Two students of the Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia (DTK FTUI) class of 2020, Yonathan Rakau Brilliwan and Tiffany Liuvinia, together with Stella Eulia Andoko, a student of the Department of Geosciences, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences (FMIPA UI) class of 2021, designed a Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS) project with Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) technology in an oil well area located in Prabumulih, South Sumatra.
The three students are members of the GreenHouse Petrol & Co Team, and are under the guidance of DTK FTUI lecturer, Dr. Ibnu Maulana Hidayatullah, S.T., M.T.. Thanks to their design, they won 3rd place at the 2023 Annual International Petroleum Integrated Event & Competition (PROTECT) competition organized by Pertamina University, in May 2023.
“The Indonesian government targets the production of 1 million barrels of oil every day and a minimum 29% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Of course, this requires the oil and gas industry to act and innovate more. Currently, there is a technology called EOR as an effort to increase oil and gas production recovery that is more environmentally friendly. However, EOR technology is not an economical technology to implement. As an alternative solution to this problem, we designed CCUS with the EOR method as a step to improve the economics of carbon capture projects. Some of the innovations are low salinity water alternating injection of CO2 miscible gas and transportation method with sea-water hydrate,” said Yonathan.
As a technology to improve oil and gas production recovery that is more environmentally friendly, the GreenHouse Petrol & Co. team innovated CCUS with EOR using the low salinity water alternating injection CO2 miscible gas method, which is a method with a CO2 injection mechanism that is carried out first to reduce oil saturation and increase oil permeability through porous rocks. Injection is carried out for 6 years and followed by a production stage carried out with low salinity water flooding to maintain oil and gas production pressure in the extraction well.
Meanwhile, for the sea-water hydrate transportation method, utilizing CO2 hydrate formation that occurs at 5 oC and 25 bar with a concentration of 25% CO2 and 75% water as solid transportation assisted by railways and trucks with iso tanks in the Prabumulih area. This innovation can eliminate conventional purification methods and thus improve economics.
The water used in this method is seawater to increase efficiency and reduce CO2 transportation costs for the miscible gas EOR process as a CCUS method followed by a reverse osmosis process of seawater to produce fresh water.
“CO2 and fresh water will then be injected into the Prabumulih area reservoir, namely the Limau oil field with the main objective of increasing hydrocarbon production and CCUS in order to help the Indonesian government fulfill the Paris Agreement. The injection is Alternating Injection where CO2 gas will be injected in rotation with fresh water produced every 6 years. Meanwhile, the storage will be located in a disused Gas Reservoir in Prabumulih. We are also conducting Geological Screening related to the potential expansion of the injection for 12 other reservoirs scattered around South Sumatra as well as Screening for Reservoirs that are suitable for EOR with this method,” Tiffany explained.
After being used to enhance oil and gas recovery with these two methods, CO2 gas was injected back into the reservoir. It was also proven by reservoir modeling using TNavigator from Rock Flow Dynamic Company as the main sponsor of this competition.
Dean of FTUI, Prof. Dr. Heri Hermansyah, S.T., M.Eng., IPU, said, “The project designed in order to support the improvement of oil production recovery in Indonesia in accordance with the Paris Agreement is a sustainable design with methods and innovations that have a more economical impact. With such a design, hopefully its implementation can increase oil and gas productivity in Indonesia,” he explained.
Annual International Petroleum Integrated Event & Competition (PROTECT) 2023 is a case study competition organized by Pertamina University where each team will go through several preliminary stages and create an essay with the theme “Developing Carbon Capture Utilization & Storage Innovations as A Clear Roadmap To Net Zero Emission and to Enhanced Oil Recovery”.
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Public Communication Bureau
Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia