Study of the Effect of Steam Injection on Crude Oil Displacement Yield from an Oil Contaminated Soil Bed

A substantial oil recovery of different packed soil samples has been obtained by the removal of light and heavy crude oils, with different American Petroleum Institute (API) gravity indexes. Steam and water injection methods are applied to different soil particle size samples (core size) and different types of oil gravity. The amount of oil removed increases with increasing the core size (permeability and porosity). For 0.5 mm core size and light oil (35-API), oil recovery reaches 98 wt% using superheated steam and 96 wt% using saturated steam. For heavy oil (24-API), oil recovery reaches 91 wt% using superheated steam and 90 wt% using saturated steam. For 0.2mm core size and heavy oil (24-API), oil recovery reaches 85% using superheated steam and 74 wt% using saturated steam. These results suggest that oil recovery increases as cell temperature and core size (permeability and porosity) increase, and the addition of surfactants to steam increased oil recovery amounting to around 3 wt%. Water injection resulted in low oil recovery, and the maximum oil recovery is 5 wt%, and 20 wt% using cold and hot water, respectively

Surface and subsurface structures of Kalabsha area, southern Egypt, from remote sensing, aeromagnetic and gravity data

AbstractKalabsha area is known to be the most seismo-active zone at the southwestern region of the Aswan High Dam, in southern Egypt. The main purpose of this work is the analysis and interpretation of satellite imagery, aeromagnetic and ground gravity data of Kalabsha area in order to reveal the subsurface lithology and structure. The Landsat ETM+ data were produced in a false-color composite image (bands 1, 2 and 3 in RGB) at the same scale as the geological map in order to reveal some extra geological and structural features.An attempt has been made to analyse the complex nature of gravity and magnetic anomalies over the Kalabsha area to reveal their relationship with surface geology, structure and tectonics setting. These analyses include isolation of anomalies into regional and residual components using the band-pass filter, second vertical derivatives (SVD), upward continuation, and shadowgrams technique. It was noticed that, there is close correlation between gravity, magnetic and many of the major surface geological features of the region. The basement structural map of Kalabsha area has been prepared from the integration of SVD of regional component maps of both gravity and magnetic.The interpretation of the basement tectonic map of the area indicated the presence of two sets of faults NNW–SSE to N–S which is dissected by an E–W to WNW–ESE fault system. These two sets of fault systems as deduced from the gravity and aeromagnetic data were found to match well with that obtained from the Landsat image and geological map

A Conceptual Efficient Design Of Energy Recovery Systems Using A New Energy-area Key Parameter

Energy integration in petrochemical and refining industries is an effective concept to minimize dependence on heating and cooling utilities through networks of exchanger equipment. Pinch Analysis is very popular and successful technique to optimize heat recovery between heat sources and sinks. Yet, design of networks of exchangers is challenging and requires careful attention to energy consumption and exchanger areas. This work presents a graphical methodology to design exchanger networks taking into account both heat loads and transfer areas of exchanger units in one single information. A new parameter is introduced for design that is the ratio between the heat load and the exchanger area and is determined in kW/m2. It is defined as an energy-area parameter expressing how much heat the exchanger would transfer per every meter square of area. Such parameter will be valuable key in design to screen matches of exchangers providing that both the heat and area are considered. The higher the value of the parameter, the better the performance of the exchanger, i.e. maximum heat transfer rate for minimum exchanger area. The design methodology embedding the energy-area parameter guarantees HEN designs with energy targets and minimum areas. A case is studied for the production of 100,000 t/y of dimethyl ether. An optimum network is generated by applying the new parameter with less exchanger areas and hot utility of 25% and 30%, respectively compared with an automated design by Aspen Energy Analyzer®. Also, substantial savings of about 47% in the total cost of the network are earned

Improvement of Manure Adsorption Capacity for Cobalt Removal by Chemical Treatment with Citric Acid

This paper focuses on how the surface chemical groups of sheep manure affect the adsorption capacity of cobalt ions. Improvement in cobalt ions uptake onto sheep manure was achieved successfully by introducing more carboxylic functional groups into its surface due to citric acid treatment. According to Langmuir model, cobalt ions uptake was increased from 22.88 mg/g for dried sheep manure (D-SM) to 37.45 mg/g when D-SM was treated with 0.6 M citric acid (C-SM). Point of zero charge and cation exchange capacity were determined and found as 4.3 and 82 meq/100g for D-SM while it was found as 3.4 and 281 meq/100g for C-SM, respectively. The effects of process parameters such as solution pH, initial concentration of cobalt ions, contact time and concentration of citric acid on the uptake of cobalt ions were also investigated. Langmuir and Freundlich models were applied to the experimental data. Both models fitted quite well with the experimental data

