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By Katsutoshi Inoue

Pectic acid gel crosslinked with epichlorohydrin was found to have very high selectivity to lead(II) and iron(III) ions over zinc(II) ion compared with commercial weakly cation exchange resins containing the same carboxylic functional groups, suitable for removing small amount of impurity metal ions from waste zinc plating solutions. In order to lower the cost, new adsorption gel was prepared from orange juice residue containing pectic acid by crosslinking with epichlorohydrin, which was also found to be suitable for removing these impurities. Further, very cheap adsorption gels was prepared not only from orange but also from apple juice residues by a simple method through just saponificating pectin substances contained in these residues into pectic acid by calcium hydroxide followed by water washing and drying. These adsorption gels exhibited excellent adsorption behaviors for removing the impurity metal ions away from zinc.

Jan 1, 2003

By G. X. Wang

The nonliving dried water hyacinth (E. crassipes (Mart.) Solms) roots were investigated for biosorption of cadmium and lead and other heavy metal ions in aqueous solutions. Dried water hyacinth roots, when suspended in solution, strongly and rapidly sorb several different metal ions. Factors such as reaction time, pH, initial concentration of metal ions, presence of other metal ions and biomass concentration were investigated. Metal ions, including Cd2+ and Pb2+, were bound to the root in a very pH-dependent manner, with the binding increasing after about pH 3. High levels of removal were obtained. The adsorption was shown to follow the generalized Langmuir adsorption equation. The relative affinity of the roots for lead is greater than for cadmium. The maximum sorptions of the roots were about 33 and 86 mg/g for cadmium and lead, respectively. Only 15-20 minutes were required for the process of uptake onto the biomass to occur. The batch sorption kinetics of the uptake of cadmium and lead can be described by an apparent first-order reversible reaction model. The roots could be regenerated after the metal ions were stripped. A solution of CaCl2 in acidic medium appeared to be the best eluant for desorbing the sequestered Cd and Pb completely at pH 3. The kinetics of the metal stripping process was quite rapid. Successful desorption of Cd and Pb from the biomass by acidic CaCl2 solutions revealed that the metal uptake phenomenon is reversible, implying physical sorption of Cd and Pb.

Jan 1, 1997

By H. J. Maguire

(Presented by invitation at a meeting of the Spokane Local Section, Feb. 17, 1912.) THOSE familiar with mill-practice understand the work required of an average bucket-elevator, but I wish to call special attention to the wear on the buckets. I have been studying in what manner the life and service of the bucket might be improved, and I feel that an adjustable lip, attachable to each bucket without the aid of rivets, will be of material advantage. For illustration, consider the feed-elevator of a typical mill in the Cur d'Alène district. The ore is carried by water in a launder from the feed-rolls and dumped in the "boot" of the elevator, directly in front of the ascending bucket. Middlings from the return-rolls are similarly handled. Under this condition the bucket not only carries the ore, but also picks it up, and this latter requirement determines the life and service of the bucket. It might be said that it would be better practice to convey the feed to the elevator and dump it directly into the bucket, but at one mill at which this plan was tried the results were disappointing and the rubber belt was badly worn. The wear of the bucket is confined to the lip and the corners which have to pick up the material. When the lip on a corner of a 7- by 12-in. malleable cast-iron bucket is worn down about 3 in., the bucket is of no further value as a carrier and has to be replaced. The worn bucket, containing about three¬quarters by weight of the metal of the original bucket, has a scrap value of about 10 per cent. of that of a new bucket. To the cost of the bucket, however, should be added the time-cost of replacing the old bucket by a new one. This time-cost is considerable when the loss per hour, to cease operating the mill, is about $200. It is out of the question to put lips on a bucket unless the latter was originally fitted with this device. For if it is attempted to fit lips upon buckets not originally provided with

