SBIR Phase I: Dual-Modality Tomography Core Scanner for Oil Saturation Estimation at the Wellsite (iTomoSoS)

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是使石油勘探和生产（E P）操作风险更低，经济和技术效率更高。这项新技术有可能大幅降低石油勘探钻井成本。 该技术还将增加勘探和生产公司的长期商业利益，因为在长达数十年的油藏生命周期中，可对可采储量和生产规划进行更准确和可靠的估计。 这些好处将通过确保在向可再生能源过渡的关键时期为美国和国际社会持续供应碳氢化合物来支持全球经济增长。在SBIR项目下开发的新技术还将通过减少废物、污染和二氧化碳（CO2）排放来减少海上/陆上E P作业的环境影响、能源消耗和总体碳足迹，从而直接造福子孙后代。该项目的成功完成将进一步加强美国在利用先进的油气勘探开发技术方面的领导地位，并通过提高美国生产商的效率和竞争力来支持美国能源独立于全球市场的目标。SBIR第一阶段项目旨在证明在海上/陆上井场以高空间分辨率（10 mm 3）、95%的准确度和1米/小时的吞吐量确定大直径长岩心中油气体积（3D）分布的可行性。今天，这是不可能的任何技术，即，测井数据可用于推导沿井眼沿着稀疏点集上的碳氢化合物估计，而陆上实验室的“特殊岩心分析”需要数周才能完成。目前的技术都不能紧密匹配所提出的解决方案提供的分辨率和精度。这一发展的颠覆性创新是将联合收割机三维（3D）X射线多能计算机断层扫描（MECT）和电阻抗断层扫描（EIT）结合在一个井场岩心扫描仪器中，从而允许MECT和EIT模态提供的信息的新颖的协同组合。将开发算法以联合收割机组合互补数据集，从而近实时地产生岩心中的3D碳氢化合物分布。这些算法将在真实的数字岩心模型上进行测试。第一阶段的最终目标是证明，指定的目标精度，空间分辨率和扫描成像吞吐量，以评估三维分布的碳氢化合物在大的核心可以实现与新的井场instrument.This奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得的支持，通过评估使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to make oil exploration and production (E&P) operations less risky and economically and technically more efficient. The new technology has the potential to achieve significant reductions in oil exploration drilling costs. The technology will also increase long-term commercial benefits for exploration and production companies due to more accurate and reliable estimates of the recoverable reserves and production planning over the decades-long reservoir lifecycle. These benefits will support global economic growth by ensuring a continued supply of hydrocarbons for the US and internationally during the critical transition to renewable energies. The new technology being developed under this SBIR project will also reduce the environmental impact, energy consumption, and overall carbon footprint of offshore/onshore E&P operations by reducing waste, pollution, and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, thereby directly benefiting future generations. Successful completion of the project will further reinforce the leadership of the US in utilization of advanced hydrocarbon E&P technologies and support the goal of energy independence from global markets by making US producers more effective and competitive.This SBIR Phase I project proposes to demonstrate the feasibility of determining volumetric (3D) hydrocarbon distribution throughout large-diameter long cores with high spatial resolution (10 mm3), 95% accuracy, and 1 meter/hour throughput at the offshore/onshore wellsite. Today, this is not possible with any technology, i.e., logging data can be used to derive hydrocarbon estimates on a sparse set of points along the wellbore, while “special core analysis” at onshore laboratories takes weeks to complete. Neither of the current techniques can closely match the resolution and accuracy offered by the proposed solution. The disruptive innovation of this development is to combine 3-dimensional (3D) X-ray Multi-Energy Computed Tomography (MECT) and Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) in one wellsite core scanning instrument, thereby allowing for novel, synergistic combination of the information provided by the MECT and EIT modalities. Algorithms will be developed to combine the complementary datasets to yield 3D hydrocarbon distribution in the cores in near real-time. These algorithms will be tested on realistic digital core models. The ultimate goal of Phase I is to demonstrate that the specified target accuracy, spatial resolution, and scanning-imaging throughput for assessing 3D distribution of hydrocarbons in large cores can be achieved with the new wellsite instrument.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.