Nucleation of methane hydrate and ice in the emulsions of water in five kinds of crude oils

In this work the model which allowes to receive information about characteristics (number, content and relative activity) of heterogeneous nucleation centers in dispersed systems with metastable dispersed phase was used to treat the experimental results on the nucleation of methane hydrate and ice in the water-in-crude oil emulsions. More than ten types of nucleation centers differing from each other in activity was detected in the experiments. Hydrate and ice nucleation occured in the temperature intervals 264–269?K and 261–265?K, respectively.     

Use of X-ray computed microtomography to understand why gels reduce relative permeability to water more than that to oil

X-ray computed microtomography (XMT) was used to investigate why gels reduce relative permeability to water more than that to oil in strongly water-wet Berea sandstone. XMT allows saturation differences to be monitored for individual pores during various stages of oil, water, and gelant flooding. The method also characterizes distributions of pore size, aspect ratio, and coordination number for the porous media. We studied a Cr(III) acetate–HPAM gel that reduced permeability to water (at S_or) by a factor 80–90 times more than that to oil (at S_wr). In Berea, the gel caused disproportionate permeability reduction by trapping substantial volumes of oil that remained immobile during water flooding (i.e., 43.5% S_or before gel placement versus 78.7% S_or after gel placement). With this high trapped oil saturation, water was forced to flow through narrow films, through the smallest pores, and through the gel itself. In contrast, during oil flooding, oil pathways remained relatively free from constriction by the gel.