63 research outputs found
Role of Internal Motions and Molecular Geometry on the NMR Relaxation of Hydrocarbons
The role of internal motions and molecular geometry on H NMR relaxation
times in hydrocarbons is investigated using MD (molecular dynamics)
simulations of the autocorrelation functions for in{\it tra}molecular
and in{\it ter}molecular H-H dipole-dipole interactions
arising from rotational () and translational () diffusion, respectively.
We show that molecules with increased molecular symmetry such as neopentane,
benzene, and isooctane show better agreement with traditional hard-sphere
models than their corresponding straight-chain -alkane, and furthermore that
spherically-symmetric neopentane agrees well with the Stokes-Einstein theory.
The influence of internal motions on the dynamics and relaxation of
-alkanes are investigated by simulating rigid -alkanes and comparing with
flexible (i.e. non-rigid) -alkanes. Internal motions cause the rotational
and translational correlation-times to get significantly shorter
and the relaxation times to get significantly longer, especially for
longer-chain -alkanes. Site-by-site simulations of H's along the chains
indicate significant variations in and across the chain,
especially for longer-chain -alkanes. The extent of the stretched (i.e.
multi-exponential) decay in the autocorrelation functions are
quantified using inverse Laplace transforms, for both rigid and flexible
molecules, and on a site-by-site bases. Comparison of measurements
with the site-by-site simulations indicate that cross-relaxation (partially)
averages-out the variations in and across the chain of
long-chain -alkanes. This work also has implications on the role of
nano-pore confinement on the NMR relaxation of fluids in the organic-matter
pores of kerogen and bitumen
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Surfactant Based Enhanced Oil Recovery and Foam Mobility Control
Surfactant flooding has the potential to significantly increase recovery over that of conventional waterflooding. The availability of a large number of surfactant structures makes it possible to conduct a systematic study of the relation between surfactant structure and its efficacy for oil recovery. A mixture of two surfactants was found to be particularly effective for application in carbonate formations at low temperature. The mixture is single phase for higher salinity or calcium concentrations than that for either surfactant used alone. This makes it possible to inject the surfactant slug with polymer close to optimal conditions and yet be single phase. A formulation has been designed for a particular field application. It uses partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide for mobility control. The addition of an alkali such as sodium carbonate makes possible in situ generation of naphthenic soap and significant reduction of synthetic surfactant adsorption. The design of the process to maximize the region of ultra-low IFT takes advantage of the observation that the ratio of soap to synthetic surfactant is a parameter in the conditions for optimal salinity. Even for a fixed ratio of soap to surfactant, the range of salinity for low IFT was wider than that reported for surfactant systems in the literature. Low temperature, forced displacement experiments in dolomite and silica sandpacks demonstrate that greater than 95% recovery of the waterflood remaining oil is possible with 0.2% surfactant concentration, 0.5 PV surfactant slug, with no alcohol. Compositional simulation of the displacement process demonstrates the role of soap/surfactant ratio on passage of the profile through the ultralow IFT region, the importance of a wide salinity range of low IFT, and the importance of the viscosity of the surfactant slug. Mobility control is essential for surfactant EOR. Foam is evaluated to improve the sweep efficiency of surfactant injected into fractured reservoirs as well as a drive fluid for ASP flooding. UTCHEM is a reservoir simulator specially designed for surfactant EOR. It has been modified to represent the effects of a change in wettability produced by surfactant injection
NMR Spin-Rotation Relaxation and Diffusion of Methane
The translational-diffusion coefficient and the spin-rotation
contribution to the H NMR relaxation time for methane (CH) are
investigated using MD (molecular dynamics) simulations, over a wide range of
densities and temperatures , spanning the liquid, supercritical, and
gas phases. The simulated agree well with measurements, without any
adjustable parameters in the interpretation of the simulations. A minimization
technique is developed to compute the angular-velocity for non-rigid spherical
molecules, which is used to simulate the autocorrelation function
for spin-rotation interactions. With increasing (i.e. decreasing ),
shows increasing deviations from the single-exponential decay
predicted by the Langevin theory for hard spheres, and the deviations are
quantified using inverse Laplace transforms of . is
derived from using the kinetic model "km" for gases
(), and the diffusion model "dm" for liquids ().
shows better agreement with measurements at higher ,
while shows better agreement with measurements at lower
. is shown to dominate over the MD simulated H-H
dipole-dipole relaxation at high , while the opposite is found
at low . At high , the simulated spin-rotation correlation-time
agrees with the kinetic collision time for gases, from which
a new relation is inferred, without any adjustable
parameters
Modeling micelle formation and interfacial properties with iSAFT classical density functional theory
Surfactants reduce the interfacial tension between phases, making them an important additive in a number of industrial and commercial applications from enhanced oil recovery to personal care products (e.g., shampoo and detergents). To help obtain a better understanding of the dependence of surfactant properties on molecular structure, a classical density functional theory, also known as interfacial statistical associating fluid theory, has been applied to study the effects of surfactant architecture on micelle formation and interfacial properties for model nonionic surfactant/water/oil systems. In this approach, hydrogen bonding is explicitly included. To minimize the free energy, the system minimizes interactions between hydrophobic components and hydrophilic components with water molecules hydrating the surfactant head group. The theory predicts micellar structure, effects of surfactant architecture on critical micelle concentration, aggregation number, and interfacial tension isotherm of surfactant/water systems in qualitative agreement with experimental data. Furthermore, this model is applied to study swollen micelles and reverse swollen micelles that are necessary to understand the formation of a middle-phase microemulsion
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