Produced Water & Environmental Conference, June 2013

Transcription

1 Produced Water & Environmental Conference, June 2013 A Novel Optical Approach for Produced Water Analysis - A Platform Technology for Monitoring Chemicals, Oil, Solids and Microbes Emma Perfect Managing Director and CSO

2 LUX Assure Background Founded in 2001 A specialist developer of detection solutions using light based technologies Headquartered in Edinburgh (UK) with Aberdeen office Became focused on Oil & Gas industry in 2009 Generally upstream applications; treatment chemical detection Two products commercially available (OMMICA, CoMic ) In 2013 received 3.25m to transform the company from a technology development company to service provider A strong period of growth is now anticipated, including entry into new markets LUX Tag CoMic LUX Assure LUX Tracer LUX Monito r OMMI CA

3 LUX Assure We apply life science concepts to monitor chemicals used in the oil industry Strong collaborative approach LUX aims to become the world leader in providing new technology to monitor difficult-to-detect chemicals used by the oil industry

4 Detection inspired by the life sciences Many applications but similar principles Burgeoning technology developed for point of care diagnostics LUX adapts this to enable detection of chemicals in oil field fluids Generally we use light-based approaches Fluorescence, luminescence, UV, visible For simple and rapid detection Use off the shelf detection equipment (where possible)

5 Produced water Complex Needs managed oil scales wax microbes sand asphaltene Re-injection becoming increasingly common Components in the fluid can cause issues with recovery Monitoring to aid process optimisation & environmental management Sand monitoring Oil in water measurement SRB testing etc

6 Earlier work Methods inspired by cell imaging In the life sciences, it is common to use reporter molecules to investigate fluids These are marker reagents which are added to the test sample The marker is highly detectable The marker behaves differently depending on its environment Can act as a reporter or contrast agent

7 Oil in Water monitoring Why use a marker? The marker is sensitive to the hydrophobicity of the environment It reports on the presence of dispersed oil rather than any particular component. It does not react to sand, silt, gas or precipitate Step 3 Analyse Sample Step 1 Take a sample Step 2 Add Marker The fluorescence emission is at a higher wavelength Common fluorescence interference in the UV region of the spectrum can be removed May be used to detect Aqueous oils that have low (or changing) Sample polyaromatic hydrocarbon content Oil

8 Data GC Correlation Two samples of produced water from a producing field were provided Samples split for testing One set tested by the marker method using LUX Monitor One set tested by GC-FID using the OSPAR method (independent laboratory) Corrected spectra show same trend as GC-FID

9 Offshore testing

10 Offshore testing

11 Flowing system Details

12 Flowing system Details (II)

13 Data (I) At LUX laboratories

14 Data (II) At flow loop

15 Data (II) Offshore

16 Further work (I) Other particles

17 Further work (II) Size distribution

18 The Aim x ppm oil, y µm diameter x solid particles, y µm diameter x solid particles coated in oil, y µm diameter x microbes, y µm diameter x asphaltene, wax, etc etc

19 Summary Adapting methods from the life sciences for analysing oil field fluids Using a marker-based approach for particle size analysis Quicker, simpler analysis offshore Developing a new tool for produced water monitoring

20 Chemical Monitoring LUX Tag Asset Integrity CoMic Reservoir LUX Tracer Management Process LUX Monitor Optimisation Flow Assurance OMMICA