Improvement of volumetric sweep efficiency during oil production using ECO-clay

Excess water production during oil production is a big challenge that may affect the economics and environmental concerns. Different methods have been developed to reduce water production and improve the efficiency of oil recovery. One promising approach is using a nanocomposite that creates a gel for plugging fractures in the reservoir. This system can potentially improve volumetric sweep efficiency during oil production by decreasing water permeability and creating a better path for the oil to flow to the well. This study investigates the potential of an ECO-clay system comprising Laponite and Hydrolyzed Polyacrylamide (HPAM) as a water conformance technique in fractured reservoirs. The investigation involves bulk experiments to screen different concentrations of clay and polymer, while also evaluating the effects of various ions and additives on gel performance. Promising systems are subsequently subjected to filtration tests to assess their suitability for gel placement into fractures. Ultimately, the goal was to identify the most effective gel system and conduct core flooding tests to evaluate its potential for plugging fractures and improving oil recovery. Among the systems tested, two were selected for dynamic experiments: A Laponite S482-CaCl2 system and a nanocomposite system with HPAM addition. Both showed good results in the filtrations and floods, achieving a water permeability reduction of 19.6 and 5.3 times lower than the pre-treatment permeability respectively. Finally, the Laponite S482-CaCl2 system represented the most promising gel system for fracture plugging in chalk, because its higher permeability reduction. These findings highlight the potential of the identified gel system for effectively addressing water production issues in fractured chalk reservoirs, thereby improving oil recovery efficiency, reducing water production and CO2 emission. To improve the understanding and implementation of these gel systems, further work is required in a more in-depth gel structure tests, long-term stability and performance evaluation, compatibility with other reservoir fluid study, and finally field-scale experiments and simulations. Addressing these issues will help create a reliable and cost-effective fractured reservoir water conformance technique

Cinética de imbibición e isotermas de adsorción de humedad de la semilla de jamaica (Hibiscus sabdariffa L.)

La jamaica es un arbusto que se cultiva para comercializar el cáliz de sus flores, pero como subproducto se obtienen las semillas, que por su valor nutritivo y alto rendimiento representan un potencial económico considerable. El objetivo de este trabajo fue describir la cinética de imbibición y las isotermas de adsorción de humedad a 25, 35 y 45ºC en tres variedades cultivadas en México ("Criolla", "China" y "Sudán"). Los resultados mostraron que el proceso de imbibición describe una curva que se ajusta al modelo de Weibull, con coeficientes α de 12.99, 8.81 y 2.21 horas y β de 0.83, 1.70 y 0.72 para las variedades Criolla, China y Sudán, respectivamente. Los modelos de GAB, y de Chung-Pfost describieron adecuadamente las isotermas de adsorción. La humedad de la capa monomolecular (coeficiente a del modelo de GAB) resultó entre 3.97 y 5.71% b.s., lo cual representa una actividad de agua entre 0.1 y 0.30. Los calores isostéricos totales de adsorción obtenidos en el intervalo de humedades de equilibrio de 6 a 22% b.s., oscilaron entre 52.85 y 42.90 .90 kJmּol-1, 60.99 y 43.41 kJmּol-1 y 51.23 y 43.20 kJmּol-1para las variedades Criolla, China y Sudán, respectivamente. A humedades de equilibrio iguales o superiores a 12 % b.s., el calor isostérico fue similar a la entalpía de vaporización del agua, pero a humedades inferiores a 6% b.s., éste alcanzó los valores más elevados

Multimodal Light-Harvesting Soft Hybrid Materials: Assisted Energy Transfer upon Thermally Reversible Gelation

Multimodal light-harvesting soft systems able to absorb UV-to-NIR radiations and convert into visible emissions have drawn much attention in the last years in order to explore new areas of application in energy, photonics, photocatalysis, sensors, and so forth. Here, we present a new hybrid system combining a supramolecular photonic gel of naphthalimidederived molecules self-assembled into fibers and upconverting NaYF4:Yb/Tm nanoparticles (UCNPs). The hybrid system presented here manipulates light reversibly as a result of an optical communication between the UCNPs and the photoactive gel network. Upon UV irradiation, the system shows the characteristic emission at 410 nm from the photoactive organomolecule. This emission is also activated upon 980 nm excitation thanks to an efficient energy transfer from the UCNPs to the fibrillary network. Interestingly, the intensity of this emission is thermally regulated during the reversible assembly or disassembly of the organogelator molecules, in such a way that gelator emission is only observed in the aggregated state. Additionally, the adsorption of the UCNPs with the supramolecular gel fibers enhances their emissive properties, a behavior ascribed to the isolation from solvent quenchers and surface defects, as well as an increased IR light scattering promoted by the fibrillary network. The reported system constitutes a unique case of a thermally regulated, reversible, dual UV and IR light-harvesting hybrid soft material

Octopus maya white body show sex-specific transcriptomic profiles during the reproductive phase, with high differentiation in signaling pathways

White bodies (WB), multilobulated soft tissue that wraps the optic tracts and optic lobes, have been considered the hematopoietic organ of the cephalopods. Its glandular appearance and its lobular morphology suggest that different parts of the WB may perform different functions, but a detailed functional analysis of the octopus WB is lacking. The aim of this study is to describe the transcriptomic profile of WB to better understand its functions, with emphasis on the difference between sexes during reproductive events. Then, validation via qPCR was performed using different tissues to find out tissue-specific transcripts. High differentiation in signaling pathways was observed in the comparison of female and male transcriptomic profiles. For instance, the expression of genes involved in the androgen receptor-signaling pathway were detected only in males, whereas estrogen receptor showed higher expression in females. Highly expressed genes in males enriched oxidation-reduction and apoptotic processes, which are related to the immune response. On the other hand, expression of genes involved in replicative senescence and the response to cortisol were only detected in females. Moreover, the transcripts with higher expression in females enriched a wide variety of signaling pathways mediated by molecules like neuropeptides, integrins, MAPKs and receptors like TNF and Toll-like. In addition, these putative neuropeptide transcripts, showed higher expression in females' WB and were not detected in other analyzed tissues. These results suggest that the differentiation in signaling pathways in white bodies of O. maya influences the physiological dimorphism between females and males during the reproductive phase

Mixing Time Scale Models for Multiple Mapping Conditioning with Two Reference Variables

A novel multiple mapping conditioning (MMC) approach has been developed for the modelling of turbulent premixed flames including mixture inhomogeneities due to mixture stratification or mixing with the cold surroundings. MMC requires conditioning of a mixing operator on characteristic quantities (reference variables) to ensure localness of mixing in composition space. Previous MMC used the LES-filtered reaction progress variable as reference field. Here, the reference variable space is extended by adding the LES-filtered mixture fraction effectively leading to a double conditioning of the mixing operator. The model is used to predict a turbulent stratified flame and is validated by comparison with experimental data. The introduction of the second reference variable also requires modification of the mixing time scale. Two different mixing time scale models are compared in this work. A novel anisotropic model for stratified combustion leads to somewhat higher levels of fluctuations for the passive scalar when compared with the original model but differences remain small within the flame front. The results show that both models predict flame position and flame structure with good accuracy

Analisis proteomico de la subunidad LsL1 de la lectina del Camaron Blanco del Golfo de México Litopenaeus setiferus

Se purificó por filtración en Sephacryl S-300 una subunidad de 84 kDa de la lectina de L. setiferus (LsL1), específica para azucares N-acetilados. Por dicroísmo circular se encontró que LsL1 contiene en su estructura secundaria 49% de hojas plegadas beta y 6.9% de alfa hélices. La secuencia de aminoácidos de la subunidad LsL1 se determinó por MALDI-TOF a partir de péptidos trípticos. Comparando los valores con la base de datos NCBInr (Swiss-Prot 2003/08/06), esta subunidad mostró 23% de similitud con el precursor hemocianina, proteína responsable de la respiración en crustáceos, que a su vez ha sido relacionada con la generación de péptidos de defensa; al alinear el péptido con otras proteínas involucradas con la defensa en crustáceos muestran una similitud del 80% con hemocianina, y profenoloxidasa, por lo que podemos asumir que las lectinas de esta especie participan en procesos de defensa

