Oil Imports Raise Security Concern

Economic researchers have raised fresh concernsover China's energy security with crude-oil importsexpected to hit a record 80 million metric tons thisyear. Alarmed by the growing dependence on oil im-ports, they are urging for multi-pronged measures todevelop new energy sources to prevent potential short-ages hurting the country's robust economic growth.     

Profits Gush for Offshore Oil Firm

China National Offshore Oil Corp’s profits surgedby 85.6 per cent year-on-year in the first five monthsof 2003 despite the outbreak of SARS that loweredoil demand since April.Profits jumped to 6.4 bil-lion yuan(US＄773.8 million)during the period onthe back of strong oil prices.Oil production reached     

Large Oil Reserves Found in Bohai Bay

Exploration teams have found the Bohai Bay Basin of North China may contain 20.5 billion tons of offshore oil reserves, with 9 billion tons already proven, experts said.     

Sinopec Steps up Oil and Gas Exploration

China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group) will spend more on oil and gas exploration, both at home and abroad. The increased investment aims to alleviate the company's heavy reliance on oil imports. Between 2001 and 2005, the company intends to invest 10 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion) to explore for overseas oil and gas and purchase assets. The investment focuses on West Asia, North Africa, Central Asia, West Africa and Southeast Asia. It is expected that the company will get 2-3 million tons of oil through its overseas initiatives by the year 2005.Seeking overseas oil resources is an important method for Sinopec Group to expand its oil reserves, and the shortage of upstream oil resources has be-     

Viscoelastic Properties of Crude Oil Components at Oil‐Water Interfaces. 2: Comparison of 30 Oils

The dilational properties of diluted (0.7 vol/vol in toluene) and undiluted crude oil‐water interfaces have been studied using the oscillation drop method with the objective of understanding the properties contributing to the overall stability of crude oil emulsions. The importance of working with undiluted crude oils instead of model systems when dilational properties of real oil‐water systems are going to be reproduced in the laboratory setting has been discussed. For such studies, molecular exchange mechanisms and the aggregation state of asphaltenes are too dependent on concentration to justify the use of model compounds, i.e. fractionated asphaltenes diluted in a solvent. As expected in the low frequency range (0.01–1 Hz), molecular exchange from the bulk oil phase strongly affected the measured dilational parameters. For the diluted crude oils, the frequency dependence of the dilational modulus increased with its magnitude. The systems that exhibited particularly low magnitude of the dilational modulus were of the heaviest crude oils in the sample set, whereas the systems with greatest dilational modulus were among the lightest crude oils. The overall characteristic time of relaxation of the crude oil‐water interfaces was in the range below 10 seconds. The undiluted crude oil‐water interfaces had similar interfacial properties as the diluted samples except for slightly reduced magnitude of the dilational modulus. The crude oil‐water interfaces appeared to be soluble, but some observations pointed to intrinsic rheological properties of the interfaces. Intrinsic elasticity and viscosity of the films should be studied outside the frequency range used here at low (ω～0 Hz) and high (ω→500 Hz), respectively.     

Investigation of Oil–Asphaltene Slurry Rheological Behavior

The presence of asphaltene means additional difficulties related to transport and processing due to the increased crude oil viscosity caused by the asphaltene. For a better knowledge of the flow properties of asphaltene containing crude oils, it is necessary to understand how asphaltene affects the rheological properties. The aim of this article is to provide information on such rheological properties of oil–asphaltene slurry systems. The results of rheological experiments show that the non-Newtonian flow curves can be approximated by the Bingham plastic model to determine the apparent viscosity and the yield stress as a function of asphaltene concentration and temperature. An explanation is also provided for the observed behavior.     

Oil Company Planning New LNG Project in Zhejiang

China National Offshore Oil Corporation,China‘s third-largest oil and gas company,will build the country‘s third liquefied natural gas (LNG)project in energy-starved East China‘s Zhejiang Province.     

CNOOC Makes Oil Findings in South China Sea

China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) Limited announced Wednesday that a wildcat drilled on Huizhou 26-3 in the Pearl River Mouth Basin of South China Sea was successful.     

The Anhydride-Amic Acid-Imide Forms of Maleinized Soybean Oil

Vegetable oil is one of the most promising renewable feedstocks as an alternative to fossil resources, but there are few studies aiming to transform it into hydrophilic materials. We proposed a facile method to prepare water-soluble derivatives from soybean oil, which could become water resistant again after simple heat treatment. The model vegetable oil, soybean oil(SO), was first reacted with maleic anhydride(MA)by the Alder ene reaction to obtain maleinized soybean oil(SOMA), and SOMA was fur...     

