Low-grade Oil Research Articles

Research on Main Constraints in Sustainable Development of China Oil-Gas Upstream Industry

Though the long term exploration and development of China oil and gas resources, the yield and consumption have been increasing, but there are also many problems, including low grade oil reserve account for large percent in the future oil-gas replacement reserve, subtle reservoir exploration measures are immature, reservoir monitoring and management level need to be improved, oil-gas exploration and development advanced technologies are shortage, and so on. so, it must fully understand to these many problems in China oil-gas resources exploration and development, moreover, the effective implementation and completion our country oil-gas resources development targets must depend on the reasonable planning .This article is based on the analysis to present China oil-gas reserve, and point out that the current our country oil-gas resources station and problems in oil-gas resources exploration, development and utilization, meanwhile, the relative suggestion are put forward.

Design and impact estimation of a reform program of China’s tax and fee policies for low-grade oil and gas resources

With China’s rapid economic development, it is important to formulate reasonable and feasible tax and fee policies to promote the development and utilization of low-grade oil and gas resources to guarantee China’s energy supply security. In this paper, by analyzing major problems of China’s current tax and fee policies for oil and gas resources, a reform program for low-grade oil and gas resources is designed from the aspects of tax/fee items and tax/fee rates. The impacts of this reform program on China and China’s oil companies during the “Twe lfth Five-Year Plan” are investigated according to the related data in 2008. The results show that the proposed tax and fee reform program will lower the tax burden of oil companies, promote the development of low-grade oil and gas resources, and increase China’s GDP and national fiscal revenue. Besides that, it will bring positive social effects by increasing employment opportunities.

Migration of Trace Elements in Fushun Oil Shale during Self-Combustion and its Environmental Significance

Self-combustion of oil shale has been occurring and widespread in a long term while oil shale was considerably piled in Fushun dumping sites. After collecting samples of high- and low-grade oil shale from Fushun West Open Mine, the self-combusted oil shale from Fushun West Dumping Site, and designing the indoor high-temperature incineration experiments to simulate the self- combustion process, we tested trace elements in them and their ashes of 700°C, 1000°C by means of ICP-MS. Based on the analysis and comparison of the test dada, we studied content characteristics and migration pattern of elements during self-combustion. The results showed that elements were distributed in the similar way in samples and contents of Zr, Sr, Cr, V, Zn, Ni, Rb and Li were very high. A large amounts of trace elements were found to enter the atmosphere through volatilization in the process of Self-combustion, especially those higher volatile elements, such as Sb, Zn, Pb, W, Sn, Ta and Cd, while a few elements preferred to concentrate in solid-phase ashes. Different distribution and migration capacities of elements might be the main reason for the higher concentration of some elements in self-combusted oil shale than their background values in Liaoning soil.

Niobium-containing MCM-41 silica catalysts for biodiesel production

This research focuses on the synthesis and characterization of mesoporous niobosilicate molecular sieves and their catalytic activity in biodiesel production by transesterification of sunflower oil with methanol. Catalysts were prepared by two procedures: impregnation of a MCM-41 silica with different amounts of niobium oxalate and subsequent calcination, and structural incorporation of Nb into a MCM-41 silica during the synthesis step. Characterization techniques such as XRD, XPS, TEM, NH3-TPD and N2 sorption have been employed to characterize the synthesized catalysts. The biodiesel yield increases with the catalyst acidity, attaining a value of 95% with a 7.5wt% of a MCM-41 silica impregnated with a 8% of Nb2O5, at 200°C, after 4h of reaction and a methanol/oil molar ratio of 12. The potential of this family of catalysts to treat low-grade oils has been demonstrated by increasing the acidity of the sunflower oil by adding oleic acid (1.1wt%) and water (0.2wt%) to the reaction mixture, since the biodiesel yield is maintained close to 80%. Moreover, the catalyst reutilization has been demonstrated during five catalytic runs by employing a low-grade oil, with no leaching of the active phase.

