Orientadores: Paulo de Tarso Vieira e Rosa, Hervé Carrier / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Química / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-26T16:53:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Cardoso_FelipeMauroRena_D.pdf: 12991377 bytes, checksum: 45dc2cfba21cc06f3ea5d3950d14b090 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014 / Resumo: As atividades de produção de petróleo são fortemente dependentes do comportamento de fase dos fluidos produzidos. Entre as possíveis mudanças de estado, aquelas que conduzem ao aparecimento de uma ou mais fases sólidas são as que apresentam o maior risco à produção de petróleo. A floculação dos asfaltenos, principais componentes da fração pesada e polar do óleo, pode levar à formação de sólidos nas diversas etapas da produção de petróleo. O comportamento de fases dos asfaltenos é bastante complexo, que de certa forma impacta na previsão, prevenção e remediação dos problemas causados por esta fração. Por este motivo, nesta tese, avaliaram-se diversas metodologias para estudar o comportamento de fases dos asfaltenos em condições de alta pressão. Dentre as metodologias, foi desenvolvida uma baseada na técnica do ressonador de cristal de quartzo (RCQ), capaz de identificar as condições termodinâmicas de mudanças de fases em fluidos pressurizados, contendo baixo teor de asfaltenos. Os dados obtidos com o RCQ foram validados pelas técnicas de filtração isobárica e microscopia em alta pressão (MAP). Aplicando as três técnicas citadas, a influência da adição de gases, os fatores cinéticos, as condições termodinâmicas e a influência da taxa de despressurização sobre a floculação dos asfaltenos foram estudados. Óleos vivos foram avaliados pela técnica de MAP, cujos resultados sugerem a existência de quatro tipos de comportamento de fases para experimentos de despressurização isotérmica, destacando-se a existência de equilíbrio líquido-líquido em temperaturas e pressões elevadas. A caracterização físico-química dos asfaltenos extraídos de óleo morto com n-heptano, sugerem que a diferença de aromaticidade entre esta fração e os seus referidos óleos, pode ser um parâmetro indicativo de possível problema de floculação dos asfaltenos durante a produção de petróleo / Abstract: Oil production activities are strongly dependent on the phase behavior of produced fluids. Among the possible phase changes, those that lead to one or more solid phases appearances presents the greatest risk to oil production. The flocculation of asphaltenes, the major components of the heaviest and most polar fraction of crude oil, can lead to solids formation in several steps of oil production. Asphaltenes phase behavior is quite complex, which somehow impacts in the prediction, prevention, and remediation of problems caused by this fraction. For this reason, in this thesis, we evaluated several methodologies applied for asphaltenes phase behavior under high-pressure conditions. Among the methodologies, we had developed a technique based on the quartz crystal resonator (QCR), able to identify thermodynamic conditions of phase changes in pressurized fluids containing low asphaltenes content. The data obtained with the QCR were validated by isobaric filtration and high pressure microscopy (HPM) tests. Applying the three aforementioned techniques, the influence of gas addition, kinetic factors, thermodynamic conditions and the influence of depressurization rate on the onset of asphaltenes flocculation were studied. Live oils were evaluated by the HPM technique. The results from HPM suggest the existence of four phase behavior kinds for isothermal depressurization experiments, highlighting the existence of a liquid-liquid equilibrium at elevated temperatures and pressures. The physico-chemical characterization of asphaltenes extracted with n-heptane from dead oil suggests that the difference of aromaticity between this fraction and its referred oils, could be a parameter to indicate possible problems of asphaltenes flocculation during the oil production / Doutorado / Físico-Química / Doutor em Ciências

