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A new Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) study shows finds that oil from algae grown in outdoor raceway ponds located in the Gulf Coast, the Southeastern Seaboard and the Great Lakes could replace 17% of the United States’ imported oil for transportation. The paper is published in the journal Water Resources Research.
Based on visual interpretation of high-resolution (30 m) satellite images, a new study in the journal Global Change Biology: Bioenergy determined that industrial plantations covered over 3.1 When peat swamps are drained for agriculture, the peat begins to decompose, and is an enormous source of carbon emissions. —Miettinen et al.
Researchers at the University of Calgary are developing ultra-dispersed (UD) nanocatalysts for the in situ upgrading of heavy oil and bitumen from deep reservoirs. One of the challenges of such an approach is the placement of the catalyst deep into the heavy oil plume by transporting a catalyst suspension through the sand medium.
They identified four potential modes of water resource degradation: (1) shallow aquifers contaminated by fugitive natural gas (i.e., They identified four potential modes of water resource degradation: (1) shallow aquifers contaminated by fugitive natural gas (i.e., Credit: ACS, Vengosh et al. Click to enlarge.
Colorado State University has obtained a 5-year, $5-million grant from BP to study mechanisms involved with technology for oil recovery from “watered-out” wells. Upward of 70% of the petroleum can remain in the rock formations of many watered-out wells. 2000) Water Control. Bill Bailey et al.
In working to elucidate the chemistry of hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) for the catalytic upgrading of pyrolytic bio-oil to fuel-grade products, researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have discovered that water in the conversion process helps form an impurity which, in turn, slows down key chemical reactions.
Bitumen production from the Canadian oil sands provides a point of reference that could be used to observe and better manage the land and water impacts of a rapid transition to unconventional fuels, suggests Dr. Sarah Jordaan of the Energy Technology Innovation Policy Research Group, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University.
Billions of barrels of oil may be potentially recoverable from residual oil zones in the US, according to initial findings from a study supported by the US Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy (FE). Residual oil zones (ROZs), are areas of immobile oil found below the oil-water contact of a reservoir.
Well-to-wheel (WTW) greenhouse gas emissions for in situ SAGD and surface mining pathways generated employing GHOST/TIAX/ GHGenius combination and comparison with SAGD, mining and conventional crude oil literature pathways (all results are on a HHV basis). 74% of WTW emissions in our oil sands pathways. Credit: ACS, Bergerson et al.
Both scientific research and industrial experience have found that bitumen-derived crude oil (i.e., crude from the oil sands) is no more corrosive in transmission pipelines than other crudes, according to Natural Resources Canada (NRC). In the absence of water, the crude oil is noncorrosive. —ASTM G205.
have demonstrated for the first time that genetically engineered marine algae can be just as capable as fresh water algae in producing industrially relevant products such as enzymes or biofuels. What our research shows is that we can achieve in marine species exactly what we’ve already done in fresh water species. Earlier post.).
Researchers at the University of Alberta (Canada) have quantified the transformation of the boreal landscape by open-pit oil sands mining in Alberta, Canada to evaluate its effect on carbon storage and sequestration. Oil sands mining and reclamation cause massive loss of peatland and stored carbon. —Rooney et al.
Neste Oil, the world’s largest producer of renewable diesel (NExBTL), has signed a contingent commercial off-take agreement with Cellana, an algae biomass developer based in the United States. The agreement will enable Neste Oil to purchase Cellana’s algae oil for use as a feedstock in the future for producing renewable fuel.
Low-speed electric vehicles (LSEVs) could reduce China’s demand for gasoline and, in turn, impact global oil prices, according to a new issue brief by an expert in the Center for Energy Studies at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. “
Produced water from coal-bed natural gas (CBNG) production may contain sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO 3 ) at concentrations that can harm aquatic life, according to a new study by the US Geological Survey; Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks; the Bureau of Land Management and the US Environmental Protection Agency.
eutrophication; ET = ecological toxicity; FEC = fossil energy consumption; WU = water use; LO = land occupation; “The rest” includes acidification; smog formation; ozone layer depletion; and human health effects. For gasoline, the study reflects the US context in which crude oil is to a large extent imported and refined domestically.
In early 2020, UK-based independent testing firm Emissions Analytics published a study claiming that tire particulate wear emissions were 1,000 times worse than exhaust emissions ( earlier post ). The next stage is then to take that chemical profile and study the toxicity of each. —Emissions Analytics.
Results of a Rice University laboratory study suggests that using foam may maximize enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Oil resides in formations of rock and sand in small cracks and crevices that have proved devilishly difficult to tap. Drillers pump various substances downhole to loosen and either push or carry oil to the surface.
The Utah Water Quality Board, in a 9-2 vote this week, agreed with the August 2012 recommendations of an administrative law judge (ALJ) upholding a permit-by-rule issued by the Division of Water Quality (DWQ) for the proposed PR Spring an oil sands mine on state land in eastern Utah. Source: USOS, DWQ. Click to enlarge.
Researchers at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) have determined that biochar, a substance produced from plant matter, is a safe, effective and inexpensive method to treat flowback water following hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. —Maoqi Feng, SwRI.
Results from a new modeling assessment of contamination in the Athabasca Oil Sands Region (AOSR) suggest that officially reported emissions of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in that region have been greatly underestimated. Accounting for evaporative emissions (e.g., Average emissions densities from Shen et al. Click to enlarge.
By making use of a previously undesired side effect in oil recovery, researchers at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT) have developed a method that yields up to 20% more heavy oil than traditional methods. Generally, less than 10% of heavy oil may be produced from reservoirs by natural flow after drilling the well.
