簡介：德州賴斯大學研究人員最近正在研究一項納米技術，該技術能夠對油藏進行深入的探查。通過注入“納米探測者”于油藏中，能夠精確描述油藏，提高采收率。
Researchers at Rice University in Houston are coming closer to a nanotechnology application with far-reaching potential for the oil and gas industry. By injecting so-called “nanoreporters” into a reservoir, oil companies could zero in on more hydrocarbons, increasing recovery to feed the world’s growing energy appetite.

The nanoreporters are hundreds of millions of carbon clusters, each approximately 30,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. As they are pumped with water into a reservoir, the molecular makeup of the nanoreporters is designed to change depending on what they encounter ? petroleum, hydrogen sulfide, water, or other substances, according to Jim Tour, professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at Rice University and lead scientist on the project.

The particles are also being designed to measure other reservoir parameters such as temperature and pressure to further help operators pinpoint the location of oil and gas.

The nanoreporters have tags similar to bar codes on retail packages that will tell scientists how long they have been underground?three months, six months, nine months, or longer. Companies can then pinpoint where oil might be trapped. For example, if a large number of nine-month nanoreporters come across oil while three-month nanoreporters do not, scientists can assume the crude is deeper in the reservoir.

Major oil companies, including Royal Dutch Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips, and Marathon, are funding the multimillion dollar nanotechnology research program at Rice University in hopes that it will increase the amount of oil and gas extracted from reservoirs. Operators typically recover only about one in three barrels of oil from their fields, but they can’t afford to leave so much crude untapped at a time when it’s difficult to access new reserves. The vast majority of the world’s proven reserves?about 80 %?are held by national, state-run companies like PDVSA and Saudi Aramco.

Recovering more oil has major implications, both for the oil companies’ balance sheets and for the world’s diminishing supply. The International Energy Agency estimates that if oil companies were to increase oil recovery from the current 35% to 50%?a feasible goal with better detection and extraction tools?it would have the effect of doubling the world’s proven reserves of approximately 1.2 trillion bbl.

Tour states that his research team hopes to begin nanoreporter field tests in the next 12 months.

For more information about this and other nanotechnology research at Rice University, visit the James M Tour Group website.

楊寶劍 是振威（全球）石油網的高級技術編輯，在石油技術資訊行業有八年的學識和經驗。他源源不斷地提供石油行業全球最新的技術創新、研發成果、現場應用情況等信息。如果你對“新技術新產品”的內容有任何問題或建議，請聯系楊寶劍編輯 +86 10-58236512 Email：allenyo@zhenweiexpo.com 歡迎您提供手中的最新技術文章！