Petroleum industry producing solids

Two-pack epoxies These were first patented in 1938 but were not in general production until 1947. They have been very widely used over the last decade. Produced from the by-products of the petroleum industry, the basic epoxy resins may be in the form of relatively low-viscosity liquid resins or they may be solid resins of increasing hardness. Both solid and liquid resins can then be reacted with a number of different curing agents. This means that almost any type of film and with any required properties can be made. 

Hydrocarbon gas and liquid water combine to form solids resembling wet snow at temperatures somewhat above the temperature at which water solidifies. These solids are called gas hydrates. They are one of a form of complexes known as clathrates. This phenomenon particularly interests those in the petroleum industry because these solids can form at temperatures and pressures normally encountered in producing and transporting natural gases. 

A special kind of nonaqueous foam known as bituminous froth is produced during the application of the hot-water flotation process to Athabasca oil sands, a large-scale commercial application of mined oil sands technology. These froths are multiphase, composed of oil, water gas, and solids, and form an interesting kind of petroleum industry foam. This chapter presents a review of the occurrence, nature, properties, and treatment of bituminous froths. 

Solids production and control remain a high priority for the petroleum industry. In conventional oil and gas operations, control of produced solids is a primary focus. In recovery of heavy oil from unconsolidated reservoirs, production and handling of large quantities of produced solids present special challenges, both in the removal of solids from the wellbore and their subsequent disposal. The rapid expansion of horizontal well applications has led to some unique approaches to solids handling and is likely to lead to new technical advances as the horizontal drilling and completions technology continues to advance. 

Many products come in the form of a powdered solid. The solid once produced is stored in a container. It may be a barrel, a bag, or a can depending on the volume. Powdered milk is a good example so is lawn fertilizer. Catalytic solids are another. Catalysts promote the rate of chemical reaction and are used throughout the chemical and petroleum industries they are usually small solid pellets of uniform size and shape. Catalysts are not consumed in the course of the reaction they promote. Nevertheless, catalysts do eventually need to be replaced. This is either because they were poisoned or their sohd structures have become clogged with high molecular weight molecules that prevent access to the active sites. At the end of its lifetime, then, the catalyst must be replaced. The spent catalyst is removed from the reactor vessel, the reactor is cleaned, and the space left open is ready for a charge of fresh solid catalyst. 

The development of ne v catalysts during the last two decades has introduced more environmentally accepted processes into the production of commodities. The industrial solid catalysts that once played a major role in bulk chemicals manufacture are nowadays distributed among the industrial sectors so that about 25% of produced catalysts are used in the chemical industry, 40% in the petroleum industry, 30% in environmental protection, and 5% in the production of pharmaceuticals. Environmental catalysis accounts for (i) waste minimization by providing alternative catalytic synthesis of important compounds without the formation of environmentally unacceptable by-products, and (ii) emission reduction by decomposing environmentally unacceptable compounds by using catalysts. Waste minimization is linked with the reaction(s) selectivity and therefore a proper choice of catalyst plays a decisive role. Emission reduction usually refers to end-of-the-pipe treatment processes where the selectivity of catalyst, if used, is not an important issue. Because it is almost impossible to transform the raw materials into the desired products without any by-product(s), one must take account of the necessity of providing a production process with an end-of-the-pipe treatment unit. Only then can... 

Petroleum coke is the filler of choice in most applications. It is a porous by-product of the petroleum industry and an almost-pure solid carbon at room temperature. It is produced by destructive distillation without the addition of hydrogen, either by a continuous process (fluid coking) or, more commonly, by a batch process (delayed coking). 

Mos of the solid carbonaceous material available to industry is derived from the pyrolysis of petroleum residues, coal, and coal tar residues. Understanding the reactions occurring during pyrolysis would be beneficial in conducting materials research on the manufacture of carbonaceous products. The pyrolysis of aromatic hydrocarbons has been reported to involve condensation and polymerization reactions that produce complex carbonaceous materials (I). Interest in the mechanism of pyrolysis of aromatic compounds is evidenced in a recent study by Edstrom and Lewis (2) on the differential thermal analysis of 84 model aromatic hydrocarbons. The study demonstrated that carbon formation was related to the molecular size of the compound and to energetic factors that could be estimated from ionization potentials. 

Background on Primary Petroleum Products. Petroleum is a natural resource found in many types of sedimentary rock formations. Naturally occurring petroleum is a complex mixture of gaseous, liquid, and solid hydrocarbons. Entire industries have grown up around the activities required to produce the crude oil, transport it to refineries, and convert the natural petroleum into a variety of end... 

As other speakers at this symposium have described, the use of fuel gas produced by biomass or solid waste gasifiers can reduce the use of petroleum fuels in stationary combustion equipment (oil-fired boilers, diesel engines for electric generators or irrigation pumps). Stationary engines and furnaces, however, are not the only big users of petroleum fuels in lesser developed countries (or LDCs, the term we will employ to describe the 88 poorest nations in the world). As is the case for industrialized nations, lesser developed countries need liquid transportation fuels, and probably will for a long time. Brookhaven reports that most LDCs have increased their dependence on highway transport over the last two decades (lb). 

Solid catalysts are widely used such as in the sulfuric acid, ammonia, fertilizer, petroleum, and petrochemical industries. The trend is to produce more organic chemicals by catalytic processes (usually employing solid catalysts). These catalysts can be classified in two ways. 

Hexane is extracted from petroleum. Petroleum is a complex mixture of solid, liquid, and gaseous hydrocarbons that has virtually no use itself. However, the fractional distillation of petroleum produces hundreds of individual compounds, each of which has its own important commercial and industrial applications. Fractional distillation is the process hy which petroleum is heated in tall towers. The components of petroleum hoil off at different temperatures, rise to... 

Naphthalene (NAF-thuh-leen) is a white crystalline volatile solid with a characteristic odor often associated with mothballs. The compound sublimes (turns from a solid to a gas) slowly at room temperature, producing a vapor that is highly combustible. Naphthalene was first extracted from coal tar in 1819 by English chemist and physician John Kidd (1775- l85i). Coal tar is a brown to black thick liquid formed when soft coal is burned in an insufficient amount of air. It consists of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons, similar to that found in petroleum. Kidd s extraction of naphthalene was of considerable historic significance because it demonstrated that coal had other important applications than its use as a fuel. It could also be utilized as the source of chemical compounds with a host of important commercial and industrial uses. Naphthalene s chemical structure was determined by the German chemist Richard August Carl Emil Erlenmeyer (1825-1909). Erlenmeyer showed that the naphthalene molecule consists of two benzene molecules joined to each other. 

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