A probabilistic approach to assess hydrate formation and design preventive measures

Formation of hydrates is one of the major flow assurance problems faced by the oil and gas industry. Hydrates tend to form in natural gas pipelines with the presence of water and favorable temperature and pressure conditions, generally low temperatures and corresponding high pressures. Agglomeration of hydrates can result in blockage of flowlines and equipment, which can be time consuming to remove in subsea equipment and cause safety issues. Natural gas pipelines are more susceptible to burst and explosion owing to hydrate plugging. Therefore, a rigorous risk-assessment related to hydrate formation is required, which assists in preventing hydrate blockage and ensuring equipment integrity. This thesis presents a novel methodology to assess the probability of hydrate formation and presents a risk-based approach to determine the parameters of winterization schemes to avoid hydrate formation in natural gas pipelines operating in Arctic conditions. It also presents a lab-scale multiphase flow loop to study the effects of geometric and hydrodynamic parameters on hydrate formation and discusses the effects of geometric and hydrodynamic parameters on multiphase development length of a pipeline. Therefore, this study substantially contributes to the assessment of probability of hydrate formation and the decision making process of winterization strategies to prevent hydrate formation in Arctic conditions.

Geochemical investigation, Oil-Oil and Oil-Source Rock Correlation in the Dezful Embayment, Marun Oilfield, Zagros, Iran

Peer reviewed

Geochemical investigation, Oil-Oil and Oil-Source Rock Correlation in the Dezful Embayment, Marun Oilfield, Zagros, Iran

Peer reviewed

Dunn County and Watford City, North Dakota: A case study of the fiscal effects of Bakken shale development

The Bakken region of North Dakota and Montana has experienced perhaps the greatest effects of increased oil and gas development in the United States, with major implications for local governments. Though development of the Bakken began in the early 2000s, large-scale drilling and population growth dramatically affected the region from roughly 2008 through today. This case study examines the local government fiscal benefits and challenges experienced by Dunn County and Watford City, which lie near the heart of the producing region. For both local governments, the initial growth phase presented major fiscal challenges due to rapidly expanding service demands and insufficient revenue. In the following years, these challenges eased as demand for services slowed due to declining industry activity and state tax policies redirected more funds to localities. Looking forward, both local governments describe their fiscal health as stronger because of the Bakken boom, though higher debt loads and an economy heavily dependent on the volatile oil and gas industry each pose challenges for future fiscal stability.

Colorado's Piceance Basin: Variation in the local public finance effects of oil and gas development

A large increase in natural gas production occurred in western Colorado’s Piceance basin in the mid- to late-2000s, generating a surge in population, economic activity, and heavy truck traffic in this rural region. We describe the fiscal effects related to this development for two county governments: Garfield and Rio Blanco, and two city governments: Grand Junction and Rifle. Counties maintain rural road networks in Colorado, and Garfield County’s ability to fashion agreements with operators to repair roads damaged during operations helped prevent the types of large new costs seen in Rio Blanco County, a neighboring county with less government capacity and where such agreements were not made. Rifle and Grand Junction experienced substantial oil- and gas-driven population growth, with greater challenges in the smaller, more isolated, and less economically diverse city of Rifle. Lessons from this case study include the value of crafting road maintenance agreements, fiscal risks for small and geographically isolated communities experiencing rapid population growth, challenges associated with limited infrastructure, and the desirability of flexibility in the allocation of oil- and gas-related revenue.

Women in the Global Clothing and Textile Industry

This paper examines the current role of women in the clothing and textile industry through oral history of South African union members. I argue that the industry’s particularly exploitative environment is directly related to both gender and globalization, acting together to worsen conditions in factories. Additionally, I argue that the more recent addition of an increasingly consumer-driven industry structure also impacts its abusive environment. Unionization, along with public and private regulation, have the potential to be catalysts for change in the industry. To be most effective, these organizations need to take into account both gender and globalization, and recognize the equal impacts both have when making decisions.

