An optimization study was conducted to determine the optimal operating pressure for the oil and gas separation vessels in the West Qurna 1 oil field. The ASPEN HYSYS software was employed as an effective tool to analyze the optimal pressure for the second and third-stage separators while maintaining a constant operating pressure for the first stage. The analysis involved 10 cases for each separation stage, revealing that the operating pressure of 3.0 Kg/cm2 and 0.7 Kg/cm2 for the second and third stages, respectively, yielded the optimum oil recovery to the flow tank. These pressure set points were selected based on serval factors including API gravity, oil formation volume factor, and gas-oil ratio from the flow tank. To improve the optimization process for separator sizes, a Python code was developed, combining the Newton Raphson Method (NRM), and Lang Cost Method (LCM), with Retention time calculations. In this process, total purchase cost was the objective function. Two design scenarios were examined, corresponding to throughput of 105,000 KBPD and 52,500 KBPD respectively. In the first scenario, the NRM, LCM, and Retention time methods within the Python code were employed, resulting in a three-stage separation train with costs of $1,534,630 for the first stage, $1,438,239 for the second stage and $1,025,978 for the third stage. The Total purchase cost for the separation train was $3,988,847. In the second scenario, utilizing two separators for each stage to process the same throughput resulted in lower costs, totaling $823,851.5 per stage and a total purchase cost of $2,471,553. These costs were calculated using the Lang Cost method, which included the material cost and utilized a Lang factor of 3.1 to determine the total purchase cost after adding shipping, installation, commissioning, and start-up expenses. The first scenario resulted in larger separators and higher costs, while the second scenario showed lower costs, although it required two vessels per stage to process the same throughput. It was observed that the separator efficiencies were influenced by retention time, with increased retention time leading to improved separator efficiency.
The efficiency of attapulgite liners as anti-seepage for crude oil is examined. Consideration is given to the potential use of raw attapulgite and mixture attapulgite with prairie hay and coconut husk as liners to prevent crude oil seepage. Attapulgite clay used in this study was brought from Injana formation /Western Desert of Iraq. Two types of Crude oil brought from Iraqi oil fields were used in experiments; heavy crude oil from East-Baghdad oil field and light crude oil from Nassiriya oil field. Initially the basic properties of attapulgite and crude oils were determined. The attapulgite clay was subjected to mineralogical, chemical and scanning electron microscope analyses. Raw Attapulgite 150µm, 75µm, and 53µm were tested
... Show MoreThe implementation of nanotechnology in all industries is one of most significant research fields. Nanoparticles have shown a promising application in subsurface fields. On the other hand, various surfactants have been used in the oil industry to reduce oil/water interfacial tension and also widely used to stabilize the nano-suspensions. The primary objective of this study was to investigate the improvements of surfactants ability in term of interfacial tension (γ) reduction utilizing addition of silicon dioxide nanoparticles at different temperatures and salinity. The pendant drop technique has been used to measure γ and electrical conductivity has been used to measure the critical micelle concentration (CMC). The synergistic effects of
... Show MoreThis project introduces a prospective material for photonic laser applications. The material is olive oil which is classified as organic compound, having a good nonlinear optical properties candidate to be used in photonic applications. A high purity sample of olive oil has been used. The theoretical calculation to generate third harmonic wave using olive oil has been determine using MATLAB program. THG (λ=355nm) intensity has been determined at two cases of sample thicknesses 1mm and 10mm. The minimum threshold incident intensity to obtain THG intensity are equal Iω=7530 mW/cm2 at L=1mm and Iω= 6220 mW/cm2 at L=10mm. The possibility of generation of third harmonic in olive oil inside
... Show MoreAn investigation was conducted for the improvement of viscosity index of a lubricating oil fraction (SAE – 30) obtained from vacuum distillation unit of lube oil plant of Daura Refinery, using solvent extraction process. In this study two type of extraction solvents were used to extract the undesirable materials which reduce the viscosity index of raw lubricating oil fraction, the first solvent was furfural which is un use today in the Iraqi refineries and the second was NMP (N-methyl, 2, pyrrolidone) which is used for the first time in this work to extract the lubricating oil fraction produced from Iraqi crude oils. The studied effecting variables of extraction are extraction temperature range from 70 to 110 oC for furfural and NMP ex
