No abstract available

[en] This PowerPoint slide presentation described the reality of financing the Canadian oil and gas industry with particular reference to current financing levels and changes in energy and production companies. Several graphs were included which depicted equity supply and demand issues, investment dealer changes, new securities, and new equities in the past decade. A list of both American and Canadian/Royalty Trust acquisitions was included and historical financing activities for Ulster and Newport were listed. 4 tabs., 4 figs

[en] Attock Refinery Limited (ARL) is based at Rawalpindi, Pakistan and operates a 40,000 Barrels per Stream Day (BPSD) refinery. The Heavy Crude Unit (HCU) of ARL is a fully integrated two-stage 10,000 BPSD Atmospheric and 5,700 BPSD Vacuum Distillation Unit. A 3-stage desalter designed to reduce salt and BS and W content from 2,000 parts per thousand barrels (PTB) and 2% to less than 5 PTB and 0.1% respectively, is part of HCU. The feedstock is a composite blend of 14 local Heavy Crudes received at the Refinery. Although in the past this desalter had been giving good performance, over the last one year, period since August 2005, at least nine shutdowns of the unit took place due to salt slippage and consequential tube leakages at the overhead Crude-Naphtha vapor Heat Exchanger where partial condensation of naphtha takes place. Final condensation is achieved in trim condenser. High salted water carry-over with the crude caused increased hydrolysis, formation of Hydrochloric acid and increase of tail water chlorides. Salt contents at the outlet of third desalter at times increased up to 400 PTB with 3.2% BS and W during the above mentioned upsets, as compared to normal 5-10 PTB. Fallout from this loss of desalter control was the creation of large quantities of slop due to draining of strong water oil emulsion from the desalters. Individual crudes of the blend were analyzed for affinity of water and emulsion stability. It was observed that 3 of the 14 crudes formed very strong while the remaining crudes formed weak oil water emulsion, which easily separated water from oil in desalter without any operational problem. Study was further narrowed down to one crude evaluation. Alkaline earth metallic naphthenate surfactants were detected and isolated as responsible for the strong water oil and sediments emulsion. The isolated crude was next withdrawn from the Heavy Crude blend. As soon as it was isolated and its ratio in heavy crude tank came down to 0.7 %, the problem began to be controlled, along with other operational measures taken, namely, increase of demulsifier dosage 50 liters/day in first desalter vessel and also 10 liters/ day in third desalter vessel, start of low chlorides tail water injection in desalter wash water, discontinuation of ammonia injection, and addition of Neutralizer and Filmer. This paper gives a detailed analysis of the problem and how it was successfully tackled by the Engineers and Chemists at ARL. (author)

[en] Surface depletion was investigated in laboratory- and plant-scale distillation units with mixing by natural convection or by mechanical surface agitation. A model was developed for predicting the degree of surface depletion during the distillation of metals from bismuth as a function of temperature, still pot dimensions, and degree of agitation. This paper discusses those findings

No abstract available

[en] Some European experts on normalization of transport fuels have recently suggested the suppression of the cetane-number limitation from the European biodiesel norm when its final destination is blending with diesel fuel. Although this measure should not affect the range of oils used for biodiesel production (only few of them lead to biodiesel fuels with cetane numbers below this limit), the trend of cetane number to decrease with increasing unsaturation could reinforce the arguments to maintain the iodine-number limitation as an indirect limit for the cetane number. The iodine number has frequently been subjected to controversy because its stringent limitation in Europe prevents from using differently unsaturated fatty oils for biodiesel production. Some of the arguments in favour of extending or eliminating the iodine-number limitation in the norm are exposed here. Previously, a correlation for the estimation of the cetane number based on a literature review is proposed. From this correlation, a procedure is proposed for the estimation of the limiting effect of the current cetane-number limitation on the unsaturation degree of biodiesel fuels. Finally, the impact of the elimination of the cetane-number limitation on the use of different oils for biodiesel production is analyzed.

[en] From cost to availability, the fact sheet presents the various the advantages of using biodiesel fuel in fleet vehicles. It also offers a number of real-life success stories

[en] An overview of the Asia-Pacific petrol and diesel markets is presented covering the diesel demand and quality in the sub regions of Australia/New Zealand, East Asia (Japan, China), South Asia, and Southeast Asia (Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Singapore) and the trend towards lower sulphur diesels in Asia. Plots are presented illustrating Asia-Pacific diesel demand by regional submarket (1985-2005), the steady reductions in Asia-Pacific diesel sulphur levels (1990-2000), and the average sulphur content and tpd sulphur in Asian diesel

[en] Remote communities in northern Canada are seen by those in both the Small Modular Reactor (SMR) and renewable energy communities as ideal locations for deployment. By replacing diesel generation with more cost efficient and low-carbon power generation technologies, remote sites can realize both economic and societal benefits. Though vSMRs (very Small Modular Reactors) are rapidly approaching readiness for deployment, many remote areas have also considered or are investigating renewable power generation technologies as an interim measure to address power generation issues. While SMR and renewable technologies are very different, it is possible for them to co-exist on the same micro-grid while providing both redundancy and cost effectiveness. However, challenges exist in integrating renewables with nuclear power on small micro-grids. These includes generation dispatching, addressing requirements for backup power, and proving the business case for the deployment of multiple generation technologies. A summary of the considerations for deployment of these types of power solutions is presented along with an LCOE estimate for a representative hybrid vSMR-wind-storage system. (author)

[en] Multiple electrostatic electrifications during aircraft fuelling process may cause a fire disaster or explosion, so study on the protection measure for electrostatic electrification is very important for the security of aircraft fuelling. This paper investigated the electrostatic voltage and charge of the fuel nozzle and metal parts during the fuel spraying by self-designed jet kerosene spraying electrostatic electrification test system. The experimental results indicate that the voltage on the fuel nozzle and metal parts is very dangerous for electrostatic safety if they are not reliably grounded.