Sep 1, 1912

By R. S. Dean

As set forth in the decision of the Trail Smelter Arbitral Tribunal, dated April 16, 1938 This Tribunal is constituted under and its powers are derived from and limited by the convention between the United States of America and the Dominion of Canada signed at Ottawa, April 15, 1935, duly ratified by the two parties and ratification exchanged at Ottawa, August 3, 1935 (hereinafter termed "the Convention") . . . The duty imposed upon the Tribunal by the Convention was to "finally decide" the following questions: (1) Whether damage caused by the Trail Smelter in the State of Washington has occurred since the first day of January 1932, and, if so, what indemnity should be paid therefor? (2) In the event of the answer to the first part of the preceding Question being in the affirmative, whether the Trail Smelter should be required to refrain from causing damage in the State of Washington in the future and, if so, to what extent? (3) In the light of the answer to the preceding Question, what measures or regime, if any, should be adopted or maintained by the Trail Smelter? (4) What indemnity or compensation, if any, should be paid on account of any decision or decisions rendered by the Tribunal pursuant to the next two preceding Questions? In this decision reported to the Government of the United States of America and to the Government of the Dominion of Canada, the Tribunal answered the first question in its entirety and reserved decision on the other three questions in accordance with the following extract from their decision

Jan 1, 1944

By M. A. Tomlinson, A. Di Feo, T. C. Cheng

"Goldcorp is evaluating the potential for economic reprocessing of historic tailings at several sites, including the Aunor A facility located in Timmins. The overall project is investigating the ability to recover value, remove sulphide minerals and alternative tailings re-deposition strategies. Desulphurization of tailings will eliminate potential acid generation while improved tailings re-deposition could reduce long-term liabilities and closure costs. Through a task-share project between CanmetMINING and Goldcorp, tailings obtained from Aunor A site have been characterized using mineral association analysis and diagnostic separation techniques. The selected tailing samples contain about 2 g/t of gold. Mineralogical analysis has identified coarse agglomerates bound with gypsum and significant free gold, confirmed by high recoveries in cyanide leach tests. However, despite no evidence of surface passivation on the minerals, conventional flotation techniques were found to be ineffective in concentrating gold or sulphides due to the high fines content and highly agglomerated particles.INTRODUCTION Aunor Mine is one of the historic mines that belongs to Porcupine Gold Mines (PGM) in Timmins, Ontario. PGM has undertaken an extensive mine closure program to remediate the legacy and closed mines with the funding supported by operating mines since 2006. Over the course of 100 years of operation in the Porcupine camp, it is estimated (Stevens et al., 2013) that about 130 million tonnes of tailings have been generated. Aunor Mine produced 2.5 million troy ounces of gold between 1940 and 1984, while processing over 7.6 million tons of ore. The original gold grade of Aunor Mine ores was about 10 g/t. With 95% gold recovery at the time, an estimate of 0.5 g/t of gold remains in the Aunor Mine tailings. Aunor Mine has two tailings impoundment areas: designated as Aunor A and Aunor B. The two sites are similar in size, about 7 hectares each. The amount of tailings in the Aunor A site alone is about 3.2 million tonnes. In 2017, bulk tailings were sampled from five designated locations in Aunor A. They were characterized using mineral association analysis and diagnostic separation techniques. The bulk tailings samples contained about 10% total sulphur, 10% iron, 2% arsenic and 2 g/t of gold. The prime objective of this collaborative work between CanmetMINING and Goldcorp is to facilitate the timely development and deployment of innovative tailings reprocessing solutions, specifically in the areas of desulphurization, and recovery of metals. This work targeted specific tailings of interest to Goldcorp which goals are to improve its environmental footprint and to reduce long-term liability. Thus, it is imperative to look for innovative reprocessing options that can overcome not only technological challenges but also achieve economic benefits to offset the costs associated with reprocessing the tailings. Moreover, the greater goal is to demonstrate and deploy tailings reprocessing solutions to solve one of the industry’s most difficult challenges for a sustainable mining industry in Canada."

