UT scientists are developing a means of increasing oil extraction from existing reservoirs in order to boost energy production and reduce its negative environmental impacts.

The UT Bureau of Economic Geology organized the Advanced Energy Consortium to host forums which have brought together geoscientists and people from the nanotechnology field to discuss potential advancements in the oil industry, said John Bird, Jackson School of Geosciences spokesman.

Future forums will be used to determine what research and development is needed to make the technology a reality and solicit research proposals from universities and private companies working on nanotechnology, Bird said.

"We're looking for the best technology, wherever it might be available in the world," said Sean Murphy, a manager in the consortium.

Murphy compared the difficulty of extracting oil from a reservoir to extracting all of the water out of a sponge by sucking on it with a straw.

"In any given petroleum reservoir, approximately 60 to 70 percent of oil can remain underground," Murphy said.

Other energy sources such as solar, wind and nuclear power will not meet the country's total energy requirements in the near future, he said.

"The world gets 87 percent of its energy from oil, gas and coal," said Scott Tinker, who directs both the Bureau of Economic Geology and the Advanced Energy Consortium. "It's very important that as we bridge our way to future energy sources, we continue to successfully develop the existing fossil fuel resources. The AEC is designed to help do that."

Petroleum and geoscientists already have developed sophisticated methods to extract more oil from problematic reservoirs. These techniques include injecting fluids, CO2 gases, steam and surfactants, a mixture similar to soap, into oil fields, Murphy said.

Nanoparticles could enhance existing technologies by reducing the thickness of oil mixtures and filtering the petroleum from the reservoir mix, allowing more oil to be extracted, Murphy said.

This technique would allow more domestic drilling and therefore reduce dependence on foreign oil, he said.

Murphy said the consortium's focus is developing nanosensors that could be injected into reservoirs to provide more information about how to obtain more oil.

Developing nanosensors presents a challenge to nanoscientists because the harsh environment of reservoirs makes traditional electronics hard to use. The long-term project will be beneficial because of its environmental efficiency and potential increase in the amount of oil taken out of seemingly depleted fields, Murphy said.

The consortium teamed up with seven major oil-related companies to provide financial backing for the project.

"The payback is huge," Murphy said. "If we can extract more oil out of the ground in a given reservoir, we don't have to drill in new locations or look in environmentally sensitive areas to find more oil."

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