BOOK REVIEWS zyxwvutsrqp zyxwv zyxwvut Interfacial Phenomena in Petroleum Recovery, edited by Norman R. Morrow, 1991,449 +viii pages, Marcel Dekker Inc., New York. ISBN: 0-8247-8385-9. Price: US $125.00. Successful recovery of oil from petroleum reservoirs by displacing the trapped oil with the help of a fluid in many ways depends on the interfacial interactions between the oil, the fluid and the rock surface. This book attempts to provide an overview of different aspects of interfacial phenomena in the recovery of oil from porous reservoir rocks and represents a collection of chapters written by a number of experts in the field. Chapter 1 is an introduction to interfacial phenomena in oil recovery operatibns. It covers the basic issues involved in oil recovery. The main focus is on waterflooding. Other important oil recovery operations where interfacial phenomena play an important role, such as chemical flooding and microbial enhanced oil recovery, are barely touched. In Chapter 2, Hirasaki provides a thermodynamic analysis of thin films and three phase contact regions, where the distance separating the interfaces is used as a thermodynamic variable to describe interfacial tensions. The same author also attempts to relate the wetting behaviour to intermolecular forces in Chapter 3. The description of interfacial phenomena with the aid of fundamental thermodynamic relationships provided in these two chapters is certainly a welcome contribution to the petroleum recovery literature. The structure of individual pores and their networking significantly affects the oil displacement process. As such, there is a need for a quantitative determination of the structure of interconnected pores. Chapter 4 introduces the basic concepts of pore structures and discusses their determination by different techniques. Pore-throat structure, capillary pressure curves and their relationship to pore-throat size are described first. This is followed by a description of the relationship between capillary pressure curves and pore structures with the aid of results generated by computer simulations. Finally, the determination of pore structure from computer simulation and image analysis are described. Computer simulations of drainage and imbibition are given throughout this chapter. However, no description of the computer model used is provided, although reference to the original paper is made. A general description of the computer models used would have been useful. In addition, a number of terms such as the contact angle and concepts such as imbibition and drainage, have not been well defined, although this does not create any problem for readers familiar with the subject. While these terms and concepts are introduced later in Chapter 5, which covers experimental techniques used for the visual observation of multiphase displacements with micromodels, they should have been defined in Chapter 4. Various micromodels made of glass beads, single pores, network of pores and rocks are described in Chapter 4. This is followed by a discussion of micromodel applications in the study of multi-phase flows in porous media. Examples of micromodel applicationsin the study of the effects of various factors such as pore geometry, wettability and properties of the fluids are well covered. The chapter could have been better served by a number of illustrations such as microphotographs of the flowing fluids in the micromodels for different applications. The focus of the entire chapter is on visual observation studies in micromodels. A section on the quantitative description of flow patterns in micromodels would have made this chapter richer. Chapter 6 addresses capillary phenomena involved in the flow of foam in porous media. It starts with a description of the forces and the mechanisms involved in the formation of foam bubbles in single pores. The description covers various flow geometries including straight and constricted cylindrical capillaries. Theoretical explanations of the coalescence mechanism and the role of surfactants is provided by considering the attractive and repulsive forces on foam lamellae under static and dynamic conditions. A brief discussion of micromodels used in the study of foam flow follows. The major contribution of the chapter is the description of the foam generation and coalescence mechanism with the aid of microphotographs obtained from micromodel studies. The determination of connate water saturation from capillary pressure measurements is covered in Chapter 7. First some basic concepts are introduced, then the relationship between saturation and pore size distribution is discussed. This is followed by a discussion on the role of hydrostatic equilibrium in determining the distribution of connate water in reservoir rocks and a comparison of experimental and theoretical capillary pressure curves. A critical and interesting discussion on Leverett’s drainage column experiment is provided with a noteworthy dissertation on the causes for non-equilibrium capillary pressure qurves. Finally, state of the art techniques enabling the accurate measurement of equilibrium water saturation is described. Both Chapters 8 and 9 deal with the important issue of reservoir rock wettability. Chapter 8 outlines procedures to be followed for obtaining reservoir core samples with preserved wettability,while chapter 9 deals with the evaluation of reservoir wettability and its affect on oil recovery. There is a considerable overlap between these two chapters. For example, the section entitled: ‘‘Obtaining Representative Reservoir Rock Samples” in Chapter 9 precisely the topic covered in Chapter 8. Since Chapter 9 provides some basic definitions of wettability, it should have been the first chapter on this topic. The last two chapters cover relative permeability, a tool used to describe multiphase flow in a porous medium. Chapter 10 introduces the basic concepts related to relative permeability and describes various measurement methods primarily in homogeneous media, while chapter 11 is devoted to relative permeability in heterogeneousporous media. Both chapters fail to address a key issue in the determination of relative permeability, i.e. the stability of the displacement front used in the tests. Unsteady-state methods are accompanied by rapid changes in saturations near the displacement front, hence it is not possible to estimate relative permeabilities over the entire saturation range. A wide body of the literature describing the use of unstabilizeddisplacement data, which overcome the above stated limitations, have not been discussed at all. Overall, the book is a welcome addition to the petroleum literature. Since it is a collection of several chapters written by authors of widely different backgrounds the quality, content and style understandably vary from chapter to chapter. Some of the chapters are excellent. The coverage of fundamental aspects in Chapter 2, 3 and 6 