Engineering Commons^™

Integrated Petrophysical Evaluation And Rock Physics Modeling Of Broom Creek Deep Saline Aquifer For Geological Co2 Storage, Prasad Pothana, Ghoulem Ifrene, Kegang Ling

Petroleum Engineering Student Publications

Fossil fuels, such as coal and hydrocarbons, are major drivers of global warming and are primarily responsible for worldwide greenhouse gas emissions, including carbon dioxide CO₂. The storage of CO₂ in deep saline reservoirs is acknowledged as one of the top practical and promising methods to reduce CO₂ emissions and meet climate goals. The North Dakota Industrial Commission (NDIC) recently approved the fourth Class VI permit for a carbon capture and storage project in the Williston basin of North Dakota for the geological CO₂ storage in the Broom Creek formation. The current research aimed to …

Stress-Dependent Petrophysical Properties Of The Bakken Unconventional Petroleum System: Insights From Elastic Wave Velocities And Permeability Measurements, Prasad Pothana, Ghoulem Ifrene, Kegang Ling

Petroleum Engineering Student Publications

The net-effective stress is a fundamental physical property that undergoes dynamic changes in response to variations in pore pressure during production and injection activities. Petrophysical properties, including porosity, permeability, and wave velocities, play a critical role and exhibit strong dependence on the mechanical stress state of the formation. The Williston basin’s Bakken Formation represents a significant reservoir of hydrocarbons within the United States. To investigate this formation, we extracted core plugs from three distinct Bakken members, namely Upper Bakken, Middle Bakken, and Lower Bakken. Subsequently, we conducted a series of measurements of ultrasonic compressional and shear wave velocities, as well …

Optimization Of A Bioreactor, Ali Alshami

AI Assignment Library

The primary objective of this assignimentis to learn to work effectively as a team, and to design an experiment where optimization is essential.

Design And Performance Analysis Of Dry Gas Fishbone Wells For Lower Carbon Footprint, Habib Ouadi, Aimen Laalam, Amjed Hassan, Abderraouf Chemmakh, Vamegh Rasouli, Mohamed Mahmoud

Petroleum Engineering Student Publications

Multilateral well drilling technology has recently assisted the drilling industry in improving borehole contact area and reducing operation time, while maintaining a competitive cost. The most advanced multilateral well drilling method is Fishbone drilling (FbD). This method has been utilized in several hydrocarbon fields worldwide, resulting in high recovery enhancement and reduced carbon emissions from drilling. FbD involves drilling several branches from laterals and can be considered as an alternative method to hydraulic fracturing to increase the stimulated reservoir volume. However, the expected productivity of applying a Fishbone well from one field to another can vary due to various challenges …

Evaluation Of Liquid Loading In Gas Wells Using Machine Learning, Abderraouf Chemmakh, Olusegun Stanley Tomomewo, Kegang Ling, Ahmed Shammari

Petroleum Engineering Student Publications

The inevitable result that gas wells witness during their life production is the liquid loading problem. The liquids that come with gas block the production tubing if the gas velocity supplied by the reservoir pressure is not enough to carry them to surface. Researchers used different theories to solve the problem naming, droplet fallback theory, liquid film reversal theory, characteristic velocity, transient simulations, and others. While there is no definitive answer on what theory is the most valid or the one that performs the best in all cases. This paper comes to involve a different approach, a combination between physics-based …

Applications Of Underbalanced Fishbone Drilling For Improved Recovery And Reduced Carbon Footprint In Unconventional Plays, Habib Ouadi, Siamak Mishani, Vamegh Rasouli

Petroleum Engineering Student Publications

Fishbone Drilling (FbD) consists of drilling several micro-holes in different directions from the main vertical or deviated wellbore. Similar to multilateral micro-hole drilling, FbD may be used to enhance hydrocarbon production in naturally fractured formations or in refracturing operations by interconnecting the existing natural fractures. When combined with underbalanced drilling using a coiled tubing rig, FbD enhances the production further by easing the natural flow of the hydrocarbon from the reservoir to the wellbore. The design aspects of the Fishbones include determining the number, length, distance between the branches, and the angle of sidetracking of the branches from the main …

Synthesis And Evaluation Of A Novel Polyacrylamide Functionalized Nano-Silica As A Calcium Carbonate Inhibitor In Upstream Applications, Nadhem Ismail, Ali Alshami, Ibnelwaleed A. Hussein

Chemical Engineering Faculty Publications

Calcium carbonate scale forms in production and injection wells, precipitating upon pressure and temperature changes, incompatible water mixing, and dehydration. Production shutdown is one of the most dramatic consequences caused by calcium carbonate scale formation. We synthesized, characterized, and tested a polyacrylamide functionalized nano-silica (PAM-SiO₂NPs) inhibitor that prevents calcium carbonate formation at high temperatures and high brine. Positive compatibility results were confirmed before the inhibition efficiency test, whereby the efficiency was calculated by quantifying the calcium ions left in solution using ICP-OES. The inhibitor was effective at temperatures of 40, 60, and 80 °C, with pH values of …

