The increasing population growth resulting in the tremendous increase in consumption of fuels, energy, and petrochemical products and coupled with the depletion in conventional crude oil reserves and production make it imperative for Nigeria to explore her bitumen reserves so as to meet her energy and petrochemicals needs. Samples of Agbabu bitumen were subjected to thermal cracking in a tubular steel reactor operated at 10 bar pressure to investigate the effect of temperature on the cracking reaction. The gas produced was analyzed in a Gas Chromatograph while the liquid products were subjected to Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. Heptane was the dominant gas produced in bitumen cracking at all temperatures and the r

The advancements in horizontal drilling combined with hydraulic fracturing have been historically proven as the most viable technologies in the exploitation of unconventional resources (e.g., shale and tight gas reservoirs). However, the number of fractures, well timing, and arrangement pattern can have a significant impact on the project economy. Therefore, such design and operating parameters need to be efficiently optimized for obtaining the best production performance from unconventional gas reservoirs. In this study, the process of selecting the optimal number of fractures was conducted on a section of a tight gas reservoir model (based on data from the Whicher Range (WR) tight gas field in Western Australia). Then, the optimal number

Cadmium sulfide and Aluminum doped CdS thin films were prepared by thermal evaporation technique in vacuum on a heated glass substrates at 373K. A comparison between the optical properties of the pure and doped films was made through measuring and analyzing the transmittance curves, and the effect of the annealing temperature on these properties were estimated. All the films were found to exhibit high transmittance in the visible/ near infrared region from 500nm to 1100nm.The optical band gap energy was found to be in the range 2.68-2.60 eV and 2.65-2.44 eV for CdS and CdS:Al respectively , with changing the annealing temperature from room temperature to 423K.Optical constants such as refractive index, extinction coefficient, and complex di

In the present work, nanocomposite of poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) incorporated with functionalized graphene oxide (FGO) were fabricated using casting method. PVA was dispersed by varying content of FGO (0.3, 0.5, 0.8, 1 wt %). The PVA- FGO nanocomposite was characterized by FT‐IR, FE-SEM and XRD. Frequency dependence of real permittivity (ε’), imaginary (ε’’) and a.c conductivity of PVA/FGO and PVA/GO nanocomposite were studied in the frequency range 100 Hz- 1 MHz. The experimental results showed that the values of real (ε’) and imaginary permittivity (ε’’) increased dramatically by increasing the FGO content in PVA matrix. PVA/ FGO (1 wt %) nanocomposite revealed higher electrical conductivity of 6.4×10-4 Sm-1 compared to

Chlorine disinfection is a globally used method to ensure the safety of drinking water. However, it has not always been successful against viruses and, therefore, it is important to find new methods to disinfect water. Seventeen different coliphages were isolated from the treated municipal wastewater. These coliphages and MS2 were treated with different dosages of chlorine in drinking water, and a combined chlorine/ultraviolet irradiation treatment for the chlorine-resistant coliphages. Chlorine disinfection with 0.3–0.5 mg/L total chlorine (free Cl-dosage 0.12–0.21 mg/L) for 10 min achieved 2.5–5.7 Log10-reductions for 11 sensitive coliphages. The six most resistant coliphages showed no reduction with these chlorine concentra

In order to study the effect of inoculation with mycorrhiza and fertilization with plant residues on the growth of plants, we used two factors: the first two levels of mycorrhiza inoculation, Glumus mossea (0 and 10 g.pot-1) and the second factor, four levels of plant residues (10 g.pot-1) celery plant residues, 10 g pot-1 mint residues, and 10 g pot-1 black bean seed residues. Mychorrizal treatment (10 g pot-1) increased the number of mycorrhiza spores and the infection percentage of mycorrhizal by 917.44% and 13088.23%, respectively; celery treatment (10 g.pot-1) increased the chlorophyll index in the leaves and height of the chard plant by 31.34% and 94.04%, respectively; and black seed treatment (10 g.pot-1) increased the percen

Thin films of Nb2O5 have been successfully deposited using the DC reactive magnetron sputtering technique to manufacture NH3 gas sensors. These films have been annealed at a high temperature of 800°C for one hour. The assessment of the Nb2O5 thin films structural, morphological, and electrical characteristics was carried out using several methods such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), Hall effect measurements, and sensitivity assessments. The XRD analysis confirms the polycrystalline composition of the Nb2O5 thin films with a hexagonal crystal structure. Furthermore, the sensitivity, response time, and recovery time of the gas sensor were evaluated for the Nb2O5 thin film

The objective of this study is to estimate the effect of the hydro-ethanolic catechin extract toward blood glucose, lipid profile and liver functions in alloxan diabetic mice. 50 healthy mice (25-30 g) were divided into five groups of ten animals for each. Group A received normal saline as normal control group. To induce diabetes, alloxan (150 mg/kg), intraperitoneal (i.p.) single dose was injected to groups B, C, D and E. Group B represents diabetic control group. Groups C, D and E received ethanolic catechin extract (30 mg/kg and 40 mg/kg) for different periods of 1, 2 and 3 weeks as treated groups. Blood glucose, serum lipids [Total Cholesterol (TC), Triglycerides (TGs) and High Density Lipoproteins (HDL)], asparagine transaminase (AST),

Abstract :  This research is concerned with studying the best type and method of  irrigation as well as the best cultivated area to reduce the cost of producing  dunums of wheat crop in Iraq , and was based on data taken from the Ministry of Planning / Central Statistical Organization About cost of wheat crop production for (12) Iraqi governorates except Kurdistan, Nineveh, Salah al-Din, Anbar) and the sample size (554) according to the cost survey carried out by the Ministry of Planning / Central Statistical Organization for 2017, The results of the research showed that there are significant statistical differences between production costs when using t