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Sample records for linear flood oil

  1. Influence of Oil Viscosity on Alkaline Flooding for Enhanced Heavy Oil Recovery

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    Yong Du

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Oil viscosity was studied as an important factor for alkaline flooding based on the mechanism of “water drops” flow. Alkaline flooding for two oil samples with different viscosities but similar acid numbers was compared. Besides, series flooding tests for the same oil sample were conducted at different temperatures and permeabilities. The results of flooding tests indicated that a high tertiary oil recovery could be achieved only in the low-permeability (approximately 500 mD sandpacks for the low-viscosity heavy oil (Zhuangxi, 390 mPa·s; however, the high-viscosity heavy oil (Chenzhuang, 3450 mPa·s performed well in both the low- and medium-permeability (approximately 1000 mD sandpacks. In addition, the results of flooding tests for the same oil at different temperatures also indicated that the oil viscosity put a similar effect on alkaline flooding. Therefore, oil with a high-viscosity is favorable for alkaline flooding. The microscopic flooding test indicated that the water drops produced during alkaline flooding for oils with different viscosities differed significantly in their sizes, which might influence the flow behaviors and therefore the sweep efficiencies of alkaline fluids. This study provides an evidence for the feasibility of the development of high-viscosity heavy oil using alkaline flooding.

  2. Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR by Miscible CO2 and Water Flooding of Asphaltenic and Non-Asphaltenic Oils

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    Edwin A. Chukwudeme

    2009-09-01

    Full Text Available An EOR study has been performed applying miscible CO2 flooding and compared with that for water flooding. Three different oils are used, reference oil (n-decane, model oil (n-C10, SA, toluene and 0.35 wt % asphaltene and crude oil (10 wt % asphaltene obtained from the Middle East. Stearic acid (SA is added representing a natural surfactant in oil. For the non-asphaltenic oil, miscible CO2 flooding is shown to be more favourable than that by water. However, it is interesting to see that for first years after the start of the injection (< 3 years it is shown that there is almost no difference between the recovered oils by water and CO2, after which (> 3 years oil recovery by gas injection showed a significant increase. This may be due to the enhanced performance at the increased reservoir pressure during the first period. Maximum oil recovery is shown by miscible CO2 flooding of asphaltenic oil at combined temperatures and pressures of 50 °C/90 bar and 70 °C/120 bar (no significant difference between the two cases, about 1% compared to 80 °C/140 bar. This may support the positive influence of the high combined temperatures and pressures for the miscible CO2 flooding; however beyond a certain limit the oil recovery declined due to increased asphaltene deposition. Another interesting finding in this work is that for single phase oil, an almost linear relationship is observed between the pressure drop and the asphaltene deposition regardless of the flowing fluid pressure.

  3. Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) by miscible CO{sub 2} and water flooding of asphaltenic and non-asphaltenic oils

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    Chukwudeme, E. A.; Hamouda, A. A. [Department of Petroleum Engineering, University of Stavanger, 4036 Stavanger (Norway)

    2009-07-01

    An EOR study has been performed applying miscible CO{sub 2} flooding and compared with that for water flooding. Three different oils are used, reference oil (n-decane), model oil (n-C10, SA, toluene and 0.35 wt % asphaltene) and crude oil (10 wt % asphaltene) obtained from the Middle East. Stearic acid (SA) is added representing a natural surfactant in oil. For the non-asphaltenic oil, miscible CO{sub 2} flooding is shown to be more favourable than that by water. However, it is interesting to see that for first years after the start of the injection (< 3 years) it is shown that there is almost no difference between the recovered oils by water and CO{sub 2}, after which (> 3 years) oil recovery by gas injection showed a significant increase. This may be due to the enhanced performance at the increased reservoir pressure during the first period. Maximum oil recovery is shown by miscible CO{sub 2} flooding of asphaltenic oil at combined temperatures and pressures of 50 {sup o}C/90 bar and 70 {sup o}C/120 bar (no significant difference between the two cases, about 1%) compared to 80 {sup o}C/140 bar. This may support the positive influence of the high combined temperatures and pressures for the miscible CO{sub 2} flooding; however beyond a certain limit the oil recovery declined due to increased asphaltene deposition. Another interesting finding in this work is that for single phase oil, an almost linear relationship is observed between the pressure drop and the asphaltene deposition regardless of the flowing fluid pressure. (author)

  4. Numerical simulation and experimental verification of oil recovery by macro-emulsion floods

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    Khamharatana, F. [Chulalongkorn Univ., Bangkok (Thailand); Thomas, S.; Farouq Ali, S. M. [Alberta Univ., Edmonton, AB (Canada)

    1997-08-01

    The process of emulsion flooding as an enhanced oil recovery method was described. The process involves several mechanisms that occur at the same time during displacement, therefore, simulation by emulsion flooding requires a good understanding of flow mechanics of emulsions in porous media. This paper provides a description of the process and its mathematical representation. Emulsion rheology, droplet capture and surfactant adsorption are represented mathematically and incorporated into a one-dimensional, three-phase mathematical model to account for interactions of surfactant, oil, water and the rock matrix. The simulator was validated by comparing simulation results with the results from linear core floods performed in the laboratory. Best match was achieved by a multi-phase non-Newtonian rheological model of an emulsion with interfacial tension-dependent relative permeabilities and time-dependent capture. 13 refs., 1 tab., 42 figs.

  5. Feasibility of oil recovery by chemical flooding through horizontal wells

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    El-Abbas, A.M.; El-Sallaly, M. E.; Sayyouh, M. H.; El-Batanony, M. H.; Darwich, T. M.; Desouky, S. M. [Cairo Univ (Egypt)

    1998-12-31

    Crude oil production in the Gulf of Suez by polymer, surfactant, and surfactant/polymer flooding from a horizontal well in a scaled five-spot sandpacked model was studied. The suitability of the enhanced oil recovery predictive models, developed by the U.S. Department of Energy, was investigated for their ability to predict the experimental data and to assess the feasibility of oil recovery by chemical flooding. Good agreement was found between the predicted and experimental values. Experimental results showed that oil recovery was significantly affected by the physical properties of the crude oil and chemical solutions; that oil recovery was higher for a polymer flooding than for a surfactant flooding operation; and that oil recovery was improved by increasing the perforated length ratio up to a value of 0.81. A tendency for oil recovery to decrease was observed when the horizontal well was positioned below or above the central axis path of the formation at the advanced injection stages; and oil recovery by surfactant or polymer flooding was significantly affected by the onset timing of the surfactant or polymer slug injection. The oil-water bank stability in surfactant and polymer flooding processes was found to be dependent on slug size and slug injection time. 23 refs., 1 tab., 17 figs.

  6. Numerical approach for enhanced oil recovery with surfactant flooding

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    Sadegh Keshtkar

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available The remained oil in the reservoir after conventional water-flooding processes, forms a dispersed phase in the form of oil drops which is trapped by capillary forces and is almost about 70% of the original oil in the place (OOIP. To reduce oil residual saturation in laboratory experiments and field projects, surfactant flooding is effective via decreasing the interfacial tension mobility ratio between oil and water phases. Estimation of the role of design variables, like chemical concentrations, partition coefficient and injection rate in different performance quantities, considering a heterogeneous and multiphase oil reservoir is a critical stage for optimal design. Increasing demand for oil production from water-flooded reservoirs has caused an increasing interest in surfactant-polymer (SP and alkali-surfactant-polymer (ASP. Modeling minimizes the risk of high cost of chemicals by improving our insight of process. In the present paper, a surfactant compositional flood model for a three-component (water, petroleum and surfactant, two phase (aqueous and oleic system is studied. A homogeneous, two-dimensional, isothermal reservoir with no free gas or alkali is assumed. The governing equations are in three categories: the continuity equations for the transport of each component, Darcy's equation for the transport of each phase and other auxiliary equations. The equations are solved by finite-differences using a procedure implicit in pressure and explicit in saturation. The validation of the model is achieved through comparing the modeling results with CMG simulators and Buckley–Leverett theory. The results of modeling showed good agreement with CMG results, and the comparison with Buckley–Leverett theory is explained according to different assumptions. After validation of the model, in order to investigate sensitivity analysis, the effects of system variables (partition coefficient, surface tension, oil viscosity and surface injection

  7. Bridging the Gap between Chemical Flooding and Independent Oil Producers

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    Stan McCool; Tony Walton; Paul Whillhite; Mark Ballard; Miguel Rondon; Kaixu Song; Zhijun Liu; Shahab Ahmed; Peter Senior

    2012-03-31

    Ten Kanas oil reservoirs/leases were studied through geological and engineering analysis to assess the potential performance of chemical flooding to recover oil. Reservoirs/leases that have been efficiently waterflooded have the highest performance potential for chemical flooding. Laboratory work to identify efficient chemical systems and to test the oil recovery performance of the systems was the major effort of the project. Efficient chemical systems were identified for crude oils from nine of the reservoirs/leases. Oil recovery performance of the identified chemical systems in Berea sandstone rocks showed 90+ % recoveries of waterflood residual oil for seven crude oils. Oil recoveries increased with the amount of chemical injected. Recoveries were less in Indiana limestone cores. One formulation recovered 80% of the tertiary oil in the limestone rock. Geological studies for nine of the oil reservoirs are presented. Pleasant Prairie, Trembley, Vinland and Stewart Oilfields in Kansas were the most favorable of the studied reservoirs for a pilot chemical flood from geological considerations. Computer simulations of the performance of a laboratory coreflood were used to predict a field application of chemical flooding for the Trembley Oilfield. Estimates of field applications indicated chemical flooding is an economically viable technology for oil recovery.

  8. Relevance of Linear Stability Results to Enhanced Oil Recovery

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    Ding, Xueru; Daripa, Prabir

    2012-11-01

    How relevant can the results based on linear stability theory for any problem for that matter be to full scale simulation results? Put it differently, is the optimal design of a system based on linear stability results is optimal or even near optimal for the complex nonlinear system with certain objectives of interest in mind? We will address these issues in the context of enhanced oil recovery by chemical flooding. This will be based on an ongoing work. Supported by Qatar National Research Fund (a member of the Qatar Foundation).

  9. The Study of Vibration Processes in Oil Flooded Screw Compressors

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    I. V. Filippov

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Vibration processes that accompany most of machines and mechanisms are of interest to the researcher, as a source of information about the technical condition and the nature of the business processes flow. Vibration-based diagnostics of oil flooded screw compressors allows us to estimate the deviation of their operation from the main mode in accordance with changing the settings of vibration processes.The oil flooded screw compressor transition from the main mode of operation to the abnormal one is accompanied by complex gas-dynamic phenomena i.e. the initial gaps and their decays. This leads to changes in the nature of vibration processes, prompting suggestions that there is a relationship to a change of vibration parameters and mode of compressor operation.Studies were conducted by combined method using an analytical calculation of the decay parameters of the initial discontinuity and an experimental one based on the measurement of acceleration on the body of the real oil flooded screw compressor. A virtually adequate reaction of the decay parameters of the initial gap and the peak values of vibration acceleration to the change of operation mode of oil flooded screw compressor has been received. The peak value of the vibration acceleration was selected by the method of Gating being time-coinciding with the beginning discharge phase of the oil flooded screw compressor, and therefore, with the decay time of the initial discontinuity.This indicates a large degree of hypothesis likelihood on an existing initial break in oil flooded screw compressor when operating in abnormal conditions. This work contains the study results of vibration processes and their relationship to the operating mode of the oil flooded screw compressor, which distinguish it from the other works studied vibration processes in reciprocating compressors. The vibration parameters control of operating oil flooded screw compressor allows us to create an automatic capacity control

  10. Effect of stratification on segregation in carbon dioxide miscible flooding in a water-flooded oil reservoir

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bhatti, A.A.; Mahmood, S.M.; Amjad, B.

    2013-01-01

    Oil reservoirs are subjected to tertiary recovery by deploying any enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technique for the recovery of left over oil. Amongst many EOR methods one of the widely applied worldwide is CO/sub 2/ flooding through miscible, near miscible or immiscible displacement processes. CO/sub 2/ flooding process responds to a number of reservoir and fluid characteristics. These characteristics have strong effect on overall efficiency of the displacement process. Better understanding of the effect of different characteristics on displacement process is important to plan an efficient displacement process. In this work, the effect of stratification resulting in gravity segregation of the injected fluid is studied in an oil reservoir which is water-flooded during secondary phase of recovery. Sensitivity analysis is performed through successive simulation on Eclipse 300 (compositional) reservoir simulator. Process involves the continuous CO/sub 2/ injection in an oil reservoir with more than 1/3rd of original oil in place left after water flooding. Reservoir model with four different permeability layers is studied. Four patterns by changing the arrangement of the permeabilities of the layers are analysed. The effect of different arrangement or stratification on segregation of CO/sub 2/ and ultimately on the incremental oil recovery, is investigated. It has been observed that out of four arrangements, upward fining pattern relatively overcame the issue of the segregation of CO/sub 2/ and consequently 33% more oil with half injection volume is recovered when compared with the downward fining pattern. (author)

  11. Development of alkaline/surfactant/polymer (ASP flooding technology for recovery of Karazhanbas oil

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    Birzhan Zhappasbaev

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available The tertiary oil recovery methods like alkaline, surfactant and polymer (ASP flooding are very perspective in order to achieve the synergetic effect out of the different impacts which are caused by these chemicals, which affect oil and water filtration in the reservoir and increase oil recovery. In this communication, we consider the applicability of hydrophobically modified polyampholyte – poly(hexadecylaminocrotonatebetaine (PHDACB as ASP flooding agent for recovery of oil from Karazhanbas oilfield. As “polysoap”, the aqueous solution of PHDACB dissolved in aqueous KOH was used. This system combines the advantages of alkaline, surfactant and polymer and exhibits the synergistic effect. The laboratory results showed that the ASP flooding considerably increases the oil recovery in addition to water flooding. In perspective, the ASP flooding may substitute the steam injection and other thermal enhanced oil recovery (EOR technologies.

  12. CO{sub 2} flooding performance prediction for Alberta oil pools

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    Shaw, J.C. [Adams Pearson Associates Inc., Calgary, AB (Canada); Bachu, S. [Alberta Energy and Utilities Board, Calgary, AB (Canada)

    2002-06-01

    An advanced technical screening program was used to successfully screen and rank a very large number of Alberta oil pools for enhanced oil recovery using carbon dioxide (CO{sub 2}) flooding. This paper is a continuation paper describing the results of using the Microsoft Excel program with VBA to estimate production forecasts for several candidate pools in Alberta. A total of 6 ranking parameters were used, including API gravity of oil, residual oil saturation, ratio between reservoir pressure and minimum miscibility pressure, reservoir temperature, net pay thickness and porosity. The screening program provides a technical ranking of approximately 8,000 Alberta pools. After compilation of the Alberta oil pools, it was determined that most of the deep carbonate oil pools are excellent candidates for CO{sub 2} miscible flooding. Other Devonian carbonate pools are also ranked as having high potential for the process. An environmental benefit of CO{sub 2} miscible flooding process is that carbon sequestration has the potential to reduce anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions from reaching the atmosphere. Ongoing studies are currently addressing CO{sub 2} capture and transportation, making EOR technology viable for maintaining light oil production in western Canada. 11 refs., 2 tabs., 2 figs.

  13. A new flooding scheme by horizontal well in thin heavy oil reservoirs

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    Liu, H.; Zhang, H.; Wang, M. [China Univ. of Petroleum, Beijing (China). MOE Key Laboratory of Petroleum Engineering ; Wang, Z. [Shengli Oil Field Co. (China). Dept. of Science and Technology]|[SINOPEC, Shengli (China)

    2008-10-15

    This paper presented a new flooding scheme for single horizontal wells that could improve recovery from thin marginal heavy oil reservoirs or from offshore reservoirs. The scheme involved the use of a multiple tubing string completion in a single wellbore. Special packers were installed within the long completion horizontal interval to establish an injection zone and a production zone. The new flooding scheme also involved simultaneous injection and production. Numerical simulation of the reservoir was used to determine the thickness of the formation and the lower limitation for different viscosities and the optimum time to start steam flooding after steam soaking by economic oil/steam ratio. The peak recovery efficiency of steam flooding was shown to occur when the length of separation section ratio is 0.15 to 0.2. It was concluded that high thermal efficiency in horizontal wells with long completion intervals can be maintained by alternating between steam soaking and steam flooding. Suitable alternation time to steam flooding is a seventh cycle for horizontal wells. Water cut and pressure difference will increase the steam injection rate, and thereby improve the oil production rate. The suitable injection rate for steam flooding is 2.4 t/d.ha.h because of its slow pressure change. 11 refs., 7 figs.

  14. Experimental study on electromagnetic-assisted ZnO nanofluid flooding for enhanced oil recovery (EOR).

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    Adil, Muhammad; Lee, Keanchuan; Mohd Zaid, Hasnah; Ahmad Latiff, Noor Rasyada; Alnarabiji, Mohamad Sahban

    2018-01-01

    Recently, nano-EOR has emerged as a new frontier for improved and enhanced oil recovery (IOR & EOR). Despite their benefits, the nanoparticles tend to agglomerate at reservoir conditions which cause their detachment from the oil/water interface, and are consequently retained rather than transported through a porous medium. Dielectric nanoparticles including ZnO have been proposed to be a good replacement for EOR due to their high melting point and thermal properties. But more importantly, these particles can be polarized under electromagnetic (EM) irradiation, which provides an innovative smart Nano-EOR process denoted as EM-Assisted Nano-EOR. In this study, parameters involved in the oil recovery mechanism under EM waves, such as reducing mobility ratio, lowering interfacial tensions (IFT) and altering wettability were investigated. Two-phase displacement experiments were performed in sandpacks under the water-wet condition at 95°C, with permeability in the range of 265-300 mD. A crude oil from Tapis oil field was employed; while ZnO nanofluids of two different particle sizes (55.7 and 117.1 nm) were prepared using 0.1 wt. % nanoparticles that dispersed into brine (3 wt. % NaCl) along with SDBS as a dispersant. In each flooding scheme, three injection sequential scenarios have been conducted: (i) brine flooding as a secondary process, (ii) surfactant/nano/EM-assisted nano flooding, and (iii) second brine flooding to flush nanoparticles. Compare with surfactant flooding (2% original oil in place/OOIP) as tertiary recovery, nano flooding almost reaches 8.5-10.2% of OOIP. On the other hand, EM-assisted nano flooding provides an incremental oil recovery of approximately 9-10.4% of OOIP. By evaluating the contact angle and interfacial tension, it was established that the degree of IFT reduction plays a governing role in the oil displacement mechanism via nano-EOR, compare to mobility ratio. These results reveal a promising way to employ water-based ZnO nanofluid for

  15. Experimental study on electromagnetic-assisted ZnO nanofluid flooding for enhanced oil recovery (EOR)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ahmad Latiff, Noor Rasyada; Alnarabiji, Mohamad Sahban

    2018-01-01

    Recently, nano-EOR has emerged as a new frontier for improved and enhanced oil recovery (IOR & EOR). Despite their benefits, the nanoparticles tend to agglomerate at reservoir conditions which cause their detachment from the oil/water interface, and are consequently retained rather than transported through a porous medium. Dielectric nanoparticles including ZnO have been proposed to be a good replacement for EOR due to their high melting point and thermal properties. But more importantly, these particles can be polarized under electromagnetic (EM) irradiation, which provides an innovative smart Nano-EOR process denoted as EM-Assisted Nano-EOR. In this study, parameters involved in the oil recovery mechanism under EM waves, such as reducing mobility ratio, lowering interfacial tensions (IFT) and altering wettability were investigated. Two-phase displacement experiments were performed in sandpacks under the water-wet condition at 95°C, with permeability in the range of 265–300 mD. A crude oil from Tapis oil field was employed; while ZnO nanofluids of two different particle sizes (55.7 and 117.1 nm) were prepared using 0.1 wt. % nanoparticles that dispersed into brine (3 wt. % NaCl) along with SDBS as a dispersant. In each flooding scheme, three injection sequential scenarios have been conducted: (i) brine flooding as a secondary process, (ii) surfactant/nano/EM-assisted nano flooding, and (iii) second brine flooding to flush nanoparticles. Compare with surfactant flooding (2% original oil in place/OOIP) as tertiary recovery, nano flooding almost reaches 8.5–10.2% of OOIP. On the other hand, EM-assisted nano flooding provides an incremental oil recovery of approximately 9–10.4% of OOIP. By evaluating the contact angle and interfacial tension, it was established that the degree of IFT reduction plays a governing role in the oil displacement mechanism via nano-EOR, compare to mobility ratio. These results reveal a promising way to employ water-based ZnO nanofluid

  16. Screening and ranking Alberta oil pools for CO{sub 2} flooding and sequestration

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    Shaw, J.C. [Adams Pearson Associates Inc., Calgary, AB (Canada); Bachu, S. [Alberta Energy and Utilities Board, Calgary, AB (Canada)

    2001-06-01

    This paper presented the results of a technical screening program using Excel VBA to successfully screen and rank a very large number of oil pools for enhanced oil recovery using carbon dioxide (CO{sub 2}) flooding. A total of 6 ranking parameters were used, including API gravity of oil, residual oil saturation, ratio between reservoir pressure and minimum miscibility pressure, reservoir temperature, net pay thickness and porosity. The screening program provided a technical ranking of approximately 8,800 Alberta pools in less than 2 minutes. After compilation of the Alberta oil pools, it was determined that most of the deep carbonate oil pools are excellent candidates for CO{sub 2} miscible flooding. Other Devonian carbonate pools were also ranked as having high potential for the process. An environmental benefit of CO{sub 2} miscible flooding process is that carbon sequestration has the potential to reduce anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions from reaching the atmosphere. Ongoing studies are currently addressing CO{sub 2} capture and transportation, making EOR technology viable for maintaining light oil production in western Canada. 11 refs., 7 tabs., 1 fig.

  17. Heat transfer property of refrigerant-oil mixture in a flooded evaporator: The role of bubble formation and oil retention

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Koo, Kyoung-Min; Kim, Sung-Gyu; Jeong, Young-Man; Lee, Jae-Keun; Kim, Soo Hyung; Lee, Soowon; Park, Nae-Hyun; Na, Byung-Chul; Hwang, Yoon-Jae; Kim, Byung-Soon; Hwang, Joon-Hyun

    2013-01-01

    We examined the effect of oil retention on the heat transfer performance of a shell-and-tube-type evaporator which had 26 inner tubes and was filled with the refrigerant R-134a. The refrigerant was boiled on the surface of the inner tubes in the evaporator, while chilled water circulated through these tubes. An experimental apparatus was designed to measure both the pressure and temperature profiles at the inlet and outlet of the flooded evaporator. Four windows were installed for observing the operation of the flooded evaporator. A series of experiments were carried out under the following conditions: the refrigerant saturation temperature, 5 .deg. C; refrigerant inlet quality, 0.1; heat fluxes from water to the refrigerant, 5-7 kW/m"2.. The concentration of the oil retained in the refrigerant was then varied up to approximately 10% to observe the effect on the heat transfer performance of the flooded evaporator. Increasing the oil content (i.e., increasing the concentration up to a maximum of approximately 10%) in the refrigerant R134a did not lead to any appreciable reduction in the overall heat transfer coefficient of a flooded evaporator with multiple-inner-tubes. When the oil concentration in the refrigerant was approximately 10%, the heat transfer degradation in the case of the flooded evaporator with multiple-inner-tubes was approximately 11%, which was found to be much smaller than the heat transfer degradation in the case of a flooded evaporator with a single-tube (26-49%). This observation suggested that the oil retained in the refrigerant did not significantly deteriorate the heat transfer performance of the flooded evaporator, presumably because the presence of tube bundles promoted forced convection by agitating bubbles

  18. Simulation of polymer flooding in one of the Iranian oil fields

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mehdi Mohammad Salehi

    2017-06-01

    This study shows the optimum concentration of Nano clay could improve polymer properties. Results also show that the polymer flooding scenario has higher oil recovery in comparison to other displacement methods such as natural depletion and water flooding.

  19. Quantitative monitoring of gas flooding in oil-bearing reservoirs using a pulsed neutron tool

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ruhovets, N.; Wyatt, D.F. Jr.

    1991-01-01

    This paper reports on quantitative monitoring of gas flooding in oil bearing reservoirs which is unique in that saturations of three fluids (gas, oil and water) in the effective pore space have to be determined, while in most other applications saturation behind casing is determined only for two fluids: hydrocarbons and water. A new method has been developed to monitor gas flooding of oil reservoirs. The method is based on computing two porosities: true effective (base) porosity determined before gas flooding, and apparent effective (monitor) porosity determined after gas flooding. The base porosity is determined from open and/or cased hole porosity logs run before the flooding. When open hole logs are available, the cased hole porosity logs are calibrated against open hole log. The monitor porosity is determined from one of the cased hole porosity logs, such as a neutron log or count rate ratio curve from a pulsed neutron log run after the gas flooding. The base and monitor porosities provide determination of the hydrogen index of the reservoir fluid after the flooding. This hydrogen index is then used to determine saturation of the flood agent after flooding. Water saturation after flooding can be determined from the equation which relates neutron total cross section (Σm) to volumetric constituent cross sections, using Σm values from a monitor run (after flooding)

  20. Investigated Miscible CO2 Flooding for Enhancing Oil Recovery in Wettability Altered Chalk and Sandstone Rocks

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    Tabrizy, Vahid Alipour

    2012-07-01

    The thesis addresses oil recovery by miscible CO2 flooding from modified sandstone and chalk rocks. Calcite mineral surface is modified with stearic acid (SA) and asphaltene, and the silicate mineral surfaces are modified with N,N-dimethyldodecylamine (NN-DMDA) and asphaltene. The stability of adsorbed polar components in presence of SO4 2- and Mg2 + ions is also investigated. Recovery from sandstone cores is consistently lower than that from chalk cores saturated with the same oil and flooded with CO2 at all miscible flooding conditions. This may be due to the larger permeability contrasts in sandstone cores, which promote the fingering phenomenon. Miscible CO2 flooding for chalk and sandstone cores with distilled water, as initial water saturation, shows also lower oil recovery than cores saturated with different ions. At higher miscible flooding conditions, higher oil recovery is obtained. However, presence of light components (such as C1 or C3) in oil reduced the recovery. Oil recovery in presence of methane (C1) is lower than that in presence of methane and propane (C1/C3). A ternary diagram was constructed in order to understand the CO2 flooding mechanism(s) at the different flooding conditions and in presence of light components. The side effect of the flooding with CO2 is the probability for asphaltene deposition. An approach based on solubility parameter in the liquid, is used to assess the risk for asphaltene deposition during CO2 miscible flooding. The light components (C1/C3) and higher flooding conditions enhanced the risk for asphaltene instability. It is also shown higher amount of asphaltene deposition in chalk cores than that in sandstone cores at similar miscibility conditions.(au)

  1. Improved recovery potential in mature heavy oil fields by Alkali-surfactant flooding

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    Bryan, J.; Kantzas, A. [Calgary Univ., AB (Canada). Tomographic Imaging and Porous Media Laboratory

    2008-10-15

    Primary and secondary alkali surfactant (AS) chemical flooding techniques were optimized in this study. Core flooding experiments were conducted in order to investigate the formation of emulsions in bulk liquid system due to flow through rock pores. Cores were dried and then saturated with water or brine in order to measure permeability. The floods were then performed at various injection rates followed by the AS solution. Solutions were also injected without previous waterflooding. Individual oil and water mobilities were then calculated using the experimental data. Individual phase mobilities were calculated using the total pressure gradient measured across the core. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) studies were conducted in order to determine emulsion formation within porous media from in situ flooding tests at 4 different locations. Data from the NMR studies were used to calculate fluid distributions and measurements of in situ emulsification during the chemical floods. The study demonstrated that the use of the surfactants resulted in the in situ formation of oil-water and water-oil emulsions. Responses from de-ionized alkali and brine AS systems were similar. The recovery mechanism blocked off water channels and provided improved sweep efficiency in the core. It was concluded that injection rates and pressure gradients for chemical floods should be lowered in order to optimize their efficiency. 26 refs., 6 tabs., 15 figs.

  2. Possibility of removing condensate and scattered oil from gas-condensate field during bed flooding

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    Belkina, N.A.; Yagubov, M.S.

    1984-01-01

    The problem is set of evaluating the possible removal from the bed of scattered oil and condensate during flooding of the bed. For this purpose, an experimental study was made of the displacement by water from the porous medium of the oil and condensate saturating it. The obtained experimental results permit evaluation of the possible removal from the gas-condensate bed of scattered oil and condensate during flooding of the bed.

  3. Visualized study of thermochemistry assisted steam flooding to improve oil recovery in heavy oil reservoir with glass micromodels

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lyu, X.; Liu, Huiqing; Pang, Zhanxi; Sun, Zhixue

    2018-01-01

    Steam channeling, one serious problem in the process of steam flooding in heavy oil reservoir, decreases the sweep efficiency of steam to cause a lower oil recovery. Viscosity reducer and nitrogen foam, two effective methods to improve oil recovery with different mechanism, present a satisfactory

  4. A review on applications of nanotechnology in the enhanced oil recovery part B: effects of nanoparticles on flooding

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheraghian, Goshtasp; Hendraningrat, Luky

    2016-11-01

    Chemical flooding is of increasing interest and importance due to high oil prices and the need to increase oil production. Research in nanotechnology in the petroleum industry is advancing rapidly, and an enormous progress in the application of nanotechnology in this area is to be expected. The nanotechnology has been widely used in several other industries, and the interest in the oil industry is increasing. Nanotechnology has the potential to profoundly change enhanced oil recovery and to improve mechanism of recovery, and it is chosen as an alternative method to unlock the remaining oil resources and applied as a new enhanced oil recovery method in last decade. This paper therefore focuses on the reviews of the application of nanotechnology in chemical flooding process in oil recovery and reviews the applications of nanomaterials for improving oil recovery that have been proposed to explain oil displacement by polymer flooding within oil reservoirs, and also this paper highlights the research advances of polymer in oil recovery. Nanochemical flooding is an immature method from an application point of view.

  5. Pore-scale simulation of wettability and interfacial tension effects on flooding process for enhanced oil recovery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Jin; Wen, Dongsheng

    2017-08-27

    For enhanced oil recovery (EOR) applications, the oil/water flow characteristics during the flooding process was numerically investigated with the volume-of-fluid method at the pore scale. A two-dimensional pore throat-body connecting structure was established, and four scenarios were simulated in this paper. For oil-saturated pores, the wettability effect on the flooding process was studied; for oil-unsaturated pores, three effects were modelled to investigate the oil/water phase flow behaviors, namely the wettability effect, the interfacial tension (IFT) effect, and the combined wettability/IFT effect. The results show that oil saturated pores with the water-wet state can lead to 25-40% more oil recovery than with the oil-wet state, and the remaining oil mainly stays in the near wall region of the pore bodies for oil-wet saturated pores. For oil-unsaturated pores, the wettability effects on the flooding process can help oil to detach from the pore walls. By decreasing the oil/water interfacial tension and altering the wettability from oil-wet to water-wet state, the remaining oil recovery rate can be enhanced successfully. The wettability-IFT combined effect shows better EOR potential compared with decreasing the interfacial tension alone under the oil-wet condition. The simulation results in this work are consistent with previous experimental and molecular dynamics simulation conclusions. The combination effect of the IFT reducation and wettability alteration can become an important recovery mechanism in future studies for nanoparticles, surfactant, and nanoparticle-surfactant hybrid flooding process.

  6. Design and implementation of a caustic flooding EOR pilot at Court Bakken heavy oil reservoir

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Xie, J.; Chung, B.; Leung, L. [Society of Petroleum Engineers, Canadian Section, Calgary, AB (Canada)]|[Nexen Inc., Calgary, AB (Canada)

    2008-10-15

    Successful waterflooding has been ongoing since 1988 at the Court Bakken heavy oil field in west central Saskatchewan. There are currently 20 injectors and 28 active oil producers in the Court main unit which is owned by Nexen and Pengrowth. The Court pool has an estimated 103.8 mmbbl of original oil in place (OOIP), of which 24 per cent has been successfully recovered after 20 years of waterflooding. A high-level enhanced oil recovery (EOR) screening study was conducted to evaluate other EOR technologies for a heavy oil reservoir of this viscosity range (17 degrees API). Laboratory studies showed that caustic flooding may enhance oil recovery after waterflooding at the Court Bakken heavy oil pool. A single well test demonstrated that caustic injection effectively reduced residual oil saturation. A sector model reservoir simulation revealed that caustic flood could achieve 9 per cent incremental oil recovery in the pilot area. Following the promising laboratory results, a successful caustic flood pilot was implemented at Court heavy oil pool where the major challenges encountered were low reservoir pressure and water channeling. 6 refs., 2 tabs., 6 figs.

  7. Oil Recovery Increases by Low-Salinity Flooding: Minnelusa and Green River Formations

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Eric P. Robertson

    2010-09-01

    Waterflooding is by far the most widely used method in the world to increase oil recovery. Historically, little consideration has been given in reservoir engineering practice to the effect of injection brine composition on waterflood displacement efficiency or to the possibility of increased oil recovery through manipulation of the composition of the injected water. However, recent work has shown that oil recovery can be significantly increased by modifying the injection brine chemistry or by injecting diluted or low salinity brine. This paper reports on laboratory work done to increase the understanding of improved oil recovery by waterflooding with low salinity injection water. Porous media used in the studies included outcrop Berea sandstone (Ohio, U.S.A.) and reservoir cores from the Green River formation of the Uinta basin (Utah, U.S.A.). Crude oils used in the experimental protocols were taken from the Minnelusa formation of the Powder River basin (Wyoming, U.S.A.) and from the Green River formation, Monument Butte field in the Uinta basin. Laboratory corefloods using Berea sandstone, Minnelusa crude oil, and simulated Minnelusa formation water found a significant relationship between the temperature at which the oil- and water-saturated cores were aged and the oil recovery resulting from low salinity waterflooding. Lower aging temperatures resulted in very little to no additional oil recovery, while cores aged at higher temperatures resulted in significantly higher recoveries from dilute-water floods. Waterflood studies using reservoir cores and fluids from the Green River formation of the Monument Butte field also showed significantly higher oil recoveries from low salinity waterfloods with cores flooded with fresher water recovering 12.4% more oil on average than those flooded with undiluted formation brine.

  8. Surfactant-enhanced alkaline flooding for light oil recovery. Final report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wasan, D.T.

    1996-05-01

    In this report, we present the results of our experimental and theoretical studies in surfactant-enhanced alkaline flooding for light oil recovery. The overall objective of this work is to develop a very cost-effective method for formulating a successful surfactant-enhanced alkaline flood by appropriately choosing mixed alkalis which form inexpensive buffers to obtain the desired pH (between 8.5 and 12. 0) for ultimate spontaneous emulsification and ultralow interfacial tension. In addition, we have (1) developed a theoretical interfacial activity model for determining equilibrium interfacial tension, (2) investigated the mechanisms for spontaneous emulsification, (3) developed a technique to monitor low water content in oil and (4) developed a technique to study water-in-oil emulsion film properties, (5) investigated the effect of surfactant on the equilibrium and transient interfacial tension, (6) investigated the kinetics of oil removal from a silica surface, and (7) developed a theoretical interfacial activity model for determining equilibrium interfacial tension, accounting for added surfactant. The results of the studies conducted during the course of this project are discussed.

  9. Enhanced oil recovery with surfactant flooding

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Buelow Sandersen, S.

    2012-05-15

    Understanding the underlying mechanisms of systems that exhibit liquid-liquid equilibrium (e.g. oil-brine systems) at reservoir conditions is an area of increasing interest within EOR. This is true both for complex surfactant systems as well as for oil and brine systems. It is widely accepted that an increase in oil recovery can be obtained through flooding, whether it is simple waterflooding, waterflooding where the salinity has been modified by the addition or removal of specific ions (socalled ''smart'' waterflooding) or surfactant flooding. High pressure experiments have been carried out in this work on a surfactant system (surfactant/ oil/ brine) and on oil/ seawater systems (oil/ brine). The high pressure experiments were carried out on a DBR JEFRI PVT cell, where a glass window allows observation of the phase behavior of the different systems at various temperatures and pressures inside the high pressure cell. Phase volumes can also be measured visually through the glass window using precision equipment. The surfactant system for which an experimental study was carried out consisted of the mixture heptane, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)/ 1-butanol/ NaCl/ water. This system has previously been examined at ambient pressures and temperatures but this has been extended here to pressures up to 400 bar and to slightly higher temperatures (40 deg. C, 45 deg. C and 50 deg. C). Experiments were performed at constant salinity (6.56 %), constant surfactant-alcohol ratio (SAR) but with varying water-oil ratios (WOR). At all temperatures it was very clear that the effect of pressure was significant. The system changed from the two phase region, Winsor II, to the three phase region, Winsor III, as pressure increased. Increasing pressures also caused a shift from the three phase region (Winsor III), to a different two phase region, (Winsor I). These changes in equilibrium phase behavior were also dependent on the composition of the system. A number of

  10. Proper Use of Capillary Number in Chemical Flooding

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hu Guo

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Capillary number theory is very important for chemical flooding enhanced oil recovery. The difference between microscopic capillary number and the microscopic one is easy to confuse. After decades of development, great progress has been made in capillary number theory and it has important but sometimes incorrect application in EOR. The capillary number theory was based on capillary tube bundles and Darcy’s law hypothesis, and this should always be kept in mind when used in chemical flooding EOR. The flow in low permeability porous media often shows obvious non-Darcy effects, which is beyond Darcy’s law. Experiments data from ASP flooding and SP flooding showed that remaining oil saturation was not always decreasing as capillary number kept on increasing. Relative permeability was proved function of capillary number; its rate dependence was affected by capillary end effects. The mobility control should be given priority rather than lowering IFT. The displacement efficiency was not increased as displacement velocity increased as expected in heavy oil chemical flooding. Largest capillary number does not always make highest recovery in chemical flooding in heterogeneous reservoir. Misuse of CDC in EOR included the ignorance of mobility ratio, Darcy linear flow hypothesis, difference between microscopic capillary number and the microscopic one, and heterogeneity caused flow regime alteration. Displacement of continuous oil or remobilization of discontinuous oil was quite different.

  11. Method of improving heterogeneous oil reservoir polymer flooding effect by positively-charged gel profile control

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Ling; Xia, Huifen

    2018-01-01

    The project of polymer flooding has achieved great success in Daqing oilfield, and the main oil reservoir recovery can be improved by more than 15%. But, for some strong oil reservoir heterogeneity carrying out polymer flooding, polymer solution will be inefficient and invalid loop problem in the high permeability layer, then cause the larger polymer volume, and a significant reduction in the polymer flooding efficiency. Aiming at this problem, it is studied the method that improves heterogeneous oil reservoir polymer flooding effect by positively-charged gel profile control. The research results show that the polymer physical and chemical reaction of positively-charged gel with the residual polymer in high permeability layer can generate three-dimensional network of polymer, plugging high permeable layer, and increase injection pressure gradient, then improve the effect of polymer flooding development. Under the condition of the same dosage, positively-charged gel profile control can improve the polymer flooding recovery factor by 2.3∼3.8 percentage points. Under the condition of the same polymer flooding recovery factor increase value, after positively-charged gel profile control, it can reduce the polymer volume by 50 %. Applying mechanism of positively-charged gel profile control technology is feasible, cost savings, simple construction, and no environmental pollution, therefore has good application prospect.

  12. Sacrificial adsorbate for surfactants utilized in chemical floods of enhanced oil recovery operations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnson, Jr., James S.; Westmoreland, Clyde G.

    1982-01-01

    The present invention is directed to a sacrificial or competitive adsorbate for surfactants contained in chemical flooding emulsions for enhanced oil recovery operations. The adsorbate to be utilized in the method of the present invention is a caustic effluent from the bleach stage or the weak black liquor from the digesters and pulp washers of the kraft pulping process. This effluent or weak black liquor is injected into an oil-bearing subterranean earth formation prior to or concurrent with the chemical flood emulsion and is adsorbed on the active mineral surfaces of the formation matrix so as to effectively reduce adsorption of surfactant in the chemical flood. Alternatively, the effluent or liquor can be injected into the subterranean earth formation subsequent to a chemical flood to displace the surfactant from the mineral surfaces for the recovery thereof.

  13. Surfactant-enhanced alkaline flooding for light oil recovery. Annual report, 1992--1993

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wasan, D.T.

    1994-08-01

    In this report, the authors present the results of experimental and theoretical studies in surfactant-enhanced alkaline flooding for light oil recovery. The overall objective of this work is to develop a very cost-effective method for formulating a successful surfactant-enhanced alkaline flood by appropriately choosing mixed alkalis which form inexpensive buffers to obtain the desired pH (between 8.5 and 12.0) for ultimate spontaneous emulsification and ultralow interfacial tension. In addition, the authors have (1) developed a theoretical interfacial activity model for determining equilibrium interfacial tension, (2) investigated the mechanisms for spontaneous emulsification, (3) developed a technique to monitor low water content in oil, and (4) developed a technique to study water-in-oil emulsion film properties.

  14. Ecological and technical situation of flooded oil wells in Kazakhstan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kuterbekov, K. A.; Kabdrakhimova, G. D.; Nurakhmetov, T. N.; Zhaksigulova, A.; Nukenov, D. N.; Kushkimbaev, B. M.; Nurmukhanbetova, A. K.

    2012-01-01

    The data of ecological and technical condition of flooded and inundated wells in Atyrau and Mangystau regions of the West of Kazakhstan is given in this abstract. There is necessary to elaborate methods for liquidation, individual plans of conservations, to produce isolating and liquidation procedures on wells and to estimate environment effects. Also we will provide for estimation technical condition of conservation oil wells on territory of flooded by Caspian sea. (Authors)

  15. Investigation of biosurfactant-producing indigenous microorganisms that enhance residue oil recovery in an oil reservoir after polymer flooding.

    Science.gov (United States)

    She, Yue-Hui; Zhang, Fan; Xia, Jing-Jing; Kong, Shu-Qiong; Wang, Zheng-Liang; Shu, Fu-Chang; Hu, Ji-Ming

    2011-01-01

    Three biosurfactant-producing indigenous microorganisms (XDS1, XDS2, XDS3) were isolated from a petroleum reservoir in the Daqing Oilfield (China) after polymer flooding. Their metabolic, biochemical, and oil-degradation characteristics, as well as their oil displacement in the core were studied. These indigenous microorganisms were identified as short rod bacillus bacteria with white color, round shape, a protruding structure, and a rough surface. Strains have peritrichous flagella, are able to produce endospores, are sporangia, and are clearly swollen and terminal. Bacterial cultures show that the oil-spreading values of the fermentation fluid containing all three strains are more than 4.5 cm (diameter) with an approximate 25 mN/m surface tension. The hydrocarbon degradation rates of each of the three strains exceeded 50%, with the highest achieving 84%. Several oil recovery agents were produced following degradation. At the same time, the heavy components of crude oil were degraded into light components, and their flow characteristics were also improved. The surface tension and viscosity of the crude oil decreased after being treated by the three strains of microorganisms. The core-flooding tests showed that the incremental oil recoveries were 4.89-6.96%. Thus, XDS123 treatment may represent a viable method for microbial-enhanced oil recovery.

  16. Investigation of Chemical-Foam Design as a Novel Approach toward Immiscible Foam Flooding for Enhanced Oil Recovery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hosseini-Nasab, S M; Zitha, P L J

    2017-10-19

    Strong foam can be generated in porous media containing oil, resulting in incremental oil recovery; however, oil recovery factor is restricted. A large fraction of oil recovered by foam flooding forms an oil-in-water emulsion, so that costly methods may need to be used to separate the oil. Moreover, strong foam could create a large pressure gradient, which may cause fractures in the reservoir. This study presents a novel chemical-foam flooding process for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) from water-flooded reservoirs. The presented method involved the use of chemically designed foam to mobilize the remaining oil after water flooding and then to displace the mobilized oil to the production well. A blend of two anionic surfactant formulations was formulated for this method: (a) IOS, for achieving ultralow interfacial tension (IFT), and (b) AOS, for generating a strong foam. Experiments were performed using Bentheimer sandstone cores, where X-ray CT images were taken during foam generation to find the stability of the advancing front of foam propagation and to map the gas saturation for both the transient and the steady-state flow regimes. Then the proposed chemical-foam strategy for incremental oil recovery was tested through the coinjection of immiscible nitrogen gas and surfactant solutions with three different formulation properties in terms of IFT reduction and foaming strength capability. The discovered optimal formulation contains a foaming agent surfactant, a low IFT surfactant, and a cosolvent, which has a high foam stability and a considerably low IFT (1.6 × 10 -2 mN/m). Coinjection resulted in higher oil recovery and much less MRF than the same process with only using a foaming agent. The oil displacement experiment revealed that coinjection of gas with a blend of surfactants, containing a cosolvent, can recover a significant amount of oil (33% OIIP) over water flooding with a larger amount of clean oil and less emulsion.

  17. Study on the reutilization of clear fracturing flowback fluids in surfactant flooding with additives for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dai, Caili; Wang, Kai; Liu, Yifei; Fang, Jichao; Zhao, Mingwei

    2014-01-01

    An investigation was conducted to study the reutilization of clear fracturing flowback fluids composed of viscoelastic surfactants (VES) with additives in surfactant flooding, making the process more efficient and cost-effective. The clear fracturing flowback fluids were used as surfactant flooding system with the addition of α-olefin sulfonate (AOS) for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). The interfacial activity, emulsification activity and oil recovery capability of the recycling system were studied. The interfacial tension (IFT) between recycling system and oil can be reduced by 2 orders of magnitude to 10(-3) mN/m, which satisfies the basic demand of surfactant flooding. The oil can be emulsified and dispersed more easily due to the synergetic effect of VES and AOS. The oil-wet surface of quartz can be easily converted to water-wet through adsorption of surfactants (VES/AOS) on the surface. Thirteen core plug flooding tests were conducted to investigate the effects of AOS concentrations, slug sizes and slug types of the recycling system on the incremental oil recovery. The investigations prove that reclaiming clear fracturing flowback fluids after fracturing operation and reuse it in surfactant flooding might have less impact on environment and be more economical.

  18. Risk management in oil reservoir water-flooding under economic uncertainty

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Siraj, Muhammad; Van den Hof, Paul; Jansen, Jan Dirk

    2015-01-01

    Model-based economic optimization of the water-flooding process in oil reservoirs suffers from high levels of uncertainty. The achievable economic objective is highly uncertain due to the varying economic conditions and the limited knowledge of the reservoir model parameters. For improving

  19. Surfactant-Polymer Interaction for Improved Oil Recovery; FINAL

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gabitto, Jorge; Mohanty, Kishore K.

    2002-01-01

    The goal of this research was to use the interaction between a surfactant and a polymer for efficient displacement of tertiary oil by improving slug integrity, oil solubility in the displacing fluid and mobility control. Surfactant-polymer flooding has been shown to be highly effective in laboratory-scale linear floods. The focus of this proposal is to design an inexpensive surfactant-polymer mixture that can efficiently recover tertiary oil by avoiding surfactant slug degradation and viscous/heterogeneity fingering

  20. Study on the reutilization of clear fracturing flowback fluids in surfactant flooding with additives for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Caili Dai

    Full Text Available An investigation was conducted to study the reutilization of clear fracturing flowback fluids composed of viscoelastic surfactants (VES with additives in surfactant flooding, making the process more efficient and cost-effective. The clear fracturing flowback fluids were used as surfactant flooding system with the addition of α-olefin sulfonate (AOS for enhanced oil recovery (EOR. The interfacial activity, emulsification activity and oil recovery capability of the recycling system were studied. The interfacial tension (IFT between recycling system and oil can be reduced by 2 orders of magnitude to 10(-3 mN/m, which satisfies the basic demand of surfactant flooding. The oil can be emulsified and dispersed more easily due to the synergetic effect of VES and AOS. The oil-wet surface of quartz can be easily converted to water-wet through adsorption of surfactants (VES/AOS on the surface. Thirteen core plug flooding tests were conducted to investigate the effects of AOS concentrations, slug sizes and slug types of the recycling system on the incremental oil recovery. The investigations prove that reclaiming clear fracturing flowback fluids after fracturing operation and reuse it in surfactant flooding might have less impact on environment and be more economical.

  1. Surfactant-enhanced alkaline flooding for light oil recovery. Final report 1994--1995

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wasan, D.T.

    1995-12-01

    In this report, the authors present the results of their experimental and theoretical studies in surfactant-enhanced alkaline flooding for light oil recovery. The overall objective of this work is to develop a very cost-effective method for formulating a successful surfactant-enhanced alkaline flood by appropriately choosing mixed alkalis which form inexpensive buffers to obtain the desired pH (between 8.5 and 12.0) for ultimate spontaneous emulsification and ultralow interfacial tension. In addition, the authors have (1) developed a theoretical interfacial activity model for determining equilibrium interfacial tension, (2) investigated the mechanisms for spontaneous emulsification, (3) developed a technique to monitor low water content in oil, and (4) developed a technique to study water-in-oil emulsion film properties, (5) investigated the effect of surfactant on the equilibrium and transient interfacial tension, (6) investigated the kinetics of oil removal from a silica surface, and (7) developed a theoretical interfacial activity model for determining equilibrium interfacial tension, accounting for added surfactant. The results of the studies conducted during the course of this project are summarized.

  2. Effect of capillary number on the oil recovery using oil-water emulsion injection in core flooding experiments

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Guillen Nunez, Victor Raul; Carvalho, Marcio da Silveira [Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), RJ (Brazil). Dept. of Mechanical Engineering], E-mail: msn@puc-rio.br; Basante, Vladimir Alvarado [University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY (United States). Dept. of Chemical/Petroleum Engineering], E-mail: valvard@uwyo.edu

    2010-07-01

    The Water injection flooding is a common method to improve reservoir sweep and pressure maintenance. The heavy-oil-recovery efficiency is in part limited by the high water-to-oil mobility ratio. Several enhanced oil recovery methods are being developed as more efficient alternatives to water flooding. Dispersion injection, in particular oil-water emulsion injection, has been tried with relative success as an enhanced oil recovery method, but the technique is not fully developed or understood. If emulsion injection proves to be an effective EOR method, its use would bring the added benefit of disposing produced water with small oil content that could be modified to serve as the injected oil-water emulsion. The use of such methods requires a detailed analysis of the different flow regimes of emulsions through the porous space of a reservoir rock. If the drop size of the disperse phase is of the same order of magnitude as the pore size, the drops may agglomerate and partially block water flow through pores. This flow regime may be used to control the mobility of the injected liquid, leading to higher recovery factor. We have shown in recent experiments of oil displacement in a sandstone core that, the oil recovery factor could be raised from approximately 40 %, obtained with water injection only, up to approximately 75 % by alternating water and emulsion injection. Although these results clearly show the improvement in the recovery factor, the mechanisms responsible for the phenomenon have not been clearly elucidated. In this work, two sandstone cores were used to demonstrate the effect of flow rate (capillary number) on the mobility control by emulsion injection. Figure 1 shows a schematic representation of the experiment set-up. The experiments show that raising the flow rate by a factor of 10 (0.03 ml/min to 0.3 ml/min), the oil recovered factor decreases considerably. (author)

  3. Investigation of Chemical-Foam Design as a Novel Approach toward Immiscible Foam Flooding for Enhanced Oil Recovery

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hosseini Nasab, S.M.; Zitha, P.L.J.

    2017-01-01

    Strong foam can be generated in porous media containing oil, resulting in incremental oil recovery; however, oil recovery factor is restricted. A large fraction of oil recovered by foam flooding forms an oil-in-water emulsion, so that costly methods may need to be used to separate the oil.

  4. An adaptive robust optimization scheme for water-flooding optimization in oil reservoirs using residual analysis

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Siraj, M.M.; Van den Hof, P.M.J.; Jansen, J.D.

    2017-01-01

    Model-based dynamic optimization of the water-flooding process in oil reservoirs is a computationally complex problem and suffers from high levels of uncertainty. A traditional way of quantifying uncertainty in robust water-flooding optimization is by considering an ensemble of uncertain model

  5. Artificial Neural Network Model for Alkali-Surfactant-Polymer Flooding in Viscous Oil Reservoirs: Generation and Application

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Si Le Van

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Chemical flooding has been widely utilized to recover a large portion of the oil remaining in light and viscous oil reservoirs after the primary and secondary production processes. As core-flood tests and reservoir simulations take time to accurately estimate the recovery performances as well as analyzing the feasibility of an injection project, it is necessary to find a powerful tool to quickly predict the results with a level of acceptable accuracy. An approach involving the use of an artificial neural network to generate a representative model for estimating the alkali-surfactant-polymer flooding performance and evaluating the economic feasibility of viscous oil reservoirs from simulation is proposed in this study. A typical chemical flooding project was referenced for this numerical study. A number of simulations have been made for training on the basis of a base case from the design of 13 parameters. After training, the network scheme generated from a ratio data set of 50%-20%-30% corresponding to the number of samples used for training-validation-testing was selected for estimation with the total coefficient of determination of 0.986 and a root mean square error of 1.63%. In terms of model application, the chemical concentration and injection strategy were optimized to maximize the net present value (NPV of the project at a specific oil price from the just created ANN model. To evaluate the feasibility of the project comprehensively in terms of market variations, a range of oil prices from 30 $/bbl to 60 $/bbl referenced from a real market situation was considered in conjunction with its probability following a statistical distribution on the NPV computation. Feasibility analysis of the optimal chemical injection scheme revealed a variation of profit from 0.42 $MM to 1.0 $MM, corresponding to the changes in oil price. In particular, at the highest possible oil prices, the project can earn approximately 0.61 $MM to 0.87 $MM for a quarter

  6. Quantification of the recovered oil and water fractions during water flooding laboratory experiments

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Katika, Konstantina; Halim, Amalia Yunita; Shapiro, Alexander

    2015-01-01

    the volume might be less than a few microliters. In this study, we approach the determination of the oil volumes in flooding effluents using predetermined amounts of the North Sea oil with synthetic seawater. The UV/visible spectroscopy method and low-field NMR spectrometry are compared...... for this determination, and an account of advantages and disadvantages of each method is given. Both methods are reproducible with high accuracy. The NMR method was capable of direct quantification of both oil and water fractions, while the UV/visible spectroscopy quantifies only the oil fraction using a standard curve....

  7. Optimization of Spore Forming Bacteria Flooding for Enhanced Oil Recovery in North Sea Chalk Reservoir

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Halim, Amalia Yunita; Nielsen, Sidsel Marie; Eliasson Lantz, Anna

    2015-01-01

    .2-3.8 cm) during bacteria injection. Further seawater flooding after three days shut in period showed that permeability gradually increased in the first two sections of the core and started to decrease in the third section of the core (3.8-6.3 cm). Complete plugging was never observed in our experiments.......Little has been done to study microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) in chalk reservoirs. The present study focused on core flooding experiments to see microbial plugging and its effect on oil recovery. A pressure tapped core holder with pressure ports at 1.2 cm, 3.8 cm, and 6.3 cm from the inlet...

  8. Interactions of fines with base fractions of oil and its implication in smart water flooding

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Chakravarty, Krishna Hara; Fosbøl, Philip Loldrup; Thomsen, Kaj

    2015-01-01

    Migration of fines, and formation of oil emulsion have been independently observed during smart water flooding both have been suggested to play a vital role in enhanced oil recovery (EOR). But, the exact role of fines and the reason of emulsion formation are not well studied for carbonate...... reservoirs. This study shows that addition of water and crude oil on calcite fines leads to formation of soluble oil emulsions in the water phase. Formation of these emulsions and its implication in EOR has been experimentally analyzed....

