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By A. E. Hunt

A GREAT deal that has been written heretofore about the properties of aluminum is of doubtful value, owing to the lack of knowledge we have of the purity of the aluminum referred to. Much of the metal heretofore sold in the markets as pure aluminum has been contaminated with from 4 to 10 per cent. of impurities. Indeed, it is only within a very few years that a purer metal than 96 per cent. alumium has been made upon any larger than a laboratory scale. The works of M. Pechinet,of the Societe Anonyme d' Aluminium, at Salindres (Gard), near Marseilles, in France, have long enjoyed the

Jan 1, 1890

By G. M. Ritcey

The concentration of metals in the solution, the .value of the metal being recovered, together with the flow through- put, may singly or in combination conbribute to the decision on the possible use of solvent extraction. Also, as noted earlier, the upstream and downstream aspects of the overall process have to be considered. The economic considerations may be divided into: 1. Capital investments 2. Operating costs Capital Cost The capital costs can be influenced by the following: 1. number of stages; 2. kinetics; 3. coalescence; 4. entrainment; 5. flow rates and ratios; 6. building requirements; 7. ancillary equipment; 8. environment constraints or requirements; 9. engineering design.

Jan 1, 1978

By D. F. Toner

THE decomposition of the ß phase in the copper-aluminum system has recently been subjected to considerable investigation1-4 As a result of this work, principally by Haynes, much additional interest has been aroused concerning the various transitional or metastable phases in the Cu-A1 system. No attempt has been made to resolve the question of whether the PI and ß" phases of Klier and Grymko5 are the same as the rosette-shaped phase first observed by Smith and Lindlief6 in 1933 during an isothermal transformation study of an eutectoid alloy. It is the purpose of this study, however, to obtain

Jan 1, 1960

By J. D. Pelletier

SAN MANUEL orebody is a disseminated copper deposit in quartz monzonite, monzonite porphyry, and diabase. Quartz monzonite, which is Pre-Cambrian1 in age, is exposed in an area including No. 1 and No. 4 shafts and extending about 2400 ft southeast from No. 1 shaft. It is also exposed in the bottom of No. 2 shaft and in a zone roughly 500 to 1200 ft southeast of No. 2 shaft having its long dimension along a northeast-southwest axis. Churn drilling has shown all these exposures to be parts of a contiguous mass of quartz monzonite lying within and beneath the ore zone.

Jan 7, 1957

By Jonathan G. Price

Silver-copper-lead deposits In Precambrian, Permian, and Cretaceous red-bed sequences near Van Horn, Texas, have the following features In common: (1) mineralization controlled by steeply dipping fractures in sandstones, (2) lack of ore in overlying and interbedded limestones, (3) absence of igneous intrusions, (4) sulflide ores without typical hydrothermal gangue minerals, and (5) associated arsenic, molybdenum, zinc, and cadmium but not gold. Ore was probably deposited along fractures by reaction between low-temperature, oxidizing, metal-rich ground waters and sulfide-bearing waters or rocks. Detailed mapping and studies of fracture patterns indicate that mineralization occurred during Basin and Range extensional deformation, thereby postdating major Trans-Pecos igneous activity.

Jan 1, 1984

By Richard Miller

The investigations of large-grained specimens carried out by Polanyi and Schmid,1 Sykes,2 Goucher,3 Yamaguchi,4 Gough, Cox, and Sopwith,5 Carpenter and Elam,6 Aston,7 and others have shown qualitatively that grain boundaries restrain the deformation of adjacent crystals. But whether or not the influence of the grain boundary is confined to the glide planes intersected by the boundary has not been demonstrated in any of these investigations, nor has there been carried out any quanti-tative analysis, of the influence of a boundary on the deformation of a crystal. Indeed, the specimens employed in the previous work con-

Jan 1, 1934

By C. Willard Hayes

The determination of the question whether the Mayari and Moa mining-claims of the Spanish-American Iron Co. have been rightly denounced under the third section of the law of bases rests on the findings in the following questions of fact: 1. Is the mineral an iron-ore ? 2. Is the iron-ore a bog iron-ore ? 3. Is the iron-ore ocher ? 4. If ocher is present, can it be mined separately and independently of the iron-ore ? 1. Is the Mineral an Iron-Orb? Since the material is shown by a large number of analyses to contain from 41 to 50 per cent. of metallic iron and less than

Jan 1, 1912

By Tomek Ulatowski

This article discusses principal areas relevant to financing natural resource projects using as an example a hypothetical newly proposed direct reduction facility. The issues most directly affecting the project from the standpoint of financing are categorized in four groups: 1. Lenders' differing requirements with respect to projected cashflows; 2. The impact of leveraging on project viability; 3. The importance of appropriate debt structure; 4. The significance of accurate and complete capital cost estimates. The findings emphasize that the economics and the financing of a project are not only inseparable, but that they should also be viewed as directly interactive during the project planning process.

