WO2017112712A1

WO2017112712A1 - Sensor systems and methods for measuring clay activity

Info

Publication number: WO2017112712A1
Application number: PCT/US2016/067885
Authority: WO
Inventors: Cheryl Margaret Surman; Steven Go; Yongjae Lee; Radislav Alexandrovich Potyrailo
Original assignee: General Electric Company
Priority date: 2015-12-22
Filing date: 2016-12-20
Publication date: 2017-06-29
Also published as: CA3009645A1

Abstract

This disclosure describes a sensor comprising a single- or multi- resonant transducer (12, 31) to determine the composition or concentration, or both, of one or more components of an emulsion or dispersion. In some examples, the sensor is used to measure the type or concentration, or both, of clay in water or in a mixture of oil and water.

Description

SENSOR SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR MEASURING CLAY ACTIVITY

CRO S S -REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

[0001 ] This application claims priority to and benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 62/271,030 filed December 22, 2015, which is fully incorporated by- reference and made a part hereof.

FIELD

[0002] The subject matter disclosed herein generally relates to sensors, and more particularly to sensors to determine a clay activity in a dispersion.

BACKGROUND

[0003] The measurement of the composition of emulsions and dispersions and the interface level of immiscible fluids can be important in many applications. For example, it can be important to characterize emulsions in oil field management. The measurement of the water and oil content of emulsions from individual oil wells may vary over the life of an oil field and may indicate the overall health of a field. In the case of injection wells, it may be important to control water quality to reduce hydrate formation and corrosion. The characterization of the composition of the oil and water mixture (e.g., measurement of the relative proportions of oil and water in the mixture) can help the operator improve well productivity and capacity. The information obtained can also be useful to reducing back-pressure of wells, managing flo line size and complexity, and meeting thermal insulation requirements.

[0004] Characterization of emulsions can also be important in the operation of systems that contain fluids in a vessel (vessel systems) such as fluid processing systems. Vessel systems may include storage tanks, reactors, separators and desaiters. Vessel systems can be used in many industries and processes, such as the oil and gas, chemical, pharmaceutical, food processing industries, among others. For example, separation of water from raw oil can be important to establishing production streams of oil and gas. Crude oil leaving the wellhead can be both sour (i.e. contain hydrogen sulfide gas) and wet (i.e. contain water). The crude leaving the wellhead may need to be processed and treated to make it economically viable for storage, processing and export. One way of treating the raw oil can be through the use of a separator. Some separators can be driven by gravity and use the density differences between individual fluid phases of oil, water, gas, and solids to accomplish the separation. Identification of the interface levels of these layers may be important to the control of the separation process. Another fluid processing system where characterization of emulsions and measurement of the interface level may be important is a desalter. Desaiters can be used in a refinery to control overhead corrosion downstream.. In a desalter water and crude oil can be mixed, inorganic salts can be extracted into the water, and water can be then separated and removed.

[0005] In some instances, crude entering a refinery originates from oil sands. Oil sands are either loose sands or partially consolidated sandstone containing a naturally occurring mixture of sand, clay, and water, saturated with a dense and extremely viscous form of petroleum technically referred to as bitumen (or colloquially, tar, due to its similar appearance, odor, and color). It may be desirous to be able to determine clay activity in oil sands, tailing streams, and in the crude in a refining process. For example, it may be desirous to know the clay species and/or content in crude before or after going through a desalting process. The current practice in oil sands to measure clay activity is using the methylene blue index (MBI). This is a labor intensive titration with poor reproducibility. What is needed is an online, real-time measurement of clay content and activity.

[0006] With existing sensor systems, no one system is capable of delivering a combination of lo cost, high sensitivity, favorable signal-to-noise ratio, high selectivity, high accuracy, and high data acquisition speeds for detennining clay activity.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0007] This disclosure describes a sensor having a sampling cell, a bottom winding disposed around the sampling cell, and a top winding disposed around the bottom winding. Preferably, the sampling cell comprises a tube or other structure adapted to locate a stationary dispersion, for example oil sands, within the windings.

[0008] This disclosure also describes systems and methods for using a sensor having a resonant transducer to determine the composition or concentration, or both, of one or more components of an emulsion or dispersion. In some examples, the sensor is used to measure the type or concentration, or both, of clay in water or in a mixture of oil and water.

[0009] In accordance with one exemplary non-limiting embodiment, the disclosure relates to a sensor having a resonant transducer, wherein the resonant transducer comprises: a sampling cell; a bottom winding disposed around the sampling cell; and a top winding disposed around the bottom winding; wherein the resonant transducer measures complex permittivity data of a dispersion, and the complex permittivity data is used to determine a clay activity of the dispersion.

[0010] In one aspect, determination of clay activity using complex permittivity data comprises determining a methylene blue index based on the determined complex pennittivity data. The sensor can be used to determine a species and concentration of clay in the dispersion based on the complex permittivity data, wherein the species of clay in the dispersion comprises one or more of kaolinite, illite, illite-smectite, bentonite, montmorillonite, and the like. The complex permittivity data can also be used to determine a mass of one or more species of clay in the dispersion.

[001.1] Also described is a sensor system comprising: a sensor, wherein the sensor comprises: a resonant transducer, wherein the resonant transducer comprises: a sampling cell; a bottom winding disposed around the sampling cell; and a top winding disposed around the bottom winding; wherein the resonant transducer measures complex permittivity data of a dispersion, and the complex permittivity data is used to determine a clay activity of the dispersion; and an analyzer in communication with the sensor.

[0012] In one aspect, the determination of clay activity using complex permittivity data comprises the analyzer determining a methylene blue index based on the determined permittivity data. The analyzer can be used to determine a species and concentration of clay in the dispersion based on the complex permittivity data received from the sensor. In one aspect, the species of clay in the dispersion as determined by the analyzer comprises one or more of kaolinite, illite, illite-smectite, bentonite, and montmorillonite. The complex permittivity data as determined by the sensor can also be used by the analyzer to determine a mass of one or more species of clay in the dispersion. [0013] Also described herein is a sensor comprising a sampling cell adapted to hold a dispersion; a bottom winding disposed around the sampling cell; and a top winding disposed around the bottom winding, wherein the sensor measures a permittivit - data of a dispersion, and the permittivity measurement data is used to determine a clay activity of the dispersion ,

[0014] In one aspect, the top winding of the sensor is at least half as long as the bottom winding. In one aspect, the sampling cell is a tube. In one aspect, the tube can be made of a galvanic isolating material. In one aspect, the top winding has a greater pitch than the bottom winding. Alternately or optionally, the top winding can have one tenth or fewer coils than the bottom winding. Alternatively or optionally, the bottom winding can be floating. Alternatively or optionally, the bottom winding can be comprised of a plurality of coils with multiple resonant frequencies. In one aspect, the top winding is connected to a power supply, a signal analyzer or both. In one aspect, the top winding and the bottom winding have baseline separation. In one aspect, the sensor further comprises a galvanic isolator between the top winding and the bottom winding. In one aspect, the sensor further comprises a spacer around the top winding. The sensor can further comprise a radio frequency absorber around the spacer. In one aspect, the sensor can further comprise a metal shield around the radio frequency absorber. In one aspect, the sensor can further comprise a cover around the metal shield.

[0015] Also described herein is a method for determining a composition of a mixture of clay particles in a liquid. The method can comprise determining with a resonant sensor system a value related to the impedance of the mixture; and, apply ing the value to a model of clay particle concentration and type. In one aspect, the liquid can comprise oil droplets. In other aspects, the liquid can be water, oil or, emulsion of either water or oil continuous phase. In one aspect, the model is a partial least squares model, wherein the model considers permittivity and loss of the mixture.

[0016] Additional advantages will be set forth in part in the description which follows or may be learned by practice. The advantages will be realized and attained by means of the elements and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims. It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive, as claimed. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

[0017] Other features and advantages of the present disclosure will be apparent from the following more detailed description of the preferred embodiment, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings which illustrate, by way of example, the principles of certain aspects of the disclosure,

8] FIG. 1 is a schematic of a non-limiting embodiment of a resonant sensor system.

FIG. 2 is a non-limiting illustration of the operation of a resonant transducer.

[0020] FIG. 3 is an example of a measured complex impedance spectrum used for multivariate analysis.

[0021] FIG. 4 illustrates an embodiment of a two-dimensional resonant transducer.

[0022] FIG . 5 illustrates an embodiment of a three-dimensional resonant transducer.

[0023] FIG. 6 is a schematic electrical diagram of the equivalent circuit of a three- dimensional resonant transducer.

[0024] FIG. 7 is a chart illustrating the Rp response of a resonant transducer to varying mixtures of oil and water.

15] FIG. 8 is a chart illustrating the Cp response of a resonant transducer to varying mixtures of oil and water.

[0026] FIG. 9 is a partial cutaway side view of an embodiment of a resonant transducer assembly.

[0027] FIG. 10 illustrates another embodiment of a three-dimensional resonant transducer. 18] FIG. 1 1 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a fluid processing system. FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a desalter. FIG . 13 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a separator. [0031 ] FIG. 14 is a chart illustrating the frequency (Fp) response of a three-dimensional resonant transducer to increasing concentrations of A) oil-in-water and B) water-in-oil emulsions.

[0032] FIG. 15 is a chart illustrating the frequency (Fp) response of a two-dimensional resonant transducer to increasing concentrations of A) oil-in-water and B) water-in-oil emulsions.

[0033] FIG. 16 is a flow chart of an embodiment of a method for determining the composition of an oil and water mixture as a function of height.

[0034] FIG. 17 is a chart illustrating data used to determine a fluid phase inversion point and conductivity.

[0035] FIG. 18 is a chart illustrating the results of an analysis of the experimental data of an embodiment of a resonant sensor system predicting the amount of oil in A) an oil-in-water continuous phase and B) a water-in-oil continuous phase and respective residual plots C) and D).

[0036] FIG. 19 is a chart illustrating test results of a resonant sensor system in a simulated desalter.

[0037] FIG. 20 is an embodiment of a display of a data report from a resonant sensor system.

[0038] FIG. 21 is a flowchart of an embodiment of a method for determining the level of a fluid in a vessel.

[0039] FIG. 22 is a block diagram of a non-limiting representative embodiment of a processor sy stem for use in a resonant sensor system.

