Radio Frequency heating for oil recovery and soil remediation

The paper presents basic principles of RF heating and describes its possible applications for oil extraction and soil remediation, based on the experience obtained by several years of work at Consorzio Polo Tecnologico Magona (CPTM). Activities include a complete approach, which goes through the steps of problem formulation, modeling, and experimentation. It is shown that RF heating can represent a valid alternative to more consolidated techniques for application to oil extraction from oil sand or heavy oil reservoirs and for organic polluted soil remediation, in terms of performances and operational flexibility. In particular, radiofrequency heating can be used in several scenarios where the use of alternative methods (such as steam injection) is not possible or strongly limited by geological or logistic constraints. Keyword: Radiofrequency heating, Oil sand, Soil remediation, Enhanced Oil Recovery, Microwaves, Dielectric heating, Electrical