The study of phase behavior is important for the oil and gas industry. Many approaches have been proposed and developed for phase behavior calculation. In this thesis, an alternative method is introduced to study the phase behavior by means of minimization of Helmholtz free energy. For a system at fixed volume, constant temperature and constant number of moles, the Helmholtz free energy reaches minimum at the equilibrium state. Based on this theory, a stochastic method called Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm, is implemented to compute the phase diagrams for several pure component and mixture systems. After comparing with experimental and the classical PT-ash calculation, we found the phase diagrams obtained by minimization of the Helmholtz Free Energy approach match the experimental and theoretical diagrams very well. Capillary effect is also considered in this thesis because it has a significant influence on the phase behavior of reservoir fluids. In this part, we focus on computing the phase envelopes, which consists of bubble and dew point lines. Both fixed and calculated capillary pressure from the Young-Laplace equation cases are introduced to study their effects on phase envelopes. We found that the existence of capillary pressure will change the phase envelopes. Positive capillary pressure reduces the dew point and bubble point temperatures under the same pressure condition, while the negative capillary pressure increases the dew point and bubble point temperatures. In addition, the change of contact angle and pore radius will affect the phase envelope. The effect of the pore radius on the phase envelope is insignificant when the radius is very large. These results may become reference for future research and study. Keywords: Phase Behavior; Particle Swarm Optimization; Capillary Pressure; Reservoir Fluids; Phase Equilibrium; Phase Envelope.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・論文博士 / 博士(理学) / 乙第12997号 / 論理博第1553号 / 新制||理||1604(附属図書館) / 32925 / (主査)教授 北川 宏, 教授 竹腰 清乃理, 教授 有賀 哲也 / 学位規則第4条第2項該当 / Doctor of Science / Kyoto University / DGAM

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Diblock copolymers have many interesting properties, which first and foremost include their ability to self-assemble into various ordered, regularly spaced domains with nanometer-scale feature sizes. The work in this dissertation can be logically divided into two parts - the first and the majority of this work describes the phase behavior of certain block copolymer systems, and the second discusses real applications possible with block copolymer templates. Many compressible fluids have solvent-like properties dependent on fluid pressure and can be used as processing aids similar to liquid solvents. Here, compressed CO2 was shown to swell several thin homopolymer films, including polystyrene and polyisoprene, as measured by high pressure ellipsometry at elevated temperatures and pressures. The ellipsometric technique was modified to produce accurate data at these conditions through a custom pressure vessel design. The order-disorder transition (ODT) temperatures of several poly(styrene-b-isoprene) diblock copolymers were also investigated by static birefringence when dilated with compressed CO2. Sorption of CO2 in each copolymer resulted in significant depressions of the ODT temperature as a function of fluid pressure, and the data above was used to estimate the quantitative amount of solvent in each of the diblock copolymers. These depressions were not shown to follow dilution approximation, and showed interesting, exaggerated scaling of the ODT at near-bulk polymer concentrations. The phase behavior of block copolymer surfactants was studied when blended with polymer or small molecule additives capable of selective hydrogen bonds. This work used small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) to identify several low molecular weight systems with strong phase separation and ordered domains as small as 2-3 nanometers upon blending. One blend of a commercially-available surfactant with a small molecule additive was further developed and showed promise as a thin-film pattern transfer template. In this scenario, block copolymer thin films on domain thick with self-assembled feature sizes of only 6-7 nm were used as plasma etch resists. Here the block copolymer's pattern was successfully transferred into the underlying SiO2 substrate using CF4-based reactive ion etching. The result was a parallel, cylindrical nanostructure etched into SiO2.

