Improving the efficiency of the stabilization columns in oil and gas processing

Rectification process is widely used in oil and gas processing and petrochemistry. The composition of the bottom product of the rectification column usually differs from the equilibrium composition due to significantly higher content of light components or fractions. This stipulates a necessity to include into the technological schemes of several oil refining processes a stabilization unit that are meant to ensure separation of gases and liquid products. A highly relevant task is to explore new possibilities for improving the stabilization process. The aim of the present work was to improve the stabilization process by changing the operating pressure. It was found that increasing the pressure in the stabilization column enhanced the sharpness of separation of butanes from pentanes, which resulted in improving the quality of the products. The experimental-industrial runs confirmed the possibility of increasing the efficiency of stabilization columns in various processes by increasing the pressure within acceptable limits. © 2019 WIT PressACKNOWLEDGEMENT This research was supported by Act 211 Government of the Russian Federation, contract № 02.A03.21.0006

Application of Landsat-7 satellite data and a DEM for the quantification of thermokarst-affected terrain types in the periglacial Lena-Anabar coastal lowland

Extensive parts of Arctic permafrost-dominated lowlands were affected by large-scale permafrost degradation, mainly through Holocene thermokarst activity. The effect of thermokarst is nowadays observed in most periglacial lowlands of the Arctic. Since permafrost degradation is a consequence as well as a signifi cant factor of global climate change, it is necessary to develop effi cient methods for the quantifi cation of its past and current magnitude. We developed a procedure for the quantifi cation of periglacial lowland terrain types with a focus on degradation features and applied it to the Cape Mamontov Klyk area in the western Laptev Sea region. Our terrain classifi cation approach was based on a combination of geospatial datasets, including a supervised maximum likelihood classifi cation applied to Landsat-7 ETM+ data and digital elevation data. Thirteen fi nal terrain surface classes were extracted and subsequently characterized in terms of relevance to thermokarst and degradation of ice-rich deposits. 78 % of the investigated area was estimated to be affected by permafrost degradation. The overall classifi cation accuracy was 79 %. Thermokarst did not develop evenly on the coastal plain, as indicated by the increasingly dense coverage of thermokarst-related areas from south to north. This regionally focused procedure can be extended to other areas to provide the highly detailed periglacial terrain mapping capabilities currently lacking in global-scale permafrost datasets