Tratamento de água de produção de petróleo visando o aproveitamento na obtenção de barrilha

The petroleum production is associated to the produced water, which has dispersed and dissolved materials that damage not only the environment, but also the petroleum processing units. This study aims at the treatment of produced water focusing mainly on the removal of metals and oil and using this treated water as raw material for the production of sodium carbonate. Initially, it was addressed the removal of the following divalent metals: calcium, magnesium, barium, zinc, copper, iron, and cadmium. For this purpose, surfactants derived from vegetable oils, such as coconut oil, soybean oil, and sunflower oil, were used. The investigation showed that there is a stoichiometric relationship between the metals removed from the produced water and the surfactants used in the process of metals removal. It was also developed a model that correlates the hydrolysis constant of saponified coconut oil with the metal distribution between the resulting stages of the proposed process, flocs and aqueous phases, and relating the results with the pH of the medium. The correlation coefficient obtained was 0.963. Next, the process of producing washing soda (prefiro soda ahs ou sodium carbonate) started. The resulting water from the various treatment approaches from petroleum production water was used. During this stage of the research, it was observed that the surfactant assisted in the produced water treatment, by removing some metals and the dispersed oil entirety. The yield of sodium carbonate production was approximately 80%, and its purity was around 95%. It was also assessed, in the production of sodium carbonate, the influence of the type of reactor, using a continuous reactor and a batch reactor. These tests showed that the process with continuous reactor was not as efficient as the batch process. In general, it can be concluded that the production of sodium carbonate from water of oil production is a feasible process, rendering an effluent that causes a great environmental impact a raw material with large scale industrial use

Exploração de fatores de risco para lesões no atletismo de alta performance

Os fatores de risco para instalação de lesões do esporte têm sido pesquisados no sentido de facilitar o entendimento sobre o assunto. Contudo, para altos níveis de performance, nos eventos de pista e campo do atletismo, são escassos os documentos que abordam o tema. Assim, a partir da possibilidade de reunir informações sobre a condição descrita, objetivou-se com o presente estudo a exploração de fatores de risco para lesões desportivas no atletismo, a partir de inquérito aplicado a atletas da elite mundial da modalidade. A população foi composta por 60 homens e 60 mulheres alocados em grupos conforme a especificidade de sua modalidade (velocidade, resistência, arremessos e saltos). Realizou-se entrevista utilizando-se de inquérito de morbidade referida, abordando questões sobre variáveis antropométricas e de treinamento, assim como lesões. Utilizou-se a técnica da análise de variância paramétrica para as variáveis antropométricas (idade, peso, estatura) e da técnica da análise de variância não paramétrica em relação às variáveis de treinamento (anos de treinamento e horas semanais). Para associação entre momento de lesão e especialidades, utilizou-se do teste de Goodman em nível de 5% de significância. Os resultados mostraram que houve elevada freqüência de lesões na modalidade em ambos os sexos. As taxas de lesão por atleta entrevistado foram de 0,92 (velocidade), 1,08 (resistência), 1,22 (saltos) e 1,20 (arremessos). Não houve diferença estatisticamente significante para as variáveis antropométricas e de treinamento em relação às provas, com exceção dos saltadores, que apresentaram diferenças para estatura e tempo de treinamento; nesse caso, os acometidos são mais altos ou praticam atletismo há menos tempo (P < 0,05). Concluiu-se que, para população estudada, o risco de lesão é acentuado, mas sem relação entre variáveis e presença de agravos, salvo para especialistas em provas de saltos, que apresentaram estatura e tempo de treinamento como fatores predisponentes à lesão.

