Back to results
US 11,952,859 B2Granted
Sealing crude oil leakage through wellbore cement fracture using electrokinesis
AssigneeUNM Rainforest Innovations
InventorsIshtiaque Anwar, Mahmoud Reda Taha, John Stormont
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention provides a method of repairing one or more fractures in a wellbore cement by an electric field to move micelles from crude oil to the area to be repaired.
Claims11
A method of repairing one or more fractures in cement in a wellbore, the wellbore having a direction of flow from a reservoir to a wellhead, the method comprising:
- providing a plurality of electrodes, pairing the plurality of electrodes to form one or more anode cathode pairs, applying a current to said one or more anode cathode pairs and thereby creating one or more electric fields that (i) produce an attraction between the one or more fractures and micelles from crude oil flowing in the wellbore, and (ii) induce flow of said micelles into the one or more fractures by electrokinesis;
- thereby depositing the micelles in, and repairing, the one or more fractures.
A method of repairing one or more fractures in cement in a wellbore, the wellbore having a direction of flow from a reservoir to a wellhead, the method comprising:
- providing a plurality of electrodes, pairing the plurality of electrodes to form one or more anode cathode pairs, applying a current to said one or more anode cathode pairs and thereby creating one or more electric fields that (i) produce an attraction between the one or more fractures and micelles from crude oil flowing in the wellbore, (ii) induce movement of the micelles in the direction of flow in the wellbore by electrophoresis and, (iii) produce electroosmotic flow of liquid in a direction opposite to the direction of flow in the wellbore;
- thereby depositing the micelles in, and repairing, the one or more fractures.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.