Estimation of Sand Settling Time in Heavy Oil

Sand production is a major concern for the efficiency of conventional and heavy oil production operations and facility equipment. Sand production could cause problems during well workovers, well and facilities clean-up, and waste sand removal. Understanding the sand production phenomena is essential to control it and to prevent losses to oil production operations, especially when producing from unconsolidated formations. Sand movement depends on many parameters such as particle size and carrying fluid viscosity. The objective of this work is to investigate, experimentally, the sand settling time of Lower Fars (LF) heavy oil formation during production. LF is located north of Kuwait. It is an unconsolidated formation. The effect sand particle size and oil viscosity on the settling time was investigated. The results showed that there was a trend of settling time as a function of particle size and oil viscosity. As particle size increased, its settling time decreased. Also, it was observed that as the oil viscosity increased, the particle settling time increased. Moreover, the sand settling velocities was irrelevant to sand particle size at high viscosity. A mathematical model was developed to obtain the sand settling velocity (w) at any particle size and oil viscosity.     

Theoretical and Experimental Parameters of the Structure and Crystallization Kinetics of Melt-Quenched As30Te64Ga6 Glassy Alloy

Journal of Inorganic and Organometallic Polymers and Materials - The present framework reports the structural, fundamental parameters, and crystallization kinetics of the melt-quenched As30Te64Ga6...     

Ferromagnetic Properties of Ni9S8/MoS2 Hybrid Structure

Journal of Superconductivity and Novel Magnetism - Two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides have made a tremendous progress during last two decades owing to their use in technologically...     

The Performance of Water Floods with Horizontal and Multilateral Wells

The use of horizontal and multilateral wells in the oil industry has increased rapidly during the last two decades. The main reason for this upsurge is that horizontal and multilateral wells provide a large contact area with the reservoir, and therefore enhance the well productivity or injectivity better than conventional vertical wells. The high productivity coupled with the recent advances in drilling technology for horizontal and multilateral wells has made their application an economically viable option. In this study, the performance of nonconventional wells in water flooding projects was investigated using numerical simulation techniques. Extensive three-dimensional, fine-mesh simulation runs are performed to determine the oil recovery by nonconventional wells under different operating/reservoir conditions. Results show that the pattern used has a significant effect on the displacement performance of nonconventional wells. The study shows the various conditions under which nonconventional wells will perform better than the use of conventional vertical wells.     

Influence of sand production on pressure drawdown in horizontal wells: Theoretical evidence

Poorly consolidated reservoirs are susceptible to sand production that tends to increase the pressure drawdown along the well length. This problem, which has not received adequate attention in the literature of petroleum engineering, is quantitatively assessed in this paper. Different flow regimes typically encountered in two-phase transport systems of liquid and solid are discussed. In an effort to evaluate the degree of influence the presence of sand exerts on pressure drop, a suitable relation applicable for heterogeneous flow is employed to compute the energy gradient of the mixture. The difference in the energy gradient of pure oil and mixture is examined for horizontal pipelines in terms of volumetric solid concentration and flow velocity. The study demonstrates that for a specific sediment size and pipe roughness, the effect of sand movement on pressure drop cannot be ignored in many cases of poorly consolidated reservoirs, being 5.1–168% times greater than the pressure drop resulting from pure oil under the same flow condition.     

Facile synthesis of silver nanoparticles mediated by polyacrylamide‐reduction approach to antibacterial application

The current time increase in the prevalence of antibiotic resistant ‘super‐bugs’ and the risks associated with food safety have become global issues. Therefore, further research is warranted to identify new and effective antimicrobial substances. Silver nanoparticles (Ag‐NPs) were synthesized by autoclaving technique using, different concentrations of Ag salt (AgNO₃) solution (1, 5, 10, and 25 mM). Their presence was confirmed by a surface plasmon resonance band at ∼435 nm using UV–Vis absorption spectra. The morphology of the synthesized Ag‐NPs stabilized by polyacrylamide (PAM) was examined by TEM, SAED, and EDS. TEM images revealed that the synthesized Ag‐NPs had an average diameter of 2.98±0.08 nm and SAED and EDS results confirmed the formation of Ag‐NPs. In addition, FT‐IR spectroscopy revealed that a PAM polymer matrix stabilized the Ag‐NPs. The well diffusion method, was used to test, Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria were examined. Also the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimal bactericidal concentration (MBC) were studied against Ag‐NPs. The Ag‐NPs exhibited strong inhibitory activity, MIC and MBC against the tested clinical bacterial isolates. These results suggest that Ag‐NPs stabilized in PAM are highly effective against clinical bacterial isolates can be applied in medical fields.Inspec keywords: antibacterial activity, silver, nanoparticles, nanomedicine, surface plasmon resonance, X‐ray chemical analysis, transmission electron microscopy, electron diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, microorganisms, ultraviolet spectra, visible spectraOther keywords: Ag‐NP facile synthesis, PAM‐reduction approach, antibacterial application, antibiotic resistant super‐bugs, food safety, antimicrobial agents, antibiotics, antimicrobial substances, Ag salt solution concentration, ultraviolet‐visible absorption spectra, polyacrylamide, transmission electron microscopy, electron diffraction, energy dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy, TEM images, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, PAM polymer matrix, diffusion method, Gram positive bacteria, Gram negative bacteria, clinical bacterial isolates, Ag     