[0040] FIGS. 23A and 23B are graphs showing real permittivity (e') (FIG. 29A) and loss (e") (FIG. 29B) for 25% clay and water mixtures measured over a range of frequencies with a broadband test fixture. [0041 ] FIG. 24 is a graph comparing real permittivity (e') at 20 MHz from FIGS. 23A-23B and methylene blue index (MB I) measured on 25% clay and water mixtures using four types of clay.

[0042] FIG. 25 is a graph showing principal component (PC) 1 and PC 2 for 12 clay and water mixtures (four types of clay at three concentrations each) following principal component analysis of measured permittivity functions for the 12 mixtures.

[0043] FIG. 26 shows plot of the real impedance spectra from resonant LCR structure of 12 clay and water mixtures (four types of clay at three concentrations each).

[0044] FIG. 27 shows plot of the imaginary impedance spectra from resonant LCR structure of 12 clay and water mixtures (four types of clay at tliree concentrations each).

[0045] FIG. 28 shows partial least squares (PLS) factors determined for measured permittivity functions of the 12 mixtures as measured by a resonant LCR sensor.

[0046] FIGS. 29A-29D compare kaolinite (FIG. 29A), Mite (FIG. 29B), illite-smectite (FIG. 29C) and montmorilionite (FIG. 29D) concentrations predicted by PLS analysis of measured permittivity functions of clay and water mixtures compared to the actual clay concentration of the mixtures.

[0047] FIG. 30 shows plot of the real impedance spectra from resonant LCR structure of 17 clay, water, and oil mixtures (outlined in Table 2).

[0048] FIG. 31 shows plot of the imaginary impedance spectra from resonant LC structure of 17 clay, water, and oil mixtures (outlined in Table 2).

[0049] FIGS. 32A-32C compare oil (FIG. 32A), kaolinite (FIG. 32B) and bentonite (FIG. 32C) concentrations predicted by PLS analysis of measured permittivity functions of clay, water and oil mixtures compared to the actual clay or oil concentration of the mixtures.

[0050] FIG. 33 shows a three dimensional scatterplot of Kaolinite versus MBI versus conductivity (in units of mS/cm). [0051 ] FIG. 34 shows a three dimensional scatterplot of Factor 1 versus Factor 2 versus MBI.

[0052] FIGS. 35A-35D show PGR Analysis of model MFT system with custom broadband dielectric sensor predicting conductivity y-fit plot (FIG. 35A) and residuals plot (FIG. 35B), and MBI y-fit plot (FIG. 35C) and residuals plot (FIG. 35D).

[0053] FIG. 36 shows an exemplary multi-frequency resonant LCR transducer that can provide both conductivity and clay content with a single transducer.

[0054] FIG. 37 shows an example of the resulting complex impedance spectra detected by a multi-resonant coil such as that shown in FIG. 36.

[0055] FIGS. 38A-38E shows real permittivity values of clay and water mixtures at two conductivities (2mS/cm and 3 mS/cm) from Table 3 showing MBI at various frequencies 1kHz (FIG. 38A), lOGkHz (FIG. 38B), 1MHz (FIG. 38C), lOMhz (FIG. 38D), and 20MHz (FIG. 38E).

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0056] Before the present methods and systems are disclosed and described, it is to be understood that the methods and systems are not limited to specific synthetic methods, specific components, or to particular compositions. It is also to be understood that the terminology used herein is for the puipose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting.

[0057] As used in the specification and the appended claims, the singular forms "a," '"an" and "the" include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Ranges may be expressed herein as from "about" one particular value, and/or to '"about" another particular value. When such a range is expressed, another embodiment includes^"1 from the one particular value and/or to the other particular value. Similarly, when values are expressed as approximations, by use of the antecedent "about," it will be understood that the particular value forms another embodiment. It will be further understood that the endpoints of each of the ranges are significant both in relation to the other endpoint, and independently of the other endpoint. [0058] "Optional" or "optionally" means that the subsequently described event or circumstance may or may not occur, and that the description includes instances where said event or circumstance occurs and instances where it does not.

[0059] Throughout the description and claims of this specification, the word "comprise" and variations of the word, such as "comprising" and "compri ses," means "including but not limited to," and is not intended to exclude, for example, other additives, components, integers or steps. "Exemplary" means "an example of and is not intended to convey an indication of a preferred or ideal embodiment. "Such as" is not used in a restrictive sense, but for explanatory purposes.

[0060] Disclosed are components that can be used to perform the disclosed methods and systems. These and other components are disclosed herein, and it is understood that when combinations, subsets, interactions, groups, etc. of these components are disclosed that while specific reference of each various indi vidual and collective combinations and permutation of these may not be explicitly disclosed, each is specifically contemplated and described herein, for all methods and systems. This applies to all aspects of this application including, but not limited to, steps in disclosed methods. Thus, if there are a variety of additional steps that can be performed it is understood that each of these additional steps can be performed with any specific embodiment or combination of embodiments of the disclosed methods.

[0061] The present methods and systems may be understood more readily by reference to the following detailed description of preferred embodiments and the Examples included therein and to the Figures and their previous and following description.

[0062] As discussed in detail below, embodiments of the present invention can provide low- cost systems for reliably and accurately measuring the fluid level in a fluid processing vessel or solids, such as clay, in a dispersion. A resonant sensor system can provide effective and accurate measurement of the level of the transition or emulsion layer through the use of a resonant transducer such as an inductor-capacitor-resistor structure (LCR) multivariable resonant transducer and the application of multivariate data analysis applied to the signals from the transducer. The resonant sensor system, can also provide the ability to determine the composition of water and oil mixtures, oil and water mixtures, the emulsion layer, and solids in dispersions.

[0063] The resonant transducer can include a resonant circuit and a pick-up coil. The electrical response of the resonant transducer can be translated into simultaneous changes to a number of parameters. These parameters may include the complex impedance response, resonance peak position, peak width, peak height and peak symmetry of the impedance response of the sensor antenna, magnitude of the real part of the impedance, resonant frequency of the imaginary part of the impedance, antiresonant frequency of the imaginary part of the impedance, zero-reactance frequency, phase angle, and magnitude of impedance, and others as described in the definition of the term sensor "spectral parameters." These spectral parameters may change depending upon the dielectric properties of the surrounding fluids or medium. The typical configuration of a resonant transducer may include an LCR resonant circuit and an antenna. The resonant transducer may operate with a pick-up coil connected to the detector reader (impedance analyzer) where the pick-up coil can provide both, excitation of the transducer and detection of the transducer response. The resonant transducer may also operate when the excitation of the transducer and detection transducer response is performed when the transducer is directly connected to the detector reader (impedance analyzer),

[0064] A resonant transducer can offer a combination of high sensitivity, favorable signal- to-noise ratio, high selectivity, high accuracy, and high data acquisition speeds in a robust sensor without the need for optical transparency of the analyzed fluid and the measurement flow path. Instead of conventional impedance spectroscopy that scans across a wide frequency range (from a fraction of Hz to tens of MHz or GHz) a resonant transducer can be used to acquire a spectrum rapidly and with high signal-to-noise across only a narrow frequency range. The sensing capability can be enhanced by putting the sensing region between the electrodes that constitute a resonant circuit. As implemented in a fluid processing system such as a desalter or a separator, the resonant sensor system may include a sampling assembly and a resonant transducer coupled to the fluid sampling assembly. The resonant sensor system can implement a method for measuring the level of a mixture of fluids in a vessel, and may also implement a method for determining the composition of a mixture of oil and water in a vessel or the composition of solids, such as clay, in a fluid. The resonant transducers can be capable of accurately quantify ing individual analytes at their minimum and maximum limits. The resonant sensor system can determine the composition of fluid mixtures even when one of the fluids is at a low concentration.

[0065] Non-limiting examples of fluid processing systems can include reactors, chemical reactors, biological reactors, storage vessels, containers, and others known in the art.

[0066] FIG. 1 shows a schematic of an embodiment of a resonant sensor system 1 1. The resonant sensor system 11 includes a transducer 12, a sampling assembly 13, and an impedance analyzer (analyzer 15). In one aspect, the transducer 12 can be a resonant transducer such as those shown in FIGS. 2, 4, 5, 10 and including a multi-resonant transducer such as that shown in FIG. 36. The analyzer 15 can be coupled to a processor 16 such as a microcomputer. Data received from the analyzer 15 can be processed using multivariate analysis, and the output may be provided through a user interface 17. Analyzer 15 may be an impedance analyzer that measures both amplitude and phase properties and correlates the changes in impedance to the physical parameters of interest. The analyzer 15 can scan the frequencies over the range of interest (i.e., the resonant frequency range or ranges of the LCR circuit) and can collect the impedance response from the resonant transducer 12.

[0067] As shown in FIG. 2, the transducer 12 can be a resonant transducer such as the resonant transducer shown in FIG. 2. The resonant transducer can include an antenna 20 disposed on a substrate 22. The resonant transducer may be separated from the ambient environment with a dielectric layer 21. In some embodiments, the thickness of the dielectric layer 2.1 may range from approximately 2 nm to approximately 50 cm, more specifically from approximately 5 nm to approximately 20 cm; and even more specifically from approximately 10 nm to approximately 10 cm. In some applications the resonant transducer may include a sensing film deposited onto the transducer. In response to environmental parameters an electromagnetic field 23 may be generated in the antenna 20 that can extend out from the plane of the resonant transducer. The electromagnetic field 23 may be affected by the dielectric property of an ambient environment providing the opportunity for measurements of physical parameters. The resonant transducer can respond to changes in the complex permittivity of the environment. The real part of the complex permittivity of the fluid or dispersion can be referred to as a "dielectric constant". The imaginary part of the complex permittivity of the fluid or dispersion can be referred to as a "dielectric loss factor". The imaginary part of the complex permittivity of the fluid or dispersion may be directly proportional to conductivity of the fluid.

[0068] Measurements of fluids can be performed using a protecting layer that separates the conducting medium from the antenna 20. The response of the resonant transducer to the composition of the fluids may involve changes in the dielectric and dimensional properties of the resonant transducer. These changes can be related to the analyzed environment that interacts with the resonant transducer. The fluid-induced changes in the resonant transducer can affect the complex impedance of the antenna circuit through the changes in material resistance and capacitance between the antenna turns.

