A Simulation Study of Solar Thermal Steam Generation for Thermal Recovery of Thick Oil Based on Aspen Plus

High-temperature steam injection is a common means of thermal recovery of thick oil. Although the steam injection boiler currently used for thick oil injection can achieve fast start-stop control, the power consumption of the pump is large, and the boiler control is demanding. Besides, a large amount of fossil fuel is needed to supply the heat required for steam heating. Using solar thermal to realize the transformation of solar energy-molten salt heat energy-steam energy can effectively reduce the burning of fossil fuels and realize clean thermal recovery of thick oil. To ensure the actual demand of thermal recovery of thick oil, it is necessary to determine a reasonable steam evaporation volume and vapor phase fraction. This paper simulates a solar thermal heat exchange system for molten salt-steam based on Aspen Plus. The simulation results show that the heat load and required solar panel area of all heat exchangers rise when the evaporation volume increases. However, the superheater grows most slowly. When the vapor phase fraction at the evaporator outlet rises to 1, there is no phase change heat transfer in the superheater, and its heat load plummets to 230 kW.