Low-grade oils and fats: Effect of several impurities on biodiesel production over sulfonic acid heterogeneous catalysts

Different lipidic wastes and low-grade oils and fats have been characterized and evaluated as feedstocks for the acid-catalyzed production of FAME. The characterization of these materials has revealed significant contents of free fatty acids, Na, K, Ca, Mg, P, unsaponifiable matter and humidity. Arenesulfonic acid-functionalized SBA-15 silica catalyst has provided yields to FAME close to 80% in the simultaneous esterification–transesterification of the different feedstocks, regardless of their nature and properties, using methanol under the following reaction conditions: 160°C, 2h, methanol to oil molar ratio of 30, 8 wt.% catalyst loading, and 2000rpm stirring rate. Nevertheless, reutilization of the catalyst is compromised by high levels of impurities, especially because of deactivation by strong interaction of unsaponifiable matter with the catalytic sites. The conditioning of these materials by aqueous washing in the presence of cationic-exchange resin Amberlyst-15, followed by a drying step, resulted in a lower deactivation of the catalyst.

FIRING ESTONIAN OIL SHALE IN CFB BOILERS – ASH BALANCE AND BEHAVIOUR OF CARBONATE MINERALS

The ash balance and the extent of carbonate decomposition (ECD) for circulating fluidised-bed (CFB) boilers depending on oil shale lower heating value (8.5 and 11.1 MJ/kg) were analysed. As for the ash balance, ash mass flow rates (kg/s) for each ash separation port were determined. In calculations the ECD methodology developed at the Department of Thermal Engineering (DTE) on the basis of ash composition was used. Changes in the boiler ash balance occurred when firing oil shale of different quality. Additionally, the reduction of the CO2 emission by 7% and of the total ash mass flow by 23% was obtained when firing upgraded oil shale instead of low-grade oil shale.

Biodiesel Production from Vegetable Oils and Animal Fat over Solid Acid Double-Metal Cyanide Catalysts

Biodiesel comprises of fatty acid alkyl esters prepared from vegetable oils or animal fat by esterification/transesterification with short-chain alcohols (methanol or ethanol, for example). It is a biodegradable renewable fuel. Its production is growing exponentially due to greater concerns about environmental protection and depletion of fossil fuel resources. Further, its production from non-edible oils and animal fat is more desirable than from edible oils due to lower cost of non-edible feedstocks and elimination of food verses fuel issues. Solid acid catalysts are ideal for conversion of such low-grade oils to biodiesel. Biodiesel from non-edible oils can be produced by two methods: (1) simultaneous esterification of fatty acids and transesterification of fatty acid glycerides and (2) hydrolysis of glycerides followed by esterification. This account reports the catalytic performance of solid, Fe–Zn double-metal cyanide (DMC) complexes and other acid catalysts in these transformations for biodiesel production. The factors influencing the catalytic performance of the solid acid catalysts in biodiesel production are discussed.

Recovery of Bitumen from Low-Grade Oil Sands Using Ionic Liquids

Recovery of Bitumen from Low-Grade Oil Sands Using Ionic Liquids

Biodiesel Production from Greenseed Canola Oil

Greenseed canola oil is low-grade oil with a green color. Because of the high level of chlorophyll, this oil is considered as a “waste product” and cannot be used for edible purposes. In this research, biodiesel was produced from canola oil and greenseed canola oil via KOH-catalyzed transesterification with methanol, ethanol, and a mixture of methanol and ethanol. The reaction was conducted at 60 °C and a stirring speed of 600 rpm for 90 min. Prior to transesterification, greenseed canola oil was bleached to remove pigments using various adsorbents at different conditions. The optimum bleaching material was found to be montmorillonite K10. The pigment content was reduced from 94 to 0.5 ppm with using 7.5 wt % of this material at 60 °C and a stirring speed of 600 rpm for 30 min. Biodiesel derived from the treated greenseed canola oil showed an improvement in oxidative stability (induction time of 0.7 h) as compared to that derived from crude greenseed canola oil (induction time of 0.5 h). In addition, it w...