Jan 1, 2019

By C. W. Hall

MINE executives, as a rule, have always been willing to adopt new ideas of operation, or to listen to proposals which might increase the effectiveness of their enterprise, more especially so if they could be shown how definite results might be attained by introducing any conception suggested. In these days of high wages, high cost of supplies, and high taxes, operators are even more inclined to accord consideration to innovations or improvements, and many go so far as to employ men to conduct special investigations and make studies for the purpose of advancing production. Where a man is brought into an organization to do work of an efficiency nature, it often creates resentment among the operative heads because of having their work directly scrutinized, or investigated, and there is a tendency, if not actually to obstruct, to fa.il to cooperate; in which case the investigator is handi-

Jan 1, 1925

By CHARLES M. A. STINE

THE value of chemical research has been so thor¬oughly demonstrated in the last few decades that the general public has become "research-conscious" to an extent which allows the advertising agent and publicity man to make use of research as a selling point in his advertising campaigns. We thus see the advertisements of concerns in the most varied industries stressing the research which is back of their products. The reason for this "research-consciousness" of the general public. is primarily that the products of research have increasingly engaged public attention and have. revolutionized our daily life. When we. reverse the flight of .time and imagine ourselves-in the century previous to our own, we find that we are .without the automobile, the radio, the improved telephone and electric light, refrigerated transportation, the airplane, X-rays, and many other things now taken for granted. A generation ago we find gloomy prophets foretelling the certain over-population .of the world within a few decades and an insufficiency of food due to lack of the fixed nitrogen which is now so plentifully ours.

Jan 1, 1930

By Zhiwei Jiao, Ziqing Guo, Mushen Wang, Yueda Fang, Qiuming Tang

In order to achieve anti-terrorism, production safety, better explosive performance, lower cost, and environment protection, we developed HMS (emulsification in borehole).Long-process PM (plant-mixed) and SM (site-mixed) emulsion trucks are reviewed and compared to a new type of short-process HM (hole-mixed) truck for onsite emulsion manufacturing. The short-process HM truck has demonstrated many advantages over its PM and SM counterparts in areas such as process safety and security, energy efficiency and environmental impacts: 1) No emulsion matrix is manufactured in the plant, transported on public roads, or even present on the surfaces of blasting job sites. Such characteristics are certainly beneficial in eliminating risks of the product being diverted and used by unlawful players; 2) This short-process involves "micro-fluid control to form super oil phase-rich" in tubular emulsification process, making it intrinsically safe; 3) There is basically no residual matrix left in the truck or on the job site to clean up, which greatly reduces environmental impact of the process; 4) Comparing with typical PM and SM trucks, the HM truck has eliminated the needs of many power equipment and critical pump pressure for turbulent flow forming a static emulsification with super oil phase -rich is only 0.2Mpa. These is therefore quite energy efficient.

Feb 1, 2020

By Plato Malozemoff

While this conference is dedicated to the examination of "Challenges in Mineral Processing," the broader aspect of the pursuit of this subject is Research and Development in the Mining Industry. When I was asked to speak at this symposium, I hesitated to accept. While my early schooling, training and professional occupation were in the field of this symposium, it was so long ago that I no longer feel competent to contribute anything of interest to you except perhaps for a limited historical perspective, which most of you probably already know. However, it might be worthwhile to explore the more general aspect of research and development from the viewpoint of management, as this is the stance from which I dealt with the subject for the last 30 years or so. While most managements generally have a positive view of research and development, few of the leaders in the mineral industry have actually had the personal experience of doing research for a long enough time to have obtained a full understanding and the feel for its place in the long-term technological innovation that our industry must foster. I graduated from the University of California in Berkeley with a Bachelor of Science degree and a major in metallurgy. It was during the great depression of the thirties, and it was difficult to obtain a practical job in the industry. I got a scholarship at the Montana School of Mines and received a Master of Science degree in ore dressing under Professor A. M. Gaudin, followed by another year with him pursuing research. Anyone who studied under him, or knew him well, would assert that this was a unique experience. Gaudin had a brilliant mind and a profound respect for science and the scientific method. He wished to know the scientific basis for every new technological appli-

