bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Strategic Scale Mitigation for Oil Wells with a Low Basic Sediment and Water
Authors: Benkhaled M. , Tort F. , Baraka-Lokmane S. , Fretard D. , Lesage N. 
Published: June 2024

Abstract
The study concerns an onshore oil field in Southern Europe where wells are facing productivity decline. Both asphaltene and inorganic scale risks have been predicted at project phase. Since the Water Cut is close to 1%, no scale deposition was anticipated and the suspected cause for productivity reduction was either linked to the poor performance of Electrical Submersible Pumps (ESPs) and/or the poor efficiency of the asphaltene inhibitor.
The objective of the study is to investigate the cause of the productivity reduction. Deposit analysis collected on ESPs showed that it is composed of 95% of aragonite and 5% of organic material. Two hypotheses have been proposed: (1) Erosion of the carbonate reservoir, resulting in deposition on the ESPs or (2) Precipitation of Aragonite on the ESP due to thermodynamic variations and turbulent flow regime. Since aragonite is a metastable calcium carbonate mineral, not present in the reservoir, hypothesis 2 was selected. In the context of a very low water cut (around 1%), the challenge was to develop a novel chemical product able to prevent scale deposition. Two products have been tested in the laboratory and on site: a scale treater (STA) and a multifunction product (MFB), to prevent both asphaltene and scale. The scale treater was designed to modify the adhesion of scale with the formation of a protective film on the metallic surface. The second chemical (MFB) has been developed by combining the STA with an asphaltene inhibitor. This multifunction product has allowed to prevent incompatibility issues between chemicals and helped in the reduction of OPEX. Laboratory and field tests with STA and MFB have shown good results; both products were able to prevent scale deposition on the ESPs and improve productivity. STA and MFB products helped to improve productivity where a scale inhibitor could not be used because of the very low basic sediment and water (BSW). As soon as the BSW reaches 5%, the mitigation strategy could be to switch to two separate products: scale and asphaltene inhibitors; unless further tests show that MFB performs also for higher BSW.
Understanding the Role of Scale Management in Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS)
Authors: Heath Stephen , Mackay Eric , Jarrahian Khosro , Ishkov Oleg , Gusmao Patricia 
Published: June 2024

Abstract
Recent trends towards carbon net zero and the push to develop renewable energy as an alternative to fossil fuels have resulted in major environmental focus on de-carbonisation projects with an emphasis on carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS).
Both carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) and carbon capture and storage (CCS), capture carbon dioxide (CO2) from heavy industries and air, by direct air capture (DAC), and transport it to sites by rail, boat, or pipeline for injection into geological reservoirs for permanent storage and/or enhanced oil recovery (EOR).
A range of issues related to mineral scale deposition can be encountered that impact the efficiency of CO2 injection and utilisation/storage. These can include calcium carbonate deposition during CO2 capture in a calcium looping process, halite (NaCl) precipitation during supercritical dry CO2 injection and CO2 leakage due to the dissolution of carbonate cements and minerals in reservoir rocks which impact both cement and reservoir rock integrity. During CO2 utilisation for EOR, downhole and topside calcium carbonate deposition can occur in the production facilities.
Effective scale management strategies are essential to maintain a safe, sustainable, and efficient CCUS process. It will also be necessary to minimise CO2 footprint during the whole lifecycle by making it less energy demanding. Scale control can be based on continuous scale inhibitor injection or squeeze treatments. Additionally, for wellbore integrity and to better isolate the well from the formation, sulphate scale may deliberately be deposited to provide extra strength to cements impacted by contact with CO2. This intentional precipitation of sulphate minerals needs special attention to be paid to ensure precipitation in the correct location. This involves consideration of pumping equipment, well completion, and rock type as they impact the deployment process to control the location, rate and mass of sulphate mineral deposition.
This paper reviews the scale issues arising during CCUS including calcium carbonate deposition during carbon capture, halite and microbial induced calcium carbonate deposition during CO2 injection. Both conventional and unconventional scale management approaches are considered including treatments with and without scale inhibitors. The impact of well completion, cement type, and CO2 injection rates on CCUS and the selected scale management process are discussed. In addition, laboratory data for controlled barium sulphate (BaSO4) mineral scale deposition is presented coupled with field designs for CO2 utilisation through disposal in injection water in a calcareous sandstone and CO2 water alternating gas (WAG) injection in a carbonate reservoir.
Modelling of Halite Risk During CO2 Injection in a North Sea Aquifer
Authors: Ogundipe Oluwatosin Matthew , Mackay Eric James , Hatscher Stephan , Seri Gerardo 
Published: June 2024