A look into diversity in the radio and music industry in Spain

UNESCO’s approval of the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (UNESCO, 2005) has been an important element in catalyzing any attempt to measure the diversity of cultural industries (UIS, 2011). Within this framework, this article analyzes the relations between the music and radio industries in Spain from a critical perspective through the analysis of available data on recorded music offer and consumption (sales lists, radio-formula lists, the characteristics of the phonographic and radio markets) in different key moments due to the emergence of new formats and devices (CDS, Mp3, Internet).The main goal of this work is to study the evolution of the Spanish record market in terms of diversity from the end of the 1970s to the present, through the study of radio music hits lists and, the business structure of the phonographic and radio sectors, and phonograms top sales

Co-production of bio-oil and propylene through the hydrothermal liquefaction of polyhydroxybutyrate producing cyanobacteria

A polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) producing cyanobacteria was converted through hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) into propylene and a bio-oil suitable for advanced biofuel production. HTL of model compounds demonstrated that in contrast to proteins and carbohydrates, no synergistic effects were detected when converting PHB in the presence of algae. Subsequently, Synechocystis cf. salina, which had accumulated 7.5wt% PHB was converted via HTL (15% dry weight loading, 340°C). The reaction gave an overall propylene yield of 2.6%, higher than that obtained from the model compounds, in addition to a bio-oil with a low nitrogen content of 4.6%. No propylene was recovered from the alternative non-PHB producing cyanobacterial strains screened, suggesting that PHB is the source of propylene. PHB producing microorganisms could therefore be used as a feedstock for a biorefinery to produce polypropylene and advanced biofuels, with the level of propylene being proportional to the accumulated amount of PHB.

Co-production of bio-oil and propylene through the hydrothermal liquefaction of polyhydroxybutyrate producing cyanobacteria

A polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) producing cyanobacteria was converted through hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) into propylene and a bio-oil suitable for advanced biofuel production. HTL of model compounds demonstrated that in contrast to proteins and carbohydrates, no synergistic effects were detected when converting PHB in the presence of algae. Subsequently, Synechocystis cf. salina, which had accumulated 7.5wt% PHB was converted via HTL (15% dry weight loading, 340°C). The reaction gave an overall propylene yield of 2.6%, higher than that obtained from the model compounds, in addition to a bio-oil with a low nitrogen content of 4.6%. No propylene was recovered from the alternative non-PHB producing cyanobacterial strains screened, suggesting that PHB is the source of propylene. PHB producing microorganisms could therefore be used as a feedstock for a biorefinery to produce polypropylene and advanced biofuels, with the level of propylene being proportional to the accumulated amount of PHB.

Assessing hydrothermal liquefaction for the production of bio-oil and enhanced metal recovery from microalgae cultivated on acid mine drainage

The hydrothermal liquefaction(HTL) of algal biomass is a promising route to viable second generation biofuels. In this investigation HTL was assessed for the valorisation of algae used in the remediation of acid mine drainage (AMD). Initially the HTL process was evaluated using Arthrospira platensis (Spirulina) with additional metal sulphates to simulate metal remediation. Optimised conditions were then used to process a natural algal community (predominantly Chlamydomonas sp.) cultivated under two scenarios: high uptake and low uptake of metals from AMD. High metal concentrations appear to catalyse the conversion to bio-oil, and do not significantly affect the heteroatom content or higher heating value of the bio-oil produced. The associated metals were found to partition almost exclusively into the solid residue, favourable for potential metal recovery. High metal loadings also caused partitioning of phosphates from the aqueous phase to the solid phase, potentially compromising attempts to recycle process water as a growth supplement. HTL was therefore found to be a suitable method of processing algae used in AMD remediation, producing a crude oil suitable for upgrading into hydrocarbon fuels, an aqueous and gas stream suitable for supplementing the algal growth and the partitioning of most contaminant metals to the solid residue where they would be readily amenable for recovery and/or disposal.