[0069] For selective fluid characterization using a resonant transducer, the complex impedance spectra of the sensor antenna 20 can be measured as shown in FIG. 3. At least three data points of impedance spectra of the emulsion may be measured. Better results may be achieved when at least five data points of the impedance spectra of the emulsion are measured. Non limiting examples of number of measured data points include 8, 16, 32, 64, 101, 128, 201 , 256, 501, 5 12, 901, 1024, 2048 data points. Spectra may be measured as a real part of impedance spectra or an imaginary part of impedance spectra or both parts of impedance spectra. Non-limiting examples of LCR resonant circuit parameters can include impedance spectrum, real part of the impedance spectrum, imaginary part of the impedance spectrum, both real and imaginary parts of the impedance spectrum, frequency of the maximum of the real part of the complex impedance (Fp), magnitude of the real part of the complex impedance (Zp), resonant frequency (Fl) and its magnitude (Zl) of the imaginary part of the complex impedance, and anti -re sonant frequency (F2) and its magnitude (Z2) of the imaginary part of the complex impedance.

[0070] Additional parameters may be extracted from the response of the equivalent circuit of the resonant transducer. Non-limiting examples of the resonant circuit parameters may include quality factor of resonance, zero-reactance frequency, phase angle, and magnitude of impedance of the resonance circuit response of the resonant transducer. Applied multivariate analysis can reduce the dimensionality of the multi-variable response of the resonant transducer to a single data point in multidimensional space for selective quantification of different environmental parameters of interest. Non-limiting examples of multivariate analysis tools can

f include canonical correlation analysis, regression analysis, nonlinear regression analysis, principal components analysis, discriminate function analysis, multidimensional scaling, linear discriminate analysis, logistic regression, and/or neural network analysis. By applying multivariate analysis of the full complex impedance spectra or the calculated spectral parameters, quantification of anaiytes and their mixtures with interferences may he performed with a resonant transducer. Besides the measurement of the complex impedance spectra parameters, it can be possible to measure other spectral parameters related to the complex impedance spectra. Examples include, but are not limited to, S-parameters (scattering parameters) Y-parameters (admittance parameters), and Z-parameters (impedance parameters). Using multivariate analysis of data from the sensor, it can be possible to achieve simultaneous quantitation of multiple parameters of interest with a single resonant transducer.

[0071] A resonant transducer may be characterized as one-dimensional, two-dimensional, or three-dimensional. A one-dimensional resonant transducer may include two wires where one wire is disposed adjacent to the oilier wire and may include additional components. A two- dimensional transducer is generally of a planar design such as illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 4. Additional planar transducers and their description is included in U.S. Patent Application Pre- Grant Publication US20140182363, application number 13/729,851, filed December 28, 2012 and published on July 3, 2014, which is fully incorporated by reference and made a part hereof. A three-dimensional transducer is generally comprised of multiple coils with concentric windings such as that illustrated in FIGS. 5, 9, 10 and 36.

[0072] Shown in FIG. 4 is a two-dimensional resonant transducer 25 having a transducer antenna 27. The two-dimensional resonant transducer 25 can be a resonant circuit that includes an LCR circuit. In some embodiments, the two-dimensional resonant transducer 25 may be coated with a sensing film 21 applied onto the sensing region between the electrodes. The transducer antenna 27 may be in the form of coiled wire disposed in a plane. The two- dimensional resonant transducer 25 may be wired or wireless. In some embodiments, the two- dimensional resonant transducer 25 may also include an IC chip 29 coupled to transducer antenna 27. The IC chip 29 may store manufacturing, user, calibration and/or other data. The IC chip 29 can be an integrated circuit device and it can include RF signal modulation circuitry that may be fabricated using a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process and a nonvolatile memory. The RF signal modulation circuitry components may include a diode rectifier, a power supply voltage control, a modulator, a demodulator, a clock generator, and other components.

[0073] Sensing can be performed via monitoring of the changes in the complex impedance spectram of the two-dimensional resonant transducer 25 as probed by the electromagnetic field 23 generated in the transducer antenna 27. The electromagnetic field 23 generated in the transducer antenna 27 can extend out from the plane of the two-dimensional resonant transducer 25 and can be affected by the dielectric property of the ambient environment, providing the opportunity for measurements of physical, chemical, and biological parameters.

[0074] Shown in FIG. 5 is a three-dimensional resonant transducer 31. The three- dimensional resonant transducer 31 can include a top winding 33 and a bottom winding 35 coupled to a capacitor 37. The top winding 33 can be wrapped around an upper portion of a sampling cell 39 and the bottom winding 35 can be wrapped around a lower portion of the sampling cell 39. The sampling cell 39 may, for example, be made of a material resistant to fouling such as Polytetrafiuoroethyiene (PTFE), a synthetic fluoropolynier of tetrafluoroethylene, or any such polymer.

[0075] The three-dimensional resonant transducer 31 can utilize the mutual inductance of the top winding 33 to sense the bottom winding 35. In this regard, the top winding 33 can be referred to as a pick-up coil and the bottom winding 35 can be referred to as a sensing coil. In a configuration (not shown in FIG. 5), the transducer 31 may have multiple sensing coils. Illustrated in FIG. 6 is an equivalent circuit 41, including a current source 43, R0 resistor 45, CO capacitor 47, and L0 inductor 49. The equivalent circuit 41 can also include LI inductor 51 , Rl resistor 53 and CI capacitor 55. The circuit can also include Cp capacitor 57 and Rp resistor 59, The circled portion of the equivalent circuit 41 shows a sensitive portion 61 that can be sensitive to the properties of the surrounding test fluid. An example Rp response and Cp response of resonant a transducer 12 to varying mixtures of oil and water are shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, respectively.

[0076] The three-dimensional resonant transducer 31 may further be shielded as shown in FIG. 9. For example, a resonant transducer assembly 63 can include a radio frequency absorber (RF absorber layer 67) surrounding the sampling cell 39, top winding 33, and bottom winding 35, A spacer 69 may be provided, surrounded by a metal shield 71. The metal shield 71 can be optional, and may not be part of the transducer 31. The metal shield 71 can allow operation inside or near metal objects and piping, can reduce noise, and can create a stable environment such that any changes in the sensor response can be directly due to changes in the test fluid. In order to encapsulate the sensor in a metal shield 71, the RF absorber layer 67 may be placed between the sensor and the metal shield 71. This can prevent the RF field from interacting with the metal and quenching the response of the sensor. The metal shield 71 may be wrapped with a cover 73 of suitable material . The RF absorber layer 67 can absorb electromagnetic radiation in different frequency ranges with non-limiting examples in the kilohertz, megahertz, gigahertz, terahertz frequency ranges depending on the operational frequency of the transducer 31 and potential sources of interference. The absorber layer 67 can be a combination of individual layers for particular frequency ranges so the combinations of these individual layers provide a broader spectral range of shielding.

[0077] Fouling of the resonant sensor system 11 may be reduced by providing the resonant transducer with a geometry that enables resonant transducer to probe the environment over the sample depth perpendicular to the transducer ranging from approximately 0.1 mm to approximately 1000 mm. Signal processing of the complex impedance spectrum can reduce the effects of fouling over the sample depth.

[0078] FIG. 10 illustrates another three-dimensional resonant transducer 31. The second three-dimensional resonant transducer 31 can include a top winding 33 and a bottom winding 35. The bottom winding 35 can be located around the sampling cell 39 and the top winding 33 can be located around the bottom winding 35. The sampling cell 39 may, for example, be made of a material resistant to fouling and suitable for providing galvanic isolation between the bottom winding 35 and a fluid being sampled such as Pohtetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), a synthetic fluoropolymer of tetrafluoroethylene, Polyether ether ketone (PEEK), or any such material. The sampling cell 39 may be in the form of a tube or otherwise adapted to contain a stationary or flowing fluid, typically a liquid or dispersion. The fluid may comprise liquid or solid particles mixed with a liquid as in an emulsion, colloidal suspension, latex or other dispersion. A galvanic isolator 36 can be provided between the top winding 33 and the bottom winding 35 although the top winding 33 and bottom winding 35 might also be separated by an air gap. For example, the galvanic isolator 36 may be a dielectric coating. The bottom winding 35 may be wound directly around a portion of the sampling cell 39 or otherwise fit around, or be in contact with, the outside of the sampling cell 39. The top winding 33 may be separated from the bottom winding 35 by a spacing of about approximately 0. Γ¹ to approximately 0.3". The top winding 33 and the bottom winding 35 can be arranged as tubular coils concentric with each other and the sampling cell 39.

[0079] The three-dimensional resonant transducer of FIG. 10 can have a spacer 72 between the top winding 33 and the RF absorber layer 67. The spacer 72 can be made of galvanic isolating material or air gap. This spacer 72 can increase signal while reducing noise, which can result in a higher signal to noise ratio. This spacer 72 can enhance the dynamic range of the second three-dimensional resonant transducer 31.

[0080] The three-dimensional resonant transducer 31 has wires 74 connecting the ends of the top winding 33 to a connector 68. The connector 68 can be used to connect an electrical cable from the analyzer 15 to the second three-dimensional resonant transducer 31. The second three-dimensional resonant transducer 31 can also have fittings 34 at the ends of the sampling cell 39. The fittings 34 can allow the sampling cell 39 to be optionally connected to one or more pipes, which may have valves or other flow control devices, adapted to bring a liquid sample into the sampling cell 39 and to remove a sample after it has been measured.

[0081] Optionally, the three-dimensional resonant transducer 31 may have two galvanically isolated top windings 33, one that can be used as a drive (excitation) coil and one that can be used as a pick-up (receiving) coil. However, in the example of FIG. 10, a single top winding 33 can act as both a drive coil and a pick-up coil. Analyzer 15 can be configured to both send current (a power wave) through the top winding 33 and to receive a signal (current) from the top winding but at different time intervals, for example according to an alternating pattern of excitation and receiving. The excitation and receiving steps may each have a duration of, for example, approximately 0.2 to approximately 5 seconds. The frequency of the power wave applied during the excitation stage may vary between successive excitation stages. In addition to avoiding a second top winding 33, this configuration can avoid having two sets of electrical cables connecting the analyzer 15 to the second three-dimensional resonant transducer 31 and this tends to reduce signal noise. [0082] The bottom winding 35 can act as a resonator or sensing coil. The bottom winding 35 can float with no galvanic connections to other parts of the second three-dimensional resonant transducer 31. The two ends of the bottom winding 35 may not be connected to each other (other than through the coils of the bottom winding 35) so as to form a circuit loop, although connections to form a circuit as in Figure 5, with or without a capacitor, may also be used. Alternatively or optionally, the bottom winding can be comprised of a plurality of coils with multiple resonant frequencies. The bottom winding 35 can be excited by an electromagnetic field created by a power wave flowing through the top winding 33. The excited bottom winding 35 can generate another electro-magnetic field that can be altered by its interaction with the fluid in the sampling cell 39. This (reflected) electro-magnetic field can then be sensed by the top winding 33. As mentioned above, these two steps can occur in different time periods, repeated in alternation over a plurality of cycles.