Detection and quantification of adulteration in sandalwood oil through near infrared spectroscopy

The confirmation of authenticity of essential oils and the detection of adulteration are problems of increasing importance in the perfumes, pharmaceutical, flavor and fragrance industries. This is especially true for 'value added' products like sandalwood oil. A methodical study is conducted here to demonstrate the potential use of Near Infrared (NIR) spectroscopy along with multivariate calibration models like principal component regression (PCR) and partial least square regression (PLSR) as rapid analytical techniques for the qualitative and quantitative determination of adulterants in sandalwood oil. After suitable pre-processing of the NIR raw spectral data, the models are built-up by cross-validation. The lowest Root Mean Square Error of Cross-Validation and Calibration (RMSECV and RMSEC % v/v) are used as a decision supporting system to fix the optimal number of factors. The coefficient of determination (R(2)) and the Root Mean Square Error of Prediction (RMSEP % v/v) in the prediction sets are used as the evaluation parameters (R(2) = 0.9999 and RMSEP = 0.01355). The overall result leads to the conclusion that NIR spectroscopy with chemometric techniques could be successfully used as a rapid, simple, instant and non-destructive method for the detection of adulterants, even 1% of the low-grade oils, in the high quality form of sandalwood oil.

Sulfated tin oxide as solid superacid catalyst for transesterification of waste cooking oil: An optimization study

Biodiesel is a renewable, biodegradable and non-toxic fuel which can be easily produced through transesterification reaction. However, current commercial usage of refined vegetable oils for biodiesel production is impractical and uneconomical due to high feedstock cost and priority as food resources. Low-grade oil, typically waste cooking oil can be a better alternative; however, the high free fatty acids (FFA) content in waste cooking oil does not allow efficient production of biodiesel via current commercial homogeneous transesterification process. Therefore in the present study, superacid sulfated tin oxide catalyst, SO42−/SnO2 has been prepared using impregnation method for biodiesel production via heterogeneous tranesterification process. The bi-metallic effect of the catalyst was also studied, in which SnO2 was mixed with SiO2 and Al2O3, respectively, at different weight ratios in order to enhance the catalytic activity of SnO2. The effect of different reaction parameters such as calcination temperature and period of the catalyst, reaction temperature, catalyst loading, methanol-to-oil ratio and reaction time were studied to optimize the reaction conditions. It was found that SO42−/SnO2-SiO2 with weight ratio 3 exhibited an exceptional high activity with an optimum yield of 92.3% at reaction temperature 150°C, catalyst loading 3wt%, methanol-to-oil ratio 15 and reaction time 3h. The physical and chemical properties of the catalysts were also characterized using XRD analysis and FT-IR imaging.

How Oil from the North Went South

Oil resources in the earth's crust are vast and diverse. The great diversity leads to significant differences in the cost of discovery and development. History is full of discoveries that have created great wealth for the explorer and others that have ended in dismal failure. Until recently, most oil reserves - oil known for certain to be available for future production - were concentrated in a handful of super-giant fields, the largest of which are located in and around the Persian Gulf. Since the 1970s, oil supplies have grown significantly and become less concentrated, but most of the new finds are smaller or are located in high cost environments. The super-giant fields within OPEC still govern the margin of the market and the cartel still has the ability to control price.A number of exploration geologists and neo-Malthusians have predicted the imminent peak of conventional oil production. Their concern has focused on the depletion of the world's largest fields and ignores the immense size of lower-grade petroleum resources around the globe. The expected development of low-grade oil resources is a difficult step up the staircase of rising cost, but is well within the range of current technology and investment resources. The relevant question is the cost effectiveness of pursing such a strategy; it is not an issue of scarcity.

Assessment of the process of cottonseed oil bleaching in hexane

This work has been initiated to assess the feasibility of bleaching cottonseed oil in miscella as a processing step next to alkali refining in miscella. Alkali refining of cottonseed oil in miscella has several advantages over conventional refining technologies with respect to oil quality, oil losses and process cost. Therefore, the process efficiency of the bleaching of cottonseed oil in presence of hexane (at a volumetric ratio of 1:1), has been studied and compared to that without solvent. The process efficiency has been evaluated according to the decolourization capacity, the oil losses on spent earth, the filtration rate of the oil from the clay and the acidity of the bleached oil as well as its peroxide content. The bleaching in presence of hexane was carried out at 25oC whereas that by conventional bleaching at 110oC. Different clay loads were used in each of the two bleaching techniques and the colour indices of the oils before and after bleaching determined in each case. The results were used to predict Freundlich adsorption equations for the oil pigments in both cases. These equations were then used to predict the colour of the oils obtained by bleaching of refined oils of different grades. The results have shown that oil decolourization is more efficient in presence of solvent when the starting oil is of an acceptable grade and the reverse is true for low grade oils. Also, the possibility of oil oxidation during bleaching is less in presence of solvent. Moreover, the bleaching in miscella has proved two other additional advantages over conventional bleaching. The filtration of oil from clay is much faster in miscella bleaching and the oil losses on spent earth is lower. This will be reflected on the overall process economy.