Abstract
When dry supercritical CO2 is injected into a saline aquifer for storage, formation brine is displaced away from the wellbore. However, not all the brine is displaced. Residual brine is trapped behind the CO2 flooding front, and formation water may re-enter the near wellbore area under shut-in conditions. The water in this brine will evaporate, causing precipitation of salts. A numerical model is used to evaluate the risk of loss of injectivity in a North Sea candidate Carbon, Capture and Storage (CCS) aquifer.
The objectives of the study presented in this paper are to use a radial model of the near well zone in the candidate aquifer to:
Evaluate the risk of water evaporation due to CO2 injection under the field-specific conditions. Evaluate the risk for the reduction of porosity, permeability, and injectivity under a continuous injection scheme and a discontinuous injection scheme. Evaluate the threshold injection rate for salt precipitation to occur. Identify what is the worst halite scenario that can be predicted by modelling in this field case. In this case study, for all salinities evaluated, there is always some halite precipitated in the dry-out zone. However, For most of the sensitivities, there is insignificant injection damage arising. For a salinity of 1.2 M, the only sensitivities that led to observable loss of injectivity were when the injection flow rates were very low. Significant damage would require high salinity formation water (near saturation) or the combination of capillary and gravity forces to replenish brine in the dry-out zone very close to the well, such that replenishment flux would match evaporative flux. Maintaining a high injection flow rate reduces halite precipitation risk when viscous forces dominate.
This paper presents a methodology for evaluating the risk of halite precipitation during CO2 injection in aquifers and then uses that methodology to evaluate the risk for a specific North Sea CO2 storage project, identifying in this case minimal risk.
A Systematic Investigation into the Effect of Mutual Solvent Pre-Flushes on Scale Inhibitor Retention and Return
Authors: Singleton M. A. , Davis I. R. 
Published: June 2024

Abstract
Mutual solvents (MS) have been extensively applied prior to the main scale inhibitor (SI) treatment slug of squeeze treatments. Evidence from the field indicates that MS pre-flushes are beneficial, however, no systematic evaluation of their role has been performed. A series of core floods have been undertaken to elucidate the predominant mechanism that leads to these beneficial effects. Factors investigated included; presence/absence of an oil phase, type of oil phase present (mineral/crude oil), and core wettability (oil/water-wet). The objective was to investigate the impact of a specific mutual solvent (EGMBE) on the retention of DETPMP in cores that had been pre-flushed with MS prior to the main treatment and compare them to the corresponding core flood where no MS pre-flush had been applied ("No MS" case). In all the core floods, scale inhibitor injection and return profiles were evaluated and compared. Saturation changes throughout each flood were also monitored.
In all the water-wet cases, the return profiles for the flood with MS as a pre-flush were seen to be comparable to the "No MS" case; the mutual solvent showed no obvious improvement in SI adsorption and its return in the long post flush tail. However, it was found that applying a MS pre-flush to an oil-wet core significantly enhanced squeeze lifetime in comparison to its "No MS" counterpart.
The mutual solvent phase behaviour was also consistent with that for the water-wet cases, with it breaking through earlier than expected due to the presence of a residual mutual solvent phase that is stripped from the core throughout the injection stage.
A repeat experiment using the same materials did not show the expected improvement in SI return, however, examination of the crude oil used, indicated that it had changed significantly from the first experiments such that comparison to the initial "No MS" case was invalid – a different wetting state was achieved.
It is still our belief that the predominant mechanism by which MS beneficially enhances Squeeze lifetimes is through a wetting change from oil-wet to a more water-wet state, however further work is required to confirm this hypothesis.
The Impact of Copolymers and Sulfonated Polymers on the Adsorption of Phosphonate Scale Inhibitors
Authors: Silva C. , McIver K. , Beteta A. , Sorbie K. , Johnson G. 
Published: June 2024

