Petroleum and Natural Gas

The greatest hazard to the biosphere from petroleum production and transport results from oil spills that kill wildlife. Most such incidents occur in coastal areas, affecting birds, fish, and shellfish. Two of the more notorious incidents of oil spills that caused harm to wildlife were the 1989 Exxon Valdez tanker oil spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska, which may have spilled up to 750,000 barrels of crude oil, and the 2010 blowout and fire of BP s Deepwater Horizon well in the Gulf of Mexico, which some credible sources have estimated released as much as 5 million barrels of crude oil into the fragile Gulf waters. 

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Large quantities of sulphur are recovered from petroleum and natural gas. Naturally occurring hydrogen sulphide, HjS, and that produced in the cracking and catalytic hydrogenation of petroleum is first removed by absorption and the regenerated gas is converted to sulphur by partial combustion with air, the overall reaction being,... 

In combination, carbon is found as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of the earth and dissolved in all natural waters. It is a component of great rock masses in the form of carbonates of calcium (limestone), magnesium, and iron. Coal, petroleum, and natural gas are chiefly hydrocarbons. 

About 85% of U.S. adipic acid production is used captively by the producer, almost totally ia the manufacture of nylon-6,6 (194). The remaining 15% is sold ia the merchant market for a large number of appHcations. These have been developed as a result of the large scale availabihty of this synthetic petrochemical commodity. Prices for 1960—1989 for standard resia-grade material have parahed raw material and energy costs (petroleum and natural gas)... 

Petroleum and Natural Gas. Over 90% of the 428,000 t of caustic soda used in the petroleum and natural gas industry is used to process oil and gas into marketable products, especially by removing acidic contaminants. The remainder is used primarily to decrease corrosion of drilling equipment and to increase the solubiUty of drilling mud components by maintaining an alkaline pH (6). 

Coal is used ia industry both as a fuel and ia much lower volume as a source of chemicals. In this respect it is like petroleum and natural gas whose consumption also is heavily dominated by fuel use. Coal was once the principal feedstock for chemical production, but ia the 1950s it became more economical to obtain most industrial chemicals from petroleum and gas. Nevertheless, certain chemicals continue to be obtained from coal by traditional routes, and an interest in coal-based chemicals has been maintained in academic and industrial research laboratories. Much of the recent activity in coal conversion has been focused on production of synthetic fuels, but significant progress also has been made on use of coal as a chemical feedstock (see Coal CONVERSION processes). 

Total 1991 world production of sulfur in all forms was 55.6 x 10 t. The largest proportion of this production (41.7%) was obtained by removal of sulfur compounds from petroleum and natural gas (see Sulfurremoval and recovery). Deep mining of elemental sulfur deposits by the Frasch hot water process accounted for 16.9% of world production mining of elemental deposits by other methods accounted for 5.0%. Sulfur was also produced by roasting iron pyrites (17.6%) and as a by-product of the smelting of nonferrous ores (14.0%). The remaining 4.8% was produced from unspecified sources. 

As shown in Table 8, U.S. distribution of oil and natural gas reserves is centered in Alaska, Cahfomia, Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and the U.S. outer-continental shelf. Alaska reserves include both the Pmdhoe Bay deposits and the Cook Inlet fields. Cahfomia deposits include those in Santa Barbara, the Wilmington Eield, the Elk Hills Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 1 at Bakersfield, and other offshore oil deposits. The Yates Pield, Austin Chalk formation, and Permian Basin are among the producing sources of petroleum and natural gas in Texas. 

The decrease in petroleum and natural gas reserves has encouraged interest in and discovery and development of unconventional sources of these hydrocarbons. Principal alternatives to conventional petroleum reserves include oil shale (qv) and tar sands (qv). Oil shale reserves in the United States are estimated at 20,000 EJ (19.4 x 10 Btu) and estimates of tar sands and oil sands reserves are on the order of 11 EJ (10 x 10 Btu) (see Tarsands Shale oil). Of particular interest are the McKittrick, EeUows, and Taft quadrangles of Cahfomia, the Asphalt Ridge area of Utah, the Asphalt, Kentucky area, and related geographic regions. 

