Reducing Gas Emission Mechanisms for Hydrocarbon Storage Tanks

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) which are emitted from tank farms of petroleum refineries are considered to cause harmful impacts to the environment and people. This paper presents the methodology of assessing potential targets for reduction of emissions, as well as proposed control mechanisms and their reductions, for hydrocarbon storage tanks at Jebel Al Dhanna Terminal. Some of the emissions reduction opportunities which are covered include aluminum dome retrofits, seal integrity improvement and guide pole treatments. The objective is to find significant reduction opportunities (from between 50% to 90% of current tank configurations) using passive technologies which prevent or inhibit emissions without the use of additional operational energy or active systems that would otherwise require significant maintenance or operational expense.

Molecular Simulation of Methane Sorption onto Kerogen Surface of Shale in Presence of Surfactant

Shale reservoirs, despite having abundance in hydrocarbon storage, offer significant challenges in terms of understanding the pore-scale and reservoir-scale phenomenon. Typically, hydraulic fracturing treatment is implemented to improve hydrocarbon productivity through the injection of fracturing fluid to induce the breakdown of the formation to create fractures, hence allowing a flow conduit for hydrocarbon to be produced at a higher flow rate of oil and/or gas. In this work, molecular dynamics (MD) simulation using GROMACS were utilized to create a 3D model comprised of methane (CH4), surfactant and graphite. Surfactant, as represented by the cationic cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) was added along with water to represent water-based visco-elastic surfactant (VES) as an additive to reduce the surface tension of hydrocarbon to shale (represented by graphene). A realistic molecular model was created to examine the interaction of CTAB towards the adsorption pattern of methane onto graphene, in order to reveal the displacement efficiency of methane after wettability modification due to the effect of surfactant on the graphene on a nanoscale. The findings suggest that addition of CTAB as surfactant may enhance the production of methane though the reduction of IFT and adsorption capability of methane to the wall of shale. The result yielded consistent trends, where methane's tendency to stick to the adsorption site (at approximately 1.5 nm from the center of the system) was reduced and more methane molecules were accumulated at the center of the pore space. This study has uncovered the adsorption process and the effect of CTAB in altering the sorption behavior of methane towards shale. This would contribute to the enhancement of long-term shale gas production by providing more information on salinity and pressure sensitivity, enabling extraction to be done at a lower cost.

DEVELOPMENT OF METHODS FOR ASSESSING THE SAFETY OF LIGHT HYDROCARBON STORAGE FACILITIES IN EMERGENCY SITUATIONS

The risk of accidents involving light hydrocarbons is caused by the physicochemical properties of the components, primarily propane and butane. The most catastrophic accidents involving these substances were on November 19, 1984, in the city of San Juan Ixhuatepec (Mexico) and on June 4, 1989, on the Asha – Ulu-Telyak section (USSR), in each of which more than 500 people died. The novelty of the study is determined by the requirement to ensure industrial and fire safety of storage facilities for light hydrocarbons by predicting probable zones of air flow stagnation. The authors calculated the formation of probable air stagnation zones for various space-planning solutions by using a three-dimensional modelling system and the finite volume method. The paper developed a methodology for assessing the safety of storage facilities for light hydrocarbons in emergency situations, which is based on the analysis of probable air stagnation zones by using three-dimensional modelling systems. The practical significance of the study is determined by the additional development of a parameter for assessing the safety state of a storage facility for light hydrocarbons (Ks) and a resulting parameter (Kr) for calculating the optimal location of structures and their structural changes. Integration of stagnation zone sizes into a single formula with the results of other safety calculations is an urgent scientific and applied problem.

How to Determine the Dangerous Potential of Accidents to Domino Effect Detonation in a Hydrocarbon Processing Area?