Abstract
Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) is critical to optimally producing existing reserves with a minimized carbon footprint. However, it is essential that the EOR process does not impact negatively on ongoing production chemistry treatments. The focus of this work is on the interactions between polymers and scale inhibitor in terms of adsorption. The adsorption of both is assessed using static adsorption tests to understand and analyze for any evidence of competitive adsorption between these species. The study also elucidates some features of the adsorption kinetics of the polymers used in this study.
Copolymers of acrylamide (AM) and acrylic acid (AA) have been the most prominent chemicals to be applied in polymer EOR, whereas sulfonated polymers containing acrylamide tertiary butyl sulfonic acid (ATBS) have been used for higher temperature and/or salinity conditions. This work was carried out in a field brine at a temperature of 31°C. The polymers consisted of AA-AM co-polymers (20-33 % AA) and AM-AA-ATBS ter-polymers (up to 15 mol% ATBS) and DETPMP as a common scale inhibitor. The adsorption levels of the polymers and DETPMP were measured both separately and in sequential addition experiments (at t = t1). The adsorption results in the open laboratory were compared with anaerobic results as they may better represent the field conditions – these experiments were conducted on North Sea water at 70°C as this is a common mid-range temperature at which DETPMP would be used.
While polymer adsorption levels of ~20 µg/g were measured after 24 hours, this increased continuously over 20-30 days for the AA-AM co polymers. The same trend was observed for the AM-AA-ATBS terpolymers – with adsorption at 24 hours of ~15 µg/g which again increased significantly over time. However, DETPMP adsorption when added into a pre-adsorbed layer of polymer showed a surprising behavior not reaching the equilibrium after ~ 72 hours regardless of the concentration tested, continuously increasing over time. To the author's knowledge, the DETPMP equilibrium has been reported to be around 24 hours or less.
These results are amongst the first observations of this type in the literature, and they highlight the need for the industry to develop a better understanding of the competitive interactions between scale inhibitor treatments and EOR polymers.
Development of a Novel Scale Inhibitor for Mineral Scaling Control Under Harsh Production Scenarios
Authors: Seufferlein Benjamin , Ruan Gedeng , Balsamo Vittoria , Jones Regan 
Published: June 2024

Abstract
Despite the progress made on the expansion of scale inhibitor (SI) product selection over the years, significant challenges due to mineral scaling persist. Though multiple scale inhibitor chemistries are available for mild to moderately severe conditions, there are limited scale inhibitor options that can effectively manage mineral scaling for harsh production environments. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop a novel scale inhibitor for severe production conditions such as those encountered in Pre-Salt formations.
A synthetic strategy was implemented to develop new scale inhibitors based on terpolymers. From the multiple polymers synthesized, the best candidates were pre-selected based on thermal stability, brine compatibility and static bottle tests at 70°C. Standard dynamic scale loop (DSL) tests were then conducted to evaluate the performance of the new polymers and their corresponding blends. Test conditions simulated various production environments for Pre-Salt development.
Our studies indicated that the novel scale inhibitor showed temperature stability for upwards of 60°C for 7 days and 4°C and 40°C for 30 days and compatibility with very high TDS brine (&gt; 200k mg/L) even at elevated temperature (130⁰C). Furthermore, the final synthesized polymer showed the best stability and overall performance under these conditions compared to that of a commercial product and other synthesized products tested. It was also demonstrated that a synergistic effect between the final polymer and phosphonate in the final blend was responsible for further improved performance.
Decoupling Phosphonate Scale Inhibitors Adsorption and Precipitation Mechanism
Authors: Løge I. A. , Vazquez O. 
Published: June 2024