  9. Chemical Flooding in Heavy-Oil Reservoirs: From Technical Investigation to Optimization Using Response Surface Methodology

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Si Le Van

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available Heavy-oil resources represent a large percentage of global oil and gas reserves, however, owing to the high viscosity, enhanced oil recovery (EOR techniques are critical issues for extracting this type of crude oil from the reservoir. According to the survey data in Oil & Gas Journal, thermal methods are the most widely utilized in EOR projects in heavy oil fields in the US and Canada, and there are not many successful chemical flooding projects for heavy oil reported elsewhere in the world. However, thermal methods such as steam injection might be restricted in cases of thin formations, overlying permafrost, or reservoir depths over 4500 ft, for which chemical flooding becomes a better option for recovering crude oil. Moreover, owing to the considerable fluctuations in the oil price, chemical injection plans should be employed consistently in terms of either technical or economic viewpoints. The numerical studies in this work aim to clarify the predominant chemical injection schemes among the various combinations of chemical agents involving alkali (A, surfactant (S and polymer (P for specific heavy-oil reservoir conditions. The feasibilities of all potential injection sequences are evaluated in the pre-evaluation stage in order to select the most efficient injection scheme according to the variation in the oil price which is based on practical market values. Finally, optimization procedures in the post-evaluation stage are carried out for the most economic injection plan by an effective mathematic tool with the purpose of gaining highest Net Present Value (NPV of the project. In technical terms, the numerical studies confirm the predominant performances of sequences in which alkali-surfactant-polymer (ASP solution is injected after the first preflushing water whereby the recovery factor can be higher than 47%. In particular, the oil production performances are improved by injecting a buffering viscous fluid right after the first chemical slug

  10. Performance of vapor compression systems with compressor oil flooding and regeneration

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bell, Ian H.; Groll, Eckhard A.; Braun, James E. [Purdue University, Department of Mechanical Engineering, 140 S. Martin Jischke Drive, West Lafayette, IN 47906 (United States)

    2011-01-15

    Vapor compression refrigeration technology has seen great improvement over the last several decades in terms of cycle efficiency through a concerted effort of manufacturers, regulators, and research engineers. As the standard vapor compression systems approach practical limits, cycle modifications should be investigated to increase system efficiency and capacity. One possible means of increasing cycle efficiency is to flood the compressor with a large quantity of oil to achieve a quasi-isothermal compression process, in addition to using a regenerator to increase refrigerant subcooling. In theory, compressor flooding and regeneration can provide a significant increase in system efficiency over the standard vapor compression system. The effectiveness of compressor flooding and regeneration increases as the temperature lift of the system increases. Therefore, this technology is particularly well suited towards lower evaporating temperatures and high ambient temperatures as seen in supermarket refrigeration applications. While predicted increases in cycle efficiency are over 40% for supermarket refrigeration applications, this technology is still very beneficial for typical air-conditioning applications, for which improvements in cycle efficiency greater than 5% are predicted. It has to be noted though that the beneficial effects of compressor flooding can only be realized if a regenerator is used to exchange heat between the refrigerant vapor exiting the evaporator and the liquid exiting the condenser. (author)

  11. Enhanced oil recovery by nitrogen and carbon dioxide injection followed by low salinity water flooding for tight carbonate reservoir: experimental approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Georges Lwisa, Essa; Abdulkhalek, Ashrakat R.

    2018-03-01

    Enhanced Oil Recovery techniques are one of the top priorities of technology development in petroleum industries nowadays due to the increase in demand for oil and gas which cannot be equalized by the primary production or secondary production methods. The main function of EOR process is to displace oil to the production wells by the injection of different fluids to supplement the natural energy present in the reservoir. Moreover, these injecting fluids can also help in the alterations of the properties of the reservoir like lowering the IFTs, wettability alteration, a change in pH value, emulsion formation, clay migration and oil viscosity reduction. The objective of this experiment is to investigate the residual oil recovery by combining the effects of gas injection followed by low salinity water injection for low permeability reservoirs. This is done by a series of flooding tests on selected tight carbonate core samples taken from Zakuum oil field in Abu Dhabi by using firstly low salinity water as the base case and nitrogen & CO2injection followed by low salinity water flooding at reservoir conditions of pressure and temperature. The experimental results revealed that a significant improvement of the oil recovery is achieved by the nitrogen injection followed by the low salinity water flooding with a recovery factor of approximately 24% of the residual oil.

  12. Application of polymer flooding technology for enhanced oil recovery

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sarkyt Kudaivergenov

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Application of brine-initiated gelation of gellan for conformance control and water shutoff operations in field conditions was demonstrated. The developed technology was tested in Kumkol oilfield (Kyzylorda region, Kazakhstan on five injection wells. According to the results of the first oilfield test, the amount of additionally recovered oil during 11 months (from October 1, 2013 till September 1, 2014 was equal to 5890 tons. In 2014, the JSC “NIPIneftegas” (Aktau city, Kazakhstan carried out the second pilot test of polymer flooding technology on the same oilfield. The amount of additionally recovered oil during eight months (from October 2014 till May 2015 was equal to 8695 tons. The technology was tested for water shut-off purposes in producing well of Karabulak oilfield. After one-month treatment of production well the amount of water decreased 16 times in comparison with previous results.

  13. Modeling Wettability Variation during Long-Term Water Flooding

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Renyi Cao

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Surface property of rock affects oil recovery during water flooding. Oil-wet polar substances adsorbed on the surface of the rock will gradually be desorbed during water flooding, and original reservoir wettability will change towards water-wet, and the change will reduce the residual oil saturation and improve the oil displacement efficiency. However there is a lack of an accurate description of wettability alternation model during long-term water flooding and it will lead to difficulties in history match and unreliable forecasts using reservoir simulators. This paper summarizes the mechanism of wettability variation and characterizes the adsorption of polar substance during long-term water flooding from injecting water or aquifer and relates the residual oil saturation and relative permeability to the polar substance adsorbed on clay and pore volumes of flooding water. A mathematical model is presented to simulate the long-term water flooding and the model is validated with experimental results. The simulation results of long-term water flooding are also discussed.

  14. Numerical investigation of complex flooding schemes for surfactant polymer based enhanced oil recovery

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dutta, Sourav; Daripa, Prabir

    2015-11-01

    Surfactant-polymer flooding is a widely used method of chemical enhanced oil recovery (EOR) in which an array of complex fluids containing suitable and varying amounts of surfactant or polymer or both mixed with water is injected into the reservoir. This is an example of multiphase, multicomponent and multiphysics porous media flow which is characterized by the spontaneous formation of complex viscous fingering patterns and is modeled by a system of strongly coupled nonlinear partial differential equations with appropriate initial and boundary conditions. Here we propose and discuss a modern, hybrid method based on a combination of a discontinuous, multiscale finite element formulation and the method of characteristics to accurately solve the system. Several types of flooding schemes and rheological properties of the injected fluids are used to numerically study the effectiveness of various injection policies in minimizing the viscous fingering and maximizing oil recovery. Numerical simulations are also performed to investigate the effect of various other physical and model parameters such as heterogeneity, relative permeability and residual saturation on the quantities of interest like cumulative oil recovery, sweep efficiency, fingering intensity to name a few. Supported by the grant NPRP 08-777-1-141 from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of The Qatar Foundation).

  15. Miscible fluid displacement: an answer to increasing oil recovery

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rodriguez, N R; Rivera, R J

    1976-01-01

    This study presents the state of the art on miscible and miscible-type processes. It is well known that when these processes are applied under ideal laboratory conditions, the oil recovery obtained from linear cores approaches 100% of the total oil contained in the porous structure which is contacted by the displacing fluids. In the past few years, a worldwide shortage of crude oil supplies produced an increased interest in new oil recovery methods. Because of this situation, the oil industry turned its eyes back toward the miscible processes. This study discusses the following miscible fluid displacement processes: (1) high-pressure dry gas displacement; (2) enriched gas displacement; (3) GLP slug flooding; and (4) carbon dioxide displacement. In addition to the processes aforementioned, this work presents the main features of the micellar solution flooding process. (17 refs.)

  16. A predictive model of chemical flooding for enhanced oil recovery purposes: Application of least square support vector machine

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohammad Ali Ahmadi

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Applying chemical flooding in petroleum reservoirs turns into interesting subject of the recent researches. Developing strategies of the aforementioned method are more robust and precise when they consider both economical point of views (net present value (NPV and technical point of views (recovery factor (RF. In the present study huge attempts are made to propose predictive model for specifying efficiency of chemical flooding in oil reservoirs. To gain this goal, the new type of support vector machine method which evolved by Suykens and Vandewalle was employed. Also, high precise chemical flooding data banks reported in previous works were employed to test and validate the proposed vector machine model. According to the mean square error (MSE, correlation coefficient and average absolute relative deviation, the suggested LSSVM model has acceptable reliability; integrity and robustness. Thus, the proposed intelligent based model can be considered as an alternative model to monitor the efficiency of chemical flooding in oil reservoir when the required experimental data are not available or accessible.

  17. Experiences with linear solvers for oil reservoir simulation problems

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Joubert, W.; Janardhan, R. [Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States); Biswas, D.; Carey, G.

    1996-12-31

    This talk will focus on practical experiences with iterative linear solver algorithms used in conjunction with Amoco Production Company`s Falcon oil reservoir simulation code. The goal of this study is to determine the best linear solver algorithms for these types of problems. The results of numerical experiments will be presented.

  18. Potential Mississippi oil recovery and economic impact from CO2 miscible flooding

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Moring, J.A.; Rogers, R.E.

    1991-01-01

    Maturing of Mississippi oil reservoirs has resulted in a steady decline in crude oil production in the state. This paper reports that, to evaluate the potential of enhanced recovery processes, particularly in the use of the state's large CO 2 reserves, for arresting this trend, the subject study was performed. A computer data base of over 1315 Mississippi reservoirs was established. All reservoirs were screened for applicability of the carbon dioxide miscible process. With models developed by the National Petroleum Council and DOE, incremental oil that could be produced from the carbon dioxide miscible process was calculated. Under selected economic conditions, carbon dioxide miscible flooding with utilization of carbon dioxide from the state's Norphlet formation (3-7 tcf reserves of high-purity CO 2 ) could produce 120 million barrels of incremental oil in Mississippi. Incremental state revenues as a consequence of this production were calculated to be $45 million of severance taxes, $50 million of corporate income taxes, and $60 million of royalty payments, expressed as present values

  19. Ensemble prediction of floods – catchment non-linearity and forecast probabilities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    C. Reszler

    2007-07-01

    Full Text Available Quantifying the uncertainty of flood forecasts by ensemble methods is becoming increasingly important for operational purposes. The aim of this paper is to examine how the ensemble distribution of precipitation forecasts propagates in the catchment system, and to interpret the flood forecast probabilities relative to the forecast errors. We use the 622 km2 Kamp catchment in Austria as an example where a comprehensive data set, including a 500 yr and a 1000 yr flood, is available. A spatially-distributed continuous rainfall-runoff model is used along with ensemble and deterministic precipitation forecasts that combine rain gauge data, radar data and the forecast fields of the ALADIN and ECMWF numerical weather prediction models. The analyses indicate that, for long lead times, the variability of the precipitation ensemble is amplified as it propagates through the catchment system as a result of non-linear catchment response. In contrast, for lead times shorter than the catchment lag time (e.g. 12 h and less, the variability of the precipitation ensemble is decreased as the forecasts are mainly controlled by observed upstream runoff and observed precipitation. Assuming that all ensemble members are equally likely, the statistical analyses for five flood events at the Kamp showed that the ensemble spread of the flood forecasts is always narrower than the distribution of the forecast errors. This is because the ensemble forecasts focus on the uncertainty in forecast precipitation as the dominant source of uncertainty, and other sources of uncertainty are not accounted for. However, a number of analyses, including Relative Operating Characteristic diagrams, indicate that the ensemble spread is a useful indicator to assess potential forecast errors for lead times larger than 12 h.

  20. Application of naturally occurring isotopes and artificial radioactive tracer for monitoring water flooding in oil field

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ahmad, M.; Khan, I.H.; Farooq, M.; Tasneem, M.A.; Rafiq, M.; Din, U.G.; Gul, S.

    2002-03-01

    Water flooding is an important operation to enhance oil recovery. Water is injected in the oil formation under high pressure through an injection well. Movement of the injected water is needed to be traced to test the performance of water flood, investigate unexpected anomalies in flow and verify suspected geological barriers or flow channels, etc. In the present study environmental isotopes and artificial radiotracer (tritium) were used at Fimkassar Oil Field of Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) where water flooding was started in March 1996 in Sakessar formation to maintain its pressure and enhance the oil recovery. Environmental isotopes: /sup 18/O, /sup 2/H and /sup 3/H, and chloride contents were used to determine the breakthrough/transit time and contribution of fresh injected water. Water samples were collected from the injection well, production well and some other fields for reference indices of Sakessar Formation during June 1998 to August 1999. These samples were analyzed for the /sup 18/O, /sup 2/H and /sup 3/H, and chloride contents. Results show that the water of production well is mixture of fresh water and formation water. The fresh water contribution varied from 67% to 80%, while remaining component was the old recharged formation water. This percentage did not change significantly from the time of break-through till the last sampling which indicates good mixing in the reservoir and absence of any quick channel. The initial breakthrough time was 27 months as the fresh water contributed significantly in the first appearance of water in the production well in June 1998. Tritium tracer, which was injected in November 1998, appeared in the production well after 8 months. It show that breakthrough time decreased with the passage of time. /sup 14/C of inorganic carbon in the water in Chorgali and Sakessar Formations was also analyzed which indicates that the water is at least few thousand years old. (author)

  1. Effects of component performance on overall performance of R410A air conditioner with oil flooding and regeneration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Luo, Baojun

    2016-01-01

    Highlights: • COP benefits more than cooling capacity with regenerator. • High oil temperature leads to degradation of the system. • The improvement brought by oil flooding was greatly reduced by solubility. • A modified system is proposed for reducing the negative effects of solubility. • Comprehensive effects of regenerator, oil temperature and solubility are obtained. - Abstract: Oil flooded compression with regenerator (OFCR) is one of the possible technologies to improve the performance of air conditioner. The addition of OFCR system to basic vapor compression system adds several components: oil separator, oil cooler and regenerator. These components can lead to a significant increase in performance. In this study, parametric studies of these components performance have been carried out under various operating conditions. Compared with basic vapor compression system, COP of OFCR system with 100% effective regenerator is improved by 0.7–11.8% while COP of OFCR system without regenerator is reduced by 0.6–1.8%. When oil temperature exiting the oil cooler reaches 40 °C and 50 °C, the performance of OFCR system is worse than that of basic system at evaporation temperature T_e = 15 °C and T_e ⩾ 5 °C respectively. COP and cooling capacity of OFCR with solubility are decreased by 6.9% and 14.3% respectively at T_e = 5 °C and 0.4 oil mass fraction. A modification of OFCR system is suggested for reducing the negative effects of solubility. The results of COP and cooling capacity show that the modified OFCR system has a 3–4% performance improvement. Comprehensive effects of regenerator efficiency, oil temperature and solubility are also studied. Taking the solubility into account, the effects of regenerator efficiency and oil temperature are slightly different from that without solubility.

  2. Post Waterflood CO2 Miscible Flood in Light Oil, Fluvial-Dominated Deltaic Reservoir (Pre-Work and Project Proposal - Appendix)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bou-Mikael, Sami

    2002-02-05

    The main objective of the Port Neches Project was to determine the feasibility and producibility of CO2 miscible flooding techniques enhanced with horizontal drilling applied to a Fluvial Dominated Deltaic reservoir. The second was to disseminate the knowledge gained through established Technology Transfer mechanisms to support DOE's programmatic objectives of increasing domestic oil production and reducing abandonment of oil fields.

  3. Oil prices: The role of refinery utilization, futures markets and non-linearities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kaufmann, Robert K.; Mann, Michael; Dees, Stephane; Gasteuil, Audrey

    2008-01-01

    We test the hypothesis that real oil prices are determined in part by refinery capacity, non-linearities in supply conditions, and/or expectations and that observed changes in these variables can account for the rise in prices between 2004 and 2006. Results indicate that the refining sector plays an important role in the recent price increase, but not in the way described by many analysts. The relationship is negative such that higher refinery utilization rates reduce crude oil prices. This effect is associated with shifts in the production of heavy and light grades of crude oil and price spreads between them. Non-linear relationships between OPEC capacity and oil prices as well as conditions on the futures markets also account for changes in real oil prices. Together, these factors allow the model to generate a one-step ahead out-of-sample forecast that performs as well as forecasts implied by far-month contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange and is able to account for much of the $27 rise in crude oil prices between 2004 and 2006. (author)

  4. COUPLING THE ALKALINE-SURFACTANT-POLYMER TECHNOLOGY AND THE GELATION TECHNOLOGY TO MAXIMIZE OIL PRODUCTION

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Malcolm Pitts; Jie Qi; Dan Wilson

    2004-10-01

    Gelation technologies have been developed to provide more efficient vertical sweep efficiencies for flooding naturally fractured oil reservoirs or more efficient areal sweep efficiency for those with high permeability contrast ''thief zones''. The field proven alkaline-surfactant-polymer technology economically recovers 15% to 25% OOIP more oil than waterflooding from swept pore space of an oil reservoir. However, alkaline-surfactant-polymer technology is not amenable to naturally fractured reservoirs or those with thief zones because much of injected solution bypasses target pore space containing oil. This work investigates whether combining these two technologies could broaden applicability of alkaline-surfactant-polymer flooding into these reservoirs. A prior fluid-fluid report discussed interaction of different gel chemical compositions and alkaline-surfactant-polymer solutions. Gel solutions under dynamic conditions of linear corefloods showed similar stability to alkaline-surfactant-polymer solutions as in the fluid-fluid analyses. Aluminum-polyacrylamide, flowing gels are not stable to alkaline-surfactant-polymer solutions of either pH 10.5 or 12.9. Chromium acetate-polyacrylamide flowing and rigid flowing gels are stable to subsequent alkaline-surfactant-polymer solution injection. Rigid flowing chromium acetate-polyacrylamide gels maintained permeability reduction better than flowing chromium acetate-polyacrylamide gels. Silicate-polyacrylamide gels are not stable with subsequent injection of either a pH 10.5 or a 12.9 alkaline-surfactant-polymer solution. Neither aluminum citrate-polyacrylamide nor silicate-polyacrylamide gel systems produced significant incremental oil in linear corefloods. Both flowing and rigid flowing chromium acetate-polyacrylamide gels produced incremental oil with the rigid flowing gel producing the greatest amount. Higher oil recovery could have been due to higher differential pressures across cores. None of

  5. Investigation of spore forming bacterial flooding for enhanced oil recovery in a North Sea chalk Reservoir

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Halim, Amalia Yunita; Nielsen, Sidsel Marie; Eliasson Lantz, Anna

    2015-01-01

    Little has been done to study microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) in chalk reservoirs. The present study focuses on core flooding experiments designed to see microbial plugging and its effect on oil recovery. A pressure tapped core holder was used for this purpose. A spore forming bacteria...... Bacillus licheniformis 421 was used as it was shown to be a good candidate in a previous study. Bacterial spore can penetrate deeper into the chalk rock, squeezing through the pore throats. Our results showed that injection of B. licheniformis 421 as a tertiary oil recovery method, in the residual oil...... saturation state, was able to produce additionally 1.0-2.3% original oil in place (OOIP) in homogeneous cores and 6.9-8.8% OOIP in heterogeneous cores. In addition, the pressure gradient was much higher in the heterogeneous cores, which confirms that bacterial selective plugging plays an important role...

  6. Carbonated water flooding : Process overview in the frame of co2 flooding

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Peksa, A.E.

    2017-01-01

    The main scope of the work related to the physical and dynamical processes associated with the injection of carbonated water in porous media. Carbonated water flooding is an alternative for traditional CO2 flooding. Both methods have the potential to recover any oil left behind after primary and

  7. Post Waterflood CO2 Miscible Flood in Light Oil, Fluvial-Dominated Deltaic Reservoir (Pre-Work and Project Proposal - Appendix); FINAL

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bou-Mikael, Sami

    2002-01-01

    The main objective of the Port Neches Project was to determine the feasibility and producibility of CO2 miscible flooding techniques enhanced with horizontal drilling applied to a Fluvial Dominated Deltaic reservoir. The second was to disseminate the knowledge gained through established Technology Transfer mechanisms to support DOE's programmatic objectives of increasing domestic oil production and reducing abandonment of oil fields

  8. Chemical Method to Improve CO{sub 2} Flooding Sweep Efficiency for Oil Recovery Using SPI-CO{sub 2} Gels

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Burns, Lyle D.

    2009-04-14

    The problem in CO{sub 2} flooding lies with its higher mobility causing low conformance or sweep efficiency. This is an issue in oilfield applications where an injected fluid or gas used to mobilize and produce the oil in a marginal field has substantially higher mobility (function of viscosity and density and relative permeability) relative to the crude oil promoting fingering and early breakthrough. Conformance is particularly critical in CO{sub 2} oilfield floods where the end result is less oil recovered and substantially higher costs related to the CO{sub 2}. The SPI-CO{sub 2} (here after called “SPI”) gel system is a unique silicate based gel system that offers a technically effective solution to the conformance problem with CO{sub 2} floods. This SPI gel system remains a low viscosity fluid until an external initiator (CO{sub 2}) triggers gelation. This is a clear improvement over current technologies where the gels set up as a function of time, regardless of where it is placed in the reservoir. In those current systems, the internal initiator is included in the injected fluid for water shut off applications. In this new research effort, the CO{sub 2} is an external initiator contacted after SPI gel solution placement. This concept ensures in the proper water wet reservoir environment that the SPI gel sets up in the precise high permeability path followed by the CO{sub 2}, therefore improving sweep efficiency to a greater degree than conventional systems. In addition, the final SPI product in commercial quantities is expected to be low cost over the competing systems. This Phase I research effort provided “proof of concept” that SPI gels possess strength and may be formed in a sand pack reducing the permeability to brine and CO{sub 2} flow. This SPI technology is a natural extension of prior R & D and the Phase I effort that together show a high potential for success in a Phase II follow-on project. Carbon dioxide (CO{sub 2}) is a major by-product of

  9. Polymeric surfactants for enhanced oil recovery : A review

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Raffa, Patrizio; Broekhuis, Antonius A.; Picchioni, Francesco

    Chemical enhanced oil recovery (EOR) is surely a topic of interest, as conventional oil resources become more scarce and the necessity of exploiting heavy and unconventional oils increases. EOR methods based on polymer flooding, surfactant-polymer flooding and alkali-surfactant-polymer flooding are

  10. Water mobility key to improved floods

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pamenter, C B

    1967-03-01

    The use of polymer floods in the U.S. and Canada is discussed. A 2-yr laboratory study conducted by Dow Chemical Co. early in the life of polymer flooding showed that polymers improved the mobility ratio without damage to porosity or permeability of reservoir rock. A pilot test was made in the Niagara Field, Ky., and the results of this pilot compared to the performance of a waterflood that had been operating in this field for about 4 yr. The results showed that polymer flooding was superior to conventional waterflooding and had a distinct behavior. Another pilot flood conducted by Dow in the Albrecht Field, Starr County, Tex., showed similar results. Union Oil Co. of California also conducted pilot tests in 4 of their California reservoirs. Additional recoverable reserves resulting from polymer flooding for 2 of these reservoirs were estimated at 95,000 and 70,000 bbl. The other 2 tests were not as satisfactory, but this behavior is thought to be the result of not using enough polymer. Two other projects discussed are the NE. Hallsville Field unit in East Texas and the Squirrel sand reservoir in Woodson County, Kans., which were conducted by Hunt Oil Co. and Brazos Oil and Gas Co., respectively.

  11. The effect of prolonged flooding of an oil deposit on the special composition and the activity of hydrocarbon-oxidizing microflora

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Berdichevskaya, M V

    1982-07-01

    The special composition of hydrocarbon-oxidizing bacteria was studied in terrigenous and carbonate oil-bearing strata from several deposits of the Permian Cis-Ural region. We isolated 43 strains and assigned them to the following genera: Mycobacterium, Micrococcus, Brevibacterium, Corynebacterium, Flavobacterium, Achromobacter and Pseudomonas. The special composition of the hydrocarbon-oxidizing microflora was shown to depend on the flooding of an oil stratum, as a result of which the ecological environment in a deposit changed. Gram-positive coryneform bacteria were found in stratal salinized waters and in diluted stratal waters. Gram-negative hydrocarbon-oxidizing bacteria were isolated from pumped-in river waters and from stratal waters diluted by 70-100% as the result of flooding. The metabolic activity of Corynebacterium fascians (2 strains), Mycobacterium rubrum (1 strain), Pseudomonas mira (1 strain) and Flavobacterium perigrinum (1 strain) was assayed in stratal waters with different concentrations of salts. The coryneform hydrocarbon-oxidizing bacteria were shown to be very halotolerant as the result of adaptation; that is why the incidence of these microorganisms is very great in highly mineralized stratal water of oil deposits.

  12. Case Studies of the ROZ CO2 Flood and the Combined ROZ/MPZ CO2 Flood at the Goldsmith Landreth Unit, Ector County, Texas. Using ''Next Generation'' CO2 EOR Technologies to Optimize the Residual Oil Zone CO2 Flood

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Trentham, Robert C. [Univ. of Texas, Midland, TX (United States); Melzer, L. Stephen [Univ. of Texas, Midland, TX (United States); Kuuskraa, Vello [Advanced Resources International, Inc., Arlington, VA (United States); Koperna, George [Advanced Resources International, Inc., Arlington, VA (United States)

    2015-06-30

    The technology for CO2 Enhanced Oil Recovery (CO2 EOR) has significantly advanced since the earliest floods were implemented in the 1970s. At least for the Permian Basin region of the U.S., the oil recovery has been now been extended into residual oil zones (ROZs) where the mobile fluid phase is water and immobile phase is oil. But the nature of the formation and fluids within the ROZs has brought some challenges that were not present when flooding the MPZs. The Goldsmith-Landreth project in the Permian Basin was intended to first identify the most pressing issues of the ROZs floods and, secondly, begin to address them with new techniques designed to optimize a flood that commingled the MPZ and the ROZ. The early phase of the research conducted considerable reservoir and fluid characterization work and identified both technical and commercial challenges of producing the enormous quantities of water when flooding the ROZs. It also noted the differing water compositions in the ROZ as compared to the overlying MPZs. A new CO2 gas lift system using a capillary string was successfully applied during the project which conveyed the CO2 to the deeper and differing ROZ reservoir conditions at Goldsmith and added a second capillary string that facilitated applying scale inhibitors to mitigate the scaling tendencies of the mixing ROZ and MPZ formation waters. The project also undertook a reservoir modeling effort, using the acquired reservoir characterization data, to history match both the primary and water flood phases of the MPZ and to establish the initial conditions for a modeling effort to forecast response of the ROZ to CO2 EOR. With the advantage of many profile logs acquired from the operator, some concentration on the original pattern area for the ROZ pilot was accomplished to attempt to perfect the history match for that area. Several optional scenarios for producing the ROZ were simulated seeking to find the

  13. Oil flooded compression cycle enhancement for two-stage heat pump in cold climate region: System design and theoretical analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Luo, Baojun

    2016-01-01

    Highlights: • COP of proposed system improves up to 17.2% compared with vapor injection cycle. • Discharge temperature of proposed system is largely decreased. • Proposed system is beneficial for refrigerant with high compression heat. • Proposed system has potential for applications in cold climate heat pump. - Abstract: In order to improve the performance of air source heat pump in cold climate region, a combined oil flooded compression with regenerator and vapor injection cycle system is suggested in this paper, which integrates oil flooded compression with regenerator into a conventional vapor injection cycle. A mathematical model is developed and parametric studies on this cycle are conducted to evaluate the benefits of the novel system. The performances of the novel system using R410A and R32 are compared with those of vapor injection cycle system. The improvement of coefficient of performance (COP) can reach up to nearly 9% based on the same isentropic efficiency, while 17.2% based on assumption that there is a 10% rise in isentropic efficiency brought by oil flooded compression cycle. The heating capacity is reduced by 8–18% based on the same volumetric efficiency, while could be less than 10% in a practical system. The discharge temperature is largely decreased and can be below 100 °C at −40 °C T_e and 50 °C T_c condition for R32. The theoretical results demonstrate this novel heat pump has a high potential for improving the performance of air source heat pump in cold climate region.

  14. Are fluctuations in oil consumption permanent or transitory? Evidence from linear and nonlinear unit root tests

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Solarin, Sakiru Adebola; Lean, Hooi Hooi

    2016-01-01

    This paper examines the integration properties of the total oil consumption in 57 countries for the period of 1965–2012. A combination of new and powerful linear and nonlinear stationarity tests are employed to achieve the objectives of the study. We find that the oil consumption series in 21 countries follow a nonlinearity path while those in the other countries are linear in nature. Evidence of the presence of a unit root is found for the total oil consumption series in 38 countries while the series is stationary in the remaining 19 countries. An important insight is that the blueprints that were designed to reduce oil consumption are likely to have a permanent effect in most of the countries. - Highlights: • We examine the integration properties of total oil consumption in 57 countries. • We apply new and powerful linear and nonlinear stationarity tests. • Unit root is found in two third of the countries. • Blueprints designed to reduce oil consumption are likely to have permanent effect.

  15. The Potential of a Surfactant/Polymer Flood in a Middle Eastern Reservoir

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Meshal Algharaib

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available An integrated full-field reservoir simulation study has been performed to determine the reservoir management and production strategies in a mature sandstone reservoir. The reservoir is a candidate for an enhanced oil recovery process or otherwise subject to abandonment. Based on its charateristics, the reservoir was found to be most suited for a surfactant/polymer (SP flood. The study started with a large data gathering and the building of a full-field three-dimensional geological model. Subsequently, a full field simulation model was built and used to history match the water flood. The history match of the water flood emphasizes the areas with remaining high oil saturations, establishes the initial condition of the reservoir for an SP flood, and generates a forecast of reserves for continued water flood operations. A sector model was constructed from the full field model and then used to study different design parameters to maximize the project profitability from the SP flood. An economic model, based on the estimated recovery, residual oil in-place, oil price, and operating costs, has been implemented in order to optimize the project profitability. The study resulted in the selection of surfactant and polymer concentrations and slug size that yielded the best economic returns when applied in this reservoir. The study shows that, in today’s oil prices, surfactant/polymer flood when applied in this reservoir has increased the ultimate oil recovery and provide a significant financial returns.

  16. Analysis of Microbial Communities in the Oil Reservoir Subjected to CO2-Flooding by Using Functional Genes as Molecular Biomarkers for Microbial CO2 Sequestration

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jin-Feng eLiu

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available Sequestration of CO2 in oil reservoirs is considered to be one of the feasible options for mitigating atmospheric CO2 building up and also for the in situ potential bioconversion of stored CO2 to methane. However, the information on these functional microbial communities and the impact of CO2 storage on them is hardly available. In this paper a comprehensive molecular survey was performed on microbial communities in production water samples from oil reservoirs experienced CO2-flooding by analysis of functional genes involved in the process, including cbbM, cbbL, fthfs, [FeFe]-hydrogenase and mcrA. As a comparison, these functional genes in the production water samples from oil reservoir only experienced water-flooding in areas of the same oil bearing bed were also analyzed. It showed that these functional genes were all of rich diversity in these samples, and the functional microbial communities and their diversity were strongly affected by a long-term exposure to injected CO2. More interestingly, microorganisms affiliated with members of the genera Methanothemobacter, Acetobacterium and Halothiobacillus as well as hydrogen producers in CO2 injected area either increased or remained unchanged in relative abundance compared to that in water-flooded area, which implied that these microorganisms could adapt to CO2 injection and, if so, demonstrated the potential for microbial fixation and conversion of CO2 into methane in subsurface oil reservoirs.

  17. Impact of carbon nanotubes based nanofluid on oil recovery efficiency using core flooding

    Science.gov (United States)

    Soleimani, Hassan; Baig, Mirza Khurram; Yahya, Noorhana; Khodapanah, Leila; Sabet, Maziyar; Demiral, Birol M. R.; Burda, Marek

    2018-06-01

    This study aims to investigate the influence of carbon nanotubes based nanofluid on interfacial tension and oil recovery efficiency. Practically multi-walled carbon nanotubes were successfully synthesized using chemical vapour deposition technique and characterized using X-ray diffraction and Field Emission Scanning Electron microscope in order to understand its structure, shape, and morphology. Nanofluids are one of the interesting new agents for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) that can change the reservoir rock-fluid properties in terms of interfacial tension and wettability. In this work, different concentration of carbon nanotubes based fluids were prepared and the effect of each concentration on surface tension was determined using pendant drop method. After specifying the optimum concentration of carbon nanotubes based nanofluid, core flooding experiment was conducted by two pore volume of brine and two pore volume of nanofluid and then oil recovery factor was calculated. The results show that carbon nanotubes can bring in additional recovery factor of 18.57% in the glass bead sample. It has been observed that nanofluid with high surface tension value gives higher recovery. It was found that the optimum value of concentration is 0.3 wt% at which maximum surface tension of 33.46 mN/m and oil recovery factor of 18.57% was observed. This improvement in recovery factor can be recognized due to interfacial tension reduction and wettability alteration.

  18. Spatial Modeling of Flood Duration in Amazonian Floodplains Through Radar Remote Sensing and Generalized Linear Models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ferreira-Ferreira, J.; Francisco, M. S.; Silva, T. S. F.

    2017-12-01

    Amazon floodplains play an important role in biodiversity maintenance and provide important ecosystem services. Flood duration is the prime factor modulating biogeochemical cycling in Amazonian floodplain systems, as well as influencing ecosystem structure and function. However, due to the absence of accurate terrain information, fine-scale hydrological modeling is still not possible for most of the Amazon floodplains, and little is known regarding the spatio-temporal behavior of flooding in these environments. Our study presents an new approach for spatial modeling of flood duration, using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and Generalized Linear Modeling. Our focal study site was Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve, in the Central Amazon. We acquired a series of L-band ALOS-1/PALSAR Fine-Beam mosaics, chosen to capture the widest possible range of river stage heights at regular intervals. We then mapped flooded area on each image, and used the resulting binary maps as the response variable (flooded/non-flooded) for multiple logistic regression. Explanatory variables were accumulated precipitation 15 days prior and the water stage height recorded in the Mamirauá lake gauging station observed for each image acquisition date, Euclidean distance from the nearest drainage, and slope, terrain curvature, profile curvature, planform curvature and Height Above the Nearest Drainage (HAND) derived from the 30-m SRTM DEM. Model results were validated with water levels recorded by ten pressure transducers installed within the floodplains, from 2014 to 2016. The most accurate model included water stage height and HAND as explanatory variables, yielding a RMSE of ±38.73 days of flooding per year when compared to the ground validation sites. The largest disagreements were 57 days and 83 days for two validation sites, while remaining locations achieved absolute errors lower than 38 days. In five out of nine validation sites, the model predicted flood durations with

  19. Using Polymer Alternating Gas to Enhance Oil Recovery in Heavy Oil

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Yongzhi; Li, Weirong; Zhou, Tiyao; Dong, Zhenzhen

    2018-02-01

    CO2 has been used to recover oil for more than 40 years. Currently, about 43% of EOR production in U.S. is from CO2 flooding. CO2 flooding is a well-established EOR technique, but its density and viscosity nature are challenges for CO2 projects. Low density (0.5 to 0.8 g/cm3) causes gas to rise upward in reservoirs and bypass many lower portions of the reservoir. Low viscosity (0.02 to 0.08 cp) leads to poor volumetric sweep efficiency. So water-alternating-gas (WAG) method was used to control the mobility of CO2 and improve sweep efficiency. However, WAG process has some other problems in heavy oil reservoir, such as poor mobility ratio and gravity overriding. To examine the applicability of carbon dioxide to recover viscous oil from highly heterogeneous reservoirs, this study suggests a new EOR method--polymer-alternating gas (PAG) process. The process involves a combination of polymer flooding and CO2 injection. To confirm the effectiveness of PAG process in heavy oils, a reservoir model from Liaohe Oilfield is used to compare the technical and economic performance among PAG, WAG and polymer flooding. Simulation results show that PAG method would increase oil recovery over 10% compared with other EOR methods and PAG would be economically success based on assumption in this study. This study is the first to apply PAG to enhance oil recovery in heavy oil reservoir with highly heterogeneous. Besides, this paper provides detailed discussions and comparison about PAG with other EOR methods in this heavy oil reservoir.

  20. Asymmetric membranes for destabilization of oil droplets in produced water from alkaline-surfactant-polymer (ASP) flooding

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ramlee, Azierah; Chiam, Chel-Ken; Sarbatly, Rosalam

    2018-05-01

    This work presents a study of destabilization of oil droplets in the produced water from alkaline-surfactant-polymer (ASP) flooding by using four types of laboratory-fabricated polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes. The PVDF membranes were fabricated via immersion precipitation method with ethanol (0 - 30 %, v/v) as the coagulant. The membranes with the effective area of 17.35 cm2 were tested with synthesized ASP solution as the feed in cross-flow microfiltration process. The ASP feed solution initially contained the oil droplets with radius ranged from 40 to 100 nm and the mean radius was 61 nm. Results have shown that the concentration of the ethanol in the coagulation bath affects the formation of the membrane structure and the corresponding porosity, while no significance influence on the membrane thickness. Coalescence of the oil droplets was occurred when the ASP solution permeated through the asymmetric PVDF membranes. Through the coalescence process, the oil droplets were destabilized where the radius of the oil droplets in the permeates increased to 1.5-4 µm with the corresponding mean radius ranged from 2.4 to 2.7 µm.

  1. Simulation study of huff-n-puff air injection for enhanced oil recovery in shale oil reservoirs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hu Jia

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available This paper is the first attempt to evaluate huff-n-puff air injection in a shale oil reservoir using a simulation approach. Recovery mechanisms and physical processes of huff-n-puff air injection in a shale oil reservoir are investigated through investigating production performance, thermal behavior, reservoir pressure and fluid saturation features. Air flooding is used as the basic case for a comparative study. The simulation study suggests that thermal drive is the main recovery mechanism for huff-n-puff air injection in the shale oil reservoir, but not for simple air flooding. The synergic recovery mechanism of air flooding in conventional light oil reservoirs can be replicated in shale oil reservoirs by using air huff-n-puff injection strategy. Reducing huff-n-puff time is better for performing the synergic recovery mechanism of air injection. O2 diffusion plays an important role in huff-n-puff air injection in shale oil reservoirs. Pressure transmissibility as well as reservoir pressure maintenance ability in huff-n-puff air injection is more pronounced than the simple air flooding after primary depletion stage. No obvious gas override is exhibited in both air flooding and air huff-n-puff injection scenarios in shale reservoirs. Huff-n-puff air injection has great potential to develop shale oil reservoirs. The results from this work may stimulate further investigations.

  2. Spillways Scheduling for Flood Control of Three Gorges Reservoir Using Mixed Integer Linear Programming Model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maoyuan Feng

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available This study proposes a mixed integer linear programming (MILP model to optimize the spillways scheduling for reservoir flood control. Unlike the conventional reservoir operation model, the proposed MILP model specifies the spillways status (including the number of spillways to be open and the degree of the spillway opened instead of reservoir release, since the release is actually controlled by using the spillway. The piecewise linear approximation is used to formulate the relationship between the reservoir storage and water release for a spillway, which should be open/closed with a status depicted by a binary variable. The control order and symmetry rules of spillways are described and incorporated into the constraints for meeting the practical demand. Thus, a MILP model is set up to minimize the maximum reservoir storage. The General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS and IBM ILOG CPLEX Optimization Studio (CPLEX software are used to find the optimal solution for the proposed MILP model. The China’s Three Gorges Reservoir, whose spillways are of five types with the total number of 80, is selected as the case study. It is shown that the proposed model decreases the flood risk compared with the conventional operation and makes the operation more practical by specifying the spillways status directly.

  3. Mixed Integer Linear Programming model for Crude Palm Oil Supply Chain Planning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sembiring, Pasukat; Mawengkang, Herman; Sadyadharma, Hendaru; Bu'ulolo, F.; Fajriana

    2018-01-01

    The production process of crude palm oil (CPO) can be defined as the milling process of raw materials, called fresh fruit bunch (FFB) into end products palm oil. The process usually through a series of steps producing and consuming intermediate products. The CPO milling industry considered in this paper does not have oil palm plantation, therefore the FFB are supplied by several public oil palm plantations. Due to the limited availability of FFB, then it is necessary to choose from which plantations would be appropriate. This paper proposes a mixed integer linear programming model the supply chain integrated problem, which include waste processing. The mathematical programming model is solved using neighborhood search approach.

  4. Model study of enhanced oil recovery by flooding with aqueous surfactant solution and comparison with theory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fletcher, Paul D I; Savory, Luke D; Woods, Freya; Clarke, Andrew; Howe, Andrew M

    2015-03-17

    With the aim of elucidating the details of enhanced oil recovery by surfactant solution flooding, we have determined the detailed behavior of model systems consisting of a packed column of calcium carbonate particles as the porous rock, n-decane as the trapped oil, and aqueous solutions of the anionic surfactant sodium bis(2-ethylhexyl) sulfosuccinate (AOT). The AOT concentration was varied from zero to above the critical aggregation concentration (cac). The salt content of the aqueous solutions was varied to give systems of widely different, post-cac oil-water interfacial tensions. The systems were characterized in detail by measuring the permeability behavior of the packed columns, the adsorption isotherms of AOT from the water to the oil-water interface and to the water-calcium carbonate interface, and oil-water-calcium carbonate contact angles. Measurements of the percent oil recovery by pumping surfactant solutions into calcium carbonate-packed columns initially filled with oil were analyzed in terms of the characterization results. We show that the measured contact angles as a function of AOT concentration are in reasonable agreement with those calculated from values of the surface energy of the calcium carbonate-air surface plus the measured adsorption isotherms. Surfactant adsorption onto the calcium carbonate-water interface causes depletion of its aqueous-phase concentration, and we derive equations which enable the concentration of nonadsorbed surfactant within the packed column to be estimated from measured parameters. The percent oil recovery as a function of the surfactant concentration is determined solely by the oil-water-calcium carbonate contact angle for nonadsorbed surfactant concentrations less than the cac. For surfactant concentrations greater than the cac, additional oil removal occurs by a combination of solubilization and emulsification plus oil mobilization due to the low oil-water interfacial tension and a pumping pressure increase.

  5. Experimental studies of low salinity water flooding in carbonate reservoirs: A new promising approach

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Zahid, Adeel; Shapiro, Alexander; Skauge, Arne

    2012-01-01

    Low salinity water flooding is well studied for sandstone reservoirs, both laboratory and field tests have showed improvement in the oil recovery in many cases. Up to very recently, the low salinity effect has been indeterminated for carbonates. Most recently, Saudi Aramco reported that substantial...... additional oil recovery can be achieved when successively flooding composite carbonate core plugs with various diluted versions of seawater. The experimental data on carbonates is very limited, so more data and better understanding of the mechanisms involved is needed to utilize this method for carbonate...... reservoirs. In this paper, we have experimentally investigated the oil recovery potential of low salinity water flooding for carbonate rocks. We used both reservoir carbonate and outcrop chalk core plugs. The flooding experiments were carried out initially with the seawater, and afterwards additional oil...

  6. Cross-well 4-D resistivity tomography localizes the oil-water encroachment front during water flooding

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, J.; Revil, A.

    2015-04-01

    The early detection of the oil-water encroachment front is of prime interest during the water flooding of an oil reservoir to maximize the production of oil and to avoid the oil-water encroachment front to come too close to production wells. We propose a new 4-D inversion approach based on the Gauss-Newton approach to invert cross-well resistance data. The goal of this study is to image the position of the oil-water encroachment front in a heterogeneous clayey sand reservoir. This approach is based on explicitly connecting the change of resistivity to the petrophysical properties controlling the position of the front (porosity and permeability) and to the saturation of the water phase through a petrophysical resistivity model accounting for bulk and surface conductivity contributions and saturation. The distributions of the permeability and porosity are also inverted using the time-lapse resistivity data in order to better reconstruct the position of the oil water encroachment front. In our synthetic test case, we get a better position of the front with the by-products of porosity and permeability inferences near the flow trajectory and close to the wells. The numerical simulations show that the position of the front is recovered well but the distribution of the recovered porosity and permeability is only fair. A comparison with a commercial code based on a classical Gauss-Newton approach with no information provided by the two-phase flow model fails to recover the position of the front. The new approach could be used for the time-lapse monitoring of various processes in both geothermal fields and oil and gas reservoirs using a combination of geophysical methods.

  7. Study on distribution of reservoir endogenous microbe and oil displacement mechanism

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ming Yue

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available In order to research oil displacement mechanism by indigenous microbial communities under reservoir conditions, indigenous microbial flooding experiments using the endogenous mixed bacterium from Shengli Oilfield were carried out. Through microscopic simulation visual model, observation and analysis of distribution and flow of the remaining oil in the process of water flooding and microbial oil displacement were conducted under high temperature and high pressure conditions. Research has shown that compared with atmospheric conditions, the growth of the microorganism metabolism and attenuation is slowly under high pressure conditions, and the existence of the porous medium for microbial provides good adhesion, also makes its growth cycle extension. The microbial activities can effectively launch all kinds of residual oil, and can together with metabolites, enter the blind holes off which water flooding, polymer flooding and gas flooding can’t sweep, then swap out remaining oil, increase liquidity of the crude oil and remarkably improve oil displacement effect.

  8. Linear least-squares method for global luminescent oil film skin friction field analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Taekjin; Nonomura, Taku; Asai, Keisuke; Liu, Tianshu

    2018-06-01

    A data analysis method based on the linear least-squares (LLS) method was developed for the extraction of high-resolution skin friction fields from global luminescent oil film (GLOF) visualization images of a surface in an aerodynamic flow. In this method, the oil film thickness distribution and its spatiotemporal development are measured by detecting the luminescence intensity of the thin oil film. From the resulting set of GLOF images, the thin oil film equation is solved to obtain an ensemble-averaged (steady) skin friction field as an inverse problem. In this paper, the formulation of a discrete linear system of equations for the LLS method is described, and an error analysis is given to identify the main error sources and the relevant parameters. Simulations were conducted to evaluate the accuracy of the LLS method and the effects of the image patterns, image noise, and sample numbers on the results in comparison with the previous snapshot-solution-averaging (SSA) method. An experimental case is shown to enable the comparison of the results obtained using conventional oil flow visualization and those obtained using both the LLS and SSA methods. The overall results show that the LLS method is more reliable than the SSA method and the LLS method can yield a more detailed skin friction topology in an objective way.

  9. HEAVY-OIL PRODUCTION USING EMULSION FLOODING

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    user

    ... American Petroleum Institute, EOR = Enhanced Oil Recovery, GOR = Gas Oil Ratio ... concentration, 166.003 is the constant (molar mass of ... (molar mass of CaCO3),1M is the constant value. ... volume of prepared oil-in-water emulsion, that.

  10. Post Waterflood CO2 Miscible Flood in Light Oil, Fluvial-Dominated Deltaic Reservoir (Pre-Work and Project Proposal), Class I

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bou-Mikael, Sami

    2002-02-05

    This project outlines a proposal to improve the recovery of light oil from waterflooded fluvial dominated deltaic (FDD) reservoir through a miscible carbon dioxide (CO2) flood. The site is the Port Neches Field in Orange County, Texas. The field is well explored and well exploited. The project area is 270 acres within the Port Neches Field.

  11. Urban flood return period assessment through rainfall-flood response modelling

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Murla, Damian; Thorndahl, Søren Liedtke

    Intense rainfall can often cause severe floods, especially in urbanized areas, where population density or large impermeable areas are found. In this context, floods can generate a direct impact in a social-environmental-economic viewpoint. Traditionally, in design of Urban Drainage Systems (UDS......), correlation between return period (RP) of a given rainfall and RP of its consequent flood has been assumed to be linear (e.g.DS/EN752 (2008)). However, this is not always the case. Complex UDS, where diverse hydraulic infrastructures are often found, increase the heterogeneity of system response, which may...... cause an alteration of the mentioned correlation. Consequently, reliability on future urban planning, design and resilience against floods may be also affected by this misassumption. In this study, an assessment of surface flood RP across rainfall RP has been carried out at Lystrup, a urbanized...

  12. Evaluation and Optimization Study on a Hybrid EOR Technique Named as Chemical-Alternating-Foam Floods

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xu Xingguang

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available This work presents a novel Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR method called Chemical-Alternating-Foam (CAF floods in order to overcome the drawbacks of the conventional foam flooding such as insufficient amount of in-situ foams, severe foam collapse and surfactant retention. The first part of this research focused on the comparison of conventional foam floods and CAF floods both of which had the same amount of gas and chemicals. It showed that: (1 CAF floods possessed the much greater Residual Resistance Factor (RRF at elevated temperature; (2 the accumulative oil recovery of the CAF floods was 10%-15% higher than that of the conventional foam flooding. After 1.8 Pore Volume (PV injection, the oil recovery reached the plateau for both methods; (3 CAF floods yielded the most amount of incremental oil at the 98% water cut (water content in the effluent, while the continuous foam floods achieved the best performance at 60% water cut. The second part of this work determined the optimal foam quality (gas/liquid ratio or the volume percent gas within foam, chemical/foam slug size ratio, cycle number and injection sequence for the CAF floods. It was found that the CAF was endowed with the peak performance if the foam quality, chemical/foam slug size ratio, cycle number was fixed at 80%, 1:1 and 3 respectively with the chemical slug being introduced ahead of the foam slug. Through systematic and thorough research, the proposed hybrid process has been approved to be a viable and effective method significantly strengthening the conventional foam flooding.

  13. Biodegradation of partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide by bacteria isolated from production water after polymer flooding in an oil field

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bao Mutai; Chen Qingguo; Li Yiming; Jiang Guancheng

    2010-01-01

    Partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM) in production water after polymer flooding in oil filed causes environmental problems, such as increases the difficulty in oil-water separation, degrades naturally to produce toxic acrylamide and endanger local ecosystem. Biodegradation of HPAM may be an efficient way to solve these problems. The biodegradability of HPAM in an aerobic environment was studied. Two HPAM-degrading bacterial strains, named PM-2 and PM-3, were isolated from the produced water of polymer flooding. They were subsequently identified as Bacillus cereus and Bacillus sp., respectively. The utilization of HPAM by the two strains was explored. The amide group of HPAM could serve as a nitrogen source for the two microorganisms, the carbon backbone of these polymers could be partly utilized by microorganisms. The HPAM samples before and after bacterial biodegradation were analyzed by the infrared spectrum, high performance liquid chromatography and scanning electronic microscope. The results indicated that the amide group of HPAM in the biodegradation products had been converted to a carboxyl group, and no acrylamide monomer was found. The HPAM carbon backbone was metabolized by the bacteria during the course of its growth. Further more, the hypothesis about the biodegradation of HPAM in aerobic bacterial culture is proposed.

  14. Investigation on Mechanisms of Polymer Enhanced Oil Recovery by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and Microscopic Theoretical Analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ji-Cheng, Zhang; Kao-Ping, Song; Er-Long, Yang; Li, Liu

    2008-01-01

    Polymer flooding is an efficient technique to enhance oil recovery over water flooding. There are lots of discussions regarding the mechanisms for polymer flooding enhancing oil recovery. The main focus is whether polymer flooding can increase sweep efficiency alone, or can increase both of sweep efficiency and displacement efficiency. We present a study on this problem. Oil displacement experiments on 4 natural cores show that polymer flooding can increase oil recovery efficiency by more than 12% over water. Moreover, photos are taken by the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) method both after water flooding and after polymer flooding, which show remaining oil saturation distribution at the middle cross section and the central longitudinal section. Analyses of these photos demonstrate that polymer flooding can increase both sweep efficiency and displacement efficiency. (fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications))

  15. Improved Efficiency of Miscible CO2 Floods and Enhanced Prospects for CO2 Flooding Heterogeneous Reservoirs

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Grigg, Reid B.; Schechter, David S.

    1999-10-15

    The goal of this project is to improve the efficiency of miscible CO2 floods and enhance the prospects for flooding heterogeneous reservoirs. This report provides results of the second year of the three-year project that will be exploring three principles: (1) Fluid and matrix interactions (understanding the problems). (2) Conformance control/sweep efficiency (solving the problems. 3) Reservoir simulation for improved oil recovery (predicting results).

  16. Process for recovering oil from subterranean formations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Knight, B.; Gogarty, W.B.

    1978-01-01

    Improved flooding of oil-bearing formations is obtained by injecting and displacing through the formation a saline solution containing a water-soluble, substantially linear, high molecular weight polymer obtained by irradiating an aqueous solution of an ethylenically unsaturated monomer and a water-soluble salt under controlled conditions of concentration, radiation intensity, conversion, and total radiation dose. The saline water can contain at least 15,000 ppm of TDS (total dissolved solids) and at least 50 ppm and preferably 300 ppm of polyvalent cations. (Auth.)

  17. Enhanced Oil Recovery with Surfactant Flooding

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sandersen, Sara Bülow

    , thus reducing the interfacial tension (IFT) to ultra low (0.001 mN/m), which consequently will mobilize the residual oil and result in improved oil recovery. This EOR technology is, however, made challenging by a number of factors, such as the adsorption of surfactant and co-surfactant to the rock...... be resistant to and remain active at reservoir conditions such as high temperatures, pressures and salinities. Understanding the underlying mechanisms of systems that exhibit liquid-liquid equilibrium (e.g. oil-brine systems) at reservoir conditions is an area of increasing interest within EOR. This is true...... studied. The effect of increased pressure became more significant when combined with increasing temperature. The experiments performed on the oil/ seawater systems were similar to the high pressure experiments for the surfactant system discussed above. Oil was contacted with different brine solutions...

  18. Return period assessment of urban pluvial floods through modelling of rainfall–flood response

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Tuyls, Damian Murla; Thorndahl, Søren Liedtke; Rasmussen, Michael Robdrup

    2018-01-01

    Intense rainfall in urban areas can often generate severe flood impacts. Consequently, it is crucial to design systems to minimize potential flood damages. Traditional, simple design of urban drainage systems assumes agreement between rainfall return period and its consequent flood return period......; however, this does not always apply. Hydraulic infrastructures found in urban drainage systems can increase system heterogeneity and perturb the impact of severe rainfall response. In this study, a surface flood return period assessment was carried out at Lystrup (Denmark), which has received the impact...... of flooding in recent years. A 35 years' rainfall dataset together with a coupled 1D/2D surface and network model was used to analyse and assess flood return period response. Results show an ambiguous relation between rainfall and flood return periods indicating that linear rainfall–runoff relationships will...

  19. Elasticity and electrical resistivity of chalk and greensand during water flooding with selective ions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Katika, Konstantina; Alam, Mohammad Monzurul; Alexeev, Artem

    2018-01-01

    is water-wet after flooding. Greensand remained mixed wet throughout the experiments. Electrical resistivity data are in agreement with this interpretation. The electrical resistivity data during flooding revealed that the formation brine is not fully replaced by the injected water in both chalk......Water flooding with selective ions has in some cases lead to increased oil recovery. We investigate the physical processes on a pore scale that are responsible for changes in petrophysical and mechanical properties of four oil-bearing chalk and four oil-bearing greensand samples caused by flooding...... with brines containing varying amounts of dissolved NaCl, Na2SO4, MgCl2 and MgSO4. Ultrasonic P-wave velocity and AC resistivity measurements were performed prior to, during and after flow through experiments in order to identify and quantify the processes related to water flooding with selective ions. Low...

  20. Optimization of lift gas allocation in a gas lifted oil field as non-linear optimization problem

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Roshan Sharma

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Proper allocation and distribution of lift gas is necessary for maximizing total oil production from a field with gas lifted oil wells. When the supply of the lift gas is limited, the total available gas should be optimally distributed among the oil wells of the field such that the total production of oil from the field is maximized. This paper describes a non-linear optimization problem with constraints associated with the optimal distribution of the lift gas. A non-linear objective function is developed using a simple dynamic model of the oil field where the decision variables represent the lift gas flow rate set points of each oil well of the field. The lift gas optimization problem is solved using the emph'fmincon' solver found in MATLAB. As an alternative and for verification, hill climbing method is utilized for solving the optimization problem. Using both of these methods, it has been shown that after optimization, the total oil production is increased by about 4. For multiple oil wells sharing lift gas from a common source, a cascade control strategy along with a nonlinear steady state optimizer behaves as a self-optimizing control structure when the total supply of lift gas is assumed to be the only input disturbance present in the process. Simulation results show that repeated optimization performed after the first time optimization under the presence of the input disturbance has no effect in the total oil production.

  1. Improved Efficiency of Miscible CO2 Floods and Enhanced Prospects for CO2 Flooding Heterogeneous Reservoirs; ANNUAL

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Grigg, Reid B.; Schechter, David S.