Jan 1, 1989

By W. A. Lang

Introduction That the coal industry has entered a new phase in its development is now evident. Coal, besides being the chief source of heat and power, has become a potential raw material for many industries. Rapid progress has been made in the methods used in the mining and preparation of coal, and in the equipment for the burning of coal. Data of a fundamental nature relating to the composition of coal and to its transformations? during combustion and processing have also been revealed. Research, the key which has opened this new era, has already accomplished much, but it has only begun to show what it may and should be able to do. New developments of coal burning equipment, super-power plants, carbonizing and briquetting plants, hydrogenation and synthetic chemical processes, will undoubtedly have a marked influence in the post-war years on the economic welfare of many coal producing countries. Until comparatively recently, however, there has been in many branches of the coal industry a tendency to regard research as something abstruse and something which had little or no value to those managing such branches. But the fact that coal has suffered as a source of heat and energy through inroads of oil, natural gas, and water power, has made it plain to the industry that, if it is to maintain its present markets in this competitive world, much less increase them, the whole industry must be willing to follow the example of other industries and plan for the future.

Jan 1, 1946

By Farnham. G. S.

It is difficult co know how to deal with this subject before a group having such mixed interests. The mining man is not coo concerned with the problems of alloy research. The engineer is more interested in properties of materials than how these properties can be achieved. The business man feels that scientific history and prognostication are not for him, predicting trends or possible developments in the economic field being a more than sufficient occupation. Yet the application of physical metallurgy research to industry is of importance to miner, engineer, and business man, for only through such application can the continuing existence of industries manufacturing or consuming metals be assured. History shows that hard work does not guarantee industrial survival. For instance, the Bessemer method of steel making superseded puddling operations; it, in its turn, has been largely displaced by open-hearth processing; later, steels made in electric-arc furnaces displaced open-hearth products in the quality field; and now, very specialized steels are being made in high-frequency rather than in arc furnaces. It is apparent then, if industry is co remain healthy, complacency must give way co imaginative planning, based on a thorough knowledge of production technique, a knowledge supplied by efficient research.

Jan 1, 1947

Research, whether applied or fundamental, is a human endeavour which increases our understanding of nature. It is insufficient to simply observe, explore, record and classify. It i necessary, as well, to fit the observations into a satisfying theoretical scheme; that is, to synthesize. Two examples of successful research programs in physical metallurgy are di cussed from this point of view. A pessimistic view is taken of the prospects for rapid growth of research activities in the Canadian metallurgical industry. THE term "research" is used indiscriminately to describe any intellectual or experimental activity which leads to a change in society. Proponents of various activities, ex-tending all the way from alloy development to subliminal advertising, use the status of the term for special advantage. With the Canadian Government entering upon a project of support to industrial research, it might be well to determine what definition is most in the public interest. As an academic, I have a rather jealous attachment to the definition that research, whether applied or fundamental, is a human endeavour which increases our understanding of nature.

Jan 1, 1963

By John A. Mathews

RESEARCH in the steel industry, as in other lines of manufacturing, has for its principal purpose the increasing of profits. That is what manufacturing companies are for, and all departments of the organization must be so coordinated as to lead to profitable operation. To divide a payroll into productive and non-productive labor is misleading. Productive labor, in fact, is necessary labor, and non- productive labor is the labor we can get along without. One might as well say that the steering wheel is not a part of an automobile as to say that the directing minds of an industry are non-productive. Legitimate manufacturing profits in a steel company or any other company are the reward that the public pays for service rendered or risk taken. The desire for profits is the impelling motive that leads investors .to take risks and build up industries that give employment to others. Every department of a company, be it executive, manufacturing, financial, sales, or research, must contribute to the one end which brings success-profits.

