On November 22, 1997, a frost ring that signified product leakage was discovered on the bottom center of a tank car that was being unloaded at the Georgia Gulf Corporation chemical plant in Pasadena, Texas. The tank car contained 29,054 gallons of a propylene/propane mixture, a liquefied flammable gas. The tank car had been purged with cryogenic nitrogen on October 17, about a month before the accident. No injuries or fatalities were reported as a result of the failure of the tank car. Georgia Gulf estimated that approximately 52 gallons of the cargo were released. The safety issues discussed in this report are the need to safeguard tank cars adequately when they are being purged with nitrogen and the use of engineering analyses of the properties of tank car steels in the development o industry-recommended procedures for the purging of tank cars with nitrogen. As a result of its investigation, the National Transportation Safety Board issued recommendations to the Compressed Gas Association, Inc., the Federal Railroad Administration, and the Association of American Railroads.

'Fascinating revelations' Max Hastings, Sunday Times 'An immensely valuable guide to a great and terrible industry' The Economist 'The book I have long been waiting for... Essential reading' Michael Klare Petroleum has always been used by humans: as an adhesive by Neanderthals, as a waterproofing agent in Noah's Ark and as a weapon during the Crusades. Its eventual extraction from the earth in vast quantities transformed light, heat and power. A Pipeline Runs Through It is a fresh, in-depth look at the social, economic, and geopolitical forces involved in our transition to the modern oil age. It tells an extraordinary origin story, from the pre-industrial history of petroleum through to large-scale production in the mid-nineteenth century and the development of a dominant, fully-fledged oil industry by the early twentieth century. This was always a story of imperialist violence, economic exploitation and environmental destruction. The near total eradication of the Native Americans of New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio has barely been mentioned as a precondition for the emergence of the first oil region in the United States. The growth of Royal Dutch-Shell involved the genocidal subjugation of people of the Dutch East Indies and the exploitation of oil in the Middle East arose seamlessly out of Britain's prior political and military interventions in the region. Finally, in an entirely new analysis, the book shows how the British navy's increasingly desperate dependence on vulnerable foreign sources of oil may have been a catalytic ingredient in the outbreak of the First World War. The rise of oil has shaped the modern world, and this is the book to understand it.

This volume contains peer-reviewed manuscripts describing the scientific and technological advances presented at the 6th Natural Gas Conversion Sumposium held in Alaska in June 2001. This symposium continues the tradition of excellence and the status as the premier technical meeting in this area established by previous meetings.
The 6th Natural Gas Conversion Symposium is conducted under the overall direction of the Organizing Committee. The Program Committee was responsible for the review, selection, editing of most of the manuscripts included in this volum. A standing International Advisory Board has ensured the effective long-term planning and the continuity and technical excellence of these meetings.

In order to reduce the cost of running blast furnaces (BFs), injected pulverized coal is used rather than coke to fire BFs. As a result of this, unburned fine materials are blown with the gas into the bosh and dead man areas with possible detrimental effects on gas flow and permeability of the coke column. The capacity of the furnace to consume these particles by solution loss is probably one of the limitations to coal injection. It is, therefore, important to understand the physicochemical and aerodynamic behaviour of fines including the change of in-furnace phenomena.

The Committee of Pulverized Coal Combustion and In-Furnace Reaction in BF was set up in 1993 as a cooperative research of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) and the Iron and Steel Institute (ISIJ) to evaluate research initiative into this problem.

This book reports on the JSPS/ISIJ Committee's activities and describes the interpretation of findings drawn from combustion experiments and the results of live furnace applications, and furnace performance.

In the late 1890s, at the dawn of the automobile era, steam, gasoline, and electric cars all competed to become the dominant automotive technology. By the early 1900s, the battle was over and internal combustion had won. Was the electric car ever a viable competitor? What characteristics of late nineteenth-century American society led to the choice of internal combustion over its steam and electric competitors? And might not other factors, under slightly differing initial conditions, have led to the adoption of one of the other motive powers as the technological standard for the American automobile? David A. Kirsch examines the relationship of technology, society, and environment to choice, policy, and outcome in the history of American transportation. He takes the history of the Electric Vehicle Company as a starting point for a vision of an ""alternative" automotive system in which gasoline and electric vehicles would have each been used to supply different kinds of transport services. Kirsch examines both the support-and lack thereof-for electric vehicles by the electric utility industry. Turning to the history of the electric truck, he explores the demise of the idea that different forms of transportation technology might coexist, each in its own distinct sphere of service. A main argument throughout Kirsch's book is that technological superiority cannot be determined devoid of social context. In the case of the automobile, technological superiority ultimately was located in the hearts and minds of engineers, consumers and drivers; it was not programmed inexorably into the chemical bonds of a gallon of refined petroleum. Finally, Kirsch connects the historic choice of internal combustion over electricity to current debates about the social and environmental impacts of the automobile, the introduction of new hybrid vehicles, and the continuing evolution of the American transportation system.

