Opportunities and Challenges of Steam Generation Using Renewable Energy for Enhanced Oil Recovery Applications: Concepts Overview

Steam generation for the Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) using steam injection is considered as one of critical production process in heavy oil industry. It requires a massive amount of thermal energy to generate one ton of steam. The conventional steam generation processes use natural gas as fuel where high amount of emissions is released to ambient. The recent cost reductions of the energy generated by the renewable energy attracts organizations to adopt it. Different technologies such as PV, CSP, electric heaters and thermal energy storage can be integrated to generate steam using the renewable resources of solar and wind. The study explores the different potential of adopting such technologies and the challenges associated with them where the mismatch between the supply and the demand of energy is the main challenge and could be mitigated through storage solutions and the consideration of hybrid system with the conventional steam generation.