Assessing hydrothermal liquefaction for the production of bio-oil and enhanced metal recovery from microalgae cultivated on acid mine drainage

The hydrothermal liquefaction(HTL) of algal biomass is a promising route to viable second generation biofuels. In this investigation HTL was assessed for the valorisation of algae used in the remediation of acid mine drainage (AMD). Initially the HTL process was evaluated using Arthrospira platensis (Spirulina) with additional metal sulphates to simulate metal remediation. Optimised conditions were then used to process a natural algal community (predominantly Chlamydomonas sp.) cultivated under two scenarios: high uptake and low uptake of metals from AMD. High metal concentrations appear to catalyse the conversion to bio-oil, and do not significantly affect the heteroatom content or higher heating value of the bio-oil produced. The associated metals were found to partition almost exclusively into the solid residue, favourable for potential metal recovery. High metal loadings also caused partitioning of phosphates from the aqueous phase to the solid phase, potentially compromising attempts to recycle process water as a growth supplement. HTL was therefore found to be a suitable method of processing algae used in AMD remediation, producing a crude oil suitable for upgrading into hydrocarbon fuels, an aqueous and gas stream suitable for supplementing the algal growth and the partitioning of most contaminant metals to the solid residue where they would be readily amenable for recovery and/or disposal.

Data Science Seminar: Generic Big Data Processing for Advancing Situation Awareness and Decision-Support

The generation of heterogeneous big data sources with ever increasing volumes, velocities and veracities over the he last few years has inspired the data science and research community to address the challenge of extracting knowledge form big data. Such a wealth of generated data across the board can be intelligently exploited to advance our knowledge about our environment, public health, critical infrastructure and security. In recent years we have developed generic approaches to process such big data at multiple levels for advancing decision-support. It specifically concerns data processing with semantic harmonisation, low level fusion, analytics, knowledge modelling with high level fusion and reasoning. Such approaches will be introduced and presented in context of the TRIDEC project results on critical oil and gas industry drilling operations and also the ongoing large eVacuate project on critical crowd behaviour detection in confined spaces.

North Sea Oil and Genuine Saving in the Scottish Economy

The World Bank has published estimates of sustainability of consumption paths by adjusting saving rates to take account of the depletion of non-renewable resources. During the period of North Sea oil production Scotland has been in a fiscal union with the rest of the UK. The present paper adjusts the World Bank data to produce separate genuine saving estimates for Scotland and the rest of the UK for 1970-2009, based on a ‘derivation’ principle for oil revenues. The calculations indicate that Scotland has had a negative genuine saving rate for most of the period of exploitation of North Sea oil resources, with genuine saving being positive in the rest of the UK during this period.

The development of a photoacoustic Instrument for the monitoring of oil and other hydrocarbons in water.

The present methods for the detection of oil in discharge water are based either on chemical analysis of intermittent samples or bypass pipelines with instrumentation to detect either dissolved or dispersed hydrocarbons by a variety of optical techniques including absorption, scattering and fluorescence. However, test have shown that no single instruments entirely meets either present needs or satisfies the requirements of the future more stringent legislation which may limit total hydrocarbon content to 30 ppm or even less. Hence, in this paper, a detector is devised which can detect both dissolved and dispersed oil products, has a high immunity to scattering and can operate in-line and harsh environments with a detection sensitivity of a few ppm throughout a wide range of operations.

Marketing in SMEs: the sales process of SMEs on the food and drink industry.

There would appear to be varied approaches to the sales process practiced by SMEs in how they go about locating target customers, interfacing with prospects and new customers, presenting the benefits and features of their products and services, closing sales deals and building relationships, and an understanding of what the buyers needs are in the seller-buyer process. Recent research has revealed that while entrepreneurs and small business owners rely upon networking as an important source of sales, they lack marketing competencies, including personal selling skills and knowledge of what is involved in the sales process to close sales deals and build relationships. Small companies and start-ups with innovative products and services often find it difficult to persuade potential buyers of the merits of their offerings because, while the products and services may be excellent, they have not sufficiently well-developed selling skills necessary to persuade their target customers.