Occasionally scientists develop an invention that turns out to have far more applications than originally thought. The Research and Development Center (R&DC) of Saudi Aramco here has built an instrument designed to identify oil by using a laser. The laser is used to excite the fluorescence spectra of oil within extremely short time frames - two to five nanoseconds. All the fluorescence data is coalesced, and two dimensional diagrams are produced, which serve as oil spectral fingerprints. Ezzat M. Hegazi, senior research scientist and activity leader for designing and building the instrument, said that the system is based on two previous patents and three recently submitted invention disclosures. It was designed and produced in Saudi Aramco's R&DC, which in itself has come up with many new patents for new systems and concepts, he added. “We developed a truly unique, multipurpose laser instrument that is robust enough for field applications. It is easily transportable as is, but we are also working on a remote sensing version that can be used in helicopters to detect and identify oil spills and seepage into water, Hegazi said. There are many uses that are based on the spectral identification of oil. Crude oil identification helps to distinguish crude oils from different grades and different commercial oils. This means that oil spills can be fingerprinted and their grades identified based on the spectral characteristics uncovered by the laser device, which had not been possible until now, according to a recent report carried by Saudi Aramco website. – SPA Similarly the device makes it possible to identify the ingredients of blended crude oils as well as blended refined oils in order to measure the blending ratios. In fact, in some cases, the report notes, the system can measure blending ratios down to 0.001 percent – ideal for quality control for refineries, multi-product distribution pipelines and pumping stations.
