scholarly journals Application of analytical techniques to petroleum systems: an introduction

2020 ◽  
Vol 484 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Patrick J. Dowey ◽  
Mark Osborne ◽  
Herbert Volk

AbstractCutting-edge techniques have always been utilized in petroleum exploration and production to reduce costs and improve efficiencies. Innovations in analytical methods will continue to play a key role in the industry moving forwards, as society shifts towards lower carbon energy systems. This volume brings together new analytical approaches and describes how they can be applied to the study of petroleum systems. The papers within this volume cover a wide range of topics and case studies, in the fields of fluid and isotope geochemistry, organic geochemistry, imaging and sediment provenance. The work illustrates how the current, state-of-the-art technology can be effectively utilized to address ongoing challenges in petroleum geoscience.

10.1144/sp484 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 484 (1) ◽  
pp. NP-NP
Author(s):  
Patrick J. Dowey ◽  
Mark Osborne ◽  
Herbert Volk

Cutting-edge techniques have always been utilized in petroleum exploration and production to reduce costs and improve efficiencies. The demand for petroleum in the form of oil and gas is expected to increase for electricity production, transport and chemical production, largely driven by an increase in energy consumption in the developing world. Innovations in analytical methods will continue to play a key role in the industry moving forwards as society shifts towards lower carbon energy systems and more advantaged oil and gas resources are targeted. This volume brings together new analytical approaches and describes how they can be applied to the study of petroleum systems. The papers within this volume cover a wide range of topics and case studies, in the fields of fluid and isotope geochemistry, organic geochemistry, imaging and sediment provenance. The work illustrates how the current, state-of-the-art technology can be effectively utilised to address ongoing challenges in petroleum geoscience.


2018 ◽  
Vol 484 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clifford C. Walters

AbstractPetroleum geochemistry has historically relied on the analysis of field samples – source rocks, oils and gases. Data collected for individual samples are considered characteristic of a specific geographical location and geological position that, when aggregated with data from other samples, can be extrapolated to larger scales. These scale-ups may be as small as a few metres, such as a detailed characterization of source rocks penetrated by a single well, to global, such as petroleum systems that now span continents due to plate tectonics. However, a single sample contains a wealth of information at smaller scales. In situ analytical techniques have improved significantly over the last decade, allowing us to examine sedimentary rocks at ever higher spatial (areal and temporal) resolution. Mass spectrometric imaging is an emerging, enabling technology that can be performed at c. 200 µm (matrix-assisted laser desorption) to 50 nm (nanoSIMS) resolution. X-ray microcomputed tomography (µ-CT) is being applied to examine the storage and transport of petroleum in low-permeability shales and carbonates at spatial resolutions as low as c. 8 µm. Pore architecture in shale, both organic and inorganic, can be modelled from small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) data and imaged directly with helium ion microscopy at c. 1 nm resolution. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) can now resolve the molecular structure of individual asphaltene molecules. Information obtained with these techniques is now revealing the fundamental nature of geological organic materials, opening the span of petroleum geochemistry from atoms to continents.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alina Mia Udall ◽  
Judith I.M. de Groot ◽  
Simon B. De Jong ◽  
Avi Shankar

Prolific research suggests identity associates with pro-environmental behaviours (PEBs) that are individual and/or group focused. Individual PEB is personally driven, self-reliant, and are conducted on one's own (e.g., home recycling). Group focused PEB is other people-reliant and completed as part of a group (e.g., attending meetings of an environmental organisation). A wide range of identities have been related to PEBs. For example, a recent systematic qualitative review revealed 99 different types of identities studied in a PEB context. Most studies were correlational, few had an experimental design. However, the relationships between all these identities and PEBs have so far not been tested quantitatively with meta-analytical techniques. As such, a clear overview of this field is currently lacking. Due to the diverse nature of the field, a priori hypotheses were not possible and relatively broad definitions of identity had to be used to encompass all types of identities and the diverse meanings of identity that have been included in PEB research. What prior theory did allow for was to assess the distinction between two main types of identity, namely how people label, describe, and recognise oneself individually (individual identity), or as part of a group (group identity). Our overall goal was thus to assess the current state of knowledge on identities and PEBs. In 104 studies using a meta-regression following the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses guidelines, our random-effects meta-analysis showed that the overall concept of identity associated with PEB with a medium Pearson's r (Aim 1). Furthermore, we found that individual identities associated more strongly with PEBs than group identities (Aim 2). The associations between individual and group identities were stronger when the identity and PEB were from the same category (e.g., when both were group-focused; Aim 3). Methodologically, the findings revealed that group identities and group PEBs were most strongly associated for self-reported rather than observed PEBs (Aim 4). Overall identity associated most strongly with group PEBs in the field rather than in the lab (Aim 5) and in student- rather than non-student samples (Aim 6). We discuss the theoretical and practical implications.


Author(s):  
R.W. Horne

The technique of surrounding virus particles with a neutralised electron dense stain was described at the Fourth International Congress on Electron Microscopy, Berlin 1958 (see Home & Brenner, 1960, p. 625). For many years the negative staining technique in one form or another, has been applied to a wide range of biological materials. However, the full potential of the method has only recently been explored following the development and applications of optical diffraction and computer image analytical techniques to electron micrographs (cf. De Hosier & Klug, 1968; Markham 1968; Crowther et al., 1970; Home & Markham, 1973; Klug & Berger, 1974; Crowther & Klug, 1975). These image processing procedures have allowed a more precise and quantitative approach to be made concerning the interpretation, measurement and reconstruction of repeating features in certain biological systems.