Abstract
Scale inhibitor squeeze treatment is a widely used to prevent inorganic scale deposition in oil and gas production operations. Squeeze treatments consist of three steps: firstly, a bullheading of a scale inhibitor (SI) solution in a producer well. Secondly, an overflush stage pushes the SI deeper into the formation, and the well is subsequently shut-in for some time to allow the inhibitor to further retain into the formation. Third and finally, the well is put back in production, and the SI is slowly released in the production brine. The treatment will protect the well if the concentration in the produced brine is above a certain concentration, known as MIC (Minimum Inhibitor Concentration), normally a few ppm. The retention level is crucial in determining the squeeze treatment lifetime, particularly at low concentrations. It is generally accepted that the retention is governed by adsorption and precipitation mechanisms, which will depend on temperature, pH, and divalent ions concentration such as Ca and Mg. Recent experiments concluded that adsorption is more dominant than precipitation at low concentrations.
Traditionally, adsorption/precipitation experiments have been performed at the macroscale using bottle test, analyzing the supernatant after filtering through inductively coupled plasma (ICP) spectroscopy, and applying scanning electron microscopy (SEM) imaging to analyze the SI retention on particulates. Although these techniques provide very valuable information, they are not capable of detecting surface deposits occurring when the SI retention is governed by an adsorption and adsorption /precipitation regime. High-resolution X-ray CT scanning is used in an in-house built mini coreflood system, which consists of a plug flow reactor filled with sandstone (0.25-0.5mm grain size, internal diameter of 4 mm). Coverage and volume deposited were detected through advanced imaging processing. The results show the surface deposit morphology, differentiating between regimes of pure adsorption or adsorption/precipitation. In addition, the retention level and release rate were estimated. This study results will lead to more effective scale inhibitor squeeze treatments.
Optimizing Scale Inhibitor Squeeze Performance for Chalk Reservoirs: Concept, Validation, to Treatment Design
Authors: Yue Zhiwei David , Wang Qiwei , Chen Tao , Ghamdi Tawfik , Lu Yi-Tsung Alex , Ariyaratna Ashley 
Published: June 2024

Abstract
One of the largest oilfields experienced calcite scale depositions on downhole tubing and surface equipment. The incumbent solution is a conventional precipitation-type scale inhibitor squeeze. However, the chalk reservoir features calcium-rich formation waters and strong binding affinities to the selected inhibitor. Such factors often challenge the squeeze design with brine incompatibility, water-loading, and low inhibitor return concentrations in the flowbacks, leading to higher frequency of treatments especially when higher inhibitor MECs are required.
This study details four squeeze optimization approaches for chalk-type formations: 1) Screening of new inhibitor chemistries to provide equivalent inhibition performance and better high-salinity brine tolerance through static bottle and dynamical scaling loop methodologies; 2) Optimizing the main-treatment pH for carbonate formations; 3) Investigation of a newly developed flush-additive squeeze enhancement technology; and 4) Inhibitor-rock adsorption modifiers to boost the inhibitor return profile. Items 2-4 were evaluated through carefully designed dynamical core flood techniques with great data reproducibility.
Through a comprehensive screening of 18 products, one scale inhibitor chemistry was identified demonstrating excellent calcite inhibition and superior brine compatibility. Furthermore, the inhibitor adsorption/desorption profiles showed that the carbonate matrix responded significantly differently to the inhibitor pH. With a normalized inhibitor MEC of 2-ppm, the core lives were 1200, 1800, and 650 PV under the same treating parameters with the main-treatment pH at 2.5, 4.5, and 7, respectively. Besides adopting the optimal pH, the treatment live was further increased to 2,800 PV using 2% squeeze enhancer in the preflush. Different from the flush-additive enhancer, the adsorption modifier was directly applied with the inhibitor. Synergistic effects were observed as the treatment lasted 2000, 2400, 2700 PV for 1%, 2%, and 5% modifier in the inhibitor package. The next steps are to conduct cost analysis among the options for an optimization, followed with formation damage evaluations using the reservoir core plugs from the formation depths. The data will be used to design the field trials.
This study shows how different parameters and chemistries can be utilized to improve the inhibitor squeeze lives for chalk reservoirs. The treatment design methodology for the chemical additive application is outlined and presented.
Mutant huntingtin induces neuronal apoptosis via derepressing the non-canonical poly(A) polymerase PAPD5
Authors: Chan Ho Yin Edwin , Peng Shaohong Isaac , Chen Zhefan Stephen , Leong Lok I , Lin Xiao , Wei Yuming , Koon Alex Chun , Huang Junzhe , SUN Jacquelyne , Kwan Kin-Ming , Chow Kim , Ko Ho , Chan Ting-Fung 
Published: June 2024