Petroleum is not as easy to find as it used to be. In order to locate and develop reserves efficiently, it's vital that geologists and geophysicists understand the geological processes that affect a reservoir rock and the oil that is trapped within it. This book is about how and to what extent, these processes may be understood. The theme of the book is the characterization of fluids in sedimentary basins, understanding their interaction with each other and with rocks, and the application of this information to finding, developing and producing oil and gas. The first part of the book describes the techniques, and the second part relates real-life case histories covering a wide range of applications. Petroleum geology, particularly exploration, involves making the best of incomplete results. It is essentially an optimistic exercise. This book will remove some of the guesswork.
Brings together the most important geochemical methods in a single volume.
Authored by two well-respected researchers in the oil industry.
Real-life, international case histories.

During the oil-boom days of the early twentieth century, a few lucky or shrewd individuals made millions of dollars virtually overnight. It is a familiar theme in the romantic mythology that sprang up about the era. But the people who produced those millions are the real story, told in these word-for-word recollections of early-day workers in the ""oil patch."" In vivid, often poignant detail these men and women recall the grueling toil, primitive living and working conditions, and ever-present danger in a time when life was cheap and oil was gold. In the late 1930s employees of the Federal Writers Project, a branch of the New Deal Workers Progress Administration, recorded the voices of these pioneers as they offered their memories, sometimes wryly humorous and sometimes bitter, of the turmoil that was the daily lot of the oilfielders. We meet colorful, tough-talking ""Manila Kate,"" who took over her husband's drilling outfit after he died in an explosion. A welder vividly recalls the death of his closest pal, a skilled hand who loved to take chances. In an oil-field shantytown the support of good-hearted neighbors assuages the pain of a bereaved and impoverished family. A ""shooter"" recalls the deadly danger of the ""soup wagon"" the buckboard that delivered the nitroglycerin to the well - or blew up on the way. While many of the individuals witnessed bizarre accidents that became almost routine in the early oil fields, their personal stories also show how uncertain job security and wages could be, even before the Depression, when dry holes and plummeting oil prices left thousands of workers broke and homeless. Many of the interviewers provide valuable technical details about early oilfield operations. Yet it is the stories of the people, the workers themselves, that endure. The early oil industry was built upon their toil, their pain, and their courage, all of which are evident in every word recorded here.

A thorough introduction to environmental monitoring in the oil and gas industry Analytical Techniques in the Oil and Gas Industry for Environmental Monitoring examines the analytical side of the oil and gas industry as it also provides an overall introduction to the industry. You'll discover how oil and natural gas are sourced, refined, and processed. You can learn about what's produced from oil and natural gas, and why evaluating these sourced resources is important. The book discusses the conventional analyses for oil and natural gas feeds, along with their limitations. It offers detailed descriptions of advanced analytical techniques that are commercially available, plus explanations of gas and oil industry equipment and instrumentation. You'll find technique descriptions supplemented with a list of references as well as with real-life application examples. With this book as a reference, you can prepare to apply specific analytical methods in your organization's lab environment. Analytical Techniques can also serve as your comprehensive resource on key techniques in the characterization of oil and gas samples, within both refinery and environmental contexts. Understand of the scope of oil and gas industry techniques available Consider the benefits and limitations of each available process Prepare for applying analytical techniques in your lab See real examples and a list of references for each technique Read descriptions of off-line analytics, as well as on-line and process applications As a chemist, engineer, instructor, or student, this book will also expand your awareness of the role these techniques have in environmental monitoring and environmental impact assessments.