Fabrication of N-(Amino-Ethyl)-Amino-Propyl Functionalized Magnetite Nanoparticles for Oil–Water Separation of Wastewater From Tertiary Oil Recovery

N-(amino-ethyl)-amino-propyl trimethoxy silane (AEAPTMS) is used to modify Fe₃O₄ with a one-pot coprecipitation method. Powder X-ray diffraction measurements show the spinel structure of magnetite nanoparticles. A high positive charge of +33.96 mV was obtained on the surfaces of modified magnetic nanoparticles, with the diameter ranging from 6.5 to 22.5 nm. The modified Fe₃O₄ was first applied to the treatment of wastewater from tertiary oil recovery. The obtained results indicated that the oil removal rate increased with the dosage of modified Fe₃O₄ and slightly increased with the separation time. The mechanism of modified Fe₃O₄ toward wastewater from tertiary oil recovery was attributed to the electrostatic interaction between negatively charged microemulsion oil in wastewater and the positively charged surfaces of magnetic nanoparticles.     

First Bohai Bay Oil to Flow ahead of Schedule

The first oil is expected to be pumped from the Bohai Bay off the coast of Northeast China in thethird quarter of this year, says Kerr-McGee Corporation, one of the world‘s biggest independent oil and gas exploration companies.     

Nonlinear Behavior and Domain Feature at Oil／Water Interface

Studies on nonlinear behavior at oil/water interface membrane were performed. This system showed rhythmic oscillations and chaos of electrical potential in a given concentration domain. The nonlinear behavior response at the liquid membrane apparently resembled that of biological chemoreceptive membrane. The possibility of developing a new type of chemical sensor with the ability to simulate substance equilibrium in living organisms was suggested in the paper.     

Microencapsulation of Fish Oil by Simple Coacervation of Hydroxypropyl Methylcellulose

To improve the oxidative stability and application of fish oil, it was microencapsulated by simple coacervation followed by spray drying. Simple coacervation took place by adding malt dextrin into the emulsion of fish oil and hydroxypropyl methylcellulose （HPMC） solution. Influences of several process parameters on the microencapsulation were evaluated and the oxidative stability and microstructure of microcapsules were analyzed. Results showed that the coacervation could be observed only when dextrose equivalent value （DE value） of malt dextrin, concentration of HPMC solution and fish oil percentage in microcapsules were no more than 20. 5% and 40%, respectively. Moreover, microencapsulation efficiency was higher at HPMC solution concentration of 4% and fish oil percentage of less than 30%. The oxidative stability of fish oil was improved by the microencapsulation and done best in the ease of replacing malt dextrin by 40% with acacia. Scanning electronic microscopic photographs showed that the microcapsule obtained was a round, smooth and hollow microcapsule with its wall made up of innumerable small and solid submicrocapsules with the core of fish oil.     

Decomposition of Transformer Oil Under Ultrasonic Irradiation During Degassing Process

In the degassing process of transformer oil with ultrasonic waves ,decompostition of the oil was observed.Light hydrocarbons,including methane,ethane,ethylene ,aceylene,propane etc,were found to be released continuously from the oil into headspace within a closed vial placed in an ultrasonic field ,The gases came from decomposition of hydrocarbon molecules under cavitation effect.     

Effects of Temperature and Catalyst to Oil Weight Ratio on the Catalytic Conversion of Heavy Oil to Propylene Using ZSM-5 and USY Catalysts

