Fingerprinting of Crude Oils for Pollution Control

Abstract

Total, demetallated porphyrins from selected “export” and “weathered” crude oils were analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The aim was to study the effect, if any, of oil weathering processes on the type and distribution of these compounds and hence, assess the applicability of their HPLC fingerprints in the area of pollution control. The results revealed that petroporphyrins are not readily susceptible to natural weathering processes and that their HPLC fingerprints may be applied to crude oil classification and could supplement other techniques of identifying oil pollutants.     

基于主成分和支持向量机浓度参量同步荧光光谱油种鉴别

基于浓度参量同步荧光光谱技术,对不同溢油类型不同油源原油样品集、引入外扰相似油源样品集进行光谱数据采集,获取其浓度同步荧光光谱矩阵Concentration-Synchronous-Matrix-Fluorescence(CSMF),利用主成分分析方法对两套不同层次的原油相关样品集进行了多类分类识别。结果表明:主成分载荷图可以很好地反映各个原油相关样品在油源上的相似程度,结合支持向量机可以实现不同溢油类型及不同油源原油的准确分类,对于引入风化和海水外扰相似油源溢油样品集,两类分类区分的结果远远高于多类分类识别的结果。通过详细的主成分分析讨论,为溢油油种鉴别提供了一种利用多类分类识别,逐步缩减嫌疑样本数量,最后通过两两分类实现溢油样品准确识别的新思路。     

综合模拟风化条件下渤海原油中生物标志物及多环芳烃风化规律研究

该文以渤海原油SZ36-1为研究对象进行综合模拟风化实验,探讨了原油中生物标志物及5类多环芳烃(PAHs)组分的分布情况及风化规律。结果表明:经过30 d风化,渤海原油SZ36-1中大部分生物标志物表现出强的稳定性,部分PAHs的分布发生较大改变,其中萘系列化合物损失最严重,相对浓度的损失达80.34%;菲、二苯并噻吩、、芴系列则相对稳定;经t检验分析风化样品测试数据,生物标志物诊断比值表现出良好的稳定性,所选取多环芳烃新诊断比值中,菲和系列、烷基取代二苯并噻吩类、烷基取代芴类的抗风化能力较强,可用于油源鉴别。     

Screening the origin and weathering of oil slicks by attenuated total reflectance mid-IR spectrometry

The combination of attenuated total reflectance-fourier transform mid-infrared spectrometry (ATR-FTMIR) and multivariate pattern recognition is presented as a fast and convenient methodology to ascertain the source product an oil slick comes from and to evaluate the extent of its weathering. Different types of hydrocarbons (including crude oils, several heavy distillates and the Prestige's heavy fuel oil) were spilled on metallic containers designed ad hoc and their fate monitored by ATR-FTMIR. Not only environmental conditions were considered for weathering but artificial IR- and UV-irradiation. Pattern-recognition studies revealed that the different hydrocarbons clustered at different locations on the score plots and that the samples corresponding to each oil became ordered according to the extent of their weathering. Among them, fuel oil samples coming from the recent disaster of the Prestige tanker off the Galician shoreline showed a distinctive behaviour. Comparison of natural-, IR- and UV-weathering of a crude oil showed that IR solar radiation can be important in oil-weathering, in addition to broadly-reported UV degradation.     

多环芳烃指纹用于渤海采油平台原油的鉴别

采用气相色谱/质谱方法,对渤海海上4个不同区块、5个平台的6口油井原油进行了烷基化多环芳烃系列化合物和美国环保署（EPA）优先控制多环芳烃系列化合物的准确定性定量分析。通过多环芳烃原始指纹谱图、多环芳烃组分分布模式和特征比值的比较对上述原油进行鉴别。结果证明不同区块的原油中多环芳烃指纹信息不尽相同,即使在同一平台不同油井中所产的原油其指纹也存在一定差异。为确保原油鉴别的准确性,分析过程中必须在仪器的稳定性和样品前处理方面实施严格的质量控制措施。     

利用光谱、质谱和色谱研究中国辽河油田西斜坡原油卟啉生物标志物的特征

在石油和含油岩石中存在着多种类型的生物标志化合物,石油卟啉就是其中的一种.近 年来,生物标志化合物的研究已构成石油勘探工作中的一个极为活跃的研究领域.通过各种 生物标志物类型、组成、分布以及相互关系等的探讨,可为石油的成因、原始有机质的来源、油源对比、运移路线以及沉积古地理环境等方面研究提供具有理论意义的重要信息.在多种类型生物标志物基础上作出的结论要比基于单独一类标志物得到的认识更有说服力.对于辽河原油来说,烷烃类型的生物标志物研究较多,而卟啉类生物标志物由于化学操作过程繁、难,因此研究的较少,至今尚未见到有关报道.本文在完成对石油卟啉标志物的提取、分离研究的基础上,利用紫外-可见光谱、质谱及高效液相色谱对辽河油田西斜坡原油中卟啉生物标志物的特征进行了研究.     