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The depletion of conventional oil reservoirs forced companies and consequently researchers to pursue alternatives such as resources that in the past were considered not economically viable, in consequence of the high depth, low porosity and permeability of the play zone. The exploration challenges were overcome mainly by the development of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. However, the extremely high temperatures and pressures, in association to a complex nanopore structure, in which reservoir fluids are now encountered, instigate further investigation of fluid phase behavior and composition, and challenge conventional macroscale reservoir simulation predictions. Moreover, the unusual high temperatures and pressures have increased the cost as well as the hazardous level for reservoir analyzes by lab experiments. Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulation of reservoirs can be a safe and inexpensive alternative tool to replicate reservoir pore and fluid conditions, as well as to monitor fluid behavior. In this study, a MD simulation of nanoconfinement effect on hydrocarbon fluid phase and compositional behavior in organic shale rocks is presented. Chapter 1 reviews and discusses previous works on MD simulations of geological resources. With the knowledge acquired, a fully atomistic squared graphite pore is proposed and applied to study hydrocarbon fluid phase and compositional behavior in organic shale rocks in Chapter 2. Results demonstrate that nano-confinement increases fluid mass density, which can contribute to phase transition, and heptane composition inside studied pores. The higher fluid density results in an alteration of oil in place (OIP) prediction by reservoir simulations, when nano-confinement effect is not considered. / Master of Science / Petroleum sub products are present in the day to day life of almost any human. The list include gasoline, plastics, perfumes, medications, polyester for clothing. Petroleum is naturally encountered in the void space, known as pores, inside rocks at reservoirs thousands of feet underground. In the past, the pores of oil reservoirs in development were larger and interconnected, which facilitates its extraction and reserve predictions. Most of reservoirs being developed nowadays have pores in the nanoscale and with poor interconnection as well as higher reservoir temperatures and pressure. These "new conditions", instigates further investigation of fluid phase behavior and composition, and challenge macroscale reservoir simulation predictions. In this study, the effect of decrease in pore size, as well as higher temperature and pressure conditions, in fluid behavior and composition is studied. Chapter 1 reviews and discusses previous works on geological resources modeling and simulation. With the knowledge acquired, a fully squared shale pore is proposed and applied to study hydrocarbon fluid phase and compositional behavior in organic shale rocks in Chapter 2. Results demonstrate that pores in the nanoscale region tend to increase fluid mass density, which can contribute to phase transition, and heptane composition inside studied pores. The higher fluid density results in an underestimation of reserves prediction by reservoir simulations, when the change in density is not considered.

The phase behavior and phase separation kinetics in polymer solutions in binary mixtures of supercritical carbon dioxide (CO2) and organic solvents were studied for two systems. Solutions of polyethylene (PE) in CO2 + n-pentane were selected as one model system to study both the solid-fluid (S-F) and liquid-liquid (L-L) phase transitions as well as the interplay of these two types of phase separations on the final morphological and thermal properties of PE crystals. Solutions of polysulfone (PSF) in CO2 + tetrahydrofuran (THF) were selected as another model system because of the technological importance of this membrane forming polymer and because of the broad interest in developing new solvent/non-solvent systems for forming microporous materials. These phase boundaries were determined using a high-pressure view-cell and optical techniques over a temperature range of 90-165 oC and pressures up to 55 MPa for PE/n-pentane/CO2 system, and over a temperature range of 25 to 155 oC and pressures up to 70 MPa for PSF/THF/CO2 system. For PE solutions, it has been found that the addition of CO2 to the PE/n-pentane system shifts the L-L phase boundary to significantly higher pressures, but moves the S-F phase boundary only slightly to higher temperatures. The S-F phase boundary which represents the crystallization/melting process in the polymer solution was about 10 oC lower than the crystallization/melting temperatures of the neat polyethylene samples determined by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). It was further found that the S-F phase boundary in n-pentane displays a unique sensitivity to the pressure-temperature conditions and moves to lower temperatures in the pressure range from 38 to 42 MPa. This effect even though not as augmented remains also for the S-F boundary in the solutions in CO2 + n-pentane mixtures. The miscibility of PSF in THF + CO2 was investigated at CO2 levels up to 14 wt %. This system shows lower critical solution temperature (LCST)-type phase behavior at low CO2 content, which is shifted to upper critical solution temperature (UCST)-type at higher CO2 levels along with an increase in the miscibility pressures. In contrast to the PE system, this system was found to display multiple miscibility windows. A "U"-shaped phase boundary in 92 % THF + 8 % CO2 mixture was observed to transfer to a "W"-shaped phase boundary at 10 wt % CO2, which was further separated into a double "U"-shaped phase boundary at 13 wt % CO2. The specific volume of the polysulfone solutions were found to display a variation parallel to this changing pattern in the phase boundaries, with reduced