Product Flow Rate Research Articles

A Knowledge Transfer Based Scheduling Algorithm for Large-Scale Refinery Production

Decomposition algorithms for large-scale refinery scheduling problems commonly adopt the spatially dividing method. When the scheduling horizon further enlarges, the sizes of the resulting subproblems exponentially grow, leading to the performance degradation of the decomposition algorithms. In this article, to solve this issue about subproblem size caused by the long-time scheduling horizon, a knowledge transfer based algorithm is proposed, where the size of subproblems is constant and a novel concept of product flowrate is introduced to transfer operation knowledge from tractable small-scale short-time problems to intractable large-scale long-time problems to quickly obtain a satisfactory solution for large-scale problems. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can achieve better solutions within 10−44 s for large-scale refinery scheduling problems with 50−200 time slots (the existing model is with less than 30 time slots), compared to the CPLEX solver with a running time of 3600 s and the existing evolutionary algorithm with a running time of 100−500 s. The results also show that, at present, the heuristic method (the essence of the proposed algorithm) is the main tool to solve large-scale combinatorial optimization problems, and even in the CPLEX solver, the heuristic is also the most active part.

Dynamic modelling of a solar hydrogen system for power and ammonia production

A new configuration of solar energy-driven integrated system for ammonia synthesis and power generation is proposed in this study. A detailed dynamic analysis is conducted on the designed system to investigate its performance under different radiation intensities. The solar heliostat field is integrated to generate steam that is provided to the steam Rankine cycle for power generation. The significant amount of power produced is fed to the PEM electrolyser for hydrogen production after covering the system requirements. A pressure swing adsorption system is integrated with the system that separates nitrogen from the air. The produced hydrogen and nitrogen are employed to the cascaded ammonia production system to establish increased fractional conversions. Numerous parametric studies are conducted to investigate the significant parameters namely; incoming beam irradiance, power production using steam Rankine cycle, hydrogen and ammonia production and power production using TEGs and ORC. The maximum hydrogen and ammonia production flowrates are revealed in June for 17th hour as 5.85 mol/s and 1.38 mol/s and the maximum energetic and exergetic efficiencies are depicted by the month of November as 25.4% and 28.6% respectively. Moreover, the key findings using the comprehensive dynamic analysis are presented and discussed.

MEMPREDIKSI KEADAAN SUMUR DIMASA DEPAN DENGAN MELAKUKAN OPTIMASI MENGGUNAKAN ELECTRICAL SUBMERSIBLE PUMP PADA SUMUR “AD-96”

The production capacity of an oil and gas well is a benchmark in planning production equipment and increases the flow rate of production. In order to increase the rate of oil production, optimization is done optimally using ESP and it is predicted that the production time will be several years ahead. The method used in the well "AD-96" is the Wiggins Method 3 Phase IPR curve to increase the optimal production flow rate by continuing to predict IPR Future through a gradual decrease in reservoir pressure (Pr) scenario. IPR Future in this case provides a development to know the wells in the future. The results of the calculation of Wiggins IPR curve on the well "AD-96" obtained a maximum production rate (Qmax) of 2469 bfpd. To estimate the optimal production rate obtained from a percentage of 80% x maximum flow rate of 1975 bpd, the well is advised to use the Electrical Submersible Pump design with the ESP REDA type pump type DN1800 Pump Performance Curve 60 Hz, 3500 rpm and a Horse Power of 29 HP. , efficiency 76% and IPR Future with water cut of 80% each carried out in the calculation of 4 scenarios at 2000 psia reservoir pressure, obtained a target production flow rate (Qtarget) of 1326 bpd. It is known that the recommended production (recommended production) is between 1200-2400 bpd. Based on the IPR Future scenario, the result shows that ESP does not work at a pressure of 2000 psia.