is commendable. The shortcomings of the book lie in the coordination of the chapters and the omission of key issues from certain chapters. Although the title of the book is, “Interfacial Phenomena in Petroleum Recovery”, its primary focus is zyxw zyxwvutsr THE CANADIAN JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, VOLUME 71, JUNE, 1993 493 on waterflooding. Key enhanced oil recovery applications, such as the role of interfacial phenomena in chemical/surfactant flooding are missing. It appears that individual chapters have not been sufficiently coordinated, resulting in as a result a considerable overlap among chapters, and in the lack of continuity in some instances. These faults are not major drawbacks for the specialist, but they are certainly not helpful to the first-time reader. From the literary-quality point of view, all the chapters are well written, there are only a few minor editorial mistakes. The quality of printing is very good, and the overall quality of the figures is high. The references are adequate in most chapters, where in most cases notation and units are also given at the end of the chapter. The book should be useful as a reference book to graduate students, researchers and specialists involved in petroleum recovery. data are the backbone of the chapter. Nine appendices complete the subject matter (78 pages). The next two chapters describe two important experimental techniques: J. N. Butler and R. N. Roy present eleven specific topics of potentiometry (53 pages), and the isopietic method is discussed by J. A. Rard and R. I. Platford. Particular attention is paid to sources of errors associated with the latter (68 pages). Then comes a superbly written dissertation over 155 pages on activity coefficients in natural waters by S. L. Clegg and M. Whitfield, citing 388 references. After a brief overview of the structure of natural waters and the role of equilibrium thermodynamics, the calculation of activity coefficients is treated in a brief and lucid manner. A detailed description and critical comparison of various methods of determination crown this timely and very interesting material. The finishing touch is provided by mineral solubilities in electrolyte solutions (R. T. Pabalan and K . S. Pitzer; 55 pages), and ion association at high temperatures and pressures (R. E. Mesmer, D. A. Palmer and J. M. Simonson; 38 pages); here we see two cutting-edge forays into the realm of contemporary knowledge. All said, a total of 1013 references, 131 figures, and 121 tables accompany this carefully edited, high quality book. It is singularly free of typographical errors and the uniform format of its chapters is highly commendable. As in the case of its predecessor, one could argue about the appropriateness of the title: perhaps ‘‘Modern Aspects of The Thermodynamics of Electrolyte Solutions” would reflect better the fact that it is not a handbook, nor a pile of database. Seekers of quantitative information about activity coefficients will presumably find extensive recent compilations by Zemaitis et al. (AIChE, 1986), and Lob0 et al. (Elsevier, 1981, 1989), in addition to the by now classical data books by Conway, Parsons, Dobos and Horvath more to their liking. The relative smallness of many figures and their captions as well as the small print size used the tables and in the references are minor irritants. The price is steep (even in 1993!), but this might not deter devoted students of electrolyte thermodynamics from buying their personal copies. Libraries and research institutions will definitely want this book in their collections. It would certainly make a throughtful and generous birthday present for anyone interested in this area of scientific endeavour. zyxwvutsrqpo zyxwvutsr zyxwvuts zyxwvuts Amit Chakma Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering University of Calgary 2500 University Dr. NW Calgary, Alberta, Canada l 2 N IN4 Activity Coefficients In Electrolyte Solutions (Second Edition), edited by Kenneth S. Pitzer, 1991, 542 + vi pages, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL; ISBN 0-8493-5415-3. Price: US$ 195.00. This singe-volume update under the editorship of a highly eminent scholar in the field is a condensed, and at the same time expanded, version of the two-volume, 1979 edition (ed. R.M. Pytkowicz) with an identical title. Gone are the previous chapters on the link between activity coefficients and ion hydration, cryoscopic methods, lattice theory, and activity coefficients in multi-component solutions. The second edition reflects the growth of activities (no pun intended) in the area of mixed aqueous electrolytes at high concentration, temperature and pressure. The ion-interaction and ion-association approach to the determination of solution properties are presented in an impressive manner. As stated in the editor’s introduction, activity coefficients can now be predicted accurately “. ..for mixtures of unlimited complexity, and to the limit of solid solubility in most cases...”, if the solid properties are known. Reflecting this thought-frame, the second edition consists of eight chapters written by fourteen contributors. It starts with a 28-page summary of the thermodynamics of solutions by R.H. Stokes (I wish this chapter had been available when I was an undergraduate student!), followed by an introduction (R.M. Mazo and Chung Yuan Mou) to the statistical mechanics of solutions. The reader is led through a tutorial view of the Kirkwood-Buff, and the McMillan-Mayer theory, molecular interactions, lattice and cell models, perturbation theory and variational methods, Monte Carlo techniques and tools of molecular dynamics. Cluster expansion and ionpairing are summarized neatly in this lucid and informative chapter of 44 pages. The third chapter is a masterfully conducted “tour de force” into the theory of ionic interaction and its application to the estimation of activity coefficients, by the editor himself. Four major avenues: similarity of nonideal solutions to imperfect gases; historical aspects of the BrQnstedpostulate and Guggenheim’s equations; theoretical bases and working equations; evaluation of parameters from experimental zyxwvu zyx zyxw 494 Thomas Z. Fahidy Department of Chemical Engineering University of Waterloo Waterloo, Ontario Canada N2L 3GI Catalyst Deactivation 1991, edited by Calvin H. Bartholomew and John B. Butt, Studies in Surface Science and Catalysis, Vol. 68, 1991, 826+xii pages. Elsevier Science Publishing Co., New York, NY; ISBN 0-444-88832-2. Price: US$ $254.50. This volume constitutes the latest progress report from the periodic gatherings of those who have an interest in catalyst decay. There was a time when some of this group tried to form the “Lucretia Borgia Society” and thus formalise their interest in poisoning. That plan was deactivated, and the T H E CANADIAN JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, VOLUME 71. JUNE, 1993