Jan 1, 1921

By X. G. Liu

Bentonite is an excellent sealant mineral material because of its desirable swelling and self-healing characteristics, low permeability, sorptive qualities, and longevity in nature. A new type of water-swelling building sealant made from bentonite was studied in this paper. The building sealant is prepared by Na-base bentonite, vaseline and paraffin wax under different mass fraction of bentonite (which is 60%,65%,70% respectively). Under unrestricted state, some properties of samples were investigated. The volume expansion ratio at 24 h is 211%, 222%, 256% , and permeability coefficient is 2.86×10-8 cm/s, 4.15×10-8 cm/s and 4.78×10-8 cm/s respectively; low temperature flexibility of the sample (bentonite quality is 65%, 70% respectively) is good, and it does not flow heated for 2 h under 80?. The results of XRD and SEM indicate that bentonite is coated preferably by vaseline, and the spacing of layers of bentonite do not changed. The sample can keep full water swelling ability, and has good molding process. The test results prove that the properties of samples may reach the standard of building sealant.

Jan 1, 2014

By F. C. Yi

Discontinuous and consecutive process was applied to probe into the Kinetics and adsorption theory for Cs+ adsorbed by Zeolites under the conditions of temperature, time and fixed-bed dynamic adsorption. It indicated that the sorption kinetics behavior of zeolite?s sorption on Cs+ is ac-cord with pseudo-secondary velocity equation, velocity constant k2=0.0005213 g?mg min-1, and equilibrium adsorptive capacity is 147.0588 mg?g-1; The equation can be expressed as: Y=0.0068X+0.0887; From the analyzing of diffusion coefficients on different temperatures and times, the coefficient of diffusion is not only related with the fabric of mineral and the character of ions but also the temperature and time; When the ambient temperature hoisted, the diffusion velocity augmented rapidly; Cs+ would get over a certain energy barrier when it enters into structure of zeo-lite; This energy is expressed by activation energy, and its value is E=131.668818 kJ?mol-1; There are two dominating adsorption mechanisms in the system of zeolite absorb Cs+: ionic interchange and surface coordinate adsorption.

Jan 1, 2014

By H. W. Camp

RESEARCH is defined, scientifically, as a "sys- tematic investigation of some phenomenon, and also a search for hidden treasures." Chemists tell us that the hidden treasures of petroleum are far richer than the .products which have been best known to us. However, these secrets will be discovered only through intensive and systematic, as well as scientific, industrial research. Indeed, the scope of the subject is so great that such an intensive research program should be assumed by a centralized organization supported by the petroleum industry as a whole. Such organization would assume the responsibilities for investigation of new products and development of markets for such products. Gasoline, the chief product of the petroleum industry, has become a cheap commodity. The continual un-controlled overproduction of crude petroleum, the in-tensive competitive condition in the marketing of petro-leum products and the increase of refining efficiency and installing of cracking facilities, have all combined to lower the market value of gasoline. The lower cost of gasoline has all been passed on to the purchaser in the form of lower prices so that today the most important product can scarcely be manufactured at a profit. In other fields, manufacturing industries have diversified their products when faced by a similar situation. Thus, they have been able to widen their marketing outlook. Why cannot the petroleum industry employ the same tactics ? Right now we are hearing much discussion concerning the development of a wider market for existing petro-leum products and new products for existing or prospec-tive markets. For instance, we can cite recent develop-ments for use of propane, butane, and ethylene. Butane has been found to be an efficient and inexpensive re-frigerant, especially adapted to home refrigerating sys-tems. Propane and butane fractions of natural gasoline may be shipped under pressure and may be used as a substitute for acetylene in cutting torches in connection with oxygen. There is a possibility of substituting butane for gas oil in the carbureting of coal gas, as we know that butane contains practically the gas enrich-ment as the same volume of gas oil and should prove to be a superior product for this function. Ethylene, a hydrocarbon present in cracked gases, is finding an outlet for the artificial ripening of green fruits. The following table . shows the more general use of petro-leum products as now established.