[0083] Although the bottom winding 35 can generate an electro-magnetic field, because the sampling cell 39 contains a fluid (such as water or oil) or dispersion with low conductivity, signals representing the electric (as opposed to magnetic) portion of the field generated by the bottom winding 35 may be the primary or only means of analysis. This can be in contrast to eddy current techniques used when making measurements of more conductive materials that use the magnetic portion of a field generated by a resonator as the primary or only means of analysis. Signals associated with the magnetic portion of the electro-magnetic field generated by the bottom winding 35 may tend to indicate the conductivity of a sample whereas signals associated with the electric portion of the electro-magnetic field generated by the bottom winding 35 may indicate the impedance of the sample.

[0084] The analyzer 15 can translate the electric response (signal) generated by the bottom winding 35 (as received through the top winding 33) into one or more measured parameters. These parameters may include one or more of: complex (magnitude and phase) impedance response; resonance peak position, peak width, peak height and/or peak symmetry of the impedance response; magnitude of the real part of the impedance; resonant frequency of the imaginary part of the impedance; anti-resonant frequency of the imaginary part of the impedance; zero-reactance frequency; phase angle of impedance; magnitude of impedance; real and imaginary permittivity values, and the like. [0085] The three-dimensional resonant transducer 31 of FIG. 10 may be used in any method or apparatus described for the resonant transducer 31 of FIG. 5 including the determination of a solid, such as clay, in a dispersion, such as oil sands. The three-dimensional resonant transducer 31 of FIG. 10 can use the mutual inductance of the top winding 33 to sense the bottom winding 35. Hie equivalent circuit in FIG. 6 may be used with the second three- dimensional resonant transducer 31 of FIG. 10. An Rp response and Cp response to varying mixtures of oil and water similar to that shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, respectively, may be obtained from the second three-dimensional resonant transducer 31 of FIG. 10.

[0086] The three-dimensional resonant transducer 31 may be shielded as shown in FIG. 10. A resonant transducer assembly 63 can include a radio frequency absorber (RF absorber layer 67) surrounding the sampling cell 39, top winding 33, and bottom winding 35. The RF absorber layer 67 may be surrounded by a metal, for example aluminum, shield 71. There may be a spacer (not shown) between the RF absorber layer 67 and the shield 71. The shield 71 can be optional, and may not be a necessary part of the second three-dimensional resonant transducer 31. However, the shield 71 can improve operation inside or near metal objects and piping, can reduces noise, and can create a stable environment such that any changes in the sensor response can be directly due to changes in the test fluid. In order to encapsulate the sensor in a shield 71 the RF absorber layer 67 may be placed between the sensor and the metal shield 71. This can prevent the RF^"" field from interacting with the metal and quenching the response of the sensor. The metal shield 71 may be wrapped with a cover 73 of suitable material. The RF absorber layer 67 can absorb electromagnetic radiation in different frequency- ranges with non-limiting examples in the kilohertz, megahertz, gigahertz, terahertz frequency ranges depending on the operation frequency of the transducer 31 and the potential sources of interference. The absorber layer 67 can be a combination of individual layers for particular frequency ranges so the combinations of these individual layers provide a broader spectral range of shielding.

[0087] The top winding 33 can beat at least approximately half as long as the bottom winding 35. The top winding 33 can have a larger pitch than the bottom winding 35. For example, as shown in in FIG. 10, the top winding 33 can be about as long as the bottom winding 35 but can have less than approximately one tenth as many turns as the bottom winding 35. For example, the top winding 33 may have one turn for approximately every 15 to 50 turns of the bottom winding 35. The top winding 33 and the bottom winding 35 can have different resonant frequencies. When measuring the concentration of water in oil or oil in water, or the concentration of salts or solid particles in a water or oil or water and oil based mixtures, the top winding 33 can have a higher resonant frequency than the bottom winding 35. The resonant frequencies of the top winding 33 and the bottom winding 35 can be baseline separated. Successive peaks of the applied and reflected (modified by interaction with the sample) signals can be separated by at least some distance along the baseline.

[0088] The concentric arrangement of the top winding 33 and the bottom winding 35 shown in FIG. 10 can increase the sensitivity of the second three-dimensional resonant transducer 31. For example, the second three-dimensional resonant transducer 31 of FIG. 10 may be better able to determine the composition of emulsions and other dispersions, including dispersions of solid particles and dispersion containing both solid particles and an emulsion, compared to the resonant transducer 31 of FIG. 5. However, the resonant transducer of FIG. 5 may also be used to determine the composition of emulsions and other dispersions, including dispersions of solid particles and dispersion containing both solid particles and an emulsion.

[0089] As shown in FIG. 11, the resonant sensor system 11 may be used to determine the level and composition of fluids in a fluid processing system 1 11. Fluid processing system. 11 1 can include a vessel 113 with a sampling assembly 115 and a resonant sensor system 1 1 . The resonant sensor system 11 can include at least one resonant transducer 12 coupled to the sampling assembly 115. Resonant sensor system 11 can also include an analyzer 15 and a processor 16.

[0090] In operation, a normally immiscible combination of fluids or dispersion can enter the vessel through a raw fluid input 123. The combination of fluids may include a first fluid and a second fluid normally immiscible with the first fluid. As the combination of fluids can be processed, the combination of fluids can be separated into a first fluid layer 117, and a second fluid layer 1 19. In between the first fluid layer 117and second fluid layer 1 19, there may be a rag layer 121 . After processing, a first fluid may be extracted through first fluid output 125, and a second fluid may be extracted through second fluid output 127. The resonant sensor system 11 can be used to measure the level of the first fluid layer 117, the second fluid layer 119 and the rag layer 121 . The resonant sensor system 1 1 may also be used to characterize the content of the first fluid layer 117, the second fluid layer 119, and the rag layer 121.

[0091] In one aspect of the disclosure, a fluid processing system 111 can include a desalter 141, illustrated in FIG. 12. The desalter 141 can include a desalter vessel 143. Raw oil enters the desalter 141 through crude oil input 145 and can be mixed with water from water input 147. The combination of crude oil and water flows through mixing valve 149 and into the desalter vessel 143. The desalter 141 can include a treated oil output 151 and a wastewater output 153. Disposed within the desalter vessel 143 can be an oil collection header 155 and a water collection header 157. Transformer 159 and transformer 161 can provide electricity to top electrical grid 163 and bottom electrical grid 165. Disposed between top electrical grid 163 and bottom electrical grid 165 can be emulsion distributors 167.

[0092] In operation, crude oil mixed with water can enter the desalter vessel 143 and the two fluids can be mixed and distributed by emulsion distributors 167 thereby forming an emulsion. The emulsion can be maintained between the top electrical grid 163 and the bottom electrical grid 165. Salt containing water can be separated from the oil/water mixture by the passage through the top electrical grid 163 and bottom electrical grid 165 and can drop towards the bottom of the desalter vessel 143 where it can be collected as waste water.

[0093] Control of the level of the emulsion layer and characterization of the contents of the oil-in-water and water-in-oil emulsions can be important in the operation of the desalter 141. Determination of the level of the emulsion layer may be accomplished using a sampling assembly such as a try -line assembly 169 coupled to the desalter vessel 143 and having at least one resonant transducer 12 disposed on try-line output conduit 172. The resonant transducer 12 may be coupled to a data collection component 173. In operation, the resonant transducer 12 can be used to measure the level of water and the oil and to enable operators to control the process. The try-line assembly 169 may be a plurality of pipes open at one end inside the desalter vessel 143 with an open end permanently positioned at the desired vertical position or level in the desalter vessel 143 for withdrawing liquid samples at that level. There generally can be a plurality of sample pipes in a processing vessel, each with its own sample valve, with the open end of each pipe at a different vertical position inside the unit, so that liquid samples can be withdrawn from a plurality of fixed vertical positions in the unit. Another approach to measuring the level of the emulsion layer can be to use a swing arm sampler. A swing aim sampler can be a pipe with an open end inside the desalter vessel 143 typically connected to a sampling valve outside the unit. It can include an assembly used to change the vertical position of the open end of the angled pipe in the desalter 141, by rotating it, so that liquid samples can be withdrawn (or sampled) from any desired vertical position.

[0094] Another method to measure the level of the oil and water can be to dispose at least one resonant transducer 12 on a dipstick 175. A dipstick 175 may be a rod with a resonant transducer 12 that can be inserted into tlie desalter vessel 143. Measurements can be made at a number of levels. Alternately, the dipstick 175 may be a stationary rod having a plurality of multiplexed resonant transducers 12. Tlie resonant transducer 12 may be coupled to a data collection component 179 that can collect data from the various readings for further processing.

[0095] Another embodiment of a fluid processing system 111 can be a separator 191 illustrated in FIG. 13. The separator 191 can include a separator vessel 193 having an input conduit 195 for crude oil. Crude oil flowing from input conduit 195 can impact an inlet diverter 197. Tl e impact of the crude oil on the inlet diverter 197 can cause water particles to begin to separate from tl e crude oil. The crude oil flows into the processing chamber 199 where it can be separated into a water layer 201 and an oil layer 203. The crude oil can be conveyed into the processing chamber 199 below the oil/water interface 204. This forces the inlet mixture of oil and water to mix with the water continuous phase in the bottom of the vessel and rise through tlie oil/water interface 204 thereby promoting tlie precipitation of water droplets which may be entrained in the oil. Water settles to the bottom, while the oil rises to the top. The oil can be skimmed over a weir 205 where it can be collected in oil chamber 207. Water may be withdrawn from the system tlirough a water output conduit 209 that can be controlled by a water level control, valve 211. Similarly oil may be withdrawn from the system through an oil output conduit 213 that can be controlled by an oil level control valve 215. The height of the oil/water interface may be detected using a try-line assembly 217 having at least one resonant transducer 12 disposed in a try-line output conduit 218 and coupled to a data processor 221. Alternately a dip stick. 223 having at least one resonant transducer 12 coupled to a processor 227 may be used to determine the level of the oil/water interface 204. The determined level can be used to control the water level control valve 211 to allow water to be withdrawn so that the oil/water interface can be maintained at the desired height. [0096] The following examples are given by way of illustration only and are not intended as a limitation of the scope of this disclosure. A model system of heavy mineral oil, tap water and detergent was used to cany out static tests for various designs of resonant transducer 12. The level of detergent was kept constant for all of the mixtures.