Jan 1, 1981

Receipts, Jan. 1, 1914, to Dec. 31, 1914 Cash on hand, Jan, 1 1914 General Funds $1,843.54 Special Funds 1,039.00 $2,882.54 Initiation Fees $8,500.00 Annual Dues 44,060.84 Life Memberships 1,950.00 54,510.84 Sale of Transactions 4,798.87 Sale of Binding 10,029.06 Sale of Bulletins and Pamphlets 2,508.25 Sale of Special Editions 1,290.74 Sale of Advertising 8,783.29 Sale of Library Books 54.97 Sale of Pins and Fobs 347.65 Miscellaneous Sales 21.66 Space Released 5,943.00 Interest on Investments and Bank Deposits 230.15 34,016.64

Jan 1, 1917

US 4,183,794 - Electrowinning zinc from a zinc sulfate solution produced by leaching zinc ore with sulfuric acid. The leach liquor is subjected to electrolysis in a first cell having an insoluble anode to deposit primary zinc on the common electrode. The coated electrode is transferred to a second cell having an alkaline electrolyte, and electrolysis is effected in the second cell to transfer zinc from the common electrode to the second cell cathode in a spongelike form which is readily stripped. R.H.C.L. Ross. Jan 15, 1980. 10 pp. (204-119). Filed: 12-22-77 (863,190). Same: Canadian 1,051,820, dated Apr. 3, 1979.

Jan 1, 1982

ENROLLMENT of both undergraduate and graduate mineral engineering students rose approximately 11.8 pct over last year to a total of 12,830. Leading again in the enrollment climb was ceramic engineering which increased by about 21 pct. Approximated increases in enrollment of the other mineral engineering categories, in order, were: metallurgical 17.7 pct; petroleum 13.3 pct; geological and geophysical 3.3 pct: and mining proper, the lowest with 2.9 pct. Total ECPD school enrollment climbed to 242,405 -just below the 1947 peak, but 14.4 pct higher than 1955. Engineering enrollments have shown a general increase since 1951, and freshmen enrollments have climbed steadily since 1950.

Jan 5, 1957

By B. C. Craft

Oil and gas development in Arkansas during the year 1933 has been marked by considerable wildcat drilling, considering the overproduction prevalent in the oil industry. Arkansas showed an increase in drilling operations during 1933. There were 45 completions from 10 counties resulting in 7 oil wells and 38 dry holes, compared with 37 completions resulting in 4 oil wells and 33 dry holes during 1932. Miller County continued to be the most active area, with 18 completions resulting in 3 oil wells and 15 dry holes. Extensive exploration around the Miller County field has more definitely established the producing limits. It has confirmed the belief that produc-

Jan 1, 1934

ALKALINE LEACHING; SODIUM HYDROXIDE U.S. 4,091,071 -In the alkaline digestion of bauxite containing goethite, boehmite and/or diaspore, the process is accelerated by adding to the digestion mass an optimum proportion of calcium oxide and divalent manganese ions, advantageously in the form of a calcium carbonate-containing manganese oxide ore, whereby goethite is transformed into hematite, the alumina yield increased, and loss of caustic soda values minimized. J. Boros, assigned to Femipari Kutato Intezet, Aluterv Alumiumipari Tervezo Vallalat and Almasfuzitoi Timfoldgyar. May 23, 1978. 7 pp. Filed: 12-23-75 (643,670). Priority: Hungary, 12-24-74 (AU 330). Same: British 1,528,146, dated Oct. 11, 1978.

