Patent ID: 7718434

Claim:
A method for determining the characteristics of at least one fluid sample under investigation having at least one constituent, wherein the at least one fluid sample includes one of a crude oil, a mixture of homologous hydrocarbon molecules or some combination thereof, the method comprising: a, identifying at least one type of known calibrated sample having similar types of hydrocarbon molecules as those of the at least one fluid sample under investigation; b, identifying a plurality of known calibrated samples of the at least one type of known calibrated sample, wherein the plurality of known calibrated samples have known chain lengths; c, determining one of diffusion coefficients, relaxation times or both for the plurality of known calibrated samples; d, correlating the known chain lengths of (b) with measurements of (c) to provide exponents and constants of proportionality so as to determine a first scaling law for diffusion (1), a second scaling law for relaxation (2) or both, of the plurality of known calibrated samples, according to the following: D i =A ( T,P ) N i −v N −β(T,P) (1), wherein D i is a diffusion coefficient, N i and N are the chain length of i-th component, and the mean length, respectively, A and β are temperature (T) and pressure (P) dependent coefficients, v is the molar volume; T 1i =B ( T,P ) N i −k N −γ(T,P) (2), wherein T 1i is the spin-spin relaxation time of i-th component, N i and N are the chain length of i-th component, and the mean length, respectively, B and γ are temperature (T) and pressure (P) dependent coefficients; e, obtaining diffusion coefficients, relaxation times or both of the at least one fluid sample under investigation; and f, determining the characteristics of the at least one fluid sample under investigation related to one of the chain length of each of the at least one constituent of the at least one fluid sample under investigation, the mean chain length of all the constituents for each of the at least one fluid sample under investigation or both by applying the first scaling law (1) or the second scaling law (2) of (d) to measurements of (e).