Discovery from IBM could enable more efficient oil extraction from existing wells
May 4, 2017 by Chris Nay
IBM scientists recently discovered that a drop of oil doesn't look like a drop at all if it is small, to the scale of one billionth of a billionth of a liter, or attoliter. Rather, a nanoscale oil droplet looks more like a flat film against a solid surface. This discovery reveals that the simulation tools and techniques commonly employed by the oil industry do not take into account the increased energy required to extract these oil molecules. And it results in 60 percent or more of a well's oil being left behind, for example, in the nanoscale capillaries of shale reservoirs. In response, IBM Research-Brazil is developing nanoscience-enhanced oil flow simulations that could better-predict oil extraction from a reservoir.
Read more at:
https://phys.org/news/2017-05-discovery-ibm-enable-efficient-oil.html#jCp