Jan 4, 1928

By Volovik A. V. Ivtan, Shelkov E. M. Ivtah

"One of the most power consumption Industrial process is production of Al from bauxites (about 45000KWt.hour electrical energy for production of 1 ton. of technical Al). This process is based at the low efficiency and productivity electrolysis technology.Last years IVTAN investigations give to .us information about possibility to use of high temperature shaft- furnaces for efficiency production of alumina (AL2O3 ) technical. aluminium and some all.oys on the base of the high temperature carbon- thermal reduction process. At this case power consumption for production of unit of last, product will be less at the 3-4 times.The carbon-thermal method is allow produce alumina (Al203 ), technical Al and its alloys not only from deficient bauxites, but practically inexhaustible reserve of other types of Al-contain row materials (cianite, sillimonite and so on/The thermal-chemical economical analises of fulfilled at the IVTAN, production of alumina. Base on facts of production and technical technology are especially for ones arguments at the high temperature shaft-furnace technical Al and its alloysIn the last decades of the 20-th century, the discharge into atmosphere of high temperature and. combustion gases places . problems before humanity more and more sharply and becomes of great importance task.But at the same time, as production of material values increases, intensity of pollution of environment increases all time. And the value of new processes and. technologies of material production, aimed at reducing the expenditure of power and pollution of· the environment, also increases."

Jan 1, 2000

By Yuanbo Zhang, Zhixiong You, Daoxian Duan, Guanghui Li, Tao Jiang, Xiaohui Fan

"Presently, high-grade manganese oxide ores are usually utilized by a coal-based reduction roasting process. However, there were some obvious drawbacks, including serious environmental pollution, high energy consumption, etc. The reduction temperature is relatively high (850-900 °C). In this study, a kind of biomass, pine black charcoal, was used as a reductant to reduce low-grade manganese oxide ores. Under the optimal conditions of reduction temperature of 600~650 °C, roasting time of 30~45 min and ratio of ore to reductant 5:1, the leaching efficiency of manganese reached more than 98%. Compared with the traditional coal-based reduction process, the reduction temperature is reduced by 250-300 °C.IntroductionManganese plays a very important strategic role in the national economy, and it is widely used not only in the metallurgical industry, but also in the light industry, chemical industry, medicine, agriculture, etc [1]. The average grade of manganese ores in China is evenly about 21%, which belongs to typical low-grade manganese ores [2]. Therefore, large quantity of high-grade manganese ores is required to import in order to meet the rapid development of Chinese manganese industry. As reported, the conventional treatment of reduction roasting has been widely applied for processing manganese oxide ores, in which coals or reducing gases (CO, H2 or CHi) were usually used as reducers [3]. However, there were some insuperable problems, such as high energy consumption, poor operating conditions, serious environmental pollution, etc [ 4-9]."