    1999-01-01

    The goal of this project is to improve the efficiency of miscible CO2 floods and enhance the prospects for flooding heterogeneous reservoirs. This report provides results of the second year of the three-year project that will be exploring three principles: (1) Fluid and matrix interactions (understanding the problems). (2) Conformance control/sweep efficiency (solving the problems. 3) Reservoir simulation for improved oil recovery (predicting results)

  2. Post Waterflood CO2 Miscible Flood in Light Oil, Fluvial-Dominated Deltaic Reservoir (Pre-Work and Project Proposal), Class I; FINAL

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bou-Mikael, Sami

    2002-01-01

    This project outlines a proposal to improve the recovery of light oil from waterflooded fluvial dominated deltaic (FDD) reservoir through a miscible carbon dioxide (CO2) flood. The site is the Port Neches Field in Orange County, Texas. The field is well explored and well exploited. The project area is 270 acres within the Port Neches Field

  3. Forecast of oil price and consumption in the short term under three scenarios: Parabolic, linear and chaotic behaviour

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gori, F.; Ludovisi, D.; Cerritelli, P.F.

    2007-01-01

    The paper examines the evolution of price and consumption of oil in the last decades to construct a relationship between them. Then the work considers three possible scenarios of oil price: parabolic, linear and chaotic behaviour, to predict the evolution of price and consumption of oil up to December 2003

  4. The Effect Of Anisotropy In Formation Permeability On The Efficiency Of Cyclic Water Flooding

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Al-Obaidi SH

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available In oil industry one of the most worldwide used methods a among the hydrodynamic enhanced oil recovery methods is the water flooding including the cyclic water flooding. The efficiency of cyclic water flooding is affected by a number of geophysical and field technological factors. In this work and based on three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulation it is shown that anisotropy of formation permeability has significant effect on justification of the half-cycle time and the technological effectiveness of the method.

  5. Coupling the Alkaline-Surfactant-Polymer Technology and The Gelation Technology to Maximize Oil Production

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Malcolm Pitts; Jie Qi; Dan Wilson; Phil Dowling; David Stewart; Bill Jones

    2005-12-01

    Gelation technologies have been developed to provide more efficient vertical sweep efficiencies for flooding naturally fractured oil reservoirs or reservoirs with different sand lenses with high permeability contrast. The field proven alkaline-surfactant-polymer technology economically recovers 15% to 25% OOIP more crude oil than waterflooding from swept pore space of an oil reservoir. However, alkaline-surfactant-polymer technology is not amenable to naturally fractured reservoirs or reservoirs with high permeability contrast zones because much of injected solution bypasses target pore space containing oil. This work investigates whether combining these two technologies could broaden applicability of alkaline-surfactant-polymer flooding into these reservoirs. Fluid-fluid interaction with different gel chemical compositions and alkaline-surfactant-polymer solution with pH values ranging from 9.2 to 12.9 have been tested. Aluminum-polyacrylamide gels are not stable to alkaline-surfactant-polymer solutions at any pH. Chromium-polyacrylamide gels with polymer to chromium ion ratios of 25 or greater were stable to alkaline-surfactant-polymer solutions if solution pH was 10.6 or less. When the polymer to chromium ion was 15 or less, chromium-polyacrylamide gels were stable to alkaline-surfactant-polymer solutions with pH values up to 12.9. Chromium-xanthan gum gels were stable to alkaline-surfactant-polymer solutions with pH values of 12.9 at the polymer to chromium ion ratios tested. Silicate-polyacrylamide, resorcinol-formaldehyde, and sulfomethylated resorcinol-formaldehyde gels were also stable to alkaline-surfactant-polymer solutions with pH values ranging from 9.2 to 12.9. Iron-polyacrylamide gels were immediately destroyed when contacted with any of the alkaline-surfactant-polymer solutions with pH values ranging from 9.2 to 12.9. Gel solutions under dynamic conditions of linear corefloods showed similar stability to alkaline-surfactant-polymer solutions as in

  6. Air injection low temperature oxidation process for enhanced oil recovery from light oil reservoirs

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tunio, A.H.; Harijan, K.

    2010-01-01

    This paper represents EOR (Enhanced Oil Recovery) methods to recover unswept oil from depleted light oil reservoirs. The essential theme here is the removal of oxygen at LTO (Low Temperature Oxidation) from the injected air for a light oil reservoir by means of some chemical reactions occurring between oil and oxygen. In-situ combustion process, HTO (High Temperature Oxidation) is not suitable for deep light oil reservoirs. In case of light oil reservoirs LTO is more suitable to prevail as comparative to HTO. Few laboratory experimental results were obtained from air injection process, to study the LTO reactions. LTO process is suitable for air injection rate in which reservoir has sufficiently high temperature and spontaneous reaction takes place. Out comes of this study are the effect of LTO reactions in oxygen consumption and the recovery of oil. This air injection method is economic compared to other EOR methods i.e. miscible hydrocarbon gas, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide flooding etc. This LTO air injection process is suitable for secondary recovery methods where water flooding is not feasible due to technical problems. (author)

  7. Experimental study of solvent-based emulsion injection to enhance heavy oil recovery in Alaska North Slope area

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Qiu, F.; Mamora, D. [Texas A and M Univ., College Station, TX (United States)

    2010-07-01

    This study examined the feasibility of using a chemical enhanced oil recovery method to overcome some of the technical challenges associated with thermal recovery in the Alaska North Slope (ANS). This paper described the second stage research of an experimental study on nano-particle and surfactant-stabilized solvent-based emulsions for the ANS area. Four successful core flood experiments were performed using heavy ANS oil. The runs included water flooding followed by emulsion flooding; and pure emulsion injection core flooding. The injection rate and core flooding temperature remained constant and only 1 PV micro-emulsion was injected after breakthrough under water flooding or emulsion flooding. Oil recovery increased by 26.4 percent from 56.2 percent original oil in place (OOIP) with waterflooding to 82.6 percent OOIP with injection of emulsion following water flooding. Oil recovery was slightly higher with pure emulsion flooding, at 85.8 percent OOIP. The study showed that low permeability generally resulted in a higher shear rate, which is favourable for in-situ emulsification and higher displacement efficiency. 11 refs., 4 tabs., 20 figs.

  8. Fifth DOE symposium on enhanced oil and gas recovery and improved drilling technology. Volume 2. Oil

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Linville, B. [ed.

    1979-01-01

    Volume 2 contains papers from the following sessions: residual oil determination; thermal methods; heavy oil-tar sands; technology transfer; and carbon dioxide flooding. Individual papers were processed.

  9. DEVELOPMENT OF MORE-EFFICIENT GAS FLOODING APPLICABLE TO SHALLOW RESERVOIRS

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    William R. Rossen; Russell T. Johns; Gary A. Pope

    2003-08-21

    The objective of this research is to widen the applicability of gas flooding to shallow oil reservoirs by reducing the pressure required for miscibility using gas enrichment and increasing sweep efficiency with foam. Task 1 examines the potential for improved oil recovery with enriched gases. Subtask 1.1 examines the effect of dispersion processes on oil recovery and the extent of enrichment needed in the presence of dispersion. Subtask 1.2 develops a fast, efficient method to predict the extent of enrichment needed for crude oils at a given pressure. Task 2 develops improved foam processes to increase sweep efficiency in gas flooding. Subtask 2.1 comprises mechanistic experimental studies of foams with N2 gas. Subtask 2.2 conducts experiments with CO{sub 2} foam. Subtask 2.3 develops and applies a simulator for foam processes in field application.

  10. Thermal enhanced oil recovery in Indonesia. Prospect of HTGR application

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rahman, M.; Sumardiono; Lasman, A.N.; Sudarto; Prihardany, D.

    1997-01-01

    In the next future, Indonesia will face oil scarcity. The present reserves are estimated to be depleted in 20 years. However, after primary and secondary recovery processes, there are still more than 50% of original oil in place remaining in the reservoir, and this could be recovered by using tertiary recovery method or which is known as enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes. Among the three major methods of EOR, steam flooding is a thermal recovery method into which High Temperature Reactor (HTR) module can be integrated for producing steam. However, the feasibility of application of HTR as an alternative to conventional oil-fired steam generator will depend strongly on the price of oil. This paper discusses EOR screening for Indonesian oil fields to identify the appropriate oil reservoirs for steam flooding application as well as the possibility of steam supply by HTR module. Also reviewed is the previous study on HTR application for Duri Steam Flood Project. (author). 8 refs, 6 figs, 5 tabs

  11. An approach to optimize economics in a west Texas CO2 flood

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pariani, G.J.; McColloch, K.A.; Warden, S.L.; Edens, D.R.

    1992-01-01

    Enhanced oil recovery projects, most notably CO 2 floods, are the next generation of recovery methods in the more mature West Texas waterfloods. The cost of installing and operating a CO 2 flood can be extremely high. In this paper, the authors will discuss the methods the authors used to make several active CO 2 floods more profitable by reducing operating costs and deferring investments. This paper reports that the author's goals in studying several active West Texas CO 2 floods were to determine the optimum near term cash flow, overall project economics (rate of return, present worth etc.) and oil recoveries. Using a reservoir simulator, various CO 2 flood designs were developed by altering specific operating parameters including the half-cycle slug size, gas-water ratio (GWR) injection schemes and total CO 2 slug sizes. The resulting injection and production rates were then entered into an economic simulator to determine the most economic set of operating conditions

  12. Polymer as permeability modifier in porous media for enhanced oil recovery

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parsa, Shima; Weitz, David

    2017-11-01

    We use confocal microscopy to directly visualize the changes in morphology and mobilization of trapped oil ganglia within a 3D micromodel of porous media upon polymer flooding. Enhanced oil recovery is achieved in polymer flooding with large molecular weight at concentrations close or higher than a critical concentration of polymer. We also measure the fluctuations of the velocity of the displacing fluid and show that the velocities change upon polymer flooding in the whole medium. The changes in the fluid velocities are heterogeneous and vary in different pores, hence only providing enough pressure gradient across a few of the trapped oil ganglia and mobilize them. Our measurements show that polymer flooding is an effective method for enhancing oil recovery due to retention of polymer on the solid surfaces and changing the resistances of the available paths to water.

  13. An Exogenous Surfactant-Producing Bacillus subtilis Facilitates Indigenous Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gao, Peike; Li, Guoqiang; Li, Yanshu; Li, Yan; Tian, Huimei; Wang, Yansen; Zhou, Jiefang; Ma, Ting

    2016-01-01

    This study used an exogenous lipopeptide-producing Bacillus subtilis to strengthen the indigenous microbial enhanced oil recovery (IMEOR) process in a water-flooded reservoir in the laboratory. The microbial processes and driving mechanisms were investigated in terms of the changes in oil properties and the interplay between the exogenous B. subtilis and indigenous microbial populations. The exogenous B. subtilis is a lipopeptide producer, with a short growth cycle and no oil-degrading ability. The B. subtilis facilitates the IMEOR process through improving oil emulsification and accelerating microbial growth with oil as the carbon source. Microbial community studies using quantitative PCR and high-throughput sequencing revealed that the exogenous B. subtilis could live together with reservoir microbial populations, and did not exert an observable inhibitory effect on the indigenous microbial populations during nutrient stimulation. Core-flooding tests showed that the combined exogenous and indigenous microbial flooding increased oil displacement efficiency by 16.71%, compared with 7.59% in the control where only nutrients were added, demonstrating the application potential in enhanced oil recovery in water-flooded reservoirs, in particular, for reservoirs where IMEOR treatment cannot effectively improve oil recovery.

  14. Foundations for computer simulation of a low pressure oil flooded single screw air compressor

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bein, T. W.

    1981-12-01

    The necessary logic to construct a computer model to predict the performance of an oil flooded, single screw air compressor is developed. The geometric variables and relationships used to describe the general single screw mechanism are developed. The governing equations to describe the processes are developed from their primary relationships. The assumptions used in the development are also defined and justified. The computer model predicts the internal pressure, temperature, and flowrates through the leakage paths throughout the compression cycle of the single screw compressor. The model uses empirical external values as the basis for the internal predictions. The computer values are compared to the empirical values, and conclusions are drawn based on the results. Recommendations are made for future efforts to improve the computer model and to verify some of the conclusions that are drawn.

  15. Comparison of floods non-stationarity detection methods: an Austrian case study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salinas, Jose Luis; Viglione, Alberto; Blöschl, Günter

    2016-04-01

    Non-stationarities in flood regimes have a huge impact in any mid and long term flood management strategy. In particular the estimation of design floods is very sensitive to any kind of flood non-stationarity, as they should be linked to a return period, concept that can be ill defined in a non-stationary context. Therefore it is crucial when analyzing existent flood time series to detect and, where possible, attribute flood non-stationarities to changing hydroclimatic and land-use processes. This works presents the preliminary results of applying different non-stationarity detection methods on annual peak discharges time series over more than 400 gauging stations in Austria. The kind of non-stationarities analyzed include trends (linear and non-linear), breakpoints, clustering beyond stochastic randomness, and detection of flood rich/flood poor periods. Austria presents a large variety of landscapes, elevations and climates that allow us to interpret the spatial patterns obtained with the non-stationarity detection methods in terms of the dominant flood generation mechanisms.

  16. An experimental and theoretical study to relate uncommon rock/fluid properties to oil recovery. Final report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Watson, R.

    1995-07-01

    Waterflooding is the most commonly used secondary oil recovery technique. One of the requirements for understanding waterflood performance is a good knowledge of the basic properties of the reservoir rocks. This study is aimed at correlating rock-pore characteristics to oil recovery from various reservoir rock types and incorporating these properties into empirical models for Predicting oil recovery. For that reason, this report deals with the analyses and interpretation of experimental data collected from core floods and correlated against measurements of absolute permeability, porosity. wettability index, mercury porosimetry properties and irreducible water saturation. The results of the radial-core the radial-core and linear-core flow investigations and the other associated experimental analyses are presented and incorporated into empirical models to improve the predictions of oil recovery resulting from waterflooding, for sandstone and limestone reservoirs. For the radial-core case, the standardized regression model selected, based on a subset of the variables, predicted oil recovery by waterflooding with a standard deviation of 7%. For the linear-core case, separate models are developed using common, uncommon and combination of both types of rock properties. It was observed that residual oil saturation and oil recovery are better predicted with the inclusion of both common and uncommon rock/fluid properties into the predictive models.

  17. Enzymes for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Nasiri, Hamidreza

    2011-04-15

    Primary oil recovery by reservoir pressure depletion and secondary oil recovery by waterflooding usually result in poor displacement efficiency. As a consequence there is always some trapped oil remaining in oil reservoirs. Oil entrapment is a result of complex interactions between viscous, gravity and capillary forces. Improving recovery from hydrocarbon fields typically involves altering the relative importance of the viscous and capillary forces. The potential of many EOR methods depends on their influence on fluid/rock interactions related to wettability and fluid/fluid interactions reflected in IFT. If the method has the potential to change the interactions favorably, it may be considered for further investigation, i.e. core flooding experiment, pilot and reservoir implementation. Enzyme-proteins can be introduced as an enhanced oil recovery method to improve waterflood performance by affecting interactions at the oil-water-rock interfaces. An important part of this thesis was to investigate how selected enzymes may influence wettability and capillary forces in a crude oil-brine-rock system, and thus possibly contribute to enhanced oil recovery. To investigate further by which mechanisms selected enzyme-proteins may contribute to enhance oil recovery, groups of enzymes with different properties and catalytic functions, known to be interfacially active, were chosen to cover a wide range of possible effects. These groups include (1) Greenzyme (GZ) which is a commercial EOR enzyme and consists of enzymes and stabilizers (surfactants), (2) The Zonase group consists of two types of pure enzyme, Zonase1 and Zonase2 which are protease enzymes and whose catalytic functions are to hydrolyze (breakdown) peptide bonds, (3) The Novozyme (NZ) group consists of three types of pure enzyme, NZ2, NZ3 and NZ6 which are esterase enzymes and whose catalytic functions are to hydrolyze ester bonds, and (4) Alpha-Lactalbumin ( -La) which is an important whey protein. The effect of

  18. A Review of CO2-Enhanced Oil Recovery with a Simulated Sensitivity Analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mandadige Samintha Anne Perera

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available This paper reports on a comprehensive study of the CO2-EOR (Enhanced oil recovery process, a detailed literature review and a numerical modelling study. According to past studies, CO2 injection can recover additional oil from reservoirs by reservoir pressure increment, oil swelling, the reduction of oil viscosity and density and the vaporization of oil hydrocarbons. Therefore, CO2-EOR can be used to enhance the two major oil recovery mechanisms in the field: miscible and immiscible oil recovery, which can be further increased by increasing the amount of CO2 injected, applying innovative flood design and well placement, improving the mobility ratio, extending miscibility, and controlling reservoir depth and temperature. A 3-D numerical model was developed using the CO2-Prophet simulator to examine the effective factors in the CO2-EOR process. According to that, in pure CO2 injection, oil production generally exhibits increasing trends with increasing CO2 injection rate and volume (in HCPV (Hydrocarbon pore volume and reservoir temperature. In the WAG (Water alternating gas process, oil production generally increases with increasing CO2 and water injection rates, the total amount of flood injected in HCPV and the distance between the injection wells, and reduces with WAG flood ratio and initial reservoir pressure. Compared to other factors, the water injection rate creates the minimum influence on oil production, and the CO2 injection rate, flood volume and distance between the flood wells have almost equally important influence on oil production.

  19. Bacterial community diversity in a low-permeability oil reservoir and its potential for enhancing oil recovery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xiao, Meng; Zhang, Zhong-Zhi; Wang, Jing-Xiu; Zhang, Guang-Qing; Luo, Yi-Jing; Song, Zhao-Zheng; Zhang, Ji-Yuan

    2013-11-01

    The diversity of indigenous bacterial community and the functional species in the water samples from three production wells of a low permeability oil reservoir was investigated by high-throughput sequencing technology. The potential of application of indigenous bacteria for enhancing oil recovery was evaluated by examination of the effect of bacterial stimulation on the formation water-oil-rock surface interactions and micromodel test. The results showed that production well 88-122 had the most diverse bacterial community and functional species. The broth of indigenous bacteria stimulated by an organic nutrient activator at aerobic condition changed the wettability of the rock surface from oil-wet to water-wet. Micromodel test results showed that flooding using stimulated indigenous bacteria following water flooding improved oil recovery by 6.9% and 7.7% in fractured and unfractured micromodels, respectively. Therefore, the zone of low permeability reservoir has a great potential for indigenous microbial enhanced oil recovery. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. Determining optimum aging time using novel core flooding equipment

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ahkami, Mehrdad; Chakravarty, Krishna Hara; Xiarchos, Ioannis

    2016-01-01

    the optimum aging time regardless of variations in crude oil, rock, and brine properties. State of the art core flooding equipment has been developed that can be used for consistently determining the resistivity of the coreplug during aging and waterflooding using advanced data acquisition software......New methods for enhanced oil recovery are typically developed using core flooding techniques. Establishing reservoir conditions is essential before the experimental campaign commences. The realistic oil-rock wettability can be obtained through optimum aging of the core. Aging time is affected....... In the proposed equipment, independent axial and sleeve pressure can be applied to mimic stresses at reservoir conditions. 10 coreplugs (four sandstones and six chalk samples) from the North Sea have been aged for more than 408 days in total and more than 29000 resistivity data points have been measured...

  1. Core Flood study for enhanced oil recovery through ex-situ bioaugmentation with thermo- and halo-tolerant rhamnolipid produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa NCIM 5514.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Varjani, Sunita J; Upasani, Vivek N

    2016-11-01

    The aim of this work was to study the Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery (MEOR) employing core field model ex-situ bioaugmenting a thermo- and halo-tolerant rhamnolipid produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC) revealed that the biosurfactant produced was rhamnolipid type. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance analysis showed that the purified rhamnolipids comprised two principal rhamnolipid homologues, i.e., Rha-Rha-C10-C14:1 and Rha-C8-C10. The rhamnolipid was stable under wide range of temperature (4°C, 30-100°C), pH (2.0-10.0) and NaCl concentration (0-18%, w/v). Core Flood model was designed for oil recovery operations using rhamnolipid. The oil recovery enhancement over Residual Oil Saturation was 8.82% through ex-situ bioaugmentation with rhamnolipid. The thermal stability of rhamnolipid shows promising scope for its application at conditions where high temperatures prevail in oil recovery processes, whereas its halo-tolerant nature increases its application in marine environment. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. Improvement of Carbon Dioxide Sweep Efficiency by Utilization of Microbial Permeability Profile Modification to Reduce the Amount of Oil Bypassed During Carbon Dioxide Flood

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Schmitz, Darrel [Mississippi State Univ., Mississippi State, MS (United States); Brown, Lewis [Mississippi State Univ., Mississippi State, MS (United States); Lynch, F. Leo [Mississippi State Univ., Mississippi State, MS (United States); Kirkland, Brenda L. [Mississippi State Univ., Mississippi State, MS (United States); Collins, Krystal M. [Mississippi State Univ., Mississippi State, MS (United States); Funderburk, William K. [Mississippi State Univ., Mississippi State, MS (United States)

    2010-12-31

    The objective of this project was to couple microbial permeability profile modification (MPPM), with carbon dioxide flooding to improve oil recovery from the Upper Cretaceous Little Creek Oil Field situated in Lincoln and Pike counties, MS. This study determined that MPPM technology, which improves production by utilizing environmentally friendly nutrient solutions to simulate the growth of the indigenous microflora in the most permeable zones of the reservoir thus diverting production to less permeable, previously unswept zones, increased oil production without interfering with the carbon dioxide flooding operation. Laboratory tests determined that no microorganisms were produced in formation waters, but were present in cores. Perhaps the single most significant contribution of this study is the demonstration that microorganisms are active at a formation temperature of 115°C (239°F) by using a specially designed culturing device. Laboratory tests were employed to simulate the MPPM process by demonstrating that microorganisms could be activated with the resulting production of oil in coreflood tests performed in the presence of carbon dioxide at 66°C (the highest temperature that could be employed in the coreflood facility). Geological assessment determined significant heterogeneity in the Eutaw Formation, and documented relatively thin, variably-lithified, well-laminated sandstone interbedded with heavily-bioturbated, clay-rich sandstone and shale. Live core samples of the Upper Cretaceous Eutaw Formation from the Heidelberg Field, MS were quantitatively assessed using SEM, and showed that during MPPM permeability modification occurs ubiquitously within pore and throat spaces of 10-20 μm diameter. Testing of the MPPM procedure in the Little Creek Field showed a significant increase in production occurred in two of the five production test wells; furthermore, the decline curve in each of the production wells became noticeably less steep. This project greatly

  3. Hydrophobically associated polymers for wettability alteration and enhanced oil recovery – Article review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A.N. El-hoshoudy

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Crude oil and other petroleum products are crucial to the global economy today due to increasing energy demand approximately (∼1.5% per year and significant oil remaining after primary and secondary oil recovery (∼45–55% of original oil in place, OOIP, which accelerates the development of enhanced oil recovery (EOR technologies to maximize the recovered oil amount by non-conventional methods as polymer flooding. This review discusses enhanced oil recovery methods specially polymer flooding techniques and their effects on rock wettability alteration.

  4. Oil recovery with vinyl sulfonic acid-acrylamide copolymers

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Norton, C.J.; Falk, D.O.

    1973-12-18

    An aqueous polymer flood containing sulfomethylated alkali metal vinyl sulfonate-acrylamide copolymers was proposed for use in secondary or tertiary enhanced oil recovery. The sulfonate groups on the copolymers sustain the viscosity of the flood in the presence of brine and lime. Injection of the copolymer solution into a waterflooded Berea core, produced 30.5 percent of the residual oil. It is preferred that the copolymers are partially hydrolyzed.

  5. Performance of the Taber South polymer flood

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Shaw, R A; Stright, Jr, D H

    1975-01-01

    A polymer flood was initiated in the Taber South Manville B Pool in Feb. 1967. The reservoir, which contains a viscous, highly undersaturated crude oil with no bottom water was depleted to the bubble-point pressure of 400 psig prior to polymer flooding. A 20% hydrocarbon pore volume slug of polyacrylamide (Pusher 700) was injected at the center of this long, narrow Lower Cretaceous sandstone reservoir. In early 1972, injection was converted to plain water by gradually reducing polymer concentration. The reservoir was studied with numerical reservoir simulation models in an attempt to evaluate the polymer flood performance. Additional laboratory work was initiated to evaluate polymer quality and to investigate wettability. The study results are presented.

  6. Modelling of Salt Solubilities for Smart Water flooding in Carbonate Reservoirs using Extended UNIQUAC Model

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Chakravarty, Krishna Hara

    recovery can increase that capture up to 25-30% of original oil in place (OOIP). But cost effective Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) techniques if implemented correctly canbe used to produce another 10-15% of the initially available hydrocarbons. Advanced water flooding (i.e. altering injection brine...... compositions by varying concentration of selected ions) is an enhanced oil recovery method which in alow cost, non-toxic manner increases oil recovery from various carbonate reservoirs. Dan and Halfdan are chalk reservoirs from the Danish North Sea, which are matured oil fields that have been flooded......For most oil reservoirs which were drilled with conventional methods, the expected initial recovery of available hydrocarbons maybe as low as 15% – thusleaving 85+% of hydrocarbons in the reservoir. Implementation of mechanical methods including pump jacks and initial gas injection or thermal...

  7. USE OF POLYMERS TO RECOVER VISCOUS OIL FROM UNCONVENTIONAL RESERVOIRS

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Randall Seright

    2011-09-30

    This final technical progress report summarizes work performed the project, 'Use of Polymers to Recover Viscous Oil from Unconventional Reservoirs.' The objective of this three-year research project was to develop methods using water soluble polymers to recover viscous oil from unconventional reservoirs (i.e., on Alaska's North Slope). The project had three technical tasks. First, limits were re-examined and redefined for where polymer flooding technology can be applied with respect to unfavorable displacements. Second, we tested existing and new polymers for effective polymer flooding of viscous oil, and we tested newly proposed mechanisms for oil displacement by polymer solutions. Third, we examined novel methods of using polymer gels to improve sweep efficiency during recovery of unconventional viscous oil. This report details work performed during the project. First, using fractional flow calculations, we examined the potential of polymer flooding for recovering viscous oils when the polymer is able to reduce the residual oil saturation to a value less than that of a waterflood. Second, we extensively investigated the rheology in porous media for a new hydrophobic associative polymer. Third, using simulation and analytical studies, we compared oil recovery efficiency for polymer flooding versus in-depth profile modification (i.e., 'Bright Water') as a function of (1) permeability contrast, (2) relative zone thickness, (3) oil viscosity, (4) polymer solution viscosity, (5) polymer or blocking-agent bank size, and (6) relative costs for polymer versus blocking agent. Fourth, we experimentally established how much polymer flooding can reduce the residual oil saturation in an oil-wet core that is saturated with viscous North Slope crude. Finally, an experimental study compared mechanical degradation of an associative polymer with that of a partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide. Detailed results from the first two years of the project may be

  8. Flooding and Flood Management

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brooks, K.N.; Fallon, J.D.; Lorenz, D.L.; Stark, J.R.; Menard, Jason; Easter, K.W.; Perry, Jim

    2011-01-01

    Floods result in great human disasters globally and nationally, causing an average of $4 billion of damages each year in the United States. Minnesota has its share of floods and flood damages, and the state has awarded nearly $278 million to local units of government for flood mitigation projects through its Flood Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. Since 1995, flood mitigation in the Red River Valley has exceeded $146 million. Considerable local and state funding has been provided to manage and mitigate problems of excess stormwater in urban areas, flooding of farmlands, and flood damages at road crossings. The cumulative costs involved with floods and flood mitigation in Minnesota are not known precisely, but it is safe to conclude that flood mitigation is a costly business. This chapter begins with a description of floods in Minneosta to provide examples and contrasts across the state. Background material is presented to provide a basic understanding of floods and flood processes, predication, and management and mitigation. Methods of analyzing and characterizing floods are presented because they affect how we respond to flooding and can influence relevant practices. The understanding and perceptions of floods and flooding commonly differ among those who work in flood forecasting, flood protection, or water resource mamnagement and citizens and businesses affected by floods. These differences can become magnified following a major flood, pointing to the need for better understanding of flooding as well as common language to describe flood risks and the uncertainty associated with determining such risks. Expectations of accurate and timely flood forecasts and our ability to control floods do not always match reality. Striving for clarity is important in formulating policies that can help avoid recurring flood damages and costs.

  9. The Performance of Surfactant-Polymer Flooding in Horizontal Wells Consisting of Multilayers in a Reservoir System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Si Le Van

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available Surfactant-polymer (SP flooding has been demonstrated to be an effective method to recover oil in the enhanced oil recovery (EOR stage when water flooding is no longer relevant. Theoretically, adding surfactant causes the reduction of the interfacial tension between oil and water in pores, therefore reducing the residual oil saturation, whereas the sweep efficiency will be significantly improved by the polymer injection as a result of proper mobility control. With regard to the well patterns, water flooding has demonstrated a high productivity in horizontal wells. Recently, other EOR processes have been increasingly applied to the horizontal wells in various well patterns. In this study, the efficiency of SP flooding applied to horizontal wells in various well configurations is investigated in order to select the best EOR performance in terms of either a technical or economical point of view. Furthermore, the reservoir is assumed to be anisotropic with four different layers that have same porosity but different permeability between each layer. The study figures out that, the utilization of a horizontal injector and producer always gives a higher oil production in comparison with the reference case of a conventional vertical injector and producer; however, the best EOR performances that demonstrate the higher oil recovery and lower fluid injected volume than those of the reference case are achieved when the production well is located in bottom layers and parallel with the injection well at a distance. While the location of producer decides oil productivity, the location of injector yet affects the uniformity of fluids propagation in the reservoir. A predefined feasibility factor is also taken into consideration in order to reject the infeasible cases that might give a high oil production but require a higher injected volume than the reference case. This factor is used as an economic parameter to evaluate the success of the EOR performance. The

  10. Coupling the Alkaline-Surfactant-Polymer Technology and The Gelation Technology to Maximize Oil Production

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Malcolm Pitts; Jie Qi; Dan Wilson; Phil Dowling; David Stewart; Bill Jones

    2005-12-01

    Performance and produced polymer evaluation of four alkaline-surfactant-polymer projects concluded that only one of the projects could have benefited from combining the alkaline-surfactant-polymer and gelation technologies. Cambridge, the 1993 Daqing, Mellott Ranch, and the Wardlaw alkaline-surfacant-polymer floods were studied. An initial gel treatment followed by an alkaline-surfactant-polymer flood in the Wardlaw field would have been a benefit due to reduction of fracture flow. Numerical simulation demonstrated that reducing the permeability of a high permeability zone of a reservoir with gel improved both waterflood and alkaline-surfactant-polymer flood oil recovery. A Minnelusa reservoir with both A and B sand production was simulated. A and B sands are separated by a shale layer. A sand and B sand waterflood oil recovery was improved by 196,000 bbls or 3.3% OOIP when a gel was placed in the B sand. Alkaline-surfactant-polymer flood oil recovery improvement over a waterflood was 392,000 bbls or 6.5% OOIP. Placing a gel into the B sand prior to an alkaline-surfactant-polymer flood resulted in 989,000 bbl or 16.4% OOIP more oil than only water injection. A sand and B sand alkaline-surfactant-polymer flood oil recovery was improved by 596,000 bbls or 9.9% OOIP when a gel was placed in the B sand.

  11. Carbon dioxide for enhanced oil recovery in Canada

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    McDonald, S.; Manbybura, F.; Sparks, N.

    1985-01-01

    This paper examines the potential for carbon dioxide as a major miscible solvent in Canada and describes Shell Canada's carbon dioxide exploration efforts over the last few years. Enhanced oil recovery, specifically miscible flooding, has been recognized as a technically and economically feasible method for adding reserves and productive capacity to Canada's light and medium oil. The fiscal regime has been altered by both the federal and provincial governments to encourage miscible flooding development. As a result many projects have been initiated with others being evaluated and designed. This paper analyzes the history and the direction of miscible flooding in the United States, where carbon dioxide is becoming the predominant miscible solvent. The potential for future use of carbon dioxide in Canada is specifically addressed: potential oil recovery solvent supply, and economics. Shell's carbon dioxide exploration play currently underway is also discussed.

  12. Coupling the Alkaline-Surfactant-Polymer Technology and the Gelation Technology to Maximize Oil Production

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Malcolm Pitts; Jie Qi; Dan Wilson; Phil Dowling; David Stewart; Bill Jones

    2005-12-01

    Gelation technologies have been developed to provide more efficient vertical sweep efficiencies for flooding naturally fractured oil reservoirs or reservoirs with different sand lenses with high permeability contrast. The field proven alkaline-surfactant-polymer technology economically recovers 15% to 25% OOIP more crude oil than waterflooding froin swept pore space of an oil reservoir. However, alkaline-surfactant-polymer technology is not amenable to naturally fractured reservoirs or reservoirs with high permeability contrast zones because much of injected solution bypasses target pore space containing oil. This work investigates whether combining these two technologies could broaden applicability of alkaline-surfactant-polymer flooding into these reservoirs. Fluid-fluid interaction with different gel chemical compositions and alkaline-surfactant-polymer solution with pH values ranging from 9.2 to 12.9 have been tested. Aluminum-polyacrylamide gels are not stable to alkaline-surfactant-polymer solutions at any pH. Chromium-polyacrylamide gels with polymer to chromium ion ratios of 25 or greater were stable to alkaline-surfactant-polymer solutions if solution pH was 10.6 or less. When the polymer to chromium ion was 15 or less, chromium-polyacrylamide gels were stable to alkaline-surfactant-polymer solutions with pH values up to 12.9. Chromium-xanthan gum gels were stable to alkaline-surfactant-polymer solutions with pH values of 12.9 at the polymer to chromium ion ratios tested. Silicate-polyacrylamide, resorcinol-formaldehyde, and sulfomethylated resorcinol-formaldehyde gels were also stable to alkaline-surfactant-polymer solutions with pH values ranging from 9.2 to 12.9. Iron-polyacrylamide gels were immediately destroyed when contacted with any of the alkaline-surfactant-polymer solutions with pH values ranging from 9.2 to 12.9. Gel solutions under dynamic conditions of linear corefloods showed similar stability to alkaline-surfactant-polymer solutions as in

  13. Examining the Capability of Supervised Machine Learning Classifiers in Extracting Flooded Areas from Landsat TM Imagery: A Case Study from a Mediterranean Flood

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gareth Ireland

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available This study explored the capability of Support Vector Machines (SVMs and regularised kernel Fisher’s discriminant analysis (rkFDA machine learning supervised classifiers in extracting flooded area from optical Landsat TM imagery. The ability of both techniques was evaluated using a case study of a riverine flood event in 2010 in a heterogeneous Mediterranean region, for which TM imagery acquired shortly after the flood event was available. For the two classifiers, both linear and non-linear (kernel versions were utilised in their implementation. The ability of the different classifiers to map the flooded area extent was assessed on the basis of classification accuracy assessment metrics. Results showed that rkFDA outperformed SVMs in terms of accurate flooded pixels detection, also producing fewer missed detections of the flooded area. Yet, SVMs showed less false flooded area detections. Overall, the non-linear rkFDA classification method was the more accurate of the two techniques (OA = 96.23%, K = 0.877. Both methods outperformed the standard Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI thresholding (OA = 94.63, K = 0.818 by roughly 0.06 K points. Although overall accuracy results for the rkFDA and SVMs classifications only showed a somewhat minor improvement on the overall accuracy exhibited by the NDWI thresholding, notably both classifiers considerably outperformed the thresholding algorithm in other specific accuracy measures (e.g. producer accuracy for the “not flooded” class was ~10.5% less accurate for the NDWI thresholding algorithm in comparison to the classifiers, and average per-class accuracy was ~5% less accurate than the machine learning models. This study provides evidence of the successful application of supervised machine learning for classifying flooded areas in Landsat imagery, where few studies so far exist in this direction. Considering that Landsat data is open access and has global coverage, the results of this study

  14. New investigations into carbon dioxide flooding by focusing on viscosity and swelling factor changes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Enayati, M.; Mokhtari, B. [Iranian Offshore Oil Co., Tehran (Iran, Islamic Republic of); Heidaryan, E. [Islamic Azad Univ., Tehran (Iran, Islamic Republic of). Masjidosolayman Branch

    2008-07-01

    Carbon dioxide flooding (CO{sub 2}) is an effective method of enhanced oil recovery (EOR). This paper presented an experimental and theoretical investigation to determine the viscosity and swelling factor changes of the oil in the Cheshmeh Khoshk reservoir in southern Iran as well as the minimum miscible pressure. The study involved setting up of a series of slim tube experiments. The purpose of the slim tube experiments were to indicate the microscopic efficiency of the process. A numerical simulator was used to calculate the results on certain conditions. The paper discussed the validity of recombined sample as well as the slim tube tests and its results. Simulator results were also presented. It was concluded that viscosity reduction and oil swelling by CO{sub 2} contribute to oil recovery. The viscosity showed an almost linear decrease with CO{sub 2} concentration. Last, it was shown that the results of the study combined with the results of other gas injection projects could be utilized as a basic input parameter for the economic feasibility study and a decision could then be made whether to implement or abandon the prospective project or which type of injection leads to better performance. 12 refs., 5 tabs., 11 figs.

  15. Flood offers new hope for marginal oil fields

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    1966-03-14

    The economics of producing a marginal Cardium sand oil field in west-central Alberta have been greatly improved by introduction of an inexpensive waterflood pressure maintenance and secondary recovery project. Canadian Gridoil Ltd. is now in full operation at its Willesden Green Cardium Unit No. 5. Of the 8.1 million bbl estimated original oil in place, only 9% would have been recoverable by primary depletion. The waterflood is calculated to add 13%, for ultimate recovery of 22% or 1.8 million bbl. This waterflood installation is considered a prototype of economical and profitable pressure maintenance systems which can be built to advantage in marginal oil fields in Alberta. Ultimate returns in the form of increased oil production and more than doubled oil recovery will be immensely greater than the capital investment of $195,000 in the facilities. Assuming GOR control and full well allowables, the entire capital cost should be paid out within 3 years. Life of the field is estimated at not less than 25 years.

  16. Salinity-dependent contact angle alteration in oil/brine/silicate systems : The effect of temperature

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Haagh, Martin E.J.; Schilderink, Nathalie; Duits, Michel H.G.; Siretanu, Igor; Mugele, Frieder; Collins, Ian R.

    To understand the success of low salinity water flooding in improving oil recovery, it is important to identify the molecular scale mechanisms that control the wettability and thus the adhesion between oil and rock. Previous experiments have attributed the wettability alteration in core flood

  17. Computer Modeling of the Displacement Behavior of Carbon Dioxide in Undersaturated Oil Reservoirs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ju Binshan

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available The injection of CO2 into oil reservoirs is performed not only to improve oil recovery but also to store CO2 captured from fuel combustion. The objective of this work is to develop a numerical simulator to predict quantitatively supercritical CO2 flooding behaviors for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR. A non-isothermal compositional flow mathematical model is developed. The phase transition diagram is designed according to the Minimum Miscibility Pressure (MMP and CO2 maximum solubility in oil phase. The convection and diffusion of CO2 mixtures in multiphase fluids in reservoirs, mass transfer between CO2 and crude and phase partitioning are considered. The governing equations are discretized by applying a fully implicit finite difference technique. Newton-Raphson iterative technique was used to solve the nonlinear equation systems and a simulator was developed. The performances of CO2 immiscible and miscible flooding in oil reservoirs are predicted by the new simulator. The distribution of pressure and temperature, phase saturations, mole fraction of each component in each phase, formation damage caused by asphaltene precipitation and the improved oil recovery are predicted by the simulator. Experimental data validate the developed simulator by comparison with simulation results. The applications of the simulator in prediction of CO2 flooding in oil reservoirs indicate that the simulator is robust for predicting CO2 flooding performance.

  18. Nonlinear Filtering Effects of Reservoirs on Flood Frequency Curves at the Regional Scale: RESERVOIRS FILTER FLOOD FREQUENCY CURVES

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wang, Wei; Li, Hong-Yi; Leung, Lai-Yung; Yigzaw, Wondmagegn Y.; Zhao, Jianshi; Lu, Hui; Deng, Zhiqun; Demissie, Yonas; Bloschl, Gunter

    2017-10-01

    Anthropogenic activities, e.g., reservoir operation, may alter the characteristics of Flood Frequency Curve (FFC) and challenge the basic assumption of stationarity used in flood frequency analysis. This paper presents a combined data-modeling analysis of the nonlinear filtering effects of reservoirs on the FFCs over the contiguous United States. A dimensionless Reservoir Impact Index (RII), defined as the total upstream reservoir storage capacity normalized by the annual streamflow volume, is used to quantify reservoir regulation effects. Analyses are performed for 388 river stations with an average record length of 50 years. The first two moments of the FFC, mean annual maximum flood (MAF) and coefficient of variations (CV), are calculated for the pre- and post-dam periods and compared to elucidate the reservoir regulation effects as a function of RII. It is found that MAF generally decreases with increasing RII but stabilizes when RII exceeds a threshold value, and CV increases with RII until a threshold value beyond which CV decreases with RII. The processes underlying the nonlinear threshold behavior of MAF and CV are investigated using three reservoir models with different levels of complexity. All models capture the non-linear relationships of MAF and CV with RII, suggesting that the basic flood control function of reservoirs is key to the non-linear relationships. The relative roles of reservoir storage capacity, operation objectives, available storage prior to a flood event, and reservoir inflow pattern are systematically investigated. Our findings may help improve flood-risk assessment and mitigation in regulated river systems at the regional scale.

  19. Oil field experiments of microbial improved oil recovery in Vyngapour, West Siberia, Russia

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Murygina, V.P.; Mats, A.A.; Arinbasarov, M.U.; Salamov, Z.Z.; Cherkasov, A.B.

    1995-12-31

    Experiments on microbial improved oil recovery (MIOR) have been performed in the Vyngapour oil field in West Siberia for two years. Now, the product of some producing wells of the Vyngapour oil field is 98-99% water cut. The operation of such wells approaches an economic limit. The nutritious composition containing local industry wastes and sources of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium was pumped into an injection well on the pilot area. This method is called {open_quotes}nutritional flooding.{close_quotes} The mechanism of nutritional flooding is based on intensification of biosynthesis of oil-displacing metabolites by indigenous bacteria and bacteria from food industry wastes in the stratum. 272.5 m{sup 3} of nutritious composition was introduced into the reservoir during the summer of 1993, and 450 m3 of nutritious composition-in 1994. The positive effect of the injections in 1993 showed up in 2-2.5 months and reached its maximum in 7 months after the injections were stopped. By July 1, 1994, 2,268.6 tons of oil was produced over the base variant, and the simultaneous water extraction reduced by 33,902 m{sup 3} as compared with the base variant. The injections in 1994 were carried out on the same pilot area.

  20. Improving Oil Recovery (IOR) with Polymer Flooding in a Heavy-Oil River-Channel Sandstone Reservoir

    OpenAIRE

    Lu, Hongjiang

    2009-01-01

    Most of the old oil fields in China have reached high water cut stage, in order to meet the booming energy demanding, oil production rate must be kept in the near future with corresponding IOR (Improving Oil Recovery) methods. Z106 oilfield lies in Shengli Oilfields Area at the Yellow River delta. It was put into development in 1988. Since the oil belongs to heavy oil, the oil-water mobility ratio is so unfavourable that water cut increases very quickly. Especially for reservoir Ng21, the san...

  1. Know your facts on polymer floods

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mungan, N

    1967-06-01

    The influence of mobility ratio on the recovery of oil by waterflooding is reviewed in general. It is shown that, for mobility ratios more unfavorable than ten, additional oil recovery obtainable by polymer flooding may be too small to prove a profitable application. Polymers achieve the lower water mobilities by two mechanisms: (1) by reducing the permeability of the porous media through polymer trapping in the pores; and (2) by yielding a high solution viscosity, due to speudo-plastic nature of the polymer solutions. Adsorption, connate water saturation and reservoir heterogeneity are very important in the field use of polymers. Laboratory data is presented showing that for a given polymer solution oil recoveries are greatest where adsorption is reduced and when the porous medium is heterogeneous.

  2. Aerobic microbial enhanced oil recovery

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Torsvik, T. [Univ. of Bergen (Norway); Gilje, E.; Sunde, E.

    1995-12-31

    In aerobic MEOR, the ability of oil-degrading bacteria to mobilize oil is used to increase oil recovery. In this process, oxygen and mineral nutrients are injected into the oil reservoir in order to stimulate growth of aerobic oil-degrading bacteria in the reservoir. Experiments carried out in a model sandstone with stock tank oil and bacteria isolated from offshore wells showed that residual oil saturation was lowered from 27% to 3%. The process was time dependent, not pore volume dependent. During MEOR flooding, the relative permeability of water was lowered. Oxygen and active bacteria were needed for the process to take place. Maximum efficiency was reached at low oxygen concentrations, approximately 1 mg O{sub 2}/liter.

  3. The potential applications in heavy oil EOR with the nanoparticle and surfactant stabilized solvent-based emulsion

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Qiu, F. [Texas A and M Univ., College Station, TX (United States)

    2010-07-01

    The main challenges in developing the heavy oil reservoirs in the Alaska North Slope (ANS) include technical challenges regarding thermal recovery; sand control and disposal; high asphaltene content; and low in-situ permeability. A chemical enhanced oil recovery method may be possible for these reservoirs. Solvent based emulsion flooding provides mobility control; oil viscosity reduction; and in-situ emulsification of heavy oil. This study evaluated the potential application of nano-particle-stabilized solvent based emulsion injection to enhance heavy oil recovery in the ANS. The optimized micro-emulsion composition was determined using laboratory tests such as phase behaviour scanning, rheology studies and interfacial tension measurements. The optimized nano-emulsions were used in core flooding experiments to verify the recovery efficiency. The study revealed that the potential use of this kind of emulsion flooding is a promising enhanced oil recovery process for some heavy oil reservoirs in Alaska, Canada and Venezuela. 4 refs., 2 tabs., 10 figs.

  4. Influence of stability of polymer surfactant on oil displacement mechanism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Li; Li, Chengliang; Pi, Yanming; Wu, Di; He, Ying; Geng, Liang

    2018-02-01

    At present, most of the oilfields of China have entered the late stage of high water-cut development, and three oil recovery technique has become the leading technology for improving oil recovery. With the improvement of three oil recovery techniques, the polymer surfactant flooding technology has been widely promoted in oil fields in recent years. But in the actual field experiment, it has been found that the polymer surfactant has chromatographic separation at the extraction end, which indicates that the property of the polymer surfactant has changed during the displacement process. At present, there was few literature about how the stability of polymer surfactant affects the oil displacement mechanism. This paper used HuaDing-I polymer surfactant to conduct a micro photolithography glass flooding experiment, and then compared the oil displacement law of polymer surfactant before and after static setting. Finally, the influence law of stability of polymer surfactant on the oil displacement mechanism is obtained by comprehensive analysis.

  5. Blocking effect and numerical study of polymer particles dispersion flooding in heterogeneous reservoir

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhu, Weiyao; Li, Jianhui; Lou, Yu

    2018-02-01

    Polymer flooding has become an effective way to improve the sweep efficiency in many oil fields. Many scholars have carried out a lot of researches on the mechanism of polymer flooding. In this paper, the effect of polymer on seepage is analyzed. The blocking effect of polymer particles was studied experimentally, and the residual resistance coefficient (RRF) were used to represent the blocking effect. We also build a mathematical model for heterogeneous concentration distribution of polymer particles. Furthermore, the effects of polymer particles on reservoir permeability, fluid viscosity and relative permeability are considered, and a two-phase flow model of oil and polymer particles is established. In addition, the model was tested in the heterogeneous stratum model, and three influencing factors, such as particle concentration, injection volume and PPD (short for polymer particle dispersion) injection time, were analyzed. Simulation results show that PPD can effectively improve sweep efficiency and especially improve oil recovery of low permeability layer. Oil recovery increases with the increase of particle concentration, but oil recovery increase rate gradually decreases with that. The greater the injected amount of PPD, the greater oil recovery and the smaller oil recovery increase rate. And there is an optimal timing to inject PPD for specific reservoir.

  6. Prediction of polymer flooding performance using an analytical method

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tan Czek Hoong; Mariyamni Awang; Foo Kok Wai

    2001-01-01

    The study investigated the applicability of an analytical method developed by El-Khatib in polymer flooding. Results from a simulator UTCHEM and experiments were compared with the El-Khatib prediction method. In general, by assuming a constant viscosity polymer injection, the method gave much higher recovery values than the simulation runs and the experiments. A modification of the method gave better correlation, albeit only oil production. Investigation is continuing on modifying the method so that a better overall fit can be obtained for polymer flooding. (Author)

  7. Comparisons of Circular Transmit and Linear Receive Compact Polarimetric SAR Features for Oil Slicks Discrimination

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yu Li

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Compact polarimetric (CP synthetic aperture radar (SAR has proven its potential in distinguishing oil slicks and look-alikes. Polarimetric information can be retrieved directly from scattering vector or from reconstructed pseudo-Quad-Pol covariance matrix of CP SAR data. In this paper, we analysed features from Circular Transmit and Linear Receive (CTLR CP SAR data that are derived by taking both of these two methods. K-means clustering followed by accuracy assessment was also implemented for performance evaluation. Through experiments that were conducted based on L-band UAVSAR fully polarimetric data, it was found that optimum extraction methods varied for different features. The histogram analysis and segmentation results also demonstrated the comparable performance of CP SAR features in distinguishing different damping properties within oil slicks. This study proposed a framework of statistically analyzing polarimetric SAR (Pol-SAR features and provided guidelines for determining optimum feature extraction methods from CP SAR data and for marine oil-spills detection and classification.

  8. Creating a simplified model of oil refining and solution of the model using a linear programming method. Part 1, Model presentation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Duric, M; Novakovic, M; Stojkanovic, L

    1983-01-01

    Based on a detailed analysis of technological limitations in oil refining at an oil refinery (NPZ) in the separation of petroleum products, specifications with regard to quality and market limitations, a general model is created of oil refining. The number of actual variables is reduced to a minimum, while the number of linear limitations is adapted to the selected technology and raw material quality. The nonlinearity of certain characteristics is overcome using the so called movement factor.

  9. Experimental Study of Enhancing Oil Recovery with Weak Base Alkaline/Surfactant/Polymer

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dandan Yin

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Na2CO3 was used together with surfactant and polymer to form the Alkaline/Surfactant/Polymer (ASP flooding system. Interfacial tension (IFT and emulsification of Dagang oil and chemical solutions were studied in the paper. The experiment results show that the ASP system can form super-low interfacial tension with crude oil and emulsified phase. The stability of the emulsion is enhanced by the Na2CO3, surfactant, and the soap generated at oil/water contact. Six core flooding experiments are conducted in order to investigate the influence of Na2CO3 concentration on oil recovery. The results show the maximum oil recovery can be obtained with 0.3 wt% surfactant, 0.6 wt% Na2CO3, and 2000 mg/L polymer. In a heterogeneous reservoir, the ASP flooding could not enhance the oil recovery by reducing IFT until it reaches the critical viscosity, which indicates expanding the sweep volume is the premise for reducing IFT to enhance oil recovery. Reducing or removing the alkali from ASP system to achieve high viscosity will reduce oil recovery because of the declination of oil displacement efficiency. Weak base ASP alkali can ensure that the whole system with sufficient viscosity can start the medium and low permeability layers and enhance oil recovery even if the IFT only reaches 10−2 mN/m.

  10. Performance of a Polymer Flood with Shear-Thinning Fluid in Heterogeneous Layered Systems with Crossflow

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kun Sang Lee

    2011-08-01

    Full Text Available Assessment of the potential of a polymer flood for mobility control requires an accurate model on the viscosities of displacement fluids involved in the process. Because most polymers used in EOR exhibit shear-thinning behavior, the effective viscosity of a polymer solution is a highly nonlinear function of shear rate. A reservoir simulator including the model for the shear-rate dependence of viscosity was used to investigate shear-thinning effects of polymer solution on the performance of the layered reservoir in a five-spot pattern operating under polymer flood followed by waterflood. The model can be used as a quantitative tool to evaluate the comparative studies of different polymer flooding scenarios with respect to shear-rate dependence of fluids’ viscosities. Results of cumulative oil recovery and water-oil ratio are presented for parameters of shear-rate dependencies, permeability heterogeneity, and crossflow. The results of this work have proven the importance of taking non-Newtonian behavior of polymer solution into account for the successful evaluation of polymer flood processes. Horizontal and vertical permeabilities of each layer are shown to impact the predicted performance substantially. In reservoirs with a severe permeability contrast between horizontal layers, decrease in oil recovery and sudden increase in WOR are obtained by the low sweep efficiency and early water breakthrough through highly permeable layer, especially for shear-thinning fluids. An increase in the degree of crossflow resulting from sufficient vertical permeability is responsible for the enhanced sweep of the low permeability layers, which results in increased oil recovery. It was observed that a thinning fluid coefficient would increase injectivity significantly from simulations with various injection rates. A thorough understanding of polymer rheology in the reservoir and accurate numerical modeling are of fundamental importance for the exact estimation

  11. Floods and Flash Flooding

    Science.gov (United States)

    Floods and flash flooding Now is the time to determine your area’s flood risk. If you are not sure whether you ... If you are in a floodplain, consider buying flood insurance. Do not drive around barricades. If your ...

  12. Modeling the kinetics of essential oil hydrodistillation from juniper berries (Juniperus communis L. using non-linear regression

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Radosavljević Dragana B.

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents kinetics modeling of essential oil hydrodistillation from juniper berries (Juniperus communis L. by using a non-linear regression methodology. The proposed model has the polynomial-logarithmic form. The initial equation of the proposed non-linear model is q = q∞•(a•(logt2 + b•logt + c and by substituting a1=q∞•a, b1 = q∞•b and c1 = q∞•c, the final equation is obtained as q = a1•(logt2 + b1•logt + c1. In this equation q is the quantity of the obtained oil at time t, while a1, b1 and c1 are parameters to be determined for each sample. From the final equation it can be seen that the key parameter q∞, which presents the maximal oil quantity obtained after infinite time, is already included in parameters a1, b1 and c1. In this way, experimental determination of this parameter is avoided. Using the proposed model with parameters obtained by regression, the values of oil hydrodistillation in time are calculated for each sample and compared to the experimental values. In addition, two kinetic models previously proposed in literature were applied to the same experimental results. The developed model provided better agreements with the experimental values than the two, generally accepted kinetic models of this process. The average values of error measures (RSS, RSE, AIC and MRPD obtained for our model (0.005; 0.017; –84.33; 1.65 were generally lower than the corresponding values of the other two models (0.025; 0.041; –53.20; 3.89 and (0.0035; 0.015; –86.83; 1.59. Also, parameter estimation for the proposed model was significantly simpler (maximum 2 iterations per sample using the non-linear regression than that for the existing models (maximum 9 iterations per sample. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. TR-35026

  13. Penetration of n-hexadecane and water into wood under conditions simulating catastrophic floods

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ganna Baglayeva; Wayne S. Seames; Charles R. Frihart; Jane O' Dell; Evguenii I. Kozliak

    2017-01-01

    To simulate fuel oil spills occurring during catastrophic floods, short-term absorption of two chemicals, n-hexadecane (representative of semivolatile organic compounds in fuel oil) and water, into southern yellow pine was gravimetrically monitored as a function of time at ambient conditions. Different scenarios were run on the basis of (1) the...

  14. Misible flooding: how far have we come and where are we going

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Roessingh, H K

    1968-06-01

    The 2 most important criteria of the effectiveness of a secondary recovery project are sweep efficiency and unit displacement. Waterfloods have a poor unit displacement. Gas and LPG slugs have poor mobility control and, therefore, poor sweep efficiency. In both processes the irreducible oil saturation is too high. Newer methods designed to improve the performance and now being used extensively include the addition of polymer solutions to waterfloods to control mobility; in situ combustion and stream injection for viscous crudes; miscible processes; and surfactant flooding to reduce interfacial tension. These processes have made tremendous contributions to the increase in recoverable reserves in North America. Still, miscible flooding of some type seemed the most likely manner in which to recover all or nearly all of the oil in a reservoir, and research into more economic methods has continued. The most recent development has come from the research department of Marathon Oil Co. The process has been named Maraflood. (16 refs.)

