Description (EN): "The jointly developed service will be provision of measurement services based on a newly developed and uniqe, high-pressure, portable and fully automated permability measurement system, called the PPD (pressure pulse decay) permeameter.
Permeability is one of the most important petrophysical parameter of a given rock, it reflects to the ability of the material to permeate liquids or gasses. Permeability measurement under reservoir conditions is essentially important in conventional and non-conventional hydrocarbon exploration, in geothermal research, water research and in research conducted on the disposal of high-level radioactive waste in a geological environment, but it is also used for testing elements with special temperature- and pressure tolerance in the construction industry, and in several other fields. "
"The acquisition of permeability data is time-consuming, rather laborious and costly procedure. Scientist many times are constrained to use permeability models in order to compute material characteristics, however these models are not precise and cannot be trusted in case of nuclear permeability.
GEOCHEM Ltd. has been working for several years on the development of automated, high pressure, high temperature and portable measurement systems that do not require high proficiency for the preparation of measurements and the measurement itself can be carried out automatically and - what is crucial - on the spot due to portability (in-situ measurements). The branded name of this new system: SmartLab concept. SmartLab concept will consist various measurement units: permeameter, acoustic meter (SRL-A1000), electro-impedance tomography meter, heat conductivity meter, porosity meter. "
"All measurement units should meet extreme requirements so that it could be applied at extreme conditions for special types of measurements. Objective of the present project is to jointly develop a crucial element of the SmartLab, the universal high-pressure permeameter (SRL-P1000).
There are several permeameters on the market, but the jointly developed universal permeameter will be equipped with special appliances and will meet special requirements constituting a complete novelty on the market:
(1) Special single, multi-functional three-way pressure regulator;
(2) Special fine-tuning high-pressure programmable needle-valve;
(3) Water permeability measurement.
(For details, see Chapter 3.3. Innovative character.)"
"The permeameter would then be further developed to be suitable for pressure fall-off measurements with gases and water as well inside the triaxial cell (instead of the biaxial one being used now) and the pressure limits would be extended from 350 bar to 1000 bar. In this way the permeameter would be able to measure in the range of 30 Darcy-pykoDarcy (instead of typical milliDarcy-pikoDarcy range, so this is an extremely wide range not available on the market of measurements) with overlapping.
The programming and development tasks would be carried out by the two companies together. The developed PPD permeameter, at the moment, will not be sold on the market in itself, but will be incorporated into GEOCHEM Ltd’s services, with the goal to build further portable instruments. The future users of this service are from the international research markets, while the developed automated three-way pump and its accessories would be independent products, which can be used in other devices."
"The project has 3 thematic project activities:
1. System design: the change of tubing and pressure transmitters and the production of a new triaxial cell. Important element is the planning of small automated needle-valves that help pressure distribution and can be individually built into the PPD permeameter. Key part of the design process is planning the control and interpretation software.
2. System development: after designing the individual parts and the software background, the next task is to complete the controls and measurement system to reach 100% automation (instead of the present 80%). The manual pump will be replaced by the three-way (2+1), automated high-pressure hydraulic pump system. The control and interpretation software will be installed and upgraded to the developed system.
3. Test operation: after the development phase, test operation is the next step in case of gas- and water permeability, and according to the pressure fall-off and PPD theory. "
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