Experimental determination of flow patterns and water holdup of low viscosity oil-water system in horizontal pipes

Fluids with different properties would exhibit different flow behaviour in any multiphase flow system at a given operating condition. Therefore, an in-depth knowledge of the operational and flow behaviour of any known fluid properties in a multiphase flow system of either liquid-liquid two-phase flow (oil and water) or gas-liquid-liquid three-phase flow (gas, oil and water) would be helpful in designing of pipelines and optimization of the production, separation, transportation and distribution systems, as may be found in oil and gas and allied petro-chemical industries. This paper presents the experimental observation of the flow patterns and water holdup for a two-phase low viscosity oil-water flow in horizontal pipes. The test fluids comprised of tap water and 2D-diesel which has a density of 832 kg/m3, viscosity of 3.24 mPa.s, surface tension of 0.030 N/m and flash point of 79°C. A total of 30 runs has been accomplished and the experimental results showed three different flow patterns identified as stratified flow (ST), stratified flow with mixing interface (ST&MI) and water-in-oil dispersed flow (), with superficial velocities of oil and water in the ranges of 0.32 - 0.87 m/s (Vos) and 0.20 - 0.90 m/s (Vws), respectively. However, analysis of water holdup in the commingled flows of the test fluids showed its dependency on the fluid flow patterns and superficial velocity of water

Improving the cuttings transport performance of water-based mud through the use of polypropylene beads

This research work presents the experimental results of the effect of polypropylene beads’ concentrations in water-based mud on wellbore cleaning. A comparative study of cuttings transport performance (CTP) of water-based mud and water-based mud with polypropylene beads were carried out at different hole angles of 0°, 30°, 60°. 75° and 90° in a 13 ft (3.96 m) acrylic concentric annulus flow test section, having a 2 in (50.8 mm) casing ID and a fixed 0.79 in (20 mm) inner pipe OD. A total of 100 runs had been accomplished using fine sands (from Tanjung Balau, Johor Bahru, Malaysia), of size ranging from 5/127 - 6/127" (1.0 – 1.2 mm) and density 2.4 g/cc (2400 kg/m3), with the mud density and viscosity maintained at 9 ppg (1078 kg/m3) and 5 cp (0.005 Pa.s), respectively, in a flow velocity of 2.1 ft/s (0.64 m/s). Polypropylene beads used in this study have the following properties: 290 kg/cm2 of tensile strength at yield, 0.86 g/cc (860 kg/m3) density, 4 mm (20/127") size, 82 R scale Rockwell hardness, 13,500 kg/cm2 flexural modulus, 85°C heat deflection temperature at 4.6 kg/cm2, 4 g/10 min melt flow rate at 230°C and spherical in shape. The experimental findings showed that commingling the basic mud with polypropylene beads has successfully introduced a buoyant force which was found to have improved the cuttings transport performance by more than 10% when weight concentration of the polypropylene beads was increased to 1.5% as compared with the performance obtained from the basic water-based mud. The improvement of cuttings transport performance was found to be more significant in a vertical hole

Precision Joining of Steel-Aluminum Hybrid Structure by Clinching Process

Clinching joining has become an alternative technique to conventional spot welding. This innovative joining technology can reduce the production costs and cycle times, and also offers a great prospective for a new product design and manufacturing. Without a better understanding on physical phenomena associated with the clinching process, the correcting unacceptable clinched joint is extremely costly and impossible for some cases. In this study, the overlap joining of low carbon steel and aluminum alloy in clinching process was experimentally and numerically investigated. The tensile-shear strength of overlap-clinched joints was evaluated by tensile-shear test. This test also was used to study the deformation and failure of clinched joints under tensile-shear loading. The results showed that the higher press load has a great influence for achieving better interlocking between steel-aluminum hybrid structures. Insufficient interlocking and thin neck thickness lead to the failure of clinched joints. It also was confirmed that the most critical region of the clinching tool located at the radius corner of punch and die. Development of simplified engineering approaches based on numerical simulation and correlations with experimental data could be very beneficial to industrial applications

Evaluation of Antibacterial Potency of Endophytic Fungi Isolated from Mentha piperita

The Mentha piperita is an aromatic perennial herb, a member of the family Lamiaceae (Labiatae) that produces creeping stolons, growing in the range of 45 to 80 cm tall. Fungal endophytes reside in the healthy plant tissues to produce several metabolic products such as plants growth hormones, anti-phagocytes to biological feeding, medicinal ingredients, and many products of biological activities. Hence, they are regarded as a reservoir of active metabolites for the development of novel drugs. Although, many endophytic fungi have been reported from different plants, reports on fungal endophytes from M. piperita are very limited. In this study, fungal endophytes from the leaf and stem of M. piperita were successfully evaluated for their potential antibacterial properties. Healthy leaves of the peppermint were prepared and cultured on potato dextrose agar (PDA) plates for 5 to 7 days at 28 oC until fungal colonies appeared. Fifteen (15) fungal isolates were identified based on cultural and morphological characteristics and had six (6) rapid growing species, namely Aspergillus fumigatus, Rhizopus arrhizus, Aspergillus flavus, Fusarium oxysporum, Aspergillus niger, Alternaria alternate which were selected and evaluated their crude metabolites against c using agar well diffusion method. The susceptibility study showed a remarkable in vitro antibacterial activity of the fungal crude metabolites against all the test bacteria which increased with an increased incubation time of 7, 14 and 21 days incubation. However, the fungi displayed maximal zone of growth inhibition after 21 days of incubation. In conclusion, fungal endophytes were isolated from M. piperita and evaluated in vitro antibacterial activity of their crude metabolites against the test bacterial isolates