A model-based optimisation strategy for the start-up of anaerobic co-digestion processes

A model-based optimisation method for the start-up of anaerobic co-digestion is presented. The algorithm optimises the time evolution of the organic loading rate (OLR), the blends of substrates corresponding to each OLR and the hydraulic retention time (HRT). These parameters are calculated based on the prediction of a dynamic co-digestion model, so as to track the methane production flowrate set as reference. The mixtures of substrates and the OLR are optimised sequentially with linear programming and a direct-search method, respectively. Initially, a simulated case-study (treating blends of gelatine, glycerine, and pig manure) is tested to verify the convergence of the algorithm. Then, two consecutive start-up experiments are performed at lab-scale to validate the proposed optimisation method. Blends of sewage sludge and pig manure are treated in a 14-litre CSTR at loading rates of 1.70–2.43 gVS/L d for 79 and 90 days at mesophilic conditions. The optimisation strategy satisfactorily computes the best OLR, blends and HRT for the entire operations, improving the biogas yield over traditional manual operation.

A Semi-Analytical Analysis of Gas Slippage Effect in Pressure Transient Behavior of Non-Condensate Gas Reservoirs with the Different Boundary Condition

The conventional models utilized to study flow behavior in a Non-Condensate gas reservoir did not consider the effects of gas slippage and different outer boundary conditions. For gas wells with a constant production flow rate in a bounded oil or gas reservoir, commonly, the outer boundary conditions are infinite boundary conditions or zero flux. In this study, the dimensionless pseudo pressure and dimensionless derivative of pseudo pressure in the presence of 4 different outer boundary conditions (infinite reservoir, constant pressure, exponential, and power-law) besides effects of gas slippage, wellbore storage, and skin factor are analyzed. To do this, the dimensionless pseudo pressure partial differential equation of radial flow was derived from the combination of continuity equation with Darcy’s law, the equation of state, compressibility equation, and dimensionless parameters. Then the derived partial differential equation is solved analytically in the Laplace domain. The obtained results of this work have important significance to understand the effects of different conditions on the transient pressure behavior of Non-Condensate gas reservoirs.

Stability and conductivity of proppant packs during flowback in unconventional reservoirs: A CFD–DEM simulation study

We present simulations using a coupled Computational Fluid Dynamics–Discrete Element Method (CFD–DEM) approach for a slurry of millimeter-sized particles in water which is squeezed between two walls and then made flow out though a narrow aperture. The process is akin to the flowback stage in the near wellbore zone of a hydraulic-stimulated well for hydrocarbon recovery. We consider different wall roughness and investigate its effect on particle production, final distance between walls, spatial particle distribution between the walls, and fluid production rate. We have found that the final distribution of particles changes significantly with small variations in the roughnesses of the walls. This in turn leads to production flow rates that may vary up to 50%. Although the main driver of the production for unconventional wells is the propped fracture network, these results suggest that the roughness of the fracture walls seems to play an important role in the final conductivity and therefore in the ultimate recovery.

H2 production by photofermentation in an innovative plate-type photobioreactor with meandering channels.

Hydrogen production by Rhodobacter capsulatus is an anaerobic, photobiological process requiring specific mixing conditions. In this study, an innovative design of a photobioreactor is proposed. The design is based on a plate-type photobioreactor with an interconnected meandering channel to allow culture mixing and H2 degassing. The culture flow was characterized as a quasi-plug-flow with radial mixing caused by a turbulent-like regime achieved at a low Reynolds number. The dissipated volumetric power was decreased 10-fold while maintaining PBR performances (production and yields) when compared with a magnetically stirred tank reactor. To increase hydrogen production flow rate, several bacterial concentrations were tested by increasing the glutamate concentration using fed-batch cultures. The maximum hydrogen production flow rate (157.7 ± 9.3 ml H2 /L/h) achieved is one of the highest values so far reported for H2 production by R. capsulatus. These first results are encouraging for future scale-up of the plate-type reactor.

