Abstract
Nanotechnology is often associated with the alternate clean energy technologies of tomorrow, from the super efficient solar and fuel cells to hydrogen economy and the extreme lasting batteries. As only recently, the Oil and Gas industry started uncovering the great potentials of this field for its use, upstream E&P professionals need to be able to clarify facts from misconceptions and have a basic understanding of the physical phenomena that govern the behavior of things at the nanoscale. This chapter introduces the potentials of nanotechnology in E&P. It highlights current and anticipated benefits in the upstream sector and explores the feasibility of having molecular agents (Resbots) in the subsurface. The future reality of reservoir nanoagents is demonstrated in a suite of nanofluid coreflood experiments targeting stability and survivability of the nanoagents at reservoir conditions.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
Upstream E&P is one of the major sectors of the petroleum (or oil and gas, O&G) industry. E&P refers to Exploration and Production. The sector is concerned with the discovery of, the drilling for, and the production and recovery of oil and gas from the subsurface.
- 2.
In this chapter, unless otherwise specified, the term industry refers to the O&G industry.
- 3.
The term Resbots was coined at Saudi Aramco in 2006 to reflect on the futuristic reservoir nanorobots concept.
- 4.
Given constancy of stress and material strength, the strength of a structure and the force it applies scale with the object’s cross-sectional area (i.e., Strength ∝ ℓ 2).
- 5.
- 6.
A rock core plug measures about 1. 5 in. in diameter and 3 in. in height.
References
Kanj MY (ed) (2008) Nanotechnology in Upstream E&P: Nano-Scale Revolutions to Mega-Scale Challenges? Workshop Report, SPE Applied Technology Workshop. Dubai, U.A.E.
Saggaf MM (2008) A vision for future upstream technologies. J Petroleum Tech, March, 54–98
Sanni M, Kamal R, Kanj MY (2008) Reservoir nanorobots. Saudi Aramco J Technol, Spring, 44–52
Brouwer DR, Jansen JD (2004) Dynamic optimization of water flooding with smart wells using optimal control theory. SPE J 9(4):391–402
Wautelet M (2001) Scaling laws in the macro-, micro- and nanoworlds. Eur J Phys 22:601–611
Rogers B, Pennathur S, Adams J (2008) Nanotechnology: understanding small systems. CRC Press. 398pp
Phoenix C (2004) Responsible nanotechnology: scaling laws–back to basics. Science and Technology Essays from CRN. Series 7
Urbanski JP, Levitan JA, Burch DN, Thorsen T, Bazant MZ (2007) The effect of step height on the performance of three-dimensional AC electro-osmotic microfluidic pumps. J Colloid Interface Sci 309:332–341
Beebe DJ, Mensing GA, Walker GM (2002) Physics and applications of microfluidics in biology. Annu Rev Biomed Eng 4:261–286
Cavalcanti A, Hogg T, Shirinzadeh B (2006) Nanorobotics system simulation in 3D workspaces with low Reynolds number. In: Proceedings of the IEEE international symposium on micro-nanoMechatronics and human science. Nagoya, Japan, 05–08 Nov
deMello AJ (2006) Control and detection of chemical reactions in microfluidic systems. Nature 442(7101):394–402
Jones RAL (2004) Soft machines. Oxford University Press, NY
Kanj MY, Rashid MH, Giannelis EP (2011) Industry first field trial of reservoir nanoagents. SPE-142592. In: 17th middle east oil & gas show and conference. Manama, Bahrain, 25–28 Sep
Clerke EA (2007) Permeability and microscopic displacement efficiency of M1 bimodal pore systems in Arab-D limestone. SPE-105259. In: 15th SPE middle east oil & gas show and conference. Manama, Bahrain, 11–14 Mar
Cantrell DL, Hagerty RM (1999) Microporosity in arab formation carbonates, Saudi Arabia. GeoArabia 4(2):129–154
Kanj MY, Funk JJ, Yousif Z (2009) Nanofluid coreflood experiments in the Arab-D. SPE-126161. In: SPE Saudi Arabia section technical symposium and exhibition. Alkhobar, Saudi Arabia, 09–11 May
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kanj, M.Y. (2013). Reservoir Nanoagents for In-Situ Sensing and Intervention. In: Mavroidis, C., Ferreira, A. (eds) Nanorobotics. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-2119-1_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-2119-1_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-2118-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-2119-1
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)