Energy Production Industry Research Articles

Laboratory nondestructive evaluation technology for materials characterization

This paper summarizes advances in ultrasonic and magnetic technologies for materials characterization that have recently occurred in the research laboratory and appear to have the potential to impact technology gaps of concern to the energy production industry. Included are discussions of the possibilities that one can characterize structure, such as grain size and dislocations, properties, such as fracture toughness, degradation mechanisms, such as creep, fatigue, and hydrogen attack, as well as the stresses which drive many of the degradation mechanisms. Throughout the discussions, careful attention is given to differentiating those quantities which are fundamentally related to the nondestructive evaluation response, and those which are related by empirical correlations. Included is a discussion of future work needed to further develop these technologies.

Evolution of Ideas regarding the Prevention of Human Errors

Human errors have proved to bear severe economical, social and environmental consequences when breaking down the safety barriers of high risk industrial systems, such as systems for energy production, and this problem is maybe still more worrying in Eastern & Central European countries than in the EEC.This paper introduces a formal session organized around an European Network on ‘Prevention of Human Errors in Systems for Energy Production and Process Industry’ supported by the CEC. It deals with the possibility of transfer of research on human error between Western and Eastern European countries.

The Geological Survey of Canada: Energy Needs of Tomorrow Through Collaboration Today: ABSTRACT

Canada`s national centre for geoscience research and information is the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC). Two of its divisions, the Institute of Sedimentary and Petroleum Geology and the Atlantic Geoscience Centre work closely with the energy exploration and production industry and universities. One successful GSC innovation is the Industrial Farmers Program that promotes cost-shared projects on geoscience problems of mutual interest. An example is the Hydrocarbon Charge Modelling Project which has struck a series of mutually beneficial alliances among the GSC, oil and gas companies and universities. The GSC`s high quality skills in basin analysis, including sequence stratigraphy, biostratigraphy, structure and tectonics, petroleum geology, geophysics, geochemistry and environmental work are underpinned by vast data holdings on Canada`s mature Western Canada Sedimentary Basin and onshore/offshore frontier basins. Laboratory facilities include laser ablation ICP-mass spectrometry, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, Rock-Eval/TOC, pyrolysis and thermal analysis, X-ray diffraction and fluorescence, scanning electron microscopy, organic and inorganic petrology and paleontology processing. Sophisticated computing facilities provide capabilities in basin and crustal modelling, 2- and 3-D seismic interpretation and seismic processing and computerised cartography. Solutions to the exploration, production and environmental problems faced by a cyclical business sector are mom efficiently sought through cooperative research by bringing togethermore » the diverse capabilities of industry, government and universities. Through such broad, collaborative partnerships society will ensure the economic and environmentally sustainable development of its future energy needs.« less

Wood Bruning for Energy Production Utility and Industry Cogeneration

This paper describes the identification of a bank of possible cogeneration sites and the subsequent selection of the best two sites to construct a wood-fired power plant -denoted as Phase I. Phase II, the final part of the development, consists of a conceptual engineering study, including economic analyses, of those two sites. In parallel with the engineering and site development efforts, a wood availability analysis was conducted to determine the extent of the wood-fuel resource available for use on an integrated, mechanized wood harvesting basis.

Wood Burning for Energy Production Utility and Industry Cogeneration

Wood Burning for Energy Production Utility and Industry Cogeneration

Simulating the Operation of ANatural Gas Distribution System With Linear Flow Models

Abstract The energy crisis has created a need for more efficient operation of every sector of the energy industry. Shortages of natural gas, federal regulations and increasing demand have imposed special hardships on natural gas distribution (NGD) companies. Management personnel and engineers are in search of economical and practical methods to simulate the operation of gas distribution 8YStem s to allow economic studies to be made of alternative operating policies. This paper presents research conducted to refine a previous attempt at simulating NGD systems with linear flow models (LFM). A new method of constructing the transaction matric of an NGD system LFM is presented. The new method allows the calculation of storage field leakage volumes and compressor fuel requirements for steady-state operation. Application of the model to an existing system is described. The validity of the model is verified through comparison of metered and predicted gas flows and pressures. A comparison of historic economic data with model-predicted data is presented to further substantiate model validity. A discussion of model uses is presented, including an example compressor fuel reduction problem. A general compressor fuel minimization procedure is proposed. Introduction THE BELATED RECOGNITION of an "energy crisis" throughout the world has focused attention on the energy production and transportation industry. Efficient operation of every sector of the energy industry has become a necessity as a consequence of impending raw material (i.e. oil and gas in particular) shortages and cost increases. NGD companies form one sector of the energy industry which is especially aware of increased difficulties brought about by the energy crisis. Natural gas is in short supply and increased wellhead prices are inevitable. Federal regulations in the United States do not permit gas distribution companies to pass along increased costs to customers without lengthy and costly court hearings before the Federal Power Commission. As a result of increased operating costs and restrictive governmental regulation, gas distribution company management personnel are in search of economical and practical techniques which will enable them to simulate the operation of gas delivery systems to permit the study of alternative operating policies. Literature Review Early work on gas flow simulation concentrated on the study of steady-state flow in single line segments(1,2,3,4,5,6). In the early fifties, the study of transient flow in single lines was initiated by Olds and Sage(7). Many others have since studied transient gas flow(8,9,10,11). Stoner"" published one of the first papers on the steady-state analysis of integrated gas networks. The n-dimensional Newton-Raphson iterative procedure was used to solve the nonlinear equations which result from the problem formulation. A refinement of Stoner's work was published by Evrenos et al.(13). Transient analysis of complex pipeline systems has been studied recently by several authors(14,15,16,17) Rachford et al.(18) described a gas pipeline system transient flow model utilizing variational methods. LFM's, as described by Rosenblatt(9), were first used to describe the American economy by Leontief(20). Extensions of this original work continue today.