Investigation of Combustion Properties and Soot Deposits of Various US Crude Oils

The oil boom in the North Dakota oilfields has resulted in improved energy security for the US. Recent estimates of oil production rates indicate that even completion of the Keystone XL pipeline will only fractionally reduce the need to ship this oil by rail. Current levels of oil shipment have already caused significant strain on rail infrastructure and led to crude oil train derailments, resulting in loss of life and property. Treating crude oil as a multicomponent liquid fuel, this work aims to understand crude oil droplet burning and thereby lead to methods to improve train fire safety. Sub-millimeter sized droplets of Pennsylvania, Texas, Colorado, and Bakken crude were burned, and the process was recorded with charge-couple device (CCD) and complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) high-speed cameras. The resulting images were post-processed to obtain various combustion parameters, such as burning rate, ignition delay, total combustion time, and microexplosion behavior. The soot left behind was analyzed using a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). This data is expected be used for validation of combustion models for complex multicomponent liquid fuels, and subsequently in the modification of combustion properties of crude oil using various additives to make it safer to transport

Hydrogel Leclanché Cell: Construction and Characterization

A liquid-to-gel based Leclanché cell has been designed, constructed and characterized for use in implantable medical devices and other applications where battery access is limited. This well-established chemistry will provide reliable electrochemical potential over a wide range of applications and the novel construction provides a solution for the re-charging of electrodes in hard to access areas such as an internal pacemaker. The traditional Leclanché cell, comprised of zinc (anode) and manganese dioxide (cathode), conductive carbon powder (acetylene black or graphite), and aqueous electrolyte (NH4Cl and ZnCl2), has been suspended in an agar hydrogel to simplify construction while maintaining electrochemical performance. Agar hydrogel, saturated with electrolyte, serves as the cell support and separator allowing for the discharged battery suspension to be easily replaced once exhausted. Different amounts of active anode/cathode material have been tested and discharge characteristics have been plotted. It has been found that for the same amount of active material, acetylene black batteries have higher energy density compared to graphite batteries. Graphite batteries also discharge faster compared to acetylene black batteries. The results support further development of liquid batteries that can be replaced and refilled upon depletion