Low grade crude palm oil (LGCPO) presents as an attractive option as feedstock for biodiesel production due to its low cost and non-competition with food resources. Typically, LGCPO contains high contents of free fatty acids (FFA), rendering it impossible in direct trans-esterification processes due to the saponification reaction. Esterification is the typical pre-treatment process to reduce the FFA content and to produce fatty acid methyl ester (FAME). The pre-treatment of LGCPO using two different acid catalysts, such as titanium oxysulphate sulphuric acid complex hydrate (TiOSH) and 5-sulfosalicylic acid dihydrate (5-SOCAH) was investigated for the first time in this study. The optimum conditions for the homogenous catalyst (5-SOCAH) were determined as: 1.5 wt% of acid catalyst dosage, 60 °C reaction temperature, 8:1 methanol molar ratio at 60 min. For the heterogeneous TiOSH, higher catalyst dosages such as 7 wt% is required with a methanol loading of 10:1 (molar ratio) at 120 min to reduce the initial FFA to less than 3%. Under these optimum conditions for both types of catalysts; the FFA levels were reduced from 11.3 % to less than 3 %, individually. This study introduces for the first time two types of acidic catalysts with high catalytic activity for the esterification of FFA content in low grade oils for biodiesel production which could be used for the treatment of wide range of low quality oils.
As a reservoir is depleted due to production, pore pressure decreases leading to increased effective stress which causes a reduction in permeability, porosity, and possible pore collapse or compaction. Permeability is a key factor in tight reservoir development; therefore, understanding the loss of permeability in these reservoirs due to depletion is vital for effective reservoir management. The paper presents a case history on a tight carbonate reservoir in Iraq which demonstrates the behavior of rock permeability and porosity as a function of increasing effective stress simulating a depleting mode over given production time. The experimental results show unique models for the decline of permeability and porosity as function effective str
... Show MoreAnaerobic digestion (AD) is the most common process for dealing with primary and secondary wastewater sludge. In the present work, four pre-treatment methods (ultrasonic, chemical, thermal, and thermo-chemical) are investigated in Al-Rustumya Wastewater Treatment plant in order to find their effect on biogas production and volatile solid removal efficiency during anaerobic digestion.
Two frequencies of ultrasonic wave were used 30 KHz and 50 KHz during the pre-treatment. Sodium hydroxide was added in different amounts to give three pH values of 9, 10 and 11 in chemical pre-treating processes. The sludge was heated at 60oC and 80oC through thermal pre-treatment experiment. Also, the sludge was treated thermo-chemically at 80 oC and pH
Reservoir fluids properties are very important in reservoir engineering computations such as material balance calculations, well testing analyses, reserve estimates, and numerical reservoir simulations. Isothermal oil compressibility is required in fluid flow problems, extension of fluid properties from values at the bubble point pressure to higher pressures of interest and in material balance calculations (Ramey, Spivey, and McCain). Isothermal oil compressibility is a measure of the fractional change in volume as pressure is changed at constant temperature (McCain). The most accurate method for determining the Isothermal oil compressibility is a laboratory PVT analysis; however, the evaluation of exploratory wells often require an esti
... Show MoreA geological model was built for the Sadi reservoir, located at the Halfaya oil field. It is regarded as one of the most significant oilfields in Iraq. The study includes several steps, the most essential of which was importing well logs from six oil wells to the Interactive Petrophysics software for conducting interpretation and analysis to calculate the petrophysical properties such as permeability, porosity, shale volume, water saturation, and NTG and then importing maps and the well tops to the Petrel software to build the 3D-Geological model and to calculate the value of the original oil in place. Three geological surfaces were produced for all Sadi units based on well-top data and the top Sadi structural map. The reservoir has
... Show MoreThis study is concerned with the effect of Deep Cryogenic Treatment (DCT) at liquid nitrogen temperature (-196 o C) on the mechanical properties and performance of low carbon steel (A858). The tests specimens were divided in to two groups, the first group was subjected to the conventional heat treatment of normalizing, and the second group was also normalized then subjected to (DCT). The results have shown that after (DCT), the Hardness, Tensile properties and the impact energy absorbed were all slightly increased. However the fatigue test showed some positive improvement in fatigue limit by 20(N/mm2 ), and the volume wear rates at different loads were significantly decreased after (DCT). The changes in microstructure due to (DCT) were c
... 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 MoreThe monitoring weld quality is increasingly important because great financial savings are possible because of it, and this especially happens in manufacturing where defective welds lead to losses in production and necessitate time consuming and expensive repair. This research deals with the monitoring and controllability of the fusion arc welding process using Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model. The effect of weld parameters on the weld quality was studied by implementing the experimental results obtained from welding a non-Galvanized steel plate ASTM BN 1323 of 6 mm thickness in different weld parameters (current, voltage, and travel speed) monitored by electronic systems that are followed by destructive (Tensile and Bending) and non
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