  15. Heavy-oil recovery in naturally fractured reservoirs with varying wettability by steam solvent co-injection

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Al Bahlani, A. [Alberta Univ., Edmonton, AB (Canada); Babadagli, T. [Society of Petroleum Engineers, Canadian Section, Calgary, AB (Canada)]|[Alberta Univ., Edmonton, AB (Canada)

    2008-10-15

    Steam injection may not be an efficient oil recovery process in certain circumstances, such as in deep reservoirs, where steam injection may be ineffective because of hot-water flooding due to excessive heat loss. Steam injection may also be ineffective in oil-wet fractured carbonates, where steam channels through fracture zones without effectively sweeping the matrix oil. Steam flooding is one of the many solutions for heavy oil recovery in unconsolidated sandstones that is in commercial production. However, heavy-oil fractured carbonates are more challenging, where the recovery is generally limited only to matrix oil drainage gravity due to unfavorable wettability or thermal expansion if heat is introduced during the process. This paper proposed a new approach to improve steam/hot-water injection and efficiency for heavy-oil fractured carbonate reservoirs. The paper provided background information on oil recovery from fractured carbonates and provided a statement of the problem. Three phases were described, including steam/hot-waterflooding phase (spontaneous imbibition); miscible flooding phase (diffusion); and steam/hot-waterflooding phase (spontaneous imbibition or solvent retention). The paper also discussed core preparation and saturation procedures. It was concluded that efficient oil recovery is possible using alternate injection of steam/hot water and solvent. 43 refs., 1 tab., 13 figs.

  16. Experimental research on microscopic displacement mechanism of CO2-water alternative flooding in low permeability reservoir

    Science.gov (United States)

    Han, Hongyan; Zhu, Weiyao; Long, Yunqian; Song, Hongqing; Huang, Kun

    2018-02-01

    This paper provides an experimental method to deal with the problems of low oil recovery ratio faced with water flooding utilizing the CO2/water alternate displacement technology. A series of CO2/water alternate flooding experiments were carried out under 60°C and 18.4MPa using high temperature / pressure microscopic visualization simulation system. Then, we used the image processing technique and software to analyze the proportion of remaining oil in the displacement process. The results show that CO2 can extract the lighter chemical components in the crude oil and make it easier to form miscible phase, which can reduce the viscosity and favorable mobility ratio of oil. What’s more, the displacement reduces the impact of gas channeling, which can achieve an enlarged sweeping efficiency to improve filtration ability. In addition, the CO2 dissolved in oil and water can greatly reduce the interfacial tension, which can increase the oil displacement efficiency in a large extent. Generally speaking, the recovery rate of residual oil in the micro - model can be elevated up to 15.89% ∼ 16.48% under formation condition by alternate displacement.

  17. Distributed lag effects and vulnerable groups of floods on bacillary dysentery in Huaihua, China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Zhi-Dong; Li, Jing; Zhang, Ying; Ding, Guo-Yong; Xu, Xin; Gao, Lu; Liu, Xue-Na; Liu, Qi-Yong; Jiang, Bao-Fa

    2016-01-01

    Understanding the potential links between floods and bacillary dysentery in China is important to develop appropriate intervention programs after floods. This study aimed to explore the distributed lag effects of floods on bacillary dysentery and to identify the vulnerable groups in Huaihua, China. Weekly number of bacillary dysentery cases from 2005–2011 were obtained during flood season. Flood data and meteorological data over the same period were obtained from the China Meteorological Data Sharing Service System. To examine the distributed lag effects, a generalized linear mixed model combined with a distributed lag non-linear model were developed to assess the relationship between floods and bacillary dysentery. A total of 3,709 cases of bacillary dysentery were notified over the study period. The effects of floods on bacillary dysentery continued for approximately 3 weeks with a cumulative risk ratio equal to 1.52 (95% CI: 1.08–2.12). The risks of bacillary dysentery were higher in females, farmers and people aged 15–64 years old. This study suggests floods have increased the risk of bacillary dysentery with 3 weeks’ effects, especially for the vulnerable groups identified. Public health programs should be taken to prevent and control a potential risk of bacillary dysentery after floods. PMID:27427387

  18. A review on applications of nanotechnology in the enhanced oil recovery part A: effects of nanoparticles on interfacial tension

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheraghian, Goshtasp; Hendraningrat, Luky

    2016-01-01

    Chemical enhanced oil recovery is another strong growing technology with the potential of a step change innovation, which will help to secure future oil supply by turning resources into reserves. While Substantial amount of crude oil remains in the reservoir after primary and secondary production, conventional production methods give access to on average only one-third of original oil in place, the use of surfactants and polymers allows for recovery of up to another third of this oil. Chemical flooding is of increasing interest and importance due to high oil prices and the need to increase oil production. Research in nanotechnology in the petroleum industry is advancing rapidly and an enormous progress in the application of nanotechnology in this area is to be expected. Nanotechnology has the potential to profoundly change enhanced oil recovery and to improve mechanism of recovery. This paper, therefore, focuses on the reviews of the application of nano technology in chemical flooding process in oil recovery and reviews the application nano in the polymer and surfactant flooding on the interfacial tension process.

  19. An Experimental Study of Alkali-surfactant-polymer Flooding through Glass Micromodels Including Dead-end Pores

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohsen Esmaeili

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available Chemical flooding, especially alkaline/surfactant/polymer flooding, is of increasing interest due to the world increasing oil demand. This work shows the aspects of using alkaline/surfactant/polymer as an enhanced oil recovery method in the porous media having a high dead-end pore frequency with various dead-end pore parameters (such as opening, depth, aspect ratio, and orientation. Using glass micromodels makes it possible to manipulate and analyze the pore parameters and watch through the porous media precisely. The results show that polyacrylamide almost always enhances oil production recovery factor (up to 14% in comparison with brine injection in this kind of porous media. Except at low concentrations of polyacrylamide and sodium carbonate, sodium dodecyl sulfonate improves oil recovery (even 15% in the case of high polyacrylamide concentration and low sodium carbonate concentration. Increasing alkaline concentration reduces recovery factor except at low concentrations of polyacrylamide and high concentrations of surfactant.

  20. Proficiency feasibility of multi-walled carbon nanotubes in the presence of polymeric surfactant on enhanced oil recovery

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nezhad, Javad Razavi; Jafari, Arezou; Abdollahi, Mahdi

    2018-01-01

    Enhanced heavy oil recovery methods are widely utilized to increase oil recovery. For this purpose, polymer and surfactant flooding have been used extensively. Recently, polymeric surfactant flooding has become an attractive alternative to sole polymer flooding due to their capability of providing an increase in solution viscosity and a decrease in interfacial tension, which are both beneficial for efficiency of the process. Applying nanoparticles as an additive to polymer solutions is a method to improve viscosity and alter rock wettability. Therefore, in this research, multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) was mixed with a polymeric surfactant of polyacrylamide-graft-lignin copolymer (PAM-g-L) synthesized via radical grafting reaction. Moreover, several solutions with different concentrations of nanoparticles with PAM-g-L were prepared. The solutions were injected into a micromodel to evaluate the PAM-g-L flooding efficiency in presence of the multi-walled carbon nanotubes. The results of micromodel flooding showed that increasing MWCNT concentration results in lower sweep efficiencies; and consequently, oil production will decrease. Therefore, MWCNT along with PAM-g-L has an unacceptable performance in enhanced heavy oil recovery. But data of wettability tests revealed that MWCNT can change the wettability from oil-wet to water-wet. In addition, the combination of the PAM-g-L and MWCNT in a solution will cause more water-wet condition.

  1. Urban flood return period assessment through rainfall-flood response modelling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murla Tuyls, Damian; Thorndahl, Søren

    2017-04-01

    Intense rainfall can often cause severe floods, especially in urbanized areas, where population density or large impermeable areas are found. In this context, floods can generate a direct impact in a social-environmental-economic viewpoint. Traditionally, in design of Urban Drainage Systems (UDS), correlation between return period (RP) of a given rainfall and RP of its consequent flood has been assumed to be linear (e.g. DS/EN752 (2008)). However, this is not always the case. Complex UDS, where diverse hydraulic infrastructures are often found, increase the heterogeneity of system response, which may cause an alteration of the mentioned correlation. Consequently, reliability on future urban planning, design and resilience against floods may be also affected by this misassumption. In this study, an assessment of surface flood RP across rainfall RP has been carried out at Lystrup, a urbanized catchment area of 440ha and 10.400inhab. located in Jutland (Denmark), which has received the impact of several pluvial flooding in the last recent years. A historical rainfall dataset from the last 35 years from two different rain gauges located at 2 and 10 km from the study area has been provided by the Danish Wastewater Pollution Committee and the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI). The most extreme 25 rainfall events have been selected through a two-step multi-criteria procedure, ensuring an adequate variability of rainfall, from extreme high peak storms with a short duration to moderate rainfall with longer duration. In addition, a coupled 1D/2D surface and network UDS model of the catchment area developed in an integrated MIKE URBAN and MIKE Flood model (DHI 2014), considering both permeable and impermeable areas, in combination with a DTM (2x2m res.) has been used to study and assess in detail flood RP. Results show an ambiguous relation between rainfall RP and flood response. Local flood levels, flood area and volume RP estimates should therefore not be neglected in

  2. Green River Formation Water Flood Demonstration Project: Final report. [October 21, 1992-April, 30, 1996

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Deo, M.D. [Dept. of Chemical and Fuels Engineering, University of Utah, Salt Lake City (US); Dyer, J.E.; Lomax, J.D. [Inland Resources, Inc., Lomax Exploration Co., Salt Lake City, UT (US); Nielson, D.L.; Lutz, S.J. [Energy and Geoscience Institute at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City (US)

    1996-11-01

    The objectives were to understand the oil production mechanisms in the Monument Butte unit via reservoir characterization and reservoir simulations and to transfer the water flooding technology to similar units in the vicinity, particularly the Travis and the Boundary units. Comprehensive reservoir characterization and reservoir simulations of the Monument Butte, Travis and Boundary units were presented in the two published project yearly reports. The primary and the secondary production from the Monument Butte unit were typical of oil production from an undersaturated oil reservoir close to its bubble point. The water flood in the smaller Travis unit appeared affected by natural and possibly by large interconnecting hydraulic fractures. Water flooding the boundary unit was considered more complicated due to the presence of an oil water contact in one of the wells. The reservoir characterization activity in the project basically consisted of extraction and analysis of a full diameter c ore, Formation Micro Imaging logs from several wells and Magnetic Resonance Imaging logs from two wells. In addition, several side-wall cores were drilled and analyzed, oil samples from a number of wells were physically and chemically characterized (using gas chromatography), oil-water relative permeabilities were measured and pour points and cloud points of a few oil samples were determined. The reservoir modeling activity comprised of reservoir simulation of all the three units at different scales and near well-bore modeling of the wax precipitation effects. The reservoir characterization efforts identified new reservoirs in the Travis and the Boundary units. The reservoir simulation activities established the extent of pressurization of the sections of the reservoirs in the immediate vicinity of the Monument Butte unit. This resulted in a major expansion of the unit and the production from this expanded unit increased from about 300 barrels per day to about 2000 barrels per day.

  3. Green River Formation Water Flood Demonstration Project: Final report, October 21, 1992-April, 30, 1996

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Deo, M.D.; Dyer, J.E.; Lomax, J.D.; Nielson, D.L.; Lutz, S.J.

    1996-01-01

    The objectives were to understand the oil production mechanisms in the Monument Butte unit via reservoir characterization and reservoir simulations and to transfer the water flooding technology to similar units in the vicinity, particularly the Travis and the Boundary units. Comprehensive reservoir characterization and reservoir simulations of the Monument Butte, Travis and Boundary units were presented in the two published project yearly reports. The primary and the secondary production from the Monument Butte unit were typical of oil production from an undersaturated oil reservoir close to its bubble point. The water flood in the smaller Travis unit appeared affected by natural and possibly by large interconnecting hydraulic fractures. Water flooding the boundary unit was considered more complicated due to the presence of an oil water contact in one of the wells. The reservoir characterization activity in the project basically consisted of extraction and analysis of a full diameter c ore, Formation Micro Imaging logs from several wells and Magnetic Resonance Imaging logs from two wells. In addition, several side-wall cores were drilled and analyzed, oil samples from a number of wells were physically and chemically characterized (using gas chromatography), oil-water relative permeabilities were measured and pour points and cloud points of a few oil samples were determined. The reservoir modeling activity comprised of reservoir simulation of all the three units at different scales and near well-bore modeling of the wax precipitation effects. The reservoir characterization efforts identified new reservoirs in the Travis and the Boundary units. The reservoir simulation activities established the extent of pressurization of the sections of the reservoirs in the immediate vicinity of the Monument Butte unit. This resulted in a major expansion of the unit and the production from this expanded unit increased from about 300 barrels per day to about 2000 barrels per day

  4. Measurement of Streaming Potential in Downhole Application: An Insight for Enhanced Oil Recovery Monitoring

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tengku Mohd Tengku Amran

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Downhole monitoring using streaming potential measurement has been developing in order to respond to actual reservoir condition. Most studies have emphasized on monitoring water flooding at various reservoir condition and improving the approaches of measurement. Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR could significantly improve oil recovery and the efficiency of the process should be well-monitored. Alkaline-surfactant-polymer (ASP flooding is the most promising chemical EOR method due to its synergy of alkaline, surfactant and polymer, which could enhance the extraction of residual oil. However, limited studies have been focused on the application of streaming potential in EOR processes, particularly ASP. Thus, this paper aims to review the streaming potential measurement in downhole monitoring with an insight for EOR application and propose the potential measurement in monitoring ASP flooding. It is important for a preliminary study to investigate the synergy in ASP and the effects on oil recovery. The behaviour of streaming potential should be investigated when the environment of porous media changes with respect to ASP flooding. Numerical model can be generated from the experimental data to forecast the measured streaming potential signal during production associated with ASP flooding. Based on the streaming potential behaviour on foam assisted water alternate gas (FAWAG and water alternate gas (WAG processes, it is expected that the streaming potential could change significantly when ASP flooding alters the environment and surface properties of porous media. The findings could provide new prospect and knowledge in the relationship between streaming potential and ASP mechanisms, which could be a potential approach in monitoring the efficiency of the process.

  5. Enhanced oil recovery using local alkaline | Akpoturi | Nigerian ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Improvement in productivity is one of the Oil and Gas industry's biggest challenges. About 60% of crude Oil still lay trapped in the reservoir even after primary and secondary recovery process have been completed, hence the need for a method that further improves recovery. In this study, flooding experiment was conducted ...

  6. Identification of flood-rich and flood-poor periods in flood series

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mediero, Luis; Santillán, David; Garrote, Luis

    2015-04-01

    Recently, a general concern about non-stationarity of flood series has arisen, as changes in catchment response can be driven by several factors, such as climatic and land-use changes. Several studies to detect trends in flood series at either national or trans-national scales have been conducted. Trends are usually detected by the Mann-Kendall test. However, the results of this test depend on the starting and ending year of the series, which can lead to different results in terms of the period considered. The results can be conditioned to flood-poor and flood-rich periods located at the beginning or end of the series. A methodology to identify statistically significant flood-rich and flood-poor periods is developed, based on the comparison between the expected sampling variability of floods when stationarity is assumed and the observed variability of floods in a given series. The methodology is applied to a set of long series of annual maximum floods, peaks over threshold and counts of annual occurrences in peaks over threshold series observed in Spain in the period 1942-2009. Mediero et al. (2014) found a general decreasing trend in flood series in some parts of Spain that could be caused by a flood-rich period observed in 1950-1970, placed at the beginning of the flood series. The results of this study support the findings of Mediero et al. (2014), as a flood-rich period in 1950-1970 was identified in most of the selected sites. References: Mediero, L., Santillán, D., Garrote, L., Granados, A. Detection and attribution of trends in magnitude, frequency and timing of floods in Spain, Journal of Hydrology, 517, 1072-1088, 2014.

  7. Investigation of water and CO2 (carbon dioxide) flooding using micro-CT (micro-computed tomography) images of Berea sandstone core using finite element simulations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gunde, Akshay C.; Bera, Bijoyendra; Mitra, Sushanta K.

    2010-01-01

    The present study reports a numerical investigation of water and CO 2 (carbon dioxide) flooding at the pore scale of a porous medium. We use high resolution micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) images of Berea sandstone core to obtain the pore geometry. The numerical solution used for the simulation was carried out by a finite element based software package. Level Set method is used to determine the position of the interface between two immiscible fluids when oil is displaced by water and CO 2 , respectively. The present formulation is validated against single-phase flow through the porous structure. It is found that, fluid flow inside the pore space takes place through preferential inlet and outlet pores. For two-phase flow, it is observed that continuous displacement of oil occurs during water flooding but CO 2 is able to displace oil at certain locations in the pores. Also, the separation of flow front is observed in the case of CO 2 flooding. A quantitative comparison of the results obtained in two types of flooding simulations suggests that water displaces a higher volume of oil than CO 2 in the time period for which the simulations are performed.

  8. Crude Oil Price Forecasting Based on Hybridizing Wavelet Multiple Linear Regression Model, Particle Swarm Optimization Techniques, and Principal Component Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shabri, Ani; Samsudin, Ruhaidah

    2014-01-01

    Crude oil prices do play significant role in the global economy and are a key input into option pricing formulas, portfolio allocation, and risk measurement. In this paper, a hybrid model integrating wavelet and multiple linear regressions (MLR) is proposed for crude oil price forecasting. In this model, Mallat wavelet transform is first selected to decompose an original time series into several subseries with different scale. Then, the principal component analysis (PCA) is used in processing subseries data in MLR for crude oil price forecasting. The particle swarm optimization (PSO) is used to adopt the optimal parameters of the MLR model. To assess the effectiveness of this model, daily crude oil market, West Texas Intermediate (WTI), has been used as the case study. Time series prediction capability performance of the WMLR model is compared with the MLR, ARIMA, and GARCH models using various statistics measures. The experimental results show that the proposed model outperforms the individual models in forecasting of the crude oil prices series. PMID:24895666

  9. Crude oil price forecasting based on hybridizing wavelet multiple linear regression model, particle swarm optimization techniques, and principal component analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shabri, Ani; Samsudin, Ruhaidah

    2014-01-01

    Crude oil prices do play significant role in the global economy and are a key input into option pricing formulas, portfolio allocation, and risk measurement. In this paper, a hybrid model integrating wavelet and multiple linear regressions (MLR) is proposed for crude oil price forecasting. In this model, Mallat wavelet transform is first selected to decompose an original time series into several subseries with different scale. Then, the principal component analysis (PCA) is used in processing subseries data in MLR for crude oil price forecasting. The particle swarm optimization (PSO) is used to adopt the optimal parameters of the MLR model. To assess the effectiveness of this model, daily crude oil market, West Texas Intermediate (WTI), has been used as the case study. Time series prediction capability performance of the WMLR model is compared with the MLR, ARIMA, and GARCH models using various statistics measures. The experimental results show that the proposed model outperforms the individual models in forecasting of the crude oil prices series.

  10. Studies on interfacial tension and contact angle of synthesized surfactant and polymeric from castor oil for enhanced oil recovery

    Science.gov (United States)

    Babu, Keshak; Pal, Nilanjan; Bera, Achinta; Saxena, V. K.; Mandal, Ajay

    2015-10-01

    New synthesized polymeric surfactants have immensely attracted the researchers for further development of chemical enhanced oil recovery method particularly in surfactant flooding. Contact angle and interfacial tension measurement tests are the effective ways to identify proper chemicals/surfactants for enhanced oil recovery by chemical/surfactant flooding. In the present study a new polymeric surfactant was synthesized from pre-synthesized sodium methyl ester sulfonate (surfactant) and acrylamide for application in chemical enhanced oil recovery. The synthesized surfactant and polymeric surfactant were used to measure interfacial tension between their aqueous phase and crude oil phase to investigate the efficiency of the surfactants in reduction of interfacial tension. The synthesized polymeric surfactant has also ability to control the mobility because of its viscous nature in aqueous solution. Contact angles of solid-crude oil-surfactant interface were also measured to study the effect of the synthesized surfactant and polymeric surfactant on wettability alteration mechanism. Synergistic effect was studied by using NaCl and synthesized surfactants on interfacial tension. Dynamic interfacial tensions of the surfactant and polymeric surfactant solutions with crude oil were measured at different NaCl concentrations. Interfacial tension was found to be lowered up to 10-2 to 10-3 mN/m which is effective for oil recovery. Measurement of contact angle indicates the wettability change of the quartz surface. Comparative studies on efficiencies of synthesized sodium methyl ester sulfonate surfactant and polymeric surfactant were also carried out with respect to interfacial tension reduction and contact angle change.

  11. Frequency and seasonality of flash floods in Slovenia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Trobec Tajan

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to assess and analyse the dynamics of flash flooding events in Slovenia. The paper examines in particular the frequency of flash floods and their seasonal distribution. The methodology is based on the analysis of historical records and modern flood data. The results of a long-term frequency analysis of 138 flash floods that occurred between 1550 and 2015 are presented. Because of the lack of adequate historical flood data prior to 1950 the main analysis is based on data for the periodbetween1951 and2015, while the analysis of data for the period between1550 and1950 is added as a supplement to the main analysis. Analysis of data for the period after 1950 shows that on average 1.3 flash floods occur each year in Slovenia. The linear trend for the number of flash floods is increasing but is not statistically significant. Despite the fact that the majority of Slovenian rivers have one of the peaks in spring and one of the lows in summer, 90% of flash floods actually occur during meteorological summer or autumn - i.e. between June and November, which shows that discharge regimes and flood regimes are not necessarily related. Because of the lack of flood records from the more distant past as well as the large variability of flash flood events in the last several decades, we cannot provide a definitive answer to the question about possible changes in their frequency and seasonality by relying solely on the detected trends. Nevertheless, considering the results of analysis and future climate change scenarios the frequency of flash floods in Slovenia could increase while the period of flash flood occurrence could be extended.

  12. Polymers for enhanced oil recovery: fundamentals and selection criteria.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rellegadla, Sandeep; Prajapat, Ganshyam; Agrawal, Akhil

    2017-06-01

    With a rising population, the demand for energy has increased over the years. As per the projections, both fossil fuel and renewables will remain as major energy source (678 quadrillion BTU) till 2030 with fossil fuel contributing 78% of total energy consumption. Hence, attempts are continuously made to make fossil fuel production more sustainable and cheaper. From the past 40 years, polymer flooding has been carried out in marginal oil fields and have proved to be successful in many cases. The common expectation from polymer flooding is to obtain 50% ultimate recovery with 15 to 20% incremental recovery over secondary water flooding. Both naturally derived polymers like xanthan gum and synthetic polymers like partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM) have been used for this purpose. Earlier laboratory and field trials revealed that salinity and temperature are the major issues with the synthetic polymers that lead to polymer degradation and adsorption on the rock surface. Microbial degradation and concentration are major issues with naturally derived polymers leading to loss of viscosity and pore throat plugging. Earlier studies also revealed that polymer flooding is successful in the fields where oil viscosity is quite higher (up to 126 cp) than injection water due to improvement in mobility ratio during polymer flooding. The largest successful polymer flood was reported in China in 1990 where both synthetic and naturally derived polymers were used in nearly 20 projects. The implementation of these projects provides valuable suggestions for further improving the available processes in future. This paper examines the selection criteria of polymer, field characteristics that support polymer floods and recommendation to design a large producing polymer flooding.

  13. Oil Reservoir Production Optimization using Single Shooting and ESDIRK Methods

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Capolei, Andrea; Völcker, Carsten; Frydendall, Jan

    2012-01-01

    the injections and oil production such that flow is uniform in a given geological structure. Even in the case of conventional water flooding, feedback based optimal control technologies may enable higher oil recovery than with conventional operational strategies. The optimal control problems that must be solved...

  14. Flooding simulation of hilly pipeline commisionning process

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Nan, Zhang [China National Oil and Gas Exploration and Development Corporation and China University of Petroleum, Beijing (China); Jing, Gong [China University of Petroleum, Beijing (China); Baoli, Zhu [China National Oil and Gas Exploration and Development Corporation, Beijing (China); Lin, Zheng [CNPC Oil and Gas Control Center, Beijing (China)

    2010-07-01

    When the construction of a pipeline has been completed, the pipeline flooding is done as part of the pipeline commissioning process. This method consists of filling the empty pipe with water or oil. In a pipeline situated in hilly terrain, air entrapped in the fluid causes problems with the flooding process and it is necessary to discharge the accumulated air to address this issue. The aim of this paper is to provide a model for predicting the location and volume of air pockets in a pipeline. This model was developed based on the fundamentals of mass balance and momentum transfer in multiphase flow and was then applied to a pipeline in China and compared with the SCADA data. Results showed a good match between the model's predictions of hydraulic movement and the real data from SCADA. The two flow model developed can predict hydraulic movement during pipeline flooding in a hilly area and thus it can be used to predict water front location and air pocket movement in the pipe.

  15. Environmental Degradation in Oil Producing Areas of Niger Delta ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Due to oil exploration and other human activities in the Niger Delta region, there is evidence of environmental degradation all over the area (Oronto, 1998). Environmental degradation is occasioned by consistent flow of industrial waste, oil spills, gas flares, fire disaster, acid rain, flooding erosion, etc., which has led to the ...

  16. Dataset on experimental investigation of gum arabic coated alumina nanoparticles for enhanced recovery of nigerian medium crude oil.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Orodu, Oyinkepreye D; Orodu, Kale B; Afolabi, Richard O; Dafe, Eboh A

    2018-08-01

    The dataset in this article are related to an experimental Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) scheme involving the use of dispersions containing Gum Arabic coated Alumina Nanoparticles (GCNPs) for Nigerian medium crude oil. The result contained in the dataset showed a 7.18% (5 wt% GCNPs), 7.81% (5 wt% GCNPs), and 5.61% (3 wt% GCNPs) improvement in the recovery oil beyond the water flooding stage for core samples A, B, and C respectively. Also, the improvement in recovery of the medium crude oil by the GCNPs dispersions when compared to Gum Arabic polymer flooding was evident in the dataset.

  17. Method for enhanced oil recovery

    Science.gov (United States)

    Comberiati, Joseph R.; Locke, Charles D.; Kamath, Krishna I.

    1980-01-01

    The present invention is directed to an improved method for enhanced recovery of oil from relatively "cold" reservoirs by carbon dioxide flooding. In oil reservoirs at a temperature less than the critical temperature of 87.7.degree. F. and at a pore pressure greater than the saturation pressure of carbon dioxide at the temperature of the reservoir, the carbon dioxide remains in the liquid state which does not satisfactorily mix with the oil. However, applicants have found that carbon dioxide can be vaporized in situ in the reservoir by selectively reducing the pore pressure in the reservoir to a value less than the particular saturated vapor pressure so as to greatly enhance the mixing of the carbon dioxide with the oil.

  18. An Evaluation of the Feasibility of Combining Carbon Dioxide Flooding Technologies with Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery Technologies in Order To Sequester Carbon Dioxide

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Todd French; Lew Brown; Rafael Hernandez; Magan Green; Lynn Prewitt; Terry Coggins

    2009-08-19

    The need for more energy as our population grows results in an increase in the amount of CO2 introduced into the atmosphere. The effect of this introduction is currently debated intensely as to the severity of the effect of this. The bjective of this investigation was to determine if the production of more energy (i.e. petroleum) and the sequestration of CO2 could be coupled into one process. Carbon dioxide flooding is a well-established technique that introduces Compressed CO2 into a subsurface oil-bearing formation to aide in liquefying harder to extract petroleum and enhancing its mobility towards the production wells.

  19. Crude Oil Price Forecasting Based on Hybridizing Wavelet Multiple Linear Regression Model, Particle Swarm Optimization Techniques, and Principal Component Analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ani Shabri

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Crude oil prices do play significant role in the global economy and are a key input into option pricing formulas, portfolio allocation, and risk measurement. In this paper, a hybrid model integrating wavelet and multiple linear regressions (MLR is proposed for crude oil price forecasting. In this model, Mallat wavelet transform is first selected to decompose an original time series into several subseries with different scale. Then, the principal component analysis (PCA is used in processing subseries data in MLR for crude oil price forecasting. The particle swarm optimization (PSO is used to adopt the optimal parameters of the MLR model. To assess the effectiveness of this model, daily crude oil market, West Texas Intermediate (WTI, has been used as the case study. Time series prediction capability performance of the WMLR model is compared with the MLR, ARIMA, and GARCH models using various statistics measures. The experimental results show that the proposed model outperforms the individual models in forecasting of the crude oil prices series.

  20. A method for projecting full-scale performance of CO/sub 2/ flooding in the Willard Unit

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bilhartz, H.L.; Charlson, G.S.; Stalkup, F.I.; Miller, C.C.

    1985-01-01

    A non-producing CO/sub 2/ flood tertiary recovery test was recently completed in the Willard Unit of Wasson Field. Flood responses during waterflood and alternate injection of CO/sub 2/ and water were monitored at a logging observation well using compensated neutron and pulsed neutron logs. A pressure core was taken to measure residual oil saturations at the test conclusion. The overall objective of the testing was to obtain information for evaluating the potential for full-scale CO/sub 2/ flooding in the unit. Out method for making this evaluation involves: (1) defining CO/sub 2/ flood displacement efficiency and representing this efficiency in a miscible flood reservoir simulator; (2) defining a representative average reservoir description; and (3) projecting full-scale CO/sub 2/ flood performance with the simulator. The paper provides a status report on progress to assess CO/sub 2/ flooding potential for the Willard Unit in this manner

  1. CO2 Storage and Enhanced Oil Recovery: Bald Unit Test Site, Mumford Hills Oil Field, Posey County, Indiana

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Frailey, Scott M. [Illinois State Geological Survey, Champaign, IL (United States); Krapac, Ivan G. [Illinois State Geological Survey, Champaign, IL (United States); Damico, James R. [Illinois State Geological Survey, Champaign, IL (United States); Okwen, Roland T. [Illinois State Geological Survey, Champaign, IL (United States); McKaskle, Ray W. [Illinois State Geological Survey, Champaign, IL (United States)

    2012-03-30

    The Midwest Geological Sequestration Consortium (MGSC) carried out a small-scale carbon dioxide (CO2) injection test in a sandstone within the Clore Formation (Mississippian System, Chesterian Series) in order to gauge the large-scale CO2 storage that might be realized from enhanced oil recovery (EOR) of mature Illinois Basin oil fields via miscible liquid CO2 flooding.

  2. Chaotic structure of oil prices

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bildirici, Melike; Sonustun, Fulya Ozaksoy

    2018-01-01

    The fluctuations in oil prices are very complicated and therefore, it is unable to predict its effects on economies. For modelling complex system of oil prices, linear economic models are not sufficient and efficient tools. Thus, in recent years, economists attached great attention to non-linear structure of oil prices. For analyzing this relationship, GARCH types of models were used in some papers. Distinctively from the other papers, in this study, we aimed to analyze chaotic pattern of oil prices. Thus, it was used the Lyapunov Exponents and Hennon Map to determine chaotic behavior of oil prices for the selected time period.

  3. Vegetable oil based liquid nanocomposite dielectric

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Leon Chetty

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Physically smaller dielectric materials would improve the optimisation of space for power systems. Development of nanotechnology provides an effective way to improve the performances of insulating oils used in power system applications. In this research study, we focused on the development of nanomodified vegetable oils to be used in power transformers. Higher conduction currents were observed in virgin linseed oil than in virgin castor oil. However, for both virgin linseed and virgin castor oil, the DC conduction current increased approximately linearly with the applied DC voltage. In nanomodified linseed oil, the characteristic curve showed two distinct regions: a linear region (at lower applied voltage and a saturation region (at slightly higher voltage. Conversely, in nanomodified castor oil, the characteristic curve showed three distinct regions: a linear region (at lower applied voltage, a saturation region (at intermediate applied voltage and an exponential growth region (at higher applied voltage. The nanomodified linseed oil exhibited a better dielectric performance than the nanomodified castor oil. Overall, the addition of nanodielectrics to vegetable oils decreased the dielectric performance of the vegetable oils. The results of this study contribute to the understanding of the pre-breakdown phenomenon in liquid nanocomposite dielectrics.

  4. Activities of the Oil Implementation Task Force, December 1990--February 1991; Contracts for field projects and supporting research on enhanced oil recovery, April--June 1990

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Tiedemann, H.A. (ed.) (USDOE Bartlesville Project Office, OK (USA))

    1991-03-01

    The Oil Implementation Task Force was appointed to implement the US DOE's new oil research program directed toward increasing domestic oil production by expanded research on near- or mid-term enhanced oil recovery methods. An added priority is to preserve access to reservoirs that have the largest potential for oil recovery, but that are threatened by the large number of wells abandoned each year. This report describes the progress of research activities in the following areas: chemical flooding; gas displacement; thermal recovery; resource assessment; microbial technology; geoscience technology; and environmental technology. (CK)

  5. Characterization of glass filter micromodels used for polymer EOR flooding experiments

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Foedisch, H.; Wegner, J.; Hincapie-Reina, R.; Ganzer, L. [Technische Univ. Clausthal, Clausthal-Zellerfeld (Germany). ITE

    2013-08-01

    This work is conducted as part of the research project DGMK 746 - ''Experimental and Numerical Analysis of Polymer Flooding Processes Using Micromodels - From Pore Scale to Continuum Scale''. The industry standard to assess polymer flood performance is through flooding experiments with cores or plugs. A complement to flooding experiments in cores is represented by micromodels such as glass filters, which resemble real porous media through their porous structures. In this way, an almost unlimited number of equivalent samples can be produced. Moreover, compared to cores the micromodels enable visual access to the flooding process enabling a detailed process description. The sintered glass filters used in this work represent one way to make displacement processes inside artificial structures visible. However, challenges exist to transfer the results obtained from models composed of glass to real plugs or rock sections. Therefore, this study focuses on the comparison of glass filter micromodels and real rock samples composed of Bentheimer sandstone. We determine water permeability and oil-water relative permeability endpoints with flooding experiments, compare capillary pressure functions of the glass models obtained from mercury porosimetry analysis with results from Bentheimer sandstone, and characterize the glass filter with respect of connate water saturation using NMR-spectroscopy and porosity obtained from pycnometer measurements. (orig.)

  6. The August 2002 flood in Salzburg / Austria experience gained and lessons learned from the ``Flood of the century''?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wiesenegger, H.

    2003-04-01

    longer lead times in Salzburg's flood forecasts. Methods to incorporate precipitation forecasts, provided by the Met Office, as well as observations of actual soil conditions, therefore, have to be developed and should enable hydrologists to predict possible scenarios and impacts of floods, forecasted for the next 24 hours. As a further consequence of the August 2002 flood, building regulations, e.g. the use of oil tanks in flood prone areas, have to be checked and were necessary adapted. It is also necessary to make people, who already live in flood prone areas, aware of the dangers of floods. They also need to know about the limits of flood protection measurements and about what happens, if flood protection design values are exceeded. Alarm plans, dissemination of information by using modern communication systems (Internet) as well as communication failure in peak times and co-ordination of rescue units are also a subject to be looked at carefully. The above mentioned measurements are amongst others of a 10 point program, developed by the Government of the Province of Salzburg and at present checked with regards to feasibility. As it is to be expected, that the August 2002 flood was not the last rare one of this century, experience gained should be valuably for the next event.

  7. The new management policy: Indonesian PSC-Gross split applied on CO2 flooding project

    Science.gov (United States)

    Irham, S.; Sibuea, S. N.; Danu, A.

    2018-01-01

    “SIAD” oil field will be developed by CO2 flooding. CO2, a famous pollutant gas, is injected into the oil reservoir to optimize the oil recovery. This technique should be conducted economically according to the energy management policy in Indonesia. In general, Indonesia has two policy contracts on oil and gas: the old one is PSC-Cost-Recovery, and the new one is PSC-Gross-Split (introduced in 2017 as the new energy management plan). The contractor must choose between PSC-Cost-Recovery and PSC-Gross-Split which makes more profit. The aim of this paper is to show the best oil and gas contract policy for the contractor. The methods are calculating and comparing the economic indicators. The result of this study are (1) NPV for the PSC-Cost-Recovery is -46 MUS, while for the PSC-Gross-Split is 73 MUS, and (2) IRR for the PSC-Cost-Recovery is 9%, whereas for the PSC-Gross-Split is 11%. The conclusion is that the NPV and IRR for PSC-Gross-Split are greater than the NPV and IRR of PSC-Cost-Recovery, but POT in PSC-Gross-split is longer than POT in PSC-Cost-Recovery. Thus, in this case, the new energy policy contract can be applied for CO2 flooding technology since it yields higher economic indicators than its antecendent.

  8. Biosurfactant-biopolymer driven microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) and its optimization by an ANN-GA hybrid technique.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dhanarajan, Gunaseelan; Rangarajan, Vivek; Bandi, Chandrakanth; Dixit, Abhivyakti; Das, Susmita; Ale, Kranthikiran; Sen, Ramkrishna

    2017-08-20

    A lipopeptide biosurfactant produced by marine Bacillus megaterium and a biopolymer produced by thermophilic Bacillus licheniformis were tested for their application potential in the enhanced oil recovery. The crude biosurfactant obtained after acid precipitation effectively reduced the surface tension of deionized water from 70.5 to 28.25mN/m and the interfacial tension between lube oil and water from 18.6 to 1.5mN/m at a concentration of 250mgL -1 . The biosurfactant exhibited a maximum emulsification activity (E 24 ) of 81.66% against lube oil. The lipopeptide micelles were stabilized by addition of Ca 2+ ions to the biosurfactant solution. The oil recovery efficiency of Ca 2+ conditioned lipopeptide solution from a sand-packed column was optimized by using artificial neural network (ANN) modelling coupled with genetic algorithm (GA) optimization. Three important parameters namely lipopeptide concentration, Ca 2+ concentration and solution pH were considered for optimization studies. In order to further improve the recovery efficiency, a water soluble biopolymer produced by Bacillus licheniformis was used as a flooding agent after biosurfactant incubation. Upon ANN-GA optimization, 45% tertiary oil recovery was achieved, when biopolymer at a concentration of 3gL -1 was used as a flooding agent. Oil recovery was only 29% at optimal conditions predicted by ANN-GA, when only water was used as flooding solution. The important characteristics of biopolymers such as its viscosity, pore plugging capabilities and bio-cementing ability have also been tested. Thus, as a result of biosurfactant incubation and biopolymer flooding under the optimal process conditions, a maximum oil recovery of 45% was achieved. Therefore, this study is novel, timely and interesting for it showed the combined influence of biosurfactant and biopolymer on solubilisation and mobilization of oil from the soil. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  9. Impact of oil shale mining and mine closures on hydrological conditions of North-East Estonian rivers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Raetsep, A.; Liblik, V.

    2004-01-01

    The attention is focused on the formation of hydrological and hydrogeological interconnections between the catchment areas of Purtse, Rannapungerja, Puhajoe and Vasavere rivers after closing (in 1997-2002) and flooding the Ahtme, Tammiku, Sompa and Kohtla oil shale underground mines. The multivariate relationship between the changes in mine water amounts directed into the rivers, annual runoff due to mine water inlets, groundwater underground flow, outflow module and other factors (as variables) were studied. A complex of linear regression formulas was derived to calculate the amounts of mine water outputs into the rivers and water distribution in order to regulate the hydrological regime of investigated rivers. (author)

  10. The potential of Bacillus licheniformis strains for in situ enhanced oil recovery

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yakimov, Michail M.; Timmis, Kenneth N. [Microbial Ecology Group, Division of Microbiology, GBF-National Research Centre for Biotechnology, Braunschweig (Germany); Amro, Mohammed M.; Kessel, Dagobert G. [German Petroleum Institute, Clausthal-Zellerfeld (Germany); Bock, Michael; Boseker, Klaus [BGR, Federal Institute for Geoscience and Natural Resources, Hannover (Germany); Fredrickson, Herbert L. [Environmental Laboratory, Waterways Experimental Station, USAGE, Vicksburg, MS (United States)

    1997-07-15

    The ability of microorganisms isolated from oil reservoirs to increase oil recovery by in situ growth and metabolism following the injection of laboratory grown microbial cells and nutrients were studied. Four strains isolated from Northern German oil reservoirs at depths of 866 to 1520 m, and identified as Bacillus licheniformis, were characterized taxonomically and physiologically. All strains grew on a variety of substrates at temperatures of up to 55C and at salinities of up to 12% NaCl. Extracellular polymer production occurred both aerobically and anaerobically over a wide range of temperatures, pressures and salinities, though it was optimal at temperatures around 50C and at salinities between 5 and 10% NaCl. Strain BNP29 was able to produce significant amounts of biomass, polymer, fermentation alcohols and acids in batch culture experiments under simulated reservoir conditions. Oil recovery (core flooding) experiments with strain BNP29 and a sucrose-based nutrient were performed with lime-free and lime-containing, oil-bearing sandstone cores. Oil recovery efficiencies varied from 9.3 to 22.1% of the water flood residual oil saturation. Biogenic acid production that accompanied oil production, along with selective plugging, are important mechanisms leading to increased oil recovery, presumably through resulting changes in rock porosity and alteration of wettability. These data show that strain BNP29 exhibits potential for the development of enhanced oil recovery processes

  11. Evaluating miscible flood projects for acquisition or viability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cassinat, J.C.

    1991-01-01

    Very little information exists regarding evaluating enhanced oil recovery (EOR) projects, in particular miscible floods. Due to the size and scope of most tertiary recovery projects, standard evaluation rules and techniques are too general and vague to adequately model these schemes. A procedure for identifying the risks associated with miscible EOR projects is presented. It is essential to set up a cash flow model that accurately represents the future performance of a miscible flood. Included in the model are the timing of crucial events such as expected solvent breakthrough and the injection of trace gas. The cash flow analysis allows a quick audit procedure and converts production into a monetary or economic evaluation criteria that can easily be compared to other investment alternatives. When evaluating a miscible flood project, forecasting production, solvent and chase gas recovery costs can become quite complex. An organized procedure for an evaluation will ensure that a comprehensive and thorough examination of all the data is completed, and will increase confidence levels associated with decision making. 32 refs., 4 figs., 4 tabs

  12. Flood hazard assessment in areas prone to flash flooding

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kvočka, Davor; Falconer, Roger A.; Bray, Michaela

    2016-04-01

    Contemporary climate projections suggest that there will be an increase in the occurrence of high-intensity rainfall events in the future. These precipitation extremes are usually the main cause for the emergence of extreme flooding, such as flash flooding. Flash floods are among the most unpredictable, violent and fatal natural hazards in the world. Furthermore, it is expected that flash flooding will occur even more frequently in the future due to more frequent development of extreme weather events, which will greatly increase the danger to people caused by flash flooding. This being the case, there will be a need for high resolution flood hazard maps in areas susceptible to flash flooding. This study investigates what type of flood hazard assessment methods should be used for assessing the flood hazard to people caused by flash flooding. Two different types of flood hazard assessment methods were tested: (i) a widely used method based on an empirical analysis, and (ii) a new, physically based and experimentally calibrated method. Two flash flood events were considered herein, namely: the 2004 Boscastle flash flood and the 2007 Železniki flash flood. The results obtained in this study suggest that in the areas susceptible to extreme flooding, the flood hazard assessment should be conducted using methods based on a mechanics-based analysis. In comparison to standard flood hazard assessment methods, these physically based methods: (i) take into account all of the physical forces, which act on a human body in floodwater, (ii) successfully adapt to abrupt changes in the flow regime, which often occur for flash flood events, and (iii) rapidly assess a flood hazard index in a relatively short period of time.

  13. The Effect of Temperature and Injection Rate during Water Flooding Using Carbonate Core Samples: An Experimental Approach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yaser Ahmadi

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available In many reservoirs, after water flooding, a large volume of oil is still left behind. Hot water injection is the most basic type of thermal recovery which increase recovery by improved sweep efficiency and thermal expansion of crude.In the present work, the effects of injection rate and the temperature of the injected water were surveyed by using core flooding apparatus. Water flooding was performed at different rates (0.2, 0.3, and 0.4 cc/min and temperatures (20 and 90 °C, and the reservoir temperature was about 63 °C. Oil recovery during hot water injection was more than water injection. Moreover, it was concluded that at injection rates of 0.2, 0.3, and 0.4 cc/min breakthrough time in hot water injection occurred 10 min later in comparison to water injection. The results showed that higher oil recovery and longer breakthrough time were obtained as a result of reducing injection rate. In the first 50 minutes, the oil recovery at injection rates of 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4 cc/min was 27.5, 34, and 46% respectively. It was found that at the beginning of injection, thermal and non-thermal injection recovery factors are approximately equal. Moreover, according to the results, recovery factor at the lowest rate in hot water (T=90 °C and q=0.2 cc/min is the best condition to obtain the highest recovery.

  14. Experimental study of the processes of aerosol production for technical oil cleanup

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Medvedev Gennadiy

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available From the experimental study of mechanism of fine mist formation in oil-flooded screw compressor it has been drawn the conclusion on evaporation of fine aerosol of mineral oil that has been obtained in two ways: on the basis of oil spray with mechanical burner and on the basis of volume condensation of oil vapour in air. The given paper presents experimental facility for the production of mineral oil aerosol and also comparison of the experimentation results with calculations.

  15. Machinability of Stainless Tool Steel using Nitrogen Oil-Mist coalant

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Amad E. Elshwain

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available For all dry machining process, temperature generated in the cutting zone is the major challenge. It causes tool failure and results in unsatisfactory surface finish. Application of flood coolant method during machining processes can significantly reduce the temperature and consequently extend the cutting tool life. However, it has serious concerns regarding environmental pollution, operator health and manufacturing cost. These issues are usually attempts to be overcame by using minimum quantity lubrication (MQL technique. This method merges the advantages of both dry cutting and flood cooling by spraying a small amount of lubricant to the cutting zone using vegetable oil. In this paper, another technique is proposed in order to further enhance the machineability of the stainless tool steel (STAVAX ESR 48 HRC. This involves using of nitrogen gas (N2 and air as cooling medium in combination with oil mist lubricant (MQL. The results show that the combination between nitrogen and oil-mist lubricant much more prolonged the tool life and improved the surface finish than the air-oil mist lubricant medium.

  16. USING PHASE DIAGRAMS TO PREDICT THE PERFORMANCE OF COSOLVENT FLOODS FOR NAPL REMEDIATION

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cosolvent flooding using water miscible solvents such as alcohols has been proposed as an in-situ NAPL remediation technique. This process is conceptually similar to enhanced oil recovery (EOR) using alcohols and some surfactant formulations. As a result of interest in the EOR ...

  17. Compatibility between weak gel and microorganisms in weak gel-assisted microbial enhanced oil recovery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qi, Yi-Bin; Zheng, Cheng-Gang; Lv, Cheng-Yuan; Lun, Zeng-Min; Ma, Tao

    2018-03-20

    To investigate weak gel-assisted microbial flooding in Block Wang Long Zhuang in the Jiangsu Oilfield, the compatibility of weak gel and microbe was evaluated using laboratory experiments. Bacillus sp. W5 was isolated from the formation water in Block Wang Long Zhuang. The rate of oil degradation reached 178 mg/day, and the rate of viscosity reduction reached 75.3%. Strain W5 could produce lipopeptide with a yield of 1254 mg/L. Emulsified crude oil was dispersed in the microbial degradation system, and the average diameter of the emulsified oil particles was 18.54 μm. Bacillus sp. W5 did not affect the rheological properties of the weak gel, and the presence of the weak gel did not significantly affect bacterial reproduction (as indicated by an unchanged microbial biomass), emulsification (surface tension is 35.56 mN/m and average oil particles size is 21.38 μm), oil degradation (162 mg/day) and oil viscosity reduction (72.7%). Core-flooding experiments indicated oil recovery of 23.6% when both weak gel and Bacillus sp. W5 were injected into the system, 14.76% when only the weak gel was injected, and 9.78% with strain W5 was injected without the weak gel. The results demonstrate good compatibility between strains W5 and the weak gel and highlight the application potential of weak gel-assisted microbial flooding. Copyright © 2018 The Society for Biotechnology, Japan. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  18. Development of flood index by characterisation of flood hydrographs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bhattacharya, Biswa; Suman, Asadusjjaman

    2015-04-01

    In recent years the world has experienced deaths, large-scale displacement of people, billions of Euros of economic damage, mental stress and ecosystem impacts due to flooding. Global changes (climate change, population and economic growth, and urbanisation) are exacerbating the severity of flooding. The 2010 floods in Pakistan and the 2011 floods in Australia and Thailand demonstrate the need for concerted action in the face of global societal and environmental changes to strengthen resilience against flooding. Due to climatological characteristics there are catchments where flood forecasting may have a relatively limited role and flood event management may have to be trusted upon. For example, in flash flood catchments, which often may be tiny and un-gauged, flood event management often depends on approximate prediction tools such as flash flood guidance (FFG). There are catchments fed largely by flood waters coming from upstream catchments, which are un-gauged or due to data sharing issues in transboundary catchments the flow of information from upstream catchment is limited. Hydrological and hydraulic modelling of these downstream catchments will never be sufficient to provide any required forecasting lead time and alternative tools to support flood event management will be required. In FFG, or similar approaches, the primary motif is to provide guidance by synthesising the historical data. We follow a similar approach to characterise past flood hydrographs to determine a flood index (FI), which varies in space and time with flood magnitude and its propagation. By studying the variation of the index the pockets of high flood risk, requiring attention, can be earmarked beforehand. This approach can be very useful in flood risk management of catchments where information about hydro-meteorological variables is inadequate for any forecasting system. This paper presents the development of FI and its application to several catchments including in Kentucky in the USA

  19. Enhancement of recovery of residual oil using a biosurfactant slug ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Characterization of the biosurfactant extract revealed a mixture of glycolipid and phospholipid in a ratio of 3.35:1. The irreducible water saturation (Swi) and initial residual oil saturation (Sor) of the sand-pack were 0.280 ± 0.003 and 0.373 ± 0.006, respectively. Core flooding experiment showed that an optimum oil recovery ...

  20. Optimal Control of Polymer Flooding Based on Maximum Principle

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yang Lei

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Polymer flooding is one of the most important technologies for enhanced oil recovery (EOR. In this paper, an optimal control model of distributed parameter systems (DPSs for polymer injection strategies is established, which involves the performance index as maximum of the profit, the governing equations as the fluid flow equations of polymer flooding, and the inequality constraint as the polymer concentration limitation. To cope with the optimal control problem (OCP of this DPS, the necessary conditions for optimality are obtained through application of the calculus of variations and Pontryagin’s weak maximum principle. A gradient method is proposed for the computation of optimal injection strategies. The numerical results of an example illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

  1. Effect of clay content in rock on oil extraction under alkaline seam conditions

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Vezirov, D Sh; Gorbunov, A T; Kasimov, Sh A; Kashchavtsev, V E; Tairov, N D

    1978-01-01

    When oil beds are flooded with alkaline solutions, the alkaline concentration in the solution can be significantly reduced as a result of the interaction between clay and alkali. Large losses of alkali in the bed can render the flooding method ineffective. Experimental studies were conducted on porous media containing up to 25% clay at a constant permeability of 1 D in order to determine the oil extraction indices for clay-containing rock. Constant permeability is maintained by using clays, marshalite, and quartz sand in various proportions. Oil having a viscosity of 99.17 sP, and containing a large amount of surfactants, including 1.1% naphthenic acid, was extracted by fresh water and a 0.25% solution of NaOH. The extraction of oil by fresh water and NaOH solution from quartz sand indicated the advantage of using alkaline solutions. The extraction coefficient increased by 11% with the use of this method. As clay is added to the sand, the extraction coefficient decreases, and is reduced to 12.7% when the clay content reaches 25%. Nevertheless, a comparison of data obtained for quartz sand with fresh water on a porous medium containing 25% clay with an alkaline solution, indicates that the extraction coefficient is just 1.5% lower even in the presence of such a large amount of clay. Consequently, alkaline flooding should still be given preference over the usual methods under specific conditions and where the rock has a comparatively large amount of clay, in view of all the basic factors that influence the extraction process. The results obtained can be used for selecting alkaline concentration in evaluating the efficiency of flooding oil beds with alkaline solutions. 2 figures, 2 tables.

  2. Temporal clustering of floods in Germany: Do flood-rich and flood-poor periods exist?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Merz, Bruno; Nguyen, Viet Dung; Vorogushyn, Sergiy

    2016-10-01

    The repeated occurrence of exceptional floods within a few years, such as the Rhine floods in 1993 and 1995 and the Elbe and Danube floods in 2002 and 2013, suggests that floods in Central Europe may be organized in flood-rich and flood-poor periods. This hypothesis is studied by testing the significance of temporal clustering in flood occurrence (peak-over-threshold) time series for 68 catchments across Germany for the period 1932-2005. To assess the robustness of the results, different methods are used: Firstly, the index of dispersion, which quantifies the departure from a homogeneous Poisson process, is investigated. Further, the time-variation of the flood occurrence rate is derived by non-parametric kernel implementation and the significance of clustering is evaluated via parametric and non-parametric tests. Although the methods give consistent overall results, the specific results differ considerably. Hence, we recommend applying different methods when investigating flood clustering. For flood estimation and risk management, it is of relevance to understand whether clustering changes with flood severity and time scale. To this end, clustering is assessed for different thresholds and time scales. It is found that the majority of catchments show temporal clustering at the 5% significance level for low thresholds and time scales of one to a few years. However, clustering decreases substantially with increasing threshold and time scale. We hypothesize that flood clustering in Germany is mainly caused by catchment memory effects along with intra- to inter-annual climate variability, and that decadal climate variability plays a minor role.

  3. Mechanisms behind injecting the combination of nano-clay particles and polymer solution for enhanced oil recovery

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khalili Nezhad, Seyyed Shahram; Cheraghian, Goshtasp

    2016-08-01

    Laboratory investigations and field applications have proved injection of polymer solution to be an effective means to improve oil recovery for reservoirs of medium oil viscosity. The incremental oil produced in this case is the result of an increase in areal and vertical sweep efficiencies. Biopolymers and synthetic polymers are the major categories used in the petroleum industry for specific reasons. Biopolymers like xanthan are limited in their application as they are more susceptible to biodegradation. Synthetic polymers like Hydrolyzed PolyAcrylaMide (HPAM) have a much wider application as they are less susceptible to biodegradation. Furthermore, development of nanotechnology has successfully provided technical and economical viable alternatives for present materials. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of combining clay nanoparticles with polymer solution on oil recovery. This paper includes a history match of both one-dimensional and two-dimensional polymer floods using a three-dimensional numerical model for fluid flow and mass transport. Results indicated that the amount of polymer adsorption decreased when clay nanoparticles were added to the PolyAcrylaMide solution; however, mobility ratio improvement is believed to be the main contributor for the proposed method in order to enhance much oil recovery compared to xanthan flood and HPAM flood.

  4. Activities of the Oil Implementation Task Force, reporting period March--August 1991; Contracts for field projects and supporting research on enhanced oil recovery, reporting period October--December 1990

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    1991-10-01

    Activities of DOE's Oil Implementation Task Force for the period March--August 1991 are reviewed. Contracts for fields projects and supporting research on enhanced oil recovery are discussed, with a list of related publications given. Enhanced recovery processes covered include chemical flooding, gas displacement, thermal recovery, and microbial recovery.

  5. Development of ε-insensitive smooth support vector regression for predicting minimum miscibility pressure in CO2 flooding

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shahram Mollaiy-Berneti

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available Successful design of a carbon dioxide (CO2 flooding in enhanced oil recovery projects mostly depends on accurate determination of CO2-crude oil minimum miscibility pressure (MMP. Due to the high expensive and time-consuming of experimental determination of MMP, developing a fast and robust method to predict MMP is necessary. In this study, a new method based on ε-insensitive smooth support vector regression (ε-SSVR is introduced to predict MMP for both pure and impure CO2 gas injection cases. The proposed ε-SSVR is developed using dataset of reservoir temperature, crude oil composition and composition of injected CO2. To serve better understanding of the proposed, feed-forward neural network and radial basis function network applied to denoted dataset. The results show that the suggested ε-SSVR has acceptable reliability and robustness in comparison with two other models. Thus, the proposed method can be considered as an alternative way to monitor the MMP in miscible flooding process.

