Microfluidic and nanofluidic phase behaviour characterization for industrial CO2, oil and gas

Microfluidic systems that leverage unique micro-scale phenomena have been developed to provide rapid, accurate and robust analysis, predominantly for biomedical applications. These attributes, in addition to the ability to access high temperatures and pressures, have motivated recent expanded applications in phase measurements relevant to industrial CO2, oil and gas applications. We here present a comprehensive review of this exciting new field, separating microfluidic and nanofluidic approaches. Microfluidics is practical, and provides similar phase properties analysis to established bulk methods with advantages in speed, control and sample size. Nanofluidic phase behaviour can deviate from bulk measurements, which is of particular relevance to emerging unconventional oil and gas production from nanoporous shale. In short, microfluidics offers a practical, compelling replacement of current bulk phase measurement systems, whereas nanofluidics is not practical, but uniquely provides insight into phase change phenomena at nanoscales. Challenges, trends and opportunities for phase measurements at both scales are highlighted.

利用独特微尺度现象的微流体系统已被开发出来，主要用于生物医学应用，以提供快速、准确和可靠的分析。这些特性，以及能够达到高温和高压的能力，促使其在与工业二氧化碳、石油和天然气应用相关的相测量方面的应用近期得到了扩展。在此，我们对这一令人兴奋的新领域进行了全面综述，区分了微流体和纳流体方法。微流体具有实用性，与已有的大量方法相比，在相特性分析方面具有相似性，且在速度、控制和样本量方面具有优势。纳流体的相行为可能与大量测量结果不同，这与从纳米多孔页岩中开采新兴的非常规石油和天然气尤为相关。简而言之，微流体为当前的大量相测量系统提供了一种实用且极具吸引力的替代方案，而纳流体不实用，但却能独特地深入了解纳米尺度的相变现象。文中强调了两种尺度下相测量面临的挑战、趋势和机遇。