The crude oil industry has been developed in recent decades due to the uses of this product, as well as its derivatives. One of the worst consequences phenomena that can occur in the process industry is the called domino effect. The domino effect or cascade effect occurs when an initiating event, such as a pool of fire or a vapor cloud explosion, causes a new number of accidents. Moreover, due to the importance of avoiding this phenomenon, the European Commission considers the domino effect analysis as mandatory for industrial facilities. There are methodologies in the specialized literature focused on quantifying the existing risks in the storage and processing of hydrocarbons. However, there is a tendency to develop new procedures that increase the risk perception of these accidents. In addition, it is necessary to develop a method that allows visualizing clearly and concisely the dangerous potential of fire and explosion accidents for the occurrence of the domino effect. Precisely, this research aims to predict the dangerous potential of fire and explosion accidents for the occurrence of the domino effect. For this purpose, a methodology consisting of three fundamental stages is developed. Finally, hydrocarbon storage and processing area is selected to apply the proposed methodology. Overall, the development of graphs that summarize information and show the dangerous potential regarding the escalation of fire and explosion accidents is vital in risk analysis. For the case study, the effectiveness of the same was demonstrated, since after its realization it was possible to increase the risk awareness of workers, technicians, and managers of the area taken as a case study.

Understanding the fractures connectivity control in NEB field, South Sumatra Basin: from seismic to geomechanics and Its Implication for further fractured basement exploration

The natural fractured basement reservoirs become an obsessive target in Jabung Block. Currently, there are two wells drilled in the block that targeting fractured basement reservoir. They are the NEB Base-1 well that located in western part of the NEB Field and the NEB Base-2 well which located 7 kilometers away to the East of NEB Base-1 well. The first well was technically success, however NEB Base-2 well shows no indication of hydrocarbon influx during the test. Interestingly, the fractures development in both wells shows almost the same condition of fractures orientation, dip-magnitude and fractures intensity. Furthermore, each fracture in both wells can be correlated into several zones, as they indicate similar fracture set orientation at each zone. These findings create a big question, why the similar fractures characters show a very different test result? This study is intended to have that question answered with the idea to focus on the following two workflows: the first is to re-evaluate the previous works starting from re-picking the seismic fault in detail. The second is to analyze the relationship between geomechanical forward modelling result with the structural evolution in Jabung Block through sandbox modelling. The geomechanical forward modelling in the NEB Field imply the critical stress stated that was predominantly located in the western part or within the NEB Base-1 area., This result is strongly correlate with the new basement fault map which shows an intensive faulting in the western area, and is characterized by couples of synthetic-antithetic Riedel shear as a result of the strike-slip faulting. In addition, the sandbox modelling shows a major oblique-slip fault movement was observed within the western area. Therefore, it can be concluded that the intensive strike slip fault plays an important role to enhance the connectivity between fault and fracture to the hydrocarbon storage as shown in the result of NEB Base-1 well. This idea could be used as a guidance to explore another fractured basement prospect within the block.

The Impact of Lanthanum and Zeolite Structure on Hydrocarbon Storage

Hydrocarbon traps can be used to bridge the temperature gap from the cold start of a vehicle until the exhaust after-treatment catalyst has reached its operating temperature. In this work, we investigate the effect of zeolite structure (ZSM-5, BEA, SSZ-13) and the effect of La addition to H-BEA and H-ZSM-5 on the hydrocarbon storage capacity by temperature-programmed desorption and DRIFT spectroscopy. The results show that the presence of La has a significant effect on the adsorption characteristics of toluene on the BEA-supported La materials. A low loading of La onto zeolite BEA (2% La-BEA) improves not only the toluene adsorption capacity but also the retention of toluene. However, a higher loading of La results in a decrease in the adsorbed amount of toluene, which likely is due to partial blocking of the pore of the support. High loadings of La in BEA result in a contraction of the unit cell of the zeolite as evidenced by XRD. A synergetic effect of having simultaneously different types of hydrocarbons (toluene, propene, and propane) in the feed is found for samples containing ZSM-5, where the desorption temperature of propane increases, and the quantity that desorbed increases by a factor of four. This is found to be due to the interaction between toluene and propane inside the structure of the zeolite.