Chemical Engineering

The rate at which oil is moved from the reservoir to the wellbore is directly proportional to the pressure draw down with other parameters kept constant, hence inflow performance relationship provides a direct relationship between the flowing bottom hole pressure and flow rate. Since the reservoir fluids are usually not single phase but are often accompanied by bottom water aquifers, oil well drilled in such reservoir may produce some water depending on the production practice, hence determining the flow rate of the individual fluids is often difficult, and in this work we have determined the real flow rate of oil in the presence of other fluids for real case in Niger Delta and also determining its IPR using IHS WellTest Simulator 2014 V2 which made use of multirate test data from a Niger Delta well. From this research it can be clearly said that if other constraints in the production tubing are kept constant, the higher the difference between the static reservoir pressure and the flowing bottom hole pressure, the higher the production rate. The idea of this pressure rate behavior will enable the Production Engineers to evaluate various operating scenarios to ascertain the optimum production. Understanding and measuring the variables that control the relationship that exist between oil and other fluids and their effect on inflow rate is the focus of this work. These issues is looked into by modeling the present conditions with the use of a simulator called FAST WELL TEST using production data from a Niger Delta well in Nigeria.

In this article, a report of a study to investigate pertinent citations in the introduction sections of empirical article published in Turkish Journal of Chemistry is presented. It is attempt to proceed with the validation that majority of citation made in the introduction sections of scientific articles are impertinent to the study. In this study, an empirical investigation of pertinence of citations made in Turkish Journal of Chemistry is presented. In this particular study, citations made in the introduction sections in issues published from 1997 to 2004 were analyzed. An empirical scientific article was randomly selected from every issue published, and the pertinence of selected article was determined. Overall, the result showed that less than 20% of the citations were pertinent to the study. This result suggests that over 80% of citations made in the introduction sections may not be applicable in the computation of effective impact of publications.

Pressure monitoring and control using digital gauge as a tool, is one of the economical sources of obtaining valuable information about periodic production tests. It is actually a test to determine relative quantities of oil, gas and water produced under normal producing conditions. They facilitate well and reserves operations and also comply with legal and regulatory requirements. Every individual, in oil and gas well pressure and temperature monitoring and controlling team, require the knowledge of pressure and temperature(PT) behaviours in the annulus and tubing and at the wellhead, periodically, either during or after an operation. One of the most reliable ways through which these parameters (PT) can be monitored and controlled is through the use of one of the digital gauge known as “Keller (LoggerDCX4.11) Gauge”, which is capable of recording and storing PT data. Every operation carried out with this gauge is meant to achieve a specific goal, either to know the pressure build-up or the pressure drawdown, during and after annulus and tubing pressure bleed-off. When this purpose is achieved, effective well development and production is assured.PT, well development and production are closely related in the sense that, they are mutually dependent. For well development and production to succeed, pressure data, among other parameters must be known. This tool is one of the most advantageous gauges for PT well testing data. Its unique features make it easier to monitor and control oil and gas wells’ PT during development, production and maintenance.

Tuning proportional integral and derivative (PID) controllers for Isothermal CSTR system is proposed. The PID controller is designed based on internal model control and stability analysis principles. The proposed controllers are applied to stable transfer function models of isothermal CSTR carrying out Van de Vusse reaction. Simulation results on non-linear model equations of isothermal CSTR carrying out Van de Vusse reaction is given to show the effectiveness of the proposed PID controllers. The performance under model uncertainty is also studied considering perturbation in one parameter at a time. The performance of proposed controllers is compared with the direct synthesis method (Chien et al., 2003).

The aim of the present study is to treat the textile effluent using Continuous Stirred Tank Electrochemical reactor [CSTER]. RuO2 coated Ti and stainless steel were used as an anode and cathode respectively. The influence operating parameter such as effluent flow rate, initial effluent concentration, current density and initial pH of the effluent has been studied for the color removal of the effluent. The maximum color removal has been achieved at lower flow rate, lower initial effluent concentration and higher current density and alkaline pH. An artificial neural network (ANN) model has been developed to predict the performance of percentage color removal by electro oxidation process based on experimental data obtained in a laboratory using Continuous Stirred Tank Electrochemical reactor. A comparison between the predicted results of the designed ANN model and experimental data matches well for the 4-3-1 net work.