Jan 1, 1979

By Claus Guenter Goetzeil

(New York Meeting, February, 1937) The object of this investigation was to determine whether silver alloys could be used instead of the currently employed insert of high-expansion Average Coefficient per Deg. C. over Range 20° to 200° C. Pure aluminum..................................... 24.6 X 10-6 Cast low-expansion Si-Cu-Ni-A1 piston alloy............ 20.0 X 10-6 High-expansion austenitic Cu-Ni cast iron.............. 19.3 X 10-6 Cast steel (0.25-0.35 C, 0.40-1.0 Mn).................. 12.6 X 10-6 Cast iron (3.15 total C, 2.16 Si)....................... 12.8 X 10-6 Pure silver.......................................... 18.9 X 10-6 austenitic ferronickel alloy, to reduce the wear of ring grooves in light metal pistons. A typical example of a piston containing a ferronickel insert is shown in Fig. 1. The high coefficient of expansion of silver made it worthy of consideration, while the small size of the insert would render its use feasible in Germany as an emergency measure. The coefficients of linear expansion of several metals and ailoys are as shown in the table above. Obviously the melting point of the insert must be high enough to prevent it from melting when the light alloy is cast around it. This imposes a lower limit of about 850" C. for the solidus of the silver alloy. Pure silver melts at about 961" C., so that the tolerable depression in the solidus is rather small. To avoid deformation of the insert during use a Brinell hardness number of at least 60 appears necessary.

Jan 1, 1937

By W. L. Phillips

Stress-strain curves were obtained for single crystals of 70 pct Ag-30 pct Zn tested in tension and shear. Samples tested in tension and shear had comparable resolved shear stresses and stress-strain curves. The {111} <110> slip system was observed. It zoas found that the9.e is a barrier to slip in both latent close -packed directions and that the magnitude of these barriers is proportional to prior strain during easy glide. It was observed that cross-slip in tension and shear was most frequent in crystals with an initial orientation near <100> "Oershoot" zoas observed in tension. The amount of this "overshoot" was independent of initial orientation. AN idealized concept of plastic deformation indicates that a single crystal should yield at some stress that is dependent on crystal perfection and it should then continue to deform plastically by the process of easy glide which is characterized by a linear stress-strain curve and a low coefficient, d/dy, of work hardening. Hexagonal metal crystals generally conform to this ideal concept of laminar flow. In fcc metals the range of easy glide is always restricted in magnitude and it is strongly dependent on orientation, composition, crystal size, shape, surface preparation, and temperature. Since one of the principal differences between the two crystal systems, both of which deform by slip on close packed planes, is the existence of latent slip planes in the fcc crystals, it has been proposed that the transition from easy glide to turbulent flow, characterized by rapid linear hardening, is due to slip on secondary planes intersecting the primary plane.ls Several theories have been proposed to explain the linear hardening and parabolic stages of the stress -strain curve.6"10 The easy-glide region is the least understood of the three stages. The stress-strain characteristics of Cu-Zn, which shows a long easy-glide region, have been extensively investigated."-" In light of recent ideas on dislocations, cross-slip, effect of solute atoms, and stacking fault energy, it was felt that the certain features of this earlier work might be compared with another alloy, Ag-30 pct Zn, which also exhibits a long easy-glide region. Tension and shear stress at room temperatures were employed. The results obtained, together with some interpretation of the observations, are described below. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE The silver and zinc used for mixing the alloys were 99.99 pct pure. The two components were weighed to within 0.1 pct of the weights required fo the alloy composition. They were then placed in a closed graphite mold and the mold and contents were heated in 100°C stages from 500&apos; to 900°C with sufficient time and vigorous agitation at each stage provided to dissolve the silver. The crucible was then heated to 1150°C and agitated violently before being quenched in oil. The resulting alloy rod was machined free of sur face defects and then placed in a graphite mold designed for growing single crystals. The graphite mold was closed with a graphite plug and was encased in a pyrex glass tube which was connected to a vacuum system. The tube and mold assembly were placed in a furnace; the tube was evacuated and the furnace was rapidly heated to a temperature sufficient for fusing and sealing the glass. The glass-encased evacuated mold and contents were then lowered through a vertical furnace. The top section of the furnace was held at 100 °C above the melting point of the alloy. The lowering rate was 1.5 in. per hr. The tension specimens were 1/4 in. diam; the shear specimens were 1/2 in. diam. These specimens were then removed from the mold, etched, and chemically polished with hot (60°C) Chase etch reagent (Crz03-4.0 g, NH4C1-7.5 g, NHOs-150 cc, HzS04-52 cc, and Hz0 to make 1 liter). In preparation for tensile testing, the specimens were carefully machined to a diameter of about 0.200 in. to permit a gage length of 6 in., annealed for 16 hr at 800&apos; to reduce coring, and then cleaned and polished. A modified Bausch-type shear apparatus which has been described previously18 were employed. The gage length was 1/8 in. This shear apparatus was placed in an Instron tensile testing machine. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS A) Tension. Several specimens were extended at room temperature to determine the effect of initial orientation on the stress-strain curves of Ag-30 pct Zn. The initial orientation and the resolved shear stress supported by the active slip system at various total strains are plotted in Fig. 1. The critical resolved shear stress, t,, initial rate of work hardening, d/dy, and length of the easy-glide region are independent of orientation. The arrival at the symmetry line is shown by an arrow in Fig. 1. During the easy-glide region of the stress-strain