In addition to the significant consumption of coal and lignite, petroleum, and natural gas, several countries utilize modest quantities of alternative fossil fuels. Canada obtains some of its energy from the Athabasca tar sands development (the Great Canadian Oil Sands Project). Oil shale is burned at... 

Sohds are hard coal, lignite, peat, and oil shale. Liquids are cmde petroleum and natural gas Hquids. Gases are natural gas. 

There are many different routes to organic chemicals from biomass because of its high polysaccharide content and reactivity. The practical value of the conversion processes selected for commercial use with biomass will depend strongly on the availabiUty and price of the same chemicals produced from petroleum and natural gas. 

Table 4. Primary Products from Petroleum and Natural Gas, 199T...

Petroleum and its lighter congener, natural gas, are the predominant sources of hydrocarbon raw materials, accounting for over 95% of all such materials. Assuring sources of petroleum and natural gas has become a primary goal of national poHcies all over the world, and undoubtedly was one of the principal justifications for the 1992 Gulf War. 

Aliphatic Chemicals. The primary aliphatic hydrocarbons used in chemical manufacture are ethylene (qv), propjiene (qv), butadiene (qv), acetylene, and / -paraffins (see Hydrocarbons, acetylene). In order to be useflil as an intermediate, a hydrocarbon must have some reactivity. In practice, this means that those paraffins lighter than hexane have Httle use as intermediates. Table 5 gives 1991 production and sales from petroleum and natural gas. Information on uses of the C —C saturated hydrocarbons are available in the Hterature (see Hydrocarbons, C —C ). 

Cyclic Hydrocarbons. The cyclic hydrocarbon intermediates are derived principally from petroleum and natural gas, though small amounts are derived from coal. Most cycHc intermediates are used in the manufacture of more advanced synthetic organic chemicals and finished products such as dyes, medicinal chemicals, elastomers, pesticides, and plastics and resins. Table 6 details the production and sales of cycHc intermediates in 1991. Benzene (qv) is the largest volume aromatic compound used in the chemical industry. It is extracted from catalytic reformates in refineries, and is produced by the dealkylation of toluene (qv) (see also BTX Processing). 

Polymers. Hydrocarbons from petroleum and natural gas serve as the raw material for virtually all polymeric materials commonly found in commerce, with the notable exception of rayon which is derived from cellulose extracted from wood pulp. Even with rayon, however, the cellulose is treated with acetic acid (qv), much of which is manufactured from ethylene (see Fibers, regenerated cellulosics). 

An environmental risk in solution mining is surface subsidence. This risk is greatest with embedded salt. No cases of salt subsidence have been reported in mining domes that have been mined according to standard industry approved practice in the United States, but some have been seen in other countries. One side benefit of dome solution mining is use of the cavities later for storage of industrial fluids, chiefly petroleum and natural gas. 

Drilling Muds in the Petroleum and Natural Gas Industry. Since 1941, chromium chemicals have been used in the drilling of wells to combat fatigue corrosion cracking of drill strings, with about one metric ton of sodium chromate being used aimuaHy for an average West Texas well. Other early uses were in gas-condensate wells in Louisiana and East Texas. 

On a uniform calorific value basis, coal constitutes 69% of the total estimated recoverable resources of fossil fuel in the United States. Petroleum and natural gas are about 7% and oil in oil shale, which is not as of this writing used as a fuel, is about 23%. The 1989 total recoverable reserves of coal are about 500 times the 1989 aimual production (2), whereas the reserves of oil and gas are smaller, the production and consumption rate of oil and gas in the United States is three times that of coal. 

Low- and Medium-Temperature Coke (773 to 1023 K or 932 to 1382°F.) Cokes of this type are no longer produced in the United States to a significant extent. However, there is some interest in low-temperature carbonization as a source of both hydrocarbon liquids and gases to supplement petroleum and natural-gas resources. 

