InspIOR – A Turnkey Microfluidic Flooding Platform
Our InspIOR state-of-the-art microfluidic flooding systems allow fast and cost-effective process optimisation and chemicals screening.
InspIOR provides a professional experimental setup for:
Enhanced Oil Recovery
- IOR (water/brine, LSWI)
- Chemical EOR
(Polymer, surfactant, alkaline, SP, AP, ASP, nanoparticles, etc.)
- Microbial EOR
- Gas injection (CO2, Foam, etc.)
- Thermal EOR
Flow Assurance
- Conformance Control
- Asphaltene Precipitation
- Wax Formation
Underground Energy Storage
- Hydrogen Storage
- Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)
- Underground Gas Storage (UGS)
- Geothermal Energy
Fluid Characterisation
- MMP
- PVT and Phase Envelopes
- Complex Viscosities
- Diffusion Coefficients
InspIOR and our transparent micromodels are the basis for our turnkey microfluidic solutions that include hardware and software components as well as chip design, flooding experiments and interpretation services.
Our InspIOR Microfluidic Systems are built for ambient and reservoir conditions flooding experiments.
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It is operated via InspIOR Vision, a process
control, visualisation and data management software, enabling an efficient
use with minimal human interaction.
InspIOR KEY FEATURES
| Key Features | InspIOR Basic | InspIOR Pro |
| Maximum pressure | 10 bar | 250 bar* |
| Maximum temperature | 130° Celsius | 130° Celsius |
| Wetted parts | glass, silicon, PTFE, PEEK, polymer coated titanium, hastelloy, stainless steel | glass, silicon, PTFE, PEEK, polymer coated titanium, hastelloy, stainless steel |
| Gas supply | compressed air or nitrogen | compressed air or nitrogen |
| Maximum dimensions | 250×100×120 cm [w×d×h] | 250×100×120 cm [w×d×h] |
| Maximum weight | <250 kg | <250 kg |
| *also higher (>500 bar) pressure ranges available (InspIOR Pro+) |
| Key Features: InspIOR Basic |
|---|
| Maximum pressure: 10 bar |
| Maximum temperature: 120° Celsius |
| Wetted parts: Glass, silicon, PTFE, PEEK, polymer coated titanium, hastelloy, stainless steel |
| Gas supply: Compressed air or nitrogen |
| Maximum dimensions: 200×80×120 cm [w×d×h] |
| Maximum weight: <250 kg |
| Key Features: InspIOR Pro |
|---|
| Maximum pressure: 250 bar* *also higher (>500 bar) pressure ranges available (InspIOR Pro+) |
| Maximum temperature: 120° Celsius |
| Wetted parts: Glass, silicon, PTFE, PEEK, polymer coated titanium, hastelloy, stainless steel |
| Gas supply: Compressed air or nitrogen |
| Maximum dimensions: 200×80×120 cm [w×d×h] |
| Maximum weight: <250 kg |
InspIOR FIELDS OF APPLICATION
| Fields of Application | InspIOR Basic | InspIOR Pro |
| Oil & Gas | water flooding enhanced oil recovery (chemical, microbial, immiscible gas injection) conformance control underground gas storage (UGS) |
water flooding enhanced oil recovery (chemical, microbial, miscible and immiscible gas injection) conformance control underground gas storage (UGS) |
| Energy Transition & Environment Conservation |
underground waste disposal groundwater engineering geothermal energy |
underground waste disposal groundwater engineering geothermal energy carbon capture and storage (CCS) hydrogen storage |
| FIELDS OF APPLICATION |
|---|
| Oil & Gas |
| InspIOR Basic |
| water flooding enhanced oil recovery (chemical, microbial, immiscible gas injection) conformance control underground gas storage (UGS) |
| InspIOR Pro |
| water flooding enhanced oil recovery (chemical, microbial, miscible and immiscible gas injection) conformance control underground gas storage (UGS) |
| Energy Transition & Environment Conservation |
| InspIOR Basic |
| underground waste disposal groundwater engineering geothermal energy |
| InspIOR Pro |
| underground waste disposal groundwater engineering geothermal energy carbon capture and storage (CCS) hydrogen storage |
APPLICATIONS
WATERFLOODING
Micromodels visualise water injection through porous media. The oil phase (green) is being displaced by brine (blue) which is injected at the left part of the chip.
MOBILITY CONTROL (POLYMERS)
Micromodels are used to evaluate mobility control related EOR/IOR processes such as polymer flooding. The process can be visualized and images are taken at high resolution.
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STREAMLINES & PARTICLE TRACING
Some polymers used for EOR exhibit viscoelastic turbulence. Micromodels allow investigating turbulence effects for critical parameters such as brine salinity, polymer concentration, pressure and temperature.
LOW INTERFACIAL TENSION (SURFACTANTS, ALKALINES)
Injection of surfactants can trigger “miscibility” between oil and aqueous phases and facilitates the formation of emulsions of different types. This leads to an improved oil displacement efficiency.
A large number of chemicals needs to be tested to identify the optimum chemical formula for a specific reservoir. In addition to phase behaviour tests and core floods, microfluidics are a valuable complementary screening tool saving time and cost.
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MICROBIAL
Micromodels give insight to microbial EOR (mEOR) processes, from the visualisation of the gas produced by bacteria to bacteria growth.
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GAS INJECTION
Immiscible gas injection leads to strong viscous fingering effects, resulting in low oil recovery.
FOAM
Foam is typically applied to enhance gas floods. Micromodels allow characterizing of foam related EOR processes (bubble sizes, count, lamella distribution, foam quality (liquid saturation) and stability, etc.) at reservoir conditions.
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Our Rock-on-a-Chip Micromodels are Reservoir Analogues
Our transparent glass-silicon-glass (GSG) micromodels are reservoir rock analogues
fabricated by etching the porous structure into silicon and allow:
- Full visual access
- Small pore throats and complex flow geometries
- Reservoir condition experiments
- Wettability control
Thus, a microfluidic EOR experiment
takes only a few hours.
We look forward to hearing from you.