This book gathers selected papers from the 8th International Field Exploration and Development Conference (IFEDC 2018) and addresses a broad range of topics, including: Reservoir Surveillance and Management, Reservoir Evaluation and Dynamic Description, Reservoir Production Stimulation and EOR, Ultra-Tight Reservoirs, Unconventional Oil and Gas Resources Technology, Oil and Gas Well Production Testing, and Geomechanics. In brief, the papers introduce readers to upstream technologies used in oil & gas development, the main principles of the process, and various related design technologies. The conference not only provided a platform to exchange experiences, but also promoted the advancement of scientific research in oil & gas exploration and production. The book is chiefly intended for industry experts, professors, researchers, senior engineers, and enterprise managers.

Gasification is one of the most important advancements that has ever occurred in energy production. Using this technology, for example, coal can be gasified into a product that has roughly half the carbon footprint of coal. On a large scale, gasification could be considered a revolutionary development, not only prolonging the life of carbon-based fuels, but making them "greener" and cleaner. As long as much of the world still depends on fossil fuels, gasification will be an environmentally friendlier choice for energy production. But gasification is not just used for fossil fuels. Waste products that would normally be dumped into landfills or otherwise disposed of can be converted into energy through the process of gasification. The same is true of biofeedstocks and other types of feedstocks, thus making another argument for the widespread use of gasification. The Handbook of Gasification Technology covers all aspects of the gasification, in a "one-stop shop," from the basic science of gasification and why it is needed to the energy sources, processes, chemicals, materials, and machinery used in the technology. Whether a veteran engineer or scientist using it as a reference or a professor using it as a textbook, this outstanding new volume is a must-have for any library.

For a country accustomed to counting its resources in millions, or even billions, the unit of measure is almost too small to be of interest. But during a lunch break one day, Robert E. Hardwicke asked of his colleagues in the Petroleum Administration for War why American oil is measured by the 42-gallon barrel and no other. Why not 30, 36, or an even 50? No one present had the answer, but a dozen years later, and after extensive research, Hardwicke produced the answer for himself and all others in and out of the oil industry.

This book is of more than ordinary significance, for it tends to consolidate, in interesting and easily understandable terms, the history and definitions, not only of the now-standard oil barrel but also of the units that make it up and the legal pitfalls connected with it. It is a story full of oil-drilling lore--about odd-sized barrels in wagons for transporting the newly discovered petroleum in Pennsylvania in 1859; about Benedict Hagan, who supplied many an empty whiskey barrel to the producers at Oil Run; about Nelly Bly, who is more redoubtable to the oil industry for having been the "mother of steel barrels" than for besting Phileas Fogg's time in circling the globe; about the scientific struggle for accuracy in gauging oil.

"The Oilman's Barrel" has important meaning for historians, metrologists, petroleum lawyers and executives, coopers, distillers, and the petroleum industry generally.

Lukas Pehle beschaftigt sich mit der transienten thermischen und strukturmechanischen Analyse einer 19-stufigen Mitteldruck-Dampfturbine. Dafur errechnet und bewertet er Zeitdauern und auftretende Spannungen, um ein breites Spektrum an Vorwarm-Szenarien beschreiben zu koennen. Das dabei verwendete und weiterentwickelte Festkoerpermodell wird an experimentellen Daten kalibriert, um im Anschluss eine Parameterstudie durchfuhren zu koennen. Mithilfe des untersuchten Konzepts des Vorwarmens von Dampfturbinen koennen thermisch induzierte Spannungen beim Kraftwerksstart verringert werden. Dieses Buch leistet aufgrund der dadurch flexibleren Kraftwerke einen wichtigen Beitrag zur Versorgungssicherheit nach der Energiewende, also fur den UEbergang von fossilen Energietragern und der Kernenergie zu einer nachhaltigen Energieversorgung mittels erneuerbarer Energien.

With the oil and gas industry facing new challenges-deeper offshore installations, more unconventional oil and gas transporting through pipelines, and refinery equipment processing these opportunity feedstocks--new corrosion challenges are appearing, and the oil and gas industry's infrastructure is only as good as the quality of protection provided and maintained. Essentials of Coating, Painting, and Linings for the Oil, Gas, and Petrochemical Industries is the first guide of its kind to directly deliver the necessary information to prevent and control corrosion for the components on the offshore rig, pipelines underground and petrochemical equipment. Written as a companion to Cathodic Corrosion Protection Systems, this must-have training tool supplies the oil and gas engineer, inspector and manager with the full picture of corrosion prevention methods specifically catered for oil and gas services. Packed with real world case studies, critical qualifications, inspection criteria, suggested procedure tests, and application methods, Essentials of Coating, Painting, and Linings for the Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Industries is a required straightforward reference for any oil and gas engineer and manager.

