[Graeme]

Scrubbing Oil Wells Clean

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')ith much of the easy-to-pump oil already extracted from U.S. oilfields, companies are increasingly going after the oil that remains stuck to the rocks in reservoirs. They typically inject steam or carbon dioxide into the reservoirs to thin the sticky oil so that it flows more easily. Researchers at Queens University in Ontario, Canada, have now found that a novel soaplike compound could make the process more productive.

The compound is a type of surfactant -- a class of compounds that allow substances such as oil and water, which otherwise do not blend well, to form mixtures. Surfactants, which are used in materials such as detergents and paint, are widely known to increase oil production -- by as much as 28 percent when pumped into reservoirs together with water, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. But they also pose a problem: once the oil-water emulsion is extracted from the reservoir, the oil needs to be separated. That's complicated and expensive.

[Fergus]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Graeme', '[')b]Scrubbing Oil Wells Clean$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')ith much of the easy-to-pump oil already extracted from U.S. oilfields, companies are increasingly going after the oil that remains stuck to the rocks in reservoirs. They typically inject steam or carbon dioxide into the reservoirs to thin the sticky oil so that it flows more easily. Researchers at Queens University in Ontario, Canada, have now found that a novel soaplike compound could make the process more productive.
The compound is a type of surfactant -- a class of compounds that allow substances such as oil and water, which otherwise do not blend well, to form mixtures. Surfactants, which are used in materials such as detergents and paint, are widely known to increase oil production -- by as much as 28 percent when pumped into reservoirs together with water, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. But they also pose a problem: once the oil-water emulsion is extracted from the reservoir, the oil needs to be separated. That's complicated and expensive.

[rockdoc123]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'S')ounds like we are now working harder to get the oil out of the ground. When you regress your not making progress. your treading water. Wonder how much longer the oil industry can keep up the balancing act and make it seem like business as usual.

[basil_hayden]

The trick, at least in petroleum remediation projects that I'm familiar with, is not so much to introduce surfactants directly but to colonize the subsurface with microorganisms that produce surfactants naturally.

[mrobert]

We are saved