Investigating Control with Electromagnetic Fields Toward Non-Conventional Crude Oil Extraction

Current technologies in oil recovery can require great mechanical effort through drilling or fracturing to locate and siphon oil from reserves. This makes the process design for extraction tricky and must be carefully controlled to reduce ground instability after disruption. Particle traps are a concept introduced to manipulate particle movement through electromagnetism. Our work focuses on exploring an alternative technique to oil recovery using these electromagnetic traps, with a focus on sustainability and targeted control. The alternative method is to employ these electromagnetic traps on oil particles using optimization-based control schemes. This presentation will report our progress on understanding the behavior of the oil particles through validated modeling, simulating the performance of the electromagnetic traps on the oil particles, and implementing optimization-based control systems to constrain the operation of the trap.