International Journal of Petroleum and Gas Engineering

International Journal of Petroleum Engineering ISSN: 5675-0715 Vol. 2 (4), pp. 128-138, April, 2015. © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

A review on the use of non-conventional heterogeneous catalysts for biodiesel synthesis

Okoro J.O* and Tanure A.A

Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo, Nigeria.

Accepted 15 March, 2015

Abstract

The focus of this review is on the use of non-conventional heterogeneous catalysts for biodiesel synthesis. The review is based on published works that have utilized these non-conventional catalysts for biodiesel synthesis with very good biodiesel yield. The non-conventional catalysts under consideration in this review are those obtained majorly from egg shells. These materials are generally waste materials which several publications had reported to contain high content of calcium oxide. Utilization of these waste materials as catalysts reduces catalyst cost, promotes environmentally benign process and serves as source of income if biodiesel is to be commercialized. Results reported 80 to 90% yield of biodiesel using some of these non-conventional catalysts.

Key words: Biodiesel, seed oils, egg shells.

International Journal of Petroleum Engineering ISSN 5675-0715 Vol.  2 (4) pp. 114-120, April, 2015.  © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Thermal Modeling of cracking process in a crude oil refinery

*Imbarek E. Aboud, Wanis Ayyad And Muammar Zeidan

Department of Petroleum Engineering, University of Benghazi, Benghazi, Libya.

Email: [email protected]

Accepted 17 March, 2015

Abstract 

In a thermal cracking process, the molecular bonds of the liquid are broken to the lighter ones. Recently due to the availability of more heavy oils, the process interest was to yield light and middle distillate products. In this research, thermal cracking of vacuum residue in a commercial soaker-visbreaking plant is studied. The product of the process is characterized to the light gas (C₁, C₂), liquefied petroleum gases (C₃, C₄), gasoline (IBP-180°C), gas oil (180 to 320°C) and fuel (320⁺°C). Then to model the visbreaking process, a six-lump kinetic network with fifteen reactions and thirty kinetic parameters is developed. In this model, visbreaking process is modeled as an equal distributed heater, and the soaker is modeled as a complete stirred tank reactor. After evaluating the rate of reactions by estimated kinetic parameters, it is confirmed that a reduced reaction network with seven reaction paths and fourteen kinetic parameters is reliable enough to simulate the performance of the reactor with the absolute average deviation ( AAD% ) of 4.75%.

Key words: Kinetic model, visbreaking, lumped model.

International Journal of Petroleum Engineering ISSN 5675-0715 Vol.  2 (3) pp. 107-113, March, 2015. © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

A test system for surfactant flooding

Ming-Na Ling

Department of Petroleum Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.

Email: [email protected]

Accepted 25 February, 2015

Abstract 

Surfactant as a successful enhanced oil recovery (EOR) agent has been widely used in many mature reservoirs. This research focuses on the description of surfactant solution at low permeability condition. A new three-dimensional, two-phase, three-component surfactant simulator is presented. The simulator is based on the non-Darcy flow characteristics of surfactant flooding in the low permeability formations. The change of threshold pressure and influences of surfactant on convection, diffusion, adsorption, and retention, are all considered. A new equation for the calculation of surfactant adsorption is employed, which can significantly promote the matching degree between the mathematical model and field practice. This mathematical model was adopted to conduct a field scale simulation modeling for a surfactant flooding pilot of the Chao-522 field, Daqing.

Key words: Surfactant flooding, simulation, threshold pressure, pilot test.

International Journal of Petroleum Engineering ISSN 5675-0715 Vol.  2 (3) pp. 104-106, March, 2015.  © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Improved Microbial oil revitalization using effective biosurfactant synthesized by Pseudomonas sp. from Arabian Sea, Mumbai

Vijay E. Ramos

Department of Biotechnology, University of Mumbai, Mumbai, India.

Email:[email protected]

Accepted 15 February, 2014

Abstract 

Increase in oil pollution due to accidental leakages during various ship operations and human activities make these hydrocarbons the most common global environmental pollutants. Current understanding in degradation of these harmful oils involves the isolation of biosurfactants from various isolated microbial strains from contaminated sites of Marine Sea. Biosurfactants are the surface active molecules synthesized by microorganisms. Due to various side effects of chemical surfactants the demand for biosurfactant production and its synthesis has been steadily increasing and may eventually replace their chemically synthesized counterparts. In this study, isolation and identification of biosurfactant producing bacteria were assessed from oil-spilled area of Arabian Sea. To confirm the ability of isolates in biosurfactant production, various biosurfactant activity assay tests were performed. Marine biosurfactants produced by some marine microorganisms have been paid more attention, particularly for the bioremediation of the sea polluted by crude oil. Among all of the isolated strains Pseudomonas sp. showed the highest biosurfactant activity. The biosurfactant component was detected as glycolipid or other anionic surfactants in analysis of a phenotypic assay test using CTAB. The isolated culture filtrate was found to be highly effective in microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) using sand pack method.

Key words: Biosurfactant, Pseudomonas sp., microbial enhanced oil recovery, oil spilled area.

International Journal of Petroleum Engineering ISSN 5675-0715 Vol.  2 (3) pp. 099-103, March, 2015.  © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Sonic log examination in oil wells through Box and Jenkins methodology

*Jose M. Silva, Tais A. Ramos and Adolfo E. Coutinho

Department of Petroleum Engineering, Universidade Norte do Paraná, Londrina, Brazil.

E-mail: [email protected]

Accepted 22 February, 2015

Abstract 

The sonic profile is used, mainly in exploration wells, which receive greater investment in data acquisition because these wells serve as a reference for analyzing the petroleum potential of the area. The sonic profile was introduced in the 50s, with the goal of providing support for seismic exploration, and subsequently became extensively used for studies on total porosity of the rocks traversed by the well. This paper aims to apply the use of Box-Jenkins methodology to analyze the sonic profile in the process of profiling an oil well. The data were provided by PETROBRAS/UO-SEAL, the analyzes were performed using the variable DT (delay time). The statistical software was used to meet the best ARIMA model fit, and was observed as the stationarity before and after modeling through the autocorrelation function and the partial autocorrelation function. The criterion for validation of the model was the MAPE (Mean Absolute Percentage Error). Several models were tested and found for the best model - the ARIMA (3, 1, 2) with MAPE of 4.68%.

Key words: Synthetic sonic log, time series, Box and Jenkins.

International Journal of Petroleum Engineering ISSN 5675-0715 Vol.  2 (3) pp. 095-098, March, 2015.  © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Improvement of enhanced oil resurgence in Daqing

*Abbas E. Makh¹, Malbaf Mohsen¹ and Kiarostami Maz Jobrani²

¹Department of Mechanical Engineering, Allameh Tabataba'i University,Tehran, Iran.

²Department of Mathematics & Computer Science, Farhangian University, Tehran, Iran.

Email: [email protected]

Accepted 07 February, 2015

Abstract 

Chemical flooding is playing an important role in stabilizing oil output in Daqing, which is the largest field in China and started its chemical floods since the last 90's. In Daqing Oilfield, the chemical flooding annual output has exceeded 17 million tons; water cut has been dropped down significantly. The success of chemical enhanced oil recovery (EOR) has encouraged the increasing of chemical flooding projects largely in recent years. As a result of investment increase and experience build up, the technology of chemical flooding has been improved, especially polymer injection. The successful experience of Daqing is valuable for the development of chemical flooding EOR in other fields and countries.

Key words: Chemical, polymer, enhanced oil recovery, Daqing.