  6. Evaluation of design flood estimates with respect to sample size

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kobierska, Florian; Engeland, Kolbjorn

    2016-04-01

    Estimation of design floods forms the basis for hazard management related to flood risk and is a legal obligation when building infrastructure such as dams, bridges and roads close to water bodies. Flood inundation maps used for land use planning are also produced based on design flood estimates. In Norway, the current guidelines for design flood estimates give recommendations on which data, probability distribution, and method to use dependent on length of the local record. If less than 30 years of local data is available, an index flood approach is recommended where the local observations are used for estimating the index flood and regional data are used for estimating the growth curve. For 30-50 years of data, a 2 parameter distribution is recommended, and for more than 50 years of data, a 3 parameter distribution should be used. Many countries have national guidelines for flood frequency estimation, and recommended distributions include the log Pearson II, generalized logistic and generalized extreme value distributions. For estimating distribution parameters, ordinary and linear moments, maximum likelihood and Bayesian methods are used. The aim of this study is to r-evaluate the guidelines for local flood frequency estimation. In particular, we wanted to answer the following questions: (i) Which distribution gives the best fit to the data? (ii) Which estimation method provides the best fit to the data? (iii) Does the answer to (i) and (ii) depend on local data availability? To answer these questions we set up a test bench for local flood frequency analysis using data based cross-validation methods. The criteria were based on indices describing stability and reliability of design flood estimates. Stability is used as a criterion since design flood estimates should not excessively depend on the data sample. The reliability indices describe to which degree design flood predictions can be trusted.

  7. Principles of heavy oil recovery

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Szasz, S.E.; Thomas, G.W.

    1965-10-01

    Rising exploration costs have prompted greater interest in the large known deposits of heavy oil in North America. Because of high oil viscosities in such reservoirs, recoveries are poor, fluid drives are inefficient and production rates are uneconomical. Viscosity reduction can best be accomplished by heating the reservoir. The basic aspects of reservoir heating are reviewed and those processes which are of practical importance in heavy oil reservoirs are discussed. Wellbore heating frequently can be applied to heavy oil reservoirs to increase production rates. In hot waterflooding, the water requirements are much higher than an ordinary waterflood. Steam floods are more attractive, but operating costs are generally high. Conduction heating processes appear most promising. Among these is included the cyclic steam-soak process. A simple method is presented for estimating the performance from the first cycle of steam injection into the formation, assuming gravity as the only driving energy. An example calculation for a typical heavy oil reservoir is given. (26 refs.)

  8. Market potential of solar thermal enhanced oil recovery-a techno-economic model for Issaran oil field in Egypt

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gupta, Sunay; Guédez, Rafael; Laumert, Björn

    2017-06-01

    Solar thermal enhanced oil recovery (S-EOR) is an advanced technique of using concentrated solar power (CSP) technology to generate steam and recover oil from maturing oil reservoirs. The generated steam is injected at high pressure and temperature into the reservoir wells to facilitate oil production. There are three common methods of steam injection in enhanced oil recovery - continuous steam injection, cyclic steam stimulation (CSS) and steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD). Conventionally, this steam is generated through natural gas (NG) fired boilers with associated greenhouse gas emissions. However, pilot projects in the USA (Coalinga, California) and Oman (Miraah, Amal) demonstrated the use of S-EOR to meet their steam requirements despite the intermittent nature of solar irradiation. Hence, conventional steam based EOR projects under the Sunbelt region can benefit from S-EOR with reduced operational expenditure (OPEX) and increased profitability in the long term, even with the initial investment required for solar equipment. S-EOR can be realized as an opportunity for countries not owning any natural gas resources to make them less energy dependent and less sensible to gas price fluctuations, and for countries owning natural gas resources to reduce their gas consumption and export it for a higher margin. In this study, firstly, the market potential of S-EOR was investigated worldwide by covering some of the major ongoing steam based EOR projects as well as future projects in pipeline. A multi-criteria analysis was performed to compare local conditions and requirements of all the oil fields based on a defined set of parameters. Secondly, a modelling approach for S-EOR was designed to identify cost reduction opportunities and optimum solar integration techniques, and the Issaran oil field in Egypt was selected for a case study to substantiate the approach. This modelling approach can be consulted to develop S-EOR projects for any steam flooding based oil

  9. The relationship between crude oil spot and futures prices: Cointegration, linear and nonlinear causality

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bekiros, Stelios D.; Diks, Cees G.H.

    2008-01-01

    The present study investigates the linear and nonlinear causal linkages between daily spot and futures prices for maturities of one, two, three and four months of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil. The data cover two periods October 1991-October 1999 and November 1999-October 2007, with the latter being significantly more turbulent. Apart from the conventional linear Granger test we apply a new nonparametric test for nonlinear causality by Diks and Panchenko after controlling for cointegration. In addition to the traditional pairwise analysis, we test for causality while correcting for the effects of the other variables. To check if any of the observed causality is strictly nonlinear in nature, we also examine the nonlinear causal relationships of VECM filtered residuals. Finally, we investigate the hypothesis of nonlinear non-causality after controlling for conditional heteroskedasticity in the data using a GARCH-BEKK model. Whilst the linear causal relationships disappear after VECM cointegration filtering, nonlinear causal linkages in some cases persist even after GARCH filtering in both periods. This indicates that spot and futures returns may exhibit asymmetric GARCH effects and/or statistically significant higher order conditional moments. Moreover, the results imply that if nonlinear effects are accounted for, neither market leads or lags the other consistently, videlicet the pattern of leads and lags changes over time. (author)

  10. Investigation of Optimum Polymerization Conditions for Synthesis of Cross-Linked Polyacrylamide-Amphoteric Surfmer Nanocomposites for Polymer Flooding in Sandstone Reservoirs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. N. El-hoshoudy

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Currently enhanced oil recovery (EOR technology is getting more attention by many countries since energy crises are getting worse and frightening. Polymer flooding by hydrophobically associated polyacrylamides (HAPAM and its modified silica nanocomposite are a widely implemented technique through enhanced oil recovery (EOR technology. This polymers class can be synthesized by copolymerization of acrylamide (AM, reactive surfmer, functionalized silica nanoparticles, and a hydrophobic cross-linker moiety in the presence of water soluble initiator via heterogeneous emulsion polymerization technique, to form latexes that can be applied during polymer flooding. Chemical structure of the prepared copolymers was proven through different techniques such as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR, and nuclear magnetic spectroscopy (1H&13C-NMR, and molecular weight was measured by gel permeation chromatography. Study of the effects of monomer, surfmer, cross-linker, silica, and initiator concentrations as well as reaction temperature was investigated to determine optimum polymerization conditions through single factor and orthogonal experiments. Evaluation of the prepared copolymers for enhancing recovered oil amount was evaluated by carrying out flooding experiments on one-dimensional sandstone model to determine recovery factor.

  11. Microbial diversity in methanogenic hydrocarbon-degrading enrichment cultures isolated from a water-flooded oil reservoir (Dagang oil field, China)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiménez, Núria; Cai, Minmin; Straaten, Nontje; Yao, Jun; Richnow, Hans H.; Krüger, Martin

    2015-04-01

    Microbial transformation of oil to methane is one of the main degradation processes taking place in oil reservoirs, and it has important consequences as it negatively affects the quality and economic value of the oil. Nevertheless, methane could constitute a recovery method of carbon from exhausted reservoirs. Previous studies combining geochemical and isotopic analysis with molecular methods showed evidence for in situ methanogenic oil degradation in the Dagang oil field, China (Jiménez et al., 2012). However, the main key microbial players and the underlying mechanisms are still relatively unknown. In order to better characterize these processes and identify the main microorganisms involved, laboratory biodegradation experiments under methanogenic conditions were performed. Microcosms were inoculated with production and injection waters from the reservoir, and oil or 13C-labelled single hydrocarbons (e.g. n-hexadecane or 2-methylnaphthalene) were added as sole substrates. Indigenous microbiota were able to extensively degrade oil within months, depleting most of the n-alkanes in 200 days, and producing methane at a rate of 76 ± 6 µmol day-1 g-1 oil added. They could also produce heavy methane from 13C-labeled 2-methylnaphthalene, suggesting that further methanogenesis may occur from the aromatic and polyaromatic fractions of Dagang reservoir fluids. Microbial communities from oil and 2-methyl-naphthalene enrichment cultures were slightly different. Although, in both cases Deltaproteobacteria, mainly belonging to Syntrophobacterales (e.g. Syntrophobacter, Smithella or Syntrophus) and Clostridia, mostly Clostridiales, were among the most represented taxa, Gammaproteobacteria could be only identified in oil-degrading cultures. The proportion of Chloroflexi, exclusively belonging to Anaerolineales (e.g. Leptolinea, Bellilinea) was considerably higher in 2-methyl-naphthalene degrading cultures. Archaeal communities consisted almost exclusively of representatives of

  12. Development of detection techniques for monitoring and optimizing biocide dosing in seawater flooding systems

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Al-Moniee, M.A.; Al-Abeedi, F.N.; Koopal, C.G.J.; Akmal, N.; Sanders, P.F.; Veen, S. van

    2013-01-01

    Anaerobic microorganisms which are frequently associated with corrosion fail Control of bacterial activity are posing major challenge in Saudi Arabia's massive seawater flooding systems. Biocides are used to control bacteria throughout the oil industry. A study to explore the feasibility to develop

  13. Energy return on (energy) invested (EROI), oil prices, and energy transitions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Heun, Matthew Kuperus; de Wit, Martin

    2012-01-01

    Very little work has been done so far to model, test, and understand the relationship between oil prices and EROI over time. This paper investigates whether a declining EROI is associated with an increasing oil price and speculates on the implications of these results on oil policy. A model of the relationship between EROI and oil market prices was developed using basic economic and physical assumptions and non-linear least-squares regression models to correlate oil production price with EROI using available data from 1954–1996. The model accurately reflects historical oil prices (1954–1996), and it correlates well with historical oil prices (1997–2010) if a linear extrapolation of EROI decline is assumed. As EROI declines below 10, highly non-linear oil price movements are observed. Increasing physical oil scarcity is already providing market signals that would stimulate a transition away from oil toward alternative energy sources. But, price signals of physical oil scarcity are not sufficient to guarantee smooth transitions to alternative fuel sources, especially when there is insufficient oil extraction technology development, a declining mark-up ratio, a non-linear EROI–cost of production relationship, and a non-linear EROI–price relationship. - Highlights: ► A model of the relationship between EROI and oil prices has been developed. ► As EROI declines below 10, highly non-linear oil price movements are expected. ► Physical oil scarcity provides market signals for a transition to alternatives. ► Scarcity price signals are insufficient for smooth transitions to alternatives.

  14. A study of extraction of oil through a polymer flooding method

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Aliyev, V.S.; Agazade, A.D.; Asadov, Z.G.; Yusubov, A.Yu.

    1983-01-01

    A number of representatives of water soluble acrylic polymers is synthesized. These include polyacrylamine (PAA), methylated polyacrylamine, polymethacrylic acid (PMAK) and its alkaline salts. The oil extracting properties of the synthesized polymers are studied in a laboratory installation. The effectiveness for extracting Romaninsk oil of solutions of polyacrylamine, methylated polyacrylamine and polymethacrylic acid in alkaline stratum water (the effect is 12 to 17 percent) is shown. It is established that the solutions of alkaline (sodium, potassium, and ammonium) salts of polymethacrylic acid in fresh water have good extracting capabilities as compared to light Balakhansk oil. The effect is 14 to 19 percent.

  15. The arch oil price manipulators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1998-01-01

    First set up in 1960, OPEC has become a highly successful cartel and a key player on the world geopolitical scene. Through quotas and dragooning its members, it has maintained the world price of oil at a level much higher than the marginal cost of new oil from the largest producers by holding off new supplies which might otherwise have flooded the market. The two main factors which have made this persistent success possible are examined. They are OPEC's very low production costs vis-a-vis its competitors and the extent of the organisation's shut-in, low-cost reserves. (UK)

  16. Optimization of Offshore De-oiling Hydrocyclone Performance

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Yang, Zhenyu; Løhndorf, Petar Durdevic; Pedersen, Simon

    , along with the facts that the global oil demand will continuously grow by 7 mb/d to 2020 and exceed 99 mb/d in 2035, meanwhile, many production fields turn to be matured and thereby the water flooding technology is more and more employed as a key enhanced oil recovery solution for these fields [9]. Fig......One of the biggest environmental concerns in offshore oil & gas production is the quality of tremendous amounts of produced water discharged into the oceans. Today, in average three barrels of water are produced along with each barrel of oil [9]. This concern will become more severe in the future...... companies, Maersk Oil and Ramboll Oil & Gas A/S, launched a research project HTF-PDPWAC with total budget of 10 million dkk. One of the focuses of this project is to optimization of the de-oiling hydrocyclone performance in order to improve the produced water treatment quality without sacrificing...

  17. Application of Flood Nomograph for Flood Forecasting in Urban Areas

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eui Hoon Lee

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Imperviousness has increased due to urbanization, as has the frequency of extreme rainfall events by climate change. Various countermeasures, such as structural and nonstructural measures, are required to prepare for these effects. Flood forecasting is a representative nonstructural measure. Flood forecasting techniques have been developed for the prevention of repetitive flood damage in urban areas. It is difficult to apply some flood forecasting techniques using training processes because training needs to be applied at every usage. The other flood forecasting techniques that use rainfall data predicted by radar are not appropriate for small areas, such as single drainage basins. In this study, a new flood forecasting technique is suggested to reduce flood damage in urban areas. The flood nomograph consists of the first flooding nodes in rainfall runoff simulations with synthetic rainfall data at each duration. When selecting the first flooding node, the initial amount of synthetic rainfall is 1 mm, which increases in 1 mm increments until flooding occurs. The advantage of this flood forecasting technique is its simple application using real-time rainfall data. This technique can be used to prepare a preemptive response in the process of urban flood management.

  18. Adaptive methods for flood forecasting using linear regression models in the upper basin of Senegal River

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sambou, Soussou

    2004-01-01

    In flood forecasting modelling, large basins are often considered as hydrological systems with multiple inputs and one output. Inputs are hydrological variables such rainfall, runoff and physical characteristics of basin; output is runoff. Relating inputs to output can be achieved using deterministic, conceptual, or stochastic models. Rainfall runoff models generally lack of accuracy. Physical hydrological processes based models, either deterministic or conceptual are highly data requirement demanding and by the way very complex. Stochastic multiple input-output models, using only historical chronicles of hydrological variables particularly runoff are by the way very popular among the hydrologists for large river basin flood forecasting. Application is made on the Senegal River upstream of Bakel, where the River is formed by the main branch, Bafing, and two tributaries, Bakoye and Faleme; Bafing being regulated by Manantaly Dam. A three inputs and one output model has been used for flood forecasting on Bakel. Influence of the lead forecasting, and of the three inputs taken separately, then associated two by two, and altogether has been verified using a dimensionless variance as criterion of quality. Inadequacies occur generally between model output and observations; to put model in better compliance with current observations, we have compared four parameter updating procedure, recursive least squares, Kalman filtering, stochastic gradient method, iterative method, and an AR errors forecasting model. A combination of these model updating have been used in real time flood forecasting.(Author)

  19. Oil and gas in Central and Eastern Europe

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Doeh, D.

    1994-01-01

    A lawyer's view of oil and gas activity in Central and Eastern Europe is presented. General observations include: the regional interdependence which stems from the persistence of the influence of Russian price subsidies and the transport infrastructure; the difference between the region's organization of the oil and gas industry from that of the West; political and historical dimensions; the difficulties of coming to terms with both the cultural elements of the law and the flood of new legislation; the search of the oil companies for a stable legal environment; and taxation. Brief country reports follow this overview. (UK)

  20. Foam rheology in porous media and enhanced oil recovery potential

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Burley, R.

    1985-01-01

    Previous studies using foam as a mobility control agent in partially depleted oil wells have shown that foam has a potential for enhancing oil recovery after primary water flooding. The characteristics of foam as indicated by the results of several studies point to three potential applications of foam in oil recovery processes. These are: Improving the displacement efficiency of gas-drive processes (mobility control). Improving the sweep efficiency of other fluid injection processes (mobility control and flow impediment). Restricting the flow of undesired fluids and plugging of high permeable oil 'thief' zones (partial or total pore blockage). (author)

  1. ENHANCED OIL RECOVERY USING LOCAL ALKALINE

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    user

    the discovery of new oil producing fields and the ever increasing ... followed by water flooding is between 35 to 50% of the ... involved and lack of scale up and is considered among ... carbonate alkaline chemical reacts with certain types of ... reservoirs because of the profusion of calcium and the ... damage the formation.

  2. Maximize Liquid Oil Production from Shale Oil and Gas Condensate Reservoirs by Cyclic Gas Injection

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sheng, James [Texas Tech Univ., Lubbock, TX (United States); Li, Lei [Texas Tech Univ., Lubbock, TX (United States); Yu, Yang [Texas Tech Univ., Lubbock, TX (United States); Meng, Xingbang [Texas Tech Univ., Lubbock, TX (United States); Sharma, Sharanya [Texas Tech Univ., Lubbock, TX (United States); Huang, Siyuan [Texas Tech Univ., Lubbock, TX (United States); Shen, Ziqi [Texas Tech Univ., Lubbock, TX (United States); Zhang, Yao [Texas Tech Univ., Lubbock, TX (United States); Wang, Xiukun [Texas Tech Univ., Lubbock, TX (United States); Carey, Bill [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Nguyen, Phong [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Porter, Mark [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Jimenez-Martinez, Joaquin [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Viswanathan, Hari [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Mody, Fersheed [Apache Corp., Houston, TX (United States); Barnes, Warren [Apache Corp., Houston, TX (United States); Cook, Tim [Apache Corp., Houston, TX (United States); Griffith, Paul [Apache Corp., Houston, TX (United States)

    2017-11-17

    The current technology to produce shale oil reservoirs is the primary depletion using fractured wells (generally horizontal wells). The oil recovery is less than 10%. The prize to enhance oil recovery (EOR) is big. Based on our earlier simulation study, huff-n-puff gas injection has the highest EOR potential. This project was to explore the potential extensively and from broader aspects. The huff-n-puff gas injection was compared with gas flooding, water huff-n-puff and waterflooding. The potential to mitigate liquid blockage was also studied and the gas huff-n-puff method was compared with other solvent methods. Field pilot tests were initiated but terminated owing to the low oil price and the operator’s budget cut. To meet the original project objectives, efforts were made to review existing and relevant field projects in shale and tight reservoirs. The fundamental flow in nanopores was also studied.

  3. Efficient Scheme for Chemical Flooding Simulation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Braconnier Benjamin

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, we investigate an efficient implicit scheme for the numerical simulation of chemical enhanced oil recovery technique for oil fields. For the sake of brevity, we only focus on flows with polymer to describe the physical and numerical models. In this framework, we consider a black oil model upgraded with the polymer modeling. We assume the polymer only transported in the water phase or adsorbed on the rock following a Langmuir isotherm. The polymer reduces the water phase mobility which can change drastically the behavior of water oil interfaces. Then, we propose a fractional step technique to resolve implicitly the system. The first step is devoted to the resolution of the black oil subsystem and the second to the polymer mass conservation. In such a way, jacobian matrices coming from the implicit formulation have a moderate size and preserve solvers efficiency. Nevertheless, the coupling between the black-oil subsystem and the polymer is not fully resolved. For efficiency and accuracy comparison, we propose an explicit scheme for the polymer for which large time step is prohibited due to its CFL (Courant-Friedrichs-Levy criterion and consequently approximates accurately the coupling. Numerical experiments with polymer are simulated : a core flood, a 5-spot reservoir with surfactant and ions and a 3D real case. Comparisons are performed between the polymer explicit and implicit scheme. They prove that our polymer implicit scheme is efficient, robust and resolves accurately the coupling physics. The development and the simulations have been performed with the software PumaFlow [PumaFlow (2013 Reference manual, release V600, Beicip Franlab].

  4. Mapping flood and flooding potential indices: a methodological approach to identifying areas susceptible to flood and flooding risk. Case study: the Prahova catchment (Romania)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zaharia, Liliana; Costache, Romulus; Prăvălie, Remus; Ioana-Toroimac, Gabriela

    2017-04-01

    Given that floods continue to cause yearly significant worldwide human and material damages, flood risk mitigation is a key issue and a permanent challenge in developing policies and strategies at various spatial scales. Therefore, a basic phase is elaborating hazard and flood risk maps, documents which are an essential support for flood risk management. The aim of this paper is to develop an approach that allows for the identification of flash-flood and flood-prone susceptible areas based on computing and mapping of two indices: FFPI (Flash-Flood Potential Index) and FPI (Flooding Potential Index). These indices are obtained by integrating in a GIS environment several geographical variables which control runoff (in the case of the FFPI) and favour flooding (in the case of the FPI). The methodology was applied in the upper (mountainous) and middle (hilly) catchment of the Prahova River, a densely populated and socioeconomically well-developed area which has been affected repeatedly by water-related hazards over the past decades. The resulting maps showing the spatialization of the FFPI and FPI allow for the identification of areas with high susceptibility to flashfloods and flooding. This approach can provide useful mapped information, especially for areas (generally large) where there are no flood/hazard risk maps. Moreover, the FFPI and FPI maps can constitute a preliminary step for flood risk and vulnerability assessment.

  5. The climate and flood risk potential of northern areas of Pakistan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Awan, S.A.

    2002-01-01

    The extreme floods in northern parts of Pakistan are caused by glacier lake outbursts and Dam-Breaks following landslides, which block river valleys. Geographically glacier dams in mountain rivers and valleys have occurred from the east-western and west-western Karakuram ranges and in the lesser Karakuram range floods which arise from Karakuram precipitation and temperature of various region pose greater problem, as these floods are neither homogeneous nor stationary. These floods arise from various generating mechanisms i. e. generated by melting of snow and glacier and those generated from the monsoon rainfall and dam-breaks following landslide into the river and out burst of glacier lake. The estimation of present and future risk of flooding at sites in northern Pakistan requires an understanding, of the climate, which provides, the generating mechanism of floods. Climates are extremely variable and depend op broad global circulation patterns and local topographic influences. The variables of the climate are studied using available data, with emphasis on temperature and precipitation Spatial Co-relation in northern area stations have been conducted to find Co-relation Co-efficient, using regression analysis. This is spread over intra seasonal and inter station comparison. The time series analysis of the climatic variables has been conducted to examine geographically and statistically the trend in their behaviour. This may be reflected in the hydrological regime of glaciers and rivers and it can cause non linear flood series through changes in any one of the flood generating mechanism. The climate feed-back mechanism has been discussed, which are practically important because they assist seasonal prediction of climate and flow in the Indus. Additionally if climate warming is causing an upward Trend in winter and spring temperature and reduction in snowfall, the effect might be felt more widely over the region. The non-linear changes with elevation and differences

  6. Exploitation of Documented Historical Floods for Achieving Better Flood Defense

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Slobodan Kolaković

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Establishing Base Flood Elevation for a stream network corresponding to a big catchment is feasible by interdisciplinary approach, involving stochastic hydrology, river hydraulics, and computer aided simulations. A numerical model calibrated by historical floods has been exploited in this study. The short presentation of the catchment of the Tisza River in this paper is followed by the overview of historical floods which hit the region in the documented period of 130 years. Several well documented historical floods provided opportunity for the calibration of the chosen numerical model. Once established, the model could be used for investigation of different extreme flood scenarios and to establish the Base Flood Elevation. The calibration has shown that the coefficient of friction in case of the Tisza River is dependent both on the actual water level and on the preceding flood events. The effect of flood plain maintenance as well as the activation of six potential detention ponds on flood mitigation has been examined. Furthermore, the expected maximum water levels have also been determined for the case if the ever observed biggest 1888 flood hit the region again. The investigated cases of flood superposition highlighted the impact of tributary Maros on flood mitigation along the Tisza River.

  7. Influence of Flood Detention Capability in Flood Prevention for Flood Disaster of Depression Area

    OpenAIRE

    Chia Lin Chan; Yi Ju Yang; Chih Chin Yang

    2011-01-01

    Rainfall records of rainfall station including the rainfall potential per hour and rainfall mass of five heavy storms are explored, respectively from 2001 to 2010. The rationalization formula is to investigate the capability of flood peak duration of flood detention pond in different rainfall conditions. The stable flood detention model is also proposed by using system dynamic control theory to get the message of flood detention pond in this research. When rainfall freque...

  8. Enhanced oil recovery using improved aqueous fluid-injection methods: an annotated bibliography. [328 citations

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Meister, M.J.; Kettenbrink, G.K.; Collins, A.G.

    1976-10-01

    This annotated bibliography contains abstracts, prepared by the authors, of articles published between 1968 and early 1976 on tests of improved aqueous fluid injection methods (i.e., polymer and surfactant floods). The abstracts have been written and organized to facilitate studies of the oil recovery potential of polymer and surfactant floods under known reservoir conditions. 328 citations.

  9. BN-FLEMOps pluvial - A probabilistic multi-variable loss estimation model for pluvial floods

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roezer, V.; Kreibich, H.; Schroeter, K.; Doss-Gollin, J.; Lall, U.; Merz, B.

    2017-12-01

    Pluvial flood events, such as in Copenhagen (Denmark) in 2011, Beijing (China) in 2012 or Houston (USA) in 2016, have caused severe losses to urban dwellings in recent years. These floods are caused by storm events with high rainfall rates well above the design levels of urban drainage systems, which lead to inundation of streets and buildings. A projected increase in frequency and intensity of heavy rainfall events in many areas and an ongoing urbanization may increase pluvial flood losses in the future. For an efficient risk assessment and adaptation to pluvial floods, a quantification of the flood risk is needed. Few loss models have been developed particularly for pluvial floods. These models usually use simple waterlevel- or rainfall-loss functions and come with very high uncertainties. To account for these uncertainties and improve the loss estimation, we present a probabilistic multi-variable loss estimation model for pluvial floods based on empirical data. The model was developed in a two-step process using a machine learning approach and a comprehensive database comprising 783 records of direct building and content damage of private households. The data was gathered through surveys after four different pluvial flood events in Germany between 2005 and 2014. In a first step, linear and non-linear machine learning algorithms, such as tree-based and penalized regression models were used to identify the most important loss influencing factors among a set of 55 candidate variables. These variables comprise hydrological and hydraulic aspects, early warning, precaution, building characteristics and the socio-economic status of the household. In a second step, the most important loss influencing variables were used to derive a probabilistic multi-variable pluvial flood loss estimation model based on Bayesian Networks. Two different networks were tested: a score-based network learned from the data and a network based on expert knowledge. Loss predictions are made

  10. Effects of Flood Control Strategies on Flood Resilience Under Sociohydrological Disturbances

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sung, Kyungmin; Jeong, Hanseok; Sangwan, Nikhil; Yu, David J.

    2018-04-01

    A community capacity to cope with flood hazards, or community flood resilience, emerges from the interplay of hydrological and social processes. This interplay can be significantly influenced by the flood control strategy adopted by a society, i.e., how a society sets its desired flood protection level and strives to achieve this goal. And this interplay can be further complicated by rising land-sea level differences, seasonal water level fluctuations, and economic change. But not much research has been done on how various forms of flood control strategies affect human-flood interactions under these disturbances and therefore flood resilience in the long run. The current study is an effort to address these issues by developing a conceptual model of human-flood interaction mediated by flood control strategies. Our model extends the existing model of Yu et al. (2017), who investigated the flood resilience of a community-based flood protection system in coastal Bangladesh. The major extensions made in this study are inclusions of various forms of flood control strategies (both adaptive and nonadaptive ones), the challenge of rising land-sea level differences, and various high tide level scenarios generated from modifying the statistical variances and averages. Our results show that adaptive forms of flood control strategies tend to outperform nonadaptive ones for maintaining the model community's flood protection system. Adaptive strategies that dynamically adjust target flood protection levels through close monitoring of flood damages and social memories of flood risk can help the model community deal with various disturbances.

  11. Public perception of flood risks, flood forecasting and mitigation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Brilly

    2005-01-01

    Full Text Available A multidisciplinary and integrated approach to the flood mitigation decision making process should provide the best response of society in a flood hazard situation including preparation works and post hazard mitigation. In Slovenia, there is a great lack of data on social aspects and public response to flood mitigation measures and information management. In this paper, two studies of flood perception in the Slovenian town Celje are represented. During its history, Celje was often exposed to floods, the most recent serious floods being in 1990 and in 1998, with a hundred and fifty return period and more than ten year return period, respectively. Two surveys were conducted in 1997 and 2003, with 157 participants from different areas of the town in the first, and 208 in the second study, aiming at finding the general attitude toward the floods. The surveys revealed that floods present a serious threat in the eyes of the inhabitants, and that the perception of threat depends, to a certain degree, on the place of residence. The surveys also highlighted, among the other measures, solidarity and the importance of insurance against floods.

  12. Nanofluid of graphene-based amphiphilic Janus nanosheets for tertiary or enhanced oil recovery: High performance at low concentration.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luo, Dan; Wang, Feng; Zhu, Jingyi; Cao, Feng; Liu, Yuan; Li, Xiaogang; Willson, Richard C; Yang, Zhaozhong; Chu, Ching-Wu; Ren, Zhifeng

    2016-07-12

    The current simple nanofluid flooding method for tertiary or enhanced oil recovery is inefficient, especially when used with low nanoparticle concentration. We have designed and produced a nanofluid of graphene-based amphiphilic nanosheets that is very effective at low concentration. Our nanosheets spontaneously approached the oil-water interface and reduced the interfacial tension in a saline environment (4 wt % NaCl and 1 wt % CaCl2), regardless of the solid surface wettability. A climbing film appeared and grew at moderate hydrodynamic condition to encapsulate the oil phase. With strong hydrodynamic power input, a solid-like interfacial film formed and was able to return to its original form even after being seriously disturbed. The film rapidly separated oil and water phases for slug-like oil displacement. The unique behavior of our nanosheet nanofluid tripled the best performance of conventional nanofluid flooding methods under similar conditions.

  13. Enhanced oil recovery: an update review

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Alvarado, V.; Manrique, E.

    2010-01-01

    With the decline in oil discoveries during the last decades it is believed that Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) technologies will play a key role to meet the energy demand in years to come. This paper presents a comprehensive review of EOR status and opportunities to increase final recovery factors in reservoirs ranging from extra heavy oil to gas condensate. Specifically, the paper discusses EOR status and opportunities organized by reservoir lithology (sandstone and carbonates formations and turbiditic reservoirs to a lesser extent) and offshore and onshore fields. Risk and rewards of EOR methods including growing trends in recent years such as CO 2 injection, high pressure air injection (HPAI) and chemical flooding are addressed including a brief overview of CO 2 -EOR project economics. (authors)

  14. Geomorphic Flood Area (GFA): a QGIS tool for a cost-effective delineation of the floodplains

    Science.gov (United States)

    Samela, Caterina; Albano, Raffaele; Sole, Aurelia; Manfreda, Salvatore

    2017-04-01

    The importance of delineating flood hazard and risk areas at a global scale has been highlighted for many years. However, its complete achievement regularly encounters practical difficulties, above all the lack of data and implementation costs. In conditions of scarce data availability (e.g. ungauged basins, large-scale analyses), a fast and cost-effective floodplain delineation can be carried out using geomorphic methods (e.g., Manfreda et al., 2011; 2014). In particular, an automatic DEM-based procedure has been implemented in an open-source QGIS plugin named Geomorphic Flood Area - tool (GFA - tool). This tool performs a linear binary classification based on the recently proposed Geomorphic Flood Index (GFI), which exhibited high classification accuracy and reliability in several test sites located in Europe, United States and Africa (Manfreda et al., 2015; Samela et al., 2016, 2017; Samela, 2016). The GFA - tool is designed to make available to all users the proposed procedure, that includes a number of operations requiring good geomorphic and GIS competences. It allows computing the GFI through terrain analysis, turning it into a binary classifier, and training it on the base of a standard inundation map derived for a portion of the river basin (a minimum of 2% of the river basin's area is suggested) using detailed methods of analysis (e.g. flood hazard maps produced by emergency management agencies or river basin authorities). Finally, GFA - tool allows to extend the classification outside the calibration area to delineate the flood-prone areas across the entire river basin. The full analysis has been implemented in this plugin with a user-friendly interface that should make it easy to all user to apply the approach and produce the desired results. Keywords: flood susceptibility; data scarce environments; geomorphic flood index; linear binary classification; Digital elevation models (DEMs). References Manfreda, S., Di Leo, M., Sole, A., (2011). Detection of

  15. Antibacterial activity and composition of the essential oils of ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    ONOS

    2010-01-25

    Jan 25, 2010 ... was helium with 1.2 ml/min flow rate for volatile constituents. Split ratio was 20:1. .... essential oil against E. coli, S. aureus and Candida albicans. However, it is difficult ... Relationships between flood frequency, vegetation and ...

  16. Flood quantile estimation at ungauged sites by Bayesian networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mediero, L.; Santillán, D.; Garrote, L.

    2012-04-01

    Estimating flood quantiles at a site for which no observed measurements are available is essential for water resources planning and management. Ungauged sites have no observations about the magnitude of floods, but some site and basin characteristics are known. The most common technique used is the multiple regression analysis, which relates physical and climatic basin characteristic to flood quantiles. Regression equations are fitted from flood frequency data and basin characteristics at gauged sites. Regression equations are a rigid technique that assumes linear relationships between variables and cannot take the measurement errors into account. In addition, the prediction intervals are estimated in a very simplistic way from the variance of the residuals in the estimated model. Bayesian networks are a probabilistic computational structure taken from the field of Artificial Intelligence, which have been widely and successfully applied to many scientific fields like medicine and informatics, but application to the field of hydrology is recent. Bayesian networks infer the joint probability distribution of several related variables from observations through nodes, which represent random variables, and links, which represent causal dependencies between them. A Bayesian network is more flexible than regression equations, as they capture non-linear relationships between variables. In addition, the probabilistic nature of Bayesian networks allows taking the different sources of estimation uncertainty into account, as they give a probability distribution as result. A homogeneous region in the Tagus Basin was selected as case study. A regression equation was fitted taking the basin area, the annual maximum 24-hour rainfall for a given recurrence interval and the mean height as explanatory variables. Flood quantiles at ungauged sites were estimated by Bayesian networks. Bayesian networks need to be learnt from a huge enough data set. As observational data are reduced, a

  17. One-Dimensional Modelling of Polymer Flood Performance. Analytical and Graphical Solutions Modélisation de l'efficacité du déplacement unidimensionnel par injection de polymères. Solutions analytiques et graphiques

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Grattoni C. A.

    2006-11-01

    Full Text Available A graphical method for simulating linear polymer flooding is proposed. The method is based upon the analytical solution of Darcy's law and continuity equation which describe the two-phase, one-dimensional, incompressible flow of oil and polymer solution through the reservoir rock. Continuous polymer injection and polymer slug injection are considered. Several physical mechanisms determining microscopic displacement efficiency are taken into account: resistance factor, residual resistance factor, retention composed by adsorption and mechanical entrapment, and inaccessible pore volume. Other properties are not considered: mixing and dispersion, shear and thermal degradation. This analytical-graphical model closely reproduces linear laboratory oil displacement experiments. Consequently, it can be used by the Field Engineer to rapidly estimate the additional oil recoverable by a linear polymer flood. On propose dans cet article une méthode graphique de simulation de l'injection de polymères dans le cas unidimensionnel. Cette méthode est basée sur la solution analytique de la loi de Darcy et de l'équation de continuité qui décrivent l'écoulement diphasique incompressible unidimen-sionnel d'huile et d'une solution de polymères à travers la roche réservoir. On examine l'injection continue et l'injection de bouchons de polymères. On prend en compte plusieurs mécanismes physiques qui déterminent l'efficacité du déplacement microscopique : facteur de ré-sistance, facteur de résistance résiduel, rétention due à l'adsorption et au piégeage mécanique et, enfin, volume des pores inacessibles. On ne tient pas compte des autres propriétés : mélange et dispersion, dégradation mécanique et thermique. Ce modèle analytique et graphique reproduit très directement les expériences de laboratoire de déplacement d'huile en milieu unidimensionnel. II peut donc être utilisé par l'ingénieur de chantier pour une estimation rapide de l

  18. Study on Dynamic Characteristics of Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Yang; Shi, Fang; Qin, Wuying; Yan, Jing

    2018-01-01

    With the rapid development of economy, the demand for oil is increasing day by day. MEOR has the advantages of low cost and no pollution to the environment, attracted widespread attention. In this paper, the dynamic characteristics of microbial enhanced oil recovery were studied by laboratory experiments. The result showed that all the microbial flooding recovery rate could reach more than 5%, and the total recovery could reach more than 35% and if the injection period of microbial composite system was advanced, the whole oil displacement process could be shortened and the workload would be reduced.

  19. Mapping flood hazards under uncertainty through probabilistic flood inundation maps

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stephens, T.; Bledsoe, B. P.; Miller, A. J.; Lee, G.

    2017-12-01

    Changing precipitation, rapid urbanization, and population growth interact to create unprecedented challenges for flood mitigation and management. Standard methods for estimating risk from flood inundation maps generally involve simulations of floodplain hydraulics for an established regulatory discharge of specified frequency. Hydraulic model results are then geospatially mapped and depicted as a discrete boundary of flood extents and a binary representation of the probability of inundation (in or out) that is assumed constant over a project's lifetime. Consequently, existing methods utilized to define flood hazards and assess risk management are hindered by deterministic approaches that assume stationarity in a nonstationary world, failing to account for spatio-temporal variability of climate and land use as they translate to hydraulic models. This presentation outlines novel techniques for portraying flood hazards and the results of multiple flood inundation maps spanning hydroclimatic regions. Flood inundation maps generated through modeling of floodplain hydraulics are probabilistic reflecting uncertainty quantified through Monte-Carlo analyses of model inputs and parameters under current and future scenarios. The likelihood of inundation and range of variability in flood extents resulting from Monte-Carlo simulations are then compared with deterministic evaluations of flood hazards from current regulatory flood hazard maps. By facilitating alternative approaches of portraying flood hazards, the novel techniques described in this presentation can contribute to a shifting paradigm in flood management that acknowledges the inherent uncertainty in model estimates and the nonstationary behavior of land use and climate.

  20. Assessing coastal flood risk and sea level rise impacts at New York City area airports

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ohman, K. A.; Kimball, N.; Osler, M.; Eberbach, S.

    2014-12-01

    Flood risk and sea level rise impacts were assessed for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) at four airports in the New York City area. These airports included John F. Kennedy International, LaGuardia, Newark International, and Teterboro Airports. Quantifying both present day and future flood risk due to climate change and developing flood mitigation alternatives is crucial for the continued operation of these airports. During Hurricane Sandy in October 2012 all four airports were forced to shut down, in part due to coastal flooding. Future climate change and sea level rise effects may result in more frequent shutdowns and disruptions in travel to and from these busy airports. The study examined the effects of the 1%-annual-chance coastal flooding event for present day existing conditions and six different sea level rise scenarios at each airport. Storm surge model outputs from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provided the present day storm surge conditions. 50th and 90thpercentile sea level rise projections from the New York Panel on Climate Change (NPCC) 2013 report were incorporated into storm surge results using linear superposition methods. These projections were evaluated for future years 2025, 2035, and 2055. In addition to the linear superposition approach for storm surge at airports where waves are a potential hazard, one dimensional wave modeling was performed to get the total water level results. Flood hazard and flood depth maps were created based on these results. In addition to assessing overall flooding at each airport, major at-risk infrastructure critical to the continued operation of the airport was identified and a detailed flood vulnerability assessment was performed. This assessment quantified flood impacts in terms of potential critical infrastructure inundation and developed mitigation alternatives to adapt to coastal flooding and future sea level changes. Results from this project are advancing the PANYNJ

  1. Urban flood risk warning under rapid urbanization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Yangbo; Zhou, Haolan; Zhang, Hui; Du, Guoming; Zhou, Jinhui

    2015-05-01

    multiple index fuzzy evaluation warning method, and referred to as DMFEW method. DMFEW first selects 5 evaluation indexes based on the DPSIR model for flood risk warning evaluation, including driving force index, pressure index, state index, impact index and response index. Based on the values of all evaluation indexes, one evaluation index for the whole system evaluation result is determined by using the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method. The flood risk level is divided into 4 levels, having Level 1 the most serious. Every evaluation index is also categorized as 4 levels, and a linear fuzzy subjection function is proposed to do the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation. Dongguan City is used as the study case to validate the proposed method. The urban flood forecasting model is set up with the topographic data, the city map, the underground pipelines and land cover types, and two flood events are simulated with observed precipitation, one is interpolated from the rain gauges data, and another is estimated by digital weather radar. The simulated results are compared with the investigated water depth, and the results show the model has very good performances. The results are further used for the flood risk warning simulation, and are very reasonable. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  2. Understanding the geomorphology of macrochannel systems for flood risk management in Queensland, Australia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thompson, Chris; Croke, Jacky

    2016-04-01

    The year 2010-2011 was the wettest on record for the state of Queensland, Australia producing catastrophic floods. A tropical low pressure system in 2013 delivered further extreme flood events across South East Queensland (SEQ) which prompted state and local governments to conduct studies into flood magnitude and frequency in the region and catchment factors contributing to flood hazards. The floods in the region are strongly influenced by El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon, but also modulated by the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO) which leads to flood and drought dominated regimes and high hydrological variability. One geomorphic feature in particular exerted a significant control on the transmission speed, the magnitude of flood inundation and resultant landscape resilience. This feature was referred to as a 'macrochannel', a term used to describe a 'large-channel' which has bankfull recurrence intervals generally greater than 10 years. The macrochannels display non-linear downstream hydraulic geometry which leads to zones of flood expansion (when hydraulic geometry decreases) and zones of flood contraction (when hydraulic geometry increases). The pattern of contraction and expansion zones determines flood hazard zones. The floods caused significant wet flow bank mass failures that mobilised over 1,000,000 m3 of sediment in one subcatchment. Results suggest that the wetflow bank mass failures are a stage in a cyclical evolution process which maintains the macrochannel morphology, hence channel resilience to floods. Chronological investigations further show the macrochannels are laterally stable and identify periods of heightened flood activity over the past millennium and upper limits on flood magnitude. This paper elaborates on the results of the geomorphic investigations on Lockyer Creek in SEQ and how the results have alerted managers and policy makers to the different flood responses of these systems and how flood risk management plans can

  3. A review of linear compressors for refrigeration

    OpenAIRE

    Liang, Kun

    2017-01-01

    Linear compressor has no crank mechanism compared with conventional reciprocating compressor. This allows higher efficiency, oil-free operation, lower cost and smaller size when linear compressors are used for vapour compression refrigeration (VCR) system. Typically, a linear compressor consists of a linear motor (connected to a piston) and suspension springs, operated at resonant frequency. This paper presents a review of linear compressors for refrigeration system. Different designs and mod...

  4. Aquatic chemistry of flood events

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klavins, Maris; Rodinov, Valery

    2015-04-01

    During flood events a major discharge of water and dissolved substances happens. However flood waters very much differs from water composition during low-water events. Aquatic chemistry of flood waters also is of importance at the calculation of loadings as well as they might have major impact on water quality in receiving water bodies (lakes, coastal waters and seas). Further flood regime of rivers is subjected to changes due to climate change and growing impact of human activities. The aim of this study is to analyse water chemical composition changes during flood events in respect to low water periods, character of high-water events and characteristics of the corresponding basin. Within this study, the concentrations of major dissolved substances in the major rivers of Latvia have been studied using monitoring data as well as field studies during high water/ low water events. As territories of studies flows of substances in river basins/subbasins with different land-use character and different anthropogenic impacts has been studied to calculate export values depending on the land-use character. Impact of relations between dissolved substances and relations in respect to budgets has been calculated. The dynamics of DOC, nutrient and major dissolved substance flows depending on landuse pattern and soil properties in Latvia has been described, including emissions by industrial and agricultural production. In these changes evidently climate change signals can be identified. The water chemistry of a large number of rivers during flood events has been determined and the possible impact of water chemical composition on DOC and nutrient flows has been evaluated. Long-term changes (1977-2013) of concentrations of dissolved substances do not follow linear trends but rather show oscillating patterns, indicating impact of natural factors, e.g. changing hydrological and climatic conditions. There is a positive correlation between content of inert dissolved substances and

  5. Modeling and simulation of surfactant-polymer flooding using a new hybrid method

    Science.gov (United States)

    Daripa, Prabir; Dutta, Sourav

    2017-04-01

    Chemical enhanced oil recovery by surfactant-polymer (SP) flooding has been studied in two space dimensions. A new global pressure for incompressible, immiscible, multicomponent two-phase porous media flow has been derived in the context of SP flooding. This has been used to formulate a system of flow equations that incorporates the effect of capillary pressure and also the effect of polymer and surfactant on viscosity, interfacial tension and relative permeabilities of the two phases. The coupled system of equations for pressure, water saturation, polymer concentration and surfactant concentration has been solved using a new hybrid method in which the elliptic global pressure equation is solved using a discontinuous finite element method and the transport equations for water saturation and concentrations of the components are solved by a Modified Method Of Characteristics (MMOC) in the multicomponent setting. Numerical simulations have been performed to validate the method, both qualitatively and quantitatively, and to evaluate the relative performance of the various flooding schemes for several different heterogeneous reservoirs.

  6. Flood Risk Management In Europe: European flood regulation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hegger, D.L.T.; Bakker, M.H.; Green, C.; Driessen, Peter; Delvaux, B.; Rijswick, H.F.M.W. van; Suykens, C.; Beyers, J-C.; Deketelaere, K.; Doorn-Hoekveld, W. van; Dieperink, C.

    2013-01-01

    In Europe, water management is moving from flood defense to a risk management approach, which takes both the probability and the potential consequences of flooding into account. In this report, we will look at Directives and (non-)EU- initiatives in place to deal with flood risk in Europe indirectly

  7. An efficient thermotolerant and halophilic biosurfactant-producing bacterium isolated from Dagang oil field for MEOR application

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Langping; Richnow, Hans; Yao, Jun; Jain, Anil

    2014-05-01

    Dagang Oil field (Petro China Company Limited) is one of the most productive oil fields in China. In this study, 34 biosurfactant-producing strains were isolated and cultured from petroleum reservoir of Dagang oil field, using haemolytic assay and the qualitative oil-displacement test. On the basis of 16S rDNA analysis, the isolates were closely related to the species in genus Pseudomonas, Staphylococcus and Bacillus. One of the isolates identified as Bacillus subtilis BS2 were selected for further study. This bacterium was able to produce a type of biosurfactant with excessive foam-forming properties at 37ºC as well as at higher temperature of 55ºC. The biosurfactant produced by the strain BS2 could reduce the surface tension of the culture broth from 70.87 mN/m to 28.97 mN/m after 8 days of incubation at 37ºC and to 36.15 mN/m after 20 days of incubation at 55ºC, respectively. The biosurfactant showed stability at high temperature (up to 120ºC), a wide range of pH (2 to 12) and salt concentrations (up to 12%) offering potential for biotechnology. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectrum of extracted biosurfactant tentatively characterized the produced biosurfactant as glycolipid derivative. Elemental analysis of the biosurfactant by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) reveals that the biosurfactant was anionic in nature. 15 days of biodegradation of crude oil suggested a preferential usage of n-alkane upon microbial metabolism of BS2 as a carbon substrate and consequently also for the synthesis of biosurfactants. Core flood studies for oil release indicated 9.6% of additional oil recovery over water flooding at 37ºC and 7.2% of additional oil recovery at 55 ºC. Strain BS2 was characterized as an efficient biosurfactant-producing, thermotolerant and halophillic bacterium and has the potential for application for microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) through water flooding in China's oil fields even in situ as adapted to reservoir chemistry and

  8. Comblike Polyacrylamides as Flooding Agent in Enhanced Oil Recovery

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wever, Diego A. Z.; Picchioni, Francesco; Broekhuis, Antonius A.

    2013-01-01

    The oil recovery from core material and a specifically designed flow cell using novel branched (comblike) polyacrylamides (PAM) has been investigated. The injectivity characteristics of the different branched PAMs were evaluated by filtration tests and core-flow experiments. The number of arms of

  9. Evaluation of solution and rheological properties for hydrophobically associated polyacrylamide copolymer as a promised enhanced oil recovery candidate

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A.N. El-hoshoudy

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Crude oil is the most critical energy source in the world, especially for transportation, provision of heat and light as there has not been a sufficient energy source to replace crude oil has broadly integrated, so there is an urgent need to maximize the extraction of the original oil in-place for every reservoir, and accelerating the development of enhanced oil recovery (EOR technologies. Polymer flooding by hydrophobically associated polyacrylamides (HAPAM is a widely used technique through EOR technology. For successful application of these polymers, one should evaluate rheological and solution properties at simulated reservoir conditions as a function of polymer concentration, salinity, temperature and shear rate. The results showed that these copolymers exhibit favorable salt tolerance, temperature resistance, and recoverable viscosity after shearing, reasonable thickening behavior and improved viscosity enhancement properties due to presence of hydrophobic association in the copolymer main chains. Moreover, its capacity for oil production improvement was evaluated during flooding experiments through one dimensional sandstone model at simulated reservoir conditions.

  10. Citizen involvement in flood risk governance: flood groups and networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Twigger-Ross Clare

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Over the past decade has been a policy shift withinUK flood risk management towards localism with an emphasis on communities taking ownership of flood risk. There is also an increased focus on resilience and, more specifically, on community resilience to flooding. This paper draws on research carried out for UK Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs to evaluate the Flood Resilience Community Pathfinder (FRCP scheme in England. Resilience is conceptualised as multidimensional and linked to exisiting capacities within a community. Creating resilience to flooding is an ongoing process of adaptation, learning from past events and preparing for future risks. This paper focusses on the development of formal and informal institutions to support improved flood risk management: institutional resilience capacity. It includes new institutions: e.g. flood groups, as well as activities that help to build inter- and intra- institutional resilience capacity e.g. community flood planning. The pathfinder scheme consisted of 13 projects across England led by local authorities aimed at developing community resilience to flood risk between 2013 – 2015. This paper discusses the nature and structure of flood groups, the process of their development, and the extent of their linkages with formal institutions, drawing out the barriers and facilitators to developing institutional resilience at the local level.

  11. Flood hazard zoning in Yasooj region, Iran, using GIS and multi-criteria decision analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Omid Rahmati

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available Flood is considered to be the most common natural disaster worldwide during the last decades. Flood hazard potential mapping is required for management and mitigation of flood. The present research was aimed to assess the efficiency of analytical hierarchical process (AHP to identify potential flood hazard zones by comparing with the results of a hydraulic model. Initially, four parameters via distance to river, land use, elevation and land slope were used in some part of the Yasooj River, Iran. In order to determine the weight of each effective factor, questionnaires of comparison ratings on the Saaty's scale were prepared and distributed to eight experts. The normalized weights of criteria/parameters were determined based on Saaty's nine-point scale and its importance in specifying flood hazard potential zones using the AHP and eigenvector methods. The set of criteria were integrated by weighted linear combination method using ArcGIS 10.2 software to generate flood hazard prediction map. The inundation simulation (extent and depth of flood was conducted using hydrodynamic program HEC-RAS for 50- and 100-year interval floods. The validation of the flood hazard prediction map was conducted based on flood extent and depth maps. The results showed that the AHP technique is promising of making accurate and reliable prediction for flood extent. Therefore, the AHP and geographic information system (GIS techniques are suggested for assessment of the flood hazard potential, specifically in no-data regions.

  12. Long-lasting floods buffer the thermal regime of the Pampas

    Science.gov (United States)

    Houspanossian, Javier; Kuppel, Sylvain; Nosetto, Marcelo; Di Bella, Carlos; Oricchio, Patricio; Barrucand, Mariana; Rusticucci, Matilde; Jobbágy, Esteban

    2018-01-01

    The presence of large water masses influences the thermal regime of nearby land shaping the local climate of coastal areas by the ocean or large continental lakes. Large surface water bodies have an ephemeral nature in the vast sedimentary plains of the Pampas (Argentina) where non-flooded periods alternate with flooding cycles covering up to one third of the landscape for several months. Based on temperature records from 17 sites located 1 to 700 km away from the Atlantic coast and MODIS land surface temperature data, we explore the effects of floods on diurnal and seasonal thermal ranges as well as temperature extremes. In non-flooded periods, there is a linear increase of mean diurnal thermal range (DTR) from the coast towards the interior of the region (DTR increasing from 10 to 16 K, 0.79 K/100 km, r 2 = 0.81). This relationship weakens during flood episodes when the DTR of flood-prone inland locations shows a decline of 2 to 4 K, depending on surface water coverage in the surrounding area. DTR even approaches typical coastal values 500 km away from the ocean in the most flooded location that we studied during the three flooding cycles recorded in the study period. Frosts-free periods, a key driver of the phenology of both natural and cultivated ecosystems, are extended by up to 55 days during floods, most likely as a result of enhanced ground heat storage across the landscape ( 2.7 fold change in day-night heat transfer) combined with other effects on the surface energy balance such as greater night evaporation rates. The reduced thermal range and longer frost-free periods affect plant growth development and may offer an opportunity for longer crop growing periods, which may not only contribute to partially compensating for regional production losses caused by floods, but also open avenues for flood mitigation through higher plant evapotranspirative water losses.

  13. Activities of the Oil Implementation Task Force; Contracts for field projects and supporting research on enhanced oil recovery, July--September 1990

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Tiedemann, H.A. (ed.) (USDOE Bartlesville Project Office, OK (USA))

    1991-05-01

    The report contains a general introduction and background to DOE's revised National Energy Strategy Advanced Oil Recovery Program and activities of the Oil Implementation Task Force; a detailed synopsis of the symposium, including technical presentations, comments and suggestions; a section of technical information on deltaic reservoirs; and appendices containing a comprehensive listing of references keyed to general deltaic and geological aspects of reservoirs and those relevant to six selected deltaic plays. Enhanced recovery processes include chemical floodings, gas displacement, thermal recovery, geoscience, and microbial recovery.

  14. Salinity-Dependent Contact Angle Alteration in Oil/Brine/Silicate Systems : the Critical Role of Divalent Cations

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Haagh, Martinus Everardus Johannes; Sîretanu, Igor; Duits, Michel; Mugele, Friedrich Gunther

    2017-01-01

    The effectiveness of water flooding oil recovery depends to an important extent on the competitive wetting of oil and water on the solid rock matrix. Here, we use macroscopic contact angle goniometry in highly idealized model systems to evaluate how brine salinity affects the balance of wetting

  15. Systematic Phase Behaviour Study and Foam Stability Analysis for Optimal Alkaline/Surfactant/Foam Enhanced Oil Recovery

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hosseini Nasab, S.M.; Zitha, P.L.J.

    2015-01-01

    Alkaline-Surfactant-Foam (ASF) flooding is a recently introduced enhanced oil recovery (EOR) method. This paper presents laboratory study of this ASF to better understand its mechanisms. The focus is on the interaction of ASF chemical agents with oil and in the presence and absence of naphthenic

  16. Elementary linear programming with applications

    CERN Document Server

    Kolman, Bernard

    1995-01-01

    Linear programming finds the least expensive way to meet given needs with available resources. Its results are used in every area of engineering and commerce: agriculture, oil refining, banking, and air transport. Authors Kolman and Beck present the basic notions of linear programming and illustrate how they are used to solve important common problems. The software on the included disk leads students step-by-step through the calculations. The Second Edition is completely revised and provides additional review material on linear algebra as well as complete coverage of elementary linear program

  17. The Other Major 2010 Oil Spill: Oil weathering after the Kalamazoo River Dilbit Spill

    Science.gov (United States)

    Swarthout, B.; Reddy, C. M.; Nelson, R. K.; Hamilton, S. K.; Aeppli, C.; Valentine, D. L.; Fundaun, S. E.; Oliveira, A. H.

    2016-02-01

    Diluted bitumen (dilbit) from the oil sands (tar sands) of western Canada is increasingly being transported to US markets. North America's largest inland oil spill and the first major oil sands spill in a freshwater environment occurred in 2010, when at least 843,000 gallons leaked from a pipeline into the Kalamazoo River of southwest Michigan. Cleanup of this oil was unusually difficult and protracted, lasting through 2014 and costing over a billion dollars, largely because a substantial fraction of the oil became submersed and deposited in slack water areas over 60 km of river channel, reservoirs, and floodplain backwaters. To investigate the fate of the spilled dilbit from the 2010 Kalamazoo River release, black rings, presumably oil residues, on the bark of dead trees were collected in 2015. These residues were deposited on the trees during high flood levels that have not been observed since the spill and represent an opportunity to constrain weathering processes excluding dissolution. This material contained a major non-GC amenable fraction of 90-95%, presumably oxygenated hydrocarbons. The GC amenable portion was consistent with laboratory weathered dilbit. We used a variety of analytical tools to characterize the dilbit residues, as well as to identify dilbit weathering processes that occurred since the spill.

