Routine Core Analysis
Sample Cleaning
Removing the original fluids from the rock so that porosity, permeability and fluid saturations can be measured, using the cleaning method appropriate to the sample.
Cleaning methods
- Soxhlet Dean-Stark extraction
- Flow-through cleaning
- Supercritical CO2 cyclic cleaning
- Single sample or batch cleaning
- Fluid saturation determination
- Dean-Stark fluid extraction, run with a range of solvents, determines water saturation by volume recovery.
- Soxhlet extraction follows the Dean-Stark procedure to remove the hydrocarbons and salts that remain.
- Both can be run on a single sample or as a batch, depending on programme size and turnaround.
- Flow-through cleaning circulates solvent through the sample rather than relying on thermal cycling, and supercritical CO2 cyclic cleaning is used where the sample is clay-rich or mechanically delicate.
- Choosing the method to suit the material matters, because aggressive cleaning can alter the pore structure that the subsequent measurements are meant to characterise.