Aplicações da teoria da percolação à modelagem e simulação de reservatórios de petróleo

In this thesis we study some problems related to petroleum reservoirs using methods and concepts of Statistical Physics. The thesis could be divided percolation problem in random multifractal support motivated by its potential application in modelling oil reservoirs. We develped an heterogeneous and anisotropic grid that followin two parts. The first one introduce a study of the percolations a random multifractal distribution of its sites. After, we determine the percolation threshold for this grid, the fractal dimension of the percolating cluster and the critical exponents ß and v. In the second part, we propose an alternative systematic of modelling and simulating oil reservoirs. We introduce a statistical model based in a stochastic formulation do Darcy Law. In this model, the distribution of permeabilities is localy equivalent to the basic model of bond percolation

Fractais e Percolação na Recuperação de Petróleo

The complex behavior of a wide variety of phenomena that are of interest to physicists, chemists, and engineers has been quantitatively characterized by using the ideas of fractal and multifractal distributions, which correspond in a unique way to the geometrical shape and dynamical properties of the systems under study. In this thesis we present the Space of Fractals and the methods of Hausdorff-Besicovitch, box-counting and Scaling to calculate the fractal dimension of a set. In this Thesis we investigate also percolation phenomena in multifractal objects that are built in a simple way. The central object of our analysis is a multifractal object that we call Qmf . In these objects the multifractality comes directly from the geometric tiling. We identify some differences between percolation in the proposed multifractals and in a regular lattice. There are basically two sources of these differences. The first is related to the coordination number, c, which changes along the multifractal. The second comes from the way the weight of each cell in the multifractal affects the percolation cluster. We use many samples of finite size lattices and draw the histogram of percolating lattices against site occupation probability p. Depending on a parameter, ρ, characterizing the multifractal and the lattice size, L, the histogram can have two peaks. We observe that the probability of occupation at the percolation threshold, pc, for the multifractal is lower than that for the square lattice. We compute the fractal dimension of the percolating cluster and the critical exponent β. Despite the topological differences, we find that the percolation in a multifractal support is in the same universality class as standard percolation. The area and the number of neighbors of the blocks of Qmf show a non-trivial behavior. A general view of the object Qmf shows an anisotropy. The value of pc is a function of ρ which is related to its anisotropy. We investigate the relation between pc and the average number of neighbors of the blocks as well as the anisotropy of Qmf. In this Thesis we study likewise the distribution of shortest paths in percolation systems at the percolation threshold in two dimensions (2D). We study paths from one given point to multiple other points

Ondaletas e movimento browniano fracionário: aplicação à caracterização de poços de petróleo

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior

Fractais e percolação na recuperação de Petróleo

The complex behavior of a wide variety of phenomena that are of interest to physicists, chemists, and engineers has been quantitatively characterized by using the ideas of fractal and multifractal distributions, which correspond in a unique way to the geometrical shape and dynamical properties of the systems under study. In this thesis we present the Space of Fractals and the methods of Hausdorff-Besicovitch, box-counting and Scaling to calculate the fractal dimension of a set. In this Thesis we investigate also percolation phenomena in multifractal objects that are built in a simple way. The central object of our analysis is a multifractal object that we call Qmf . In these objects the multifractality comes directly from the geometric tiling. We identify some differences between percolation in the proposed multifractals and in a regular lattice. There are basically two sources of these differences. The first is related to the coordination number, c, which changes along the multifractal. The second comes from the way the weight of each cell in the multifractal affects the percolation cluster. We use many samples of finite size lattices and draw the histogram of percolating lattices against site occupation probability p. Depending on a parameter, ρ, characterizing the multifractal and the lattice size, L, the histogram can have two peaks. We observe that the probability of occupation at the percolation threshold, pc, for the multifractal is lower than that for the square lattice. We compute the fractal dimension of the percolating cluster and the critical exponent β. Despite the topological differences, we find that the percolation in a multifractal support is in the same universality class as standard percolation. The area and the number of neighbors of the blocks of Qmf show a non-trivial behavior. A general view of the object Qmf shows an anisotropy. The value of pc is a function of ρ which is related to its anisotropy. We investigate the relation between pc and the average number of neighbors of the blocks as well as the anisotropy of Qmf. In this Thesis we study likewise the distribution of shortest paths in percolation systems at the percolation threshold in two dimensions (2D). We study paths from one given point to multiple other points. In oil recovery terminology, the given single point can be mapped to an injection well (injector) and the multiple other points to production wells (producers). In the previously standard case of one injection well and one production well separated by Euclidean distance r, the distribution of shortest paths l, P(l|r), shows a power-law behavior with exponent gl = 2.14 in 2D. Here we analyze the situation of one injector and an array A of producers. Symmetric arrays of producers lead to one peak in the distribution P(l|A), the probability that the shortest path between the injector and any of the producers is l, while the asymmetric configurations lead to several peaks in the distribution. We analyze configurations in which the injector is outside and inside the set of producers. The peak in P(l|A) for the symmetric arrays decays faster than for the standard case. For very long paths all the studied arrays exhibit a power-law behavior with exponent g ∼= gl.