  18. Flood-rich and flood-poor periods in Spain in 1942-2009

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mediero, Luis; Santillán, David; Garrote, Luis

    2016-04-01

    Several studies to detect trends in flood series at either national or trans-national scales have been conducted. Mediero et al. (2015) studied flood trends by using the longest streamflow records available in Europe. They found a decreasing trend in the Atlantic, Continental and Scandinavian regions. More specifically, Mediero et al. (2014) found a general decreasing trend in flood series in Spain in the period 1959-2009. Trends in flood series are usually detected by the Mann-Kendall test applied to a given period. However, the result of the Mann-Kendall test can change in terms of the starting and ending year of the series. Flood oscillations can occur and flood-rich and flood-poor periods could condition the results, especially when they are located at the beginning or end of the series. A methodology to identify statistically significant flood-rich and flood-poor periods is developed, based on the comparison between the expected sampling variability of floods when stationarity is assumed and the observed variability of floods in a given series. The methodology is applied to the longest series of annual maximum floods, peaks over threshold and counts of annual occurrences in peaks over threshold series observed in Spain in the period 1942-2009. A flood-rich period in 1950-1970 and a flood-poor period in 1970-1990 are identified in most of the selected sites. The generalised decreasing trend in flood series found by Mediero et al. (2014) could be explained by a flood-rich period placed at the beginning of the series and a flood-poor period located at the end of the series. References: Mediero, L., Kjeldsen, T.R., Macdonald, N., Kohnova, S., Merz, B., Vorogushyn, S., Wilson, D., Alburquerque, T., Blöschl, G., Bogdanowicz, E., Castellarin, A., Hall, J., Kobold, M., Kriauciuniene, J., Lang, M., Madsen, H., Onuşluel Gül, G., Perdigão, R.A.P., Roald, L.A., Salinas, J.L., Toumazis, A.D., Veijalainen, N., Óðinn Þórarinsson. Identification of coherent flood

  19. Adsorption of anionic surfactants in limestone medium during oil recovery

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Canbolat, Serhat; Bagci, Suat [Middle East Technical Univ., Dept. of Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering, Ankara (Turkey)

    2004-07-15

    Foam-forming surfactant performance was evaluated by several experimental methods (interfacial tension, foam stability, corefloods) using commercial surfactants. There is considerable interest in the use of foam-forming surfactants for mobility control in water flood. To provide effective mobility control, the injected surfactant must propagate from the injection well toward the production well. One of the important parameters affecting propagation of foam-forming surfactant through the reservoir is the retention of surfactant due to its adsorption on reservoir rock. The determination of the adsorption of foam-forming surfactants in limestone reservoirs is important for the residual oil recovery efficiency. Adsorption measurements, recovery efficiencies, and surfactant and alkaline flooding experiments carried out with the representative of the selected surfactants alkaline solutions, linear alkyl benzene sulphonic acid (LABSA), sodium lauryl ether sulfate (SLES), and NaOH in a limestone medium. These surfactants were selected with respect to their foaming ability. Calibration curves formed by pH measurements were used to determine the correct adsorption amount of the used surfactants and recovery efficiency of these surfactants compared with base waterflooding. The results showed that LABSA adsorbed more than SLES in limestone reservoirs. The recovery efficiency of SLES was higher than the recovery efficiency of LABSA, and they decreased the recovery efficiency with respect to only the water injection case. (Author)

  20. Optimization of refinery product blending by using linear programming

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ristikj, Julija; Tripcheva-Trajkovska, Loreta; Rikaloski, Ice; Markovska, Liljana

    1999-01-01

    The product slate of a simple refinery consists mainly of liquefied petroleum gas, leaded and unleaded gasoline, jet fuel, diesel fuel, extra light heating oil and fuel oil. The quality of the oil products (fuels) for sale has to comply with the adopted standards for liquid fuels, and the produced quantities have to be comply with the market needs. The oil products are manufactured by blending two or more different fractions which quantities and physical-chemical properties depend on the crude oil type, the way and conditions of processing, and at the same time the fractions are used to blend one or more products. It is in producer's interest to do the blending in an optimal way, namely, to satisfy the requirements for the oil products quality and quantity with a maximal usage of the available fractions and, of course, with a maximal profit out of the sold products. This could be accomplished by applying linear programming, that is by using a linear model for oil products blending optimization. (Author)

  1. Optimization of Surfactant Mixtures and Their Interfacial Behavior for Advanced Oil Recovery

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Somasundaran, Prof. P.

    2001-02-27

    The goal of this report is to develop improved extraction processes to mobilize and produce the oil left untapped using conventional techniques. Current chemical schemes for recovering the residual oil have been in general less than satisfactory. High cost of the processes as well as significant loss of chemicals by adsorption on reservoir materials and precipitation has limited the utility of chemical-flooding operations. There is a need to develop cost-effective, improved reagent schemes to increase recovery from domestic oil reservoirs. The goal of the report was to develop and evaluate novel mixtures of surfactants for improved oil recovery.

  2. Recent advances in flood forecasting and flood risk assessment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    G. Arduino

    2005-01-01

    Full Text Available Recent large floods in Europe have led to increased interest in research and development of flood forecasting systems. Some of these events have been provoked by some of the wettest rainfall periods on record which has led to speculation that such extremes are attributable in some measure to anthropogenic global warming and represent the beginning of a period of higher flood frequency. Whilst current trends in extreme event statistics will be difficult to discern, conclusively, there has been a substantial increase in the frequency of high floods in the 20th century for basins greater than 2x105 km2. There is also increasing that anthropogenic forcing of climate change may lead to an increased probability of extreme precipitation and, hence, of flooding. There is, therefore, major emphasis on the improvement of operational flood forecasting systems in Europe, with significant European Community spending on research and development on prototype forecasting systems and flood risk management projects. This Special Issue synthesises the most relevant scientific and technological results presented at the International Conference on Flood Forecasting in Europe held in Rotterdam from 3-5 March 2003. During that meeting 150 scientists, forecasters and stakeholders from four continents assembled to present their work and current operational best practice and to discuss future directions of scientific and technological efforts in flood prediction and prevention. The papers presented at the conference fall into seven themes, as follows.

  3. Numerical Well Testing Interpretation Model and Applications in Crossflow Double-Layer Reservoirs by Polymer Flooding

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Haiyang Yu

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available This work presents numerical well testing interpretation model and analysis techniques to evaluate formation by using pressure transient data acquired with logging tools in crossflow double-layer reservoirs by polymer flooding. A well testing model is established based on rheology experiments and by considering shear, diffusion, convection, inaccessible pore volume (IPV, permeability reduction, wellbore storage effect, and skin factors. The type curves were then developed based on this model, and parameter sensitivity is analyzed. Our research shows that the type curves have five segments with different flow status: (I wellbore storage section, (II intermediate flow section (transient section, (III mid-radial flow section, (IV crossflow section (from low permeability layer to high permeability layer, and (V systematic radial flow section. The polymer flooding field tests prove that our model can accurately determine formation parameters in crossflow double-layer reservoirs by polymer flooding. Moreover, formation damage caused by polymer flooding can also be evaluated by comparison of the interpreted permeability with initial layered permeability before polymer flooding. Comparison of the analysis of numerical solution based on flow mechanism with observed polymer flooding field test data highlights the potential for the application of this interpretation method in formation evaluation and enhanced oil recovery (EOR.

  4. Rethinking the relationship between flood risk perception and flood management.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Birkholz, S; Muro, M; Jeffrey, P; Smith, H M

    2014-04-15

    Although flood risk perceptions and their concomitant motivations for behaviour have long been recognised as significant features of community resilience in the face of flooding events, there has, for some time now, been a poorly appreciated fissure in the accompanying literature. Specifically, rationalist and constructivist paradigms in the broader domain of risk perception provide different (though not always conflicting) contexts for interpreting evidence and developing theory. This contribution reviews the major constructs that have been applied to understanding flood risk perceptions and contextualises these within broader conceptual developments around risk perception theory and contemporary thinking around flood risk management. We argue that there is a need to re-examine and re-invigorate flood risk perception research, in a manner that is comprehensively underpinned by more constructivist thinking around flood risk management as well as by developments in broader risk perception research. We draw attention to an historical over-emphasis on the cognitive perceptions of those at risk to the detriment of a richer understanding of a wider range of flood risk perceptions such as those of policy-makers or of tax-payers who live outside flood affected areas as well as the linkages between these perspectives and protective measures such as state-supported flood insurance schemes. Conclusions challenge existing understandings of the relationship between risk perception and flood management, particularly where the latter relates to communication strategies and the extent to which those at risk from flooding feel responsible for taking protective actions. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  5. Flood Risk, Flood Mitigation, and Location Choice: Evaluating the National Flood Insurance Program's Community Rating System.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fan, Qin; Davlasheridze, Meri

    2016-06-01

    Climate change is expected to worsen the negative effects of natural disasters like floods. The negative impacts, however, can be mitigated by individuals' adjustments through migration and relocation behaviors. Previous literature has identified flood risk as one significant driver in relocation decisions, but no prior study examines the effect of the National Flood Insurance Program's voluntary program-the Community Rating System (CRS)-on residential location choice. This article fills this gap and tests the hypothesis that flood risk and the CRS-creditable flood control activities affect residential location choices. We employ a two-stage sorting model to empirically estimate the effects. In the first stage, individuals' risk perception and preference heterogeneity for the CRS activities are considered, while mean effects of flood risk and the CRS activities are estimated in the second stage. We then estimate heterogeneous marginal willingness to pay (WTP) for the CRS activities by category. Results show that age, ethnicity and race, educational attainment, and prior exposure to risk explain risk perception. We find significant values for the CRS-creditable mitigation activities, which provides empirical evidence for the benefits associated with the program. The marginal WTP for an additional credit point earned for public information activities, including hazard disclosure, is found to be the highest. Results also suggest that water amenities dominate flood risk. Thus, high amenity values may increase exposure to flood risk, and flood mitigation projects should be strategized in coastal regions accordingly. © 2015 Society for Risk Analysis.

  6. The Influence of CO2 Solubility in Brine on Simulation of CO2 Injection into Water Flooded Reservoir and CO2 WAG

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Yan, Wei; Stenby, Erling Halfdan

    2010-01-01

    Injection of CO2 into depleted oil reservoirs is not only a traditional way to enhance oil recovery but also a relatively cheaper way to sequester CO2 underground since the increased oil production can offset some sequestration cost. CO2 injection process is often applied to water flooded...... simulations were made for seven oil samples within a wide range of temperature, pressure and salinity. The results were analyzed in terms of the change in oil recovery due to different phase equilibrium descriptions, the delay in breakthrough and the CO2 lost to the aqueous phase. The influence of different...

  7. May flood-poor periods be more dangerous than flood-rich periods?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salinas, Jose Luis; Di Baldassarre, Giuliano; Viglione, Alberto; Kuil, Linda; Bloeschl, Guenter

    2014-05-01

    River floods are among the most devastating natural hazards experienced by populations that, since the earliest recorded civilisations, have settled in floodplains because they offer favourable conditions for trade, agriculture, and economic development. The occurrence of a flood may cause loss of lives and tremendous economic damages and, therefore, is rightly seen as a very negative event by the communities involved. Occurrence of many floods in a row is, of course, even more frustrating and is rightly considered a unbearable calamity. Unfortunately, the occurrence of many floods in a limited number of consecutive years is not unusual. In many places in the world, it has been observed that extreme floods do not arrive randomly but cluster in time into flood-poor and flood-rich periods consistent with the Hurst effect. If this is the case, when are the people more in danger? When should people be more scared? In flood-poor or flood-rich periods? In this work, a Socio-Hydrology model (Di Baldassarre et al., 2013; Viglione et al., 2014) is used to show that, maybe counter-intuitively, flood-poor periods may be more dangerous than flood-rich periods. The model is a conceptualisation of a hypothetical setting of a city at a river where a community evolves, making choices between flood management options on the floodplain. The most important feedbacks between the economic, political, technological and hydrological processes of the evolution of that community are represented in the model. In particular, the model also accounts in a dynamic way for the evolution of the the community awareness to flood risk. Occurrence of floods tends to increase peoples' recognition that their property is in an area that is potentially at risk of flooding, both at the scales of individuals and communities, which is one of the main reasons why flood coping actions are taken. It is shown through examples that frequent flood events may result in moderate damages because they ensure that the

  8. Swiss Re Global Flood Hazard Zones: Know your flood risk

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vinukollu, R. K.; Castaldi, A.; Mehlhorn, J.

    2012-12-01

    Floods, among all natural disasters, have a great damage potential. On a global basis, there is strong evidence of increase in the number of people affected and economic losses due to floods. For example, global insured flood losses have increased by 12% every year since 1970 and this is expected to further increase with growing exposure in the high risk areas close to rivers and coastlines. Recently, the insurance industry has been surprised by the large extent of losses, because most countries lack reliable hazard information. One example has been the 2011 Thailand floods where millions of people were affected and the total economic losses were 30 billion USD. In order to assess the flood risk across different regions and countries, the flood team at Swiss Re based on a Geomorphologic Regression approach, developed in house and patented, produced global maps of flood zones. Input data for the study was obtained from NASA's Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) elevation data, Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) Global Digital Elevation Model (GDEM) and HydroSHEDS. The underlying assumptions of the approach are that naturally flowing rivers shape their channel and flood plain according to basin inherent forces and characteristics and that the flood water extent strongly depends on the shape of the flood plain. On the basis of the catchment characteristics, the model finally calculates the probability of a location to be flooded or not for a defined return period, which in the current study was set to 100 years. The data is produced at a 90-m resolution for latitudes 60S to 60N. This global product is now used in the insurance industry to inspect, inform and/or insure the flood risk across the world.

  9. Diversity of Metabolically Active Bacteria in Water-Flooded High-Temperature Heavy Oil Reservoir

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tamara N. Nazina

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available The goal of this work was to study the overall genomic diversity of microorganisms of the Dagang high-temperature oilfield (PRC and to characterize the metabolically active fraction of these populations. At this water-flooded oilfield, the microbial community of formation water from the near-bottom zone of an injection well where the most active microbial processes of oil degradation occur was investigated using molecular, cultural, radiotracer, and physicochemical techniques. The samples of microbial DNA and RNA from back-flushed water were used to obtain the clone libraries for the 16S rRNA gene and cDNA of 16S rRNA, respectively. The DNA-derived clone libraries were found to contain bacterial and archaeal 16S rRNA genes and the alkB genes encoding alkane monooxygenases similar to those encoded by alkB-geo1 and alkB-geo6 of geobacilli. The 16S rRNA genes of methanogens (Methanomethylovorans, Methanoculleus, Methanolinea, Methanothrix, and Methanocalculus were predominant in the DNA-derived library of Archaea cloned sequences; among the bacterial sequences, the 16S rRNA genes of members of the genus Geobacillus were the most numerous. The RNA-derived library contained only bacterial cDNA of the 16S rRNA sequences belonging to metabolically active aerobic organotrophic bacteria (Tepidimonas, Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter, as well as of denitrifying (Azoarcus, Tepidiphilus, Calditerrivibrio, fermenting (Bellilinea, iron-reducing (Geobacter, and sulfate- and sulfur-reducing bacteria (Desulfomicrobium, Desulfuromonas. The presence of the microorganisms of the main functional groups revealed by molecular techniques was confirmed by the results of cultural, radioisotope, and geochemical research. Functioning of the mesophilic and thermophilic branches was shown for the microbial food chain of the near-bottom zone of the injection well, which included the microorganisms of the carbon, sulfur, iron, and nitrogen cycles.

  10. Floods

    Science.gov (United States)

    Floods are common in the United States. Weather such as heavy rain, thunderstorms, hurricanes, or tsunamis can ... is breached, or when a dam breaks. Flash floods, which can develop quickly, often have a dangerous ...

  11. Feasibility of estimating generalized extreme-value distribution of floods

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ferreira de Queiroz, Manoel Moises

    2004-01-01

    Flood frequency analysis by generalized extreme-value probability distribution (GEV) has found increased application in recent years, given its flexibility in dealing with the three asymptotic forms of extreme distribution derived from different initial probability distributions. Estimation of higher quantiles of floods is usually accomplished by extrapolating one of the three inverse forms of GEV distribution fitted to the experimental data for return periods much higher than those actually observed. This paper studies the feasibility of fitting GEV distribution by moments of linear combinations of higher order statistics (LH moments) using synthetic annual flood series with varying characteristics and lengths. As the hydrologic events in nature such as daily discharge occur with finite values, their annual maximums are expected to follow the asymptotic form of the limited GEV distribution. Synthetic annual flood series were thus obtained from the stochastic sequences of 365 daily discharges generated by Monte Carlo simulation on the basis of limited probability distribution underlying the limited GEV distribution. The results show that parameter estimation by LH moments of this distribution, fitted to annual flood samples of less than 100-year length derived from initial limited distribution, may indicate any form of extreme-value distribution, not just the limited form as expected, and with large uncertainty in fitted parameters. A frequency analysis, on the basis of GEV distribution and LH moments, of annual flood series of lengths varying between 13 and 73 years observed at 88 gauge stations on Parana River in Brazil, indicated all the three forms of GEV distribution.(Author)

  12. Development of Probabilistic Flood Inundation Mapping For Flooding Induced by Dam Failure

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tsai, C.; Yeh, J. J. J.

    2017-12-01

    A primary function of flood inundation mapping is to forecast flood hazards and assess potential losses. However, uncertainties limit the reliability of inundation hazard assessments. Major sources of uncertainty should be taken into consideration by an optimal flood management strategy. This study focuses on the 20km reach downstream of the Shihmen Reservoir in Taiwan. A dam failure induced flood herein provides the upstream boundary conditions of flood routing. The two major sources of uncertainty that are considered in the hydraulic model and the flood inundation mapping herein are uncertainties in the dam break model and uncertainty of the roughness coefficient. The perturbance moment method is applied to a dam break model and the hydro system model to develop probabilistic flood inundation mapping. Various numbers of uncertain variables can be considered in these models and the variability of outputs can be quantified. The probabilistic flood inundation mapping for dam break induced floods can be developed with consideration of the variability of output using a commonly used HEC-RAS model. Different probabilistic flood inundation mappings are discussed and compared. Probabilistic flood inundation mappings are hoped to provide new physical insights in support of the evaluation of concerning reservoir flooded areas.

  13. Salinity-Dependent Contact Angle Alteration in Oil/Brine/Silicate Systems: the Critical Role of Divalent Cations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haagh, M E J; Siretanu, I; Duits, M H G; Mugele, F

    2017-04-11

    The effectiveness of water flooding oil recovery depends to an important extent on the competitive wetting of oil and water on the solid rock matrix. Here, we use macroscopic contact angle goniometry in highly idealized model systems to evaluate how brine salinity affects the balance of wetting forces and to infer the microscopic origin of the resultant contact angle alteration. We focus, in particular, on two competing mechanisms debated in the literature, namely, double-layer expansion and divalent cation bridging. Our experiments involve aqueous droplets with a variable content of chloride salts of Na + , K + , Ca 2+ , and Mg 2+ , wetting surfaces of muscovite and amorphous silica, and an environment of ambient decane containing small amounts of fatty acids to represent polar oil components. By diluting the salt content in various manners, we demonstrate that the water contact angle on muscovite, not on silica, decreases by up to 25° as the divalent cation concentration is reduced from typical concentrations in seawater to zero. Decreasing the ionic strength at a constant divalent ion concentration, however, has a negligible effect on the contact angle. We discuss the consequences for the interpretation of core flooding experiments and the identification of a microscopic mechanism of low salinity water flooding, an increasingly popular, inexpensive, and environment-friendly technique for enhanced oil recovery.

  14. OIL PRICES AND THE KUWAITI AND THE SAUDI STOCK MARKETS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Samih Antoine Azar

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to test the impact of oil price shocks on the stock markets of the two biggest and most liquid GCC equity markets, those of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. It is expected that the two stock markets react similarly to oil price shocks. Actually the results show heterogeneity in responses. While there is prima facie evidence that both stock markets are influenced positively and linearly by oil price shocks, this evidence disappears when additional variables are added to the regressions. With the larger specification oil price shocks do not impact, neither linearly or non-linearly, Kuwaiti stock markets. By contrast Saudi markets react non-linearly to both oil price shocks and shocks in the US S&P 500. The only common feature for both equity markets is the positive relation with the shocks in the US S&P 500.

  15. Probabilistic flood extent estimates from social media flood observations

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Brouwer, Tom; Eilander, Dirk; Van Loenen, Arnejan; Booij, Martijn J.; Wijnberg, Kathelijne M.; Verkade, Jan S.; Wagemaker, Jurjen

    2017-01-01

    The increasing number and severity of floods, driven by phenomena such as urbanization, deforestation, subsidence and climate change, create a growing need for accurate and timely flood maps. In this paper we present and evaluate a method to create deterministic and probabilistic flood maps from

  16. Probabilistic flood extent estimates from social media flood observations

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Brouwer, Tom; Eilander, Dirk; Van Loenen, Arnejan; Booij, Martijn J.; Wijnberg, Kathelijne M.; Verkade, Jan S.; Wagemaker, Jurjen

    2017-01-01

    The increasing number and severity of floods, driven by phenomena such as urbanization, deforestation, subsidence and climate change, creates a growing need for accurate and timely flood maps. This research focussed on creating flood maps using user generated content from Twitter. Twitter data has

  17. Improving Global Flood Forecasting using Satellite Detected Flood Extent

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Revilla Romero, B.

    2016-01-01

    Flooding is a natural global phenomenon but in many cases is exacerbated by human activity. Although flooding generally affects humans in a negative way, bringing death, suffering, and economic impacts, it also has potentially beneficial effects. Early flood warning and forecasting systems, as well

  18. [Development of a portable mid-infrared rapid analyzer for oil concentration in water based on MEMS linear sensor array].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gao, Zhi-fan; Zeng, Li-bo; Shi, Lei; Li, Kai; Yang, Yuan-zhou; Wu, Qiong-shui

    2014-06-01

    Aiming at the existing problems such as weak environmental adaptability, low analytic efficiency and poor measuring repeatability in the traditional spectral oil analyzers, the present paper designed a portable mid-infrared rapid analyzer for oil concentration in water. To reduce the volume of the instrument, the non-symmetrical folding M-type Czerny-Turner optical structure was adopted in the core optical path. With a periodically rotating chopper, controlled by digital PID algorithm, applied for infrared light modulation, the modulating accuracy reached ±0.5%. Different from traditional grating-scanning spectrophotometers, this instrument used a fixed grating for light dispersion and avoided rotating error in the course of the measuring procedures. A new-type MEMS infrared linear sensor array was applied for modulated spectral signals detection, which improved the measuring efficiency remarkably. Optical simulation and experimental results indicate that the spectral range is 2 800 - 3 200 cm(-1), the spectral resolution is 6 cm(-1) (@3 130 cm(-1)), and the signal to noise ratio is up to 5 200 : 1. The acquisition time is 13 milliseconds per spectrogram, and the standard deviation of absorbance is less than 3 x 10(-3). These performances meet the standards of oil concentration measurements perfectly. Compared with traditional infrared spectral analyzers for oil concentration, the instrument demonstrated in this paper has many advantages such as smaller size, more efficiency, higher precision, and stronger vibration & moisture isolation. In addition, the proposed instrument is especially suitable for the environmental monitoring departments to implement real-time measurements in the field for oil concentration in water, hence it has broad prospects of application in the field of water quality monitoring.

  19. Flood Label for buildings : a tool for more flood-resilient cities

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hartmann, T.; Scheibel, Marc

    2016-01-01

    River floods are among the most expensive natural disasters in Europe. Traditional flood protection methods are not sufficient anymore. It is widely acknowledged in the scholarly debate and in practice of flood risk management that traditional flood protection measures such as dikes need to be

  20. Application of the Elitist-Mutated PSO and an Improved GSA to Estimate Parameters of Linear and Nonlinear Muskingum Flood Routing Models.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ling Kang

    Full Text Available Heuristic search algorithms, which are characterized by faster convergence rates and can obtain better solutions than the traditional mathematical methods, are extensively used in engineering optimizations. In this paper, a newly developed elitist-mutated particle swarm optimization (EMPSO technique and an improved gravitational search algorithm (IGSA are successively applied to parameter estimation problems of Muskingum flood routing models. First, the global optimization performance of the EMPSO and IGSA are validated by nine standard benchmark functions. Then, to further analyse the applicability of the EMPSO and IGSA for various forms of Muskingum models, three typical structures are considered: the basic two-parameter linear Muskingum model (LMM, a three-parameter nonlinear Muskingum model (NLMM and a four-parameter nonlinear Muskingum model which incorporates the lateral flow (NLMM-L. The problems are formulated as optimization procedures to minimize the sum of the squared deviations (SSQ or the sum of the absolute deviations (SAD between the observed and the estimated outflows. Comparative results of the selected numerical cases (Case 1-3 show that the EMPSO and IGSA not only rapidly converge but also obtain the same best optimal parameter vector in every run. The EMPSO and IGSA exhibit superior robustness and provide two efficient alternative approaches that can be confidently employed to estimate the parameters of both linear and nonlinear Muskingum models in engineering applications.

  1. [Determination of olive oil content in olive blend oil by headspace gas chromatography-mass spectrometry].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiang, Wanfeng; Zhang, Ning; Zhang, Fengyan; Yang, Zhao

    2017-07-08

    A method for the determination of the content of olive oil in olive blend oil by headspace gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (SH-GC/MS) was established. The amount of the sample, the heating temperature, the heating time, the amount of injection, the injection mode and the chromatographic column were optimized. The characteristic compounds of olive oil were found by chemometric method. A sample of 1.0 g was placed in a 20 mL headspace flask, and heated at 180℃ for 2700 s. Then, 1.0 mL headspace gas was taken into the instrument. An HP-88 chromatographic column was used for the separation and the analysis was performed by GC/MS. The results showed that the linear range was 0-100%(olive oil content). The linear correlation coefficient ( r 2 ) was more than 0.995, and the limits of detection were 1.26%-2.13%. The deviations of olive oil contents in the olive blend oil were from -0.65% to 1.02%, with the relative deviations from -1.3% to 6.8% and the relative standard deviations from 1.18% to 4.26% ( n =6). The method is simple, rapid, environment friendly, sensitive and accurate. It is suitable for the determination of the content of olive oil in olive blend oil.

  2. Field Demonstration of Carbon Dioxide Miscible Flooding in the Lansing-Kansas City Formation, Central Kansas

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Alan Byrnes; G. Paul Willhite; Don Green; Richard Pancake; JyunSyung Tsau; W. Lynn Watney; John Doveton; Willard Guy; Rodney Reynolds; Dave Murfin; James Daniels; Russell Martin; William Flanders; Dave Vander Griend; Eric Mork; Paul Cantrell

    2010-03-07

    A pilot carbon dioxide miscible flood was initiated in the Lansing Kansas City C formation in the Hall Gurney Field, Russell County, Kansas. The reservoir zone is an oomoldic carbonate located at a depth of about 2900 feet. The pilot consists of one carbon dioxide injection well and three production wells. Continuous carbon dioxide injection began on December 2, 2003. By the end of June 2005, 16.19 MM lb of carbon dioxide was injected into the pilot area. Injection was converted to water on June 21, 2005 to reduce operating costs to a breakeven level with the expectation that sufficient carbon dioxide was injected to displace the oil bank to the production wells by water injection. By March 7,2010, 8,736 bbl of oil were produced from the pilot. Production from wells to the northwest of the pilot region indicates that oil displaced from carbon dioxide injection was produced from Colliver A7, Colliver A3, Colliver A14 and Graham A4 located on adjacent leases. About 19,166 bbl of incremental oil were estimated to have been produced from these wells as of March 7, 2010. There is evidence of a directional permeability trend toward the NW through the pilot region. The majority of the injected carbon dioxide remains in the pilot region, which has been maintained at a pressure at or above the minimum miscibility pressure. Estimated oil recovery attributed to the CO2 flood is 27,902 bbl which is equivalent to a gross CO2 utilization of 4.8 MCF/bbl. The pilot project is not economic.

  3. Flooding in imagination vs flooding in vivo: A comparison with agoraphobics

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Emmelkamp, Paul M.G.; Wessels, Hemmy

    In this investigation of agoraphobic patients, 3 different flooding procedures were compared: (1) prolonged exposure in vivo, (2) flooding in the imagination by a ‘live’ therapist and (3) a combination of flooding in the imagination and flooding in vivo. After an intermediate-test all clients were

  4. Microflow Mechanism of Oil Displacement by Viscoelastic Hydrophobically Associating Water-Soluble Polymers in Enhanced Oil Recovery

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Huiying Zhong

    2018-06-01

    Full Text Available Polymer flooding plays an important role in enhanced oil recovery (EOR, particularly in China, where partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM and hydrophobically associating water-soluble polymers (HAWP are used in onshore and offshore reservoirs, respectively. Many researchers have highlighted the elasticity of HPAM, which can be used to improve the sweep efficiency, i.e., the ratio of the area swept by an injected fluid to the oil area. On the other hand, fewer studies exist on the elasticity of HAWP. In this study, we investigate the flow of HAWP and Xanthan solutions with identical viscosities in core experiments in terms of elasticity; results reveal that the HAWP can produce shear thickening in the core. The constitutive equation for the HAWP can be obtained using the simulation results matched with the experimental data. On the basis of these experiments, we established a two-phase flow model of a polymer and oil, including the continuity, momentum, constitutive, and phase equations. The volume-of-fluid (VOF method was used to track the interface between the two phases. A complex pore model was established based on the glass-etched model used in the experiment. We used the OpenFOAM platform to solve the mathematical model. The saturation, pressure, and stress tensor distributions were obtained. The results show that the displacement efficiency increased as the elasticity of the polymer increased; accordingly, the elasticity can enlarge the sweep area and decrease the residual oil saturation. As the elasticity increases, the stresses (the first normal stress, second normal stress, and shear stress increase. Finally, the results obtained in this study can be used as a guideline in polymer design, screening, and optimization in the polymer flooding oilfields.

  5. Carbon dioxide enhanced oil recovery performance according to the literature

    Science.gov (United States)

    Olea, Ricardo A.

    2017-07-17

    IntroductionThe need to increase the efficiency of oil recovery and environmental concerns are bringing to prominence the use of carbon dioxide (CO2) as a tertiary recovery agent. Assessment of the impact of flooding with CO2 all eligible reservoirs in the United States not yet undergoing enhanced oil recovery (EOR) requires making the best possible use of the experience gained in 40 years of applications. Review of the publicly available literature has located relevant CO2-EOR information for 53 units (fields, reservoirs, pilot areas) in the United States and 17 abroad.As the world simultaneously faces an increasing concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere and a higher demand for fossil fuels, the CO2-EOR process continues to gain popularity for its efficiency as a tertiary recovery agent and for the potential for having some CO2 trapped in the subsurface as an unintended consequence of the enhanced production (Advanced Resources International and Melzer Consulting, 2009). More extensive application of CO2-EOR worldwide, however, is not making it significantly easier to predict the exact outcome of the CO2 flooding in new reservoirs. The standard approach to examine and manage risks is to analyze the intended target by conducting laboratory work, running simulation models, and, finally, gaining field experience with a pilot test. This approach, though, is not always possible. For example, assessment of the potential of CO2-EOR at the national level in a vast country such as the United States requires making forecasts based on information already available.Although many studies are proprietary, the published literature has provided reviews of CO2-EOR projects. Yet, there is always interest in updating reports and analyzing the information under new perspectives. Brock and Bryan (1989) described results obtained during the earlier days of CO2-EOR from 1972 to 1987. Most of the recovery predictions, however, were based on intended injections of 30 percent the size of

  6. Ultrasonic characterization of vegetable oil product

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sidek Hj Abd Aziz; Chow Sai Pew; Abdul Halim Shaari; Nor Azizah Shaari

    1992-01-01

    The ultrasonic wave velocity and attenuation of a number vegetable oil products were measured using an ultrasonic pulse echo overlap technique from room temperature up to 90 0 C. Among the liquid samples studied were refined bleach deodorized (RED) palm oil, palm olein, coconut oil, corn oil and soya bean oil. The velocity of sound in vegetable oil products varies from about 1200 to 200 ms-1 and decrease linearly as the temperature increases. The ultrasonic properties of the oil are much dependent on their viscosity, density, relaxation effect and vibrational anharmonicity

  7. Flooding and Schools

    Science.gov (United States)

    National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities, 2011

    2011-01-01

    According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, flooding is the nation's most common natural disaster. Some floods develop slowly during an extended period of rain or in a warming trend following a heavy snow. Flash floods can occur quickly, without any visible sign of rain. Catastrophic floods are associated with burst dams and levees,…

  8. Effect of Urban Green Spaces and Flooded Area Type on Flooding Probability

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hyomin Kim

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Countermeasures to urban flooding should consider long-term perspectives, because climate change impacts are unpredictable and complex. Urban green spaces have emerged as a potential option to reduce urban flood risks, and their effectiveness has been highlighted in notable urban water management studies. In this study, flooded areas in Seoul, Korea, were divided into four flooded area types by cluster analysis based on topographic and physical characteristics and verified using discriminant analysis. After division by flooded area type, logistic regression analysis was performed to determine how the flooding probability changes with variations in green space area. Type 1 included regions where flooding occurred in a drainage basin that had a flood risk management infrastructure (FRMI. In Type 2, the slope was steep; the TWI (Topographic Wetness Index was relatively low; and soil drainage was favorable. Type 3 represented the gentlest sloping areas, and these were associated with the highest TWI values. In addition, these areas had the worst soil drainage. Type 4 had moderate slopes, imperfect soil drainage and lower than average TWI values. We found that green spaces exerted a considerable influence on urban flooding probabilities in Seoul, and flooding probabilities could be reduced by over 50% depending on the green space area and the locations where green spaces were introduced. Increasing the area of green spaces was the most effective method of decreasing flooding probability in Type 3 areas. In Type 2 areas, the maximum hourly precipitation affected the flooding probability significantly, and the flooding probability in these areas was high despite the extensive green space area. These findings can contribute towards establishing guidelines for urban spatial planning to respond to urban flooding.

  9. Shampooing the reservoir : organic surfactant could increase Suffield oil recovery by 10 per cent

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Roche, P.

    2009-10-15

    EnCana is testing a new tertiary recovery technology in the Suffield area of southeastern Alberta which is known primarily for shallow natural gas. EnCana Corporation has approximately 1 billion barrels of original heavy oil in place in the Suffield area. Oil densities range from about 10 to 18 degrees API gravity. Viscosities range from 100 to 10,000 centipoise. Drilling began about 30 years ago. The primary productive formation is consolidated Mannville Glauconite sandstone which produces very little sand with the oil. About 15 per cent of the oil in place has been produced by primary production and waterfloods. In 2007, EnCana began testing an alkaline surfactant polymer flood operation in the Suffield heavy oil field that consists of 2 injector wells and 5 producers. Tests will continue until 2011. The surfactant acts as a detergent and reduces the interfacial tension between water and oil, thus mobilizing residual oil and increasing the displacement efficiency. In addition to the physical sweeping of a straight polymer flood, a surfactant polymer also washes oil from the rock. EnCana buys an alkaline chemical that is less expensive than surfactant. The alkaline injectant reacts with the organic acids in the oil to create a natural surfactant. EnCana was granted experimental scheme status by the Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board. Instead of using fresh water, the pilot mixes its chemicals with saline water from a deep formation. EnCana will consider the pilot a commercial success if it recovers at least 10 per cent of the original oil in place. Thus far, the pilot is meeting that threshold. 1 fig.

  10. Economic study of NHR application on high pour point oil field

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhao Gang; Zhang Zuoyi; Ma Yuanle

    1997-01-01

    In order to extent the application of NHR (nuclear heating reactor) and cut down the oil production costs, the authors designed different heating disposition by NHR and boiler heating stations in high pour point oil reservoir, total 16.9 km 2 , in Daqing oil field. This work was based on the study of history matching, water flood planning and hot water circulation for the reservoir. The analyzing results show that, the convert heating cost of NHR is a third of boiler's and the net oil production of NHR is 4 times more than the latter. Considering economization and reliability, authors suggest to adopt the scheme of two NHR with one boiler heating station

  11. Downscaling Global Weather Forecast Outputs Using ANN for Flood Prediction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nam Do Hoai

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Downscaling global weather prediction model outputs to individual locations or local scales is a common practice for operational weather forecast in order to correct the model outputs at subgrid scales. This paper presents an empirical-statistical downscaling method for precipitation prediction which uses a feed-forward multilayer perceptron (MLP neural network. The MLP architecture was optimized by considering physical bases that determine the circulation of atmospheric variables. Downscaled precipitation was then used as inputs to the super tank model (runoff model for flood prediction. The case study was conducted for the Thu Bon River Basin, located in Central Vietnam. Study results showed that the precipitation predicted by MLP outperformed that directly obtained from model outputs or downscaled using multiple linear regression. Consequently, flood forecast based on the downscaled precipitation was very encouraging. It has demonstrated as a robust technology, simple to implement, reliable, and universal application for flood prediction through the combination of downscaling model and super tank model.

  12. Performance of palm oil as a biobased machining lubricant when drilling inconel 718

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Abd Rahim Erween

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Metalworking fluid acts as cooling and lubrication agent at the cutting zone in the machining process. However, conventional Metalworking fluid such mineral oil gives negative impact on the human and environment. Therefore, the manufacture tends to substitute the mineral oil to bio-based oil such as vegetables and synthetic oil. In this paper, the drilling experiment was carried out to evaluate the efficiency of palm oil and compare it with minimal quantity lubrication technique using synthetic ester, flood coolant and air blow with respect to cutting temperature, cutting force, torque and tool life. The experimental results showed that the application of palm oil under minimal quantity lubrication condition as the cutting fluid was more efficient process as it improves the machining performances.

  13. Flood Risk and Flood hazard maps - Visualisation of hydrological risks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Spachinger, Karl; Dorner, Wolfgang; Metzka, Rudolf; Serrhini, Kamal; Fuchs, Sven

    2008-01-01

    Hydrological models are an important basis of flood forecasting and early warning systems. They provide significant data on hydrological risks. In combination with other modelling techniques, such as hydrodynamic models, they can be used to assess the extent and impact of hydrological events. The new European Flood Directive forces all member states to evaluate flood risk on a catchment scale, to compile maps of flood hazard and flood risk for prone areas, and to inform on a local level about these risks. Flood hazard and flood risk maps are important tools to communicate flood risk to different target groups. They provide compiled information to relevant public bodies such as water management authorities, municipalities, or civil protection agencies, but also to the broader public. For almost each section of a river basin, run-off and water levels can be defined based on the likelihood of annual recurrence, using a combination of hydrological and hydrodynamic models, supplemented by an analysis of historical records and mappings. In combination with data related to the vulnerability of a region risk maps can be derived. The project RISKCATCH addressed these issues of hydrological risk and vulnerability assessment focusing on the flood risk management process. Flood hazard maps and flood risk maps were compiled for Austrian and German test sites taking into account existing national and international guidelines. These maps were evaluated by eye-tracking using experimental graphic semiology. Sets of small-scale as well as large-scale risk maps were presented to test persons in order to (1) study reading behaviour as well as understanding and (2) deduce the most attractive components that are essential for target-oriented risk communication. A cognitive survey asking for negative and positive aspects and complexity of each single map complemented the experimental graphic semiology. The results indicate how risk maps can be improved to fit the needs of different user

  14. Dynamic investigation of nutrient consumption and injection strategy in microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) by means of large-scale experiments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Song, Zhiyong; Zhu, Weiyao; Sun, Gangzheng; Blanckaert, Koen

    2015-08-01

    Microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) depends on the in situ microbial activity to release trapped oil in reservoirs. In practice, undesired consumption is a universal phenomenon but cannot be observed effectively in small-scale physical simulations due to the scale effect. The present paper investigates the dynamics of oil recovery, biomass and nutrient consumption in a series of flooding experiments in a dedicated large-scale sand-pack column. First, control experiments of nutrient transportation with and without microbial consumption were conducted, which characterized the nutrient loss during transportation. Then, a standard microbial flooding experiment was performed recovering additional oil (4.9 % Original Oil in Place, OOIP), during which microbial activity mostly occurred upstream, where oil saturation declined earlier and steeper than downstream in the column. Subsequently, more oil remained downstream due to nutrient shortage. Finally, further research was conducted to enhance the ultimate recovery by optimizing the injection strategy. An extra 3.5 % OOIP was recovered when the nutrients were injected in the middle of the column, and another additional 11.9 % OOIP were recovered by altering the timing of nutrient injection.

  15. Reservoir Characterization of Bridgeport and Cypress Sandstones in Lawrence Field Illinois to Improve Petroleum Recovery by Alkaline-Surfactant-Polymer Flood

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Seyler, Beverly; Grube, John; Huff, Bryan; Webb, Nathan; Damico, James; Blakley, Curt; Madhavan, Vineeth; Johanek, Philip; Frailey, Scott

    2012-12-21

    Within the Illinois Basin, most of the oilfields are mature and have been extensively waterflooded with water cuts that range up to 99% in many of the larger fields. In order to maximize production of significant remaining mobile oil from these fields, new recovery techniques need to be researched and applied. The purpose of this project was to conduct reservoir characterization studies supporting Alkaline-Surfactant-Polymer Floods in two distinct sandstone reservoirs in Lawrence Field, Lawrence County, Illinois. A project using alkaline-surfactantpolymer (ASP) has been established in the century old Lawrence Field in southeastern Illinois where original oil in place (OOIP) is estimated at over a billion barrels and 400 million barrels have been recovered leaving more than 600 million barrels as an EOR target. Radial core flood analysis using core from the field demonstrated recoveries greater than 20% of OOIP. While the lab results are likely optimistic to actual field performance, the ASP tests indicate that substantial reserves could be recovered even if the field results are 5 to 10% of OOIP. Reservoir characterization is a key factor in the success of any EOR application. Reservoirs within the Illinois Basin are frequently characterized as being highly compartmentalized resulting in multiple flow unit configurations. The research conducted on Lawrence Field focused on characteristics that define reservoir compartmentalization in order to delineate preferred target areas so that the chemical flood can be designed and implemented for the greatest recovery potential. Along with traditional facies mapping, core analyses and petrographic analyses, conceptual geological models were constructed and used to develop 3D geocellular models, a valuable tool for visualizing reservoir architecture and also a prerequisite for reservoir simulation modeling. Cores were described and potential permeability barriers were correlated using geophysical logs. Petrographic analyses

  16. Floods and climate: emerging perspectives for flood risk assessment and management

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Merz, B.; Aerts, J.; Arnbjerg-Nielsen, Karsten

    2014-01-01

    context of floods. We come to the following conclusions: (1) extending the traditional system boundaries (local catchment, recent decades, hydrological/hydraulic processes) opens up exciting possibilities for better understanding and improved tools for flood risk assessment and management. (2) Statistical......, and this variation may be partially quantifiable and predictable, with the perspective of dynamic, climate-informed flood risk management. (4) Efforts are needed to fully account for factors that contribute to changes in all three risk components (hazard, exposure, vulnerability) and to better understand......Flood estimation and flood management have traditionally been the domain of hydrologists, water resources engineers and statisticians, and disciplinary approaches abound. Dominant views have been shaped; one example is the catchment perspective: floods are formed and influenced by the interaction...

  17. Bioaugmentation of oil reservoir indigenous Pseudomonas aeruginosa to enhance oil recovery through in-situ biosurfactant production without air injection.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Feng; Li, Ping; Guo, Chao; Shi, Rong-Jiu; Zhang, Ying

    2018-03-01

    Considering the anoxic conditions within oil reservoirs, a new microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) technology through in-situ biosurfactant production without air injection was proposed. High-throughput sequencing data revealed that Pseudomonas was one of dominant genera in Daqing oil reservoirs. Pseudomonas aeruginosa DQ3 which can anaerobically produce biosurfactant at 42 °C was isolated. Strain DQ3 was bioaugmented in an anaerobic bioreactor to approximately simulate MEOR process. During bioaugmentation process, although a new bacterial community was gradually formed, Pseudomonas was still one of dominant genera. Culture-based data showed that hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria and biosurfactant-producing bacteria were activated, while sulfate reducing bacteria were controlled. Biosurfactant was produced at simulated reservoir conditions, decreasing surface tension to 33.8 mN/m and emulsifying crude oil with EI 24  = 58%. Core flooding tests revealed that extra 5.22% of oil was displaced by in-situ biosurfactant production. Bioaugmenting indigenous biosurfactant producer P. aeruginosa without air injection is promising for in-situ MEOR applications. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  18. Characterization of flood and precipitation events in Southwestern Germany and stochastic simulation of extreme precipitation (Project FLORIS-SV)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Florian, Ehmele; Michael, Kunz

    2016-04-01

    Several major flood events occurred in Germany in the past 15-20 years especially in the eastern parts along the rivers Elbe and Danube. Examples include the major floods of 2002 and 2013 with an estimated loss of about 2 billion Euros each. The last major flood events in the State of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany occurred in the years 1978 and 1993/1994 along the rivers Rhine and Neckar with an estimated total loss of about 150 million Euros (converted) each. Flood hazard originates from a combination of different meteorological, hydrological and hydraulic processes. Currently there is no defined methodology available for evaluating and quantifying the flood hazard and related risk for larger areas or whole river catchments instead of single gauges. In order to estimate the probable maximum loss for higher return periods (e.g. 200 years, PML200), a stochastic model approach is designed since observational data are limited in time and space. In our approach, precipitation is linearly composed of three elements: background precipitation, orographically-induces precipitation, and a convectively-driven part. We use linear theory of orographic precipitation formation for the stochastic precipitation model (SPM), which is based on fundamental statistics of relevant atmospheric variables. For an adequate number of historic flood events, the corresponding atmospheric conditions and parameters are determined in order to calculate a probability density function (pdf) for each variable. This method involves all theoretically possible scenarios which may not have happened, yet. This work is part of the FLORIS-SV (FLOod RISk Sparkassen Versicherung) project and establishes the first step of a complete modelling chain of the flood risk. On the basis of the generated stochastic precipitation event set, hydrological and hydraulic simulations will be performed to estimate discharge and water level. The resulting stochastic flood event set will be used to quantify the

  19. Investigating the use of oil platform marine fouling invertebrates as monitors of oil exposure in the Northern Gulf of Mexico.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pie, Hannah V; Heyes, Andrew; Mitchelmore, Carys L

    2015-03-01

    The concentration of 51 parent and alkylated PAHs was examined in oysters, Ostrea equestris, and corals, Tubastrea coccinea, collected from oil-rig structures off the coast of Louisiana during April and May 2011 to investigate their potential use as monitors for offshore contamination events. Corals and oysters collected from both sampling trips had lower PAH accumulation than most bivalves collected in previous studies near the shoreline of Louisiana and elsewhere in the Gulf of Mexico. In April, total PAH (TPAH) concentrations ranged from 8.73 to 15.17 ng g(-1) in corals and 2.52 to 22.04 ng g(-1) in oysters. In May, corals and oysters had elevated concentrations of TPAH ranging from 24.28 to 79.23 ng g(-1) and 7.18 to 95.55 ng g(-1), respectively. This increase could be a result of Mississippi River flooding that occurred during that time, as evidenced by the high perylene concentrations (3.92-41.49 ng g(-1)) measured in May oysters. Oysters and corals collected in May from MC21B, the closest rig to the Mississippi River Delta, had the highest TPAH concentrations observed among all locations and the only rig to have predominantly petrogenic source inputs. Overall, given the low baseline of PAHs demonstrated in this study and the rapid accumulation of diagnostic chemicals in response to a possible contamination event (i.e. sediment plume from May flooding), oil-rig invertebrates could make excellent monitoring tools to examine the exposure to and recovery from oil (and oil-spill response options) in the offshore Northern Gulf of Mexico. Pre-spill baseline data of chemical and biological biomarkers of contamination is key to better estimating the impacts and recovery of oil exposure. Therefore, this screen of PAH accumulation represents a crucial first step in determining baseline contaminant levels in order to utilize these unique resources as monitors for offshore oil exposure in the Northern Gulf of Mexico. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  20. Flood Foresight: A near-real time flood monitoring and forecasting tool for rapid and predictive flood impact assessment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Revilla-Romero, Beatriz; Shelton, Kay; Wood, Elizabeth; Berry, Robert; Bevington, John; Hankin, Barry; Lewis, Gavin; Gubbin, Andrew; Griffiths, Samuel; Barnard, Paul; Pinnell, Marc; Huyck, Charles

    2017-04-01

    The hours and days immediately after a major flood event are often chaotic and confusing, with first responders rushing to mobilise emergency responders, provide alleviation assistance and assess loss to assets of interest (e.g., population, buildings or utilities). Preparations in advance of a forthcoming event are becoming increasingly important; early warning systems have been demonstrated to be useful tools for decision markers. The extent of damage, human casualties and economic loss estimates can vary greatly during an event, and the timely availability of an accurate flood extent allows emergency response and resources to be optimised, reduces impacts, and helps prioritise recovery. In the insurance sector, for example, insurers are under pressure to respond in a proactive manner to claims rather than waiting for policyholders to report losses. Even though there is a great demand for flood inundation extents and severity information in different sectors, generating flood footprints for large areas from hydraulic models in real time remains a challenge. While such footprints can be produced in real time using remote sensing, weather conditions and sensor availability limit their ability to capture every single flood event across the globe. In this session, we will present Flood Foresight (www.floodforesight.com), an operational tool developed to meet the universal requirement for rapid geographic information, before, during and after major riverine flood events. The tool provides spatial data with which users can measure their current or predicted impact from an event - at building, basin, national or continental scales. Within Flood Foresight, the Screening component uses global rainfall predictions to provide a regional- to continental-scale view of heavy rainfall events up to a week in advance, alerting the user to potentially hazardous situations relevant to them. The Forecasting component enhances the predictive suite of tools by providing a local

  1. Flood Resilient Systems and their Application for Flood Resilient Planning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Manojlovic, N.; Gabalda, V.; Antanaskovic, D.; Gershovich, I.; Pasche, E.

    2012-04-01

    Following the paradigm shift in flood management from traditional to more integrated approaches, and considering the uncertainties of future development due to drivers such as climate change, one of the main emerging tasks of flood managers becomes the development of (flood) resilient cities. It can be achieved by application of non-structural - flood resilience measures, summarised in the 4As: assistance, alleviation, awareness and avoidance (FIAC, 2007). As a part of this strategy, the key aspect of development of resilient cities - resilient built environment can be reached by efficient application of Flood Resilience Technology (FReT) and its meaningful combination into flood resilient systems (FRS). FRS are given as [an interconnecting network of FReT which facilitates resilience (including both restorative and adaptive capacity) to flooding, addressing physical and social systems and considering different flood typologies] (SMARTeST, http://www.floodresilience.eu/). Applying the system approach (e.g. Zevenbergen, 2008), FRS can be developed at different scales from the building to the city level. Still, a matter of research is a method to define and systematise different FRS crossing those scales. Further, the decision on which resilient system is to be applied for the given conditions and given scale is a complex task, calling for utilisation of decision support tools. This process of decision-making should follow the steps of flood risk assessment (1) and development of a flood resilience plan (2) (Manojlovic et al, 2009). The key problem in (2) is how to match the input parameters that describe physical&social system and flood typology to the appropriate flood resilient system. Additionally, an open issue is how to integrate the advances in FReT and findings on its efficiency into decision support tools. This paper presents a way to define, systematise and make decisions on FRS at different scales of an urban system developed within the 7th FP Project

  2. Improving Gas Flooding Efficiency

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Reid Grigg; Robert Svec; Zheng Zeng; Alexander Mikhalin; Yi Lin; Guoqiang Yin; Solomon Ampir; Rashid Kassim

    2008-03-31

    This study focuses on laboratory studies with related analytical and numerical models, as well as work with operators for field tests to enhance our understanding of and capabilities for more efficient enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Much of the work has been performed at reservoir conditions. This includes a bubble chamber and several core flood apparatus developed or modified to measure interfacial tension (IFT), critical micelle concentration (CMC), foam durability, surfactant sorption at reservoir conditions, and pressure and temperature effects on foam systems.Carbon dioxide and N{sub 2} systems have been considered, under both miscible and immiscible conditions. The injection of CO2 into brine-saturated sandstone and carbonate core results in brine saturation reduction in the range of 62 to 82% brine in the tests presented in this paper. In each test, over 90% of the reduction occurred with less than 0.5 PV of CO{sub 2} injected, with very little additional brine production after 0.5 PV of CO{sub 2} injected. Adsorption of all considered surfactant is a significant problem. Most of the effect is reversible, but the amount required for foaming is large in terms of volume and cost for all considered surfactants. Some foams increase resistance to the value beyond what is practical in the reservoir. Sandstone, limestone, and dolomite core samples were tested. Dissolution of reservoir rock and/or cement, especially carbonates, under acid conditions of CO2 injection is a potential problem in CO2 injection into geological formations. Another potential change in reservoir injectivity and productivity will be the precipitation of dissolved carbonates as the brine flows and pressure decreases. The results of this report provide methods for determining surfactant sorption and can be used to aid in the determination of surfactant requirements for reservoir use in a CO{sub 2}-foam flood for mobility control. It also provides data to be used to determine rock permeability

  3. Effectiveness of flood damage mitigation measures: Empirical evidence from French flood disasters

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Poussin, J.K.; Botzen, W.J.W.; Aerts, J.C.J.H.

    2015-01-01

    Recent destructive flood events and projected increases in flood risks as a result of climate change in many regions around the world demonstrate the importance of improving flood risk management. Flood-proofing of buildings is often advocated as an effective strategy for limiting damage caused by

  4. Performance of Oil Infrastructure during Hurricane Harvey

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bernier, C.; Kameshwar, S.; Padgett, J.

    2017-12-01

    Three major refining centers - Corpus Christi, Houston, and Beaumont/Port Arthur - were affected during Hurricane Harvey. Damage to oil infrastructure, especially aboveground storage tanks (ASTs), caused the release of more than a million gallons of hazardous chemicals in the environment. The objective of this presentation is to identify and gain a better understanding of the different damage mechanisms that occurred during Harvey in order to avoid similar failures during future hurricane events. First, a qualitative description of the damage suffered by ASTs during Hurricane Harvey is presented. Analysis of aerial imagery and incident reports indicate that almost all spills were caused by rainfall and the associated flooding. The largest spill was caused by two large ASTs that floated due to flooding in the Houston Ship Channel releasing 500,000 gallons of gasoline. The vulnerability of ASTs subjected to flooding was already well known and documented from previous storm events. In addition to flooding, Harvey also exposed the vulnerability of ASTs with external floating roof to extreme rainfall; more than 15 floating roofs sank or tilted due to rain water accumulation on them, releasing pollutants in the atmosphere. Secondly, recent fragility models developed by the authors are presented which allow structural vulnerability assessment of floating roofs during rainfall events and ASTs during flood events. The fragility models are then coupled with Harvey rainfall and flood empirical data to identify the conditions (i.e.: internal liquid height or density, drainage system design and efficiency, etc.) that could have led to the observed failures during Hurricane Harvey. Finally, the conditions causing tank failures are studied to propose mitigation measures to prevent future AST failures during severe storm, flood, or rainfall events.

  5. Forecasting of palm oil price in Malaysia using linear and nonlinear methods

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nor, Abu Hassan Shaari Md; Sarmidi, Tamat; Hosseinidoust, Ehsan

    2014-09-01

    The first question that comes to the mind is: "How can we predict the palm oil price accurately?" This question is the authorities, policy makers and economist's question for a long period of time. The first reason is that in the recent years Malaysia showed a comparative advantage in palm oil production and has become top producer and exporter in the world. Secondly, palm oil price plays significant role in government budget and represents important source of income for Malaysia, which potentially can influence the magnitude of monetary policies and eventually have an impact on inflation. Thirdly, knowledge on the future trends would be helpful in the planning and decision making procedures and will generate precise fiscal and monetary policy. Daily data on palm oil prices along with the ARIMA models, neural networks and fuzzy logic systems are employed in this paper. Empirical findings indicate that the dynamic neural network of NARX and the hybrid system of ANFIS provide higher accuracy than the ARIMA and static neural network for forecasting the palm oil price in Malaysia.

