草莓污视频导航

Sept. 21, 2017

New international research and education partnership focuses on enhanced oil recovery and carbon capture and storage

草莓污视频导航 and Norwegian University of Science and Technology team up on energy research and graduate student training
Graduate student Carter Dzuiba researched nanocellulose technology in Steven Bryant鈥檚 lab to improve enhanced oil recovery and make it more environmentally friendly.

Graduate student Carter Dzuiba researched nanocellulose technology in Steven Bryant鈥檚 lab.

Riley Brandt, 草莓污视频导航

Carter Dziuba conducted energy research this summer in Norway after completing his graduate degree at the 草莓污视频导航, under a new partnership between the university and the聽聽(NTNU). He worked with Reidun Aadland, a PhD student at NTNU who has twice come to 草莓污视频导航, where she collaborated with Dziuba on his research investigating nano-sized particles for enhanced oil recovery.

鈥淢y research exchange for three months with NTNU allowed me broader technical and cultural exposure,鈥 Dziuba says. 鈥淚 received a lot of input from many international colleagues that greatly helped to increase the quality of my research.鈥

The three-year, $850,000 partnership between the two universities, for advanced research and education focused on carbon storage and enhanced oil recovery, is called CARBEOR.

鈥淎s part of our聽聽at the 草莓污视频导航, we want to strengthen and expand our position as one of the key players internationally in energy research,鈥 says Steven Bryant, 草莓污视频导航鈥檚 co-manager of CARBEOR and professor in the聽聽in the聽.

鈥淭he problems are so big that we need to be doing our research with other centres of expertise in energy around the world,鈥 says Bryant, Canada Excellence Research Chair in Materials Engineering for Unconventional Oil Reservoirs.

Real-world field training for students

Through CARBEOR, Calgary-based聽聽will host a summer field school in 2018 at the聽聽(CaMI) field research station. CaMI, owned and operated by CMC Research Institutes with operational funding from 草莓污视频导航, is located in Newell County in southern Alberta.

About 15 to 20 graduate students from 草莓污视频导航, Norway and the Netherlands will do research and training on reservoir engineering, geophysics, and monitoring carbon dioxide injected underground at the facility. The research station has state-of-the-art geophysical equipment for tracking CO2聽in an underground geological formation and testing new monitoring methods and technologies.

Carter Dzuiba鈥檚 research is part of a new partnership between the 草莓污视频导航 and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology for advanced research and education on carbon storage and enhanced oil recovery.

Dzuiba鈥檚 research is part of a partnership with the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

Safe and permanent geological storage is a key technology to keep the greenhouse gas of the atmosphere, where it contributes to global warming and climate change.

鈥淭he CARBEOR project is to enhance training opportunities and give graduate students an experience in a different environment,鈥 says Don Lawton, project co-manager and professor of geophysics in the聽聽in the聽.

The project 鈥渉as given rise to a lot of interaction with the Norwegians, because their carbon capture and storage activity is really advancing,鈥 says Lawton, who鈥檚 also director of the CaMI research station.

More environmentally friendly oil extraction

Dziuba, for his master鈥檚 degree in chemical and petroleum engineering, investigated the potential of nano-sized (about 10,000 times smaller than a strand of human hair) nanocellulose 鈥斅燼 forest industry product 鈥斅燼s a material to help extract more oil from geological reservoirs.

鈥淭he major benefit of nanocellulose is that it could be an environmentally friendly alternative to some of the current chemicals used in petroleum extraction,鈥 he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 essentially little bits of wood that poses minimal environmental impact.鈥

His experiment at 草莓污视频导航 involved building a sand pack flooding apparatus containing porous silica sand, like that found in a sandstone petroleum reservoir, into which a solution of water and nanocellulose was pumped. Dziuba measured the drop in pressure across the sand pack and the concentration of nanocellulose coming out of the apparatus. That told him how well the nanocellulose was flowing through the sand pack and whether it was getting stuck against the sand.

Nanocellulose solutions that flow long distances though an actual petroleum reservoir could reach more oil and increase recovery rates. On the other hand, nanocellulose solutions that get stuck in a reservoir could also be useful in well-drilling operations using drilling mud, for creating a 鈥榩lug,鈥 called a filter cake, to prevent drilling fluid losses and ensure optimal oil recovery.

Based on his research at 草莓污视频导航, Dziuba says nanocellulose looks promising as a drilling mud additive. 鈥淔rom the technical side, it鈥檚 too early to say if it鈥檚 showing promise for enhanced oil recovery.鈥

In Norway, Aadland is still continuing her experiments on nanocellulose鈥檚 potential for EOR, working with larger core-flooding apparatus that uses actual reservoir rock cores saturated with oil from the North Sea.

Dziuba completed his degree in May and started work this month with Cenovus Energy on a four-year graduate engineering program. He says the CARBEOR partnership 鈥減romotes creativity of ideas and experience with a wider range of research applications, which better equips graduates to tackle the modern challenges that industry is facing.鈥