[0097] In the case of the three-dimensional resonant transducer 31 disposed on a try-line or swing arm sampling assembly 13, different compositions of oil and water can be poured into a sample cell with the three-dimensional resonant transducer 31 wound around the outside of the sample cell. FIG. 14 shows the response in terms of Fp (frequency shift of the real impedance) as oil concentration increases. Tire calculated detection limit of the composition of oil in oil-in-water emulsions (FIG. 14 part A) is approximately 0.28% and of oil in water-in- oil emulsions (FIG. 14 part B) is approximately 0.58%.

[0098] In the case of the two-dimensional resonant transducer 25, the two-dimensional resonant transducer 25 can be immersed in different compositions of oil and water. FIG. 15 shows the response of a two-dimensional resonant transducer 25 (2 cm circular) in terms of Fp (frequency shift, of the real impedance) as oil concentration increases. Tire calculated detection limit of the composition of oil in oil-in-water emulsions (FIG. 15 part A) is approximately 0.089% and of oil in water-in-oil emulsions (FIG. 15 part B) is approximately 0.044%. This example illustrates that small concentrations of one fluid mixed large concentrations of another fluid can be measured with a high degree of accuracy.

[0099] The model system can be loaded with approximately 250 mL of mineral oil and treated with detergent at a concentration of approximately 1 drop per 50 rnL (5 drops). The mineral oil can be stirred and injected through the sensor and the impedance spectra are recorded. Small additions of water can be added with constant salinity and same detergent treatment. After the water volume exceeds approximately 66% or approximately 500 mL of water, the system can be cleaned and the experiment can be repeated with different salinity waters. The multivariate response of the two-dimensional resonant transducer 25 can be sensitive to changes in composition and conductivity at all levels in the test vessel of the model system. Although the effect of conductivity and composition can be somewhat convoluted, the fact that the sensor monitors a composition gradient can allow the data analysis procedure to deconvolute these effects. [001.00] FIG. 16 is a generalized process diagram illustrating a method 261 for determining the composition of an oil and water mixture as a function of height.

[00101] In step 263 data (a set of LCR resonant circuit parameters) can be collected as a function of height from top to bottom (in the lab, this can be simulated by starting with approximately 100% oil and gradually adding water).

[00102] In step 265 the conductivity of water using calibration can be determined. At approximately 100% water, the multivariate response can be compared to a calibration for water conductivity.

[00103] In step 267 the fluid phase inversion point can be determined using Z parameters (impedance parameters).

[00104] In step 269 the Z parameters can be combined with conductivity and fluid phase data.

[00105] In step 271 an oil phase model can be applied. The oil phase model can comprise a set of values correlating measured frequency values, impedance values and conductivity values to oil content in an oil and water mixture.

[00106] In step 273 a water phase model can be applied. The water phase model can comprise a set of values correlating measured frequency values, impedance values and conductivity values to water content in a water and oil mixture.

[00107] In step 275 the composition as a function of height can be determined using the conductivity and the fluid phase inversion point as input parameters in the multivariate analysis and a report is generated.

[00108] FIG. 17 shows the raw impedance (Zp) vs. frequency (Fp) data for a profile containing approximately 0-66% water from right to left. At approximately 8.12 MHz, the water content is high enough (approximately 25%) to induce fluid phase inversion from oil to water continuous phase. This may be apparent from the drastic change in Zp due to the increased conductivity of the test fluid in water continuous phase. An oil continuous phase model can be applied to any data points to the right of the fluid phase inversion and a water model to the left. Additionally, a calibration may be applied to the endpoint to determine the conductivity of the water, which in this case was approximately 2.78 mS/cm.

[00109] FIG. 18 shows the results of an analysis of the experiment data from an embodiment of a three-dimensional resonant sensor system illustrated the correlation between the actual and predicted values of oil in water and water in oil and the residual errors of prediction based on developed model. Part A of the chart plots the actual and predicted values of oil in water. Part B of the chart plots the actual and predicted values of water in oil. In part A, the data points can be modeled separately from the data points in part B (water continuous phase). Parts C and D of the chart plot the residual error between the actual and predicted values of oil in water and water in oil respectively. Generally, the residual error was less than approximately 0.5% when the actual percentage of oil is between approximately 0% and approximately 60%. The residual error was less than approximately 0.04% when the actual percentage of oil is between approximately 70% and approximately 100%. At the fluid phase inversion the residual error increases up to approximately 10% where prediction capability can be difficult due to fluctuations in the composition of the test fluid in the dynamic test rig. The prediction capability of the sensor can improve at compositions greater than approximately 66% water with more training data.

[00110] FIG. 19 illustrates the results obtained in a simulated desalter. The chart shows a profile developed by plotting the composition as a function of time. To simulate the sampling using a swing arm that is slowly rotated through the rag layer, a test rig can be operated such that the composition of the test fluid is slowly modulated with time by adding small additions of water.

[00111 ] FIG. 20 is an illustration of the expected level of reporting from the sensor data analysis system. A plot that displays a representation of the composition as a function of height in the desalter, the level of fluid phase inversion, and the width of the rag layer can be shown to the end user. On the left are fluid phase indicators (black-oil, cross hatched (top slanted to right)-oil continuous, cross hatched (top slanted to the left) -water continuous, white-water) that can indicate the percent water/height curve. The height of the rag layer can then be the sum of the water continuous and oil continuous regions. The level of detail indicated can allow the operator of the desalter to optimize the feed rate of chemicals into the process, provide more detailed feedback on the performance of a fluid processing system, and highlight process upsets that may cause damage to downstream process infrastructure.

[00112] Illustrated in F G. 21 is a method 281 for measuring the level of a mixture of fluids in a vessel 113.

[00113] In step 283, the method 281 may detect signals (a set of signals) from a resonant sensor system 11 at a plurality of locations in a vessel. The signals can be generated by a resonant transducer 12 immersed in the mixture of fluids. The resonant transducer 12 can generate a set of transducer signals corresponding to changes in dielectric properties of the resonant transducer 12, and the signals can be detected by an analyzer 15.

[00114] In step 285, the method 281 may convert the signals to a set of values of the complex impedance spectrum for the plurality of locations. The conversion can be accomplished using multivariate data analysis.

[00115] In step 287, the method 281 may store the values of the complex impedance spectrum.

[00116] In step 289, the method 281 may determine if a sufficient number of locations have been measured.

[00117] In step 291 , the method 281 may change the resonant transducer 12 being read (or the location of the resonant transducer 12) if an insufficient number of locations have been measured.

[00118] In step 293, the method 281 may determine the fluid phase inversion point if a sufficient number of locations has been measured. The fluid phase inversion point can be determined from the values of the complex impedance spectrum by identifying a drastic change in the impedance values.

[00119] In step 295, the method 281 may assign a value for the interface level based on the fluid phase inversion point.

[00120] FIG. 22 is a block diagram of non-limiting example of a processor system 810 that may be used to implement the apparatus and methods described herein. As shown in FIG. 22, the processor system 810 can include a processor 812 that can be coupled to an interconnection bus 814. The processor 812 may be any suitable processor, processing unit or microprocessor. Although not shown in FIG. 22, the processor system 810 may be a multi-processor system and, thus, may include one or more additional processors that are identical or similar to the processor 812 and that are communicatively coupled to the interconnection bus 814.

[00121 ] The processor 812 of FIG. 22 is coupled to a chipset 818, which includes a memory controller 820 and an input/output (I/O) controller 822. As is well known, a chipset typically provides I/O and memory management functions as well as a plurality of general purpose and/or special purpose registers, timers, etc. that are accessible or used by one or more processors coupled to the chipset 818. The memory controller 820 performs functions that enable the processor 812 (or processors if there are multiple processors) to access a system memory 824 and a mass storage memory 825.

[00122] The system memor 824 may include any desired type of volatile and/or nonvolatile memory such as, for example, static random access memory (SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), flash memory, read-only memory (ROM), etc. The mass storage memory 825 may include any desired type of mass storage device including hard disk dri ves, optical drives, tape storage devices, etc.

[00123] The I/O controller 822 performs functions that enable the processor 812 to communicate with peripheral input/output (I/O) devices 826 and 828 and a network interface 830 via an I/O bus 832. The I/O devices 826 and 828 may be any desired type of I/O device such as, for example, a keyboard, a video display or monitor, a mouse, etc. The I/O devices 826 and 828 also may be The network interface 830 may be, for example, an Ethernet device, an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) device, an 802.11 device, a DSL modem, a cable modem, a cellular modem, etc. that enables the processor system 810 to communicate with another processor sy stem. Data from analyzer 15 may be communicated to the processor 812 through the I/O bus 832 using the appropriate bus connectors.

[00124] While the memory controller 820 and the I/O controller 822 are depicted in FIG. 22 as separate blocks within the chipset 818, the functions performed by these blocks may be integrated within a single semiconductor circuit or may be implemented using two or more separate integrated circuits.

[00125] Certain embodiments contemplate methods, systems and computer program products on any machine-readable media te implement functionality described above. Certain embodiments may be implemented using an existing computer processor, or by a special purpose computer processor incorporated for this or another purpose or by a hardwired and/or firmware system, for example. Certain embodiments include computer-readable media for carrying or having computer-executable instructions or data structures stored thereon. Such computer-readable media may be any available media that may be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer or other machine with a processor. By way of example, such computer-readable media may comprise RAM, ROM, PROM, EPROM, EEPROM, Flash, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of computer-executable instructions or data structures and which can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer or other machine with a processor. Combinations of the above are also included within the scope of computer-readable media. Computer- executable instructions comprise, for example, instructions and data which cause a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or special purpose processing machines to perform a certain function or group of functions.

