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Geochemistry of oilfield waters
Chemical Geology, 17 (1976) 161--164
161
© Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam -- Printed in The Netherlands
Book Reviews
Geochemistry o f Oilfield Waters. A. Gene Collins. Elsevier, Amsterdam. 1975, 496 pp., Dfl. 95.00. The 496 pages of this book cover a wide range of topics. Parts of it will be of interest to analytical chemists, geochemists, and members of various disciplines in the fields of petroleum exploration and production. It is the latter groups, however, that the author seems generally to be addressing. Mr. Collins is widely recognized as a leading authority in his field and his book will be a valuable reference work. Each chapter has an extensive list of references, and the book has a subject index as well as an alphabetical index of authors of the various references. The first one-third of the book is concerned with water sampling and analysis methods and techniques for analysis interpretation. Most of the rest of the book is concerned with theoretical and applied geochemistry, as it is practiced in the petroleum industry. Besides discussions of the origin and classification of oilfield waters, and their general relationship to petroleum organics, there is interesting material on use of geochemical prospecting techniques and the occurrence of abnormally high pressures in petroleum reservoirs. The last five chapters are concerned with miscellaneous topics, including chemical compatibility of waters used in secondary recovery of oil, the economics of recovering minerals from oilfield waters, engineering and other aspects of subsurface waste disposal, and some results of the author's research on solubility of silicate minerals in saline water, and finally a reprint of a previously published journal article on environmental impacts of petroleum development. Although as noted above the book assembles much valuable information, it has a substantial number of flaws. A more careful review and editing of the manuscript would have removed m a n y of these, which now too frequently require the reader to make his own interpretation of the text, or leave him somewhat baffled. For example, the discussion of determining resistivity of water (pp. 32--35) describes how to prepare the measuring cell for use, how to determine a cell constant, and how to measure the resistance of a sample, but gives a formula for calculating resistivity that cannot be used because it does not include either of these measured parameters. Resistivity is not specifically defined, nor is its relationship to conductivity, the parameter more widely used in water chemistry, discussed. On p. 31 an equation for calculating the effect of temperature on the potential of the calomel electrode is erroneously shown as one for calculating Eh. An Eh--pH diagram used in two places in the text (pp. 168 and 199) has incorrectly drawn water stability boundaries. A series of diagrams in the chapter on geopressured reservoirs (pp. 357--359) have what appear to be regression lines that are not explained in figure titles or accompanying text.
162 In spite of these and other similar annoyances, the assemblage of methods of analysis satisfactory for waters of high solute concentration is probably unique and a valuable addition to the available literature. Other chapters probably will have similar appeal to other geochemical specialists, and as a major compilation of information on geochemistry of oilfield waters Mr. Collins' b o o k is an important achievement. JOHN D. HEM (Menlo Park, Calif.)
Structure--Property Relations. R.E. Newnham. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1975, 234 pp., US $ 31.00. This b o o k surveys a broad range of topics in materials science. The first chapter treats crystal symmetry, introduces Neumann's rule, and developes the constraints that it imposes upon anisotropy of material properties. This chapter also features a particularly lucid explanation of h o w magnetic dipoles require additional point groups for characterizing structural symmetry. Subsequent chapters treat selected topics in the areas of electrical conductivity, thermal properties, ferroelectric materials, magnetic, optical, and mechanical properties of materials. Topical development tends to follow a consistent pattern; an explanation of the atomistic mechanisms involved in the p h e n o m e n o n under discussion followed by a survey of actual or potential applications. The author has excellent c o m m a n d over his subject, writes clearly and succinctly, and provides an abundance of examples and references for supplemental study. Despite these attributes the b o o k has a serious flaw. The author is interested in structure, mechanisms and applications. His preoccupation with these aspects of material science is so total that he fails to explain the associated descriptive physics required to give the subject coherence. For example, in dealing with birefringence and optical non-linearity, the pertinent elements of descriptive physics are: (1) there are t w o different electromagnetic disturbances having wave vectors parallel to a prescribed crystallographic direction; (2) these disturbances differ in phase velocity and polarization, and they may be excited separately or concurrently; (3) the Poynting vectors of these disturbances are not necessarily parallel; and (4) those directions where the phase velocities are equal are called optical axes. In dealing with this subject, the author offers a two-sentence definition of the indicatrix ellipsoid, dwells u p o n the relationship between its s y m m e t r y ana the structure to which it pertains, and takes considerable care in illustrating h o w atomic motion can cause non-linearity or variation in index of refraction with polarization. The discussion contains frequent allusions to optical axes, "walk-off", (i.e. non-congruence of the Poynting vectors) birefringence, etc, b u t the author seems to think the reader is already familiar with the physical phenomena, per se. It seems reasonable to expect the converse to be true; if the reader already understood optical anisotropy, this b o o k would only add slightly to the depth of his insight.
