Given the rising demand for energy and the fact that for the time being alternative sources of energy remain limited and expensive, research must be conducted into ways in which the adhesion of the oil to the bed rock can be reduced or prevented.
Not all oil fields start spurting oil as soon as you drill into them. And even if they do, that stops after a while as the pressure drops. Usually the pressure is boosted artificially by pumping water into the ground, pushing the oil upwards. But even then, over half the oil will remain in the ground because it sticks to the bed rock in which it is located.
If that proves possible, it may be possible to increase the extraction of oil from existing oil fields by ten percent. That means that at current levels of consumption, we will have enough oil to last us ten more years.
Exactly such research is now being undertaken at the University of Twente. The oil company BP has recently signed a contract with Professor Frieder Mugele. His department of the Physics of Complex Fluids will set to work for the next five years with €4.2 million.
"If we are to extract oil from the ground more efficiently, we need to ensure that the black gold is pressed from the microscopic pores in the rocks more effectively. The techniques of microfluidics and nanofluidics, which are the main activities of my research group, are relevant to this process, but they need to be applied on a very large scale. Our expertise in these areas, supported by the excellent facilities at the MESA+ and IMPACT research institutes, has meant that BP has chosen to work with us,' says Mugele.
Previous empirical research has shown that lowering the salt content of the water used to pressurize the oil fields can increase the yield of oil. Mugele's group will now determine whether this effect can be improved further by modifying the molecular structure of the oil in such a way as to limit its adhesion to the surrounding rocks.
As well as Prof. Mugele's group, the Max-Planck Institute in Gottingen (Germany) and the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) are also participating in the research for BP. The results of the research will be made generally available via the scientific publications of the PhD candidates working on the research.
