Europe and China to test oil in space: New groundbreaking methods of oil extraction on the Earth could appear thanks to space exploration. The European Space Agency (ESA) in cooperation with Chinese companies will conduct an experiment sending crude oil into space. The joint project is called Soret Coefficient in Crude Oil. The research group will ship out six small pressurized cylinders of crude oil into space. Each container holds one millimeter of oil which is to be pressurized at 400 atmospheres. One end of the cylinder is heated while the other side is cooled. The experiment will give oil companies an insight into oil reservoirs buried 7-8 km underground. “The combination of the crushing pressure and temperature gradient as you go further down is thought to create a ‘diffusion’ effect: petroleum compounds move based on temperature, defying gravity. Over geological timescales, heavier deposits end up rising, while lighter ones sink. The aim is to quantify this effect in weightlessness, helping to guide future decisions on oil exploration,” explains Antonio Verga overseeing the project for the ESA. Other parties involved in the joint research are France’s Total and PetroChina. As for the price tag of the project, both expenses and responsibilities have been fairly shared among the partners. The ESA will be dealing with testing whereas the Chinese researchers have provided titanium containers to deliver the oil into space. Interestingly, this is the latest generation of such experiments – some previous payloads flew on Russian Foton missions. But this time, the substance will be under the highest ever pressure. China’s SJ-10 Shi Jian spacecraft will be launched in 2015. Analysis of the samples will ensure deeper understanding of conditions where oil depots are available kilometers in depth. Therefore, researchers are likely to invent new more efficient method of oil extraction.The material has been provided by portal MT5 - mt5
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 09:23:51 +0000
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