Petroleum applications

It is estimated that in 2010 this technique was present in approximately 60% of the extraction wells in use. Due to the rising price of fossil fuels, which has made these methods economically profitable, their use has increased in recent years, especially in the United States [101,105]. 

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If the acceleration is variable, as in sinusoidal movement, piezoelectric systems are ideal. In case of a constant acceleration, and hence a force that is also constant, strain gages may be employed. For petroleum applications in boreholes, however, it is better to use servo-controlled accelerometers. Reverse pendular accelerometers and single-axis accelerometers are available. 

The technique of DDIF provides a quantitative characterization of the complex pore space of the rocks to supplement conventional mineralogy, chemistry and petrology analyses. A combination of DDIF, Hg intrusion, NMR T2 and image analysis has become the new paradigm to characterize porous rocks for petroleum applications [62, 61]. 

Solutions of TKPP have been shown to have unique and advantageous properties for use in formulating a wide variety of well fluids. Its reasonable cost, worldwide availability, and nontoxic properties make it a preferred additive for use in many petroleum applications. It has been shown to be a most effective salt with respect to inhibiting hydration and swelling of clay minerals commonly encountered in drilling operations and/or reservoirs. Avoiding clay problems is the major impetus for the incorporation of potassium ions in well fluids, and the use of TKPP provides advantages over and above those available from other potassium salts. 

Extractions. SCFs are used as extraction solvents in commercial food, pharmaceutical, environmental, and petroleum applications (rl,r5,r6,rl6,r23). An excellent overview of the patent literature up to 1991 is available (1). 

S. Srinivasan, Role of Expert System in Technology Transfer of Materials for Petroleum Applications , Proceedings of the 12th International Corrosion Congress, 19-24, September 1993, NACE International, Houston, TX, 1993. 

Kane, R.D., Cayard, M.S., Roles of H2 and H2S in Behaviour of Engineering Alloys in Petroleum Applications, Proceedings Materials for Resource Recovery and Transport, L. Collins (ed.), The Metallurgical Society of CIM, Calgary, pp. 3-49, August 1998. 

Tissot B., Oudin J. L., and Pelet R. (1972) Criteria of the origin and evolution of petroleum application to the geochemical study of sedimentary basins. In Advances in Geochemistry 1971 (eds. H. v. Gaertner and H. Wehner). Pergamon, New York, pp. 113-134. 

Emulsion characterization and technology development have been driven by the medical, agricultural, food, and cosmetics industries the petroleum and oil industries have borrowed these technologies and adapted them to their particular applications. A number of books and review articles discuss aspects of emulsion technologies specifically related to oil-field and petroleum applications 14, IS), These petroleum applications have become especially important since the advent of surfactant flooding and other tertiary oil recovery methods in which emulsions are used and/or formed. 

This chapter first outlines the principles, methods, and basic techniques of particle size characterization used in the petroleum and chemical industries. The most common techniques and methods used in particle size characterization are then briefly discussed. This is followed by a summary of applicable particle size ranges for different methods, including size ranges of the most common particles found in petroleum applications. Emphasis is given to microscopy and scattering techniques and their applications in the petroleum industry. 

The mechanical stability of polymers was related to the polymer s conformation in some of the earlier drag-reduction studies. Above a critical stress, degradation was faster the more contracted and entangled the polymer s conformation (5-7). In petroleum applications the mechanical instability of synthetic relative to carbohydrate polymers was well-recognized. The relative stability problems (possibly related to DUEVs (8)) encountered in the use of high molecular weight hydrolyzed poly(acrylamide) (HPAM) led to the development of an inverse-emulsion polymerization technique (9). (Current research directions using this technique are discussed in Chapter 9.)... 

As with other petroleum applications of foam, careful surfactant screening is needed to select surfactants capable of forming effective and economical foams for these harsh environments (see Section 11.3.2.2). Also, different surfactants are best suited to forming aqueous foams, versus aqueous foams that may encounter condensate, versus condensate foams (see Section 5.6.7). In many situations, a low-cost surfactant can be used, but difficult situations may require specialized and hence expensive surfactants which can make the foaming of bottom-hole water uneconomic. 

Other petroleum applications such as emulsion breaking, particularly for crude oil dehydration, are of first importance. A by-product of enhanced oil recovery was a better understanding of the relationship between the phase behavior of surfactant-oil-water systems and the properties of the corresponding macroemulsions [111-118]. 