Surfactants treatment of crude oil contaminated soils

This study reports experimental measurements investigating the ability of a biological (rhamnolipid) and a synthetic (sodium dodecyl sulfate, SDS) surfactant to remove the North Sea Ekofisk crude oil from various soils with different particle size fractions under varying washing conditions. The washing parameters and ranges tested were as follows: temperature (5 to 50 degrees C), time (5 to 20 min), shaking speed (80 to 200 strokes/min), volume (5 to 20 cm3), and surfactant concentration (0.004 to 5 mass%). The contaminated soils were prepared in the laboratory by mixing crude oil and soils using a rotating cylindrical mixer. Two contamination cases were considered: (1) weathered contamination was simulated by keeping freshly contaminated soils in a fan assisted oven at 50 degrees C for 14 days, mimicking the weathering effect in a natural hot environment, and (2) nonweathered contamination which was not subjected to the oven treatment. The surfactants were found to have considerable potential in removing crude oil from different contaminated soils and the results were comparable with those reported in literature for petroleum hydrocarbons. The removal of crude oil with either rhamnolipid or SDS was within the repeatability range of +/-6%. The most influential parameters on oil removal were surfactant concentration and washing temperature. The soil cation exchange capacity and pH also influenced the removal of crude oil from the individual soils. However, due to the binding of crude oil to soil during weathering, low crude oil removal was achieved with the weathered contaminated soil samples.     

Environmentally weathered residues source diagnostic by high-molecular-weight polycyclic aromatic sulphur heterocycles

High-molecular-weight polycyclic aromatic sulphur heterocycles (HMPASH) were applied in a forensic chemical analysis to identify the source(s) of environmentally weathered residues polluting the beaches of the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, Egypt, and to assess their weathering trends. The HMPASH were investigated by Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry in residues and an Egyptian crude as a possible source oil. The dibenzothiophenes/naphthenodibenzothiophenes (DBE 9/DBE 10) parameter indicated that two studied residues were likely to have originated from Egyptian crude oils, whereas the third residue could have had a foreign source. The residues displayed different stages of weathering. HMPASH having double bond equivalent (DBE) 1–5 were more influenced by weathering processes than those having DBE 6–17, probably because they are aliphatic sulphides and not aromatic compounds.     

Comparison of single-reflection near-infrared and attenuated total reflection mid-infrared spectroscopies to identify and monitor hydrocarbons spilled in the marine environment

The capability of single-reflection near-IR (NIR) spectroscopy to differentiate, characterize and monitor the fate of a set of hydrocarbons spilled in the marine environment was compared with that of multiple-reflection horizontal attenuated total reflection mid-IR (ATR-MIR) spectroscopy. Multivariate pattern recognition techniques [principal component analysis (PCA), multivariate polynomial regression, cluster analysis and potential curves] were applied to unravel the major trends of the weathering processes of four generic types of crude oils and two heavy fuel oils spilled under controlled conditions for almost 4 months. A chemical interpretation of the NIR spectra related the weathering processes and the PCA loadings, which had not already been done in the literature. Weathering for both light and heavy products was characterized by a contrast among the linear aliphatic structures (more volatile and easy to degrade) and the branched and aromatic structures (more recalcitrant). Potential curves were applied to model each product and determine objectively whether unknown samples could be classified correctly. Polynomial regression on the PCA scores was employed to evaluate the time elapsed from the oil spillage to its sampling; this represents a new approach to assess the age of a hydrocarbon lump. In general, NIR spectroscopy yielded good results when light crude oils were studied, whereas ATR-MIR spectroscopy led to satisfactory results for both light and heavy products.     

