LAB REPORT

KWAME NKRUMAH UNIVERSITY OF

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

NAME: OFORI-SAMPONG PATRICK

INDEX NO: 6916316
EXPERIMENT NO: 1
DATE:18TH SEPTEMBER, 2018
PROGRAM: PETROLEUM ENGINEERING
TITLE: CORE SAMPLING CLEANING AND SATURATION USING DEAN STARK
DISTILLATION METHOD

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Contents

OBJECTIVES: ....................................................................................................................... 3
INTRODUCTION ............................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
APPARATUS: ..................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
SETTING UP DEAN-STARK APPARATUS: ................................................................. 4
OBSERVATION AND EXPERIMENTAL RAW DATA: .................................................. 4
OBSERVATIONS ............................................................................................................. 4
RAW DATA .................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
CALCULATIONS ............................................................................................................. 5
TABULATED DATA ....................................................................................................... 6
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................................ 6
PRECAUTIONS .................................................................................................................... 6
REFERRENCES .................................................................................................................... 7

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 CORE SAMPLING CLEANING AND SATURATION DETERMINATION
USING DEAN STARK DISTILLATION METHOD.
OBJECTIVES:
 To clean the core sample.
 To determine the weights of the fluids (oil, water and gas) and their respective saturations

INTRODUCTION
Knowledge of petro physical and hydrodynamic properties of reservoir rocks are of
fundamental importance to the petroleum engineer. These data are obtained from two major
sources; core analysis and well logging. Samples of reservoir rocks are used to help determine
the petro physical properties. These samples are obtained from cores during the drilling of a
well by replacing the drill bit with a diamond core bit and core barrel. They are then sent to the
lab for analysis.

Coring should therefore be detailed programmed specifically in production wells in order to

obtain original properties of the reservoir rock. The effect of pressure and temperature on rock
and fluid properties is in some reservoir formations significant, and laboratory measurements
should therefore should be made at, or corrected to, reservoir conditions wherever possible.

Basic core analysis begins with the cleaning of fluids contained in the pore spaces of rock. Cleaning of the
core sample may be done by:

 Direct Injection of Solvent

 Dean-Stark Distillation-Extraction
 Soxhlet Extraction,
 Gas driven Solvent Extraction
 Vacuum Distillation
 Centrifuge Flushing

Our focus is going to be on the Dean-Stark Distillation-Extraction method.

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Dean-Stark Distillation-Extraction method enables the determination of fluid saturation in a core sample
by virtue of a solvent vaporization and condensation process. The method relies on the immiscibility to
water and miscibility to oil of solvents such as toluene which was used in this experiment. Initially, the
saturated sample is weighed. It is then placed in a glass tube connected at the bottom to an externally
heated, solvent containing flask and to a fluid separation at the top. By heating system, the water
vaporizes, condenses in the condenser tube and is collected in a graduated receiver. The vaporized solvent
also condenses, soaks the sample and extracts oil, which falls into the solvent flask. The experiment
continues until the extracted sol vent displays its original color. The sample is then oven dried and weighed
again.

A complete extraction may take several days to several weeks in the case of low API gravity crude or
presence of heavy residual hydrocarbon deposit within the core. Low permeability rock may also require
a long extraction time.

APPARATUS
1. Thimble 8. Core

2. Electronic balance 9. Tongs

3. Toluene 10. Neck flask

4. Cold water 11. Condenser

5. Heating jacket 12. Graduated tube

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6. Oven 13. Vacuum pump

7. Desiccator 14. Extraction flask

OBSERVATION AND EXPERIMENTAL RAW DATA:

OBSERVATIONS:
1. The toluene started boiling and vaporizing after the heating jacket was turned on for a
few minutes.
2. It was observed that water came out of the core into the graduated tube. The water was at the
bottom and the toluene on top.

RAW DATA

 Weight of thimble = 7.659g

 Weight of thimble + Core sample = 102.742g
 Height of sample = 1.467in = 3.72618cm3
 Diameter of sample = 3.79222cm3
 Weight of dry sample + thimble = 99.657g
 Volume of water collected = 1.55ml = 1.55cm3

Weight of Weight of Height of Diameter of Weight of dry

thimble thimble+ core sample sample sample
+thimble
7.659g 102.742g 3.72618cm3 3.7922cm3 99.657g

CALCULATIONS

 Weight of original saturated = 102.742 – 7.659 = 95.083g

 Weight of dry sample = 99.657 – 7.659 = 91.998g
 Weight of liquid = 95.083 – 91.998 = 3.085g
Vb = πr2L
3.79222 2
Vb = π ( ) × 3.72618 = 42.086cm3
2

Density of water and oil are:

 Density of water = 1.00g/cm3

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  Density of oil = 0.91g/cm3

 weight of water is = v of water × density of water

=1×1.55 = 1.55g

 Vp = Volume of water
= 1.55cm3

 Φ = Vp/Vb = 3.2368/42.086 = 7.69%

 Sw = 1.55/1.55= 1.00 = 100%

Where

 Vb= Bulk volume.

 Vp= Pore volume
 Vp= Vo + Vw

 Φ = Porosity = Vp/Vb
 Sw = Saturation of water = Vw/Vp
 WL = Weight of liquid
 Worg = Weight of original saturated sample
 Wdry = Weight of dry sample

TABULATED RESULTS

Pw Vw SW Vp Worg Wdry WL VB
g/cm3 cm3 % cm3 g g g cm3
1.00 1.55 47.89 1.55 95.047 91.962 3.085 42.086

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

It can be concluded from the experiment above that the dean-stark distillation extraction
method is cost effective, simple and requires little attention during distillation. It is an efficient
method since all the solvent remained after the extraction. The properties of the reservoir were

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found. The pore volume, water saturation, oil saturation among others were found which can
be seen from the above table.
The Dean-Stark extraction is efficient because of the following reasons:

 It provides a direct determination of water content

 It is cost effective since all the solvent is retained after the extraction
 It is a simple method
 Less or little attention is required during this method
The results from core cleaning is to purify the core from any impurities that deposit in the core
hence getting minimum errors.
PRECAUTIONS

 A nose mask was worn because of the pungent smell of the solvent toluene
 Gloves were worn since it is moderately toxic to the skin
 The heater in the experiment setup was regulated at regular intervals to prevent the condensed
water to fall back into the flasks and re-saturate the core sample.
 A wire mesh was placed at the neck of the extraction flask to prevent the core from
falling into the toluene solution
 All equipment were cleaned after the experiment to avoid stains
 The sample was made to cool after heating before drying

 The core sample was placed in a thimble after saturation to prevent evaporation
 Two thirds of the extraction flask was filled to allow for evaporation

 Enough cool water was circulated to enhance the condensation of the evaporated water.

REFERENCES
 Monicard R.F.: “Properties of Reservoir Rocks; Core Analysis”, Edition Technip, Paris, 1980.
 Hjelmeland O. and Torsæter O.: “Coring and Core Analysis”, SINTEF Report,
Trondheim, 1984.
 Dake L.P.: “Fundamentals of Reservoir Engineering”, Elsevier, 1978.
 Koederitz L.F., Harvey A.H. and Honarpour M.: “Introduction to Petroleum Reservoir
Analysis; Laboratory Workbook”, Gulf Pub. Co., 1989
 Amyx J.W., Bass Jr. D.M. and Whiting R.L.: “Petroleum Reservoir Engineering”, McGraw-
Hill, 1960.
 Collins R.E.: “Flow of Fluid through Porous Materials”, Reinhold Pub. Co., 1961

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