IBM has developed a " fluid - flow - on - chip " platform that enables it to build higher - accuracy simulations that take into account the behaviour of oil droplets at the surface . The platform is part of a cloud - based enhanced oil recovery adviser service that uses computational three - dimensional representations of actual reservoir rock that will ultimately generate reservoir - specific recovery recommendations . The basis for the technology was the discovery that , at the surface , a droplet of oil acts more like a flat film against a solid , and dislodging such molecules takes more energy than previous models predicted .
IBM has developed a "fluid-flow-on-chip" platform that enables researchers to build higher-accuracy simulations that take into account the behaviour of oil droplets at the nanoscale. The technology forms part of a cloud-based enhanced oil recovery adviser service that uses computational three-dimensional representations of actual reservoir rock that will ultimately generate reservoir-specific recovery recommendations. The basis for the technology was the discovery that, at the nanoscale, a droplet of oil looks more like a flat film against a solid surface and dislodging such molecules takes more energy than previous models predicted.