Research in environmental justice reveals that low-income and minority neighbourhoods in our nation's cities are often the preferred sites for landfills, power plants, and polluting factories. Those who live in these sacrifice zones are forced to shoulder the burden of harmful environmental effects so that others can prosper. Mountains of Injustice broadens the discussion from the city to the country by focusing on the legacy of disproportionate environmental health impacts on communities in the Appalachian region, where the costs of cheap energy and cheap goods are actually quite high.
Through compelling stories and interviews with people who are fighting for environmental justice, Mountains of Injustice contributes to the ongoing debate over how to equitably distribute the long-term environmental costs and consequences of economic development.

There have been many books on the topic of Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) over the last 100 years. They all, however, focus on how to recover more oil faster, taking a rather myopic approach. The solutions presented all work fantastically in theory and even in the laboratory, but each fails to produce results in the field with long-term success. The petroleum industry is almost resigned to the belief that for an EOR technique to be successful, it must be propped up with public funds or must compromise environmental integrity. In line with modern engineering practices, previous books discuss how existing technologies can be tweaked to accommodate for any shortcomings that just came to light. This book is unlike any other book on the topic of recovery in particular and engineering in general. This groundbreaking volume is a continuation of the author's and his research group's work that started publishing on the subject of global sustainability involving energy and the environment, dating back to early 2000s. Starting with a paradigm shift in engineering that involves a long-term focus, rather than looking for short-term solutions, the methods and theories presented here delve into applying green engineering and zero waste principles to EOR. Historically, EOR has received mixed success, mainly because innovations in these disciplines relied heavily on processed materials, which are both uneconomical and toxic to the environment. This book explains how engineers missed entirely the causes of unsustainability in these technologies due to the prevalence of many myths that are embedded in modern engineering. Once these myths are deconstructed, the appropriate technologies emerge and the merits of them both in terms of economic and environmental benefits become clear. The book reveals how previous practices in EOR can be replaced with their sustainable versions while saving in material costs. A number of innovative technologies are introduced that can render well known technologies, such as steam flood, in situ combustion, chemical flooding, and microbial EOR environmentally sustainable and economically attractive. A triple dividend is received once these technologies are applied in otherwise marginal reservoirs, unconventional plays and even abandoned formations. The overall reserve, which reflects recoverable oil with new technologies, goes up drastically. Further benefits are drawn when processes such as value addition of waste material is performed. Overall this book shows how EOR can be rendered green while increasing the profitability. This is in stark contrast to the past practices that considered environmental integrity as a drain on profitability. This book proves that a paradigm shift can turn a "technological disaster" into a technological marvel.

The government documents included in this book are comprised of reports and testimonies from June 2018 to September 2018 on research and development in the United States. The first report examines research and development projects started from 2010 through 2017 on advanced fossil energy. For over 100 years, three fossil fuel sources -- coal, oil and natural gas -- have made up at least 80% of total US energy consumption. While fossil fuels are associated with some negative environmental impacts a such as carbon dioxide emissions, the predominance of coal, oil and natural gas is likely to continue into the future. The second report focuses on considerations for maintaining US competitiveness in Quantum Computing, Synthetic Biology and other potentially transformational research advances. Federal support in such areas can accelerate innovation and drive technological advances and promote US competitiveness in the global economy. The third and final report focuses on additional actions needed to improve licensing of patented laboratory inventions. The GAO was asked to review agency practices for managing inventions developed at federal labs, with a particular focus on patent licensing. This report examines the challenges in licensing patents and steps take to address and report them.

Lignocellulosic biomass conversion to fuel is the only sustainable way to meet the current and future energy demands, at least in displacing a substantial amount of liquid transportation fuel, and curb detrimental effects of greenhouse gas emissions. Various routes and processes to convert lignocellulosic biomass to fuels, chemicals, and bio-based materials have been developed in the last couple of decades. This book contains eleven chapters that intend to provide readers with updates on these various processes and routes to produce fuels and chemicals using lignocellulosic biomass. In addition, it covers the past and current developments on biomass logistics, analytical tools applied to characterise lignocellulosic biomass, environmental aspects and engine performance of various fuels, as well as techno-economical aspects of lignocellulosic biomass refinery. The following list summarises the topics covered in this book: The past and current developments on biomass valorisation in biochemical platforms; Developments in thermochemical conversion of biomass to fuels and chemicals including gasification, pyrolysis, and hydrothermal treatment; Heterogeneous catalysts application in low to high temperature conversion of biomass to fuels and chemicals; Pathways of lignin valorisation to fuels and chemicals; Production methods and the physicochemical properties of nanocelluloses; The environmental impacts and engine performances of various bio-fuels; Biomass logistics and their impact on bioenergy applications; Anaerobic conversion of biomass to biogas and impacts of co-digestion on biogas yields and quality.

