Studying the rheological properties and the influence of drag reduction on a waxy crude oil in pipeline flow

The present work studies the effect of a commercially type of drag reducing agent on the crude oil production flow lines located in the Egyptian western desert (Fagour field) and owned by Khalda Petroleum Company. The drag reducing agent used in this study is a high molecular weight poly alpha olefin prepared by emulsion polymerization technique and supplied under trade name of LP-111. The results showed that this drag reducing agent (DRA) has great effects on the pressure drop and fanning factor. After the field application of 60 ppm of the DRA, the pressure drop was decreased by 36% at the pipeline capacity of 18,804 bbl/day. The fanning number and shear stress were decreased by the same percentage of 47%. The capacity of production line can be increased by 38% all over the two pipeline section due to the great reduction of pressure drop. The rheological behaviors of tested waxy crude oil were studied at different temperatures (varies from 67 to 102 °F) and different DRA concentrations (10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 ppm). The results showed that at all constant DRA concentrations, the viscosity highly decreased until 80 °F (above pour point by 15 °F). However, by increasing the DRA concentration, the viscosity is increased at temperatures lower than 80 °F. This is because the DRA is a high molecular weight polymer which participates in increasing viscosity by increasing its concentration. After 80 °F, the DRA concentration has an insignificant effect on viscosity. So the effect of the DRA is not in reducing viscosity but mainly in reducing the degree of turbulence energy. The field studies were performed at a normal temperature of tested pipeline sections (100 °F). The tested DRA has an improving effect on reducing the pressure drop of pipeline which leads to reduction in crude oil pumping energy or an increase in the pipeline capacity with a high efficiency of the DRA

Simulation and retrofitting of mass exchange networks in fertilizer plants

Abstract This paper presents a simulation technique for optimizing a hydrogen integration network. By applying this technique, the minimum fresh hydrogen consumption can be determined. Quantitative relationship between sources and sinks streams were studied to get the flow rates of coupled source and sink, hydrogen consumption and hydrogen concentration in each stream. The introduced technique was applied on twelve sources and twelve sinks with any purity of hydrogen concentration. The hydrogen integration network was designed through two steps, the first step considers applying the data given in the LINGO program, while the second step considers using the LINGO results in the introduced excel program to obtain the retrofitted hydrogen integration network. The proposed technique was applied on several case studies to achieve the minimum consumption of fresh hydrogen for the obtained hydrogen integrated networks. The introduced model for simulation and retrofitting of mass exchange networks is easy to understand and the results showed that this model is more efficient for fertilizer, petrochemical and refinery plants

In Vitro Micropropagation of Endangered Achillea fragrantissima Forssk. Combined with Enhancement of Its Antihyperglycemic Activity

Achillea fragrantissima Forssk. (Family: Asteraceae) has been used as a natural remedy in the Arabian region for its antihyperglycemic activity. As a result of the intensive demand for this plant in folk medicinal uses, its scarcity has become problematic. This study has explored methods that produce an efficient in vitro culture protocol for the conservation of this plant as well as the enhancement of its hypoglycemic activity. A. fragrantissima cultures on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with 3.6 µM/L of 6-benzyl aminopurine (BAP) for a two month period resulted in maximum in vitro shoot proliferation (12.33 shoots/explant) while MS medium supplemented with 2.4 µM/L 1-naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) provided maximum in vitro adventitious root formation (2.46 roots/shoot tip explant). Callus induction was favored by leaf explants cultured on MS medium and supplemented with 3 µM/L BAP and 3 µM/L IAA media in dark conditions. Further in vivo study of some selected feedings determined that the best hypoglycemic activity was obtained in either indole-3-butyric acid (IBA)-fed plants (24%) or NAA-fed plants (22%). Both treatments enhanced insulin-like activity in STZ-treated diabetic Sprague-Dawley rats when compared with the wild plant (10%). Moreover, the IBA-fed plants showed significant antioxidant activity while the NAA-fed plants inhibited salivary alpha amylase. The framework of this study provides in vitro culture methods that can sustain the cultivation of this over-exploited A. fragrantissima plant as well as increase its antioxidant and insulin-like activities

In Vitro Micropropagation of Endangered <i>Achillea fragrantissima</i> Forssk. Combined with Enhancement of Its Antihyperglycemic Activity

Achillea fragrantissima Forssk. (Family: Asteraceae) has been used as a natural remedy in the Arabian region for its antihyperglycemic activity. As a result of the intensive demand for this plant in folk medicinal uses, its scarcity has become problematic. This study has explored methods that produce an efficient in vitro culture protocol for the conservation of this plant as well as the enhancement of its hypoglycemic activity. A. fragrantissima cultures on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with 3.6 µM/L of 6-benzyl aminopurine (BAP) for a two month period resulted in maximum in vitro shoot proliferation (12.33 shoots/explant) while MS medium supplemented with 2.4 µM/L 1-naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) provided maximum in vitro adventitious root formation (2.46 roots/shoot tip explant). Callus induction was favored by leaf explants cultured on MS medium and supplemented with 3 µM/L BAP and 3 µM/L IAA media in dark conditions. Further in vivo study of some selected feedings determined that the best hypoglycemic activity was obtained in either indole-3-butyric acid (IBA)-fed plants (24%) or NAA-fed plants (22%). Both treatments enhanced insulin-like activity in STZ-treated diabetic Sprague-Dawley rats when compared with the wild plant (10%). Moreover, the IBA-fed plants showed significant antioxidant activity while the NAA-fed plants inhibited salivary alpha amylase. The framework of this study provides in vitro culture methods that can sustain the cultivation of this over-exploited A. fragrantissima plant as well as increase its antioxidant and insulin-like activities