... Show MoreThe present work is devoted to investigate the performance of a homemade Y-shape catalytic microreactor for degradation of dibenzothiophene (DBT), as a model of sulphur compounds including in gas oil, utilizing solar incident energy. The microchannel was coated with TiO2 nanoparticles which were used as a photocatalyst. Performance of the microreactor was investigated using different conditions (e.g., DBT concentration, LHSV, operating temperature, and (H2O2/DBT) ratio). Our experiments show that, in the absence of UV light, no reaction takes place. The results revealed that outlet concentration of DBT decreases as the mean residence time in the microreactor increases. Also, it was noted that operating temperature s
... Show MoreThe high viscosity of heavy oil is a crucial factor that strongly affects its up-stream recovering, down-stream surface transporting and refining processes. Economical methods for recovering the heavy oil and reducing is very important and related to capital and/or operating cost. This research studies the treatment of Iraqi heavy crude oil, which characterize with high viscosity and low API which makes transportation of heavy crude oil a difficult mission, needs for treatment to reduce viscosity for facilitating transportation and processing. Iraqi heavy crude oil was used Sharqi Baghdad, which obtained from Baghdad east oil fields with API 22.2º.Many kinds of additives were used to reduce the viscosity, experiments were performed o
... Show MoreOil/water emulsions are one of the major threats to environment nowadays, occurs at many stages in the production and treatment of crude oil. The oil recovery process adopted will depend on how the oil is present in the water stream. Oil can be found as free oil, as an unstable oil/water emulsion and also as a highly stable oil/water emulsion. The current study was dedicated to the application of microbubble air flotation process for the removal of such oily emulsions for its characters of cost-effective, simple structure, high efficiency and no secondary pollution. The influence of several key parameters on the process removal efficiency was examined, namely, initial oil concentration, pH value of t
An increasing interest is emerging in identifying natural products to overcome drug resistance in cancer patients. In this context, the present study was conducted to investigate the cytotoxic effects of neem plant (Azadirachta indica) oil in three different biological models (breast cancer cell lines, Allium cepa root tip, and mice vital organs). The cytotoxic potential of the neem oil was evaluated with two human cell lines (MCF7 and MDA-MB231) and an Allum cepa root tip bioassay. Histopathological analysis was conducted on the neem oil-treated and untreated control mice. The results revealed an anti-proliferative effect for neem oil on both estrogen receptor-positive (MCF7) and estrogen receptor-negative (MDA-MB231) breast cancer cell li
... Show MoreTwo different oxidative desulfurization strategies based on oxidation/adsorption or oxidation/extraction were evaluated for the desulfurization of AL-Ahdab (AHD) sour crude oil (3.9wt% sulfur content). In the oxidation process, a homogenous oxidizing agent comprising of hydrogen peroxide and formic acid was used. Activated carbons were used as sorbent/catalyst in the oxidation/adsorption process while acetonitrile was used as an extraction solvent in the oxidation/extraction process. For the oxidation/adsorption scheme, the experimental results indicated that the oxidation desulfurization efficiency was enhanced on using activated carbon as catalyst/sorbent. The effects of the operating conditions (contact time, temperat
... Show MoreChanging oil-wet surfaces toward higher water wettability is of key importance in subsurface engineering applications. This includes petroleum recovery from fractured limestone reservoirs, which are typically mixed or oil-wet, resulting in poor productivity as conventional waterflooding techniques are inefficient. A wettability change toward more water-wet would significantly improve oil displacement efficiency, and thus productivity. Another area where such a wettability shift would be highly beneficial is carbon geo-sequestration, where compressed CO2 is pumped underground for storage. It has recently been identified that more water-wet formations can store more CO2. We thus examined how silica based nanofluids can induce such a wettabil
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