[00126] Generally, computer-executable instructions include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc., that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract datatypes. Computer-executable instructions, associated data structures, and program modules represent examples of program code for executing steps of certain methods and systems disclosed herein. The particular sequence of such executable instructions or associated data structures represent examples of corresponding acts for implementing the functions described in such steps.

[00127] Embodiments of the present disclosure may be practiced in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more remote computers having processors. Logical connections may include a local area network (LAN) and a wide area network (WAN) that are presented here by way of example and not limitation. Such networking environments are commonplace in office-wide or enterprise-wide computer networks, intranets and the Internet, and may use a wide variety of different communication protocols. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that such network-computing environments will typically encompass many types of computer system configurations, including personal computers, handheld devices, multi-processor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers, and the like. Embodiments of the disclosure may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by local and remote processing devices that are linked (either by hardwired links, wireless links, or by a combination of hardwired or wireless links) through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote memory storage devices.

[00128] Monitoring changes of the complex impedance of the circuit and applying chemometric analysis of the impedance spectra can allow for the composition and continuous phase of oil-in-water and water-in-oil mixtures to be predicted with a standard error of approximately 0.04% in approximately 0-30% water and approximately 0.26% in approximately 30-100% water.

[00129] Multivariate analysis tools in combination with data-rich impedance spectra allow for elimination of interferences, and transducers designed for maximum penetration depth can decrease the impact of fouling. As the penetration depth of the resonator can be extended further into the bulk of the fluid, surface fouling can become less significant.

[00130] The term "analyte" can include any desired measured environmental parameter.

[00131] The term "environmental parameters" can be used to refer to measurable environmental variables within or surrounding a manufacturing or monitoring system. The m easurable environmental variables comprise at least one of physical, chemical and biological properties and include, but are not limited to, measurement of temperature, pressure, material concentration, conductivity, dielectric property, number of dielectric, metallic, chemical, or biological particles in the proximity or in contact with the sensor, dose of ionizing radiation, and light intensity.

[00132] The term, "fluids" can include gases, vapors, liquids, and solids. [00133] The term "interference" can include any undesired environmental parameter that undesirably affects the accuracy and precision of measurements with the sensor. The term "interferent" can refer to a fluid or an environmental parameter (that includes, but is not limited to temperature, pressure, light, etc.) that potentially may produce an interference response by the sensor.

[00134] The term "transducer" car! mean a device that converts one form of energy to another.

[00135] The term "sensor" can mean a device that measures a physical quantity and converts it into a signal which can be read by an observer or by an instrument.

[00136] The term "multivariate data analysis" can mean a mathematical procedure that can be used to analyze more than one variable from a sensor response and to provide the information about the type of at least one environmental parameter from the measured sensor spectral parameters and/or to quantitative information about the level of at least one environmental parameter from the measured sensor spectral parameters.

[00137] The term "resonance impedance" or "impedance" can refer to measured sensor frequency response around the resonance of the sensor from which the sensor "spectral parameters" are extracted.

[00138] The term "spectral parameters" can be used to refer to measurable variables of the sensor response. The sensor response can be the impedance spectrum of the resonance sensor circuit of the resonant transducer 12. In addition to measuring the impedance spectrum in the form of Z-parameters, S-parameters, and other parameters, the impedance spectrum (both real and imaginary parts) may be analyzed simultaneously using various parameters for analysis, such as, the frequency of the maximum of the real part of the impedance (Fp), the magnitude of the real part of the impedance (Zp), the resonant frequency of the imaginary part of the impedance (F 1), and the anti-resonant frequency of the imaginary past of the impedance (F 2), signal magnitude (Z I ) at the resonant frequency of the imaginary part of the impedance (F 1), signal magnitude (Z 2) at the anti-resonant frequency of the imaginary part of the impedance (F 2), and zero-reactance frequency (Fz), frequency at which the imaginary portion of impedance is zero). Other spectral parameters may be simultaneously measured using the entire impedance spectra, for example, quality factor of resonance, phase angle, and magnitude of impedance. Collectively, "spectral parameters" calculated from the impedance spectra, can be called here "features" or "descriptors". The appropriate selection of features can be performed from all potential features that can be calculated from spectra. Multivariable spectral parameters are described in U.S. patent application, Ser. No. 12/118,950 entitled "Methods and systems for calibration of F1D sensors", which is incorporated herein by reference.

[00139] The term "emulsion" is not limited to colloids but includes coarse dispersions (suspensions) having a discontinuous phase of one liquid in a continuous phase of another liquid. The term "dispersion" can apply to both solid and liquid particles and includes both colloidal dispersions and coarse dispersions, which may settle or otherwise phase separate. The continuous phase can typically be water or oil.

[00140] The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and may not be intended to be limiting of the invention. Where the definition of terms departs from the commonly used meaning of the term, applicant intends to utilize the definitions provided herein, unless specifically indicated. The singular forms "a", "an" and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be understood that, although the terms first, second, etc. may be used to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another. The term "and/or" includes any, and all, combinations of one or more of the associated listed items. The phrases "coupled to" and "coupled with" contemplates direct or indirect coupling.

[00141] In one aspect of the disclosure, the electric fi eld and a single resonant coil can be used to quantify a large dynamic range, for example of about 0-100% water, and characterize the continuous phase of oil/water emulsions observed. Multiple sensing coils are not required to cover the broad dynamic range exliibited by fluids that are either oil/gas or water continuous phase. Without intending to be limited by theory, the ability to operate with a single sensing coil results from not using an eddy current based method wherein the power loss or attenuation of a magnetic field can be determined and correlated to the conductive component content of a multiphase fluid. [00142] Similarly, in another aspect of the disclosure, a combination of an eddy current or other transducer with a low frequency capacitance probe (or separate sensors to probe capacitance and conductance generally) may not be used in order to differentiate the complexity of the samples. In some aspects, a single sensing coil and a second coil that both transmits and receives the signal may be used.

[00143] Sensing measurements cars be performed over a broad range of frequencies, where the range of frequencies includes regions where the resonator signal may be only approximately 10%, approximately 1% or optionally even approximately 0.001% from its maximum response. Sensing methods may include one or more of (1) to scan the sensor response over the where the range of frequencies includes regions where the resonator signal may be only approximately 0.001 to approximately 10% from its maximum response, (2) to analyze the collected spectrum for the simultaneous changes to one or more of a number of measured parameters selected from a group that includes the resonance peak position, magnitude of the real part of the impedance, resonant frequency of the imaginary part of the impedance, anti- resonant frequency of the imaginary part of the impedance, and optionally others, (3) to determine the composition of fluid mixtures even when one of the fluids is at a low concentration, and (4) to determine fluid level and to determine the boundaries of an emulsion layer. Spectrum information that is both slightly lower and higher in resonant frequency may be used. Optionally, a single coil may accomplish two functions - excitation and receiving signal, optionally simultaneously,

[00144] Two coils can be used with resonant frequencies with baseline separation between the frequency bands. In this way, the intrinsic resonant signal of the pick-up coil (which maybe used as both the transmission and receiving coil) may not influence the resonance signal of the sensing coil.

[00145] Instead of conventional impedance spectroscopy of scanning across a wide frequency range (from approximately a fraction of Hz to approximately tens of MHz), a resonant inductor-capacitor-resistor sensor can be used to acquire a spectrum across a narrow frequency range. Instead of measuring the broad impedance response of a material, a device can put the sensing region inside the sensing coil that constitutes a resonant circuit. The resonant LCR sensor may respond to physical, chemical, and biological parameters. An electromagnetic field generated by mutual inductance can extend into the fluid flow cell.

[00146] Devices and methods as described above may be used to determine the type and concentration of solid particle dispersions, for example the type and concentration of clay dispersed in water or in an oil and water mixture. The electric field generated in the sensor antenna can extend out from the plane of the sensor and can be affected by the dielectric property of an ambient environment. Measurements of conducting species (liquids or solids) can be performed through a protecting layer that separates the conducting medium from the resonant antenna. For measurements in conducting media, a protective layer on the sensing antenna can prevent the sensor from direct contact with the liquid and loss of the sensor resonance. An illustration of resonance impedance spectra obtained from these measurements can be shown in FIG. 3. The measured impedance spectrum can include the real part Zre(f) and imaginary part Zim(f) of impedance. Examples of parameters for multivariate analysis include, frequency position Fp, magnitude Zp of Zre(f); and, resonant Fl and anti-resonant F2 frequencies of Zim(f). The resulting equivalent circuit of the LCR sensor is shown in FIG. 6, in which Cp and Rp are capacitive and resistive components of the sample fluid.

[00147] Clay activity (also called clay content) can be an important parameter in oil sands ores, produced water and wastewater, and in mining operations. The activity (A) of a soil is the PI divided by the percent of clay-sized particles (less than 2 um) present. Different types of clays have different specific surface areas and cation exchange capacities (CECs) which control how much wetting is required to move a soil from one phase to another such as across the liquid limit or the plastic limit. From the activit ⁷, one can predict the dominant clay type present in a soil sample. High activity signifies large volume change when wetted and large shrinkage when dried. Soils with high activity are very reactive chemically. Normally the activity of clay is between 0.75 and 1.25, and in this range clay is called normal. It is assumed that the plasticity index is approximately equal to the clay fraction (A ^:= 1 ). When A is less than 0.75, it is considered inactive. When it is greater than 1.25, it is considered active. The current practice in oil sands related processes can be to measure clay activity of soil and water samples using the methylene blue index (MBI), MBI may refer to a calculation of the milliequivalents (meq) of methylene blue (MB) required per approximately 100 g of dry solids to produce an endpoint in a titration. The endpoint can be indicated by the presence of a permanent halo of non- absorbed MB diffusing from a central application spot on filter paper. Another parameter, Wt% Clay, can be calculated by entering the volume of MB to reach the titration endpoint into an empirical equations. The titration to produce these parameters may be labor-intensive and can have poor reproducibility. Measurements made with any transducer that can measure impedance or permittivity. Pennittivity data can be used to determine clay activity (which can be mathematically converted to Wt% Clay), as well as clay concentration and clay species (which may not be determined by MB titration), optionally using automated, online or realtime measurements.

