"A material that reads its environment and responds accordingly."
Smart Proppant engineers magnesium-doped fly-ash nanoparticles in supercritical CO₂ foam — turning the fractures that defeat conventional recovery into the engine that drives it.
In unconventional plays, the rock that traps the oil and the fractures meant to release it both work against recovery. Smart Proppant attacks all three failure modes at once.
Permeability near 0.05 mD means oil is locked in pore space that conventional injection simply cannot sweep.
Injected CO₂ races through natural fractures and breaks through — leaving the matrix untouched. Adding fractures cut recovery by 53%.
Once gas is in the formation, operators lose the ability to steer where it goes or how long it stays productive.
Across each huff-and-puff cycle, the nanoparticle system activates in sequence — stabilizing the foam, sealing thief fractures, and redirecting CO₂ into fresh rock.
Mg-FANPs delivered in supercritical CO₂ foam enter the fracture network.
Nanoparticles bridge foam lamellae, raising effective viscosity and resisting breakthrough.
The material reacts to reservoir chemistry — pH, pressure, and carbonate conditions.
Selective gel precipitation seals thief fractures and redirects flow into the matrix.
CO₂ sweeps fresh rock cycle after cycle, with measurable incremental oil.
Built and validated in CMG-STARS across a 22-cycle, 3-year huff-and-puff program in Middle Bakken conditions.
Paper No. 4485708 · Theme 10: Gas Injection EOR · George R. Brown Convention Center
The active material is engineered from coal-combustion fly ash — an industrial byproduct — and deployed in CO₂. Lower cost in, more barrels out, carbon utilized in the process.
Investors, operators, and partners — reach out directly. Proven in the Bakken, built for every unconventional play.