석유화학 공정부산물의 연소특성에 대한 연구

Combustion stability is one of the most important factors that must be considered in burning of heavy fuel oil, especially low-grade oil. This paper describes the combustion characteristics of petrochemical process by- product in the combustion furnace of heavy fuel oil. Main experimental parameters were combustion load, excess 02, fuel preheating temperature and air/fuel ratio. The capacity of CRF(combustion research facility) used in this study was 1.0 ton/hr and the burner is steam jet type suitable far heavy oil combustion and manufactured by UNIGAS in Italy. The fuel used in this experiment were 0.5 B-C, petrochemical process by-product and 3 kinds of 0.5 B-C/process by-product mixtures. The combustion stability was monitored and exhaust gases such as CO, NOx, SOx and particulates were measured with the excess and combustion load. The main purpose of this study is to clarify whether process by-product can be used as a boiler fuel or not in consideration of flame stability and emission properties.

燃焼における液体微粒化の応用技術

This paper reviews general concepts of improvement in spray combustion with the aid of new atomization technology. Liquid sprays supplied into a combustion chamber through atomization facilitates, had to be atomized completely before they were mixed with air and ignited. Incomplete atomization of fuel resulted in an elongation of flame length and poor combustion pollutions . Then a new liquid atomization technology was needed to attain a quick and complete atomization of liquid fuels, especially low grade oils. New pneumatic atomizers to improve the drop size distribution and spatial distribution of fuel were introduced with there designing concepts.

Episodic Production of Fractured Reservoirs: The Phelps Anticline Oil Field

The Phelps anticline is a fault-bounded structure on the distal west flank of the Midway-Sunset oil field. Production is from the McDonald fractured shale. Histories for this field indicate that oil is recovered most effectively through episodic production. Breathing fractures are the cause of this reservoir behavior and suggest a new approach to hydrocarbon recovery from low-grade oil fields.

Comments On "The Physical Chemistry Of The Hot Water Process", By K. Takamura And D. Wallace

Abstract In the December 1988 issue of Tile Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology, Koichi Takamura and Dean Wallace published a paper entitled "The physical chemistry of the hot water process"(1). The paper ‘describes a model for the hot water process based on the’ DLVO and lonizable Surface Group theories' 'that, according to the authors, can be used to maximize bitumen recovery from low grade oil sands. On page 100 the authors claim that 'It is known* * that monodisperse panicles in an unstirred suspension will coagulate if the potential energy barrier to coagulation, Vscb, is less than 20 to 100 kT because the Brownian motion of the particle provides sufficient energy to overcome the repulsion between them. In a stirred reactor, hydrodynamic forces tend to drive the particles together and a higher energy barrier is required to keep them dispersed.' Both sentences above warrant a comment.In colloidal dispersion slow coagulation can be observed for the stability ratio W< 104(2). W is defined as the ratio of rapid to slow coagulation rate constants (kr and ks respectively) and is related to the height and shape of the energy barrier with the following formula:Equation (Available In Full Paper)where the total interaction energy Φ is a function of the separation between the centres of the particles r, and 2R is the radius of ‘sphere of interaction’, which in the simplest model is assumed to be twice the radius of monodispersed, spherical particles R. A stability ratio of about 104 (which means that the coagulation rate is 10 000 times slower than it would have been if no energy barrier was present), for a typical barrier shape, corresponds to the maximum barrier height Φmax of about 15 kT. A barrier of 20 kT or more would thus characterize a stable system.For fine solid particles suspended in liquids, inertia effects can be neglected for Reynolds number (set on particle dimension) Re < 1(3). Under typical industrial conditions, the Reynolds number based on the dimension of the vessel (typically of an order of metres) may be as high as 100 000. However, the Reynolds number based on the particle dimension (of an order of µm) is of about 0.1. The flow, as seen by particles of that size, fulfills the creeping flow conditions, and inertia effects for those particles can be neglected. Therefore, although stirring increases the number of collisions between the particles the hydrodynamic forces cannot ‘drive the particles together’ across the energy barrier. The barrier height necessary for stabilization of the system does not depend on whether the suspension of fines is agitated or not. The barrier height of 400 kT units, assumed by the authors to be a critical value dividing stable from flocculating systems, is thus completely unrealistic. One can barely agree on a critical barrier height of 20 to 40 kT. Yet, even for a barrier of 40 kT, only one in 1017 particles has sufficiently high energy to pass across the barrier.