Isolation and identification of pathogenic bacteria from ready-to -eat fast foods in Al-Quwayiyah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Food-borne pathogens are becoming a globally formidable health problem and perceived as a major health concern in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Contamination ensued through unclean raw food materials and particles, use of polluted water, unhygienic preparation processes and use of contaminated containers. Herein, the prevalence of food-borne pathogens in ready-to-eat (RTE) fast foods from fifteen different food eateries such as 7 restaurants, 6 cafeterias and 2 two college canteens in Al-Quwayiyah, Riyadh Region of Saudi Arabia was studied. Microbiological analysis of 155 fast food samples which included, Vegetable salad, Falafel, Kibtha and Shawarma. The isolates were detected using biochemical tests and API 20E and slide agglutination test were conducted for Salmonella spp. detection. Bacterial growth was found in all food samples tested. Moreover, the test also showed high levels of total aerobic count: vegetable salad 6.34+0.03, falafel 5.79 + 0.18, kibtha 5.06 +0.02 and shawarma 3.54 + 0.13. Organisms isolated include Salmonella spp. (15%), Escherichia coli (18%) and Staphylococcus aureus (7%). Salmonella is one of the most virulent pathogen implicated in food-borne disease outbreaks. There are numerous transmission routes for Salmonellosis, but the majority of the human infections are derived from consumption of contaminated poultry products. Consistently, Salmonella Enteritidis, Salmonella Typhimurium and Salmonella Heidelberg are the three most frequent serotypes recovered from humans each year. Serologically identified Salmonella serotypes from RTE fast food samples were Salmonella Typhimurium with 65%, the most predominant one compared to Salmonella Enteritidis that was 35%. The bacterial count of vegetable salad, falahfel, kibtha was statistically significant when compared with Shawarma (p < 0.05). This result indicated that most of the ready-to-eat food samples examined in the study did not meet any bacteriological quality standard as recommended by The New South Wales (NSW) Food Authority to be <5.0 log10 CFU g−1 and, therefore, it poses potential risks to consumers. Ready- to- eat fast foods must be cooked and served to the consumers with all hygienic measures.Keywords: foodborne pathogen, microbial quality, Ready- to- eat fast foods, Al-QuwayiyahAfr. J. Food Agric. Nutr. Dev. 2019; 19(3): 14739-1475

Mathematica as an Efficient Tool to Optimize the Kinetic Study of Ethyl Acetate Hydrolysis

Mathematica is a powerful program for computing both numeric and algebraic calculations as well as graphing two- and three-dimensional curves and surfaces. It is used increasingly in many fields of science now such as physics, engineering, chemistry and even biology because of the fast interaction of mathematics with almost the fields of science nowadays. We report here, optimizing the kinetic data for the hydrolysis of ethyl acetate through caustic soda via using Mathematica

Hydrothermal Synthesis Of Graphene Supported Pd/Fe 3 O 4 Nanoparticles As Efficient Magnetic Catalysts For Suzuki Cross – Coupling

This research reports a reproducible, reliable, and efficient method for preparing palladium nanoparticles dispersed on a composite of Fe3O4 and graphene as an active catalyst with high efficiency for being used in Suzuki cross – coupling reactions. Graphene supported Pd/Fe3O4 nanoparticles (Pd/Fe3O4 /G) exhibit a remarkable catalytic performance towards Suzuki coupling reactions. Moreover, the prepared catalyst recyclability was up to nine times without losing its high catalytic activity. The catalyst was prepared using hydrothermal synthesis; the prepared catalyst is magnetic in order to facilitate catalyst separation out of the reaction medium after reaction completion simply through using a strong magnet. This approach offers unique advantages including recyclability, mild reaction conditions, and reproducibility. Furthermore, the magnetic properties of the prepared catalyst made a huge enhancement to the ability to purify the reaction products from catalyst and other side products. The high catalytic performance and recyclability of the prepared catalyst are due to the strong interaction between the catalyst and the support. Moreover, the reduced GO nanosheets have defect sites acting as nucleation centers to anchor the Pd and Fe3O4 nanoparticles and hence minimize the harmful effect of potential agglomeration and subsequently the anticipated decrease in the catalyst catalytic activity as a direct impact for this unfavorable agglomeration

Simulation And Optimization Of Waste Heat To Electricity Through Organic Rankine Cycles (ORCs): A Case Study In An Oil Refinery

Energy efficiency has become a global problem that is detrimental to the chemical industries technically, economically and to the environment. Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) is a promising technology that can solve this problem by recovering heat from low-grade waste heat sources by using organic working fluids. The heat source for the ORC system used in this article is air leaving air coolers in an oil refinery with a temperature of 140o C. The heat exchanger data for this refinery was used in the simulation of a basic cycle and a regenerative cycle using ASPEN HYSYS V.10. These ORC systems were simulated using hydrocarbons, refrigerants, and alternative refrigerants as the working fluids to compare their performance at three different condensation temperatures which are 15o C, 35o C, and 50o C. The system was optimized using the HYSYS optimizer to reach the optimum conditions for each working fluid. Results of this study have proven that the alternative working fluids R1234ze (Z) and R1224yd (Z) perform very well when compared to hydrocarbon working fluids and outperform the regular refrigerants. For the basic cycle which yielded the optimum results, R1234ze (Z) produced 1258.90 kW of turbine work and has a thermal efficiency of 11.31%. Hence, they are promising working fluids and are highly recommended to be used in the future since they perform highly economically in addition to being environmentally friendly