Jan 1, 1963

By E. A. Slover

THE usual reverberatory system of smelting cop--1- per concentrate or calcine has for its component parts a furnace and one or two waste heat boilers. These parts are operated on a basis of compromise, since the furnace can send gas to the boilers at too high a temperature and the boilers by plugging, due to dust or slag, can place a definite limit on the amount of fuel the furnace can burn. Over the years the copper concentrate smelting furnace has had few advances in design. The simple rules of design such as the flame should wipe the bath and the speed of the gases should be reasonably low for dust carrying purposes seem to cover the main features. In the construction of the individual furnaces some innovations are always being introduced. Among these are charging so that the work of smelting is a complete bath process, the use of suspended brick arches in place of sprung arches, the use of basic brick, not only in the crucible, but also in roof and sidewalls, the use of various means to feed the charge, the use of magnetite or other heavy material to construct the hearth, water cooling of bridgewall and slag skimming bay, the smelting of raw charge instead of calcine, the use of preheated air, and possibly the use of oxygen-enriched air for combustion. But the general outlines of the furnaces have not changed much except as to size. Furnaces at Hurley As shown on Fig. 1, the furnace at Hurley is 126 ft long between the longitudinal buckstays and 32 ft wide at the skewback plates. The foundation is a concrete retaining wall with piers at intervals that go deeper into the earth. Purposely the wall at the burner end of the furnace is not backed-up as tightly as the other parts of the foundation so that movement due to expansion may take place here rather than into the boiler foundations. Within these foundation retaining walls of concrete, the earth has been removed to allow the placement of the crucible brick base inside of which a silica hearth is laid 4 ft 6 in. in depth. No expansion is left in the brick base and crucible where they are in contact with the hearth. The hearth itself is of quartzite crushed to 1 in. size with fines left in the product. An 8 in. layer is laid and tamped with paving tampers to about 6 in. in thickness. Then a layer of silica flour is spread and vibrated into the hearth. This operation is repeated until a depth of 4 ft 6 in. is occupied by the silica mass onion-skinned in layers of approximately 6 in. Before firing the entire hearth is covered with broken slag to a depth of 4 in. so that a seal may be formed on the hearth. The crucible is completely faced with magnesite chemically bonded brick while the outside, against the foundation, is made of silica brick. The side-walls are carried up with silica brick in which expansion joints are left at intervals. Above the crucible the sidewall is corbelled to form a shelf on which the charge may build up along the side-walls, see Fig. 2. The arch of the furnace is sprung 20 in. silica brick, with the longitudinal centerline horizontal the length of the furnace, and some 9 ft in the center above the bath. Both straight and wedge brick are used in the construction and a thin silica mortar is troweled for joints. After the arch under heat has assumed its permanent shape, a silica slurry is spread over the arch to fill any cracks that have formed, thus giving bearing surface to the brick and preventing dust from entering the body of the arch to act as a future fluxing agent. The uptake of the furnace slopes up to the boiler entrance where a brick pilaster divides the gas stream for the two boilers. Over this flared uptake is a suspended flat arch of firebrick. The pilaster and sidewalls are constructed of firebrick but the bottom of the uptake is lined with silica brick and fettled through holes in the roof with siliceous fettling. Close to the entrance of each boiler is a brick covered slot through which water-cooled dampers may be lowered in event of boiler trouble. These water-cooled dampers are hung permanently in position ready to be lowered when needed. Flexible hoses to follow the dampers as they are lowered are connected at all times and individual chain blocks are used to lower the dampers. A pump supplying water is started before the dampers enter the heat. Charging of the furnace along the sidewalls for some 80 ft from the bridgewall is accomplished by electric vibrating conveyors fed by belt from charge storage bins above the furnace. These conveyors