Jan 1, 2013

By B. H. Caudle, L. G. Davies, I. H. Silberberg

This paper presents a method of predicting the recovery and performance of a five-spot steam injection project, in which a realistic approach to pattern sweepout efficiencies is made. Published methods for radial systems were modified for the five-spot pattern by approximating the stream lines with straight lines radiating from the injection well and then converging to the producing well. In each radial segment, the position of the steam front and the temperature profile ahead of the steam front were determined by heat balance equations, which included an estimation of heat losses to surrounding formations. The location of the saturations behind the cold water front was determined from a Buckley-Leverett solution to the material balance equation. Results from this program show steamflood recovery in a five-spot pattern to be considerably less than that predicted for true linear or radial flow systems. For a specific reservoir containing 900-cp oil, a steamflood in a purely radial flow system was predicted to recover more than 75 percent of the original oil in place when 2 PV of water had been injected as steam. A five-spot steamflood with otherwise identical properties was predicted to recover 10 percent of the original oil in place when 0.15 PV of water had been injected as steam and to recover almost no oil thereafter. A cold water five-spot flood in this system was predicted to recover approximately W percent of the oil in place with I PV of water injected. For a five-spot pattern in an example reservoir with 10-cp oil, steam injection similarly showed lower ultimate recovery than water injection but no improvement in recovery rule. Introduction The thermal recovery method considered in this study is steam injection in a five-spot pattern. Pattern steam injection has been given little attention in the past, possibly because of some rather obvious disadvantages. Unless steam temperature is maintained throughout the entire swept area, the process will revert to simple waterflood with all heat being lost prior to reaching the oil bank. Also, the oil viscosity reduction takes place near the steam front and not around the producing wellbore, so that low producing rates must still be endured. This is the reason for the success of the steam stimulation, or cyclic injection, in which the fluids are produced from the same well used for injection. On the other hand, steamflooding can offer some advantages. Oil displacement is by four methods: (1) mechanical displacement by the condensed water, (2) viscosity reduction of the crude oil, (3) swelling of the crude oil, and (4) distillation of the crude oil in the steam zone. Although dependent upon the crude, laboratory experiments have shown displacements up to 80 percent by steamflooding. In addition, steam is a good heat transport medium, since it is cheap and has a high heat content. Previous Investigations Previous publications have reported methods for predicting recovery in a steamflood for linear and radial systems. Since no pattern sweep efficiency is taken into consideration, the recovery even from a radial system must be greater than from more realistic geometries such as the very common five-spot patterns. Probably the broadest coverage is given by Willman who reported experimental results and offered a method of predicting recovery for a radial flow system. They concluded that both hot water and steam injection recover more oil than an ordinary waterflood, and that steam injection could yield recoveries "as much as 100 percent greater than by water flood." They also concluded that both the heat requirements for a reservoir and the residual oil remaining in the reservoir after steam injection were independent of the amount of oil originally in place, that short exploitation times were desirable, and that a high percentage of net sand in the reservoir with a high initial oil saturation was desirable. The method assumes that the flood occurs in three concentric cylindrical zones: (1) an inner steam zone, (2) a central hot water zone, and (3) an outer cold waterflood zone. Displacement in the steam zone is based on laboratory-determined residual oil saturations while the hot water and cold water zones use the conventional Buckley-Leverett equations. Although the results shown by Willman et al. are for a radial system flowing out from the well to an assumed external circular boundary, their equations did

Jan 1, 1969

By H. J. Morel-Seytoux

The influence of patten, geometry on assisted oil recovery for a particular dispIacement mechanism is the object of investigation in this paper. The displacement is assumed to be of unit mobility ratio and piston-like. Fluids are assumed incompressible and gravity and capillary effects are neglected. With these assumptions it is possible to calculate by analytical methods the quantities of interest to the reservoir engineer for a great variety of patterns. Specifically, this paper presents (1) very brieily, the methods and mathematical derivations required to obtain the results of engineering concern, and (2) typical results in the dorm of graphs or formulae that can be used readily without prior study of the methods. Results of this work provide checks for solutions obtained from programmed numerical techniques. They also reveal the effect of pattern geometry and, even though the assumptions of piston- like displacement and of unit mobility ratio are restrictive, they can nevertheless be used for rather crude but quick, cheap estimates. ,These estimates can be refined to account for non-unit mobility ratio and two-phase flow by correlating analytical results in the case M = 1 and the numerical results for non-piston, non-unit mobility ratio displacements. In an earlier paper1 it was also shown that from the knowledge of closed form solutions for unit mobility ratio, quantities called "scale factors" could be readily calculated, increasing considerably the flexibility of the numerical techniques. Many new closed farm solutions are given in this paper. INTRODUCTION BACKGROUND Pattern geometry is a major factor in making water-fIood recovery predictions. For this reason many numerical schemes have been devised to predict oil recovery in either regular patterns or arbitrary configurations. The numerical solutions, based on the method of finite difference approximation, are subject to errors often difficult to evaluate. An estimate of the error is possible by comparison with exact solutions. To provide a variety of checks on numerical solutions, a thorough study of the unit mobility ratio displacement process was undertaken. To calculate quantities of interest to the reservoir engineer (oil recovery, sweep efficiency, etc.), it is necessary to first know the pressure distribution in the pattern. Then analytical procedures are used to calculate, in order of increasing difficulty: injectivity, breakthrough areal sweep efficiency, normalized oil recovery and water-oil ratio as a function of normalized PV injected.

Jan 1, 1967