Sarah Hasan Al Abdullatif, Rund Tawfiq
Dhahran Ahliyya schoolds, Dhahran, SAUDI ARABIA
While current oil recovery rates are relatively low, ranging below 40%, costs of drilling are relatively high, at approximately $42,000 a day. The purpose of this project is to examine more accurate methods of determining the exact location of fluids in oil reservoirs. Fluids can be found more effectively by using nanofluids with 4D Seismic surveys in order to improve oil recovery rates in a cost-efficient manner. A Pickering emulsion was created with fumed Alumina nanoparticles, to alter the compressibility of the oil-water mixture. It was hypothesized that in a Pickering emulsion, the compressibility of the fluid will increase, thus decreasing the sound velocity and altering the coefficient of refraction. It is assumed that with significant alteration in the coefficient of refraction, seismic surveys would be able to locate fluids underground. In the Pickering emulsion, the speed of sound was measured using a sound source and a hydrophone. After calculating the speed of sound, density of fluids, and sound impedance, the coefficient of refraction of the oil-water interface was found to be -0.5667056599, while the coefficient of refraction of the Pickering emulsion was -3.317272084. With a difference of 2.750566424, the change in the coefficient of refraction is sufficient for sound equipment to detect the location of the fluids. Thus we concluded that the addition of nanoparticles is an improvement over current methods and would increase oil recovery rates and reduce costs. Awards won at the 2013 ISEF Fourth Award of $500 - Engineering: Materials and Bioengineering