Petrographic approach to beneficiation of Australian oil shales

Australia has five types of oil shales, cannel coal, torbanite, lamosite, tasmanite and marinite, each of which has a different organic composition. Cannel coal is composed of liptinite (mostly resinite, cutinite and sporinite) derived from terrestrial plants, vitrinite and inertinite, with only a small amount of mineral matter. Torbanite is composed of large telalginite, derived from Botryococcus and related algae, in a groundmass of vitrinite and inertinite. It is difficult to crush and petrographic analysis indicates that beneficiation would be difficult. Lamosite contains abundant lamalginite, derived from freshwater, planktonic algae, with minor vitrinite and telalginite; petrographic analysis confirms that comminution produces alginite-poor fines and a higher grade concentrate. Marinite is a relatively low grade oil shale composed of lamalginite and bituminite, both of which are unlikely to be easily separated from the mineral groundmass. Tasmanite is composed of telalginite, derived from marine precursors, which is easily separated from the mineral matter when the oil shale is crushed.

Oil Shale Sedimentology and Geochemistry in Cenozoic Mae Sot Basin, Thailand

The intermontane Mae Sot basin, Thailand, contains carbonate-rich oil shales in which oil yield, mineralogy, and major and trace element geochemistry are related to the rock type. Higher grade oil shale is significantly enriched in silicate minerals (quartz, feldspars, clays, and analcite) relative to carbonates, and in dolomite relative to calcite. Couplets of organic-rich and mineral-rich laminae increase in mean thickness from 0.080 mm to 0.670 mm from high to low-grade oil shale. The organic material consists mainly of lamalginite, and yields up to 341 L of oil/MT (81.8 gal/ton) on retorting. Fish and vascular-plant fragments are the main megafossils. Mappable oil shale sequences 10 m (33 ft) thick are interstratified with marlstone-sandstone sequences 70 m (230 ft) thick. Markov chain analysis applied to stratigraphic sequences indicates that low-grade oil shale passes gradually into high-grade oil shale, and vice versa. The strata are interpreted as the deposits of extensive fresh to brackish lakes, with oil shale sequences formed in perennial, stratified lakes and marlstone-sandstone sequences formed in shallow perennial lakes and subaerially exposed flats. Dolomite in the oil shales was authigenic. The systematic changes in mineralogy and geochemistry between rock types probably reflect a gradient in redox potential from the center to the margins of the lake. Sandstone and siltstone beds and some carbonate laminae are interpret d as density flow deposits and form a significant proportion of the sequences. The episodic deposition of oil shales reflects changes in lake level within the enclosed basin, probably due to climatic fluctuations on a 24,000 to 46,000-year scale.

Electrical conductivity of Colorado oil shale to 900 °C

Electrical conductivity of oil shale from the Anvil Points Mine, Colorado was measured to temperatures > 900 °C with conductance bridges operating at frequencies from 100 to 100 000 Hz. The conductivity of low, intermediate and high grade oil shales (15,124,233 ml kg −1, respectively) is dependent on water content up to ≈ 100 °C. At ≈ 120 °C, values of conductivity at ≈ 10 −7 S m −1 are observed for all grades. A strong, time-dependent, increase in conductivity, beginning at ≈400 °C, marks the loss of light hydrocarbons and the formation of a conductive char. The frequency dependence of conductivity-slightly less than a decade increase in conductivity per decade increase in frequency over the temperature range 100–400 °C-vanishes at temperatures near 500 °C. At 600–800 °C, the conductivity of these oil shales reaches a maximum value which is as much as 10 8 times larger than the conductivity near 250 °C.