Environmental Accounting as a Tool for Environmental Management System

This paper reviews about the relationship of environmental accounting and environmental management system in order to determine the sustainability of organization. In past, the traditional approach of operations management has been used to evaluate an organization\u2019s performance based on cost, quality and profit without giving due consideration in preserving the environment. It also identified the lack of awareness and interest by organization about environmental preservation distinguish the context for environmental management needs in developing and newly industrialized countries compared to western countries. However, the growing awareness and pressure by community, customer, and stakeholders has forced the organization to accept the introduction of environmental protection measures into their organization. The integration of environmental accounting into EMS will be served as a self-regulatory compliance to legal and regulation requirement, to reduce cost from customer audits, better market impression, increase efficiency of resources and the ability to adopt changing circumstances would contribute to the improvement of quality performance and organization\u2019s performance as a whole. Some of the possible benefit from environmental audit also discussed. In this paper, also discusses number of pollution prevention strategies. It concludes with an emphasis on the use of environmental accounting for continuous improvement in environmental corporate policies and programs by taking into account the regulatory, technical developments, scientific developments, and it must be fully integrated into EMS along with other functional area

Micronised Biomass Silica as Cement Replacement Material in Concrete

Micronised Biomass Silica (MBS) is an agricultural waste product which comprises of high content of silica. This study was conducted on the off-white amorphous biomass silica ash derived from the rice husk with pozzolanic index 69%. Various percentages of MBS ranging from 0% to 20% by mass have been used as cement replacement material. Compressive strength and water permeability of concrete with MBS incorporation were investigated. From the results obtained, it was identified that up to 12% of MBS is able to produce concrete with higher strength and lower in water permeability compared to control concrete

Current-Voltage Analysis of Nanoscale Planar and Vertical MOSFT Incorporating Dielectric Pocket

Characterization of nanoscale planar and vertical metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistor incorporating dielectric pocket (DP-MOSFET) is demonstrated by using numerical simulation. Vertical MOSFET is one solution to shrink the channel length (L g ) into nanometer regime. The comparison between planar and vertical MOSFET was done to show an advantages of dielectric pocket and each performances in current-voltage analysis. Dielectric pocket is incorporated between the channel and source/drain for suppression of short-channel effects (SCE) and bulk punchthrough. The current-voltage analysis for both structure shows rational value of threshold voltage (V T ), drive current (I ON ), off-state leakage current (I OFF ), subthreshold swing (S) and Drain Induced Barrier Lowering (DIBL). A better control of VT roll-off was also demonstrated by incorporation of DP and better for vertical MOSFET compared to planar MOSFET. Thus, the incorporation of DP will enhance the electrical performance and give a very good control of the SCE for scaling the MOSFET in nanometer regime for future development of nanoelectronics produc

A manual for large-scale sample collection, preservation, tracking, DNA extraction, and variety identification analysis

Several alternative options have been used for varietal identification. However most of the traditional methods have inherent uncertainty levels and estimates often have wide confidence intervals. In an attempt to circumvent traditional survey-based measurement errors in varietal identification, DNA-based varietal identification has been implemented in the Cassava Monitoring Survey (CMS) of Nigeria — a large adoption study involving 2500 cassava farming households. The DNA fingerprinting technique offers a reliable method to accurately identify varieties grown by farmers and increases accuracy and credibility in the interpretation of adoption rates and associated economic and policy analyses. Unlike phenotype-based methods, DNA is not affected by environmental conditions or plant growth stage and is more abundant than morphological descriptors. However, undertaking a credible DNA-based varietal identification is not a trivial matter because of the logistical challenges involving sample collection and tracking by a large team of field enumerators. This manual presents the detailed steps required for undertaking reliable DNA-fingerprinting-based identification of cassava varieties. In particular, the manual gives detailed information on the establishment of a sample tracking system, preparation of a readily available and cheap sample collection kit, field sample collection methodology, preparation of samples for DNA isolation, and development of a pipeline for variety identification analysis. This manual is part of the outputs of the CMS project funded by the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA)

Comparative study on membrane distillation application between raw POME and POMSE

The palm oil industry is considered the traditional pillar of Malaysian industry that plays a key role in the domestic economy. In addition to the high incomes generated by this industry, it generates large quantities of effluent. To solve this problem, the purpose of this work is to introduce membrane distillation (MD) technology for the effluent treatment system. Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) -bentonite hollow fiber membranes were tested in an MD system using raw palm oil mill effluent (POME) and palm oil mill secondary effluent (POMSE). Preliminary test was carried out using deionized water to evaluate the maximum permeate flux achievable in the absence of fouling problem before continuing with POME and POMSE as the feed solution. Membrane performance was evaluated in terms of permeate flux and rejection rate of several water quality parameters. The average permeate flux obtained while using raw POME is much lower than that obtained in the POMSE test which was recorded as 1.41 ± 0.62 kg/m2.hr and 3.45 ± 0.51 kg/m2.hr respectively. The membrane tested for POME experienced a significant decrease in flux relative to POMSE due to the excessive amounts of biological compounds blocking the membrane pores. In terms of removal efficiency of the PVDF-bentonite membrane, the membranes were able to achieve more than 95% removal efficiency for chemical oxygen demand, nitrate nitrogen, total suspended solids, total dissolved solids, color and turbidity. The results proved that the DCMD system was able to eliminate almost all pollutants in the effluent from oil palm industry. However, raw POME without pre-treatment is not suitable to be used directly in the DCMD process because it will cause a serious fouling problem. In conclusion, it can be said that MD has shown excellent performance in the treatment of palm oil wastewater and can be applied to other types of oil industries