Water shutoff and conformance improvement: an introduction

This paper provides an introduction to the topic of water shutoff and conformance improvement. After indicating the volumes of water produced during oilfield operations, a strategy is provided for attacking excess water production problems. Problem types are categorized, typical methods of problem diagnosis are mentioned, and the range of solutions is introduced for each problem type. In the third section of the paper, the concept of disproportionate permeability reduction is introduced—where polymers and gels may reduce permeability to water more than to oil or gas. When and where this property is of value is discussed. The fourth section describes the properties of formed gels as they extrude through fractures and how those properties can be of value when treating conformance problems caused by fractures. Section 5 covers the efficiency with which gels block fractures after gel placement—especially, the impact of fluids injected subsequent to the gel treatment.

High-strength and self-degradable sodium alginate/polyacrylamide preformed particle gels for conformance control to enhance oil recovery

Excess water production has become an important issue in the oil and gas extraction process.Preformed particle gels(PPGs),show the capability to control the conformance and reduce excess water cut.However,conventional PPGs have poor mechanical properties and their swollen particles are easily damaged by shearing force when passing through the fractures in formations,meanwhile PPGs can be also degraded into various byproducts,leading to permanent damage to the reservoir permeability after temporary plugging.Herein,a novel type of dual cross-linked PPGs(dPPGs)was designed and synthesized using sodium alginate(SA)and acrylamide(AAm),cross-linked with N,N’-methylenebisacrylamide(MBA)and Fe^(3+).Results show that dPPGs have excellent mechanical properties with a storage modulus up to 86,445 Pa,which is almost 20 times higher than other reported PPGs.Meanwhile,dPPGs can be completely degraded into liquid without any solid residues or byproducts and the viscosity of dPPGs degraded liquid was found to be lower than 5 mPa·s.A laboratory coreflooding test showed that the plugging efficiency of dPPGs was up to 99.83%on open fractures.The obtained results demonstrated that dPPGs could be used as economical and environment-friendly temporary plugging agent with high-strength,self-degradation,thermal stability,and salt stability,thus making it applicable to a wide range of conformance control to enhance oil recovery.

Conformance control by a microgel in a multi-layered heterogeneous reservoir during CO_(2) enhanced oil recovery process

Injecting CO_(2)into the underground for oil displacement and shortage is an important technique for carbon capture,utilization and storage(CCUS).One of the main problems during the CO_(2)injection is the channeling plugging.Finding an effective method for the gas channeling plugging is a critical issue in the CO_(2)EOR process.In this work,an acid-resistance microgel named dispersed particle gel(DPG)was characterized and its stability was tested in the CO_(2)environment.The microgel size selection strategies for the homogeneous and heterogeneous reservoirs were respectively investigated using the single core flooding and three parallel core flooding experiments.Moreover,the comparison of microgel alternate CO_(2)(MAC)injection and water alternate CO_(2)(WAC)injection in the dual core flooding experiments were presented for the investigation of the role of microgel on the conformance control in CO_(2)flooding process.The results have shown that the microgel featured with ANH and CAN groups can keep its morphology after aging 7 days in the CO_(2)environment.Where,the small microgel with unobstructed migration and large microgel with good plugging efficiency for the high permeability zone were respectively featured with the higher recovery factor in homogeneous and heterogeneous conditions,which indicate they are preferred used for the oil displacement and conformance control.Compared to WAC injection,MAC injection had a higher incremental recovery factor of 12.4%.It suggests the acid-resistance microgel would be a good candidate for the conformance control during CO_(2)flooding process.

