Sharif Digital Repository

Asphaltene precipitation is known to be responsible for serious challenges in oil industry such as wellbore damage, oil flow reduction, and plugging of transportation lines. The traditional methods to remove asphaltene deposition are mostly based on chemical solvent. One of the recent proposed green and cost–effect remedial methods is the application of microorganisms capable of consuming the heavy hydrocarbon chains. The cell surface hydrophobicity among others effectively manipulates the efficiency of the microorganism for asphaltene degradation. Besides, surface active agents would affect the microorganism adhesion and cell surface properties, and alters its hydrophobicity. Investigating... 

Pulsating heat pipes are cooling devices that are partially filled with working fluid. Working fluid thermophysical properties affect the thermal performance of pulsating heat pipes. In this research, the effect of adding a Triton X-100 surfactant to pure water and using the mixture as a working fluid is investigated experimentally. The results indicate that adding surfactant leads to improvement in the thermal performance of the pulsating heat pipe. In particular, the maximum of the thermal resistance improvement is about 61%, which is attributed to 0.01% surfactant concentration. Higher heat transfer ability is attributed to lower surface tension and the contact angle of the mixture... 

Mass transfer rates to the drops in liquid-liquid extraction equipment are often likely to be reduced by the presence of surface active contaminants. This reduction in mass transfer is said to be due to a reduction in terminal velocity, and to changes in pattern of internal circulation. A single-drop extraction apparatus was used to investigate the dependency of mass transfer coefficient on the amount of surfactant added in a system of n-butanol/succinic acid/water. Three types of surfactants, SDS, DTMAC and Triton X-100, were used to study their effects on the inhibition of mass transfer in liquid-liquid extraction. The effect of surfactants concentration on extraction percentage, overall... 

Rheological behavior of two crude oils and their surfactant-stabilized emulsions with initial droplet sizes ranging from 0.5 to 75 μm were investigated at various temperatures under steady and dynamic shear testing conditions. In order to evaluate the morphology and Stability of emulsions, microscopic analysis was carried out over three months and average diameter and size distribution of dispersed droplets were determined. The water content and surfactant concentration ranged from 10 to 60% vol/vol and 0.1 to 10% wt/vol, respectively. The results indicated that the rheological properties and the physical structure and stability of emulsions were significantly influenced by the water content... 

Although alkaline-surfactant-polymer flooding is proved to be efficient for oil recovery from heavy oil reservoirs, the displacements mechanism/efficiency of this process in fractured systems needs to more discussion, especially in five-spot patterns. In this work, several ASP flooding test were performed on fractured micromodels which were initially saturated with heavy oil at constant flow rate and different fracture geometrical characteristics conditions. The ASP solutions are constituted from 5 polymers i.e. four synthetic polymers include three hydrolyzed polyacrylamide with different molecular weight as well as a non-hydrolyzed polyacrylamide and a biopolymer, 2 surfactants i.e. a... 

Alkalis, surfactants and/or polymers are usually injected in the injector wells so that the injection fluids can sweep through the reservoir and mobilize/recover more oil. However, the formation of stable emulsion due to the residual chemicals in the recovered crude oil poses problems in the primary separation process. This study focuses on the effect of Alkali-Surfactant-Polymer injection on creaming and coalescence of crude oil and water emulsion produced in the primary gravity separator. In addition, a model is developed in this work to predict the separation effectiveness of oil and water emulsion containing ASP. In this work, the effect of ASP on the stability and the separation of... 

Alkalis, surfactants and/or polymers are usually injected in the injector wells so that the injection fluids can sweep through the reservoir and mobilize/recover more oil. However, the formation of stable emulsion due to the residual chemicals in the recovered crude oil poses problems in the primary separation process. This study focuses on the effect of Alkali-Surfactant-Polymer injection on creaming and coalescence of crude oil and water emulsion produced in the primary gravity separator. In addition, a model is developed in this work to predict the separation effectiveness of oil and water emulsion containing ASP. In this work, the effect of ASP on the stability and the separation of... 