A Patent Review on the Therapeutic Application of Monoclonal Antibodies in COVID-19

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) contains spike proteins that assist the virus in entering host cells. In the absence of a specific intervention, efforts are afoot throughout the world to find an effective treatment for SARS-CoV-2. Through innovative techniques, monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) are being designed and developed to block a particular pathway of SARS-CoV-2 infection. More than 100 patent applications describing the development of MAbs and their application against SARS-CoV-2 have been registered. Most of them target the receptor binding protein so that the interaction between virus and host cell can be prevented. A few monoclonal antibodies are also being patented for the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2. Some of them, like Regeneron^® have already received emergency use authorization. These protein molecules are currently preferred for high-risk patients such as those over 65 years old with compromised immunity and those with metabolic disorders such as obesity. Being highly specific in action, monoclonal antibodies offer one of the most appropriate interventions for both the prevention and treatment of SARS-CoV-2. Technological advancement has helped in producing highly efficacious MAbs. However, these agents are known to induce immunogenic and non-immunogenic reactions. More research and testing are required to establish the suitability of administering MAbs to all patients at risk of developing a severe illness. This patent study is focused on MAbs as a therapeutic option for treating COVID-19, as well as their invention, patenting information, and key characteristics.     

LiTaO3 assisted giant strain and thermally stable energy storage response for renewable energy storage applications

Piezoceramics with composition (1–z) [Bi_0.5(Na_0.84K_0.16)_0.5TiO₃]_0.96–0.04SrTiO₃–zLiTaO₃ (z = 0.00–0.030) were formulated by ordinary firing process following by rapid quenching treatment. Effect of LiTaO₃ on the structural, electrical and energy-storage properties were analyzed. For the composition with molar ratio 0.025, room temperature large-field piezoelectric coefficient (S_max/E_max = d₃₃*) of 885 pm/V at 3.6 kV/mm was recorded. Furthermore, for compositions z = 0.025 and 0.030, broad temperature stable dielectric constants and low losses from ~135 to 350 °C with a small variation of ± 15% was observed. Additionally, the energy density for z = 0.025 was ~0.60 J/cm³ in the broader temperature range of 75–125 °C, along with the energy-storage efficiency of greater than 70%. These observations suggest that the studied piezo-material compositions are promising for the ceramic actuators and capacitor applications.     

Corrosion and wear behavior of TiN PVD coated 304 stainless-steel

Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology - Ti/TiN multilayered physical vapor deposition (PVD) coatings were deposited on stainless-steel by cathodic arc deposition method. Bare sample of...     

Investigating the performance of hot water injection in geostatistically generated permeable media

The study investigates the performance of hot water flooding compared to conventional water flooding in recovering heavy oil from heterogeneous reservoirs through fine-mesh numerical simulations. A total of 16 permeability maps were generated geostatistically to cover a wide range of reservoir heterogeneity. Two measures of heterogeneity were used to characterize the permeability maps: the Dykstra–Parsons coefficient and the spatial correlation length. Extensive three-dimensional, fine-mesh simulation runs were performed to study the functional relationships between several design parameters and the oil recovery obtained during hot water flooding. These results were then compared to those obtained by conventional water flooding. Parameters which were investigated include: (1) degree of reservoir heterogeneity (2) injected fluid temperature (3) well configurations, and (4) viscosity ratio. Results showed that these parameters play important roles in the displacement behavior of heavy oil, with reservoir heterogeneity having more significant effects. It is proven that hot water flooding can be more effective than conventional one by considering the critical values of the above studied parameters. The paper also shows the conditions that can be detrimental to hot water flooding.