Effective Electrical Submersible Pump Management Using Machine Learning

Artificial lift plays an important role in petroleum industry to sustain production flowrate and to extend the lifespan of oil wells. One of the most popular artificial lift methods is Electric Submersible Pumps (ESP) because it can produce high flowrate even for wells with great depth. Although ESPs are designed to work under extreme conditions such as corrosion, high temperatures and high pressure, their lifespan is much shorter than expected. ESP failures lead to production loss and increase the cost of replacement, because the cost of intervention work for ESP is much higher than for other artificial lift methods, especially for offshore wells. Therefore, the prediction of ESP failures is highly valuable in oil production and contributes a lot to the design, construction and operation of oil wells. The contribution of this study is to use 3 machine learning algorithms, which are Decision Tree, Random Forest and Gradient Boosting Machine, to build predictive models for ESP lifespan while using both dynamic and static ESP parameters. The results of these models were compared to find out the most suitable model for the prediction of ESP life cycle. In addition, this study also evaluated the influence factor of various operating parameters to forecast the most impact parameters on the duration of ESP. The results of this study can provide a better understanding of ESP behavior so that early actions can be realized to prevent potential ESP failures.

A new approach in treating industrial hazardous wastes for energy generation and thermochemical hydrogen production

Abstract A new configuration of using hazardous industrial waste incineration system for energy generation and hydrogen production is proposed in this study. A heat recovery steam generator is used to generate steam for the double-stage Rankine cycle for electrical power generation. The additional heat from the incineration unit exhaust gas are employed to generate steam for the thermochemical Cu-Cl cycle. The CO2 emissions carried by the incineration reactor exhaust gases are captured using aqueous ammonia-based carbon capturing system. The Aspen Plus V9 software is employed for the designed system simulation. Numerous sensitivity studies are undertaken to investigate each subsystem of the proposed hazardous industrial waste incineration system. The proposed system generates 7.08 MW of electrical output and hydrogen production flowrate of 12.6 kmol/h. The exergetic and energetic efficiencies of the designed system are found to be 43.3% and 39.1%. Furthermore, the sensitivity analysis results are presented and discussed. The incineration plants treating the waste and converting waste into energy can be substituted for conventional energy production and this proposed environmentally benign integrated system will resolve environmental problems by employing the hazardous industrial waste to the new configuration of the incineration process for producing hydrogen and power with zero CO2 emissions.

Adaptive neuro-fuzzy algorithm applied to predict and control multi-phase flow rates through wellhead chokes

A Takagi-Sugeno adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (TSFIS) model is developed and applied to a dataset of wellhead flow-test data for the Resalat oil field located offshore southern Iran, the objective is to assist in the prediction and control of multi-phase flow rates of oil and gas through the wellhead chokes. For this purpose, 182 test data points (Appendix 1) related to the Resalat field are evaluated. In order to predict production flow rate (QL) expressed as stock-tank barrels per day (STB/D), this dataset includes four selected input variables: upstream pressure (Pwh); wellhead choke sizes (D64); gas to liquid ratio (GLR); and, base solids and water including some water-soluble oil emulsion (BS&W). The test data points evaluated include a wide range of oil flow rate conditions and values for the four input variables recorded. The TSFIS algorithm applied involves five data processing steps: a) pre-processing, b) fuzzification, c) rules base and adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference engine, d) defuzzification, and e) post-processing of the fuzzy model. The developed TSFIS model for the Resalat oil field database predicted oil flow rate to a high degree of accuracy (root mean square error = 247 STB/D, correlation coefficient = 0.9987), which improves substantially on the commonly used empirical algorithms used for such predictions. TSFIS can potentially be applied in wellhead choke fuzzy controllers to stabilize flow in specific wells based on real-time input data records.