Comparative Scoping Study Report For The Extraction Of Microalgae Oils From Two Subspecies Of Chlorella Vulgaris, Jasmine Kreft, Eric Moe, Nicholas Garcia, Andrew Ross, Wayne Seames

Chemistry Faculty Publications

The production of microalgae as a fatty acid oil resource for use in biofuels production is a widespread research topic at the lab scale. Microalgae contain a higher lipid content on a dry-weight basis compared to oilseeds such as soybeans. Additionally, the growth and cultivation cycle of microalgae is 15 days, in comparison to soybeans, for which the cycle occurs once or twice annually. However, to date, it has been uneconomical to produce microalgae oils in a world-scale facility due to limitations in cultivating microalgae at commercial scales. Recent developments suggest that the use of heterotrophic microalgae may be economically …

Exploring Large Pore Size Alumina And Silica-Alumina Based Catalysts For Decomposition Of Lignin, Sara Pourjafar, Jasmine Kreft, Honza Bilek, Evguenii Kozliak, Wayne Seames

Chemical Engineering Faculty Publications

Evaluation of copper doped silica-alumina and γ-alumina catalysts for lignin decomposition was conducted using a suite of chemical analysis protocols that enabled a comprehensive characterization of the reaction product. X-ray diffraction analysis was used to verify the concentration of doped copper on catalyst supports. Then, batch experiments were performed to study the significance of catalyst support type, catalyst dopant concentration, lignin concentration, catalyst-to-lignin ratio, reactor stirring rate and reaction time. Aqueous products were extracted with dichloromethane and analyzed using a detailed gas chromatography-mass spectrophotometry analytical protocol, allowing for quantification of over 20 compounds. Solid residues were analyzed by thermogravimetric analysis …

Foam Materials With Controllable Pore Structure Prepared From Nanofibrillated Cellulose With Addition Of Alcohols, Jinbao Li, Te Song, Huijuan Xiu, Meiyun Zhang, Rui Cheng, Qiang Liu, Xuefei Zhang, Evguenii Kozliak, Yun Ji

Chemical Engineering Faculty Publications

Low-density foams based on nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) made from Pinus massonianesoftwood pulp were prepared from NFC aqueous suspensions containing one of four C2–C4alcohols followed by freeze-drying, with the goal of controlling their pore structure and reducing the shrink rate. The foams prepared from NFC suspensions containing ethanol, isopropanol and n-butanol exhibited highly porous structures with a honeycomb-like cellular texture featuring well-defined “cell walls” between the layers. By contrast, the tert-butanol/NFC foam featured a higher number of smaller size pores with irregular shape. The foams prepared by freezing at −196 °C with ethanol also revealed small size pores, with no layered …

The Aromatization Of Propene Via Nano-Size Hzsm-5, Wayne Seames, Swapnil Fegade, Inna Sakodynskaya, Darrin Muggli, Brian Tande, Alena Kubatova, Evguenii Kozliak

Chemistry Faculty Publications

Zeolite (ZSM) catalysts are known to convert small-size alkenes, e.g., propene, into aromatic hydrocarbons, specifically benzene, toluene and xylenes (BTX), with both high efficiency and specificity. The efficiency of conventional and hierarchical nano-size ZSM-5 for propene aromatization was compared in this study using a Design of Experiments (DOE) approach combined with detailed product analysis. Contrary to our expectations, the former showed a significantly greater BTX yield than the latter. Analysis of the obtained data by DOE and additional experiments with soybean oil cracking using both catalyst types indicated that a reason for the observed reduced activity of nano-scale zeolites may …

An Initial Study Of The Catalytic Reforming Of Crop Oil‐Derived 1‐Alkenes With Hzsm‐5 To Aromatic Hydrocarbons, Shelby Amsley‐Benzie, Swapnil Fegade, Brian Tande, Alena Kubotava, Evguenii Kozliak, Wayne Seames

Chemical Engineering Faculty Publications

This study explored the production of aromatic hydrocarbons from the longer‐chain alkenes produced by the pyrolysis/cracking of crop oils. 1‐Tetradecene, serving as a model compound for these alkenes, was reformed in a batch reactor with a HZSM‐5 catalyst to produce a liquid hydrocarbon mixture with a high‐aromatic content. These reactions resulted in a >99% conversion of the 1‐tetradecene feedstock with a yield of up to 22 wt% of aromatic hydrocarbons. Surprisingly, isomers of C3‐substituted benzenes along with xylenes and diaromatics (lower homologs of alkyl‐substituted indanes and naphthalenes) were the main aromatic products rather than their lower‐molecular‐weight (MW) homologs, benzene, toluene, …

