Smart mud and sensitive enzymes
Environmental legislation is increasingly preventing use of oil base mud. Most recently, Marathon Oil U.K. Ltd. won a U.K. production license that specified oil base mud cannot be used on the license blocks. The goal is to protect sea-birds. Unfortunately, water base mud, the green' alternative, does not have a performance to match oil base mud. But an Aberdeen chemist thinks he has found the answer with Smart Mud, an emulsion drilling mud that becomes water soluble as soon as it hits the sea. Smart Mud passed the laboratory test stage and is ready for field trials this year. Another researcher is using enzymes and organisms to detect gases that are hard to monitor and cause problems for the oil and gas industry: phenol vapors, methane, and sulfur and nitrous oxides. The methane sensor, for example, uses methanotrophic organisms. They metabolize methane, producing chemicals that can be detected by electrochemical sensors, which relay signals to instruments. Enzymes perform a similar task for phenol and oxide detection. The main problem is to keep the biosensors alive and detect their by-products, while maintaining contact with the toxic gases. To do this, the team invented a polymer matrix in which the biosensors can live.
- OSTI ID:
- 6764217
- Journal Information:
- Oil and Gas Journal; (United States), Vol. 91:16; ISSN 0030-1388
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
03 NATURAL GAS
BIOLOGICAL MATERIALS
TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT
DRILLING FLUIDS
SOLUBILITY
DETECTION
EMULSIONS
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
ENZYMES
GASES
MATRIX MATERIALS
METHANE
MICROORGANISMS
NITROGEN OXIDES
PHENOL
SEAWATER
SULFUR
VAPORS
ALKANES
AROMATICS
CHALCOGENIDES
COLLOIDS
DISPERSIONS
ELEMENTS
FLUIDS
HYDROCARBONS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
HYDROXY COMPOUNDS
MATERIALS
NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
NONMETALS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PHENOLS
PROTEINS
WATER
020300* - Petroleum- Drilling & Production
020800 - Petroleum- Waste Management
030700 - Natural Gas- Waste Management