Investigation of microbubbles and nanobubbles gas flotation for oil separation from marine oily wastewater using response surface methodology

Oily wastewater caused by marine oil spills brings great harm to the environment. In this work, the application of gas flotation with microbubbles and nanobubbles in separating crude oil droplets from oily wastewater is reported. The experiments were conducted in a flotation column with an internal diameter of 5.2 cm and a height of 100 cm. Response surface methodology was employed to examine the effects of three experimental factors (initial oil concentration, flotation time, and temperature of inlet wastewater) on the oil separation performance and the interaction between experimental factors. A good agreement was obtained between the predicted and experimental data of oil separation efficiency, with a high R2 of 0.99 and an adjusted R2 of 0.98. The optimization results demonstrate that the maximum oil separation efficiency (98.3%) was achieved under optimum experimental conditions of 524.5 mg/L initial oil concentration, 28.6 min flotation time, and 21.2°C inlet wastewater temperature

Prediction of diesel engine performance, emissions and cylinder pressure obtained using bioethanol-biodiesel-diesel fuel blends through an artificial neural network

The changes in the performance, emission and combustion characteristics of bioethanol-safflower biodiesel and diesel fuel blends used in a common rail diesel engine were investigated in this experimental study. E20B20D60 (20% bioethanol, 20% biodiesel, 60% diesel fuel by volume), E30B20D50, E50B20D30 and diesel fuel (D) were used as fuel. Engine power, torque, brake specific fuel consumption, NOx and cylinder inner pressure values were measured during the experiment. With the help of the obtained experimental data, an artificial neural network was created in MATLAB 2013a software by using back-propagation algorithm. Using the experimental data, predictions were made in the created artificial neural network. As a result of the study, the correlation coefficient was found as 0.98. In conclusion, it was seen that artificial neural networks approach could be used for predicting performance and emission values in internal combustion engines

Prediction of diesel engine performance, emissions and cylinder pressure obtained using bioethanol-biodiesel-diesel fuel blends through an artificial neural network

The changes in the performance, emission and combustion characteristics of bioethanol-safflower biodiesel and diesel fuel blends used in a common rail diesel engine were investigated in this experimental study. E20B20D60 (20% bioethanol, 20% biodiesel, 60% diesel fuel by volume), E30B20D50, E50B20D30 and diesel fuel (D) were used as fuel. Engine power, torque, brake specific fuel consumption, NOx and cylinder inner pressure values were measured during the experiment. With the help of the obtained experimental data, an artificial neural network was created in MATLAB 2013a software by using back-propagation algorithm. Using the experimental data, predictions were made in the created artificial neural network. As a result of the study, the correlation coefficient was found as 0.98. In conclusion, it was seen that artificial neural networks approach could be used for predicting performance and emission values in internal combustion engines

Integrated Chemical Processes in Liquid Multiphase Systems

The essential principles of green chemistry are the use of renewable raw materials, highly efficient catalysts and green solvents linked with energy efficiency and process optimization in real-time. Experts from different fields show, how to examine all levels from the molecular elementary steps up to the design and operation of an entire plant for developing novel and efficient production processes

New Technologies in the Oil and Gas Industry

Oil and gas are the most important non-renewable sources of energy. Exploring, producing and managing these resources in compliance with HSE standards are challenging tasks. New technologies, workflows and procedures have to be implemented.This book deals with some of these themes and describes some of the advanced technologies related to the oil and gas industry from HSE to field management issues. Some new technologies for geo-modeling, transient well testing and digital rock physics are also introduced. There are many more technical topics to be addressed in future books. This book is aimed at researchers, petroleum engineers, geoscientists and people working within the petroleum industry