Combined well path, submarine pipeline network, route and flow rate optimization for shallow-water offshore fields

This paper presents an integrated approach to planning wellbore trajectory, submarine pipeline networks, routes and production for offshore shallow-water oil and gas fields. The method integrates the optimization of realistic drilling well paths, platform location and well allocation using a combination of Constrained Optimization by Linear Approximation (COBYLA) and Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP). It also optimizes the pipeline network layout using a separate MILP routine that compares and combines three types of pipeline connections, namely: star connections from multiple wellhead platforms to a central facility; subsea connections from platforms to a subsea tie-in point; or piggyback connections between the wellhead platforms themselves. Specific pipeline paths are found using a global graph-search method that is coupled with a local refinement to find the least-cost path. We demonstrate this pipeline path optimization by considering shallow-water offshore fields that include the presence of obstacles along the route. The pipeline network layout and route optimization steps are further integrated with techniques to estimate the production flow rate and optimal operating pressure across the resulting pipeline network. A case study is provided based on real conditions of Gulf of Mexico to test and validate the model, and to highlight the importance of the subsurface and surface integration for field development planning.

Theoretical Study of the Photons Production Kinetic In Hot Quark-Gluon Plasma Matter

In this paper, we study flow of photons rate production in a quark-gluon QG plasma. General theory of this study is based on the field theory for hard interaction. The kinetic of photons production from hard interaction in charm with anti-top to production photons with gluon due to plasma phase at high temperatures (150, 200,250,300 and 350 MeV) .It has been investigated and studied using the postulate of quantum chromodynamic theory QCD .The photons production rate of hard photons with( GeV) are insensitive to strength coupling and depend mainly on the temperature of system T . Despite the different critical temperature (150 and 190MeV) comes, we find that same order of flow rate photons magnitude in both cases. In both cases, the flow rate of photons production in the QG plasmais increased with increased temperature of system and photons energy and decreases with increases the strength coupling strength.

Influence of the main operating parameters on the DRPSA process design based on the equilibrium theory

Among the adsorption-based separation processes for gaseous mixtures, those exploiting pressure variations, so-called Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) processes, are the most popular. In this work, we focus on the specific PSA configuration known as Dual Reflux-Pressure Swing Adsorption (DR-PSA) given its ability to achieve sharp separations. In the case of binary mixtures, an analytical approach based on Equilibrium Theory has been proposed to identify the operating conditions for complete separation under the assumption of linear isotherms. This same approach is not available when the separation is not complete. Accordingly, in this work we study the features of non-complete separations by solving numerically a general DR-PSA model with parameter values suitable to approach equilibrium conditions (no mass transport resistances, no axial mixing, isothermal conditions and no pressure drop), thus reproducing the analytical solution when complete separations are examined. Even for non-complete separations, triangularly shaped regions at constant purity can be identified on a plane whose axes correspond to suitable design parameters. Moreover, we found a general indication on how to select the lateral feed injection position to limit the loss in product purities when complete separation is not established, whatever is the composition of the feeding mixture. Finally, a sensitivity analysis with respect to pressure ratio, light reflux ratio and heavy product flowrate is proposed in order to assess how to recover product purities according to the specific degrees of freedom of a DR-PSA apparatus.

Lower Paleozoic oil and gas shale in the Baltic-Podlasie-Lublin Basin (central and eastern Europe) – a review