Kinetic Modelling And Experimental Studies For The Effects Of Fe2+ Ions On Xylan Hydrolysis With Dilute-Acid Pretreatment And Subsequent Enzymatic Hydrolysis, Hui Wei, Xiaowen Chen, Joseph Shekiro, Erik Kuhn, Wei Wang, Yun Ji, Evguenii Kozliak, Michael E. Himmel, Melvin P. Tucker

Chemical Engineering Faculty Publications

High-temperature (150–170 °C) pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass with mineral acids is well established for xylan breakdown. Fe²⁺ is known to be a cocatalyst of this process although kinetics of its action remains unknown. The present work addresses the effect of ferrous ion concentration on sugar yield and degradation product formation from corn stover for the entire two-step treatment, including the subsequent enzymatic cellulose hydrolysis. The feedstock was impregnated with 0.5% acid and 0.75 mM iron cocatalyst, which was found to be optimal in preliminary experiments. The detailed kinetic data of acid pretreatment, with and without iron, was satisfactorily modelled …

Fiber Evolution During Alkaline Treatment And Its Impact On Handsheet Properties, Yun Ji, Yangyang Peng, Anders Strand, Shiyu Fu, Anna Sundberg, Elias Antero Retulainen

Chemical Engineering Faculty Publications

To understand the swelling effects of alkaline treatment on the morphological properties of fibers and physical properties of handsheets, bleached softwood kraft pulp was treated with NaOH at different concentrations. The results showed that the fiber swelling increased, but the shrinkage and elongation of the paper at a NaOH concentration of 6% or higher did not improve. Dissolution of amorphous material occurred during the treatment together with peeling reactions. The fiber length and shape factor decreased and the fines content increased with an increasing alkali concentration. The cellulose crystallinity decreased with an increasing NaOH concentration. This was confirmed by X-ray …

High Octane Gasoline Using Renewable Aromatic Hydrocarbons, Wayne Seames, Malhar Khambete, Nahid Khatibi, Shelby Amsley-Benzie, Evguenii Kozliak, Darrin Muggli, Brian Tande

Chemical Engineering Faculty Publications

Background:

The replacement of leaded high octane aviation gasoline with an unleaded renewable alternative would decrease the emissions of lead and fossil-derived carbon into the atmosphere. Replacement has been limited by the requirement of a very high octane number in many existing general aviation aircraft engines.

Method:

Two separate process pathways were developed that generate an unleaded octane fuel with a motor octane number >96 from triglyceride oils (TGs), such as crop oils and algae oil. A series of experiments coupled with process simulations was used to verify the feasibility of both pathways and to provide preliminary laboratory scale data …

Development And Validation Of A Kinetic Model For Enzymatic Hydrolysis Using Candida Rugosa Lipase, Ammar Jamie, Ali Alshami, Zuhair O. Maliabari, Muataz A. Ateih

Chemical Engineering Faculty Publications

Biochemical processing involving enzymatic catalysis of hydrolysis reactions of oils and fats must overcome significant technological barriers before the full benefits of the technology can be realized. Owing to their selectivity and mild reaction conditions, lipases are becoming increasingly important as biocatalysts provided that their kinetics and optimum reaction conditions are well-understood. In this study we report on the development and validation of a kinetic model for the degradation of oils using Candida rugosa lipase, from which a better understanding of the influence of different reaction conditions on hydrolysis kinetics is elucidated. Variations of reaction temperature, mixing speed, enzyme loading …

Synthesis And Tribological Behavior Of Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (Uhmwpe)-Lignin Composites, Surojit Gupta, Mohammad F. Riyad, Yun Ji

Chemical Engineering Faculty Publications

In this paper, we report the synthesis and characterization of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE)-lignin composites. During this study four different compositions, namely UHMWPE, UHMWPE-13 wt. % lignin, UHMWPE-25 wt. % lignin and UHMWPE-42.5 wt. % lignin were fabricated by hot pressing. Detailed microstructural studies by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed that UHMWPE and UHMWPE-13 wt. % lignin had a uniform microstructure, whereas UHMWPE-25 wt. % lignin and UHMWPE-42.5 wt. % lignin samples were riddled with pores. UHMWPE and UHMWPE-13% lignin showed comparable flexural strengths of ~32.2 MPa and ~32.4 MPa, respectively. However, the flexural strength dropped drastically in UHMWPE-25 …

Maximizing Orc Performance With Optimal Match Of Working Fluid With System Design, Kirtipal Barse, Michael Mann

Chemical Engineering Faculty Publications

This article compares constrained system design to non-constrained system design for the basic Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC). The 12 working fluids studied include eight dry-type, three isentropic, and one wet-type fluids. The ORC model was developed using Aspen HYSYS® and validated with data obtained from the literature. The constrained design compared the performance of working fluids for a fixed heat exchanger and turbine configuration. A non-constrained design was studied by altering the design specifications for the heat exchangers and turbine to match the working fluid. An energy and exergy analysis was performed using first and second law efficiency. The exergy …