Neurofisiologia hipocampal durante sessões de sono intercaladas por exploração espacial: Reverberação do passado ou predição do futuro?

The ability to predict future rewards or threats is crucial for survival. Recent studies have addressed future event prediction by the hippocampus. Hippocampal neurons exhibit robust selectivity for spatial location. Thus, the activity of hippocampal neurons represents a cognitive map of space during navigation as well as during planning and recall. Spatial selectivity allows the hippocampus to be involved in the formation of spatial and episodic memories, including the sequential ordering of events. On the other hand, the discovery of reverberatory activity in multiple forebrain areas during slow wave and REM sleep underscored the role of sleep on the consolidation of recently acquired memory traces. To this date, there are no studies addressing whether neuronal activity in the hippocampus during sleep can predict regular environmental shifts. The aim of the present study was to investigate the activity of neuronal populations in the hippocampus during sleep sessions intercalated by spatial exploration periods, in which the location of reward changed in a predictable way. To this end, we performed the chronic implantation of 32-channel multielectrode arrays in the CA1 regions of the hippocampus in three male rats of the Wistar strain. In order to activate different neuronal subgroups at each cycle of the task, we exposed the animals to four spatial exploration sessions in a 4-arm elevated maze in which reward was delivered in a single arm per session. Reward location changed regularly at every session in a clockwise manner, traversing all the arms at the end of the daily recordings. Animals were recorded from 2-12 consecutive days. During spatial exploration of the 4-arm elevated maze, 67,5% of the recorded neurons showed firing rate differences across the maze arms. Furthermore, an average of 42% of the neurons showed increased correlation (R>0.3) between neuronal pairs in each arm. This allowed us to sort representative neuronal subgroups for each maze arm, and to analyze the activity of these subgroups across sleep sessions. We found that neuronal subgroups sorted by firing rate differences during spatial exploration sustained these differences across sleep sessions. This was not the case with neuronal subgroups sorted according to synchrony (correlation). In addition, the correlation levels between sleep sessions and waking patterns sampled in each arm were larger for the entire population of neurons than for the rate or synchrony subgroups. Neuronal activity during sleep of the entire neuronal population or subgroups did not show different correlations among the four arm mazes. On the other hand, we verified that neuronal activity during pre-exploration sleep sessions was significantly more similar to the activity patterns of the target arm than neuronal activity during pre-exploration sleep sessions. In other words, neuronal activity during sleep that precedes the task reflects more strongly the location of reward than neuronal activity during sleep that follows the task. Our results suggest that neuronal activity during sleep can predict regular environmental changes

Expressão de zif268 no cérebro do lagarto Tropidurus Hispidus após exploração de um ambiente enriquecido.

In the present work, we investigated behavioral changes associated with the increase in Zif268 protein expression within telencephalic areas of the tropical lizard Tropidurus hispidus that correspond to the mammalian hippocampus (HC). We used 13 male individuals of this species, collected at the Federal Agrotechnical School of Rio Grande do Norte, under SISBIO license number 19561-1. Four animals had their brains removed and were submitted to a Western blot with antibodies for the Zif268 protein. The remaining animals were separated in two different groups: a control group (n=4) and an exploration group (n=5). Animals from the exploration group were exposed to an enriched environment with many sensory cues novel to them. Control group animals stayed in the environment they were already habituated to. After 90 min from the onset of exposure to the new environment, animals from both groups were submitted to intracardiac perfusion with fixative, and the brains were removed, cryoprotected and frozen. After that, brains were sectioned at 20 μm and the sections were subjected to immunohistochemistry for the Zif268 protein. We verified that the Zif268 protein is likely conserved in the brain of T. hispidus, which showed antigenicity for the antibody anti-Zif268 made in mammals. In animals from the exploration group, we detected an increase of the Zif268 protein in the Septum, Striatum, Dorsoventricular Area and in cortical areas corresponding to the HC. This increase was proportional to the amount of environmental exploration, with maximum positive correlation in the hippocampal subareas Medial Cortex (R = 0.94 and p = 0.004) and Dorsomedial Cortex (R = 0.92 and p = 0.006). The data corroborate the notion that the reptilian hippocampus, as well as the mammalian HC, plays an important role in spatial exploration.