Jan 1, 1954

By Sultan Amerie

PERSIA looms up more prominently each year as one of the richest oilfields in the world. The actual production in the south and the possibilities in both the north and the south are very great. The output in the south, where the Anglo-Persian Oil Co. operates a wide concession, is steadily increasing, the returns for the fiscal year 1922-23 being 2,957,028 tons. The estimated production for. 1923-24 is 3,775,000 tons. The figures for the past few years have been as follows: 1918-19 1,106,415 tons 1920-21 1,743,557 tons 1919-20 1,385,301 tons 1921-22 2,327,221 tons According to the company&apos;s last annual report, the production from the -Persian fields operated by its subsidiaries has been well maintained and is now being increased to deal with the expanding off-take of the company&apos;s refineries at Abadan, Persia, and Dandarcy, Wales. Test drilling in an entirely different area in Persia indicates the existence of a new oilfield, which it is intended for the time being to hold as a reserve.

Jan 3, 1924

By O. N. Carlson, S. A. Bradford

Discontinuous yielding in tensile tests was observed in V-O alloys in the temperature ranges of 150° to 175°C and also 350° to 400°C. The magnitude and intensity of the serrations were found to vary considerably with oxygen content. Maxima were observed in tensile and yield strengths and in the strain-hardening coefficient at the higher temperature only. The strain rate sensitivity was observed to be negative between 150° and 400°C. THIS investigation was undertaken to study the effect of oxygen on the tensile properties of iodide vanadium in the temperature range of 25o to 450°C. Brown1 observed an increase in strength between room temperature and 400°C in vanadium metal, and found that oxygen and nitrogen had a rather pronounced effect on the strength and ductility. A maximum in the tensile strength was observed by Rostoker et al.2 near 300oC and by Pugh3 around 450°C for calcium-reduced vanadium. Pugh also found a maximum in the yield strength and in the strain-hardening exponent, and minima in the elongation and strain rate sensitivity at the same temperature. Eustice and Carlson4 reported the appearance of serrations in the stress-strain curves between 140° and 180°C in iodide vanadium containing 600 ppm O. These anomalies in the mechanical properties indicate that strain aging occurs in vanadium, but the impurity or impurities responsible for the above-mentioned effects have not been identified. The phenomenon of strain aging is usually characterized by the return of the yield point after interruption of a strength test. In the temperature range where strain aging occurs, the yield and tensile strengths attain maximum values, elongation and strain rate sensitivity exhibit minima, and discontinuous yielding is generally observed in the stress-strain curve. Cottrell5, 6 has postulated that strain aging is due to the migration of solute atoms to dislocation sites to produce locking after the dislocations have broken free from their impurity atmospheres during the initial yielding. At the strain-aging temperature the process is a dynamic one in which the solute impurity atoms diffuse to the vicinity of the moving disloca- tion producing "locking" which gives rise to maxima in the tensile strength and serrations in the elongation curves. Cottrel17 has noted that discontinuous yielding in iron occurs when the diffusion coefficient of nitrogen, D, and the strain rate, i, are related by D = 10-9 €. EXPERTMENTAL PROCEDURE The vanadium metal employed in this study was prepared by the iodide refining process as described by Carlson and owen.8 A representative analysis of the vanadium used in this investigation was: 150 ppm O, <5 ppm N, <1 ppm H, 150 ppm C, 150 ppm Fe, 70 ppm Cr, <50 ppm Si, 30ppm Cu, 20 ppm Ni, <20 ppm Ca, <20 ppm Mg and <20 ppm Ti. Alloys containing from 200 to 1800 ppm O, all of which lie in the solid solution range of the V-O system, were prepared by arc melting vanadium together with portions of a high-oxygen master alloy. The master alloy was prepared by tamping pure V2O5 into holes drilled in a vanadium ingot and arc melting this five or six times in an inert gas atmosphere, inverting the button between each melting step. The oxygen content of the master alloy was then determined by vacuum fusion analysis. Vanadium containing less than 150 ppm O was prepared in the following manner. A bar of iodide vanadium was deoxidized by sealing it in a tantalum crucible with a few grams of high-purity calcium. This was held at 1100°C for 4 days to allow time for the oxygen to diffuse to the surface and to react with the calcium vapors. The calcium oxide product was later dissolved from the surface of the bar with dilute acetic acid. In this way vanadium containing from 20 to 50 ppm O was prepared. Sample Preparation. The are-melted ingots were cold swaged into 3/16-in. diam rods and these were machined into cylindrical tensile specimens with a reduced section of 1.00-in. length and 0.120-in. diam. The test specimens were annealed for 4 hr at 900°C in a dynamic vacuum of mm of Hg to remove hydrogen from the metal. This recrystal-lization treatment produced a uniformly fine-grained structure with a mean grain size of approximately 0.06-mm diam. The oxygen contents reported in this paper were determined by a vacuum fusion analysis of the tensile specimens after testing. Analyses for other interstitial or metallic impurities showed no significant changes from that of the original material. Tension Tests. Tension tests were performed on a screw-driven tensile machine at a constant cross-head speed of 0.01 in. per min. Tests at elevated temperatures were carried out by heating the