  6. Evaluation of miscible and immiscible CO2 injection in one of the Iranian oil fields

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aref Hashemi Fath

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available Carbon dioxide (CO2 flooding is one of the most important methods for enhanced oil recovery (EOR because it not only increases oil recovery efficiency but also causes a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. It is a very complex system, involving phase behavior that could increase the recovery of oil by means of swelling, evaporation and decreasing viscosity of the oil. In this study, a reservoir modeling approach was used to evaluate immiscible and miscible CO2 flooding in a fractured oil field. To reduce simulation time, we grouped fluid components into 10 pseudo-components. The 3-parameter, Peng–Robinson Equation of State (EOS was used to match PVT experimental data by using the PVTi software. A one-dimensional slim-tube model was defined using ECLIPSE 300 software to determine the minimum miscibility pressure (MMP for injection of CO2. We used FloGrid software for making a reservoir static model and the reservoir model was calibrated using manual and assisted history matching methods. Then various scenarios of natural depletion, immiscible and miscible CO2 injection have been simulated by ECLIPSE 300 software and then the simulation results of scenarios have been compared. Investigation of simulation results shows that the oil recovery factor in miscible CO2 injection scenario is more than other methods.

  7. Estimation of flood environmental effects using flood zone mapping techniques in Halilrood Kerman, Iran.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boudaghpour, Siamak; Bagheri, Majid; Bagheri, Zahra

    2014-01-01

    High flood occurrences with large environmental damages have a growing trend in Iran. Dynamic movements of water during a flood cause different environmental damages in geographical areas with different characteristics such as topographic conditions. In general, environmental effects and damages caused by a flood in an area can be investigated from different points of view. The current essay is aiming at detecting environmental effects of flood occurrences in Halilrood catchment area of Kerman province in Iran using flood zone mapping techniques. The intended flood zone map was introduced in four steps. Steps 1 to 3 pave the way to calculate and estimate flood zone map in the understudy area while step 4 determines the estimation of environmental effects of flood occurrence. Based on our studies, wide range of accuracy for estimating the environmental effects of flood occurrence was introduced by using of flood zone mapping techniques. Moreover, it was identified that the existence of Jiroft dam in the study area can decrease flood zone from 260 hectares to 225 hectares and also it can decrease 20% of flood peak intensity. As a result, 14% of flood zone in the study area can be saved environmentally.

  8. Recent oil price shock and Tunisian economy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jbir, Rafik; Zouari-Ghorbel, Sonia

    2009-01-01

    The objective of this paper is to study the oil prices-macroeconomy relationship by the analysis of the role of subsidy policy. The vector autoregression (VAR) method was employed to analyze the data over the period 1993 Q1 - 2007 Q3. The results of the model using both linear and non-linear specifications indicate that there is no direct impact of oil price shock on the economic activity. The shock of oil prices affects economic activity indirectly. The most significant channel by which the effects of the shock are transmitted is the government's spending. (author)

  9. Flood Risk Management in Iowa through an Integrated Flood Information System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Demir, Ibrahim; Krajewski, Witold

    2013-04-01

    The Iowa Flood Information System (IFIS) is a web-based platform developed by the Iowa Flood Center (IFC) to provide access to flood inundation maps, real-time flood conditions, flood forecasts both short-term and seasonal, flood-related data, information and interactive visualizations for communities in Iowa. The key element of the system's architecture is the notion of community. Locations of the communities, those near streams and rivers, define basin boundaries. The IFIS provides community-centric watershed and river characteristics, weather (rainfall) conditions, and streamflow data and visualization tools. Interactive interfaces allow access to inundation maps for different stage and return period values, and flooding scenarios with contributions from multiple rivers. Real-time and historical data of water levels, gauge heights, and rainfall conditions are available in the IFIS by streaming data from automated IFC bridge sensors, USGS stream gauges, NEXRAD radars, and NWS forecasts. Simple 2D and 3D interactive visualizations in the IFIS make the data more understandable to general public. Users are able to filter data sources for their communities and selected rivers. The data and information on IFIS is also accessible through web services and mobile applications. The IFIS is optimized for various browsers and screen sizes to provide access through multiple platforms including tablets and mobile devices. The IFIS includes a rainfall-runoff forecast model to provide a five-day flood risk estimate for around 1100 communities in Iowa. Multiple view modes in the IFIS accommodate different user types from general public to researchers and decision makers by providing different level of tools and details. River view mode allows users to visualize data from multiple IFC bridge sensors and USGS stream gauges to follow flooding condition along a river. The IFIS will help communities make better-informed decisions on the occurrence of floods, and will alert

  10. Economic motivation of households to undertake private precautionary measures against floods

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kreibich, H.; Christenberger, S.; Schwarze, R.

    2011-02-01

    Flood damage is on the increase due to a combination of growing vulnerability and a changing climate. This trend can be mitigated only through significantly improved flood risk management which, alongside the efforts of public authorities, will include improvements in the mitigation measures adopted by private households. Economically "reasonable" efforts to self-insure and self-protect should be expected from households before the government steps in with publicly-funded relief programmes. To gain a deeper understanding of the benefits of households' precautionary measures, telephone interviews with private home owners were conducted in the Elbe and Danube catchments in Germany after the floods of 2002 and again after the floods in 2005 and 2006. Only detached, solid single-family houses were included in this study, which is based on 759 interviews. In addition, market-based cost assessments were solicited based on a "model building". Expert interviews and a literature review - including catalogues and price lists for building materials and household appliances - were used as back-up information for the cost assessments. The comparison of costs and benefits shows that large investments, such as building a sealed cellar, are only economically efficient if the building is flooded very frequently, that is, if it is located in a high flood risk area. In such areas it would be preferable in economic terms not to build a new house at all - or else to build a house without a cellar. Small investments, however, such as oil tank protection, can prevent serious damage at low cost. Such investments are still profitable even if the building is flooded every 50 years or less on average. It could be argued that these low-cost measures should be made mandatory through the enforcement of building codes. Financial incentives built into insurance contracts coupled with limits set on governmental relief programmes would provide an economic motivation for people to invest in

  11. Economic motivation of households to undertake private precautionary measures against floods

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    H. Kreibich

    2011-02-01

    Full Text Available Flood damage is on the increase due to a combination of growing vulnerability and a changing climate. This trend can be mitigated only through significantly improved flood risk management which, alongside the efforts of public authorities, will include improvements in the mitigation measures adopted by private households. Economically "reasonable" efforts to self-insure and self-protect should be expected from households before the government steps in with publicly-funded relief programmes. To gain a deeper understanding of the benefits of households' precautionary measures, telephone interviews with private home owners were conducted in the Elbe and Danube catchments in Germany after the floods of 2002 and again after the floods in 2005 and 2006. Only detached, solid single-family houses were included in this study, which is based on 759 interviews. In addition, market-based cost assessments were solicited based on a "model building". Expert interviews and a literature review – including catalogues and price lists for building materials and household appliances – were used as back-up information for the cost assessments. The comparison of costs and benefits shows that large investments, such as building a sealed cellar, are only economically efficient if the building is flooded very frequently, that is, if it is located in a high flood risk area. In such areas it would be preferable in economic terms not to build a new house at all – or else to build a house without a cellar. Small investments, however, such as oil tank protection, can prevent serious damage at low cost. Such investments are still profitable even if the building is flooded every 50 years or less on average. It could be argued that these low-cost measures should be made mandatory through the enforcement of building codes. Financial incentives built into insurance contracts coupled with limits set on governmental relief programmes would provide an economic motivation for

  12. Development of Integrated Flood Analysis System for Improving Flood Mitigation Capabilities in Korea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moon, Young-Il; Kim, Jong-suk

    2016-04-01

    Recently, the needs of people are growing for a more safety life and secure homeland from unexpected natural disasters. Flood damages have been recorded every year and those damages are greater than the annual average of 2 trillion won since 2000 in Korea. It has been increased in casualties and property damages due to flooding caused by hydrometeorlogical extremes according to climate change. Although the importance of flooding situation is emerging rapidly, studies related to development of integrated management system for reducing floods are insufficient in Korea. In addition, it is difficult to effectively reduce floods without developing integrated operation system taking into account of sewage pipe network configuration with the river level. Since the floods result in increasing damages to infrastructure, as well as life and property, structural and non-structural measures should be urgently established in order to effectively reduce the flood. Therefore, in this study, we developed an integrated flood analysis system that systematized technology to quantify flood risk and flood forecasting for supporting synthetic decision-making through real-time monitoring and prediction on flash rain or short-term rainfall by using radar and satellite information in Korea. Keywords: Flooding, Integrated flood analysis system, Rainfall forecasting, Korea Acknowledgments This work was carried out with the support of "Cooperative Research Program for Agriculture Science & Technology Development (Project No. PJ011686022015)" Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea

  13. Stability Proxies for Water-in-Oil Emulsions and Implications in Aqueous-based Enhanced Oil Recovery

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mehrnoosh Moradi

    2011-07-01

    Full Text Available Several researchers have proposed that mobility control mechanisms can positively contribute to oil recovery in the case of emulsions generated in Enhanced-Oil Recovery (EOR operations. Chemical EOR techniques that use alkaline components or/and surfactants are known to produce undesirable emulsions that create operational problems and are difficult to break. Other water-based methods have been less studied in this sense. EOR processes such as polymer flooding and LoSalTM injection require adjustments of water chemistry, mainly by lowering the ionic strength of the solution or by decreasing hardness. The decreased ionic strength of EOR solutions can give rise to more stable water-in-oil emulsions, which are speculated to improve mobility ratio between the injectant and the displaced oil. The first step toward understanding the connection between the emulsions and EOR mechanisms is to show that EOR conditions, such as salinity and hardness requirements, among others, are conducive to stabilizing emulsions. In order to do this, adequate stability proxies are required. This paper reviews commonly used emulsion stability proxies and explains the advantages and disadvantage of methods reviewed. This paper also reviews aqueous-based EOR processes with focus on heavy oil to contextualize in-situ emulsion stabilization conditions. This context sets the basis for comparison of emulsion stability proxies.

  14. An at-site flood estimation method in the context of nonstationarity I. A simulation study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gado, Tamer A.; Nguyen, Van-Thanh-Van

    2016-04-01

    The stationarity of annual flood peak records is the traditional assumption of flood frequency analysis. In some cases, however, as a result of land-use and/or climate change, this assumption is no longer valid. Therefore, new statistical models are needed to capture dynamically the change of probability density functions over time, in order to obtain reliable flood estimation. In this study, an innovative method for nonstationary flood frequency analysis was presented. Here, the new method is based on detrending the flood series and applying the L-moments along with the GEV distribution to the transformed ;stationary; series (hereafter, this is called the LM-NS). The LM-NS method was assessed through a comparative study with the maximum likelihood (ML) method for the nonstationary GEV model, as well as with the stationary (S) GEV model. The comparative study, based on Monte Carlo simulations, was carried out for three nonstationary GEV models: a linear dependence of the mean on time (GEV1), a quadratic dependence of the mean on time (GEV2), and linear dependence in both the mean and log standard deviation on time (GEV11). The simulation results indicated that the LM-NS method performs better than the ML method for most of the cases studied, whereas the stationary method provides the least accurate results. An additional advantage of the LM-NS method is to avoid the numerical problems (e.g., convergence problems) that may occur with the ML method when estimating parameters for small data samples.

  15. Artificial Neural Network Model to Estimate the Viscosity of Polymer Solutions for Enhanced Oil Recovery

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pan-Sang Kang

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Polymer flooding is now considered a technically- and commercially-proven method for enhanced oil recovery (EOR. The viscosity of the injected polymer solution is the key property for successful polymer flooding. Given that the viscosity of a polymer solution has a non-linear relationship with various influential parameters (molecular weight, degree of hydrolysis, polymer concentration, cation concentration of polymer solution, shear rate, temperature and that measurement of viscosity based on these parameters is a time-consuming process, the range of solution samples and the measurement conditions need to be limited and precise. Viscosity estimation of the polymer solution is effective for these purposes. An artificial neural network (ANN was applied to the viscosity estimation of FlopaamTM 3330S, FlopaamTM 3630S and AN-125 solutions, three commonly-used EOR polymers. The viscosities measured and estimated by ANN and the Carreau model using Lee’s correlation, the only method for estimating the viscosity of an EOR polymer solution in unmeasured conditions, were compared. Estimation accuracy was evaluated by the average absolute relative deviation, which has been widely used for accuracy evaluation of the results of ANN models. In all conditions, the accuracy of the ANN model is higher than that of the Carreau model using Lee’s correlation.

  16. Aggressive oil extraction and precautionary saving: Coping with volatility

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van der Ploeg, F.

    2010-01-01

    The effects of stochastic oil demand on optimal oil extraction paths and tax, spending and government debt policies are analyzed when the oil demand schedule is linear and preferences quadratic. Without prudence, optimal oil extraction is governed by the Hotelling rule and optimal budgetary policies

  17. Going beyond the flood insurance rate map: insights from flood hazard map co-production

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luke, Adam; Sanders, Brett F.; Goodrich, Kristen A.; Feldman, David L.; Boudreau, Danielle; Eguiarte, Ana; Serrano, Kimberly; Reyes, Abigail; Schubert, Jochen E.; AghaKouchak, Amir; Basolo, Victoria; Matthew, Richard A.

    2018-04-01

    Flood hazard mapping in the United States (US) is deeply tied to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). Consequently, publicly available flood maps provide essential information for insurance purposes, but they do not necessarily provide relevant information for non-insurance aspects of flood risk management (FRM) such as public education and emergency planning. Recent calls for flood hazard maps that support a wider variety of FRM tasks highlight the need to deepen our understanding about the factors that make flood maps useful and understandable for local end users. In this study, social scientists and engineers explore opportunities for improving the utility and relevance of flood hazard maps through the co-production of maps responsive to end users' FRM needs. Specifically, two-dimensional flood modeling produced a set of baseline hazard maps for stakeholders of the Tijuana River valley, US, and Los Laureles Canyon in Tijuana, Mexico. Focus groups with natural resource managers, city planners, emergency managers, academia, non-profit, and community leaders refined the baseline hazard maps by triggering additional modeling scenarios and map revisions. Several important end user preferences emerged, such as (1) legends that frame flood intensity both qualitatively and quantitatively, and (2) flood scenario descriptions that report flood magnitude in terms of rainfall, streamflow, and its relation to an historic event. Regarding desired hazard map content, end users' requests revealed general consistency with mapping needs reported in European studies and guidelines published in Australia. However, requested map content that is not commonly produced included (1) standing water depths following the flood, (2) the erosive potential of flowing water, and (3) pluvial flood hazards, or flooding caused directly by rainfall. We conclude that the relevance and utility of commonly produced flood hazard maps can be most improved by illustrating pluvial flood hazards

  18. Flood Risk Regional Flood Defences : Technical report

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kok, M.; Jonkman, S.N.; Lendering, K.T.

    2015-01-01

    Historically the Netherlands have always had to deal with the threat of flooding, both from the rivers and the sea as well as from heavy rainfall. The country consists of a large amount of polders, which are low lying areas of land protected from flooding by embankments. These polders require an

  19. The index-flood and the GRADEX methods combination for flood frequency analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fuentes, Diana; Di Baldassarre, Giuliano; Quesada, Beatriz; Xu, Chong-Yu; Halldin, Sven; Beven, Keith

    2017-04-01

    Flood frequency analysis is used in many applications, including flood risk management, design of hydraulic structures, and urban planning. However, such analysis requires of long series of observed discharge data which are often not available in many basins around the world. In this study, we tested the usefulness of combining regional discharge and local precipitation data to estimate the event flood volume frequency curve for 63 catchments in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. This was achieved by combining two existing flood frequency analysis methods, the regionalization index-flood approach with the GRADEX method. For up to 10-years return period, similar shape of the scaled flood frequency curve for catchments with similar flood behaviour was assumed from the index-flood approach. For return periods larger than 10-years the probability distribution of rainfall and discharge volumes were assumed to be asymptotically and exponential-type functions with the same scale parameter from the GRADEX method. Results showed that if the mean annual flood (MAF), used as index-flood, is known, the index-flood approach performed well for up to 10 years return periods, resulting in 25% mean relative error in prediction. For larger return periods the prediction capability decreased but could be improved by the use of the GRADEX method. As the MAF is unknown at ungauged and short-period measured basins, we tested predicting the MAF using catchments climate-physical characteristics, and discharge statistics, the latter when observations were available for only 8 years. Only the use of discharge statistics resulted in acceptable predictions.

  20. Improving flood risk mapping in Italy: the FloodRisk open-source software

    Science.gov (United States)

    Albano, Raffaele; Mancusi, Leonardo; Craciun, Iulia; Sole, Aurelia; Ozunu, Alexandru

    2017-04-01

    Time and again, floods around the world illustrate the devastating impact they can have on societies. Furthermore, the expectation that the flood damages can increase over time with climate, land-use change and social growth in flood prone-areas has raised the public and other stakeholders' (governments, international organization, re-insurance companies and emergency responders) awareness for the need to manage risks in order to mitigate their causes and consequences. In this light, the choice of appropriate measures, the assessment of the costs and effects of such measures, and their prioritization are crucial for decision makers. As a result, a priori flood risk assessment has become a key part of flood management practices with the aim of minimizing the total costs related to the risk management cycle. In this context, The EU Flood Directive 2007/60 requires the delineation of flood risk maps on the bases of most appropriate and advanced tools, with particular attention on limiting required economic efforts. The main aim of these risk maps is to provide the required knowledge for the development of flood risk management plans (FRMPs) by considering both costs and benefits of alternatives and results from consultation with all interested parties. In this context, this research project developed a free and open-source (FOSS) GIS software, called FloodRisk, to operatively support stakeholders in their compliance with the FRMPs. FloodRisk aims to facilitate the development of risk maps and the evaluation and management of current and future flood risk for multi-purpose applications. This new approach overcomes the limits of the expert-drive qualitative (EDQ) approach currently adopted in several European countries, such as Italy, which does not permit a suitable evaluation of the effectiveness of risk mitigation strategies, because the vulnerability component cannot be properly assessed. Moreover, FloodRisk is also able to involve the citizens in the flood

  1. Flood frequency analysis of historical flood data under stationary and non-stationary modelling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Machado, M. J.; Botero, B. A.; López, J.; Francés, F.; Díez-Herrero, A.; Benito, G.

    2015-06-01

    Historical records are an important source of information on extreme and rare floods and fundamental to establish a reliable flood return frequency. The use of long historical records for flood frequency analysis brings in the question of flood stationarity, since climatic and land-use conditions can affect the relevance of past flooding as a predictor of future flooding. In this paper, a detailed 400 yr flood record from the Tagus River in Aranjuez (central Spain) was analysed under stationary and non-stationary flood frequency approaches, to assess their contribution within hazard studies. Historical flood records in Aranjuez were obtained from documents (Proceedings of the City Council, diaries, chronicles, memoirs, etc.), epigraphic marks, and indirect historical sources and reports. The water levels associated with different floods (derived from descriptions or epigraphic marks) were computed into discharge values using a one-dimensional hydraulic model. Secular variations in flood magnitude and frequency, found to respond to climate and environmental drivers, showed a good correlation between high values of historical flood discharges and a negative mode of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index. Over the systematic gauge record (1913-2008), an abrupt change on flood magnitude was produced in 1957 due to constructions of three major reservoirs in the Tagus headwaters (Bolarque, Entrepeñas and Buendia) controlling 80% of the watershed surface draining to Aranjuez. Two different models were used for the flood frequency analysis: (a) a stationary model estimating statistical distributions incorporating imprecise and categorical data based on maximum likelihood estimators, and (b) a time-varying model based on "generalized additive models for location, scale and shape" (GAMLSS) modelling, which incorporates external covariates related to climate variability (NAO index) and catchment hydrology factors (in this paper a reservoir index; RI). Flood frequency

  2. Floods and climate: emerging perspectives for flood risk assessment and management

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Merz, B.; Aerts, J.C.J.H.; Arnbjerg-Nielsen, K.; Baldi, M.; Becker, A.; Bichet, A.; Blöschl, G.; Bouwer, L.M.; Brauer, A.; Cioffi, F.; Delgado, J.M.; Gocht, M.; Guzetti, F.; Harrigan, S.; Hirschboeck, K.; Kilsby, C.; Kron, W.; Kwon, H. -H.; Lall, U.; Merz, R.; Nissen, K.; Salvatti, P.; Swierczynski, T.; Ulbrich, U.; Viglione, A.; Ward, P.J.; Weiler, M.; Wilhelm, B.; Nied, M.

    2014-01-01

    Flood estimation and flood management have traditionally been the domain of hydrologists, water resources engineers and statisticians, and disciplinary approaches abound. Dominant views have been shaped; one example is the catchment perspective: floods are formed and influenced by the interaction of

  3. Heterologous production of Pseudomonas aeruginosa rhamnolipid under anaerobic conditions for microbial enhanced oil recovery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, F; Shi, R; Zhao, J; Li, G; Bai, X; Han, S; Zhang, Y

    2015-02-01

    The ex situ application of rhamnolipid to enhance oil recovery is costly and complex in terms of rhamnolipid production and transportation, while in situ production of rhamnolipid is restricted by the oxygen-deficient environments of oil reservoirs. To overcome the oxygen-limiting conditions and to circumvent the complex regulation of rhamnolipid biosynthesis in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, an engineered strain Pseudomonas stutzeri Rhl was constructed for heterologous production of rhamnolipid under anaerobic conditions. The rhlABRI genes for rhamnolipid biosynthesis were cloned into a facultative anaerobic strain Ps. stutzeri DQ1 to construct the engineered strain Rhl. Anaerobic production of rhamnolipid was confirmed by thin layer chromatography and Fourier transform infrared analysis. Rhamnolipid product reduced the air-water surface tension to 30.3 mN m(-1) and the oil-water interfacial tension to 0.169 mN m(-1). Rhl produced rhamnolipid of 1.61 g l(-1) using glycerol as the carbon source. Rhl anaerobic culture emulsified crude oil up to EI24 ≈ 74. An extra 9.8% of original crude oil was displaced by Rhl in the core flooding test. Strain Rhl achieved anaerobic production of rhamnolipid and worked well for enhanced oil recovery in the core flooding model. The rhamnolipid produced by Rhl was similar to that of the donor strain SQ6. This is the first study to achieve anaerobic and heterologous production of rhamnolipid. Results demonstrated the potential feasibility of Rhl as a promising strain to enhance oil recovery through anaerobic production of rhamnolipid. © 2014 The Society for Applied Microbiology.

  4. Feasibility of microbially improved oil recovery (MIOR) in Northern German oil reservoirs; Bakterien zur Erhoehung des Entoelungsgrades in norddeutschen Erdoellagerstaetten

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Amro, M. [Inst. fuer Erdoel- und Erdgasforschung, Clausthal-Zellerfeld (Germany); Kessel, D. [Inst. fuer Erdoel- und Erdgasforschung, Clausthal-Zellerfeld (Germany)

    1996-05-01

    The scope of this study was to investigate the feasibility of microbially improved oil recovery (MIOR) in Northern German oil reservoirs. Suitable bacterial strains had to be identified. The mechanisms for oil mobilization and incremental recovery had to be investigated. To this end, two independent methods were employed, namely static autoclave tests and dynamic flood experiments. The static tests were carried out without reservoir rock matrix to preselect suitable bacterial strains with a minimum of experimental effort. The selected strains were then tested in dynamic flood experiments under reservoir conditions on Bentheimer sandstone cores to quantify the oil recovery. Key results of the study are: (1) Two bacterial strains were found having excellent metabolic activity with potential for oil recovery under Northern German reservoir conditions. (2) These bacteria can be injected into and transported in the pores of the sandstone. (3) The metabolic activity of these bacteria leads to substantial incremental oil recovery in repeated injection - shut in - production cycles. (4) Incremental oil recovery is attributed to wettability change and biomass production by the metabolites of the bacteria. (orig.) [Deutsch] Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist die Untersuchung der Anwendbarkeit der mikrobiell verbesserten Erdoelgewinnung in norddeutschen Lagerstaetten. Zunaechst waren hierfuer einsetzbare Bakterienstaemme zu identifizieren. Diese waren dann auf ihr Entoelungsvermoegen zu ueberpruefen. Schliesslich sollten die Entoelungsmechanismen ermittelt werden. Die Vorauswahl potentiell geeigneter Bakterienstaemme erfolgte durch verschiedene mikrobiologische Forschungsinstitute. Zur Minimierung des experimentellen Aufwands wurden diese Staemme dann im Institut fuer Erdoel- und Erdgasforschung in statischen Autoklavenversuchen unter Lagerstaettenbedingungen, jedoch noch ohne Lagerstaettengestein, auf ihre Stoffwechselaktivitaet sowie Art und Eigenschaften ihrer Stoffwechselprodukte

  5. Flood-Ring Formation and Root Development in Response to Experimental Flooding of Young Quercus robur Trees

    Science.gov (United States)

    Copini, Paul; den Ouden, Jan; Robert, Elisabeth M. R.; Tardif, Jacques C.; Loesberg, Walter A.; Goudzwaard, Leo; Sass-Klaassen, Ute

    2016-01-01

    Spring flooding in riparian forests can cause significant reductions in earlywood-vessel size in submerged stem parts of ring-porous tree species, leading to the presence of ‘flood rings’ that can be used as a proxy to reconstruct past flooding events, potentially over millennia. The mechanism of flood-ring formation and the relation with timing and duration of flooding are still to be elucidated. In this study, we experimentally flooded 4-year-old Quercus robur trees at three spring phenophases (late bud dormancy, budswell, and internode expansion) and over different flooding durations (2, 4, and 6 weeks) to a stem height of 50 cm. The effect of flooding on root and vessel development was assessed immediately after the flooding treatment and at the end of the growing season. Ring width and earlywood-vessel size and density were measured at 25- and 75-cm stem height and collapsed vessels were recorded. Stem flooding inhibited earlywood-vessel development in flooded stem parts. In addition, flooding upon budswell and internode expansion led to collapsed earlywood vessels below the water level. At the end of the growing season, mean earlywood-vessel size in the flooded stem parts (upon budswell and internode expansion) was always reduced by approximately 50% compared to non-flooded stem parts and 55% compared to control trees. This reduction was already present 2 weeks after flooding and occurred independent of flooding duration. Stem and root flooding were associated with significant root dieback after 4 and 6 weeks and mean radial growth was always reduced with increasing flooding duration. By comparing stem and root flooding, we conclude that flood rings only occur after stem flooding. As earlywood-vessel development was hampered during flooding, a considerable number of narrow earlywood vessels present later in the season, must have been formed after the actual flooding events. Our study indicates that root dieback, together with strongly reduced hydraulic

  6. Biosurfactant production by Bacillus subtilis B30 and its application in enhancing oil recovery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Al-Wahaibi, Yahya; Joshi, Sanket; Al-Bahry, Saif; Elshafie, Abdulkadir; Al-Bemani, Ali; Shibulal, Biji

    2014-02-01

    The fermentative production of biosurfactants by Bacillus subtilis strain B30 and the evaluation of biosurfactant based enhanced oil recovery using core-flood were investigated. Different carbon sources (glucose, sucrose, starch, date molasses, cane molasses) were tested to determine the optimal biosurfactant production. The isolate B30 produced a biosurfactant that could reduce the surface tension and interfacial tension to 26.63±0.45 mN/m and 3.79±0.27 mN/m, respectively in less than 12h in both glucose or date molasses based media. A crude biosurfactant concentration of 0.3-0.5 g/l and critical micelle dilution (CMD) values of 1:8 were observed. The biosurfactants gave stable emulsions with wide range of hydrocarbons including light and heavy crude oil. The biosurfactants were partially purified and identified as a mixture of lipopeptides similar to surfactin, using high performance thin layer chromatography and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The biosurfactants were stable over wide range of pH, salinity and temperatures. The crude biosurfactant preparation enhanced light oil recovery by 17-26% and heavy oil recovery by 31% in core-flood studies. The results are indicative of the potential of the strain for the development of ex situ microbial enhanced oil recovery processes using glucose or date molasses based minimal media. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  7. After the flood is before the next flood - post event review of the Central European Floods of June 2013. Insights, recommendations and next steps for future flood prevention

    Science.gov (United States)

    Szoenyi, Michael; Mechler, Reinhard; McCallum, Ian

    2015-04-01

    In early June 2013, severe flooding hit Central and Eastern Europe, causing extensive damage, in particular along the Danube and Elbe main watersheds. The situation was particularly severe in Eastern Germany, Austria, Hungary and the Czech Republic. Based on the Post Event Review Capability (PERC) approach, developed by Zurich Insurance's Flood Resilience Program to provide independent review of large flood events, we examine what has worked well (best practice) and opportunities for further improvement. The PERC overall aims to thoroughly examine aspects of flood resilience, flood risk management and catastrophe intervention in order to help build back better after events and learn for future events. As our research from post event analyses shows a lot of losses are in fact avoidable by taking the right measures pre-event and these measures are economically - efficient with a return of 4 Euro on losses saved for every Euro invested in prevention on average (Wharton/IIASA flood resilience alliance paper on cost benefit analysis, Mechler et al. 2014) and up to 10 Euros for certain countries. For the 2013 flood events we provide analysis on the following aspects and in general identify a number of factors that worked in terms of reducing the loss and risk burden. 1. Understanding risk factors of the Central European Floods 2013 We review the precursors leading up to the floods in June, with an extremely wet May 2013 and an atypical V-b weather pattern that brought immense precipitation in a very short period to the watersheds of Elbe, Donau and partially the Rhine in the D-A-CH countries and researched what happened during the flood and why. Key questions we asked revolve around which protection and risk reduction approaches worked well and which did not, and why. 2. Insights and recommendations from the post event review The PERC identified a number of risk factors, which need attention if risk is to be reduced over time. • Yet another "100-year flood" - risk

  8. Flood warning level forecasting for ungauged catchments by means of a combined API storage concept

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lehmann, T; Holzmann, H

    2008-01-01

    The knowledge of the expected dimension of the flood peak is of major importance for security and warning services to take preventive measures. In this paper the authors want to introduce the concept of the Antecedent Precipitation Index (API) as a possible variable to estimate runoff warning classes. The aim was (a) to define API warning classes which correspond to runoff warning classes at a certain runoff gauge and (b) apply the method to ungauged basins. To consider time and state dependant rainfall losses a spatially distributed linear storage concept was applied to intercept the actual rainfall. The 3-parameter API function was fitted to several flood events at observed gauges within the district of lower Austria and lead to a set of optimized parameters. Through extreme value statistics the 1, 5 and 30 years API extremes were derived and set into correlation to the corresponding flood events. These API extremes together with the optimized API parameters were spatially interpolated and thus transferred to ungauged basins. The calculated flood events had the tendency to underestimate the smaller flood frequencies whereas the extreme flood classes could be reliably performed.

  9. Large scale carbon dioxide production from coal-fired power stations for enhanced oil recovery: a new economic feasibility study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tontiwachwuthikul, P.; Chan, C. W.; Kritpiphat, W.; Demontigny, D.; Skoropad, D.; Gelowitz, D.; Aroonwilas, A.; Mourits, F.; Wilson, M.; Ward, L.

    1998-01-01

    The concept of capturing carbon dioxide from fossil-fuelled electric power generating plants and utilizing it as a flooding agent in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes, was explored. In this context, this paper describes how cogeneration concepts, together with process optimization strategies, help to reduce the carbon dioxide production cost by utilizing low-pressure steam and waste heat from various sections of the power generation process. Based on these optimization strategies, the recovery cost of carbon dioxide from coal-fired power stations is estimated to be in the range of $ 0.50 to $ 2.00/mscf. Assuming an average cost of $ 1.25/mscf, the production cost of incremental oil would be about $ 18.00. This means that even with today's modest oil prices, there is room for profit to be made operating a carbon dioxide flood with flue gas extracted carbon dioxide

  10. Going beyond the flood insurance rate map: insights from flood hazard map co-production

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. Luke

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Flood hazard mapping in the United States (US is deeply tied to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP. Consequently, publicly available flood maps provide essential information for insurance purposes, but they do not necessarily provide relevant information for non-insurance aspects of flood risk management (FRM such as public education and emergency planning. Recent calls for flood hazard maps that support a wider variety of FRM tasks highlight the need to deepen our understanding about the factors that make flood maps useful and understandable for local end users. In this study, social scientists and engineers explore opportunities for improving the utility and relevance of flood hazard maps through the co-production of maps responsive to end users' FRM needs. Specifically, two-dimensional flood modeling produced a set of baseline hazard maps for stakeholders of the Tijuana River valley, US, and Los Laureles Canyon in Tijuana, Mexico. Focus groups with natural resource managers, city planners, emergency managers, academia, non-profit, and community leaders refined the baseline hazard maps by triggering additional modeling scenarios and map revisions. Several important end user preferences emerged, such as (1 legends that frame flood intensity both qualitatively and quantitatively, and (2 flood scenario descriptions that report flood magnitude in terms of rainfall, streamflow, and its relation to an historic event. Regarding desired hazard map content, end users' requests revealed general consistency with mapping needs reported in European studies and guidelines published in Australia. However, requested map content that is not commonly produced included (1 standing water depths following the flood, (2 the erosive potential of flowing water, and (3 pluvial flood hazards, or flooding caused directly by rainfall. We conclude that the relevance and utility of commonly produced flood hazard maps can be most improved by illustrating

  11. Multivariate pluvial flood damage models

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Van Ootegem, Luc; Verhofstadt, Elsy; Van Herck, Kristine; Creten, Tom

    2015-01-01

    Depth–damage-functions, relating the monetary flood damage to the depth of the inundation, are commonly used in the case of fluvial floods (floods caused by a river overflowing). We construct four multivariate damage models for pluvial floods (caused by extreme rainfall) by differentiating on the one hand between ground floor floods and basement floods and on the other hand between damage to residential buildings and damage to housing contents. We do not only take into account the effect of flood-depth on damage, but also incorporate the effects of non-hazard indicators (building characteristics, behavioural indicators and socio-economic variables). By using a Tobit-estimation technique on identified victims of pluvial floods in Flanders (Belgium), we take into account the effect of cases of reported zero damage. Our results show that the flood depth is an important predictor of damage, but with a diverging impact between ground floor floods and basement floods. Also non-hazard indicators are important. For example being aware of the risk just before the water enters the building reduces content damage considerably, underlining the importance of warning systems and policy in this case of pluvial floods. - Highlights: • Prediction of damage of pluvial floods using also non-hazard information • We include ‘no damage cases’ using a Tobit model. • The damage of flood depth is stronger for ground floor than for basement floods. • Non-hazard indicators are especially important for content damage. • Potential gain of policies that increase awareness of flood risks

  12. Multivariate pluvial flood damage models

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Van Ootegem, Luc [HIVA — University of Louvain (Belgium); SHERPPA — Ghent University (Belgium); Verhofstadt, Elsy [SHERPPA — Ghent University (Belgium); Van Herck, Kristine; Creten, Tom [HIVA — University of Louvain (Belgium)

    2015-09-15

    Depth–damage-functions, relating the monetary flood damage to the depth of the inundation, are commonly used in the case of fluvial floods (floods caused by a river overflowing). We construct four multivariate damage models for pluvial floods (caused by extreme rainfall) by differentiating on the one hand between ground floor floods and basement floods and on the other hand between damage to residential buildings and damage to housing contents. We do not only take into account the effect of flood-depth on damage, but also incorporate the effects of non-hazard indicators (building characteristics, behavioural indicators and socio-economic variables). By using a Tobit-estimation technique on identified victims of pluvial floods in Flanders (Belgium), we take into account the effect of cases of reported zero damage. Our results show that the flood depth is an important predictor of damage, but with a diverging impact between ground floor floods and basement floods. Also non-hazard indicators are important. For example being aware of the risk just before the water enters the building reduces content damage considerably, underlining the importance of warning systems and policy in this case of pluvial floods. - Highlights: • Prediction of damage of pluvial floods using also non-hazard information • We include ‘no damage cases’ using a Tobit model. • The damage of flood depth is stronger for ground floor than for basement floods. • Non-hazard indicators are especially important for content damage. • Potential gain of policies that increase awareness of flood risks.

  13. Reduced translocation of current photosynthate precedes changes in gas exchange for Quercus rubra seedlings under flooding stress.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sloan, Joshua L; Islam, M Anisul; Jacobs, Douglass F

    2016-01-01

    Northern red oak (Quercus rubra L.) seedlings are frequently planted on suboptimal sites in their native range in North America, subjecting them to environmental stresses, such as flooding, for which they may not be well adapted. Members of the genus Quercus exhibit a wide range of responses to flooding, and responses of northern red oak to flooding remain inadequately described. To better understand the physiological effects of root system inundation in post-transplant northern red oak seedlings and the effects of flooding on endogenous patterns of resource allocation within the plant, we observed the effects of short-term flooding initiated at the linear shoot growth stage on net photosynthetic rates, dark respiration, chlorophyll fluorescence (Fv/Fm) and translocation of (13)C-labeled current photosynthate. Downward translocation of current photosynthate declined after 4 days of flooding and was the first measured physiological response to flooding; net photosynthetic rates decreased and dark respiration rates increased after 7 days of flooding. Short-term flooding did not affect maximal potential efficiency of photosystem II (Fv/Fm). The finding that decreased downward translocation of (13)C-labeled current photosynthate preceded reduced net photosynthesis and increased dark respiration during flooding suggests the occurrence of sink-limited photosynthesis under these conditions. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  14. A European Flood Database: facilitating comprehensive flood research beyond administrative boundaries

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. Hall

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available The current work addresses one of the key building blocks towards an improved understanding of flood processes and associated changes in flood characteristics and regimes in Europe: the development of a comprehensive, extensive European flood database. The presented work results from ongoing cross-border research collaborations initiated with data collection and joint interpretation in mind. A detailed account of the current state, characteristics and spatial and temporal coverage of the European Flood Database, is presented. At this stage, the hydrological data collection is still growing and consists at this time of annual maximum and daily mean discharge series, from over 7000 hydrometric stations of various data series lengths. Moreover, the database currently comprises data from over 50 different data sources. The time series have been obtained from different national and regional data sources in a collaborative effort of a joint European flood research agreement based on the exchange of data, models and expertise, and from existing international data collections and open source websites. These ongoing efforts are contributing to advancing the understanding of regional flood processes beyond individual country boundaries and to a more coherent flood research in Europe.

  15. Floods in Colorado

    Science.gov (United States)

    Follansbee, Robert; Sawyer, Leon R.

    1948-01-01

    The first records of floods in Colorado antedated the settlement of the State by about 30 years. These were records of floods on the Arkansas and Republican Rivers in 1826. Other floods noted by traders, hunters and emigrants, some of whom were on their way to the Far West, occurred in 1844 on the Arkansas River, and by inference on the South Platte River. Other early floods were those on the Purgatoire, the Lower Arkansas, and the San Juan Rivers about 1859. The most serious flood since settlement began was that on the Arkansas River during June 1921, which caused the loss of about 100 lives and an estimated property loss of $19,000,000. Many floods of lesser magnitude have occurred, and some of these have caused loss of life and very considerable property damage. Topography is the chief factor in determining the location of storms and resulting floods. These occur most frequently on the eastern slope of the Front Range. In the mountains farther west precipitation is insufficient to cause floods except during periods of melting snow, in June. In the southwestern part of the State, where precipitation during periods of melting snow is insufficient to cause floods, the severest floods yet experienced resulted from heavy rains in September 1909 and October 1911. In the eastern foothills region, usually below an altitude of about 7,500 feet and extending for a distance of about 50 miles east of the mountains, is a zone subject to rainfalls of great intensity known as cloudbursts. These cloudbursts are of short duration and are confined to very small areas. At times the intensity is so great as to make breathing difficult for those exposed to a storm. The areas of intense rainfall are so small that Weather Bureau precipitation stations have not been located in them. Local residents, being cloudburst conscious, frequently measure the rainfall in receptacles in their yards, and such records constitute the only source of information regarding the intensity. A flood

  16. Sustainable flood memories, lay knowledges and the development of community resilience to future flood risk

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    McEwen Lindsey

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Shifts to devolved flood risk management in the UK pose questions about how the changing role of floodplain residents in community-led adaptation planning can be supported and strengthened. This paper shares insights from an interdisciplinary research project that has proposed the concept of ‘sustainable flood memory’ in the context of effective flood risk management. The research aimed to increase understanding of whether and how flood memories from the UK Summer 2007 extreme floods provide a platform for developing lay knowledges and flood resilience. The project investigated what factors link flood memory and lay knowledges of flooding, and how these connect and disconnect during and after flood events. In particular, and relation to flood governance directions, we sought to explore how such memories might play a part in individual and community resilience. The research presented here explores some key themes drawn from semi-structured interviews with floodplain residents with recent flood experiences in contrasting demographic and physical settings in the lower River Severn catchment. These include changing practices in making flood memories and materialising flood knowledge and the roles of active remembering and active forgetting.

  17. Swift delineation of flood-prone areas over large European regions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tavares da Costa, Ricardo; Castellarin, Attilio; Manfreda, Salvatore; Samela, Caterina; Domeneghetti, Alessio; Mazzoli, Paolo; Luzzi, Valerio; Bagli, Stefano

    2017-04-01

    's Framework Programme for Research and Innovation Horizon 2020 under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 676027. Keywords: flood hazard, data-scarce regions, large-scale studies, pattern recognition, linear binary classifiers, basin geomorphology, DEM.

  18. Adaptation to flood risk: Results of international paired flood event studies

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kreibich, Heidi; Di Baldassarre, G.; Vorogushyn, Sergiy; Aerts, J.C.J.H.; Apel, H.; Aronica, G.T.; Arnbjerg-Nielsen, K.; Bouwer, L.; Bubeck, P.; Caloiero, Tommaso; Chinh, Do. T.; Cortès, Maria; Gain, A.K.; Giampá, Vincenzo; Kuhlicke, C; Kundzewicz, Z.W.; Carmen Llasat, M; Mård, Johanna; Matczak, Piotr; Mazzoleni, Maurizio; Molinari, Daniela; Dung, N.V.; Petrucci, Olga; Schröter, Kai; Slager, Kymo; Thieken, A.H.; Ward, P.J.; Merz, B.

    2017-01-01

    As flood impacts are increasing in large parts of the world, understanding the primary drivers of changes in risk is essential for effective adaptation. To gain more knowledge on the basis of empirical case studies, we analyze eight paired floods, that is, consecutive flood events that occurred in

  19. Two-step processing of oil shale to linear hydrocarbons

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Eliseev, O.L.; Ryzhov, A.N.; Latypova, D.Zh.; Lapidus, A.L. [Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow (Russian Federation). N.D. Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry; Avakyan, T.A. [Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas, Moscow (Russian Federation)

    2013-11-01

    Thermal and catalytic steam reforming of oil shale mined from Leningrad and Kashpir deposits was studied. Experiments were performed in fixed bed reactor by varying temperature and steam flow rate. Data obtained were approximated by empirical formulas containing some parameters calculated by least-squares method. Thus predicting amount of hydrogen, carbon monoxide and methane in producer gas is possible for given particular kind of oil shale, temperature and steam flow rate. Adding Ni catalyst enriches hydrogen and depletes CO content in effluent gas at low gasification temperatures. Modeling gas simulating steam reforming gases (H{sub 2}, CO, CO{sub 2}, and N{sub 2} mixture) was tested in hydrocarbon synthesis over Co-containing supported catalyst. Selectivity of CO conversion into C{sub 5+} hydrocarbons reaches 84% while selectivity to methane is 7%. Molecular weight distribution of synthesized alkanes obeys Anderson-Schulz-Flory equation and chain growth probability 0.84. (orig.)

  20. World oil and agricultural commodity prices: Evidence from nonlinear causality

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nazlioglu, Saban

    2011-01-01

    The increasing co-movements between the world oil and agricultural commodity prices have renewed interest in determining price transmission from oil prices to those of agricultural commodities. This study extends the literature on the oil-agricultural commodity prices nexus, which particularly concentrates on nonlinear causal relationships between the world oil and three key agricultural commodity prices (corn, soybeans, and wheat). To this end, the linear causality approach of Toda-Yamamoto and the nonparametric causality method of Diks-Panchenko are applied to the weekly data spanning from 1994 to 2010. The linear causality analysis indicates that the oil prices and the agricultural commodity prices do not influence each other, which supports evidence on the neutrality hypothesis. In contrast, the nonlinear causality analysis shows that: (i) there are nonlinear feedbacks between the oil and the agricultural prices, and (ii) there is a persistent unidirectional nonlinear causality running from the oil prices to the corn and to the soybeans prices. The findings from the nonlinear causality analysis therefore provide clues for better understanding the recent dynamics of the agricultural commodity prices and some policy implications for policy makers, farmers, and global investors. This study also suggests the directions for future studies. - Research highlights: → This study determines the price transmission mechanisms between the world oil and three key agricultural commodity prices (corn, soybeans, and wheat). → The linear and nonlinear cointegration and causality methods are carried out. → The linear causality analysis supports evidence on the neutrality hypothesis. → The nonlinear causality analysis shows that there is a persistent unidirectional causality from the oil prices to the corn and to the soybeans prices.

  1. Prehistoric floods on the Tennessee River—Assessing the use of stratigraphic records of past floods for improved flood-frequency analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harden, Tessa M.; O'Connor, Jim E.

    2017-06-14

    Stratigraphic analysis, coupled with geochronologic techniques, indicates that a rich history of large Tennessee River floods is preserved in the Tennessee River Gorge area. Deposits of flood sediment from the 1867 peak discharge of record (460,000 cubic feet per second at Chattanooga, Tennessee) are preserved at many locations throughout the study area at sites with flood-sediment accumulation. Small exposures at two boulder overhangs reveal evidence of three to four other floods similar in size, or larger, than the 1867 flood in the last 3,000 years—one possibly as much or more than 50 percent larger. Records of floods also are preserved in stratigraphic sections at the mouth of the gorge at Williams Island and near Eaves Ferry, about 70 river miles upstream of the gorge. These stratigraphic records may extend as far back as about 9,000 years ago, giving a long history of Tennessee River floods. Although more evidence is needed to confirm these findings, a more in-depth comprehensive paleoflood study is feasible for the Tennessee River.

  2. Floods in Serbia in the 1999-2009 period: Hydrological analysis and flood protection measures

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Milanović Ana

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available The review on greatest floods recorded in Vojvodina and central Serbia within the period from 1999 to 2009 is given in this paper. For 13 hydrological stations, that recorded the greatest floods for the present period, probability of occurrence of these floods has been accomplished. Based on analysis of time series of discharge and water level maximum, performed by applying probability theory and mathematical statistics, and calculated theoretical probability distribution function of floods, probability of occurrence of flood has been obtained. Most often the best agreement with the empirical distribution function had a Log-Pearson III, Pearson III distribution. These results can be used for dimensioning of hydro-technical objects for flood protection. The most significant causes for floods recorded in this period were melting of snow and intensive rainfall. In this paper the current situation of flood protection and future development of flood protection measures were also presented. .

  3. Effect of mineral oil, sunflower oil, and coconut oil on prevention of hair damage.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rele, Aarti S; Mohile, R B

    2003-01-01

    Previously published results showed that both in vitro and in vivo coconut oil (CNO) treatments prevented combing damage of various hair types. Using the same methodology, an attempt was made to study the properties of mineral oil and sunflower oil on hair. Mineral oil (MO) was selected because it is extensively used in hair oil formulations in India, because it is non-greasy in nature, and because it is cheaper than vegetable oils like coconut and sunflower oils. The study was extended to sunflower oil (SFO) because it is the second most utilized base oil in the hair oil industry on account of its non-freezing property and its odorlessness at ambient temperature. As the aim was to cover different treatments, and the effect of these treatments on various hair types using the above oils, the number of experiments to be conducted was a very high number and a technique termed as the Taguchi Design of Experimentation was used. The findings clearly indicate the strong impact that coconut oil application has to hair as compared to application of both sunflower and mineral oils. Among three oils, coconut oil was the only oil found to reduce the protein loss remarkably for both undamaged and damaged hair when used as a pre-wash and post-wash grooming product. Both sunflower and mineral oils do not help at all in reducing the protein loss from hair. This difference in results could arise from the composition of each of these oils. Coconut oil, being a triglyceride of lauric acid (principal fatty acid), has a high affinity for hair proteins and, because of its low molecular weight and straight linear chain, is able to penetrate inside the hair shaft. Mineral oil, being a hydrocarbon, has no affinity for proteins and therefore is not able to penetrate and yield better results. In the case of sunflower oil, although it is a triglyceride of linoleic acid, because of its bulky structure due to the presence of double bonds, it does not penetrate the fiber, consequently resulting

  4. Production, Characterization and Application of Bacillus licheniformis W16 Biosurfactant in Enhancing Oil Recovery

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sanket J. Joshi

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available The biosurfactant production by Bacillus licheniformis W16 and evaluation of biosurfactant based enhanced oil recovery using core-flood under reservoir conditions were investigated. Previously reported nine different production media were screened for biosurfactant production, and two were further optimized with different carbon sources (glucose, sucrose, starch, cane molasses or date molasses, as well as the strain was screened for biosurfactant production during the growth in different media. The biosurfactant reduced the surface tension and interfacial tension to 24.33+0.57mN m-1 and 2.47+0.32mN m-1 respectively within 72h, at 40 C, and also altered the wettability of a hydrophobic surface by changing the contact angle from 55.67°+1.6° to 19.54°+0.96°. The critical micelle dilution values of 4X were observed. The biosurfactants were characterized by different analytical techniques and identified as lipopeptide, similar to lichenysin-A. The biosurfactant was stable over wide range of extreme environmental conditions. The core flood experiments showed that the biosurfactant was able to enhance the oil recovery by 24-26% over residual oil saturation (Sor. The results highlight the potential application of lipopeptide biosurfactant in wettability alteration and microbial enhanced oil recovery processes.

  5. Microbial Activation of Bacillus subtilis-Immobilized Microgel Particles for Enhanced Oil Recovery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Son, Han Am; Choi, Sang Koo; Jeong, Eun Sook; Kim, Bohyun; Kim, Hyun Tae; Sung, Won Mo; Kim, Jin Woong

    2016-09-06

    Microbially enhanced oil recovery involves the use of microorganisms to extract oil remaining in reservoirs. Here, we report fabrication of microgel particles with immobilized Bacillus subtilis for application to microbially enhanced oil recovery. Using B. subtilis isolated from oil-contaminated soils in Myanmar, we evaluated the ability of this microbe to reduce the interfacial tension at the oil-water interface via production of biosurfactant molecules, eventually yielding excellent emulsification across a broad range of the medium pH and ionic strength. To safely deliver B. subtilis into a permeable porous medium, in this study, these bacteria were physically immobilized in a hydrogel mesh of microgel particles. In a core flooding experiment, in which the microgel particles were injected into a column packed with silica beads, we found that these particles significantly increased oil recovery in a concentration-dependent manner. This result shows that a mesh of microgel particles encapsulating biosurfactant-producing microorganisms holds promise for recovery of oil from porous media.

  6. Spatial coherence of flood-rich and flood-poor periods across Germany

    Science.gov (United States)

    Merz, Bruno; Dung, Nguyen Viet; Apel, Heiko; Gerlitz, Lars; Schröter, Kai; Steirou, Eva; Vorogushyn, Sergiy

    2018-04-01

    Despite its societal relevance, the question whether fluctuations in flood occurrence or magnitude are coherent in space has hardly been addressed in quantitative terms. We investigate this question for Germany by analysing fluctuations in annual maximum series (AMS) values at 68 discharge gauges for the common time period 1932-2005. We find remarkable spatial coherence across Germany given its different flood regimes. For example, there is a tendency that flood-rich/-poor years in sub-catchments of the Rhine basin, which are dominated by winter floods, coincide with flood-rich/-poor years in the southern sub-catchments of the Danube basin, which have their dominant flood season in summer. Our findings indicate that coherence is caused rather by persistence in catchment wetness than by persistent periods of higher/lower event precipitation. Further, we propose to differentiate between event-type and non-event-type coherence. There are quite a number of hydrological years with considerable non-event-type coherence, i.e. AMS values of the 68 gauges are spread out through the year but in the same magnitude range. Years with extreme flooding tend to be of event-type and non-coherent, i.e. there is at least one precipitation event that affects many catchments to various degree. Although spatial coherence is a remarkable phenomenon, and large-scale flooding across Germany can lead to severe situations, extreme magnitudes across the whole country within one event or within one year were not observed in the investigated period.

  7. Sex-specific responses to winter flooding, spring waterlogging and post-flooding recovery in Populus deltoides.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miao, Ling-Feng; Yang, Fan; Han, Chun-Yu; Pu, Yu-Jin; Ding, Yang; Zhang, Li-Jia

    2017-05-31

    Winter flooding events are common in some rivers and streams due to dam constructions, and flooding and waterlogging inhibit the growth of trees in riparian zones. This study investigated sex-specific morphological, physiological and ultrastructural responses to various durations of winter flooding and spring waterlogging stresses, and post-flooding recovery characteristics in Populus deltoides. There were no significant differences in the morphological, ultrastructural and the majority of physiological traits in trees subjected to medium and severe winter flooding stresses, suggesting that males and females of P. deltoides were winter flooding tolerant, and insensitive to winter flooding duration. Males were more tolerant to winter flooding stress in terms of photosynthesis and chlorophyll fluorescence than females. Females displayed greater oxidative damage due to flooding stress than males. Males developed more efficient antioxidant enzymatic systems to control reactive oxygen species. Both sexes had similarly strong post-flooding recovery capabilities in terms of plant growth, and physiological and ultrastructural parameters. However, Males had better recovery capabilities in terms of pigment content. These results increase the understanding of poplars's adaptation to winter flooding stress. They also elucidate sex-specific differences in response to flooding stress during the dormant season, and during post-flooding recovery periods.

  8. Flood Risk Management in the People’s Republic of China: Learning to Live with Flood Risk

    OpenAIRE

    Asian Development Bank (ADB); Asian Development Bank (ADB); Asian Development Bank (ADB); Asian Development Bank (ADB)

    2012-01-01

    This publication presents a shift in the People’s Republic of China from flood control depending on structural measures to integrated flood management using both structural and non-structural measures. The core of the new concept of integrated flood management is flood risk management. Flood risk management is based on an analysis of flood hazard, exposure to flood hazard, and vulnerability of people and property to danger. It is recommended that people learn to live with flood risks, gaining...

  9. Influence of spreading urbanization in flood areas on flood damage in Slovenia

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Komac, B; Zorn, M; Natek, K

    2008-01-01

    Damage caused by natural disasters in Slovenia is frequently linked to the ignoring of natural factors in spatial planning. Historically, the construction of buildings and settlements avoided dangerous flood areas, but later we see increasing construction in dangerous areas. During the floods in 1990, the most affected buildings were located on ill-considered locations, and the majority was built in more recent times. A similar situation occurred during the floods of September 2007. Comparing the effects of these floods, we determined that damage was always greater due to the urbanization of flood areas. This process furthermore increasingly limits the 'manoeuvring space' for water management authorities, who due to the torrential nature of Slovenia's rivers can not ensure the required level of safety from flooding for unsuitably located settlements and infrastructure. Every year, the Environmental Agency of the Republic of Slovenia issues more than one thousand permits for interventions in areas that affect the water regime, and through decrees the government allows construction in riparian zones, which is supposedly forbidden by the Law on Water. If we do not take measures with more suitable policies for spatial planning, we will no long have the possibility in future to reduce the negative consequences of floods. Given that torrential floods strike certain Slovene regions every three years on average and that larger floods occur at least once a decade, it is senseless to lay the blame on climate change.

  10. FloodProBE: technologies for improved safety of the built environment in relation to flood events

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ree, C.C.D.F. van; Van, M.A.; Heilemann, K.; Morris, M.W.; Royet, P.; Zevenbergen, C.