Sexo não é brincadeira: o sentido de infância para adolescentes inseridas na exploração sexual comercial

The childhood has being highlighted by the great concern about the several contexts in which children are inserted, amongst them, commercial sexual exploitation (CSE). The experience of this violence process brings implications to the person constitution. Thus, this research aimed to understand how commercial sexual exploited adolescents to signify the childhood. Participated of this research four female adolescents that had been assisted by Programa de enfrentamento ao Abuso e Exploração Sexual de Crianças e Adolescentes (Sentinela) , with ages between 12 and 17 years. The corpus was composed by the combination of the semi-structured interview and other procedures, like childish stories, draws and photography. Moreover, we used another instruments to constitute the corpus, like the documental research and we proposed the construction of a life story book of each participant. The corpus was analyzed through the Thematic Content Analysis. Five thematic axes emerged from the participants discourse and theoretical perspective: dynamical of family, scholar process, ludic behavior, conception of childhood and insertion on CSE process. The participants presented a conception about childhood as been a preparation and education phase to ingress in adult life. In other words, while children do not grown up, they go to the school, plays, lives with family, are happy and do not have any responsibilities. Nevertheless, the life experience of these girls was implicated by negligence, sexual abuse, child labor, institutionalization and, evidently, the commercial sexual exploitation. Understanding that the childhood experienced by adolescent, as well as, her insertion on CSECA, constitutes her, while person, we investigated how the interrelation expresses it on participants future perspectives. Their goals are defined based on family constitution and professional improvement, although feelings of disillusion and pessimism had been showed up in some moments. According these results, we pointed to the necessity of the effective proposals that promote real improvement of adolescents life quality, through, in which they could to create alternatives to get over the several risks in which they are exposed, mainly, the CSECA condition

Exploração sexual comercial de crianças e adolescentes : o estado da arte nas produções acadêmicas em psicologia

The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents (ESCCA) is a phenomenon that has been given priority in public policy agenda of many democratic governments of Western countries and civil sectors of society, besides the object of studies in different fields of knowledge. Psychology is among these areas and is considered one of the references in the construction of knowledge and actions to confront the phenomenon. However, the epistemological foundations of psychological science are quite different, and so, several are his speeches, knowledge produced and ways of conceiving man and the world. This is evident in the publications of psychology on ESCCA. This work aims to achieve a state of the art of psychology publication in Brazil (in the post-graduation - through theses and dissertations - and journals) on the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents. More specifically try to evidence (a) what conceptions of commercial sexual exploitation of children and adolescents the authors lists, (b) what are aimed at research and publications, (c) how the research and issues are justified, and (d) that theoretical approaches the authors are affiliated and methodological possibilities are applied to range the aim proposed in their work. In order to do so, a survey was conducted in the major index sites (eg, BVS-Psi, Capes, theses and dissertations database of university libraries) of the material, covering the period 1990 to 2007. Through research on these sites, we built a database, including information relating to the work sought from specific descriptors for studies in the area of victimization of children and adolescents, with reference to a list provided by Faleiros (2000). After reading the summary of the work, the number of recovered 25 productions was reached - including theses, dissertations and articles. For analysis of the material used in the analysis of thematic content. Two axes themes were established in order to guide the analysis: conceptual elements of commercial sexual exploitation, and theoretical and methodological strategies employed. The axes have as reference for analysis a chapter built on the concept of commercial sexual exploitation, so that all analysis is anchored on it. The analysis points to the existence, still strong, conceptual and terminological confusion about ESCCA. Few studies have not demonstrated this confusion, maintaining a consistent theoretical approach. In relation to the theoretical and methodological strategies, there is a great diversity of approaches in psychology surrounding the phenomenon of ESCCA, enriching levels of understanding and action. This diversity reflects a constitutive heterogeneity of psychological science. We emphasize the perspective of socio-historical psychology, most frequently among the publications. It is hoped that this research will help advance the qualitative approach to ESCCA, especially in the field of psychology, as well as contribute to new research in the area and construction of new means of addressing this human rights violation