It is useful for practical operation to study the rules of production of propylene by the catalytic conversion of heavy oil in FCC (fluid catalytic cracking). The effects of temperature and C/O ratio (catalyst to oil weight ratio) on the distribution of the product and the yield of propylene were investigated on a micro reactor unit with two model catalysts, namely ZSM-5/Al2O3 and USY/Al2O3, and Fushun vacuum gas oil (VGO) was used as the feedstock. The conversion of heavy oil over ZSM-5 catalyst can be comparable to that of USY catalyst at high temperature and high C/O ratio. The rate of conversion of heavy oil using the ZSM-5 equilibrium catalyst is lower compared with the USY equilibrium catalyst under the general FCC conditions and this can be attributed to the poor steam ability of the ZSM-5 equilibrium catalyst. The difference in pore topologies of USY and ZSM-5 is the reason why the principal products for the above two catalysts is different, namely gasoline and liquid petroleum gas (LPG), repspectively. So the LPG selectivity, especially the propylene selectivity, may decline if USY is added into the FCC catalyst for maximizing the production of propylene. Increasing the C/O ratio is the most economical method for the increase of LPG yield than the increase of the temperature of the two model catalysts, because the loss of light oil is less in the former case. There is an inverse correlation between HTC (hydrogen transfer coefficient) and the yield of propylene, and restricting the hydrogen transfer reaction is the more important measure in increasing the yield of propylene of the ZSM-5 catalyst. The ethylene yield of ZSM-5/Al2O3 is higher, but the gaseous side products with low value are not enhanced when ZSM-5 catalyst is used. Moreover, for LPG and the end products, dry gas and coke, their ranges of reaction conditions to which their yields are dependent are different, and that of end products is more severe than that of LPG. So it is clear that maximizing LPG and propylene and restricting dry gas and coke can be both achieved via increasing the severity of reaction conditions among the range of reaction conditions which LPG yield is sensitive to.     

Thermodynamics of Adsorption of L-Amino Acids at Oil–Water Interfaces

Lowering of the interfacial tension of heptane–water, benzene–water, and nitrobenzene–water interfaces due to addition of 20 different amino acids to the aqueous phase has been measured. From the plot of surface pressure against molar concentration of amino acids, the initial slope and the surface excess ₂ ¹ for different amino acids have been calculated using the Gibbs adsorption equation. ₂ ¹ for most amino acids at benzene–water and heptane–water interfaces was found to be positive, with only a few being negative. At the nitrobenzene–water interface, both positive and negative ₂ ¹ values were observed. The area per adsorbed molecule at surface saturation A _m was found to vary widely, indicating different orientations of amino acid molecules at the interfaces. Using the integrated form of the Gibbs adsorption equation, the standard Gibbs energy change G ^o in kJ-m² of the adsorbed surface have been calculated for various interfaces. G ^o was found to vary linearly with the ₂ ¹ of different amino acids and the slope of the line, designated as –G _B ⁰ was found to be 22 kJ-mol^–1 for heptane–water, 23.2 kJ-mol^–1 for benzene–water, and 19.3 kJ-mol^–1 for nitrobenzene–water interfaces, irrespective of the nature of the amino acid. The origin of the linear scale of the Gibbs energy for heptane–water, benzene–water and nitrobenzene–water interfaces has been discussed in terms of hydrophobic and other interactions.     

Structure and Orientation of Tetracarboxylic Acids at Oil–Water Interfaces

Fouling caused by tetracarboxylic acids in transport and separation process chains involving petroemulsions occurs when the interfacial concentration of tetraacids becomes large enough for calcium ions in the water phase to “crosslink” the adsorbed tetraacid molecules and form a precipitate. At present, the structure and orientation of tetraacid molecules at oil–water interfaces, which influences the precipitation behavior, has not been studied in detail. In this work, molecular dynamics simulations of indigenous and synthetic tetracarboxylic acid compounds are presented to describe the structure and spatial orientation of tetraacid molecules at oil–water interfaces. Molecular distributions relative to the oil–water dividing surface along with the length and orientation angle distributions of the acidic arm groups are presented. The probability distributions determined here that describe the tetraacids at an oil–water interface can be employed to reconstruct the density of carboxylic acid groups at the oil–water interface. The interfacial carboxylic acid density can be employed to determine the fraction of adsorbed tetraacid molecules that are “crosslinked” with calcium ions based on the distances between carboxylic acid groups. The simulations presented also form a basis to calculate interfacial molecular areas and virial coefficients to employ in molecular mixed monolayer adsorption isotherms.     

Mesoscopic Simulation of Aggregates in Surfactant／Oil／Water Systems

The aggregates in sodium dedecylsulphate(SDS)/dimethylbenzene/water systems have been investigated using dissipative particles dynamic(DPD) simulation method.Through analyzing three-dimensional structures of aggregates,three simulated results are found.One is the phase separation,which is clearly observed by water density and the aggregates in the simulated cell;another is the water morphology in reverse micelle,which can be found through the isodensity slice of water including bound water,trapped water and bulky water;the third is about the water/oil interface,i.e.,ionic surfactant molecules,SDS,prefer to exist in the interface between water and oil phase at the low concentraion.