Petroleum Systems

Even in the era of climate protection and the energy transition, fossil fuels—specifically oil and natural gas—remain a cornerstone of our society. To ensure a smooth transition to a sustainable future, we will remain dependent on these resources for a long time to come. The key here is to make optimal use of these increasingly scarce reserves. New technologies and methods can extend the useful life of these resources and reactivate reserves that have already been abandoned.

Microfluidics, which was primarily co-developed and established at the Institute of Subsurface Energy Systems for enhanced oil recovery, supports conventional core flooding in this context. The additional visual access to fluid-fluid interactions enables a deeper understanding of the processes and mechanisms occurring in porous structures. This technology has also provided new insights into the use of microorganisms in reservoirs and their contribution to improved conformance control.

With our extensive laboratory equipment, including microfluidics and core flooding systems as well as rheometers, our core competence lies in the comprehensive analysis of core samples and polymers. We have compiled all data on various polymers and their properties under a wide range of experimental conditions into a large rheology database.