Characteristics of bicyclic sesquiterpanes in crude oils and petroleum products

This study presents a quantitative gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis of bicyclic sesquiterpanes (BSs) in numerous crude oils and refined petroleum products including light and mid-range distillate fuels, residual fuels, and lubricating oils collected from various sources. Ten commonly recognized bicyclic sesquiterpanes were determined in all the studied crude oils and diesel range fuels with principal dominance of BS3 (C₁₅H₂₈), BS5 (C₁₅H₂₈) and BS10 (C₁₆H₃₀), while they were generally not detected or in trace in light fuel oils like gasoline and kerosene and most lubricating oils. Laboratory distillation of crude oils demonstrated that sesquiterpanes were highly enriched in the medium distillation fractions of ∼180 to 481 °C and were generally absent or very low in the light distillation fraction (boiling point to ∼180 °C) and the heavy residual fraction (>481 °C). The effect of evaporative weathering on a series of diagnostic ratios of sesquiterpanes, n-alkanes, and biomarkers was evaluated with two suites of weathered oil samples. The change of abundance of sesquiterpanes was used to determine the extent of weathering of artificially evaporated crude oils and diesel. In addition to the pentacyclic biomarker C₂₉ and C₃₀ αβ-hopane, C₁₅ and C₁₆ sesquiterpanes might be alternative internal marker compounds to provide a direct way to estimate the depletion of oils, particularly diesels, in oil spill investigations. These findings may offer potential applications for both oil identification and oil-source correlation in cases where the tri- to pentacyclic biomarkers are absent due to refining or environmental weathering of oils.     

A Multivariate Analysis on the Influence of Indigenous Crude Oil Components on the Quality of Produced Water. Comparison Between Bench and Rig Scale Experiments

A matrix of 30 crude oils have been analyzed to investigate if there is any correlation between the physiochemical properties of the crude oils and the quality of the produced water. As an approach to study produced water quality, oil. and brine water (3.5 wt%) have been mixed together, and transmission profiles from the separation process have been investigated by means of Turbiscan LAb. The Turbiscan LAb enables the study of stability of colloidal dispersions without any dilution or modification of the sample. The oil-in-water emulsions (30:70) were made by mixing oil and water at low speed to be sure that they separate within a short period of time. Drop size distributions were investigated for all crude oil emulsions by using a Coulter Counter (COULTER Multisizer II). The correlations between transmission profiles and crude oil characteristics were made by using principal component analysis (PCA), a method that helps visualize the most important information contained in a data set and find combinations of variables that describe major trends. A Vortoil K-liner hydrocyclone connected to a mixing rig has been used to separate oil and water in larger scale experiments. The objective with these experiments was to compare the results with separation experiments done at bench scale. Six crude oils have been investigated at the separation rig, and both droplet size distribution and dispersed oil concentration have been performed. The main conclusions from this work are that Turbiscan LAb is a suitable technique to study the separation of oil-in-water with good reproducibility. The results from the multivariate data analysis show that the crude oils group according to if they are light or heavy and according to if they get high or low transmission. From the larger scale experiments it has been shown that the droplet sizes, oil/water density differential, and viscosity have a significant impact on separation efficiency.     

Analysis of petroleum compositional similarity using multiway principal components analysis (MPCA) with comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatographic data

The accurate establishment of oil similarity is a longstanding problem in petroleum geochemistry and a necessary component for resolving the architecture of an oil reservoir. Past limitations have included the excessive reliance on a relatively small number of biomarkers to characterize such complex fluids as crude oils. Here we use multiway principal components analysis (MPCA) on large numbers of specific chemical components resolved with comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography-flame ionization detection (GC×GC-FID) to determine the molecular relatedness of eight different maltene fractions of crude oils. MPCA works such that every compound eluting within the same first and second dimension retention time is quantitatively compared with what elutes at that same retention times within the other maltene fractions. Each maltene fraction and corresponding MPCA analysis contains upwards of 3500 quantified components. Reservoir analysis included crude oil sample pairs from around the world that were collected sequentially at depth within a single well, collected from multiple depths in the same well, and from different depths and different wells but thought to be intersected by the same permeable strata. Furthermore, three different regions of each GC×GC-FID chromatograms were analysed to evaluate the effectiveness of MPCA to resolve compositional changes related to the source of the oil generating sediments and its exposure to biological and/or physical weathering processes. Compositional and instrumental artefacts introduced during sampling and processing were also quantitatively evaluated. We demonstrate that MPCA can resolve multi-molecular differences between oil samples as well as provide insight into the overall molecular relatedness between various crude oils.     

Evaluation of Water-in-Crude-Oil Emulsion Stability Using Critical Electric Field: Effect of Emulsion Preparation Procedure and Crude Oil Properties

The critical electrical field has been used as a tool to probe water in crude emulsion stability to electrical fields in many previous studies. Given the increasing importance of this metric, this study investigates factors that are important to the reproducibility of the measurement and the effect of emulsion preparation variables on the critical electric field. It was observed that the emulsion preparation procedure has a strong effect on the measured critical electric field due to droplet size effects. Furthermore, the effect of crude oil properties on the critical electric field was investigated using emulsions from different oils but with the same average droplet diameter, where it was found that the measurement was dominated by crude oil viscosity.     