In the Baltic-Podlasie-Lublin Basin, four potential lower Paleozoic shale reservoirs are identified: the Piaśnica, Sasino and Jantar formations, as well as the Mingajny shale. These units were diachronously deposited during the starved stages of Caledonian foredeep basin development, in the course of rising or high eustatic sea level. Across most of the basin, the shale formations analysed are saturated with light oil and condensate, and they are buried to depths of 2300–3500 m. The shale reservoirs reach the wet gas window at burial depths of 2800–4000 m, while dry gas accumulations occur at depths exceeding 3500–5000 m, except in the Bilgoraj-Narol Zone. The shale analysed might be generally classified as a moderate to low quality, and locally high quality, unconventional reservoir. Within the shale net pay zones, the average TOC content is 2–5 wt.% TOC. The exceptions are the Piaśnica Formation, for which this is 5–12 wt.%, and the Mingajny shale, which is TOC-lean (1.4–1.7 wt.%). The thickness of the shale net pay intervals in the most favourable locations, mainly on the Łeba Elevation, generally reaches 20 m, and locally exceeds 35 m. The shale reservoirs are saturated with hydrocarbons of good quality. Their permeability is low to moderate, often in the range of 150–200 mD, while total porosity average per borehole is commonly exceeds 6 %, reaching up to 10% at maximum, which might be considered as moderate to good. The clay minerals content is moderate to high (30–50%), and geomechanical characteristics of the shale formations are intermediate between brittle and ductile. No overpressure occurs in the basin, except for a dry gas zone in the SW Baltic Basin. In the Bilgoraj-Narol Zone, and to a lesser degree also in the Lublin region, pronounced tectonic deformation significantly limits shale gas/oil potential. Among 66 exploration boreholes drilled in the basin so far, only 5 were lateral boreholes with representative production test results. Hydrocarbon flow from the best boreholes was low to moderate, equal to 11.2 to 15.6 thousand m3/day for gas, and 157 bbl/day (~21.4 ton/day) for oil. There is, however, high potential to improve production flow rates, connected with the fracturing of two net pay intervals at one time, as well as with significant technological progress in the exploitation of shale basins during the last 5 years. Commercially viable production might be achieved for a single borehole with estimated ultimate recovery exceeding 30–50 thousand tons of oil, or 60–90 million m3 of gas.

Endurance Test for Evaluating the Performances of a Novel Rotating-Cylinder-Type Triboelectric Charging Device

The electric charging of granular plastics in view of their electrostatic separation is one of the major industrial applications of the triboelectric phenomenon. The granules get charged by collisions and frictions with each-others and with the walls of the tribocharging device. In electrostatic separation applications, the granules of a mixture must be sufficiently charged to be attracted by electrodes of opposite polarity for their separation by type of material. The objective of the present article is to study the endurance of a novel rotating-cylinder-type triboelectric charger for two types of granular materials (sizes between 2 and 5 mm), originating from waste electric and electronic equipment: acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and polystyrene (PS). The charger performance was evaluated by measuring the charge per mass ratio of the granules collected at the outlet of the device. The outcome of the process depended on the rotation speed of the cylinder, as well as on the mass flow rate of product. The maximal charge to mass ratio was 5.5 nC/g for the ABS product, at a mass flow rate of 1.5 g/s, and 2.5 nC/g for the sieved PS product (particle sizes between 2 and 3 mm) at a mass flow rate of 8.2 g/s. It slightly decreased in time, due to the saturation of the tribocharging cylinder.

Investigation of production depletion rate effect on the near-wellbore stresses in the two Iranian southwest oilfields

Effect of depletion rate on wellbore stability due to production of oil from hydrocarbon-bearing reservoirs is important and can result in a reduction of the reservoir pore pressure. A reduction in the reservoir pressure, in turn, results in a change in the stresses acting within the reservoir. If these changes are not well analyzed and applied in future calculations, we may be unsuccessful in some cases such as drilling infill wells or extended wells, forecast of sand production and optimum flow rate, preventing of casing collapse, etc. Therefore, knowing the stresses around the well at every stage of production is fundamental to the next calculations. In this paper, we recognized these changes in near-wellbore stresses using data from logging (image log, dipole sonic, full set log, mud log), production data, information from kick, blow out, loss etc. and determined it using Techlog software and theoretical calculations. Three wells of two huge oilfields of SW Iran were investigated after depletion or production for long years. In each well, state of stresses were calculated in cases of safe drilling mud weight using log data and theoretical equations. At the end effect of depletion rate on wellbore stability was investigated in these three wells.

Comparison of Biobutanol Production Pathways via Acetone-Butanol-Ethanol Fermentation Using a Sustainability Exergy-Based Metric.