Efeitos do turno fixo sobre a saúde mental em operadores de petróleo :um estudo de caso em dois ativos produção da Petrobrás

Un conjunto de cambios viene siendo implantado en la Petrobrás procurando que sus unidades de negocios resulten más modernas y competitivas para atender las necesidades del mercado. Dentro de esta perspectiva, un nuevo régimen de trabajo, denominado turno fijo , ha sido implantado en dos activos de producción de la provincia de Rio Grande do Norte. Tal situación originó varios reclamos de los petroleros y, consecuentemente, el interés del SINDIPETRO-RN en obtener una evaluación más precisa de las consecuencias de los mismos. Este estudio, realizado a partir de la demanda sindical de esos trabajadores, ha tenido como objetivo central analizar los efectos del turno fijo sobre la salud mental de los operadores de producción, actualmente lotados en los referidos activos. El estudio ha sido realizado con 39 operadores que representan el 82,9% de la población objeto de este estudio. La muestra ha sido homogénea en cuanto al género, grado de instrucción, edad y tiempo de servicio en la compañía, lo que ha posibilitado un mayor control de las variables y un estudio comparativo entre los dos activos. Para el desarrollo del estudio, se han aplicado los siguientes instrumentos de colecta de datos: una escala de medida probada y validada (QSG-12), un cuestionario abierto, entrevistas individuales y una ficha socio-demográfica. Las respuestas del cuestionario abierto han sido categorizadas mediante la aplicación de análisis de contenido. Los resultados de ese tratamiento y las respuestas del QSG-12 han sido registradas en la forma de banco de datos del SPSS for Windows (Statical Package for social sciense for Windows) para luego procederse con el desarrolllo de los análisis estadísticos. Los principales resultados encontrados en el estudio han sido que la mitad de los participantes de la muestra han presentado resultados de deteriorización de la autoeficacia más elevado que 1,44 (un una escala de 0 a 3) y, en tensión emocional y depresión, el resultado es más elevado que 1,67; la mayoría se da cuenta del aumento de carga de trabajo, revela acentuado sufrimiento con el distanciamiento de la familia, y 58,8% presenta enfermedades psicosomáticas crónicas. La percepción de los operadores sobre el turno fijo e el análisis de éste, conforme el modelo vitamínico de Warr, conducen a la conclusión de que el turno fijo es uno de los factores que está influyendo negativamente en la salud mental de esos trabajadores

Saúde mental em operadores de petróleo do Rio Grande do Norte

The importance of identifying the consequence of the hours worked on people in society has been well recognized within Organizational and Work Psychology. From this point of view, the present research had the objective of analysing the effects of work regimes on the mental health of petroleum operators of Petrobrás. The sample totaled 144 subjects, corresponding to 27% of the work population. The mental health of the participants was evaluated using the following instruments of measurement: QSG-12, Scale of self-esteem, Scale of Positive and Negative Affections and the Scale of Valuable Attributes of IMST, each representing an empirical factor used to indicate and measure the five dimensions of mental health. The subjects perceptions of their work regime and the rest of their conditions of work were evaluated using scales of descriptive attributes of IMST, by applying a semi-structured questionnaire and by use of interviews. A socio-demographic file was used to collect information related to the biographical and socio-occupational profile of the worker sample. The answers to the questionnaire were inserted into the data bank of SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science), for statistical analysis, and the interviews were analised based on the technique of Contents Analysis recommended by Bardin (1995). The main results revealed that one third of the worker sample were tense; however, the mental health of the majority was preserved. Cluster Analysis applied to the group of seven factors which measured the five dimensions of mental health identified four profiles of psychological well-being shared between members of the sample. It was observed that the people working in the system of Continuous Shift Alternation (TIR) and in the system of Pre-advising tended to present balanced and satisfactory profiles, while the ones which worked in the Administrative Field tended to present anxious and oscillating profiles, and thus were more affected psychologically. These were also the ones that also perceived the more negative aspects of their laborious conditions (reduced chances of self-improvement, physically stressful and financial resources below expectations with which to supply family and personal necessities. In agreement with the ecological model formulated by Warr (1987), the present study concluded that the positive and negative effects on the psychological well-being tended to occur as a consequence of the perceptions the petrol operators developed to face their work conditions