Laboratory testing shows that visual examination and viscosity measurements are not sufficient to fully define polymer solvation. In this work, the solvation of hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC) and xanthan has been studied. These polymers are both widely used in various petroleum applications. HEC is used in many workover and completion applications, while xanthan has its most wide spread uses in drilling and enhanced oil recovery (EOR) applications. Solublization of both polymers results in fluids with pseudoplastic (or shear thinning properties). Even though the polymers both exhibit pseudoplastic behivior, the polymers vary considerably as to their molecular size and physical properties. 

An overview of some of the significant findings of surfactant adsorption research is presented. Subjects include the importance of surfactant adsorption in petroleum applications, some history of surfactant adsorption research, the mechanisms which have been proposed to explain observed adsorption behavior, and a review of several significant surfactant adsorption studies. The emphasis of this review is understanding the mechanisms of surfactant adsorption as they relate to applications of surfactants in petroleum processes. 

In general, the surfactants used in petroleum applications should not cause undue concern. The familiarity of human exposure to surfactants in the constant processes of bathing and dish washing coupled to the absence of observable acute or chronic toxicity problems has given us a sense that common surfactants are innocuous. We tend to extrapolate this safe-to-use concept to all terrestrial organisms and applications. However, this comfort zone with commercial surfactants should not be extended to situations where they enter surface waters, because surfactants exhibit considerable toxicity to aquatic organisms. 

Consumption in Europe and Japan depends more upon the automotive industry. However, with the recent concern about acid rain, the European market is expected to show increased interest in fluorocarbon elastomers for pollution-control applications. In Japan, fluorocarbon elastomers are used for general manufacturing, eg, copiers. Petroleum applications are of little interest outside the United States. The aircraft industry uses less than 10% of the total fluorocarbon elastomer consumed. 

Descriptions and discussions of gravity sedimentation in textbooks (and this one is no exception) are usually dominated by water treatment and mineral processing applications. One must not lose sight, however, of the many chemical, pharmaceutical, nuclear, petrochemical or petroleum applications where gravity settling is used to resolve emulsions or to separate other liquid-liquid dispersions. As the density difference in such cases is nearly always low, the benefits of coalescence are usually sought. The present book, as per its title, is concerned primarily with solid-liquid systems and a reader interested in separation of liquid-liquid dispersions is referred to an excellent review of such applications (and of electrostatic coalescence)... 

The rapid development of GC continued to parallel the refinement of petroleum applications. Eggertsen and his co-workers (10) in 1956 described a 50-ft column... 

In real petroleum applications, surfactant-based systans are applied as corrosion inhibitors in the beginning of pipeline flows, together with the petroleum emulsion (crude oil + brine). The surfactant may be used either as a micellar solution or in the miCToemulsified form. Its maximal solubility must be known in advance therefore, phase behavior studies must be previously made. If the right conditions are promoted, dilution of the inhibitor occurs spontaneously along the emulsion flow. When microemulsions are used, this phenomenon is more effective, since more surfactant molecules can be solubilized in the medium. 

Manar El-Sayed Abdel-Raouf Petroleum Application Department Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute... 

The use of fluoroelastomers has evolved into being very dependent on the automotive industry. Almost 65% of the fluoroelastomers produced are used in automotive applications. The rest are used in chemical and petroleum applications (14%), aerospace (14%), and the energy industry (7%). 

Some examples of petroleum applications of GC-IRMS include ... 

Catalytic HDO research has, to date, been based on application of traditional petroleum catalysts. Moderate successes in applying these HDO catalysts on bio-oils have been attained. However, specialized catalysts for bio-oil application, as opposed to petroleum applications, have yet to be developed. The complex chemistry of bio-oils presents a special challenge compared to that of processing ande petroleum oils that are mainly composed of hydrocarbons. A promising approach identified by Bridgwater and Cottam (1992) is the identification of a modified zeolite that is more selective toward trio-oil components and desired products. 

Trickle-bed reactors or similar equipment are used in the petroleum, petrochemical and chemical industries as well as in the field of waste water treatment vdiere the trickle-bed is an alternate to biological oxidation. Since three phases are present, analysis of reactor performances requires a careful study of the intrareactor, interphase, intraparticle mass transport and intrinsic kinetics. The topics as a viiole is reviewed in the excellent papers (74-76) for hydrodynamics and kinetics for petroleum applications "(especially hydrogaiations) and (77) for mass transfer and kinetics for oxidation application. 

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