Polymer Science Applied to Petroleum Production:

The petroleum industry is composed of various upstream and downstream segments, from prospecting for oil to production of petrochemicals. The Petrochemical sector produces polymers and monomers, which are applied in a wide range of sectors, including the petroleum industry which uses a wide array of oligomer and polymer products.

The polymer materials used in the oil industry can be classified into two large categories: first one is solid-state polymers, such as engineering materials, and second one is polymers in solution, employed as components of fluids or additive formulations. Engineering materials include those classified as plastics, fibers, and elastomers in general, for use on offshore platforms, construction of pipelines and floating structures, among others. In solution, polymers are added to either fluids or formulations to increase their properties and are used in many oil production operations, such as drilling, cementing, completion, production itself, and treatment of oil and water. Generally various polymers, oligomers, and macromolecules have been evaluated for their efficiency in specific functions.

The development of a polymer additive with specific performance generally requires synthesis, characterization, and evaluation of its properties are physical, chemical, and/or physicochemical besides application tests. Based on the experience acquired in synthesis and characterization of copolymers, as well as in studying their physicochemical properties and behaviour of their interfaces, our research group is dedicated to the development of the new polymers for application in the solution in the petroleum industry.

The knowledge gained about oil operations, allied with the scientific and technological education offered by the Institute of Macromolecules, has permitted a focus on macromolecules applied to the oil and gas sector in the postgraduate courses in polymer science and technology. oil production operations are drilling, cementing, completion, production - divergence - well stimulation - control of deposits - control of hydrates - oil recovery,  treatment of oil , treatment of systems contaminated with oil, compatibility of polymer additives It is important to mention that, despite the production of the majority of polymers being a petrochemical process widely used all over the world.