Of the various methods available for providing better and effective treatment of wastewater, the method of using compact liner membrane prepared from bentonite, cement, lime, gypsum etc with clayey soil was explored in the laboratory scale experiments. The primary purpose of the liner membrane was to isolate the wastewater contents and, therefore, to protect the soil and ground water from pollution. Low porosity, slow diffusive transport, high adsorption of cations, and plasticity / swelling is some of the interesting properties of clay which makes it desirable as a liner membrane material. The metal concentration of wastewater passing through the compact liner were found to be below permissible limit and the metal concentration reduced to 87%, 96.33%, 90.4 % and 99% for zinc, copper, cadmium and lead respectively from their original concentration in wastewater. The present findings suggest that compact liner membrane can be used as a potential alternative technology to wastewater treatment.

Artificially contaminated soil was treated with hydrocarbon degrading bacteria previously isolated from soil that was consistently contaminated with petroleum. The consortium of bacteria used consists of Enterobacter aerogenes, Serratia marcescens and Proteus myxofaciens. immobilized in cellulosic materials such as coconut fibre and groundnut husk. The results of the laboratory tests show that the immobilized bacteria have good self life with bacteria load of 3.33 x 1022 and 3.20 x 1019 on the 1st and 28th day respectively. The immobilized bacteria system shows promise in the degradation of petroleum hydrocarbons. After 21 days of application of the immobilized bacteria system in laboratory scale degradation of Forcados light crude oil, the residual concentration of petroleum hydrocarbons decreased to 14.87% for one of the samples as compared to a residual concentration of 58.97% in the control sample. Therefore the immobilized bacteria system using cellulosic as a carrier can serve as an effective and fast bioremediation tool for cleaning up petroleum contaminated soil at low cost.

Granule size is used as a parameter and as a quality specification by manufacturers while designing a cost- effective prilling tower for obtaining a standard granule size. In this study, we obtained a standard 2 mm diameter granule using an alternate prilling method other than those available in the industry.

Global concerns about the depletion of the world`s non- renewable energy sources and the associated environmental impact of fossil fuel provided the incentives to seek alternative to petroleum based fuels. Nigeria is no exception in the fears for crude oil production going extinction as recently stated by the energy commission of Nigeria. Alternative renewable foundin vegetable oils such as palm kernel oil (PKO) abound in Nigeria forest. In this work, biodiesel was produced from palm kernel oil. Potassium hydroxide was selected to catalyze the transesterification process with methanol. The temperature was varied between 50oCand 70oC and catalyst weight varied between 2.5g and 3.5g. The highest amount of biodiesel (205 ml) was obtained at temperature of 70oC and 3.5g catalyst weight gave highest of biodiesel (210 ml). The biodiesel was characterized and the measured properties found to be closed with that of petroleum diesel. The fuel characterization carried out show that the biodiesel produced can successfully fuel a diesel engine by the level of agreement between the results obtained and fossil fuel.

The potential use of custard apple peel powder for the removal of Cu (II) from waste water has been investigated in batch mode experiments. Influences of parameters like initial Cu (II) concentration (20-60 mg/l), pH (5-7), and biomass dosage (25-35 g/l) on Cu (II) adsorption were examined using response surface methodology. The Box-Behnken experimental design in response surface methodology was used for designing the experiments as well as for full response surface estimation and 15 trials as per the model were run. The optimum conditions for maximum removal of Cu (II) from an aqueous solution of 20 mg/l were as follows: adsorbent dosage (28.139 g/l), pH (6.40213) and initial Cu (II) concentration (17.6572 mg/l). The high correlation coefficient (R² =0.991) between the model and the experimental data showed that the model was able to predict the removal of Cu (II) from waste water using Custard apple peel powder efficiently.