Particle accelerator Sirius now capable of analyzing pre‑salt rocks
Scientists from the Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS), in partnership with Petrobras, have developed an experimental station on the Mogno beamline of the Sirius particle accelerator in order to study samples of oil-reservoir rocks extracted from the ocean floor by the state-owned company’s probes.
The laboratory is responsible for operating Sirius—the largest and most complex scientific structure ever built in Brazil and one of the world’s most advanced synchrotron light sources.
Through advanced tomography techniques, the equipment generates three-dimensional images that simulate the interaction of rocks with fluids such as oil and gas, helping experts gain a better understanding of reservoirs and improving prospecting scenarios.
The research is the first phase of a partnership between the National Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM) and Petrobras. The new station should make sample analysis considerably shorter. The next phase will seek new methods for post-processing the large volume of data generated by the scans.
Sirius boasts state-of-the-art electron accelerators at its core, which produce a type of light capable of revealing the micro-structure of materials. Mogno was designed for oil-related studies and can operate on a scale of up to 200 nanometers, or 200 billionths of a meter. That is a scale smaller than a bacterium and only 200 times larger than the diameter of our DNA.
“It will soon also be possible to subject the materials to different mechanical, thermal, or chemical conditions and monitor changes in real time,” said Nathaly Archilha, the LNLS–CNPEM researcher responsible for Mogno.
The new micro-station will simulate the conditions rocks are subjected to in the pre-salt layer, which has not yet been achieved by any other laboratory in the world.
The analysis can be carried out on up to 88 cylindrical rock samples with a diameter of 1.5" (about 38 mm).
The first measurements, Archilha noted, took place in November 2024, with a team from Petrobras on site, and the project was completed in March this year.
Even though it is still in the commissioning phase, the micro-station should be made available to the scientific community and companies early in 2026.
Petrobras’ aim is to generate a rock database that will expand the industry’s knowledge of oil reservoirs. The database will be linked to algorithms using AI to describe geological structures and make numerical simulations of the oil recovery process.
“Four new industrial projects have been signed with the aim of continuing the station’s development—two with Petrobras and two with Equinor—with a focus on carrying out 4D tomography experiments, which make it possible to observe the flow of different fluids in porous media under conditions similar to those in the Brazilian pre-salt,” Archilha reported.
“At Mogno, we are mainly investigating the physical structure of the rocks—including the distribution of pores and the mineral matrix—while other Sirius beamlines can complement this information through chemical and mineralogical analysis,” she added.
Sirius
Sirius research is open to companies and study centers. Access to its experimental stations, like the Mogno beamline, is granted through project submissions. Use is free for scientists who commit to making the data public—through scientific publications, for instance.
Companies or s who opt for confidentiality can access the infrastructure for a fee.
Calls for proposals are published twice a year and are open to the global scientific community, including universities and industrial research centers.
More information is available on the laboratory’s website.
