InTech Home InTech Home

01 December 2002

MRI applications in industry legion

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is expensive and works where payoffs are big and research dollars exist.

In a decidedly high-tech pursuit, the Magnetic Technology division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology is working on a project to develop scanned probe microscopy and microelectromechanical systems for nanometer-scale magnetic measurements in support of the magnetic data storage industry.

This will involve, during the next few years, work on a magnetic resonance spectrometer on a chip to achieve magnetic resonance imaging resolution of 1 nanometer on ferromagnetic thin films.

MRI supports applied petroleum recovery re search but is well suited to investigate samples from the biomedical, agricultural, and forestry industries. MRI characterizes the internal structure of many objects by imaging the hydrogen containing fluids: oil, water, and tissue.

The Alberta Research Council, or ARC, uses MRI technology for the petroleum industry to investigate a plethora of parameters and applications:

• Pore space characterization of reservoir core
• Core flood in situ saturation monitoring
• Evaluation of the flow potential of laminations in sandstone samples
• Evaluation of the vug (a small, unfilled cavity in rock) porosity in carbonates
• Detection of fractures in carbonates
• Core heterogeneity/porosity variations
• Drilling mud filtrate invasion
• Phase behavior of foamy oil
• In situ gas diffusion into heavy oil
• Gas diffusion measurements

ARC also leverages MRI in a variety of biomedical, medical, agricultural, and other industrial applications:

• Dissolution of time release drugs
• Tumor development
• Embryonic development
• Studies of mobility and diffusion of water in hydrogels used for contact lens manufacture
• Better understanding of mechanisms of freezing damage in both plant and animal tissues and improved methods of cryopreservation
• Water content and distribution (seed analysis)
• Spatial examination of polymerization processes
• Drying rates (kiln-dried wood)
• Solvent absorption/desorption