[00148] Kaolinite, illite, illite-smectite, and montmorillonite (bentonite) are four different types of clay that can be prevalent in the Alberta oil sands, and process and tailing streams produced when extracting oil from these oil sands. In a described example, samples of these four clays were obtained from The Source Clay Lab of The Clay Mineral Society for the studies described below. Each of the clays can be subjected to methylene blue titration to establish a reference of clay activity as determined by MBI. The results of one such titration are shown in Table 1.

Table 1 - Measured MBI of Clays

[00149] Various mixtures of the clays in water, or oil and water were prepared as will be described further below. Dielectric spectroscopy testing of the mixtures as described below was performed using, for example, a broadband dielectric test kit.

[00150] Each of the clays was mixed with water to make approximately 25% by weight dispersions for dielectric spectroscopy testing. An Agilent model E4991A impedance analyzer with a model 16453A dielectric material test fixture and model 85070E dielectric coaxial probe was used to measure the broadband impedance from 20-500MHz. The permittivity of each clay dispersion was measured three times and the average real permittivity (e') and imaginary permittivity (loss, e") were plotted against frequency to produce permittivity functions (permittivity as a function of applied frequency) as shown in FIGS. 23 A and 23B, respectively.

[00151] As shown in FIG. 24, real permittivity measured at approximately 20 MHz of an approximately 25 wt% dispersion was plotted against MB! for each type of clay. There was a strong correlation between these parameters indicating that permittivity data can be used directly to determine the MBI of a sampled substance. FIG. 24 is one example, but many other types of permittivity measurement, using measurements of one or more variables at one or more frequencies, can be correlated to MBI. To use the example of FIG. 24, a sample of soil, a dispersion, or another substance of interest can be dried and otiierwise prepared according to standard sample preparation techniques used for MBI testing. The dried sample can be then mixed to produce an approximately 25 wt% dispersion. The real permittivity of the approximately 25 wt% dispersion can be measured at approximately 20 MHz. MBI of the sampled substance can be determined by converting the measured real permittivity at approximately 20 MHz to MBI using FIG. 24, the formula provided in FIG. 24, a look up table or other sim ilar conversion. MBI can be mathematically converted to Wt% Clay or a function as in FIG. 24 can be made correlating permittivity to Wt% Clay.

[00152] Broadband real and imaginary permittivity data can also be used to determine the species and concentration of clay in a sample. Dispersions of clay in water can be made up for each type of clay mentioned above at concentrations of approximately 25%, approximately 27.5% and approximately 34% (by weight) in water, resulting in 12 samples. Each sample was measured to determine real permittivity and loss spectra (real and imaginary permittivity as a function of frequency). For each sample, the loss function was appended to the real permittivity function to produce a combined function for each sample. Principal component analysis (PCA) was run on the combined function data for each sample using commercial PCA software. FIG. 25 shows the scores for principal components (PC) 1 and 2 produced by the PCA analysis for each sample. Data points ending in " 1", "2" and "3" relate to samples at concentrations of approximately 25, approximately 27.5 and approximately 34 wt% respectively. As indicated by FIG. 25, the amount and species of clay present in a sample can be determined by considering the real permittivity and loss spectra. [00153] Permittivity (real and imaginary) data, obtained from a sensor like the second three- dimensional resonant transducer of FIG. 10 for the 12 samples as described was also analysed using a commercial partial least squares (PLS) software. FIG. 26 shows the resulting real impedance data and FIG. 27 shows the resulting imaginary impedance data. FIG. 28 shows a three-dimensional plot of the results for the first three factors determined for each sample. As indicated in the figure, but for an anomaly in Factor 2 for kaolinite, the data for each type of clay clusters together in multidimensional space.

[00154] The PLS data described above was used to build four partial least squares (PLS) models to predict clay concentrations. For each sample, the concentration of each of the four types of clay was predicted for each of the 12 data sets. These 48 predictions were then plotted against the actual concentration of each type of clay in each of the 12 samples. The predicted and actual concentrations of kaolinite, illite, illite-smectite, and montnioril!onite are shown in FIGS. 29A, 29B, 29C and 29D, respectively. The PLS models accurately indicated clay species by predicting concentrations near zero for data produced from clays other than the clay species being modeled in each of the four models. Each of FIGS. 29A-29D has 9 near zero predictions near the origin. These predictions are shown but not labelled since they are tightly clustered together. The predicted concentrations of the target clay for each model had the following standard error of calibrations (SEC), ail values approximate: kaolinite (SEC=0.08%), illite (SEC=2.77%), illite-smectite (SEC=0.84%), and montmonllonite (SEC=0.35%).

[00155] For the next example, kaolinite and bentonite (obtained from Fisher Scientific) were mixed alone of with various amounts of oil in water to produce mixtures in various concentrations as shown in Table 2.

Table 2. Oil, clay, and water mixtures.

K 20 1 kaolinite 20 15

K_30_10 kaolinite 30 10

K_30_15 kaolinite 30 15

B_0_10 bentonite 0 10

B_0_15 bentonite 0 15

B_10_10 bentonite 10 10

B 10 15 bentonite 10 15

B 20 ! ί ϊ bentonite 20 10

B_20_15 bentonite 20 15

B_30_10 bentonite 30 10

B_30_15 bentonite 30 15

[00156] Using methods as described above for FIGS . 29A-29D, three PLS models were built to predict the concentrations of oil, kaolinite and bentonite respectively in a sample. Real and imaginary permittivity data (as shown in FIG 30. And FIG 31, respectively) from a sensor like the second three-dimensional resonant transducer of FIG. 10 for each of the 16 samples of Table 2 was applied to each of the 3 models to produce 48 predictions. These predictions are potted against the actual values in FIGS. 32A-32C. The models can accurately predict the concentration of oil, kaolinite and bentonite present in each sample. The concentrations predicted by the models had the following SECs: oil (SE( 4.5%), kaolinite (SEC=0.6%), and bentonite (SI ^' 1.2%) .

[00157] As described above, permittivity data can be used to detennine the concentration of each species of clay in a sample. This data can be used directly to inform an oil extraction or mine operator as to the properties of solid or liquid materials that they are handling. Alternatively, the concentration of a species of clay in a sample (which may have been dispersed or diluted for testing as described herein) can be used to calculate the mass of a particular species of clay in a sample. Referring to Table 1 , multiplying this mass by the appropriate MBI for the clay species gives the mass equivalent (meq) of that clay species. These steps can be repeated for each clay species. The meq per species values can be added together to produce a total meq value for the sample. Dividing the total meq value by the total dry mass of the sample, gives the MBI of the sample, which can then be used to calculate Wt% Clay if required. All of the measurements and calculations measured above may be automated and performed by software. Further, where the original substance of interest is a dispersion, the total solids concentration of the dispersion is often known. In this case, MBI can be determined without drying the sample and the entire process can be automated. When the total solids concentration of a dispersion is not know, meq of MB per unit volume can be determined without drying the sample and may be more relevant than MBI.

Table 3

[00158] Ten solutions were prepared using varying ratios of kaolinite and bentonite (obtained from Fisher Scientific) that led to a total clay weight percent of 23%> for the total solution weight in water. The conductivity of these solutions were adjusted using sodium chloride (NaCl) and the methylene blue index calculated based on the methylene blue titration results of each clay (3.65 meq/lOOg for kaolinite and 90.77 meq/lOOg for bentonite). Table 3 catalogs the composition and properties of these samples and FIG, 33 illustrates the design space. Each model clay solution was then measured with die broadband dielectric sensor to determine permittivity and loss spectra. A PCA was done on the broadband spectra and results of the first two principal components vs. MBI as a function of bentonite concentration in shown in FIG 34. Comparing the design space (FIG 33) to the decomposed principal component space (FIG 34) highlights the orthogonality which is driven proportionally from PCI to conductivity and inversely proportionally from PC2 to MBI effects, A Principal Components Regression (PCR) model with leave one out cross validation was built and evaluated. The y-fit plots comparing the model prediction vs. actual values for both conductivity and MBI are shown in FIGS. 35A-35D. The Standard Error of Validation is 0.03mS/cm and 0.4meq/100g for conductivity and MBI, respectively.

[00159] A multi-frequency, three-dimensional resonant LCR transducer, such as that shown in FIG. 36, can provide both conductivity and clay content with a single transducer by probing different frequency ranges. Conductivity effects dominate lower frequencies, but become less impactful as the frequency increases (see FIGS. 38A-38E). FIG. 36 illustrates the coil assembly of the multi-frequency resonant LCR coii in a schematic. In this embodiment, the coil assembly is comprised of a plurality (for example, four 3708, 3710, 3712 and 3714) sensing coils 3702. Each of the plurality of coils 3702 may be of varying length, different diameter, different materials or have other different physical characteristics so that the resonant frequency of each coil differs. In other examples, capacitors inductors or resistors may be connected to the coils 3702 to vary their resonant frequencies. The plurality of coils 3702 are disposed around a sample cell 3704, w hich contains the sample and a single pick up coil 3706 that both excites and detects all of the sensing coils 3702 simultaneously. An example of the resulting complex impedance spectra detected by a multi-resonant coil such as that shown in FIG. 36 is shown in FIG. 37. This design offers the enhanced sensitivity of a resonant structure with the ability to probe distinct frequency ranges to enhance the selectivity. In one non- limiting example, a multi-frequency, three-dimensional resonant LCR transducer such as that in FIG. 36 having four sensing coils can have resonant frequencies of 4.5MHz, 7.75MHz, 17.86MHz and 19.35MHZ and harmonics of 15.5MHz and 27.3MHz. Generally, the multi- frequency, three-dimensional resonant LCR transducer has a frequency range of 0-30MHz, though other frequencies are contemplated within the scope of embodiments of the design.

[00160] Optionally, three-dimensional resonant LCR transducer of FIG. 36 may have two galvanically isolated top windings 3706, one that can be used as a drive (excitation) coii and one that can be used as a pick-up (receiving) coil. However, in the example of FIG. 36, a single top winding 3706 can act as both a drive coil and a pick-up coil. Analyzer 15 can be configured to both send current (a power wave) through the top winding 3706 and to receive a signal (current) from the top winding but at different time intervals, for example according to an alternating pattern of excitation and receiving. The excitation and receiving steps may each have a duration of, for example, approximately 0.2 to approximately 5 seconds. The frequency of the power wave applied during the excitation stage may vary between successive excitation stages. In addition to avoiding a second top winding 3706, this configuration can avoid having two sets of electrical cables connecting the analyzer 15 to the three-dimensional resonant transducer, which tends to reduce signal noise.