The interfacial properties of crude oil are highly complex and are not yet well understood. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of temperature (30-80°C) and pressure (3.44-27.58MPa) on the dynamic interfacial tension (IFT) of crude oil/aqueous solutions consisting of 15000ppm of salt containing different chloride anions, e.g. NaCl, KCl, MgCl2, and CaCl2. To reach this goal, several parameters, such as dynamic and equilibrium IFT, adsorption time, diffusivity of resin, and asphaltene as surface-active agents from bulk of crude oil towards fluid/fluid interface and surface excess concentration of them at the interface, were compared as a function of temperature, pressure, and ion type. The... 

The interfacial properties of crude oil are highly complex and are not yet well understood. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of temperature (30–80 °C) and pressure (3.44–27.58 MPa) on the dynamic interfacial tension (IFT) of crude oil/aqueous solutions consisting of 15 000 ppm of salt containing different chloride anions, e.g. NaCl, KCl, MgCl2, and CaCl2. To reach this goal, several parameters, such as dynamic and equilibrium IFT, adsorption time, diffusivity of resin, and asphaltene as surface-active agents from bulk of crude oil towards fluid/fluid interface and surface excess concentration of them at the interface, were compared as a function of temperature, pressure, and ion type.... 

A newly-designed surfactant was formulated to tolerate the harsh conditions of oil reservoirs, including high salinity of the formation brine and temperature. The specific emulsion and interfacial tension (IFT) behavior of this new surface active agent were investigated by performing emulsion stability tests, emulsion size analysis, and IFT behavior in the presence of four different types of alkalis. Image processing was utilized to analyze the droplet size distribution using microscopic images of the samples. The results show that depending on the composition of the mixtures, the optimum phase region and interfacial tension behavior change considerably. Solutions containing a higher... 

This study deals with the large-scale production of biosurfactant from soybean oil soapstock by Pseudomonas aeruginosa MR01. The production of biosurfactant was carried out in a newly designed bioreactor equipped with recycling flow under three operational conditions. Kinetic studies were conducted at both shake flask and 5-L bioreactor scales during fermentation in a soapstock medium. Mathematical equations were developed to model the kinetic patterns at both scales. RESULT: Statistical analyses demonstrated the goodness of fit, with regression r-squared, R2, between 0.97and 0.99 for different models. Furthermore, biosurfactant concentration in the bioreactor including the recycling flow,... 

In this study, we have investigated the potential of a native bacterial strain isolated from an Iranian oil field for the production of biosurfactant. The bacterium was identified to be Bacillus mycoides by biochemical tests and 16S ribotyping. The biosurfactant, which was produced by this bacterium, was able to reduce the surface tension of media to 34. mN/m. Compositional analysis of the produced biosurfactant has been carried out by thin layer chromatography (TLC) and FT-IR. The biosurfactant produced by the isolate was characterized as lipopeptide derivative. Biosurfactant production was optimized by the combination of central composite design (CCD) and response surface methodology... 

Fungal delignification can be considered as a feasible process to pre-treat lignocellulosic biomass in biofuel production, if its performance is improved in terms of efficiency thorough a few modifications. In this study, Trichoderma viride was utilized to investigate the effect of wet-milling, addition of surfactant (Tween 80) and optimization of operating factors such as temperature, biomass to liquid medium ratio and glucose concentration on biodelignification of rice straw. Next, the enzymatic hydrolysis of pretreated biomass was studied at various pretreatment times. Results revealed that the wet milling and addition of surfactant increases the lignin removal about 15% and 11%,... 

