The low-temperature oxidation (LTO) of heavy oil is of great significance for the combustion front stability, which directly influences the efficiency and safety of in-situ combustion (ISC). To provide feasible heating by artificial ignition before the implementation of ISC in the Xinjiang Fengcheng (FC) oilfields, this paper investigates the oxidation behavior of FC extra-heavy oil and its isothermal oxidized oils. Firstly, FC extra-heavy oil was subjected to isothermal oxidation experiments conducted utilizing an oxidation reactor, and the physical properties of the gaseous products and oxidized oils were analyzed. The combustion behavior of the FC extra-heavy oil and oxidized oils was then studied by non-isothermal thermogravimetry and differential scanning calorimetry. Subsequently, the Friedman and Ozawa–Flynn–Wall methods were adopted to perform kinetic analysis. Oxygen consumption was always greater than the production of CO and CO₂, so oxygen addition reactions were the main pathway in heavy oil LTO. H/C decreased to 8.31% from 20.94% when the oxidation temperature rose from 50 °C to 150 °C, which deepened the oxidation degree. The density and viscosity of 200 °C to 350 °C oxidized oils increased at a slower rate, which may be related to the LTO heat effect. The change law of temperature interval, peak temperature, and mass loss of the oxidized oils had a good correlation with the static oxidation temperature. Compared with other oxidized oils, the peak heat flow and enthalpy of 350 °C oxidized oil increased significantly with high-temperature combustion, and were 42.4 mW/mg and 17.77 kJ/mol, respectively. The activation energy of 350 °C oxidized oil began to decrease obviously around a conversion rate of 0.4, which indicates that it was beneficial to coke deposition with stronger activity. Finally, we came up with LTO reaction mechanisms and put forward a reasonable preheating temperature for the application of ISC in FC oilfields.

Air flooding is a potential enhanced oil recovery (EOR) method to economically and efficiently develop a tight oil reservoir due to its sufficient gas source and low operational costs, during which low temperature oxidation (LTO) is the key to ensuring the success of air flooding. In addition to inefficiency of conventional LTO, air flooding has seen its limited applications due to the prolonged reaction time and safety constraints. In this paper, a novel air injection technique based on the catalyst-activated low temperature oxidation (CLTO) is developed to improve the operational safety together with its oil recovery in tight oil reservoirs. Experimentally, static oxidation experiments are conducted to examine the influence of the catalyst on the LTO reaction kinetics of Changqing tight oil and its fractions. The catalytic oxidation characteristics are identified by applying a thermogravimetric analyzer coupled with Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (TG-FTIR) with respect to tight oil and its SARA (i.e., saturates, aromatics, resins, and asphaltenes) fractions. Accordingly, the catalyst can obviously decrease the LTO reaction activation energy of the Changqing tight oil and its SARA fraction. Cobalt additive can change the LTO reaction pathways of the SARA fractions, i.e., promoting the formation of hydroxyl-containing oxides and CO₂ from the oxidation of saturates, aromatics and resins, while inhibiting the formation of ethers from the oxidation of aromatics and resins. The LTO of each SARA fraction contains both oxygen addition reaction and bond scission reaction that can be effectively promoted with the cobalt additive. The catalytic effect on the bond scission reaction is continuously enhanced and becomes gradually stronger than that on the oxygen addition reaction as the reaction proceeds.