触变性含蜡原油等温胶凝过程特性及模型研究

综合利用理论推导和流变实验方法对触变性含蜡原油的等温胶凝过程进行了详细的研究, 采用结构参数法建立了静态结构恢复模型, 并经实验结果证明该模型对多种原油的结构变化曲线均有较高的拟合精度. 同时以青海原油为例, 根据实验数据和拟合参数分析了含蜡原油等温胶凝过程特性. 结果表明, 随着温度的升高、预剪切速率的增大以及预剪切时间的增加, 原油在恒温静止过程中形成的结构强度均会减弱. 测量温度越高, 预剪切时间越长, 则原油的结构参数变化速率越大; 而预剪切速率越高, 原油结构参数变化速率在初始阶段越大, 在最终阶段反而越小, 但与未经剪切油样相比, 原油受剪切后其结构参数变化速率在整个测量时间范围内均偏大.     

原油及重油的快速分析技术进展

近年来,随着我国原油加工量的不断增加,加工难度的不断增大,原油快速评价问题日益受到重视.原油评价是指在全面分析原油的物理及化学性质的基础上,对原油的可加工性能及加工过程中可能出现的问题进行综合分析的过程.目前飞速发展的计算机技术及仪器分析技术,为原油快评技术奠定了良好的基础.该文以不同分析方法进行分类,介绍了近红外光谱(NIR)、中红外光谱(IR)、核磁共振波谱(NMR)及其他分析方法在原油和重油快速分析领域的技术进展.     

Experimental Study of Asphaltenes Flocculation Onset in Crude Oils Using the Densitometry Measurement Technique

The asphaltenes flocculation proceeds with changes of oil composition and causes significant losses in petroleum industry operations. The main objective of this work is to evaluate the reliability of the densitometry technique in studying experimentally the mechanism of aggregation and flocculation of asphaltenes occurring in crude oils. As asphaltene flocculation threshold in crude oils or mixture can be achieved by addition of n-heptane, various n-heptane concentrations were added to crude oil, and their effects have been investigated trough density measurements. Thereby, measurements were based on mixture of crude oil + toluene and cyclohexane + n-heptane, respectively. While asphaltene aggregates form clusters and flocculate, the mixture volumetric mass change and the reduced density of non-Newtonian fluids under investigation have been pointed out as one of appropriate measures of flocculation process. In particular, the curve representing the reduced density as function of the ratio between n-heptane concentration and concentration of crude oil under study featured a break point that well characterizes the flocculation threshold. Besides the quantity needed to initiate and to aggregate asphaltenes within crude oils, the amount required to completely achieve deposition of asphaltenes has also been identified. A quantity of 4 and 20 g of n-heptane per gram of crude oil was found necessary.     

Identification of sources of oil spills in soils and sediments by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry

Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry has been applied to the study of the residual oil contamination of the sediments in the area of an emergency mazut spill in an industrial enterprise. The contamination level appeared to be very high in nearly all samples collected within a rather wide area; however, the oil in the studied samples have undergone significant weathering; therefore, we have concluded that they had got into the sediments long before the spill under consideration or had been accumulating in them systematically for many years. The methodology of the identification of oil in soils taking into account their transfer and weathering is considered; it employs characteristics of the hydrocarbon type composition along with the individual marker compounds.     

混合溶剂火焰原子吸收法直接测定原油中的镍

混合溶剂火焰原子吸收法直接测定原油中的镍刘广东袁存光张丙华刘文钦（石油大学（华东），山东东营２５７０６２）彭力（中国石油天然气总公司环保处，北京１００７２４）关键词原油，混合溶剂，无机盐标准，原子吸收法，镍测定原油中，微量元素镍、钒、铁、铜的存在对...     

Laminar Flow Emulsification Process to Control the Viscosity Reduction of Heavy Crude Oils

The formation of heavy crude oil in water (O/W) emulsion by a low energy laminar controlled flow has been investigated. The emulsion was prepared in an eccentric cylinder mixer. Its geometry allows the existence of chaotic flows that are able to mix well highly viscous fluids. This new mixer design is used to produce high internal phase ratio emulsions for three oils: castor oil and two heavy crude oils of different initial viscosity (Zuata and Athabasca crude oils). The influence of the stirring conditions, geometrical parameters, and water volume fraction on the rheological properties of the resulting O/W emulsion is studied.