Jan 1, 1962

By T. A. Pollard, C. R. Sandberg, E. B. Elfrink

This paper presents an evaluation of compressibility factor data and a discussion of their application to the estimation of gas reserves. A correlation is presented which provides compressibility factors for use in both two-phase and single-phase hydrocarbon systems. Accuracies comparable to those obtained previously for single-phase systems only can be expected. A simple means of predicting the presence or absence of a liquid phase in a condensate system of known composition is illustrated. The correlation is based on 1,030 compressibility determinations from 21 hydrocarbon samples taken from eight oil fields. Of the data used, 75 per cent were from California, 15 per cent were from the Mid-Continent area, and 10 per cent were from South America. The average numerical deviation of the experimental data from this compressibility chart is 1.22 per cent. Charts and tables are included and discussed which illustrate the errors involved through the misuse or nonuse of compressibility factors in estimates of gas-in-place. INTRODUCTION The compressibility factor is a coefficient which expresses the deviation of a gas of given composition from the Perfect Gas Laws. A factor such as this is necessary in any calculation involving volumes of gaseous mixtures, and finds extensive application in the estimation of natural gas and condensate reserves. It is used in the decline curve, the volumetric, and the material balance methods of gas reserves estimation. The behavior of gases at high pressures has been investigated extensively in recent years and considerable data have been assembled on the compressibility characteristics of a number of gases. Notable among the investigators of high pressure gas relationships are Kvalnes and Caddya, Kay" Sage and Laceys, and Brown, Standing" and Katz4. Other contributors are Smith and Watson, Roland and Kaveler&apos;, and Stevens and Vance". The data on compressibility factors assembled by these investigators have been presented and correlated in numerous ways; particularly noteworthy is the method first presented by Kay5 which relates compressibility factor "Z" to pseudo-reduced temperature and Pseudo-reduced pressure. Other investigators have used this empirical relationship successfully and numerous charts covering a large number of gases have been constructed on this basis. It is the purpose of this paper to evaluate compressibility factor data and to illustrate the importance of their proper use in the estimation of gas-in-place for both gas and condensate reservoirs. EVALUATION OF COMPRESSIBILITY FACTOR DATA The compressibility chart presented by Standing, Katz, Brown and Holcomb in 1941 is probably the most recent and reliable chart for natural gases. The reliability of the Katz chart has been investigated by the writers for a fairly large number of gases (single-phase) in the pressure range from 500 to 10,000 psia and temperature range from 80 to 400°F. A summary of this comparison is presented in Table I. The numerical average deviation of the chart compressibility factors from the experimental compressibility factors is 1.05 per cent, and the algebraic deviation is -0.28 per cent. The Katz correlation appears to be quite accurate for single-phase hydrocarbon systems. It was based on single-phase systems and does not necessarily provide a means of accurately predicting the behavior of two-phase systems which might be encountered in condensate work. Data published recently by Sage and Oldsl&apos; have enlarged the knowledge of phase behavior in condensate systems by covering extensively the Compressibilities of systems in the two-phase as well as single-phase regions for a wide range of temperatures, pressures and gas-oil ratios. An evaluation of these data indicates that conditions can arise, especially in condensate systems having fairly low gas-oil ratios, in which two phases occur and the usual gaseous compressibility factors do not accurately apply. The measured PVT data of Sage and Olds covering two-phase systems have been correlated with additional such data from the Mid-Continent area and South America; these are presented in Fig. 1. This chart is the result of 1,030 compressibility* determinations from 21 hydrocarbon samples taken from eight oil and condensate fields. Of the data used, 74.75 per cent were from California, 15.45 per cent were from the Mid-Continent area, and 9.80 per cent were from South America. The chart construction is based on the original

