Lesson 01-01 - Introduction To Microfluidics

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01. Lesson 1.01: Introduction To Microfluidics

Let's begin with Chapter 1, where we'll talk about microfluidics and how it's such an important technology for oil and gas. We'll look at what microfluidics is, its keyfeatures, a brief history, applications, and how we've really revolutionized it for the industrial space.

02. What is Microfluidics?

What is microfluidics?Microfluidics is the study of fluids that are confined to channels that are only micro to nanometers in scale. To give some perspective, that's smaller than the width of a human hair. Working at this scale allows us to observe fluid behaviors in ways that conventional testing methods do not allow.

03. What is Microfluidics? (2)

Microfluidics often goes by other names likelab-on-a-chip (LOC) or Micro Total Analysis Systems (μTAS). It's essentially like shrinking conventional equipment down onto the size of a microchip. This allows us to run experiments faster, cheaper, and with higher precision than conventional tests.

04. Features of Microfluidics

Let's look at the features of microfluidics. One of the key features is control.Microfluidics enables automation and reproducibility, which is essential for scientific testing. You can also multiplex, meaning you can run multiple of the same experiment in parallel under identical conditions. This extreme control helps us with getting highly reliable and repeatable data.

05. Features of Microfluidics (2)

Another key feature is size.Microfluidics experiments often require only micro or nanoliters of fluid. That means lower materials costs, lessenergy, lower environmental impact. Plus the small scale enhances mass and heat transfer, making experiments faster and more efficient.

06. Features of Microfluidics (3)

Finally, microfluidics is visual. By designing transparent chips and using optical imaging, we can actually see fluid interactions happen in real-time. That allows us to validate theoretical models and actually see what is happening, which in a rock core, for example, would be inaccessible.

07. Timeline of Microfluidics Development

Let's look at the timeline of microfluidics development.Microfluidics dates back to the 1960s, with the development of MEMS (or micro-electromechanical systems). In 1979, Stephen C. Terry created the first lab-on-a-chip for gas chromatography. Then, through the 1980s and 1990s, innovations like soft lithography, PDMS materials, and DARPA's biodefense projects pushed the field forward.

08. Timeline of Microfluidics Development (2)

By the 2000s, we saw digital microfluidics, paper-based systems, and organ-on-a-chip models. Today, we've reached a new stage: high-pressure, high-temperature industrialmicrofluidics. These systems, like the ones used in oil and gas, operate up to 1,000 bar, 200°C, or 15,000psi, and about 400°F, truly bridging laboratory innovation with industrial applications.

09. Applications of Microfluidics

Broadly, microfluidics has applications across medicine, biology, chemistry, and engineering. But in the context of energy, it lets us study fluid displacement in porous media and PVTs in ways that traditional testing simply cannot.

10. Early Studies in Energy

Before microfluidics, researchers used glass micromodels or glass beads pressed between plates to visualize fluid displacement. These were clever approaches, but they lacked precision.Microfluidics took these ideas to the next level with accurate pore-scale observation that lets us observe displacement under controlled conditions.

11. Applications of Microfluidics for Oil & Gas

In oil and gas specifically, microfluidics is used in several areas.Hydraulic fracturing to see frac fluid performance, water flooding and EOR (or enhanced oil recovery) to optimize displacement strategies, carbon storage to study CO₂ trapping and migration, and flow assurance and phase behavior to understand things like waxes, asphaltenes, and emulsions.

12. Chip Design & Fabrication

How do we actually build these microfluidic systems? That brings us to fabrication, both at the micro and nano-scale. There are several different ways to fabricate microfluidic chips. Casting methods like soft lithography,etching in silicon or glass, micro-machining, stamping, rolling, injection molding, and even 3D printing. Each method has trade-offs in terms of cost, resolution, and material properties.

13. Chip Design & Fabrication (2)

The workflow generally starts with system specifications, then a CAD design, mask preparation, and material selection. After fabrication, the chip is bonded, packaged, and connected to fluidic systems. This process allows for a high degree of customization based on the test being designed.

14. Chip Design & Fabrication (3)

In our process at Interface Fluidics, we use ion lithography. On the screen, you can see a diagram of what that process looks like. One of the key features here is that we have to design a mask that replicates the porous structure. Once that mask is applied to a silicon wafer, we then etch out the different pore structures and features. The beauty of this technique is that once a mask is printed, we can reuse it multiple times and create identical porous media. This essentially eliminates the porous media variable, which often is a huge problem in core flooding and other conventional testing.

15. Chip Design & Fabrication (4)

At Interface, our process looks a bit like this. When we design chips, we replicate reservoir properties like pore throat sizes, porosity, permeability, and even wettability. There are limits like minimum feature sizes or max aspect ratios, but overall we can get extremely close to an analog of a real porous media. As I mentioned in the last slide, the consistency of these porous media is one of the greatest strengths of microfluidics.

16. Imaging Techniques

Designing the chip is only part of the equation. To really get value from these systems, we need to visualize what's happening inside. At Interface, we use several optical methods. Bright-field with white light, fluorescence with ultraviolet light, and cross-polarized light. Each technique highlights different aspects of fluid behavior, like phase separation, particle alignment, and even chemical interactions. Fluorescence is our main imaging technique, as oil naturally fluoresces. This helps us see where oil is throughout the course of a test.

17. Image Processing with Auto Analysis

Beyond imaging, we also apply automated image analysis. Raw images can be processed into false color maps that quantify saturation, displacement, or particle presence. This provides hard data, not just visual insights, making the experiments both observable and quantitative. Here on the screen, you can see an example of a raw image, which we then threshold so that we can turn it into a binary image. We then mask it so that you can see where the pore structures are compared to the different fluids within the chip.
Then here's a completed frame with false color. In this case, we're looking at the light color—it's sort of a greenish color—as oil, blue would be water, and pink is thepolymer phase that's actually gone in and displaced residual oil in place.

18. Chapter Conclusion

To summarize Chapter 1, microfluidics is the study of fluid behavior at the micro or nano-scale. It's naturally occurring, like in plant capillaries or oil reservoirs, but we replicate it in the lab using custom chips.
For oil and gas, this provides 2 key values. First, the ability to design porous media to exact specifications, and second, the ability the visualize and quantify fluid interactions directly.
Together, these features give us a powerful tool to understand and improve subsurface operations.
That's it for this chapter. Adam will walk you through the next where we discuss Microfluidics for Unconventionals.
Safavieh, Roozbeh, and David Juncker. "Capillarics: pre-programmed, self-powered microfluidic circuits built from capillary elements." Lab on a Chip 13, no. 21 (2013): 4180-4189.Temiz, Yuksel, Robert D. Lovchik, Govind V. Kaigala, and Emmanuel Delamarche. "Lab-on-a-chip devices: How to close and plug the lab." Microelectronic engineering 132 (2015): 156-175.