the creation of greenhouse gases—have to be provided. Lewa GmbH (lewa.com) and Burckhardt Compression AG (burckhardtcompression. com) have taken up the challenge of this task.
In the future both enterprises are going to jointly manufacture systems that not only increase the production capacity of oil, but simultaneously decrease the emission of ecologically harmful gases.
As conventional global oil reserves dwindle, methods of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) are increasingly deployed in the extraction of oil. In the EOR process, chemicals or gases (like carbon dioxide) are injected into oil fields in order to increase the underground pressure and reduce the crude oil’s viscosity. Thus the oil is virtually pressed upward. Thanks to this method the yield of a reservoir can be up to 60 percent, whereas only 20–40 percent can be achieved with primary and secondary recovery.
In the EOR process, chemicals or gases (like carbon dioxide) are injected into oil fields in order to increase the underground pressure and reduce the crude oil’s viscosity.
As part of the partnership agreement between Lewa and Burckhardt Compression, EOR will be combined with carbon capture and storage technology (CCS). The seminal CCS technology is arguably one of the most effective means to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. This is because acid gases that occur during oil production, such as hydrogen sulphide (H2S) and carbon dioxide (CO2), are captured and sequestrated. Afterwards they are stored in underground rock formations.
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