Application of Electrokinetics for Enhanced Oil Recovery - Electrokinetics for Petroleum and Environmental Engineers - page 111

electrodes or antennas. By contrast DCEOR does not experience any of
these problems
Downhole resistive heaters have also been proposed for heating the near
wellbore (Sandberg et al., 2013; Vinegar and Bass, 2007; and Vinegar et al.,
2006a, 2006b, & 2007).
Several major oil company research and development (R&D) subsidiar-
ies and national laboratories have investigated various AC, Electromagnetic,
Radio Frequency, Microwave, and downhole heaters for EOR (e.g., Sahni
et al., 2000).

3.5.2 Geotechnical and Environmental Electrokinetic

Applications

Electrokinetics have been applied for geotechnical and environmental res-
toration problems, as well as EOR. Knowledge gained in any of these appli-
cations can, and should be, applied to understanding the others.
Leo Casagrande pioneered the use of electroosmosis for construction
soil dewatering and stabilization (Anon, 1966; Casagrande, 1952, & 1959;
Casagrande et al., 1961). Farris (1968) described the use of anodes and cath-
odes in a formation as a mechanism for dewatering it. Mitchell (1970) also
described using electroosmosis to dewater soil, and was actually retained
as a consultant for stabilization attempts at the Campanile at the Cathedral
of Pisa, Italy. Gray and Mitchell (1967) provided the current electrochemi-
cal basis of electroosmosis: i.e., that the electroosmotic membrane is not a
physical membrane but a cation-selective membrane due to the Helmholtz
double layer filling pore-throat constrictions. Mitchell (1993) also has an
extensive discussion of the electrochemical basis for electro-osmosis. Gray
and Schlocker (1969) described electrokinetic alteration of clay minerals.
Tchillingarian (1972) described the use of electrophoresis to move fine-
grained clays through porous rocks.
Acar and Alashawabkeh (1993) and Acar and Gale (1992) discussed
using electrokinetics to decontaminate heavy metal contaminated soils.
Bruell et al. (1992), Hill (1994, 1997, 1998), and Hill et al. (1997) utilized
electroosmosis to remove gasoline hydrocarbon and TCE contamination
of soils. Chilingar et al. (1997) utilized electrokinetic remediation of hydro-
carbon and metallic soil contamination. Döring (1993, 1996), Döring et al.
(2000, 2001, & 2008), Iovenitti et al. (2003), and Lageman et al. (1989)
also applied electrokinetics for the remediation of both organic and inor-
ganic soil contamination, with some rather dramatic case histories. Döring
(1993 1996) and Döring et al. (2000, 2001) demonstrated the destruction
of organic contamination by breaking down complex organic molecules