Biodiesel is becoming one of the most attractive alternative biofuels for petroleum-based diesel fuels. The castor plant is one of the abundant non-edible oils found in many countries. This paper aims to study Libyan castor oil and its potential for diesel conversion. Experiments were carried out in the laboratories of the Specific Center for Training in the Oil Industries in Al-Zawiya. The oil was extracted using a Soxhlet extractor and n-hexane solvent at 60 °C. Transesterification reactions were conducted in a batch reactor (a three-neck flask was used, where the middle opening carries a reflux condensation unit) at 65 °C. The methanol-to-castor oil molar ratio was 6:1, with a catalyst concentration of 1 wt.% relative to the castor oil, and the reaction time was 30 min. Castor oil was analysed and found to have a fatty acid content of 0.7%. The productivity of biodiesel exhibited 80% yield. Standard test methods of analysis were conducted to determine the biodiesel’s properties. Results indicated that the kinematic viscosity at 40 °C was 14.24 cSt, the density was 0.924 g/cm3, the cetane number (CN) was 54 and the pour point was −15 °C, indicating that castor oil biodiesel is of high quality, with a high CN and a low pour point.
An 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
ole in all sta Oil well logging, also known as wireline logging, is a method of collecting data from the well environment to determine subterranean physical properties and reservoir parameters. Measurements are collected against depth along the well's length, and many types of wire cabling tools depend on the physical property of interest. Well probes generally has a dynamic respon to changes in rock layers and fluid composition. These probes or well logs are legal documents that record the history of a well during the drilling stages until its completion. Well probes record the physical properties of the well, which must then be interpreted in petrographic terms to obtain the characteristics of the rocks and fluids associated with
... Show MoreAn 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 Moreole in all sta
Oil well logging, also known as wireline logging, is a method of collecting data from the well environment to determine subterranean physical properties and reservoir parameters. Measurements are collected against depth along the well's length, and many types of wire cabling tools depend on the physical property of interest. Well probes generally has a dynamic respon to changes in rock layers and fluid composition. These probes or well logs are legal documents that record the history of a well during the drilling stages until its completion. Well probes record the physical properties of the well, which must then be interpreted in petrographic terms to obtain the characteristics of the rocks and flui
... Show MoreEmpirical equation has been presented to predict the optimum hydrodynamic
pressure gradient with optimum mud flow rate (one equation) of five Iraqi oil wells
to obtain the optimum carrying capacity of the drilling fluid ( optimum transport
cuttings from the hole to the surface through the annulus).
This equation is a function of mud flow rate, mud density and penetration
rate without using any charts or graphs.
The correlation coefficient accuracy is more than 0.9999.
Two 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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