Importance of conformance control in reinforcing synergy of CO_(2) EOR and sequestration

Injecting CO2into hydrocarbon reservoirs can enhance the recovery of hydrocarbon resources,and simultaneously,CO2can be stored in the rese rvoirs,reducing considerable amount of carbon emissions in the atmosphere.However,injected CO_(2)tends to go through fractures,high-permeability channels and streaks present in reservoirs,resulting in inefficient hydrocarbon recovery coupled with low CO_(2)storage performance.Conformance treatments with CO_(2)-resistant crosslinked polymer gels were performed in this study to mitigate the CO_(2)channeling issue and promote the synergy between enhanced oil recovery(EOR) and subsurface sequestration of CO_(2).Based on a typical low-permeability CO_(2)-flooding reservoir in China,studies were performed to investigate the EOR and CO_(2)storage performance with and without conformance treatment.The effect of permeability contrast between the channels and rese rvoir matrices,treatment size,and plugging strength on the efficiency of oil recovery and CO_(2)storage was systematically investigated.The results indicated that after conformance treatments,the CO_(2)channeling problem was mitigated during CO_(2)flooding and storage.The injected CO_(2)was more effectively utilized to recover the hydrocarbons,and entered wider spectrum of pore spaces.Consequently,more CO_(2)was trapped underground.Pronounced factors on the synergy of EOR and CO_(2)storage were figured out.Compared with the treatment size,the CO_(2)storage efficiency was more sensitive to the plugging strength of the conformance treatment materials.This observation was important for conformance treatment design in CCUS-EOR projects.According to this study,the materials should reduce the channel permeability to make the channel/matrix permeability ratio below 30.The results demonstrate the importance of conformance treatment in maximizing the performance of CCUS-EOR process to achieve both oil recovery improvement and efficient carbon storage.This study provides guidelines for successful field applications of CO_(2)transport control in CO_(2)geo-utilization and storage.

A review of nuclear magnetic resonance(NMR) technology applied in the characterization of polymer gels for petroleum reservoir conformance control

Polymer gel systems have been widely applied to control excessive water and improve oil recovery(IOR)in petroleum reservoirs.They are usually divided into two main types,in-situ cross-linked polymer gels,and pre-formed polymer gels.In recent years,nuclear magnetic resonance(NMR) technology has been gradually applied to the research of polymer gel systems due to its unique analysis advantages.This paper is intent to review these works systematically.For in-situ cross-linked polymer gel systems,NMR can be used to characterize the chemical structure changes of the polymer,the cross-linker,and the auxiliary agent in the formulation of the polymer gel systems.Moreover,the gelation time and the gel strength of the in-situ cross-linked polymer gel systems can also be measured by NMR.For pre-formed polymer gels,NMR can be employed to detect the chemical structure of the designed products.Last,the NMR method can evaluate the plugging,water control,and oil improvement performance of the polymer gels in porous media without using dopants.This review can help readers build a more systematic understanding of the application of NMR technology in polymer gel systems for IOR and help re searchers to more deeply study the performance of polymer gel systems.

Development of a Model Driven ACSI Conformance Testing for IEC 61850-Based IED

Globally, traditional power systems are rapidly transforming towards the adoption of smart grid platforms. Substations which are at the center of the electric power transformation from the power plant are changing to IEC 61850 based digital substations. Therefore, within substation, there is a growing demand for the IEC 61850 based Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs). The operation of multiple manufacturers of IEDs in a single digital substation network increases the need for IEC 61850 communications specification conformance diagnosis to ensure interoperability for efficient data exchange between IEDs. The IEC 61850-10 presents test items for diagnosing communication specification conformance. There are many test tools available in the market today to test the compliance of the IEC 61850 communications specifications to the IED. In this paper, we propose a model-based diagnostic method for IED communication conformance testing. The proposed model-based software therefore uses the “drag and drop” technique to select the various IEC 61850 communication services (objects) required to design the test case in a user friendly Graphical User Interface (GUI). This makes the service conformance testing more flexible for test engineers and system integrators especially in situations that require test case modifications. Also, the proposed software tool makes it easy to understand the various IEC 61850 services using the friendly GUI.