Síntese enzimática de biosurfactante e sua aplicabilidade na indústria do petróleo

Enzymes have been widely used in biosynthesis/transformation of organic compounds in substitution the classic synthetic methods. This work is the first writing in literature of enzymatic synthesis for attainment the biossurfactants, the use glucose sucrose, ricinoleic acid e castor oil as substratum, and as biocatalyst, used immobilized lipase Thermomyces lanuginose, Rhizomucor miehei and the Candida antarctica lipase B; alkaline protease and neutral protease from Bacillus subtillis and yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiaeI. The analysis of HPLC (high performance liquid chromatography) showed that highest conversions were reached of used the alkaline protease from Bacillus subtillis. Laboratory tests, to evaluate the applicability, indicated that the produced biosurfactantes had good stability in presence of salts (NaCl) and temperature (55 e 25°C), they are effective in the reduction of the superficial tension and contac angle, but they have little foaming capacity, when compared with traditional detergents. These results suggest that the prepared surfactants have potential application as wetting agent and perforation fluid stabilizer

Obtenção e aplicação de sistemas microemulsionados na recuperação avançada de petróleo

Due to the need of increasing production in reservoirs that are going through production decline, methods of advanced recovery have frequently been used in the last years, as the use of conventional methods has not been successful in solving the problem of oil drifting. In this work, the efficiency of different microemulsionated systems in the flow of oil from cores from Assu and Botucatu formations. Regarding drifting tests, cores were calcinated at a temperature of 1000°C, for 18 hours, with the aim of eliminating any organic compound present in it, increasing the resultant permeability. Following, the cores were isolated with resin, resulting in test specimens with the following dimensions: 3.8 cm of diameter and 8.7 cm of length. Cores were saturated with brine, composed of aqueous 2 wt % KCl, and oil from Guamaré treatment station (Petrobras/RN). A pressure of 20 psi was used in all tests. After core saturation, brine was injected again, followed by oil at constant flow rate. The system S3 - surfactant (anionic surfactant of short chain), isoamillic alcohol, pine oil, and water - presented the best drift efficiency, 81.18%, while the system S1E commercial surfactant, ethyl alcohol, pine oil, and distilled water presented low drift efficiency, 44,68%

Estudo da modificação de bentonita para a remoção de fenol em águas produzidas na indústria de petróleo

This study evaluates the inclusion of quaternary ammonium salt, bromide hexadecyl trimethyl ammonium (HDTMA-Br) on sodium bentonite to evaluate their performance on the adsorption of phenol present in produced water. It was observed an increase in d001 samples modified with HDTMA-Br by diffraction of X-rays, showing the intercalation of quaternary ammonium cations in the interlamellar layers of clay. Through the adsorption isotherms could be abserver adsorption behavior of sodium bentonite and organophilic bentonite produced in three different concentrations of HDTMA-Br for adsorption of phenol, which is the main phenolic compound found in the product water. Different concentrations of synthetic solutions of phenol were placed in contact with these adsorbents under the same conditions of agitation and temperature. The adsorbent showed adsorptive favorable, especially the clay modified with the highest concentration of HDTMA-Br, 150% CEC of clay, BEN30-14, with higher amounts of phenol adsorbed per gram of adsorbent (mg.g-1)