[00161] The bottom windings 3702 can act as resonators or sensing coils. The bottom windings 3702 can float with no galvanic connections to other parts of the three-dimensional resonant transducer. The two ends of each of the bottom windings 3702 may not be connected to each other (other than through the coils of each of the bottom windings 3702) so as to form a circuit loop, altliough connections to form a circuit as in Figure 5, with or without a capacitor, may also be used. Alternatively or optionally, the bottom winding can be comprised of a plurality of coils with multiple resonant frequencies. The bottom windings 3702 can be excited by an electro-magnetic field created by a power wave flowing through the top winding 3706. The excited bottom windings 3702 can each generate another electro-magnetic field that can be altered by its interaction with the fluid or dispersion in the sampling cell 3704. This (reflected) electro-magnetic field can then be sensed by the top winding 3702. As mentioned above, these two steps can occur in different time periods, repeated in alternation over a plurality of cycles.

[00162] Although the bottom windings 3702 can generate an electro-magnetic field, because the sampling cell 3704 contains a fluid (such as water or oil) or dispersion with low conductivity, signals representing the electric (as opposed to magnetic) portion of the field generated by the bottom windings 3702 may be the primary or only means of analysis. This can be in contrast to eddy current techniques used when making measurements of more conductive materials that use the magnetic portion of a field generated by a resonator as the primary or only means of analysis. Signals associated with the magnetic portion of the electromagnetic field generated by the bottom windings 3702 may tend to indicate the conductivity of a sample whereas signals associated with the electric portion of the electro-magnetic field generated by the bottom windings 3702 may indicate the impedance of the sample. [00163] The analyzer 15 can translate the electric response (signal) generated by each of the bottom windings 35 (as received through the top winding 3706) into one or more measured parameters. These parameters may include one or more of: complex (magnitude and phase) impedance response; resonance peak position, peak width, peak height and/or peak symmetry of the impedance response; magnitude of the real part of the impedance; resonant frequency of the imaginary part of the impedance; anti-resonant frequency of the imaginary part of the impedance; zero-reactance frequency; phase angle of impedance; magnitude of impedance; real and imaginary permittivity values, and the like.

[00164] The three-dimensional resonant transducer of FIG. 36 may be used in any method or apparatus described for the resonant transducer of FIGS. 5 and 10, including the determination of a solid, such as clay, in a dispersion, such as oil sands. The three-dimensional resonant transducer of FIG. 36 can use the mutual inductance of the top winding 3706 to sense the bottom windings 3702. The equivalent circuit in FIG. 6 may be used with the three- dimensional resonant transducer of FIG. 36. An Rp response and Cp response to varying mixtures of oil and water similar to that shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, respectively, may be obtained from each sensing coil 3702 of the three-dimensional resonant transducer of FIG. 36.

[00165] US application 13/630,587, US application 13/630,739, both filed on September 28, 2012 by General Electric Company, and US provisional application 61/987,853 filed on May 2, 2014, and any publications ensuing from these applications, are incorporated by reference herein.

[00166] While the methods and systems have been described in connection with preferred embodiments and specific examples, it is not intended that the scope be limited to the particular embodiments set forth, as the embodiments herein are intended in all respects to be illustrative rather than restrictive.

[00167] Unless otherwise expressly stated, it is in no way intended that any method set forth herein be construed as requiring that its steps be performed in a specific order. Accordingly, where a method claim does not actually recite an order to be followed by its steps or it is not otherwise specifically stated in the claims or descriptions that the steps are to be limited to a specific order, it is no way intended that an order be inferred, in any respect. This holds for any possible non-express basis for interpretation, including: matters of logic with respect to arrangement of steps or operational flow; plain meaning derived from grammatical organization or punctuation; the number or type of embodiments described in the specification.

[00168] Throughout this application, various publications may be referenced. The disclosures of these publications in their entireties are hereby incorporated by reference into this application in order to more fully describe the state of the art to which the methods and systems pertain.

[00169] It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made without departing from the scope or spirit. Other embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice disclosed herein. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplar}' only, with a true scope and spirit being indicated by the following claims.

Claims

CLAIMS We claim:

1. A sensor comprising : a resonant transducer, wherein the resonant transducer comprises: a sampling cell; a bottom winding disposed around the sampling cell; and a top winding disposed around the bottom, winding, wherein the resonant transducer measures complex permittivity data of a dispersion, and said complex permittivity data is used to determine a clay activity of the dispersion.

2. The sensor of claim I, wherein the determination of clay activity using complex permittivity data comprises determining a methylene blue index based on the determined complex permittivity data.

3. The sensor of claim i, wherein the sensor is used to determine a species and concentration of clay in the dispersion based on the complex permittivity data,

4. The sensor of claim 3, wherein the species of clay in the dispersion comprises one or more of kaolinite, iliite, illite-smectite, bentonite, and montmorillonite.

5. The sensor of claim 1, wherein the complex permittivity data is used to determine a mass of one or more species of clay in the dispersion,

6. The sensor of claim 1 , wherein the resonant transducer is configured to measure a full impedance spectrum associated with the dispersion.

7. The sensor of claim 1, further comprising a radio frequency absorber disposed around the top winding and the bottom winding, a metal shield disposed around the radio frequency absorber, and a cover disposed around the metal shield.

8. The sensor of claim 1 , further comprising an absorber of electromagnetic radiation disposed around the top winding and the bottom winding where the absorber absorbs electromagnetic radiation in the kilohertz, megahertz, gigahertz, and teraliertz frequency ranges depending on the operation frequency of the resonant transducer and potential source of interferences.

9. The sensor of claim 1 , wherein the sensor is configured to simultaneously determine concentrations of a first and a second component of the dispersion.

10. The sensor of claim 1, wherein the resonant transducer is configured to measure a resonance spectrum of a real and imaginar - impedance of the dispersion.

11. The sensor of claim 1, further comprising an analyzer in communication with the sensor.

12. The sensor of claim 11, wherein the determination of clay activity using complex permittivity data comprises the analyzer determining a methylene blue index based on the determined complex permittivity data.

13. The sensor of claim 11, wherein the analyzer is used to determine a species and concentration of clay in the dispersion based on the complex permittivity data received from the sensor.

14. The sensor of claim 13, wherein the species of clay in the dispersion as determined by the analyzer comprises one or more of kaoiimte, iilite, illite-smectite, bentonite, and montmorillonite.

15. The sensor of claim 13, wherein the complex permittivity data is used by the analyzer to determine a mass of one or more species of clay in the dispersion.

16. A sensor comprising: a sampling cell adapted to hold a dispersion; a bottom winding disposed around the sampling cell; and a top winding disposed around the bottom winding, wherein the sensor measures a complex permittivity data of a dispersion, and said complex permittivity measurement data is used to determine a clay activity of the dispersion.

17. The sensor of claim 16, wherein the top winding is at least half as long as the bottom winding.

18. The sensor of claim 16, wherein the sampling cell is a tube.

19. The sensor of claim 18, wherein the tube is made of a galvanic isolating material.

20. The sensor of claim 16, wherein the top winding has a greater pitch than the bottom winding.

21. The sensor of claim 20, wherein the top winding has one tenth or few coils than the bottom winding,

22. The sensor of claim. 16, wherein the bottom winding is floating.

23. The sensor of claim 16, wherein the top winding is connected to a power supply, a signal analyzer or both.

24. A method for determining a composition of a mixture of clay particles in a liquid comprising, determining with a resonant sensor system a value related to the impedance of the mixture: and, applying the value to a model of clay particle concentration and type .

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the liquid comprises oil droplets.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the model is a partial least squares model.

27. The method of claim 24, wherein the model considers complex permittivity and loss of the mixture.

28. A multi -frequency resonant transducer comprising: a plurality of sensing coils disposed around a sampling cell ; and a single pick-up coil disposed around at least a portion of each of the plurality of sensmg coils, wherein the single pick-up coil both excites and detects all of the plurality of sensing coils simultaneously.

29. The multi -fre uency transducer of claim 28, wherein each of the plurality of sensing coils is of a different length, different diameter, or comprised of a different material from one another.

30. The multi-frequency transducer of claim 28, wherein each of the plurality of sensing coils s tuned to a distinct frequency range.

31. The multi-frequency transducer of claim 28, wherein the multi-frequency transducer measures complex permittivity of a sample within the sample cell.

32. The multi -frequency transducer of claim 31, wherein the measured complex permittivity of a sample within the sample cell is used to determine conductivity of the sample.

33. The multi -frequency transducer of claim 31, wherein the measured complex permittivity data is used to determine a clay content of the sample.

34. The multi-frequency transducer of claim 33, wherein the determination of clay- content using the complex permittivity data comprises determining a methylene blue index based on the determined complex perm ittivity data.

35. The multi-frequency transducer of claim 31, wherein the measured complex permittivity data is used to determine a clay species of the sample.

36. The multi-resonant transducer of claim 35, wherein the species of clay comprises one or more of kaolinite, illite, illite-smectite, bentonite, and montmonlionite.

37. The multi-resonant transducer of claim 31 , wherein the complex permittivity data is used to determine a mass of one or more species of clay.

38. The multi-resonant transducer of claim 28, wherein the multi -re sonant transducer is configured to measure a full impedance spectrum associated with the sample.

39. The multi-resonant transducer of claim 28, wherein the multi-resonant transducer is configured to simultaneously determine concentration of a first and a second component of the sample.

40. The multi-resonant transducer of claim 28, wherein the multi-resonant transducer is configured to measure a resonance spectrum of a real and imaginary impedance of the sample.

41. The multi-resonant transducer of claim 28, wherein each of the plurality of sensing coils is used to detect changes in capacitance and resistance of the multi-resonant transducer.

42. The multi -resonant transducer of claim 28, wherein each of the plurality of sensing coils detects changes in one or more of capacitance, resistance, or inductance of the mul ti-resonant tran sd ucer .

43. The multi-frequency transducer of claim 28, wherein the plurality of sensing coils comprises four sensing coils.