Development of re-crosslinkable dispersed particle gels for conformance improvement in extremely high-temperature reservoirs

Micro-scale and nano-scale dispersed gel particles(DPG)are capable of deep migration in oil reservoirs due to their deformability,viscoelasticity,and suitable particle size.Therefore,it has been widely studied and applied in reservoir conformance control in recent years.However,for highly permeable channels,their plugging performance is still limited.In addition,conventional in situ cross-linked polymer gels(ISCPGs)have fast gelation time under extremely high-temperature conditions,which often causes problems such as difficulty in pumping.Therefore,a re-cross linkable dispersed particle gel(RDPG)system applied for conformance control in highly permeable channels of extremely high-temperature petroleum reservoirs was investigated.The particle size distribution,gelation time,gel strength,injection performance,and perfo rmance strength in po rous media were investigated using a laser particle size meter,the Sydansk bottle test method,rheometer,and core displacement experiments,respectively.Results show that the RDPG suspension can be stable for more than 6 months at room temperature with storage modulus G’much lower than 10 Pa.It can pass through the pore throat by elastic deformation effect and does not cause strong blockage.Moreover,it can undergo re-crosslinking reaction at 150℃to form a strong bulk gel.The gel strength G’of re-crosslinked RDPG can be as high as 69.3 Pa,which meets the strength requirement of conformance control.The RDPG suspension has the properties of easy injection,and it also has strong plugging,and high-temperature resistance after re-crosslinked in the core,which can be a very promising material for conformance improvement in extremely high-temperature reservoirs.

A novel polymer gel with high-temperature and high-salinity resistance for conformance control in carbonate reservoirs

Plugging agents have been widely used to enhance oil recovery in fractured-vuggy carbonate reservoirs.However,the harsh conditions of fractured-vuggy carbonate reservoirs yield a significant challenge in maintaining a long-term stabilization of plugging agents.In this work,we developed an anti-hightemperature and high-salinity polymer gel(APG)with excellent resistance to high temperature(140℃)and ultra-high salinity(240000 mg/L).The rheology and microstructure of APG were characterized before and after gelation.Core plugging tests on fractured cubic cores were conducted to quantify the plugging performance of the gel system.Experimental results showed that the Sclerglucan and Cobalt(Ⅱ)Chloride Hexahydrate filled the three-dimensional(3-D)network with various morphologies,providing extra protection to the cross-linking points of the 3D network structure of APG and thus,leading to a prolongation of the dehydration time.The dehydration rate of APG was only 5%within 30days,and the strength of APG could be maintained at a rigid or near-rigid level over 150 days.Moreover,APG exhibited satisfactory shear and scour resistance.Core plugging tests showed that APG could achieve a plugging rate of 90%and demonstrate ignorable minor damage to the substrate.Our results indicate that APG can serve as a great candidate in channel plugging in fractured-vuggy carbonate reservoirs where fractures are fully developed.

Pore-scale investigation on occurrence characteristics and conformance control mechanisms of emulsion in porous media

Microscopic computed tomography(Micro-CT)is used to visualize microscopic flow in sandstone core samples during emulsion flooding.The images obtained during the experiment are processed quantitatively with a series of methods to evaluate the occurrence characteristics and oil recovery enhancement mechanisms of emulsion.(1)The emulsion is distributed in the cores in spherical shape,and its sphericity is significantly different from that of the remaining oil.Sphericity can be taken as a characteristic parameter to identify emulsion.(2)The emulsion with specific size prefers to stay in pores with matching sizes;when the emulsion volume is smaller than the product of the lower limit of pore occupancy and the corresponding pore vol-ume,it will not be able to effectively trap in the pore to achieve conformance control.In the process of emulsion displacement designing,we need to design emulsion with suitable particle size according to the pore distribution of the reservoir.(3)Mobi-lization ratio of the pores can be increased from 23.1%to 59.3%by emulsion flooding after subsequent water flooding,and the average oil displacement efficiency at the pore-scale can be increased from 22.9%to 75.8%under the test conditions;(4)After emulsion flooding,the clustered remaining oil and the oil phase in the trapped emulsion are the main targets for further EOR.

The Protocol Conformance Testing of CCSS7 ISUP

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Conformance Test for IEDs Based on IEC 61850 Communication Protocol

In this paper, a conformance test platform is built for intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) from different manufacturers based on IEC 61850 communication protocol. A conformance test of time delay of message transmission between two IEDs, made by the same or different manufacturers, is performed. The conformance test platform, as well as the test results provide a helpful reference for IEC 61850 implementation.

