PSENGPET1001 - Prediction of Petroleum Fluid Properties
Designed and taught by award-winning faculty from Rice's Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department for those engaged in the processing of petroleum fluids such as crude oil and gas mixtures found in Oil & Gas (O&G) exploration and production, this course explores exploiting the knowledge of physical principles to solve practical problems in the characterization of petroleum fluids. The physical principles and foundational understanding enable the effective characterization and effective production of O&G in a variety of geological and process conditions.
The objective of the course is to ground participants in the fundamentals of the reservoir fluids, as well as the state-of-the-art technologies employed. Through the understanding of physical and chemical fluid fundamentals and the geologies from which they are extracted, the practices and processes are analyzed to provide the most efficient, cost-effective and environmentally sound approaches for sustainable transformative operations.
The format of this course includes lectures and problem-solving sessions, interspersed with ample opportunities for informal discussions with the instructors. Taught over a three-day period, this course includes a morning and afternoon session each day, coffee breaks and a lunch break between the morning and afternoon session.
Course Details
Topics include:
- Basic principles of the thermodynamics of mixtures with emphasis on advanced modeling techniques
- Modeling of phase behavior using cubic equations of state and advanced molecular-based models such as the SAFT equation of state
- Interpretation of PVT experiments such as Constant Composition Expansion, Differential Liberation, Flash Separation, and Swell-tests
- Applications to the water content of hydrocarbons and to asphaltene phase behavior
- Leading edge experimental and simulation approaches to characterize petroleum fluids, specifically, microfluidics-based approaches to characterize fluids, especially to visualize foam transport in models with permeability contrasts, fractures, and multiple phases
- NMR logging of in situ fluids and discussion of recent developments integrating atomistic molecular simulations
- NMR measurements to enhance the interpretation of NMR logs
- Hands-on calculation examples
- Petroleum engineers
- Petrophysical engineers
- Process engineers
- Facilities engineers
- Reservoir engineers
- Design engineers
- Geologists
- Production chemists
- Flow assurance specialists
- Laboratory technicians
- Project managers
- Engineering contractors
- Anyone who is interested in learning about the characterization of petroleum fluids using modern modeling and experimental techniques
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Rice University
Course Coordinators
Dr. Dilip Asthagiri is the director of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering master’s program at Rice University. He is also a lecturer in the department and a senior research scientist in Dr. Chapman’s research group. Dr. Asthagiri received his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Delaware for his research on protein solution thermodynamics. He did his postdoctoral research at The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, and at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), New Mexico. Dr. Asthagiri’s research is in statistical physics of soft matter and liquids, especially theory and modeling of aqueous phase physics and chemistry. Together with Dr. Singer, he leads the effort to integrate computer simulations and measurements for the interpretation of NMR relaxation of hydrocarbons in shale gas/oil systems.
Dr. Michael S. Wong is professor and chair of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Rice University. He was educated and trained at Caltech, MIT, and UCSB before arriving at Rice University in 2001. His research program broadly addresses chemical engineering problems using the tools of materials chemistry, with a particular interest in energy and environmental applications. Current research activities include studying catalysis to clean water and developing chemocatalytic tools to upgrade petroleum. He is the research leader on multifunctional nanomaterials in the NSF-funded NEWT (Nanotechnology Enabled Water Treatment) Engineering Research Center.
Rice staff/faculty/alumni are eligible for a 10 percent discount.
Financial assistance information can be found on Rice Financial Aid's Visiting and Continuing Education Students page.
Knowledge of phase equilibrium thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and physical chemistry at the bachelor’s level is desirable but not required.