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.
The injection of Low Salinity Water (LSWI) as an Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) method has recently attracted a lot of attention. Extensive research has been conducted to investigate and identify the positive effects of LSWI on oil recovery. In order to demonstrate the impact of introducing low salinity water into a reservoir, simulations on the ECLIPSE 100 simulator are being done in this work. To simulate an actual reservoir, an easy static model was made. In order to replicate the effects of injecting low salinity water and normal salinity, or seawater, the reservoir is three-phase with oil, gas, and water. It has one injector and one producer. Five cases were suggested to investigate the effect of low salinity water injection with differen
... Show MoreDrilling with casing (DWC) can be considered as a modern drilling technique in which both of drilling and casing operations done in the same time by using the casing to transfer the hydraulic and mechanical power to the bit instead of traditional drilling string. To overcome oil well control, minimizing the total cost through enhancing drilling efficiency, drilling with casing was proposed as an enabling technology.
Two surface sections (17 1/2 - and 12 1/4- inch) were drilled successfully in Rumaila oil field with casing strings which reached 655m and 1524m measured depths respectively.
By using DWC technique, the total drill/case phase time was reduced up to 20% comparing to conventional
... Show MoreBuzurgan oil field suffers from the phenomenon of asphaltene precipitation. The serious negatives of this phenomenon are the decrease in production caused by clogging of the pores and decrease in permeability and wettability of the reservoir rocks, in addition to the blockages that occur in the pipeline transporting crude oil. The presence of laboratories in the Iraqi oil companies helped to conduct the necessary experiments, such as gas chromatography (GC) test to identify the components of crude oil and the percentages of each component, These laboratory results consider the main elements in deriving a new equation called modified colloidal instability index (MCII) equation based on a well-known global equation called colloidal instabi
... Show MoreA new application of a combined solvent extraction and two-phase biodegradation processes using two-liquid phase partitioning bioreactor (TLPPB) technique was proposed and developed to enhance the cleanup of high concentration of crude oil from aqueous phase using acclimated mixed culture in an anaerobic environment. Silicone oil was used as the organic extractive phase for being a water-immiscible, biocompatible and non-biodegradable. Acclimation, cell growth of mixed cultures, and biodegradation of crude oil in aqueous samples were experimentally studied at 30±2ºC. Anaerobic biodegradation of crude oil was examined at four different initial concentrations of crude oil including 500, 1000, 2000, and 5000 mg/L. Complete removal of crud
... Show MoreOilwell cementing operations are crucial for drilling and completion, preserving the well's productive life. However, weak and permeable formations pose a high risk of cement slurry loss, leading to failure. Lightweight cement, like foamed cement, is used to avoid these difficulties. This study is focused on creating a range of foamed slurry densities and examining the effect of gas concentration on their rheological properties. The foaming agent and foam stabilizer are tested, and the optimal concentration is determined to be 2% and 0.12%, respectively, by the weight of the cement.
Furthermore, the construction of samples of foam cement with different densities (0.8, 1.0, 1.2, 1.4, and 1.6) g/cc is performed to f
... Show MoreIn recent years the interest in fractured reservoirs has grown. The awareness has increased analysis of the role played by fractures in petroleum reservoir production and recovery. Since most Iraqi reservoirs are fractured carbonate rocks. Much effort was devoted to well modeling of fractured reservoirs and the impacts on production. However, turning that modeling into field development decisions goes through reservoir simulation. Therefore accurate modeling is required for more viable economic decision. Iraqi mature field being used as our case study. The key point for developing the mature field is approving the reservoir model that going to be used for future predictions. This can
Diesel engine oil was subjected to thermal oxidization (TO) for six periods of time (0 h, 24 h, 48 h, 72 h, 96 h, and 120 h) and was subsequently characterized by terahertz time domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS). The THz refractive index generally increased with oxidation time. The measurement method illustrated the potential of THz-TDS when a fixed setup with a single cuvette is used. A future miniaturized setup installed in an engine would be an example of a fixed setup. For the refractive index, there were highly significant differences among the oxidation times across most of the 0.3–1.7 THz range.
Permeability is one of the essential petrophysical properties of rocks, reflecting the rock's ability to pass fluids. It is considered the basis for building any model to predict well deliverability. Yamama formation carbonate rocks are distinguished by sedimentary cycles that separate formation into reservoir units and insulating layers, a very complex porous system caused by secondary porosity due to substitute and dissolution processes. Those factors create permeability variables and vary significantly. Three ways used for permeability calculation, the firstly was the classical method, which only related the permeability to the porosity, resulting in a weak relationship. Secondly, the flow zone indicator (FZI) was divided reservoir into
... Show MoreThe Gas Assisted Gravity Drainage (GAGD) process has become one of the most important processes to enhance oil recovery in both secondary and tertiary recovery stages and through immiscible and miscible modes. Its advantages came from the ability to provide gravity-stable oil displacement for improving oil recovery, when compared with conventional gas injection methods such as Continuous Gas Injection (CGI) and Water – Alternative Gas (WAG). Vertical injectors for CO2 gas were placed at the top of the reservoir to form a gas cap which drives the oil towards the horizontal oil producing wells which are located above the oil-water-contact. The GAGD process was developed and tested in vertical wells to increase oil r
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