基于层次化Conformer的语音合成

语音合成需要将输入语句的文本转换为包含音素、单词和语句的语音信号。现有语音合成方法将语句看作一个整体,难以准确地合成出不同长度的语音信号。通过分析语音信号中蕴含的层次化关系,分别设计基于Conformer的层次化文本编码器和基于Conformer的层次化语音编码器,并提出了一种基于层次化文本-语音Conformer的语音合成模型。首先,该模型根据输入文本信号的长度,构建层次化文本编码器,包括音素级、单词级、语句级文本编码器3个层次,不同层次的文本编码器描述不同长度的文本信息;并使用Conformer的注意力机制来学习该长度信号中不同时间特征之间的关系。利用层次化的文本编码器,能够找出语句中不同长度需要强调的信息,有效实现不同长度的文本特征提取,缓解合成的语音信号持续时间长度不确定的问题。其次,层次化语音编码器包括音素级、单词级、语句级语音编码器3个层次。每个层次的语音编码器将文本特征作为Conformer的查询向量,将语音特征作为Conformer的关键字向量和值向量,来提取文本特征和语音特征的匹配关系。利用层次化的语音编码器和文本语音匹配关系,可以缓解不同长度语音信号合成不准确的问题。所提模型的层次化文本-语音编码器可以灵活地嵌入现有的多种解码器中,通过文本和语音之间的互补,提供更为可靠的语音合成结果。在LJSpeech和LibriTTS两个数据集上进行实验验证,实验结果表明,所提方法的梅尔倒谱失真小于现有语音合成方法。

基于改进Conformer的新闻领域端到端语音识别

目前,开源的中文语音识别数据集大多面向通用领域,缺少面向新闻领域的开源语音识别语料库,因此该文构建了面向新闻领域的中文语音识别数据集CH_NEWS_ASR,并使用ESPNET-0.9.6框架的RNN、Transformer和Conformer等模型对数据集的有效性进行了验证,实验表明,该文所构建的语料在最好的模型上CER为4.8%,SER为39.4%。由于新闻联播主持人说话语速相对较快,该文构建的数据集文本平均长度为28个字符,是Aishell_1数据集文本平均长度的2倍;且以往的研究中训练目标函数通常为基于字或词水平,缺乏明确的句子水平关系,因此该文提出了一个句子层级的一致性模块,与Conformer模型结合,直接减少源语音和目标文本的表示差异,在开源的Aishell_1数据集上其CER降低0.4%,SER降低2%;在CH_NEWS_ASR数据集上其CER降低0.9%,SER降低3%,实验结果表明,该方法在不增加模型参数量的前提下能有效提升语音识别的质量。

Laccase/caffeic acid-catalyzed crosslinking coupled with galactomannan alters the conformational structure of ovalbumin and alleviates Th2-mediated allergic asthma

Ovalbumin(OVA)is the major allergenic protein that can induce T helper 2(Th2)-allergic reactions,for which current treatment options are inadequate.In this study,we developed a polymerized hypoallergenic OVA product via laccase/caffeic acid(Lac/CA)-catalyzed crosslinking in conjunction with galactomannan(Man).The formation of high molecular weight crosslinked polymers and the Ig G-binding were analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis(SDS-PAGE)and Western blotting.The study indicated that Lac/CA-catalyzed crosslinking plus Man conjugation substantially altered secondary and tertiary structures of OVA along with the variation in surface hydrophobicity.Gastrointestinal digestion stability assay indicated that crosslinked OVA exhibited less resistance in simulated gastric fluid(SGF)and simulated intestinal fluid(SIF).Mouse model study indicated that Lac-Man/OVA ameliorated eosinophilic airway inflammatory response and efficiently downregulated the expression of Th2-related cytokines(interleukin(IL)-4,IL-5,and IL-13),and upregulated IFN-γand IL-10 expression.Stimulation of bone marrow-derived dendritic cells with Lac-Man/OVA suppressed the expression of phenotypic maturation markers(CD80 and CD86)and MHC class II molecules,and suppressed the expression levels of proinflammatory cytokines.The knowledge obtained in the present study offers an effective way to acquire a hypoallergenic OVA product that can have a therapeutic effect in alleviating OVA-induced allergic asthma.