Processing of Heavy Crude Oils

Unconventional heavy crude oils are replacing the conventional light crude oils slowly but steadily as a major energy source. Heavy crude oils are cheaper and present an opportunity to the refiners to process them with higher profit margins. However, the unfavourable characteristics of heavy crude oils such as high viscosity, low API gravity, low H/C ratio, chemical complexity with high asphaltenes content, high acidity, high sulfur and increased level of metal and heteroatom impurities impede extraction, pumping, transportation and processing. Very poor mobility of the heavy oils, due to very high viscosities, significantly affects production and transportation. Techniques for viscosity reduction, drag reduction and in-situ upgrading of the crude oil to improve the flow characteristics in pipelines are presented in this book. The heavier and complex molecules of asphaltenes with low H/C ratios present many technological challenges during the refining of the crude oil

Modelling and experimental study of a basket impeller column for biodiesel production

Immobilised lipase is a promising catalyst for biodiesel production, facilitating conversion of inedible and waste oils that cannot be used with conventional inorganic catalysts. However, the relatively high cost of lipase renders it commercially unfeasible at present. A means of reducing capital and production costs of a lipase-catalysed biodiesel plant is the integration of reaction and separation steps into an extractive reactor. The aim of this thesis is to study the application of a novel extractive reactor, the Basket Impeller Column (BIC), to biodiesel production using waste cooking oil (WCO) as feedstock and a commercial immobilised lipase, Novozym 435, as catalyst. A steady-state model of the BIC was developed using Aspen Plus process simulation software. Simulations indicated that conversion increased with the square of the stirring speed, and increased linearly with number of stages. A dimensionless correlation was derived between triolein conversion in the BIC, impeller Froude number, solvent to feed ratio (S/F) and number of stages. Crude bioethanol as solvent gave higher biodiesel yields and purer raffinate than concentrated ethanol in simulations. A phase equilibrium study of organic-aqueous systems comprised of biodiesel reaction mixtures with aqueous ethanol was conducted. Equilibrium distributions of water and ethanol were closely correlated, implying strong interdependence between the polar compounds. Distribution coefficients exhibited second order step response dependency on extent of reaction, with peaks at 40-60% extents. Batch ethanolysis of WCO identified an optimum ethanol-to-oil molar ratio at the stoichiometric value of 3. Arrhenius analysis revealed a transition in apparent activation energy at 320 K. A kinetic model based on the Ping-Pong Bi Bi mechanism was developed. Significantly, addition of just 2 wt% water triggered a 90 % decline in both rate and yield. Transient water concentrations were highly oscillatory, pointing to water as an allosteric regulator of lipase. A parametric experimental study of the BIC indicated a stirring speed of 500 rpm was optimum, while adjusting S/F had only minor effects on BIC performance. Increasing solvent ethanol from 20–60 vol% led to irreversible catalyst deactivation. Yield was proportional to number of stages, due to the low Damkohler number with respect to reactants. Time-varying organic phase holdup displayed sigmoidal trends, related to the development of an emulsion phase

Proceedings of the 10th International Chemical and Biological Engineering Conference - CHEMPOR 2008

This volume contains full papers presented at the 10th International Chemical and Biological Engineering Conference - CHEMPOR 2008, held in Braga, Portugal, between September 4th and 6th, 2008.FC

Processing of Heavy Crude Oils

Unconventional heavy crude oils are replacing the conventional light crude oils slowly but steadily as a major energy source. Heavy crude oils are cheaper and present an opportunity to the refiners to process them with higher profit margins. However, the unfavourable characteristics of heavy crude oils such as high viscosity, low API gravity, low H/C ratio, chemical complexity with high asphaltenes content, high acidity, high sulfur and increased level of metal and heteroatom impurities impede extraction, pumping, transportation and processing. Very poor mobility of the heavy oils, due to very high viscosities, significantly affects production and transportation. Techniques for viscosity reduction, drag reduction and in-situ upgrading of the crude oil to improve the flow characteristics in pipelines are presented in this book. The heavier and complex molecules of asphaltenes with low H/C ratios present many technological challenges during the refining of the crude oil, such as heavy coking on catalysts. Hydrogen addition and carbon removal are the two approaches used to improve the recovery of value-added products such as gasoline and diesel. In addition, the heavy crude oil needs pre-treatment to remove the high levels of impurities before the crude oil can be refined. This book introduces the major challenges and some of the methods to overcome them