Coal is the most abundant fossil fuel, and it will be available long after petroleum and natural gas are scarce. However, because liquids and... 

ISO 10436 1993 Petroleum and Natural Gas Industries—General purpose Steam Turbine for Refinery Service, 1st Edition. 

By far the preponderance of the 3400 kt of current worldwide phenolic resin production is in the form of phenol-formaldehyde (PF) reaction products. Phenol and formaldehyde are currently two of the most available monomers on earth. About 6000 kt of phenol and 10,000 kt of formaldehyde (100% basis) were produced in 1998 [55,56]. The organic raw materials for synthesis of phenol and formaldehyde are cumene (derived from benzene and propylene) and methanol, respectively. These materials are, in turn, obtained from petroleum and natural gas at relatively low cost ([57], pp. 10-26 [58], pp. 1-30). Cost is one of the most important advantages of phenolics in most applications. It is critical to the acceptance of phenolics for wood panel manufacture. With the exception of urea-formaldehyde resins, PF resins are the lowest cost thermosetting resins available. In addition to its synthesis from low cost monomers, phenolic resin costs are often further reduced by extension with fillers such as clays, chalk, rags, wood flours, nutshell flours, grain flours, starches, lignins, tannins, and various other low eost materials. Often these fillers and extenders improve the performance of the phenolic for a particular use while reducing cost. 

Fuel. Wood, paper, coal, and gas are just a few of tlie products commonly tliought of as fuels. However, from a chemical standpoint, tlie conunon fuel elements are carbon (C) and hydrogen (H). Carbon is found in coal, coke, lignite, and peat. Otlier carbon fuels include fat, petroleum, and natural gas. Hydrogen is conunonly found in conjunction witli tliese carbon compounds. 

More developed countries rely heavily on burning fossil fuels to meet energy needs. Fossil fuels are the remains of plants that, over millions of years, have been transformed into coal, petroleum, and natural gas. Just like the natural systems examined in this article, our energy ultimately comes from the Sun and photosynthesis. Although more developed countries have less than 20 percent of the world s population, they use more than 80 percent of the world s energy. 

In the early 1970s, coal consumption once again equaled its earlier peak in the early 1950s and continued to grab a larger share of the electricity-generation market due to the price and supply problems of petroleum and natural gas. 

Standard handbook of petroleum and natural gas engineering / [edited by William Lyons], p. cm. 

This petroleum and natural gas engineering two-volume handbook is written in the spirit of the classic handbooks of other engineering disciplines. The two volumes reflect the importance of the industry its engineers serve (i.e., Standard and Poor s shows that the fuels sector is the largest single entity in the gross domestic product) and the profession s status as a mature engineering discipline. 

We could not live without combustion reactions the oxidation of glucose powers our bodies, and the burning of fossil fuels (coal, petroleum, and natural gas) powers our homes and vehicles. Because fossil fuels reserves are limited, alternatives are being sought (Box 6.2), but even these new fuels will be burned. Consequently, the study of combustion is critically important for our survival. 

Sulfur is widely distributed as sulfide ores, which include galena, PbS cinnabar, HgS iron pyrite, FeS, and sphalerite, ZnS (Fig. 15.11). Because these ores are so common, sulfur is a by-product of the extraction of a number of metals, especially copper. Sulfur is also found as deposits of the native element (called brimstone), which are formed by bacterial action on H,S. The low melting point of sulfur (115°C) is utilized in the Frasch process, in which superheated water is used to melt solid sulfur underground and compressed air pushes the resulting slurry to the surface. Sulfur is also commonly found in petroleum, and extracting it chemically has been made inexpensive and safe by the use of heterogeneous catalysts, particularly zeolites (see Section 13.14). One method used to remove sulfur in the form of H2S from petroleum and natural gas is the Claus process, in which some of the H2S is first oxidized to sulfur dioxide ... 

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