According to Department of Energy (DOE) and industry expectations, in the next few years the United States is expected to change from a net importer of natural gas to a net exporter, with those exports destined for different regions of the world, especially Asia. More than 30 companies have received approval from DOE for large-scale exports of U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) -- natural gas cooled for transportation -- beginning in 2015 or 2016 via specialized LNG carriers. Congress is considering whether to propose legislative language that would require U.S. LNG be exported via U.S.-built-and-flagged carriers with the goal of supporting U.S. shipbuilders and mariners. This book discusses DOE and industry expectations for the market for U.S. LNG exports and how the proposed requirement could affect jobs in the U.S. maritime industry and the broader U.S. economy.

Waste biomass includes agricultural residues, livestock wastes, municipal wastes and industrial organic wastes. It should be utilised or otherwise, it will cause the pollution of water, soil and even the atmosphere. Gas biofuels have attracted growing attention as a renewable and clean energy carrier. Gas biofuels include biogas, biohydrogen and its mixture i.e. biohythane, which can be produced via anaerobic fermentation or other processes from waste biomass. This book focuses on the principles of gas biofuels in terms of types of biofuels, biomass species, and reactor configuration and production pathway. A number of books focus on the production of biogas or biohydrogen alone. In comparison, this book emphasizes the interactions and common knowledge of both. In addition, the potential of new technologies, such as microbial electrochemical technologies, and two-stage fermentation on gas biofuel production are highlighted and specifically discussed based on the authors' research basis. This book provides a state-of-the-art technological insight into the production of gas biofuels from waste biomass. Specifically, this book consists of three parts. In Part I, the principles for gas biofuels production from waste biomass, including biogas production (Chapter 1) and biohydrogen production (Chapter 2). Part II focuses on the technical advances on gas biofuels production. Pre-treatment of biomass was firstly introduced in Chapter 3, whereas the advances of biogas production from high-solid wastes were discussed in Chapter 4 and Chapter 5. In comparison, biohydrogen production is reviewed not only through dark fermentation (Chapter 6) but also emerging microbial electrochemical technology (Chapter 7). The co-production of biohydrogen and biomethane is reviewed in Chapter 8. In addition to the utilisation of carbon and hydrogen stored in biomass, nutrients recycling through algae technology is discussed in Chapter 9. Part III discusses the scale-up and industrialization of biofuels. An industrial case is introduced to analyse the bottlenecks and perspectives for development of gas biofuels.

The United States has seen resurgence in petroleum production, mainly driven by technology improvements -- especially hydraulic fracturing and directional drilling -- developed for natural gas production from shale formations. Application of these technologies enabled natural gas to be economically produced from shale and other unconventional formations, and contributed to the United States becoming the world's largest natural gas producer in 2009. This book focuses on the growth in U.S. oil and natural gas production driven primarily by tight oil formations and shale gas formations. It reviews selected federal environmental regulatory and research initiatives related to unconventional oil and gas extraction, including the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) proposed hydraulic fracturing rule and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) actions. The book also provides a technological assessment of existing and emerging water procurement and management practices in shale energy producing regions of the United States.

Some Members of Congress have expressed concern about storage and management of petroleum coke (petcoke) in their districts. Despite a lack of data on observed health impacts, local concerns have included potential human health and environmental impacts of fugitive dusts and runoff into waterways. Broader concerns have also been raised about the carbon dioxide (greenhouse gas) emissions from petcoke combustion. This book discusses the petcoke issues, small refinery opportunities and provides a background on the industry.

It is a well-known fact that since the start of industrial crude oil extraction, some 150 years ago, the United States has consistently been the nation that consumes a greater proportion of the global production of that precious liquid fuel. What may be less obvious for many, nowadays, is that for most of that period the US was also the country with higher crude oil production. This handbook provides recent research on oil production.