Abstract

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs responsible for RNA silencing and the posttranscriptional regulation of gene expression. Poly(A) RNA polymerase D5 (PAPD5) catalyzes the addition of adenosine to the 3′ end of miRNAs, which promotes their subsequent degradation. In this study, we demonstrated that the Yin Yang 1 (YY1) protein, a transcriptional repressor of PAPD5, was recruited to both RNA foci and protein aggregates, which caused the upregulation of PAPD5 expression in Huntington’s disease (HD). We further identified a subset of PAPD5-regulated miRNAs with downregulated levels in our disease model. We focused on miR-504-5p and miR-7-5p and found that their reduction caused the activation of the TAB1/2-mediated TAK1–MKK4–JNK pro-apoptotic pathway. We further showed that this pathway was activated in HD patient induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons. In addition, we discovered that a small molecule PAPD5 inhibitor, BCH001, mitigated the cell death and neurodegeneration in our disease models. This study highlights the importance of PAPD5-mediated miRNA dysfunction in the pathogenesis of HD and as a potential therapeutic direction for the disease.
Insights into the Microbial Diversity, Functional Attributes, and Nutritional Proficiency of Yogurts Cultivated in Bangladesh
Authors: Rahman M. Shaminur , Chowdhury Susmita Roy , Chakrovarty Tanay , Kador S. M. , Islam Md. Mazharul , Islam Khondoker Tanjim , Bhuiyan Mohammad Imtiaj Uddin , Islam Md. Tanvir , Islam Ovinu Kibria 
Published: June 2024

Abstract

Yogurt, a popular fermented food, relies on fermenting microorganisms, physicochemical parameters, and contaminants for its health benefits and shelf life. This study investigated sour and sweet yogurts in Bangladesh, analyzing 38 samples using standard methods like AOAC for proximate analysis, AAS for mineral determination, and Illumina sequencing for metagenomic analysis. Sweet yogurts had higher pH, fat, moisture, total solids (TS), solid-not-fat (SNF) content, and Streptococcus spp. Sour yogurts contained more moisture, ash, and minerals (Zn, Na, Ca, and Mg), and Lactobacillus spp. Sour yogurts showed greater bacterial diversity, including probiotics and potential pathogens like Enterobacter, Lactococcus, Aeromonas, and Acinetobacter. Commercial brands had more probiotic strains than local ones. Ash content positively correlated with Ca levels. Other bacterial genera, except Lactobacillus, correlated positively with each other, with fat content negatively affecting them. Hafnia presence in yogurt positively impacted mineral bioavailability. Nutritional values varied, with sour yogurts having higher values and bacterial diversity. Pathway analysis revealed sour yogurts' association with bacterial chemotaxis, peptidoglycan biosynthesis, and Vancomycin resistance, while sweet yogurts showed beta-lactam resistance. This underscores the nutritional and microbiological advantages of sour yogurts, guiding production and consumption choices for better health.