Classifying rockburst with confidence:A novel conformal prediction approach

The scientific community recognizes the seriousness of rockbursts and the need for effective mitigation measures.The literature reports various successful applications of machine learning(ML)models for rockburst assessment;however,a significant question remains unanswered:How reliable are these models,and at what confidence level are classifications made?Typically,ML models output single rockburst grade even in the face of intricate and out-of-distribution samples,without any associated confidence value.Given the susceptibility of ML models to errors,it becomes imperative to quantify their uncertainty to prevent consequential failures.To address this issue,we propose a conformal prediction(CP)framework built on traditional ML models(extreme gradient boosting and random forest)to generate valid classifications of rockburst while producing a measure of confidence for its output.The proposed framework guarantees marginal coverage and,in most cases,conditional coverage on the test dataset.The CP was evaluated on a rockburst case in the Sanshandao Gold Mine in China,where it achieved high coverage and efficiency at applicable confidence levels.Significantly,the CP identified several“confident”classifications from the traditional ML model as unreliable,necessitating expert verification for informed decision-making.The proposed framework improves the reliability and accuracy of rockburst assessments,with the potential to bolster user confidence.

Gelatin-Based Metamaterial Hydrogel Films with High Conformality for Ultra-Soft Tissue Monitoring

Implantable hydrogel-based bioelectronics(IHB)can precisely monitor human health and diagnose diseases.However,achieving biodegradability,biocompatibility,and high conformality with soft tissues poses significant challenges for IHB.Gelatin is the most suitable candidate for IHB since it is a collagen hydrolysate and a substantial part of the extracellular matrix found naturally in most tissues.This study used 3D printing ultrafine fiber networks with metamaterial design to embed into ultra-low elastic modulus hydrogel to create a novel gelatin-based conductive film(GCF)with mechanical programmability.The regulation of GCF nearly covers soft tissue mechanics,an elastic modulus from 20 to 420 kPa,and a Poisson’s ratio from-0.25 to 0.52.The negative Poisson’s ratio promotes conformality with soft tissues to improve the efficiency of biological interfaces.The GCF can monitor heartbeat signals and respiratory rate by determining cardiac deformation due to its high conformability.Notably,the gelatin characteristics of the biodegradable GCF enable the sensor to monitor and support tissue restoration.The GCF metamaterial design offers a unique idea for bioelectronics to develop implantable sensors that integrate monitoring and tissue repair and a customized method for endowing implanted sensors to be highly conformal with soft tissues.

Dual-functional poly(2-methyl-2-oxazoline)/poly(2-(dimethylamine)ethyl methacrylate)mixed brushes with switchable protein adsorption and antibacterial properties

