Analysis of release-resistant water in materials and related devices and methods
OwnerMichael P. Smithinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Provided herein are new methods of analyzing release-resistant water in materials, such as geologic materials. The methods of the invention typically comprise removal of extraneous water, e.g., by drying, preparing the material for the release of release-resistant water (e.g., by crushing the material, but typically not so greatly as to cause the release of fluid from hermetically sealed components, such as fluid inclusions), and then analyzing the amount of release-resistant water in the sample, either directly in-situ or by the additional step of extracting the release-resistant water and measuring the extraction. The invention also provides new devices and/or systems useful in the performance of such methods.
Claims28
A method for analyzing a material containing release-resistant water comprising:
- (a) removing at least about 99% of any water associated with the material that is removable from the material by subjecting the material to a temperature of at least about 100 degrees C. at normal atmospheric pressure (“extraneous water”) to obtain extraneous water-free material;
- (b) applying an extraction force to the extraneous water-free material to release a detectable amount of water contained in the material after performing step (a) that is extractable from the material without causing the release of more than 2% of water bound in crystalline form in the material (“release-resistant water”), (c) measuring the amount of release-resistant water released from the material by capacitance manometry, and (d) using the measured amount of release-resistant water to assess the characteristics of the material.
A system for analyzing release-resistant water in materials comprising:
- (a) a collection component configured to capture samples and delivering samples into an enclosed analytical device;
- (b) an optional washing component configured to wash delivered samples in an average time of about 1 minute or less;
- (c) a drying component configured to remove extraneous water from washed samples in an average time of about 2 minutes or less;
- and (d) an enclosed device comprising, (i) an optional sorting component for sorting samples from one another, (ii) an optional crushing component configured to crush the samples in an average time of about 1 minute or less, and (iii) an analytical component configured to analyze the amount of release-resistant water in the dried material.
A method for analyzing a material comprising:
- (a) removing at least about 99% of any water associated with the material that is removable from the material by subjecting the material to a temperature of at least about 100 degrees C. water at normal atmospheric pressure (“extraneous water”) to obtain extraneous water-free material;
- (b) applying an extraction force to the extraneous water-free material to release a detectable amount of water contained in the material after performing step (a) that is extractable from the material without causing the release of more than 2% of water bound in crystalline form in the material (“release-resistant water”), (c) measuring an amount of release-resistant water released from the material, and (d) using the measurement of the amount of release-resistant water to assess the characteristics of the material, wherein the measurement of release-resistant water in step (c) of the method is the only water measurement performed in the method.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.