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

小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是降低石油勘探和生产(E&P；P)操作的风险，提高经济和技术效率。这项新技术有可能大幅降低石油勘探钻探成本。这项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，对可采储量和生产规划的估计更准确和可靠。在向可再生能源的关键过渡期间，这些好处将确保美国和国际上的碳氢化合物持续供应，从而支持全球经济增长。该SBIR项目正在开发的新技术还将通过减少废物、污染和二氧化碳(CO2)排放，减少对环境的影响、能源消耗和海上/陆上E&P；作业的整体碳足迹，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碳氢化合物勘探和勘探技术方面的领导地位，并通过使美国生产商更有效和更具竞争力来支持能源独立于全球市场的目标。这个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 Mm3)、95%的精度和1米/小时的吞吐量确定大直径长岩心中体积(3D)烃分布的可行性。今天，任何技术都不可能做到这一点，即，测井数据可以用来得出井筒沿线少数几个点的碳氢化合物估计值，而陆上实验室的“特殊岩心分析”需要数周时间才能完成。目前的两种技术都不能很好地与所提议的解决方案所提供的分辨率和精度相匹配。这一开发的颠覆性创新是将三维(3D)X射线多能计算机层析成像(MECT)和电阻抗成像(EIT)结合在一个井场岩心扫描仪器中，从而实现了MECT和EIT模式提供的信息的新颖、协同组合。将开发算法，将互补数据集组合在一起，以近乎实时地产生岩心中的三维油气分布。这些算法将在真实的数字核心模型上进行测试。第一阶段的最终目标是证明使用新的井场仪器可以达到指定的目标精度、空间分辨率和扫描成像吞吐量，以评估大型岩心中的碳氢化合物的三维分布。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.