“These nano-wetting discoveries are an important step to help oil and gas companies to recover more of the oil trapped in their reservoirs. Just a 1 percent production enhancement, using the results of this research, would mean nearly a million more barrels of additional oil available each day, worldwide. The next step is to use the results obtained in this study to calibrate flow simulations of oil in nano-capillaries and their networks,” Steiner said.
To that end, the IBM team has already developed a dedicated fluid-flow-on-chip platform that enables researchers to experimentally validate flow physics for building higher-accuracy simulations that connect flow at the nanoscale, with flow at larger scales.
By carrying out those flow simulations in computational three-dimensional representations of actual reservoir rock, the IBM research team is now developing an enhanced oil recovery advisor technology. This includes the computerized design and test of functional materials, such as nanoparticles, for enhanced oil extraction. Provided as a cloud-based IT service, the simulation technology will ultimately generate reservoir-specific recovery recommendations for industry experts who plan and manage oil production.
For more details, read: https://www.ibm.com/blogs/research/2017/04/big-oil-at-nanoscale/.
About IBM Research
For more than seven decades, IBM Research has defined the future of information technology with more than 3,000 researchers in 12 labs located across six continents. Scientists from IBM Research have produced six Nobel Laureates, a U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom, 10 U.S. National Medals of Technology, five U.S. National Medals of Science, six Turing Awards, 19 inductees in the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and 20 inductees into the U.S. National Inventors Hall of Fame. For more information about IBM Research, visit www.ibm.com/research.
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