miscibility being accompanied with an increase in the specific volume. The phase separation kinetics in these two polymer solutions were investigated using time- and angle-resolved light scattering techniques. With the PE solutions, the focus was on the kinetics of S-F phase separation (crystallization) and miscibility and (melting) in n-pentane. Experiments were conducted with relatively dilute solutions at concentrations up to 2.3 wt %. The results show that the crystallization which was induced by cooling at constant pressure is dominated by a nucleation and growth process. In the majority of the experiments the particle growth process was observed to last for about 1 minute with a slight dependence on the crystallization pressure. The phase separation kinetics in PSF solutions were conducted only in a solvent mixture containing 90 wt % THF and 10 wt % CO2. Polymer concentrations were varied up to 3.3 wt %. This system was also observed to undergo phase separation by only nucleation and growth mechanism under these conditions upon reducing the pressure at constant temperature. Several experiments were conducted using a multiple rapid pressure drop technique to identify the depth of the metastable region. PE crystals that were produced by crossing the S-F boundary by different paths were collected and characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and DSC. Crystallization was carried out either by cooling at constant pressure, or by cooling without pressure adjustment, or by first crossing the L-L boundary via pressure reduction at a constant temperature followed by cooling. For crystal recovery, the system was depressurized to ambient conditions irrespective of the path. It was found that all of the crystals formed from these solutions show multiple melting peaks in their first DSC heating scans, which however collapse into one crystallization peak in the cooling scans and one melting peak in the second heating scans. The temperatures corresponding to the multiple melting peaks were lower than the single melting temperature of the original PE sample and the melting temperature observed in the second heating scans for all samples. The multiple melting peaks were attributed to the presence of different lamellar thickness that are formed in the crystallization, final depressurization and sample collection stages. Depending upon the crystallization path some differences were noted. The crystals formed by first going through L-L phase separation displayed predominately double melting peaks in the first DSC scan. It was observed that the overall crystallinity is increased by more than 10 % to about 75 % compared to the crystallinity of the original PE sample, which is about 63 %. FESEM characterization showed that the prevailing morphology is composed of plate-like lamellae that show different level of agglomeration depending on the crystallization conditions. The overall structures of the particles were ellipsoid for crystals formed from dilute solutions. For crystals formed from the 1% PE solution, crystal sizes ranged from 4 mm ´ 10 mm for crystals formed at 14 MPa to 30 mm ´ 45 mm at 45 MPa. The crystals formed from 5 wt % solutions in n-pentane at pressures in the range of 38-54 MPa showed different morphologies with features of shish-kebab like structures which were however absent in crystals formed from n-pentane + CO2 solutions. The crystals that were formed from first crossing the L-L phase boundary followed by cooling showed two distinct particle size ranges that were attributed to crystals formed from the polymer-rich and polymer-lean phases that evolve when the L-L phase boundary is crossed. / Ph. D.

Cationic polymers have shown potential as gene delivery vectors due to their ability to condense DNA and protect it from cellular and restriction nucleases. Dendrimers are hyperbranched macromolecules with precisely defined molecular weights and highly symmetric branches stemming from a central core. The nanosize, tunable surface chemistries and ease of surface functionalization has made dendrimers an attractive alternative to conventional linear polymers for DNA delivery applications. The commercially available, cationic dendrimer poly(amidoamine) or PAMAM is the most widely studied dendrimer for use as a gene delivery vector. The aim of this dissertation is to provide an increased understanding of the packaging and forces within PAMAM–DNA complexes. In Chapter 4, we will discuss the effect of molecular chain architecture on DNA-DNA intermolecular forces by examining DNA condensed by low generation (G0 & G1) PAMAM and comparing them to comparably charged linear arginine peptides. Using osmotic stress coupled with X-ray scattering, we are able to determine the structure and forces within dendrimer-DNA complexes, or dendriplexes. We show that PAMAM–DNA assemblies display significantly different physical behavior than linear cation–DNA assemblies. In Chapter 5, we examine the role of pH on condensation in these same low generation PAMAM-DNA complexes. PAMAM dendrimers have both terminal primary amines and internal tertiary amines with different pKas of approximately 9 and 6, respectively. We show changes in the pH at condensation greatly influence the resulting packaging as well as the resulting phase behavior for PAMAM dendriplexes. In Chapter 6, we examine the packaging of DNA by G4 PAMAM as a function of the percent zwitterionic modification. Many cationic polymers, including PAMAM, have shown high transfection efficiency in cell culture and potential for in vitro and in vivo applications, but its development is hindered by cytotoxicity in many cell lines and tissues. We hypothesize that zwitterionic PAMAM (zPAMAM) represent a new means to tune polymer-DNA interactions through PAMAM surface charge potentially enhancing intracellular unpackaging while reducing cellular toxicity. These zPAMAM complexes are currently under investigation for their potential as safer and more efficient materials for DNA delivery.