A new study by researchers from Stockholm University concludes that automobile tires may be a potential previously unknown source of carcinogenic dibenzopyrenes—a type of high molecular weight polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)—to the environment. 20% mineral oils such as extender oils/ softeners.
Biodiesel (fatty acid methyl ester) derived from oleaginous microbes—microalgae, yeast, and bacteria—can effectively displace both petroleum diesel and biodiesel produced from plant oils, according to the findings of a new study by a team from Utah State University. Plant-based oils, commonly used to produce biodiesel (e.g.,
Livestock were the single largest source of methane gas emissions in the United States in 2004, releasing 70% more into the atmosphere than the oil and gas industry as estimated by other inventories, according to a new study by a team from Harvard University, JPL/CalTech and UC Irvine. emission inventory used as a priori.
Petrochemicals are rapidly becoming the largest driver of global oil demand. Petrochemicals are set to account for more than a third of the growth in world oil demand to 2030, and nearly half the growth to 2050, adding nearly 7 million barrels of oil a day by then. Source: IEA. —Dr Fatih Birol, IEA Executive Director.
A new study on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with the conversion and degradation of peatland in palm oil plantations in Southeast Asia has determined that past studies have generally significantly underestimated emissions associated with palm oil grown on peatland.
Engineers from the University of Houston and the University of Texas report that waterflooding with a surfactant—thereby altering the wettability of oil reservoir rocks—can increase oil recovery from 62 to 85%. Carbonate rocks tend to be “oil-wet”—i.e., Oil-wet rocks preferentially imbibe oil.
Renault recently made public the findings of an internal study, published first in October 2011, detailing and comparing the lifecycle assessments (LCAs) of the battery-electric and two internal combustion engined versions (gasoline and diesel) of the Renault Fluence. water, and non-renewable energies (crude oil, coal.)
World oil production capacity to 2020 (crude oil and NGLs, excluding biofuels). Oil production capacity is surging in the United States and several other countries at such a fast pace that global oil output capacity could grow by nearly 20% from the current 93 million barrels per day to 110.6 Source: Maugeri 2012.
Scientists from ExxonMobil, the Georgia Institute of Technology and Imperial College of London have published in the journal Science joint research on potential breakthroughs in a new membrane technology that could reduce emissions and energy intensity associated with refining crude oil. —Thompson et al. Imperial College London.
Researchers from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research Kiel have found that considerable quantities of the greenhouse gas methane escape uncontrolled into the water from abandoned oil and gas wells in the North Sea. The new study by GEOMAR scientists confirms this initial estimate on a larger data basis. Böttner, C.,
BP, Nouryon (formerly AkzoNobel Specialty Chemicals), and the Port of Rotterdam will collaborate to explore the opportunity of making green hydrogen via water electrolysis for BP’s refinery in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, which has the potential for significant reductions in CO 2 emissions. BP’s Rotterdam refinery.
In collaboration with six industrial partners, IFP Energies nouvelles (IFPEN) has launched the Dolphin research project, which aims to examine the impact of chemical enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes on water management systems. EOR plays a key role in increasing the quantity of oil extracted from a field.
At last month’s World Renewable Energy Forum 2012 in Denver, Colorado, researchers from the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory presented papers on two different approaches to upgrade pyrolysis oils to hydrocarbon fuels or fuel intermediates. In short, bio-oil needs to be upgraded to produce a fungible liquid transportation fuel.
Crude palm oil is one of the more than ten renewable raw materials that Neste uses to produce a range of renewable products, including renewable diesel. Palm oil represents approximately 20% of Neste’s renewable raw material usage annually. A belt filter dewaters by applying pressure to solids to squeeze out the water.
The US Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) has released a technical report on the results of a limited field study that monitored a hydraulic fracturing operation in Greene County, PA for upward fracture growth out of the target zone and upward gas and fluid migration.
Chevron’s focus on optimizing the thermal management of the Kern River field has resulted in a steady drop in the steam:oil ratio (barrels steam water per barrel oil), resulting in improved economics of the field even with slowly declining production. Data: California DOGGR. Click to enlarge. Source: Chevron. Click to enlarge.
An open access paper on their study is published in Biotechnology for Biofuels. Currently, almost half of China’s oil consumption is imported, and with the projection that demand for fossil fuel oil will reach 250 million tons by 2030, it is crucial for the country to consider biomass alternatives as part of their renewable energy plan.
In addition to coal mining, other major sources of methane emissions globally include wetlands, agriculture, and oil and gas facilities. The study is one of the first to account for methane leaking from old, abandoned mines. The study is the first to attempt to account for methane escaping from abandoned mines.
A team from Stanford University and the California Air Resources Board (ARB) has developed a new open-source lifecycle analysis (LCA) tool for modeling the greenhouse gas emissions of oil and gas production using characteristics of specific fields and associated production pathways. —El-Houjeiri et al.
In a new study, KPMG International has identified 10 “megaforces” that will significantly affect corporate growth globally over the next two decades. Water Scarcity: Water scarcity for many businesses can be a major risk to growth and development. Click to enlarge. billion by 2032. billion in 2005.
Transmitting oil sands production. Synthetic crude is produced by upgrading bitumen and is a blend of naphtha, distillate and gas oil range materials produced by hydrotreating the naphtha, distillate and gas oil generated in a delayed coking unit.). —“Dibit Corrosivity”.
Researchers at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) are studying the physical properties of foamed cement—cement containing microscopic bubbles of nitrogen or air—under wellbore conditions to understand how they can be modified to lower the risk of spills. Source: NETL.
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