New fatty acids from the Red Sea sponge <i>Mycale euplectellioides</i>

<div><p>Chemical investigation of the Red Sea sponge <i>Mycale euplectellioides</i> afforded two new compounds; hexacosa-(6<i>Z</i>,10<i>Z</i>)-dienoic acid methyl ester (<b>1</b>) and hexacosa-(6<i>Z</i>,10<i>Z</i>)-dienoic acid (<b>2</b>), along with two known compounds: icosa-(8<i>Z</i>,11<i>Z</i>)-dienoic acid methyl ester (<b>3</b>) and β-sitosterol (<b>4</b>). The structures were elucidated by the interpretation of their spectral data. The total methanol extract (TME) of the sponge exhibited potent antimicrobial activity against the different strains at a concentration of 100 mg/mL. All tested fractions did not exhibit any activity against <i>Serratia marcescens</i> and tested fungal strains. The TME and different fractions displayed anti-inflammatory and antipyretic activities at doses of 100 and 200 mg/kg compared with indomethacin (8 mg). The TME exhibited a remarkable hepato-protective effect in CCl₄-induced liver damage compared with silymarin. Furthermore, compounds <b>1</b> and <b>2</b> displayed weak activity against A549 non-small cell lung cancer, the U373 glioblastoma and the PC-3 prostate cancer cell lines.</p></div

Chemical Composition of the Red Sea Green Algae <i>Ulva lactuca</i>: Isolation and In Silico Studies of New Anti-COVID-19 Ceramides

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is the disease caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2 responsible for the ongoing pandemic which has claimed the lives of millions of people. This has prompted the scientific research community to act to find treatments against the SARS-CoV-2 virus that include safe antiviral medicinal compounds. The edible green algae U. lactuca. is known to exhibit diverse biological activities such as anti-influenza virus, anti-Japanese encephalitis virus, immunomodulatory, anticoagulant, antioxidant and antibacterial activities. Herein, four new ceramides in addition to two known ones were isolated from Ulva lactuca. The isolated ceramides, including Cer-1, Cer-2, Cer-3, Cer-4, Cer-5 and Cer-6 showed promising antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2 when investigated using in silico approaches by preventing its attachment to human cells and/or inhibiting its viral replication. Cer-4 and Cer-5 were the most effective in inhibiting the human angiotensin converting enzyme (hACE)–spike protein complex which is essential for the virus to enter the human host. In addition to this, Cer-4 also showed an inhibition of the SARS-CoV-2 protease (Mpro) that is responsible for its viral replication and transcription. In this study, we also used liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray ionization high-resolution mass spectroscopy (LC-ESI-HRMS) to identify several metabolites of U. lactuca, including metabolites such as fatty acids, their glyceride derivatives, terpenoids, sterols and oxysterols from the organic extract. Some of these metabolites also possessed promising antiviral activity, as previously reported

New Antiproliferative Triflavanone from Thymelaea hirsuta—Isolation, Structure Elucidation and Molecular Docking Studies

In this study isolates from Thymelaea hirsuta, a wild plant from the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt, were identified and their selective cytotoxicity levels were evaluated. Phytochemical examination of the ethyl acetate (EtOAc) fraction of the methanolic (MeOH) extract of the plant led to the isolation of a new triflavanone compound (1), in addition to the isolation of nine previously reported compounds. These included five dicoumarinyl ethers found in Thymelaea: daphnoretin methyl ether (2), rutamontine (3), neodaphnoretin (4), acetyldaphnoretin (5), and edgeworthin (6); two flavonoids: genkwanin (7) and trans-tiliroside (8); p-hydroxy benzoic acid (9) and β sitosterol glucoside (10). Eight of the isolated compounds were tested for in vitro cytotoxicity against Vero and HepG2 cell lines using a sulforhodamine-B (SRB) assay. Compounds 1, 2 and 5 exhibited remarkable cytotoxic activities against HepG2 cells, with IC50 values of 8.6, 12.3 and 9.4 μM, respectively, yet these compounds exhibited non-toxic activities against the Vero cells. Additionally, compound 1 further exhibited promising cytotoxic activity against both MCF-7 and HCT-116 cells, with IC50 values of 4.26 and 9.6 μM, respectively. Compound 1 significantly stimulated apoptotic breast cancer cell death, resulting in a 14.97-fold increase and arresting 40.57% of the cell population at the Pre-G1 stage of the cell cycle. Finally, its apoptosis-inducing activity was further validated through activation of BAX and caspase-9, and inhibition of BCL2 levels. In silico molecular docking experiments revealed a good binding mode profile of the isolates towards Ras activation/pathway mitogen-activated protein kinase (Ras/MAPK); a common molecular pathway in the development and progression of liver tumors