In the present study, an aqueous root-extract of Acanthophyllum laxiusculum (AREAL) was evaluated for phenanthrene removal from two samples of contaminated soil. AREAL showed a linear solubilization enhancement for phenanthrene with a weight solubilization ratio of 0.05. Batch soil washing experiments caused the removal of phenanthrene with efficiencies of 96.7% and 78% from soils with 0.78% and 2.73% organic carbon, respectively. Desorption kinetics of phenanthrene exhibited a twophase pattern, namely, a rapid release as the initial phase and a slower removal as a subsequent phase. A two-compartment exponential model could adequately represent the two phases of the kinetic pattern of... 

Metal matrix composite coatings have gained great attention due to their exclusive properties. They have shown the properties of a metallic host material modified by addition of a second phase. In electrodeposition of Ni/WC nano composite, nickel was deposited on the substrates by DC electrodeposition in Watt's based bath containing nickel sulfate, nickel chloride, boric acid and sodium dodecyl sulfate. WC content in the coating was determined by different parameters such as current density, powder content and surfactant amount. Mechanism of electrodeposition was analyzed by cyclic voltammetry and was confirmed by Guglielmi model. Surface morphology was studied by scanning electron... 

Electrochemical deposition of aluminum from basic and acidic molten NaCl-KCl-AlCl3 mixture on a graphite electrode at 140 °C was studied by voltammetry, chronopotentiometry and constant current deposition. The deposition of aluminum was found to proceed via a nucleation/growth mechanism in basic melt, while it was found to be diffusion controlled in acidic melt. The diffusion coefficient calculated for Al2Cl- 7 ions in acidic melt by voltammetry was in agreement with the deductions of voltammetry. The morphology of the aluminum deposits was examined using a metallographic microscope and by SEM. It was shown that, depending on the current density (c.d.) and AlCl3 concentration (acidic or... 

A composite film constructed of surfactant doped over-oxidized polypyrrole and multi-walled carbon nanotube was prepared on the surface of glassy carbon electrode by the electro-polymerization method. Surface characterization of the modified electrode was performed by scanning electron microscopy, cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectrometry. The investigations have been proved that the over-oxidation of the modifier film resulted in a porous thin layer that improves the interlayer diffusion mechanism for the electroactive species. On the other hand, the negative charge density on the surface of the electrode excludes the negative analytes (e.g. ascorbate and Fe(CN)63?/4?)... 

Ni-TiN nanocomposite coatings were prepared by using electrochemical deposition in a Watt's bath containing TiN particles to increase the hardness of Ni. The effects of deposition current density, electrolyte agitation speed and the number of particles in the solution on the amount of incorporated particles in the coating process were investigated. The optimum deposition current density of 4 A dm-2 and agitation speed of 450 rpm were obtained. The effect of sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) anionic surfactant on the amount of particles in the coatings was investigated. It was observed that the maximum amount of incorporated particles, with a value of 7.5% by volume, was created in the current... 

A bacterial strain, FBHYA2, capable of degrading naphthalene, was isolated from the American Petroleum Institute (API) separator of the Tehran Oil Refinery Complex (TORC). Strain FBHYA2 was identified as Achromobacter sp. based on physiological and biochemical characteristics and also phylogenetic similarity of 16S rRNA gene sequence. The optimal growth conditions for strain FBHYA2 were pH 6.0, 30°C and 1.0% NaCl. Strain FBHYA2 can utilize naphthalene as the sole source of carbon and energy and was able to degrade naphthalene aerobically very fast, 48 h for 96% removal at 500 mg/L concentration. The physiological response of Achromobacter sp., FBHYA2 to several hydrophobic chemicals... 

The mass-transfer characteristics of a new type of two-impinging-streams reactor (TISR) was studied by means of sodium sulfite solution as the liquid phase and air as the gas phase, in the presence and absence of various types of surface-active agents (SAAs). The influences of anionic, cationic, and nonionic SAAs on the specific interfacial area and overall volumetric mass-transfer coefficient obtained in the TISR were investigated. It was found that the presence of a little amount of the above-mentioned contaminants increases the specific interfacial area and decreases the overall volumetric mass-transfer coefficient. On the basis of the experimental results obtained for various types of...