Diseño de una bicicleta urbana para personas con discapacidad física

Introducción El proyecto consiste en la realización de una bicicleta que dote al usuario, en este caso personas con discapacidad física, concretamente del tronco inferior, de diferentes prestaciones de las que hoy en día no pueden disfrutar o prestaciones que están limitadas. Puesto que el mundo del ciclismo, es un mundo muy completo y diverso el cual siempre me ha llamado mucho la atención se decidió realizar el trabajo de fin de grado de Ingeniería en Diseño Industrial y Desarrollo del Producto orientado a este mundo. Objetivo Se estudiará mejorar la relación del usuario con respecto al producto y facilitar el uso y funcionamiento de la bicicleta para el usuario objetivo. Se pretende realizar un producto que favorezca la igualdad y la integración social a través de mejoras visuales y funcionales entre otras, así como dotar al usuario de la máxima autonomía posible. Algunas de estas mejoras, serán fruto de las conclusiones o especificaciones de producto, las cuales se condensarán en 5 líneas guía: -Integración -Adaptabilidad -Innovación -Viabilidad -Seguridad Alcance Comprende la conceptualización de la bicicleta, esto es: se definirá ampliamente el producto, como será la secuencia de uso, el usuario al que va dirigido, las dimensiones de la misma así como los sistemas que incorpore. Metodología Se realizará un estudio previo general para identificar las necesidades actuales del mercado con respecto al producto, así como los principales problemas existentes para determinar las necesidades de los usuarios con la bicicleta. Se procederá a la realización de diferentes análisis para generar conceptos que satisfagan estas necesidades y el desarrollo del concepto elegido, mostrando una visualización con herramientas que doten al producto de realismo, como modelado en 3D, renderizado y edición de imágenes. Conclusiones Como resultado del proyecto, se obtiene a través de diferentes conclusiones y especificaciones de producto, un híbrido entre silla de ruedas y bicicleta. Este híbrido cumple con los requisitos especificados o lineas guías generales que se plantean durante el proyecto. Gracias a este proyecto se ha conseguido el aprendizaje y perfeccionamiento de diferentes competencias así como capacidades que me servirán tanto a nivel personal como en diferentes proyectos profesionales

Nutritional and bioactive characteristics of Ayocote bean (Phaseolus coccienus L): an underutilized legume harvasted in Mexico

Artículo en revista indizadaNutritional composition, content of phenolic compounds and antioxidant properties of the four Mexican varieties of Ayocote beans (Phaseolus coccineus L.) were studied. Ayocote beans were found to be a promising source of proteins, carbohydrates, fibre and minerals. Sucrose (55.6–62.2 g/kg) and stachyose (24–24.4 g/kg) were considered as the major sugar and oligosaccharide, respectively. Glutamic acid was the most abundant amino acid (32.2 to 35.8 g/kg), while cysteine was present at the lowest concentration (2.3–2.4 g/100 kg). Purple variety contains the highest amount of total phenolic compounds (2075.9 mg GAE/kg), total flavonoids (1612.9 mg QE/kg) and total anthocyanins (1193.2 mg CGE/kg). This variety also exhibited the most effective antioxidant activities, which were evaluated by DPPH (17,040 μmol TE/kg) and ORAC (51,620 μmol TE/kg). The results obtained reveal a high potential for wider use of Ayocote bean as a remarkable source of bioactive compounds and health-promoting food

EBSD texture analysis of an AlCuMg alloy for different solidification rates

The 3xx series aluminium alloys are widely used for automotive applications. However, increments in engine power density result in higher alloy mechanical properties requirements for components such as cylinder heads. These alloys should perform better at high temperatures (>200 °C). A good alternative to the traditional Al-Si alloys are the Al- Cu based alloys. However, hot tear tendency is a big obstacle for the widespread use of this family of alloys [1]. The present work focus on determine the relationship between crack occurrence and grain orientation, as a result of the solidification rate. Grain refinement elements such as Ti and Zn are added to the alloy to reduce hot tearing tendency. Two different variants of AlCuMg alloy are evaluated at different solidification rates.Postprint (published version

Evidence for the activity and paleoseismicity of the Padul fault (Betic Cordillera, southern Spain)

There is evidence of recent tectonic activity in the proximity of Padul, in the central sector of the Betic Cordillera. The principal active fault in this region is the Padul normal fault, running NW-SE, which displays spectacular geomorphological and structural features owing to its recent activity. However, there is no evidence of earthquakes of moderate-high magnitude occurring in this area during the historical or the instrumental period. In the vicinity of Padul we identified various soft-sediment deformation structures produced by liquefaction which we attributed to seismic shocks of a moderate-high magnitude. These structures are situated in detritic sediments, intercalated with layers of peat, which have enabled dating of these paleoearthquakes to the late Pleistocene (approx. 30,000 to 35,000 yr BP). Moreover, field observations in sediments of alluvial fans in the vicinity of the Padul fault, together with a retrodeformation analysis of an outcrop, enabled various deformation events to be dated to the recent Quaternary period