2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 295-297
Author(s):  
Sergej A. Borisov

For more than twenty years, the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences celebrates the Day of Slavic Writing and Culture with a traditional scholarly conference.”. Since 2014, it has been held in the young scholars’ format. In 2019, participants from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Togliatti, Tyumen, Yekaterinburg, and Rostov-on-Don, as well as Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Romania continued this tradition. A wide range of problems related to the history of the Slavic peoples from the Middle Ages to the present time in the national, regional and international context were discussed again. Participants talked about the typology of Slavic languages and dialects, linguo-geography, socio- and ethnolinguistics, analyzed formation, development, current state, and prospects of Slavic literatures, etc.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 14
Author(s):  
Georgi G. Gochev ◽  
Volodymyr I. Kovalchuk ◽  
Eugene V. Aksenenko ◽  
Valentin B. Fainerman ◽  
Reinhard Miller

The theoretical description of the adsorption of proteins at liquid/fluid interfaces suffers from the inapplicability of classical formalisms, which soundly calls for the development of more complicated adsorption models. A Frumkin-type thermodynamic 2-d solution model that accounts for nonidealities of interface enthalpy and entropy was proposed about two decades ago and has been continuously developed in the course of comparisons with experimental data. In a previous paper we investigated the adsorption of the globular protein β-lactoglobulin at the water/air interface and used such a model to analyze the experimental isotherms of the surface pressure, Π(c), and the frequency-, f-, dependent surface dilational viscoelasticity modulus, E(c)f, in a wide range of protein concentrations, c, and at pH 7. However, the best fit between theory and experiment proposed in that paper appeared incompatible with new data on the surface excess, Γ, obtained from direct measurements with neutron reflectometry. Therefore, in this work, the same model is simultaneously applied to a larger set of experimental dependences, e.g., Π(c), Γ(c), E(Π)f, etc., with E-values measured strictly in the linear viscoelasticity regime. Despite this ambitious complication, a best global fit was elaborated using a single set of parameter values, which well describes all experimental dependencies, thus corroborating the validity of the chosen thermodynamic model. Furthermore, we applied the model in the same manner to experimental results obtained at pH 3 and pH 5 in order to explain the well-pronounced effect of pH on the interfacial behavior of β-lactoglobulin. The results revealed that the propensity of β-lactoglobulin globules to unfold upon adsorption and stretch at the interface decreases in the order pH 3 > pH 7 > pH 5, i.e., with decreasing protein net charge. Finally, we discuss advantages and limitations in the current state of the model.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (17) ◽  
pp. 2760
Author(s):  
Gourav Misra ◽  
Fiona Cawkwell ◽  
Astrid Wingler

Remote sensing of plant phenology as an indicator of climate change and for mapping land cover has received significant scientific interest in the past two decades. The advancing of spring events, the lengthening of the growing season, the shifting of tree lines, the decreasing sensitivity to warming and the uniformity of spring across elevations are a few of the important indicators of trends in phenology. The Sentinel-2 satellite sensors launched in June 2015 (A) and March 2017 (B), with their high temporal frequency and spatial resolution for improved land mapping missions, have contributed significantly to knowledge on vegetation over the last three years. However, despite the additional red-edge and short wave infra-red (SWIR) bands available on the Sentinel-2 multispectral instruments, with improved vegetation species detection capabilities, there has been very little research on their efficacy to track vegetation cover and its phenology. For example, out of approximately every four papers that analyse normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) or enhanced vegetation index (EVI) derived from Sentinel-2 imagery, only one mentions either SWIR or the red-edge bands. Despite the short duration that the Sentinel-2 platforms have been operational, they have proved their potential in a wide range of phenological studies of crops, forests, natural grasslands, and other vegetated areas, and in particular through fusion of the data with those from other sensors, e.g., Sentinel-1, Landsat and MODIS. This review paper discusses the current state of vegetation phenology studies based on the first five years of Sentinel-2, their advantages, limitations, and the scope for future developments.


Antioxidants ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 71
Author(s):  
Marianna Martinello ◽  
Franco Mutinelli

Bee products have been used since ancient times both for their nutritional value and for a broad spectrum of therapeutic purposes. They are deemed to be a potential source of natural antioxidants that can counteract the effects of oxidative stress underlying the pathogenesis of many diseases. In view of the growing interest in using bioactive substances from natural sources to promote health and reduce the risk of developing certain illnesses, this review aims to update the current state of knowledge on the antioxidant capacity of bee products such as honey, pollen, propolis, beeswax, royal jelly and bee venom, and on the analytical methods used. The complex, variable composition of these products and the multitude of analytical methods used to study their antioxidant activities are responsible for the wide range of results reported by a plethora of available studies. This suggests the need to establish standardized methods to more efficiently evaluate the intrinsic antioxidant characteristics of these products and make the data obtained more comparable.


Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 1537
Author(s):  
Aneta Saletnik ◽  
Bogdan Saletnik ◽  
Czesław Puchalski

Raman spectroscopy is one of the main analytical techniques used in optical metrology. It is a vibration, marker-free technique that provides insight into the structure and composition of tissues and cells at the molecular level. Raman spectroscopy is an outstanding material identification technique. It provides spatial information of vibrations from complex biological samples which renders it a very accurate tool for the analysis of highly complex plant tissues. Raman spectra can be used as a fingerprint tool for a very wide range of compounds. Raman spectroscopy enables all the polymers that build the cell walls of plants to be tracked simultaneously; it facilitates the analysis of both the molecular composition and the molecular structure of cell walls. Due to its high sensitivity to even minute structural changes, this method is used for comparative tests. The introduction of new and improved Raman techniques by scientists as well as the constant technological development of the apparatus has resulted in an increased importance of Raman spectroscopy in the discovery and defining of tissues and the processes taking place in them.


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