Herein,binary mixed brushes consisting of poly(2-methyl-2-oxazoline)(PMOXA)and poly(2-(dimethylamine)ethyl methacrylate)(PDMAEMA)with different chain lengths were fabricated by successive grafting of NH_(2)-terminated PMOXA and SH-terminated PDMAEMA onto polydopamine-anchored substrates.The mixed-brush coating was characterized by variable-angle spectroscopic ellipsometry,X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy,Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy,zeta potential measurements,water contact angle,and atomic force microscopy.The mixed brushes showed tunable surface charge,wettability,and surface roughness,depending on the degree of PDMAEMA swelling under varying pH and ionic strength(Ⅰ).Then the adsorption behaviors of pepsin,bovine serum albumin(BSA),γ-globulin,and lysozyme,four very different proteins with regard to isoelectric point,on the mixed brushes coating were studied by using fluorescence microscopy and surface plasmon resonance.When the chain length of PDMAEMA was about twice as long as PMOXA,the mixed brushes not only had high adsorption capacity for pepsin,BSA,and y-globulin but also had a desorption efficiency of 86.9%,87.1%,and 93.5%,respectively.It is explained that electrostatic attraction between the protonated PDMAEMA and positively charged acidic proteins(pepsin and BSA,whose isoelectric points were below the pK_(a) of PDMAEMA)would drive the intensive adsorption(at pH 3,I=10^(-3)mol·L^(-1)for pepsin,and pH 5,I=10^(-5)mol·L^(-1)for BSA),while desorption was dominated by the hydrophilic PMOXA when PDMAEMA was shrinking(at pH 7,I=10^(-1)mol·L^(-1)for pepsin,and pH 9,I=10^(-1)mol·L^(-1)for BSA).Furthermore,the isoelectric precipitation led to the adsorption of neutral protein(γ-globulin,whose isoelectric point was near the pK_a of PDMAEMA)at pH 7,I=10^(-5)mol·L^(-1),while electrostatic repulsion and antifouling PMOXA triggered the desorption of y-globulin at pH 3,I-10^(-1)mol·L^(-1).However,alkaline protein(lysozyme,whose isoelectric point was higher than the pK_(a) of PDMAEMA)exhibited slight adsorption on PMOXA/PDMAEMA mixed brushes under test conditions,regardless of whether PMOXA or PDMAEMA occupied the outermost layer.The antibacterial property of the mixed brushes against Escherichia coli was investigated.PMOXA/PDMAEMA mixed brushes showed significant bactericidal activity at pH 3,I=10^(-3)mol·L^(-1),while the rinse of pH 9,I=10^(-1)mol·L^(-1)solution could remove most of the residual bacteria.This work not only enables controlled adsorption of proteins with different isoelectric points but also ensures that the surface of the coating is minimized from bacterial contamination.

Recent advances in protein conformation sampling by combining machine learning with molecular simulation

The rapid advancement and broad application of machine learning(ML)have driven a groundbreaking revolution in computational biology.One of the most cutting-edge and important applications of ML is its integration with molecular simulations to improve the sampling efficiency of the vast conformational space of large biomolecules.This review focuses on recent studies that utilize ML-based techniques in the exploration of protein conformational landscape.We first highlight the recent development of ML-aided enhanced sampling methods,including heuristic algorithms and neural networks that are designed to refine the selection of reaction coordinates for the construction of bias potential,or facilitate the exploration of the unsampled region of the energy landscape.Further,we review the development of autoencoder based methods that combine molecular simulations and deep learning to expand the search for protein conformations.Lastly,we discuss the cutting-edge methodologies for the one-shot generation of protein conformations with precise Boltzmann weights.Collectively,this review demonstrates the promising potential of machine learning in revolutionizing our insight into the complex conformational ensembles of proteins.

3D‑Printed Carbon‑Based Conformal Electromagnetic Interference Shielding Module for Integrated Electronics

Electromagnetic interference shielding(EMI SE)modules are the core com-ponent of modern electronics.However,the tra-ditional metal-based SE modules always take up indispensable three-dimensional space inside electronics,posing a major obstacle to the integra-tion of electronics.The innovation of integrating 3D-printed conformal shielding(c-SE)modules with packaging materials onto core electronics offers infinite possibilities to satisfy ideal SE func-tion without occupying additional space.Herein,the 3D printable carbon-based inks with various proportions of graphene and carbon nanotube nanoparticles are well-formulated by manipulating their rheological peculiarity.Accordingly,the free-constructed architectures with arbitrarily-customized structure and multifunctionality are created via 3D printing.In particular,the SE performance of 3D-printed frame is up to 61.4 dB,simultaneously accompanied with an ultralight architecture of 0.076 g cm^(-3) and a superhigh specific shielding of 802.4 dB cm3 g^(-1).Moreover,as a proof-of-concept,the 3D-printed c-SE module is in situ integrated into core electronics,successfully replacing the traditional metal-based module to afford multiple functions for electromagnetic compatibility and thermal dissipa-tion.Thus,this scientific innovation completely makes up the blank for assembling carbon-based c-SE modules and sheds a brilliant light on developing the next generation of high-performance shielding materials with arbitrarily-customized structure for integrated electronics.