Jan 1, 1949

By C. R. Sandberg, T. A. Pollard, E. B. Elfrink

This paper presents an evaluation of compressibility factor data and a discussion of their application to the estimation of gas reserves. A correlation is presented which provides compressibility factors for use in both two-phase and single-phase hydrocarbon systems. Accuracies comparable to those obtained previously for single-phase systems only can be expected. A simple means of predicting the presence or absence of a liquid phase in a condensate system of known composition is illustrated. The correlation is based on 1,030 compressibility determinations from 21 hydrocarbon samples taken from eight oil fields. Of the data used, 75 per cent were from California, 15 per cent were from the Mid-Continent area, and 10 per cent were from South America. The average numerical deviation of the experimental data from this compressibility chart is 1.22 per cent. Charts and tables are included and discussed which illustrate the errors involved through the misuse or nonuse of compressibility factors in estimates of gas-in-place. INTRODUCTION The compressibility factor is a coefficient which expresses the deviation of a gas of given composition from the Perfect Gas Laws. A factor such as this is necessary in any calculation involving volumes of gaseous mixtures, and finds extensive application in the estimation of natural gas and condensate reserves. It is used in the decline curve, the volumetric, and the material balance methods of gas reserves estimation. The behavior of gases at high pressures has been investigated extensively in recent years and considerable data have been assembled on the compressibility characteristics of a number of gases. Notable among the investigators of high pressure gas relationships are Kvalnes and Caddya, Kay" Sage and Laceys, and Brown, Standing" and Katz4. Other contributors are Smith and Watson, Roland and Kaveler&apos;, and Stevens and Vance". The data on compressibility factors assembled by these investigators have been presented and correlated in numerous ways; particularly noteworthy is the method first presented by Kay5 which relates compressibility factor "Z" to pseudo-reduced temperature and Pseudo-reduced pressure. Other investigators have used this empirical relationship successfully and numerous charts covering a large number of gases have been constructed on this basis. It is the purpose of this paper to evaluate compressibility factor data and to illustrate the importance of their proper use in the estimation of gas-in-place for both gas and condensate reservoirs. EVALUATION OF COMPRESSIBILITY FACTOR DATA The compressibility chart presented by Standing, Katz, Brown and Holcomb in 1941 is probably the most recent and reliable chart for natural gases. The reliability of the Katz chart has been investigated by the writers for a fairly large number of gases (single-phase) in the pressure range from 500 to 10,000 psia and temperature range from 80 to 400°F. A summary of this comparison is presented in Table I. The numerical average deviation of the chart compressibility factors from the experimental compressibility factors is 1.05 per cent, and the algebraic deviation is -0.28 per cent. The Katz correlation appears to be quite accurate for single-phase hydrocarbon systems. It was based on single-phase systems and does not necessarily provide a means of accurately predicting the behavior of two-phase systems which might be encountered in condensate work. Data published recently by Sage and Oldsl&apos; have enlarged the knowledge of phase behavior in condensate systems by covering extensively the Compressibilities of systems in the two-phase as well as single-phase regions for a wide range of temperatures, pressures and gas-oil ratios. An evaluation of these data indicates that conditions can arise, especially in condensate systems having fairly low gas-oil ratios, in which two phases occur and the usual gaseous compressibility factors do not accurately apply. The measured PVT data of Sage and Olds covering two-phase systems have been correlated with additional such data from the Mid-Continent area and South America; these are presented in Fig. 1. This chart is the result of 1,030 compressibility* determinations from 21 hydrocarbon samples taken from eight oil and condensate fields. Of the data used, 74.75 per cent were from California, 15.45 per cent were from the Mid-Continent area, and 9.80 per cent were from South America. The chart construction is based on the original

Jan 1, 1949