The incorporation of sustainability aspects into the design of chemical processes has been increasing since the last century. Hence, there are several proposed methodologies and indicators to assess chemical facilities through process analysis techniques. A comprehensive assessment involving economic, environmental, safety, and exergy parameters of two alternatives for butanol production from Manihot esculentaCrantz (cassava waste) is presented in this study. The modeling of process topologies involved using Aspen Plus software. Topology 1 generated a product flow rate of 316,477 t/y of butanol, while this value was 367,037 t/y for topology 2. Both processes used a feed flow of 3,131,439 t/y of biomass. This study used seven technical indicators to evaluate both alternatives, which include the return of investment, discounted payback period, global warming potential, renewability material index, inherent safety index, exergy efficiency, and exergy of waste ratio. Otherwise, this study implemented an aggregate index to assess overall sustainability performance. The results revealed that topology 2 presented higher economic normalized scores for evaluated indicators, but the most crucial difference between these designs came from the safety and exergetic indexes. Topology 1 and topology 2 obtained weighted scores equaling to 0.48 and 0.53; therefore, this study found that the second alternative gives a more sustainable design for butanol production under evaluated conditions.

23Ne production at SARAF-I

In this article, we present a measurement of flow rate, yield and effusion time of a 23Ne production and transport system. We used an accelerator-driven Li(d,n) neutron source to produce neutrons up to 20 MeV. The radioactive atoms were produced by a 23Na(n,p) reaction at a NaCl target. Later, the atoms were diffused out from the NaCl crystals and effused from the production chamber via a 10 m hose to a measurement cell and their decay products were detected using High Purity Germanium (HPGe) and plastic scintillator detectors. The resulting flow rate was 6.9±0.7⋅104atomssec and the total yield was 3.2±0.6⋅10−9atomsdeuteron. We summarize our methods and estimates of efficiencies, rates of production and effusion.

THE CONCEPTUAL DESIGN FOR LIQUID EFFLUENT TREATMENT OF UO2 KERNEL FABRICATION

THE CONCEPTUAL DESIGN FOR LIQUID EFFLUENT TREATMENT OF UO2 KERNEL FABRICATION. The pebble fuel for HTGR is prepared through fabrication of UO2 kernel, coated particle and spherical element fuel. In the fabrication of UO2 kernel by external gelation method, a multicomponent of liquid effluent is generated. Therefore, the liquid effluent is required to be treated for safety reason before disposed to waste storage. In this paper, the conceptual design for the liquid effluent treatment of UO2 kernel fabrication is performed with the simulation process using CHEMCAD software. CHEMCAD is a software that can be utilized for chemical process design. The results showed that the proposed conceptual design is able to separate valuable components: isopropyl alcohol (IPA) and tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol (THFA). The flowrate of IPA product is 5.28 kg/h with purity of 0.99 in mass fraction and the flowrate of THFA product is 1.01 kg/h with purity of 0.99 in mass fraction.Keywords: liquid effluent, UO2 kernel, CHEMCAD, HTGR.

Conveyor-Belt Dryers with Tangential Flow for Food Drying: Mathematical Modeling and Design Guidelines for Final Moisture Content Higher Than the Critical Value

The mathematical modeling presented in this work concerns the conveyor-belt dryer with the tangential flow of air with respect to food. This dryer, if operating in co-current, has the advantage of well preserving the organoleptic and nutritional qualities of the dried product. In fact, it has a low air temperature in the final stretch where the product has low moisture content and is therefore more temperature sensitive. It is a bulkier dryer than the continuous through-circulation conveyor dryer with a perforated belt. The latter is therefore more frequently used and has received greater study attention from researchers and designers of the industry. With the aim to propose guidelines for a rational design of the conveyor-belt dryer with tangential flow, a mathematical model was developed here through the differentiation of the drying rate equation followed by its integration performed along the dryer belt. Consequently, and with the assumption that the final moisture content XF of the product is higher than the critical moisture content XC, the relationships between the intensive quantities (temperatures, humidity and enthalpies), the extensive quantities (air and product flow rates) and the dimensional ones (length and width of the belt), were obtained. Finally, on the basis of these relationships, the rules for an optimized design for XF > XC were obtained and experimentally evaluated.