161
© Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam -- Printed in The Netherlands
Book Reviews
Geochemistry o f Oilfield Waters. A. Gene Collins. Elsevier, Amsterdam. 1975, 496 pp., Dfl. 95.00. The 496 pages of this book cover a wide range of topics. Parts of it will be of interest to analytical chemists, geochemists, and members of various disciplines in the fields of petroleum exploration and production. It is the latter groups, however, that the author seems generally to be addressing. Mr. Collins is widely recognized as a leading authority in his field and his book will be a valuable reference work. Each chapter has an extensive list of references, and the book has a subject index as well as an alphabetical index of authors of the various references. The first one-third of the book is concerned with water sampling and analysis methods and techniques for analysis interpretation. Most of the rest of the book is concerned with theoretical and applied geochemistry, as it is practiced in the petroleum industry. Besides discussions of the origin and classification of oilfield waters, and their general relationship to petroleum organics, there is interesting material on use of geochemical prospecting techniques and the occurrence of abnormally high pressures in petroleum reservoirs. The last five chapters are concerned with miscellaneous topics, including chemical compatibility of waters used in secondary recovery of oil, the economics of recovering minerals from oilfield waters, engineering and other aspects of subsurface waste disposal, and some results of the author's research on solubility of silicate minerals in saline water, and finally a reprint of a previously published journal article on environmental impacts of petroleum development. Although as noted above the book assembles much valuable information, it has a substantial number of flaws. A more careful review and editing of the manuscript would have removed m a n y of these, which now too frequently require the reader to make his own interpretation of the text, or leave him somewhat baffled. For example, the discussion of determining resistivity of water (pp. 32--35) describes how to prepare the measuring cell for use, how to determine a cell constant, and how to measure the resistance of a sample, but gives a formula for calculating resistivity that cannot be used because it does not include either of these measured parameters. Resistivity is not specifically defined, nor is its relationship to conductivity, the parameter more widely used in water chemistry, discussed. On p. 31 an equation for calculating the effect of temperature on the potential of the calomel electrode is erroneously shown as one for calculating Eh. An Eh--pH diagram used in two places in the text (pp. 168 and 199) has incorrectly drawn water stability boundaries. A series of diagrams in the chapter on geopressured reservoirs (pp. 357--359) have what appear to be regression lines that are not explained in figure titles or accompanying text.
162 In spite of these and other similar annoyances, the assemblage of methods of analysis satisfactory for waters of high solute concentration is probably unique and a valuable addition to the available literature. Other chapters probably will have similar appeal to other geochemical specialists, and as a major compilation of information on geochemistry of oilfield waters Mr. Collins' b o o k is an important achievement. JOHN D. HEM (Menlo Park, Calif.)
Structure--Property Relations. R.E. Newnham. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1975, 234 pp., US $ 31.00. This b o o k surveys a broad range of topics in materials science. The first chapter treats crystal symmetry, introduces Neumann's rule, and developes the constraints that it imposes upon anisotropy of material properties. This chapter also features a particularly lucid explanation of h o w magnetic dipoles require additional point groups for characterizing structural symmetry. Subsequent chapters treat selected topics in the areas of electrical conductivity, thermal properties, ferroelectric materials, magnetic, optical, and mechanical properties of materials. Topical development tends to follow a consistent pattern; an explanation of the atomistic mechanisms involved in the p h e n o m e n o n under discussion followed by a survey of actual or potential applications. The author has excellent c o m m a n d over his subject, writes clearly and succinctly, and provides an abundance of examples and references for supplemental study. Despite these attributes the b o o k has a serious flaw. The author is interested in structure, mechanisms and applications. His preoccupation with these aspects of material science is so total that he fails to explain the associated descriptive physics required to give the subject coherence. For example, in dealing with birefringence and optical non-linearity, the pertinent elements of descriptive physics are: (1) there are t w o different electromagnetic disturbances having wave vectors parallel to a prescribed crystallographic direction; (2) these disturbances differ in phase velocity and polarization, and they may be excited separately or concurrently; (3) the Poynting vectors of these disturbances are not necessarily parallel; and (4) those directions where the phase velocities are equal are called optical axes. In dealing with this subject, the author offers a two-sentence definition of the indicatrix ellipsoid, dwells u p o n the relationship between its s y m m e t r y ana the structure to which it pertains, and takes considerable care in illustrating h o w atomic motion can cause non-linearity or variation in index of refraction with polarization. The discussion contains frequent allusions to optical axes, "walk-off", (i.e. non-congruence of the Poynting vectors) birefringence, etc, b u t the author seems to think the reader is already familiar with the physical phenomena, per se. It seems reasonable to expect the converse to be true; if the reader already understood optical anisotropy, this b o o k would only add slightly to the depth of his insight.