    2011-01-01

    The FloodProBE project started as a FP7 research project in November 2009. Floods, together with wind related storms, are considered the major natural hazard in the EU in terms of risk to people and assets. In order to adapt urban areas (in river and coastal zones) to prevent flooding or to be better prepared for floods, decision makers need to determine how to upgrade flood defences and increasing flood resilience of protected buildings and critical infrastructure (power supplies, communications, water, transport, etc.) and assess the expected risk reduction from these measures. The aim of the FloodProBE-project is to improve knowledge on flood resilience and flood protection performance for balancing investments in flood risk management in urban areas. To this end, technologies, methods and tools for assessment purposes and for the adaptation of new and existing buildings and critical infrastructure are developed, tested and disseminated. Three priority areas are addressed by FloodProBE. These are: (i) vulnerability of critical infrastructure and high-density value assets including direct and indirect damage, (ii) the assessment and reliability of urban flood defences including the use of geophysical methods and remote sensing techniques and (iii) concepts and technologies for upgrading weak links in flood defences as well as construction technologies for flood proofing buildings and infrastructure networks to increase the flood resilience of the urban system. The primary impact of FloodProBE in advancing knowledge in these areas is an increase in the cost-effectiveness (i.e. performance) of new and existing flood protection structures and flood resilience measures.

  11. Flood Finder: Mobile-based automated water level estimation and mapping during floods

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pongsiriyaporn, B; Jariyavajee, C; Laoharawee, N; Narkthong, N; Pitichat, T; Goldin, S E

    2014-01-01

    Every year, Southeast Asia faces numerous flooding disasters, resulting in very high human and economic loss. Responding to a sudden flood is difficult due to the lack of accurate and up-to- date information about the incoming water status. We have developed a mobile application called Flood Finder to solve this problem. Flood Finder allows smartphone users to measure, share and search for water level information at specified locations. The application uses image processing to compute the water level from a photo taken by users. The photo must be of a known reference object with a standard size. These water levels are more reliable and consistent than human estimates since they are derived from an algorithmic measuring function. Flood Finder uploads water level readings to the server, where they can be searched and mapped by other users via the mobile phone app or standard browsers. Given the widespread availability of smartphones in Asia, Flood Finder can provide more accurate and up-to-date information for better preparation for a flood disaster as well as life safety and property protection

  12. Estimation of Internal Flooding Frequency for Screening Analysis of Flooding PSA

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Choi, Sun Yeong; Yang, Jun Eon

    2005-01-01

    The purpose of this paper is to estimate the internal frequency for the quantitative screening analysis of the flooding PSA (Probabilistic Safety Assessment) with the appropriate data and estimation method. In the case of the existing flood PSA for domestic NPPs (Nuclear Power Plant), the screening analysis was performed firstly and then detailed analysis was performed for the area not screened out. For the quantitative screening analysis, the plant area based flood frequency by MLE (Maximum Likelihood Estimation) method was used, while the component based flood frequency is used for the detailed analysis. The existing quantitative screening analysis for domestic NPPs have used data from all LWRs (Light Water Reactor), namely PWR (Pressurized Water Reactor) and BWR (Boiling Water Reactor) for the internal flood frequency of the auxiliary building and turbine building. However, in the case of the primary auxiliary building, the applicability of the data from all LWRs needs to be examined carefully because of the significant difference in equipments between the PWR and BWR structure. NUREG/CR-5750 suggested the Bayesian update method with Jeffrey's noninformative prior to estimate the initiating event frequency for the flood. It, however, did not describe any procedure of the flood PSA. Recently, Fleming and Lydell suggested the internal flooding frequency in the unit of the plant operation year-pipe length (in meter) by pipe size of each specific system which is susceptible to the flooding such as the service water system and the circulating water system. They used the failure rate, the rupture conditional probability given the failure to estimate the internal flooding frequency, and the Bayesian update to reduce uncertainties. To perform the quantitative screening analysis with the method, it requires pipe length by each pipe size of the specific system per each divided area to change the concept of the component based frequency to the concept of the plant area

  13. Amplification of flood frequencies with local sea level rise and emerging flood regimes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buchanan, Maya K.; Oppenheimer, Michael; Kopp, Robert E.

    2017-06-01

    The amplification of flood frequencies by sea level rise (SLR) is expected to become one of the most economically damaging impacts of climate change for many coastal locations. Understanding the magnitude and pattern by which the frequency of current flood levels increase is important for developing more resilient coastal settlements, particularly since flood risk management (e.g. infrastructure, insurance, communications) is often tied to estimates of flood return periods. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fifth Assessment Report characterized the multiplication factor by which the frequency of flooding of a given height increases (referred to here as an amplification factor; AF). However, this characterization neither rigorously considered uncertainty in SLR nor distinguished between the amplification of different flooding levels (such as the 10% versus 0.2% annual chance floods); therefore, it may be seriously misleading. Because both historical flood frequency and projected SLR are uncertain, we combine joint probability distributions of the two to calculate AFs and their uncertainties over time. Under probabilistic relative sea level projections, while maintaining storm frequency fixed, we estimate a median 40-fold increase (ranging from 1- to 1314-fold) in the expected annual number of local 100-year floods for tide-gauge locations along the contiguous US coastline by 2050. While some places can expect disproportionate amplification of higher frequency events and thus primarily a greater number of historically precedented floods, others face amplification of lower frequency events and thus a particularly fast growing risk of historically unprecedented flooding. For example, with 50 cm of SLR, the 10%, 1%, and 0.2% annual chance floods are expected respectively to recur 108, 335, and 814 times as often in Seattle, but 148, 16, and 4 times as often in Charleston, SC.

  14. Short-term impacts of floods on enteric infectious disease in Qingdao, China, 2005-2011.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, F; Liu, Z; Gao, L; Zhang, C; Jiang, B

    2016-11-01

    The current study aimed to examine the relationship between floods and the three enteric infectious diseases, namely bacillary dysentery (BD), hand-foot-mouth disease (HFMD) and other infectious diarrhoea (OID) in Qingdao, China. Relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of floods on BD, HFMD and OID were calculated using a quasi-Poisson generalized linear model, adjusting for daily average temperature, daily average relative humidity, and seasonal and long-term temporal trends. Two separate models within two different periods were designed. Model 1 for the summer period showed that floods were positively associated with BD for 4- to 12-day lags, with the greatest effects for 7-day (RR 1·41, 95% CI 1·22-1·62) and 11-day (RR 1·42, 95% CI 1·22-1·64) lags. Similar findings were found in model 2 for the whole study period for 5- to 12-day lags. However, HFMD and OID were not significantly associated with floods in both models. Results from this study will provide insight into the health risks associated with floods and may help inform public health precautionary measures for such disasters.

  15. Geologic CO2 Sequestration: Predicting and Confirming Performance in Oil Reservoirs and Saline Aquifers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnson, J. W.; Nitao, J. J.; Newmark, R. L.; Kirkendall, B. A.; Nimz, G. J.; Knauss, K. G.; Ziagos, J. P.

    2002-05-01

    Reducing anthropogenic CO2 emissions ranks high among the grand scientific challenges of this century. In the near-term, significant reductions can only be achieved through innovative sequestration strategies that prevent atmospheric release of large-scale CO2 waste streams. Among such strategies, injection into confined geologic formations represents arguably the most promising alternative; and among potential geologic storage sites, oil reservoirs and saline aquifers represent the most attractive targets. Oil reservoirs offer a unique "win-win" approach because CO2 flooding is an effective technique of enhanced oil recovery (EOR), while saline aquifers offer immense storage capacity and widespread distribution. Although CO2-flood EOR has been widely used in the Permian Basin and elsewhere since the 1980s, the oil industry has just recently become concerned with the significant fraction of injected CO2 that eludes recycling and is therefore sequestered. This "lost" CO2 now has potential economic value in the growing emissions credit market; hence, the industry's emerging interest in recasting CO2 floods as co-optimized EOR/sequestration projects. The world's first saline aquifer storage project was also catalyzed in part by economics: Norway's newly imposed atmospheric emissions tax, which spurred development of Statoil's unique North Sea Sleipner facility in 1996. Successful implementation of geologic sequestration projects hinges on development of advanced predictive models and a diverse set of remote sensing, in situ sampling, and experimental techniques. The models are needed to design and forecast long-term sequestration performance; the monitoring techniques are required to confirm and refine model predictions and to ensure compliance with environmental regulations. We have developed a unique reactive transport modeling capability for predicting sequestration performance in saline aquifers, and used it to simulate CO2 injection at Sleipner; we are now

  16. Distillation Column Flooding Predictor

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    George E. Dzyacky

    2010-11-23

    The Flooding Predictor™ is a patented advanced control technology proven in research at the Separations Research Program, University of Texas at Austin, to increase distillation column throughput by over 6%, while also increasing energy efficiency by 10%. The research was conducted under a U. S. Department of Energy Cooperative Agreement awarded to George Dzyacky of 2ndpoint, LLC. The Flooding Predictor™ works by detecting the incipient flood point and controlling the column closer to its actual hydraulic limit than historical practices have allowed. Further, the technology uses existing column instrumentation, meaning no additional refining infrastructure is required. Refiners often push distillation columns to maximize throughput, improve separation, or simply to achieve day-to-day optimization. Attempting to achieve such operating objectives is a tricky undertaking that can result in flooding. Operators and advanced control strategies alike rely on the conventional use of delta-pressure instrumentation to approximate the column’s approach to flood. But column delta-pressure is more an inference of the column’s approach to flood than it is an actual measurement of it. As a consequence, delta pressure limits are established conservatively in order to operate in a regime where the column is never expected to flood. As a result, there is much “left on the table” when operating in such a regime, i.e. the capacity difference between controlling the column to an upper delta-pressure limit and controlling it to the actual hydraulic limit. The Flooding Predictor™, an innovative pattern recognition technology, controls columns at their actual hydraulic limit, which research shows leads to a throughput increase of over 6%. Controlling closer to the hydraulic limit also permits operation in a sweet spot of increased energy-efficiency. In this region of increased column loading, the Flooding Predictor is able to exploit the benefits of higher liquid

  17. Comparison between jojoba oil and other vegetable oils as a substitute to petroleum

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    El Kinawy, O. [National Research centre, Dokki, Cairo (Egypt)

    2004-06-15

    Jojoba oil and other vegetable oils, such as soybean, sunflower and castor oils, were evaluated to be used as lubricants. Three standard mineral lubricating oils were considered in this study as reference. The essential parameters tested for comparison were the oil viscosity, viscosity index, and viscosity--temperature and shear rate--shear stress relationships. The effect of excessive heating on the vegetable oils' stability was studied and the corresponding parameters were also measured. Jojoba oil was found to be the best among all tested oils, whereas it gave the minimum change in viscosity gradient and hence the highest viscosity index. There was a linear relation between shear rate and shear stress of all oils before and after heat deterioration. Therefore, these oils were considered as Newtonion liquids. However, the oil viscosity, as well as the rate of viscosity variation with temperature, ({delta}{sup '}{eta}/{delta}{tau}) were affected by heat deterioration being lowered in value, in case of jojoba oil, and higher value, in case of castor oil. Jojoba oil was examined for other important properties for its use as a lubricant, such as refractive index, acid value, peroxide value, saponification value, iodine value, flash, fire and pour points. (author)

  18. Evaluation of the prospects of using new methods of increasing the oil yields of beds in the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous SSR

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sorokin, V.A.

    1979-03-01

    An examination is made of priority sites for the development of oil fields in the Chechen-Ingush ASSR. Basic factors are presented concerning the testing and introduction of various methods of increasing oil yield in those fields: pumping gas under high pressure, steam heat treatment, and alkaline flooding.

  19. Challenges of Modeling Flood Risk at Large Scales

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guin, J.; Simic, M.; Rowe, J.

    2009-04-01

    algorithm propagates the flows for each simulated event. The model incorporates a digital terrain model (DTM) at 10m horizontal resolution, which is used to extract flood plain cross-sections such that a one-dimensional hydraulic model can be used to estimate extent and elevation of flooding. In doing so the effect of flood defenses in mitigating floods are accounted for. Finally a suite of vulnerability relationships have been developed to estimate flood losses for a portfolio of properties that are exposed to flood hazard. Historical experience indicates that a for recent floods in Great Britain more than 50% of insurance claims occur outside the flood plain and these are primarily a result of excess surface flow, hillside flooding, flooding due to inadequate drainage. A sub-component of the model addresses this issue by considering several parameters that best explain the variability of claims off the flood plain. The challenges of modeling such a complex phenomenon at a large scale largely dictate the choice of modeling approaches that need to be adopted for each of these model components. While detailed numerically-based physical models exist and have been used for conducting flood hazard studies, they are generally restricted to small geographic regions. In a probabilistic risk estimation framework like our current model, a blend of deterministic and statistical techniques have to be employed such that each model component is independent, physically sound and is able to maintain the statistical properties of observed historical data. This is particularly important because of the highly non-linear behavior of the flooding process. With respect to vulnerability modeling, both on and off the flood plain, the challenges include the appropriate scaling of a damage relationship when applied to a portfolio of properties. This arises from the fact that the estimated hazard parameter used for damage assessment, namely maximum flood depth has considerable uncertainty. The

  20. Preparation of a flood-risk environmental index: case study of eight townships in Changhua County, Taiwan.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peng, Szu-Hsien

    2018-02-26

    To evaluate flood-prone areas, correlation analysis of flooding factors for the quantitative evaluation of hazard degree was determined to assist in further disaster prevention management. This study used flood-prone areas in 35 villages over eight townships (Changhua, Huatan, Yuanlin, Xiushui, Puyan, Hemei, Dacun, and Erlin) in Changhua County as research samples. Linear combination was used to evaluate flood-prone environmental indices, and an expert questionnaire was designed by using the analytic hierarchy process and the Delphi method to determine the weights of factors. These factors were then used to calculate the eigenvector of a pairwise comparison matrix to obtain the weights for the risk assessment criteria. Through collection of disaster cases, with particular focus on specifically protected areas where flooding has occurred or is likely to occur, public adaptation and response capabilities were evaluated by using an interview questionnaire that contains the items of perceived disaster risk, resource acquisition capability, adaptation capability, and environment understanding and disaster prevention education. Overlays in a geographic information system were used to analyze the flood-risk degree in villages and to construct a distribution map that contains flood-prone environment indices. The results can assist local governments in understanding the risk degree of various administrative areas to aid them in developing effective mitigation plans.

  1. Impacts of repetitive floods and satisfaction with flood relief efforts: A case study of the flood-prone districts in Thailand’s Ayutthaya province

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nawhath Thanvisitthpon

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available This research investigates the impacts of the repetitive flooding on the inhabitants of the four flood-prone districts in Thailand’s central province of Ayutthaya: Pranakorn Si Ayutthaya, Sena, Bang Ban, and Pak Hai. In addition, the residents’ satisfaction levels with the flood relief efforts and operations of the local authorities were examined and analyzed. The research revealed that most local residents have adapted to co-exist with the repetitive floods, an example of which is the elevation of the houses a few meters above the ground where the living quarter is on the upper level. The findings also indicated that the repetitive flooding incurred substantial post-flood repair costs, in light of the low income-earning capabilities of the locals. However, the flood-recovery financial aids was incommensurate with the actual expenditures, contributing to the lowest average satisfaction score among the inhabitants with regard to the adequacy of the post-flood repair and restoration financial aid. Furthermore, the research identified the differences between districts on the satisfaction with the flood relief efforts. The disparity could be attributed to the extent of coordination and participation of the local residents and their local leaders in the flood-related measures.

  2. An Improved CO2-Crude Oil Minimum Miscibility Pressure Correlation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hao Zhang

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Minimum miscibility pressure (MMP, which plays an important role in miscible flooding, is a key parameter in determining whether crude oil and gas are completely miscible. On the basis of 210 groups of CO2-crude oil system minimum miscibility pressure data, an improved CO2-crude oil system minimum miscibility pressure correlation was built by modified conjugate gradient method and global optimizing method. The new correlation is a uniform empirical correlation to calculate the MMP for both thin oil and heavy oil and is expressed as a function of reservoir temperature, C7+ molecular weight of crude oil, and mole fractions of volatile components (CH4 and N2 and intermediate components (CO2, H2S, and C2~C6 of crude oil. Compared to the eleven most popular and relatively high-accuracy CO2-oil system MMP correlations in the previous literature by other nine groups of CO2-oil MMP experimental data, which have not been used to develop the new correlation, it is found that the new empirical correlation provides the best reproduction of the nine groups of CO2-oil MMP experimental data with a percentage average absolute relative error (%AARE of 8% and a percentage maximum absolute relative error (%MARE of 21%, respectively.

  3. An additive to well injection water for increasing the oil yield

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Absov, M.T.; Abutalybov, M.G.; Aslanov, S.M.; Movruzov, E.N.; Musaev, R.A.; Tairov, N.D.

    1979-03-05

    This invention relates to oil production using flooding. The goal of this invention is to increase the oil yield of a producing formation. This is achieved by using a saponin solution as an additive to the water injected into the formation (with related organic substances which are complex organic nitrogen-free compounds from the glycoside group; these substances yield solution that foam easily with an agitation). The use of saponin facilitates good solubility in fresh, sea and formation (alkaline and hard) waters, as well as the absence of sediment formation during dissolution, low solid adsorption, and a significant decrease in the surface water tension on the oil-water boundary. The aqueous saponin solution makes it possible to decrease the production cost of oil, as well as to decrease the development time of the fields and the volume of water injected into the formation and to significantly increase the oil yield.

  4. Urban pluvial flood prediction

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Thorndahl, Søren Liedtke; Nielsen, Jesper Ellerbæk; Jensen, David Getreuer

    2016-01-01

    Flooding produced by high-intensive local rainfall and drainage system capacity exceedance can have severe impacts in cities. In order to prepare cities for these types of flood events – especially in the future climate – it is valuable to be able to simulate these events numerically both...... historically and in real-time. There is a rather untested potential in real-time prediction of urban floods. In this paper radar data observations with different spatial and temporal resolution, radar nowcasts of 0–2 h lead time, and numerical weather models with lead times up to 24 h are used as inputs...... to an integrated flood and drainage systems model in order to investigate the relative difference between different inputs in predicting future floods. The system is tested on a small town Lystrup in Denmark, which has been flooded in 2012 and 2014. Results show it is possible to generate detailed flood maps...

  5. FLOOD MENACE IN KADUNA METROPOLIS: IMPACTS ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Dr A.B.Ahmed

    damage, causes of flooding, human response to flooding and severity of ... from moving out. Source of ... Man responds to flood hazards through adjustment, flood abatement ... action to minimize or ameliorate flood hazards; flood abatement.

  6. Physical and economic impacts of sea-level rise and low probability flooding events on coastal communities.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Thomas Prime

    Full Text Available Conventionally flood mapping typically includes only a static water level (e.g. peak of a storm tide in coastal flood inundation events. Additional factors become increasingly important when increased water-level thresholds are met during the combination of a storm tide and increased mean sea level. This research incorporates factors such as wave overtopping and river flow in a range of flood inundation scenarios of future sea-level projections for a UK case study of Fleetwood, northwest England. With increasing mean sea level it is shown that wave overtopping and river forcing have an important bearing on the cost of coastal flood events. The method presented converts inundation maps into monetary cost. This research demonstrates that under scenarios of joint extreme surge-wave-river events the cost of flooding can be increased by up to a factor of 8 compared with an increase in extent of up to a factor of 3 relative to "surge alone" event. This is due to different areas being exposed to different flood hazards and areas with common hazard where flood waters combine non-linearly. This shows that relying simply on flood extent and volume can under-predict the actual economic impact felt by a coastal community. Additionally, the scenario inundation depths have been presented as "brick course" maps, which represent a new way of interpreting flood maps. This is primarily aimed at stakeholders to increase levels of engagement within the coastal community.

  7. Physical and economic impacts of sea-level rise and low probability flooding events on coastal communities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Prime, Thomas; Brown, Jennifer M; Plater, Andrew J

    2015-01-01

    Conventionally flood mapping typically includes only a static water level (e.g. peak of a storm tide) in coastal flood inundation events. Additional factors become increasingly important when increased water-level thresholds are met during the combination of a storm tide and increased mean sea level. This research incorporates factors such as wave overtopping and river flow in a range of flood inundation scenarios of future sea-level projections for a UK case study of Fleetwood, northwest England. With increasing mean sea level it is shown that wave overtopping and river forcing have an important bearing on the cost of coastal flood events. The method presented converts inundation maps into monetary cost. This research demonstrates that under scenarios of joint extreme surge-wave-river events the cost of flooding can be increased by up to a factor of 8 compared with an increase in extent of up to a factor of 3 relative to "surge alone" event. This is due to different areas being exposed to different flood hazards and areas with common hazard where flood waters combine non-linearly. This shows that relying simply on flood extent and volume can under-predict the actual economic impact felt by a coastal community. Additionally, the scenario inundation depths have been presented as "brick course" maps, which represent a new way of interpreting flood maps. This is primarily aimed at stakeholders to increase levels of engagement within the coastal community.

  8. Characterization of remarkable floods in France, a transdisciplinary approach applied on generalized floods of January 1910

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boudou, Martin; Lang, Michel; Vinet, Freddy; Coeur, Denis

    2014-05-01

    The 2007 Flood Directive promotes the integration and valorization of historical and significant floods in flood risk management (Flood Directive Text, chapter II, and article 4). Taking into account extreme past floods analysis seems necessary in the mitigation process of vulnerability face to flooding risk. In France, this aspect of the Directive was carried out through the elaboration of Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment (PFRA) and the establishment of a 2000 floods list. From this first list, a sample of 176 floods, considered as remarkable has been selected. These floods were compiled in discussion with local authorities in charge of flood management (Lang et al., 2012) and have to be integrated in priority in local risk management policies. However, a consideration emerges about this classification: how a remarkable flood can be defined? According which criteria can it be considered as remarkable? To answer these questions, a methodology has been established by building an evaluation grid of remarkable floods in France. The primary objective of this grid is to analyze the remarkable flood's characteristics (hydrological and meteorological characteristics, sociological- political and economic impacts), and secondly to propose a classification of significant floods selected in the 2011 PFRA. To elaborate this evaluation grid, several issues had to be taken into account. First, the objective is to allow the comparison of events from various periods. These temporal disparities include the integration of various kinds of data and point out the importance of historical hydrology. It is possible to evaluate accurately the characteristics of recent floods by interpreting quantitative data (for example hydrological records. However, for floods that occurred before the 1960's it is necessary resorting to qualitative information such as written sources is necessary (Coeur, Lang, 2008). In a second part the evaluation grid requires equitable criteria in order not to

  9. Do flood risk perceptions provide useful insights for flood risk management? Findings from central Vietnam

    OpenAIRE

    Bubeck, P.; Botzen, W.J.W.; Suu, L.T.T.; Aerts, J.C.J.H.

    2012-01-01

    Following the renewed attention for non-structural flood risk reduction measures implemented at the household level, there has been an increased interest in individual flood risk perceptions. The reason for this is the commonly-made assumption that flood risk perceptions drive the motivation of individuals to undertake flood risk mitigation measures, as well as the public's demand for flood protection, and therefore provide useful insights for flood risk management. This study empirically exa...

  10. High-resolution flood modeling of urban areas using MSN_Flood

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michael Hartnett

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available Although existing hydraulic models have been used to simulate and predict urban flooding, most of these models are inadequate due to the high spatial resolution required to simulate flows in urban floodplains. Nesting high-resolution subdomains within coarser-resolution models is an efficient solution for enabling simultaneous calculation of flooding due to tides, surges, and high river flows. MSN_Flood has been developed to incorporate moving boundaries around nested domains, permitting alternate flooding and drying along the boundary and in the interior of the domain. Ghost cells adjacent to open boundary cells convert open boundaries, in effect, into internal boundaries. The moving boundary may be multi-segmented and non-continuous, with recirculating flow across the boundary. When combined with a bespoke adaptive interpolation scheme, this approach facilitates a dynamic internal boundary. Based on an alternating-direction semi-implicit finite difference scheme, MSN_Flood was used to hindcast a major flood event in Cork City resulting from the combined pressures of fluvial, tidal, and storm surge processes. The results show that the model is computationally efficient, as the 2-m high-resolution nest is used only in the urban flooded region. Elsewhere, lower-resolution nests are used. The results also show that the model is highly accurate when compared with measured data. The model is capable of incorporating nested sub-domains when the nested boundary is multi-segmented and highly complex with lateral gradients of elevation and velocities. This is a major benefit when modelling urban floodplains at very high resolution.

  11. Effective Viscosity in Porous Media and Applicable Limitations for Polymer Flooding of an Associative Polymer

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhang Peng

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available Hydrophobically associating polyacrylamide (HAPAM is considered to be a promising candidate for polymer flooding because of its excellent apparent viscosifying capability. Compared with partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM, the resistance factor and residual resistance factor caused by HAPAM tend to be higher. However, the effective viscosity of HAPAM is lower than that of conventional polymer at a concentration of 2 000 mg/L. The dynamic retention capacity of HAPAM is about 2.3 times that of HPAM. The oil displacement efficiency of HAPAM is lower than that of conventional polymer at a concentration of 2 000 mg/L in the homogeneous sandpack model. The oil displacement efficiency of HAPAM is higher than that of HPAM only in the heterogeneous model (permeability ratio 2.8. Neither high nor low permeability ratios are good for the oil displacement efficiency of HAPAM.

  12. Interpreting the impact of flood forecasts by combining policy analysis studies and flood defence

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Slomp Robert

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Flood forecasting is necessary to save lives and reduce damages. Reducing damages is important to save livelihoods and to reduce the recovery time. Flood alerts should contain expected time of the event, location and extent of the event. A flood alert is not only one message but part of a rehearsed flow of information using multiple canals. First people have to accept the fact that there might be a threat and what the threat is about. People need a reference to understand the situation and be aware of possible measures they can take to assure their own safety and reduce damages. Information to the general public has to be consistent with the information used by emergency services and has to be very clear about consequences and context of possible measures (as shelter in place or preventive evacuation. Emergency services should monitor how the public is responding to adapt their communication en operation during a crisis. Flood warnings and emergency services are often coordinated by different government organisations. This is an extra handicap for having consistent information out on time for people to use. In an information based society, where everyone has twitter, email and a camera, public organisations may have to trust the public more and send out the correct information as it comes in. In the Netherlands Rijkswaterstaat, the National Water Authority and the National Public Works Department, is responsible for or involved in forecasting in case of floods, policy studies on flood risk, policy studies on maintenance, assessment and design of flood defences, elaborating rules and regulations for flood defences, advice on crisis management to the national government and for maintaining the main infrastructure in the Netherlands (high ways and water ways. The Water Management Center in the Netherlands (WMCN has developed a number of models to provide flood forecasts. WMCN is run for and by all managers of flood defences and is hosted by

  13. Iowa Flood Information System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Demir, I.; Krajewski, W. F.; Goska, R.; Mantilla, R.; Weber, L. J.; Young, N.

    2011-12-01

    The Iowa Flood Information System (IFIS) is a web-based platform developed by the Iowa Flood Center (IFC) to provide access to flood inundation maps, real-time flood conditions, flood forecasts both short-term and seasonal, flood-related data, information and interactive visualizations for communities in Iowa. The key element of the system's architecture is the notion of community. Locations of the communities, those near streams and rivers, define basin boundaries. The IFIS provides community-centric watershed and river characteristics, weather (rainfall) conditions, and streamflow data and visualization tools. Interactive interfaces allow access to inundation maps for different stage and return period values, and flooding scenarios with contributions from multiple rivers. Real-time and historical data of water levels, gauge heights, and rainfall conditions are available in the IFIS by streaming data from automated IFC bridge sensors, USGS stream gauges, NEXRAD radars, and NWS forecasts. Simple 2D and 3D interactive visualizations in the IFIS make the data more understandable to general public. Users are able to filter data sources for their communities and selected rivers. The data and information on IFIS is also accessible through web services and mobile applications. The IFIS is optimized for various browsers and screen sizes to provide access through multiple platforms including tablets and mobile devices. The IFIS includes a rainfall-runoff forecast model to provide a five-day flood risk estimate for around 500 communities in Iowa. Multiple view modes in the IFIS accommodate different user types from general public to researchers and decision makers by providing different level of tools and details. River view mode allows users to visualize data from multiple IFC bridge sensors and USGS stream gauges to follow flooding condition along a river. The IFIS will help communities make better-informed decisions on the occurrence of floods, and will alert communities

  14. Design flood hydrographs from the relationship between flood peak and volume

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    L. Mediero

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available Hydrological frequency analyses are usually focused on flood peaks. Flood volumes and durations have not been studied as extensively, although there are many practical situations, such as when designing a dam, in which the full hydrograph is of interest. A flood hydrograph may be described by a multivariate function of the peak, volume and duration. Most standard bivariate and trivariate functions do not produce univariate three-parameter functions as marginal distributions, however, three-parameter functions are required to fit highly skewed data, such as flood peak and flood volume series. In this paper, the relationship between flood peak and hydrograph volume is analysed to overcome this problem. A Monte Carlo experiment was conducted to generate an ensemble of hydrographs that maintain the statistical properties of marginal distributions of the peaks, volumes and durations. This ensemble can be applied to determine the Design Flood Hydrograph (DFH for a reservoir, which is not a unique hydrograph, but rather a curve in the peak-volume space. All hydrographs on that curve have the same return period, which can be understood as the inverse of the probability to exceed a certain water level in the reservoir in any given year. The procedure can also be applied to design the length of the spillway crest in terms of the risk of exceeding a given water level in the reservoir.

  15. Flood action plans

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Slopek, R.J.

    1995-01-01

    Safe operating procedures developed by TransAlta Utilities for dealing with flooding, resulting from upstream dam failures or extreme rainfalls, were presented. Several operating curves developed by Monenco AGRA were described, among them the No Overtopping Curve (NOC), the Safe Filling Curve (SFC), the No Spill Curve (NSC) and the Guaranteed Fill Curve (GFC). The concept of an operational comfort zone was developed and defined. A flood action plan for all operating staff was created as a guide in case of a flooding incident. Staging of a flood action plan workshop was described. Dam break scenarios pertinent to the Bow River were developed for subsequent incorporation into a Flood Action Plan Manual. Evaluation of the technical presentations made during workshops were found them to have been effective in providing operating staff with a better understanding of the procedures that they would perform in an emergency. 8 figs

  16. Dynamic Optimization of a Polymer Flooding Process Based on Implicit Discrete Maximum Principle

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yang Lei

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Polymer flooding is one of the most important technologies for enhanced oil recovery (EOR. In this paper, an optimal control model of distributed parameter systems (DPSs for polymer injection strategies is established, which involves the performance index as maximum of the profit, the governing equations as the fluid flow equations of polymer flooding, and some inequality constraints as polymer concentration and injection amount limitation. The optimal control model is discretized by full implicit finite-difference method. To cope with the discrete optimal control problem (OCP, the necessary conditions for optimality are obtained through application of the calculus of variations and Pontryagin’s discrete maximum principle. A modified gradient method with new adjoint construction is proposed for the computation of optimal injection strategies. The numerical results of an example illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

  17. The development of flood map in Malaysia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zakaria, Siti Fairus; Zin, Rosli Mohamad; Mohamad, Ismail; Balubaid, Saeed; Mydin, Shaik Hussein; MDR, E. M. Roodienyanto

    2017-11-01

    In Malaysia, flash floods are common occurrences throughout the year in flood prone areas. In terms of flood extent, flash floods affect smaller areas but because of its tendency to occur in densely urbanized areas, the value of damaged property is high and disruption to traffic flow and businesses are substantial. However, in river floods especially the river floods of Kelantan and Pahang, the flood extent is widespread and can extend over 1,000 square kilometers. Although the value of property and density of affected population is lower, the damage inflicted by these floods can also be high because the area affected is large. In order to combat these floods, various flood mitigation measures have been carried out. Structural flood mitigation alone can only provide protection levels from 10 to 100 years Average Recurrence Intervals (ARI). One of the economically effective non-structural approaches in flood mitigation and flood management is using a geospatial technology which involves flood forecasting and warning services to the flood prone areas. This approach which involves the use of Geographical Information Flood Forecasting system also includes the generation of a series of flood maps. There are three types of flood maps namely Flood Hazard Map, Flood Risk Map and Flood Evacuation Map. Flood Hazard Map is used to determine areas susceptible to flooding when discharge from a stream exceeds the bank-full stage. Early warnings of incoming flood events will enable the flood victims to prepare themselves before flooding occurs. Properties and life's can be saved by keeping their movable properties above the flood levels and if necessary, an early evacuation from the area. With respect to flood fighting, an early warning with reference through a series of flood maps including flood hazard map, flood risk map and flood evacuation map of the approaching flood should be able to alert the organization in charge of the flood fighting actions and the authority to

  18. Authentication of edible vegetable oils adulterated with used frying oil by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Qing; Liu, Cheng; Sun, Zhijian; Hu, Xiaosong; Shen, Qun; Wu, Jihong

    2012-06-01

    The application of Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy to authenticate edible vegetable oils (corn, peanut, rapeseed and soybean oil) adulterated with used frying oil was introduced in this paper. The FTIR spectrum of oil was divided into 22 regions which corresponded to the constituents and molecular structures of vegetable oils. Samples of calibration set were classified into four categories for corn and peanut oils and five categories for rapeseed and soybean oils by cluster analysis. Qualitative analysis of validation set was obtained by discriminant analysis. Area ratio between absorption band 19 and 20 and wavenumber shift of band 19 were treated by linear regression for quantitative analysis. For four adulteration types, LODs of area ratio were 6.6%, 7.2%, 5.5%, 3.6% and wavenumber shift were 8.1%, 9.0%, 6.9%, 5.6%, respectively. The proposed methodology is a useful tool to authenticate the edible vegetable oils adulterated with used frying oil. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. 2 Dimensional Hydrodynamic Flood Routing Analysis on Flood Forecasting Modelling for Kelantan River Basin

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Azad Wan Hazdy

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Flood disaster occurs quite frequently in Malaysia and has been categorized as the most threatening natural disaster compared to landslides, hurricanes, tsunami, haze and others. A study by Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID show that 9% of land areas in Malaysia are prone to flood which may affect approximately 4.9 million of the population. 2 Dimensional floods routing modelling demonstrate is turning out to be broadly utilized for flood plain display and is an extremely viable device for evaluating flood. Flood propagations can be better understood by simulating the flow and water level by using hydrodynamic modelling. The hydrodynamic flood routing can be recognized by the spatial complexity of the schematization such as 1D model and 2D model. It was found that most of available hydrological models for flood forecasting are more focus on short duration as compared to long duration hydrological model using the Probabilistic Distribution Moisture Model (PDM. The aim of this paper is to discuss preliminary findings on development of flood forecasting model using Probabilistic Distribution Moisture Model (PDM for Kelantan river basin. Among the findings discuss in this paper includes preliminary calibrated PDM model, which performed reasonably for the Dec 2014, but underestimated the peak flows. Apart from that, this paper also discusses findings on Soil Moisture Deficit (SMD and flood plain analysis. Flood forecasting is the complex process that begins with an understanding of the geographical makeup of the catchment and knowledge of the preferential regions of heavy rainfall and flood behaviour for the area of responsibility. Therefore, to decreases the uncertainty in the model output, so it is important to increase the complexity of the model.

  20. Displacement of oil by carbon dioxide. Final report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Orr, Jr., F. M.; Taber, J. J.

    1981-05-01

    Results of a comprehensive research program on factors influencing CO/sub 2/ flooding are reported. Equipment constructed for static equilibrium measurements of phase volumes, compositions, densities and viscosities is described. Design of an apparatus used for a variety of displacement tests is also reported. Apparatus and experimental procedures are described for a new experiment in which equilibrium phase compositions can be measured rapidly and continuously. Results of displacements of crude oil from slim tubes, cores and mixing cells are presented and interpreted in terms of detailed measurements of the phase behavior and fluid properties of the CO/sub 2/-crude oil mixtures. The complex phase behavior of low temperature CO/sub 2/-crude oil mixtures is described and compared with similar behavior for CO/sub 2/-alkane mixtures. A simple correlation is offered for the ranges of reservoir temperature and pressure at which liquid-liquid and liquid-liquid-vapor phase behavior should be expected to occur. Direct evidence is presented of the efficiency with which a CO/sub 2/-rich liquid phase can extract hydrocarbons from a crude oil. A simple one-dimensional process simulator for CO/sub 2/ flooding applications is described. Simulation results are compared with experimental data from slim tube displacements. Good agreement is reported between calculated and experimental results as long as the volume change of CO/sub 2/ on mixing with the oil is not too great.Sensitivity of calculated results to phase behavior and fluid properties is discussed. Comparison of displacement results, phase behavior measurements, and model calculations provides strong evidence that the high displacement efficiency which can be obtained when pressure is high enough and viscous fingering is controlled is the result of efficient extraction of a broad range of hydrocarbons by a dense CO/sub 2/-rich phase which is a liquid if the temperature is below about 50/sup 0/C (130/sup 0/F).

  1. Synergies for Improving Oil Palm Production and Forest Conservation in Floodplain Landscapes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abram, Nicola K.; Xofis, Panteleimon; Tzanopoulos, Joseph; MacMillan, Douglas C.; Ancrenaz, Marc; Chung, Robin; Peter, Lucy; Ong, Robert; Lackman, Isabelle; Goossens, Benoit; Ambu, Laurentius; Knight, Andrew T.

    2014-01-01

    Lowland tropical forests are increasingly threatened with conversion to oil palm as global demand and high profit drives crop expansion throughout the world’s tropical regions. Yet, landscapes are not homogeneous and regional constraints dictate land suitability for this crop. We conducted a regional study to investigate spatial and economic components of forest conversion to oil palm within a tropical floodplain in the Lower Kinabatangan, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. The Kinabatangan ecosystem harbours significant biodiversity with globally threatened species but has suffered forest loss and fragmentation. We mapped the oil palm and forested landscapes (using object-based-image analysis, classification and regression tree analysis and on-screen digitising of high-resolution imagery) and undertook economic modelling. Within the study region (520,269 ha), 250,617 ha is cultivated with oil palm with 77% having high Net-Present-Value (NPV) estimates ($413/ha− yr–$637/ha− yr); but 20.5% is under-producing. In fact 6.3% (15,810 ha) of oil palm is commercially redundant (with negative NPV of $-299/ha− yr-$-65/ha− yr) due to palm mortality from flood inundation. These areas would have been important riparian or flooded forest types. Moreover, 30,173 ha of unprotected forest remain and despite its value for connectivity and biodiversity 64% is allocated for future oil palm. However, we estimate that at minimum 54% of these forests are unsuitable for this crop due to inundation events. If conversion to oil palm occurs, we predict a further 16,207 ha will become commercially redundant. This means that over 32,000 ha of forest within the floodplain would have been converted for little or no financial gain yet with significant cost to the ecosystem. Our findings have globally relevant implications for similar floodplain landscapes undergoing forest transformation to agriculture such as oil palm. Understanding landscape level constraints to this crop, and transferring

  2. Use of documentary sources on past flood events for flood risk management and land planning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cœur, Denis; Lang, Michel

    2008-09-01

    The knowledge of past catastrophic events can improve flood risk mitigation policy, with a better awareness against risk. As such historical information is usually available in Europe for the past five centuries, historians are able to understand how past society dealt with flood risk, and hydrologists can include information on past floods into an adapted probabilistic framework. In France, Flood Risk Mitigation Maps are based either on the largest historical known flood event or on the 100-year flood event if it is greater. Two actions can be suggested in terms of promoting the use of historical information for flood risk management: (1) the development of a regional flood data base, with both historical and current data, in order to get a good feedback on recent events and to improve the flood risk education and awareness; (2) the commitment to keep a persistent/perennial management of a reference network of hydrometeorological observations for climate change studies.

  3. Improvement of CO sub 2 flood performance

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Martin, D.F.; Heller, J.P.

    1991-06-01

    This is the final report of a six-year research project devoted to the study of processes of oil displacement using dense carbon dioxide. The topics studied have included phase behavior and physical properties of mixtures of crude oil with CO{sub 2}, the phenomena involved in the displacement of oil through reservoir rock under oilfield conditions, the influence of stabilized lamella or CO{sub 2}-foam on this displacement and the development of computer programs to simulate the displacement. In addition, the occurrence of nonuniformities in the displacement pattern has also been considered. The effect on displacement of permeability heterogeneities in the reservoir have been studied geostatistically and by direct numerical modelling. Displacement nonuniformities that are induced by viscosity and density differences between displaced and displacing fluids have also been considered, and efforts are described for the development of two different types of additive for purposes of mobility control of CO{sub 2} floods. One of these is the so-called CO{sub 2}-foam, formed by simultaneous flow through the formation of dense CO{sub 2} with a water solution of a special surfactant. The second type under development in the project is known as direct thickener, and consists of a polymer that is soluble in dense CO{sub 2} and able to viscosify it. Significant progress is reported on all of the topics mentioned above. 174 refs., 186 figs., 41 tabs.

  4. Evaluation of Flooding Risk and Engineering Protection Against Floods for Ulan-Ude

    Science.gov (United States)

    Borisova, T. A.

    2017-11-01

    The report presents the results of the study on analysis and risk assessment in relation to floods for Ulan-Ude and provides the developed recommendations of the activities for engineering protection of the population and economic installations. The current situation is reviewed and the results of the site survey are shown to identify the challenges and areas of negative water influence along with the existing security system. The report presents a summary of floods and index risk assessment. The articles describes the scope of eventual flooding, underflooding and enumerates the economic installations inside the urban areas’ research-based zones of flooding at the rated levels of water to identify the likeliness of exceedance. The assessment of damage from flood equal to 1% is shown.

  5. Oil-in-oil emulsions stabilised solely by solid particles.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Binks, Bernard P; Tyowua, Andrew T

    2016-01-21

    A brief review of the stabilisation of emulsions of two immiscible oils is given. We then describe the use of fumed silica particles coated with either hydrocarbon or fluorocarbon groups in acting as sole stabilisers of emulsions of various vegetable oils with linear silicone oils (PDMS) of different viscosity. Transitional phase inversion of emulsions, containing equal volumes of the two oils, from silicone-in-vegetable (S/V) to vegetable-in-silicone (V/S) occurs upon increasing the hydrophobicity of the particles. Close to inversion, emulsions are stable to coalescence and gravity-induced separation for at least one year. Increasing the viscosity of the silicone oil enables stable S/V emulsions to be prepared even with relatively hydrophilic particles. Predictions of emulsion type from calculated contact angles of a silica particle at the oil-oil interface are in agreement with experiment provided a small polar contribution to the surface energy of the oils is included. We also show that stable multiple emulsions of V/S/V can be prepared in a two-step procedure using two particle types of different hydrophobicity. At fixed particle concentration, catastrophic phase inversion of emulsions from V/S to S/V can be effected by increasing the volume fraction of vegetable oil. Finally, in the case of sunflower oil + 20 cS PDMS, the study is extended to particles other than silica which differ in chemical type, particle size and particle shape. Consistent with the above findings, we find that only sufficiently hydrophobic particles (clay, zinc oxide, silicone, calcium carbonate) can act as efficient V/S emulsion stabilisers.

  6. Global sensitivity analysis of Alkali-Surfactant-Polymer enhanced oil recovery processes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Carrero, Enrique; Queipo, Nestor V.; Pintos, Salvador; Zerpa, Luis E. [Applied Computing Institute, Faculty of Engineering, University of Zulia, Zulia (Venezuela)

    2007-08-15

    After conventional waterflooding processes the residual oil in the reservoir remains as a discontinuous phase in the form of oil drops trapped by capillary forces and is likely to be around 70% of the original oil in place (OOIP). The EOR method so-called Alkaline-Surfactant-Polymer (ASP) flooding has been proved to be effective in reducing the oil residual saturation in laboratory experiments and field projects through reduction of interfacial tension and mobility ratio between oil and water phases. A critical step for the optimal design and control of ASP recovery processes is to find the relative contributions of design variables such as, slug size and chemical concentrations, in the variability of given performance measures (e.g., net present value, cumulative oil recovery), considering a heterogeneous and multiphase petroleum reservoir (sensitivity analysis). Previously reported works using reservoir numerical simulation have been limited to local sensitivity analyses because a global sensitivity analysis may require hundreds or even thousands of computationally expensive evaluations (field scale numerical simulations). To overcome this issue, a surrogate-based approach is suggested. Surrogate-based analysis/optimization makes reference to the idea of constructing an alternative fast model (surrogate) from numerical simulation data and using it for analysis/optimization purposes. This paper presents an efficient global sensitivity approach based on Sobol's method and multiple surrogates (i.e., Polynomial Regression, Kriging, Radial Base Functions and a Weighed Adaptive Model), with the multiple surrogates used to address the uncertainty in the analysis derived from plausible alternative surrogate-modeling schemes. The proposed approach was evaluated in the context of the global sensitivity analysis of a field scale Alkali-Surfactant-Polymer flooding process. The design variables and the performance measure in the ASP process were selected as slug size

  7. Transport and Phase Equilibria Properties for Steam Flooding of Heavy Oils

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gabitto, Jorge; Barrufet, Maria

    2002-11-20

    The objectives of this research included experimental determination and rigorous modeling and computation of phase equilibrium diagrams, volumetric, and transport properties of hydrocarbon/CO2/water mixtures at pressures and temperatures typical of steam injection processes for thermal recovery of heavy oils.

  8. Review of the flood risk management system in Germany after the major flood in 2013

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Annegret H. Thieken

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Widespread flooding in June 2013 caused damage costs of €6 to 8 billion in Germany, and awoke many memories of the floods in August 2002, which resulted in total damage of €11.6 billion and hence was the most expensive natural hazard event in Germany up to now. The event of 2002 does, however, also mark a reorientation toward an integrated flood risk management system in Germany. Therefore, the flood of 2013 offered the opportunity to review how the measures that politics, administration, and civil society have implemented since 2002 helped to cope with the flood and what still needs to be done to achieve effective and more integrated flood risk management. The review highlights considerable improvements on many levels, in particular (1 an increased consideration of flood hazards in spatial planning and urban development, (2 comprehensive property-level mitigation and preparedness measures, (3 more effective flood warnings and improved coordination of disaster response, and (4 a more targeted maintenance of flood defense systems. In 2013, this led to more effective flood management and to a reduction of damage. Nevertheless, important aspects remain unclear and need to be clarified. This particularly holds for balanced and coordinated strategies for reducing and overcoming the impacts of flooding in large catchments, cross-border and interdisciplinary cooperation, the role of the general public in the different phases of flood risk management, as well as a transparent risk transfer system. Recurring flood events reveal that flood risk management is a continuous task. Hence, risk drivers, such as climate change, land-use changes, economic developments, or demographic change and the resultant risks must be investigated at regular intervals, and risk reduction strategies and processes must be reassessed as well as adapted and implemented in a dialogue with all stakeholders.

  9. Towards a Flood Severity Index

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kettner, A.; Chong, A.; Prades, L.; Brakenridge, G. R.; Muir, S.; Amparore, A.; Slayback, D. A.; Poungprom, R.

    2017-12-01

    Flooding is the most common natural hazard worldwide, affecting 21 million people every year. In the immediate moments following a flood event, humanitarian actors like the World Food Program need to make rapid decisions ( 72 hrs) on how to prioritize affected areas impacted by such an event. For other natural disasters like hurricanes/cyclones and earthquakes, there are industry-recognized standards on how the impacted areas are to be classified. Shake maps, quantifying peak ground motion, from for example the US Geological Survey are widely used for assessing earthquakes. Similarly, cyclones are tracked by Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) and Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System (GDACS) who release storm nodes and tracks (forecasted and actual), with wind buffers and classify the event according to the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. For floods, the community is usually able to acquire unclassified data of the flood extent as identified from satellite imagery. Most often no water discharge hydrograph is available to classify the event into recurrence intervals simply because there is no gauging station, or the gauging station was unable to record the maximum discharge due to overtopping or flood damage. So, the question remains: How do we methodically turn a flooded area into classified areas of different gradations of impact? Here, we present a first approach towards developing a global applicable flood severity index. The flood severity index is set up such that it considers relatively easily obtainable physical parameters in a short period of time like: flood frequency (relating the current flood to historical events) and magnitude, as well as land cover, slope, and where available pre-event simulated flood depth. The scale includes categories ranging from very minor flooding to catastrophic flooding. We test and evaluate the postulated classification scheme against a set of past flood events. Once a severity category is determined, socio

  10. Constructing risks – Internalisation of flood risks in the flood risk management plan

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Roos, Matthijs; Hartmann, T.; Spit, T.J.M.; Johann, Georg

    Traditional flood protection methods have focused efforts on different measures to keep water out of floodplains. However, the European Flood Directive challenges this paradigm (Hartmann and Driessen, 2013). Accordingly, flood risk management plans should incorporate measures brought about by

  11. Response, remediation and risk management of a crude oil pipeline spill

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rose, P.A.; Livingstone, W.R.

    1997-01-01

    A light crude oil spill occurred along a section of pipeline near the bank of a major river of a southern Alberta community in December of 1995. Crude oil was observed at ground surface over an area of 2,000 sq m at the top of the river slope. It had also migrated down slope through the subgrade soils and along the groundwater table toward the river. The initial emergency response measures included removing and disposing of oil-stained vegetation and snow, and the containment and recovery of free oil pooled on the ground surface. Other measures included the drilling of test holes and boreholes and the installation of groundwater monitoring and recovery wells. It was determined that phase-separated crude oil had accumulated at the water table within the flood plain sediments near the river. The water was remediated on-site to Canadian drinking water quality standards. The zone of impacted water was effectively captured, and ground water quality steadily improved

  12. Legitimizing differentiated flood protection levels

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Thomas, Hartmann; Spit, Tejo

    2016-01-01

    The European flood risk management plan is a new instrument introduced by the Floods Directive. It introduces a spatial turn and a scenario approach in flood risk management, ultimately leading to differentiated flood protection levels on a catchment basis. This challenges the traditional sources of

  13. Flood risk management in Flanders: from flood risk objectives to appropriate measures through state assessment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Verbeke Sven

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available In compliance with the EU Flood Directive to reduce flood risk, flood risk management objectives are indispensable for the delineation of necessary measures. In Flanders, flood risk management objectives are part of the environmental objectives which are judicially integrated by the Decree on Integrated Water Policy. Appropriate objectives were derived by supporting studies and extensive consultation on a local, regional and policy level. Under a general flood risk objective sub-objectives are formulated for different aspects: water management and safety, shipping, ecology, and water supply. By developing a risk matrix, it is possible to assess the current state of flood risk and to judge where action is needed to decrease the risk. Three different states of flood risk are distinguished: a acceptable risk, where no action is needed, b intermediate risk where the risk should be reduced by cost efficient actions, and c unacceptable risk, where action is necessary. For each particular aspect, the severity of the consequences of flooding is assessed by quantifiable indicators, such as economic risk, people at risk and ecological flood tolerance. The framework also allows evaluating the effects of the implemented measures and the autonomous development such as climate change and land use change. This approach gives a quantifiable assessment of state, and enables a prioritization of flood risk measures for the reduction of flood risk in a cost efficient and sustainable way.

  14. How useful are Swiss flood insurance data for flood vulnerability assessments?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Röthlisberger, Veronika; Bernet, Daniel; Zischg, Andreas; Keiler, Margreth

    2015-04-01

    The databases of Swiss flood insurance companies build a valuable but to date rarely used source of information on physical flood vulnerability. Detailed insights into the Swiss flood insurance system are crucial for using the full potential of the different databases for research on flood vulnerability. Insurance against floods in Switzerland is a federal system, the modalities are manly regulated on cantonal level. However there are some common principles that apply throughout Switzerland. First of all coverage against floods (and other particular natural hazards) is an integral part of every fire insurance policy for buildings or contents. This coupling of insurance as well as the statutory obligation to insure buildings in most of the cantons and movables in some of the cantons lead to a very high penetration. Second, in case of damage, the reinstatement costs (value as new) are compensated and third there are no (or little) deductible and co-pay. High penetration and the fact that the compensations represent a large share of the direct, tangible losses of the individual policy holders make the databases of the flood insurance companies a comprehensive and therefore valuable data source for flood vulnerability research. Insurance companies not only store electronically data about losses (typically date, amount of claims payment, cause of damage, identity of the insured object or policyholder) but also about insured objects. For insured objects the (insured) value and the details on the policy and its holder are the main feature to record. On buildings the insurance companies usually computerize additional information such as location, volume, year of construction or purpose of use. For the 19 (of total 26) cantons with a cantonal monopoly insurer the data of these insurance establishments have the additional value to represent (almost) the entire building stock of the respective canton. Spatial referenced insurance data can be used for many aspects of

  15. Mitigating flood exposure

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shultz, James M; McLean, Andrew; Herberman Mash, Holly B; Rosen, Alexa; Kelly, Fiona; Solo-Gabriele, Helena M; Youngs Jr, Georgia A; Jensen, Jessica; Bernal, Oscar; Neria, Yuval

    2013-01-01

    Introduction. In 2011, following heavy winter snowfall, two cities bordering two rivers in North Dakota, USA faced major flood threats. Flooding was foreseeable and predictable although the extent of risk was uncertain. One community, Fargo, situated in a shallow river basin, successfully mitigated and prevented flooding. For the other community, Minot, located in a deep river valley, prevention was not possible and downtown businesses and one-quarter of the homes were inundated, in the city’s worst flood on record. We aimed at contrasting the respective hazards, vulnerabilities, stressors, psychological risk factors, psychosocial consequences, and disaster risk reduction strategies under conditions where flood prevention was, and was not, possible. Methods. We applied the “trauma signature analysis” (TSIG) approach to compare the hazard profiles, identify salient disaster stressors, document the key components of disaster risk reduction response, and examine indicators of community resilience. Results. Two demographically-comparable communities, Fargo and Minot, faced challenging river flood threats and exhibited effective coordination across community sectors. We examined the implementation of disaster risk reduction strategies in situations where coordinated citizen action was able to prevent disaster impact (hazard avoidance) compared to the more common scenario when unpreventable disaster strikes, causing destruction, harm, and distress. Across a range of indicators, it is clear that successful mitigation diminishes both physical and psychological impact, thereby reducing the trauma signature of the event. Conclusion. In contrast to experience of historic flooding in Minot, the city of Fargo succeeded in reducing the trauma signature by way of reducing risk through mitigation. PMID:28228985

  16. Why are decisions in flood disaster management so poorly supported by information from flood models?

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Leskens, Anne; Brugnach, Marcela Fabiana; Hoekstra, Arjen Ysbert; Schuurmans, W.

    2014-01-01

    Flood simulation models can provide practitioners of Flood Disaster Management with sophisticated estimates of floods. Despite the advantages that flood simulation modeling may provide, experiences have proven that these models are of limited use. Until now, this problem has mainly been investigated

  17. Large scale carbon dioxide production from coal-fired power stations for enhanced oil recovery : a new economic feasibility study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tontiwachwuthikul, P.; Chan, C.W.; Kritpiphat, W.; DeMontigny, D.; Skoropad, D.; Gelowitz, D.; Aroonwilas, A.; Mourits, F.; Wilson, M.; Ward, L.

    1998-01-01

    A study was conducted to investigate the economics of capturing carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants to be subsequently used as a flooding agent for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technologies. It was shown that the production of CO 2 for EOR projects can be technically and economically feasible, particularly when the concepts of cogeneration and optimization are used to reduce steam and electricity expenditures. This is done by using low-pressure steam and waste heat from various sections of the power generation process. It was shown that recovery costs could range between $0.50 to $2.00 per mscf. This translates to a recovered oil price of in the range of $17.39 to $19.95 per bbl., suggesting that even at today's low oil prices there is room for CO 2 flooding with flue gas extracted CO 2 . Practical implications for Saskatchewan were examined. 15 refs., 4 tabs., 7 figs

  18. Case studies of extended model-based flood forecasting: prediction of dike strength and flood impacts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stuparu, Dana; Bachmann, Daniel; Bogaard, Tom; Twigt, Daniel; Verkade, Jan; de Bruijn, Karin; de Leeuw, Annemargreet

    2017-04-01

    Flood forecasts, warning and emergency response are important components in flood risk management. Most flood forecasting systems use models to translate weather predictions to forecasted discharges or water levels. However, this information is often not sufficient for real time decisions. A sound understanding of the reliability of embankments and flood dynamics is needed to react timely and reduce the negative effects of the flood. Where are the weak points in the dike system? When, how much and where the water will flow? When and where is the greatest impact expected? Model-based flood impact forecasting tries to answer these questions by adding new dimensions to the existing forecasting systems by providing forecasted information about: (a) the dike strength during the event (reliability), (b) the flood extent in case of an overflow or a dike failure (flood spread) and (c) the assets at risk (impacts). This work presents three study-cases in which such a set-up is applied. Special features are highlighted. Forecasting of dike strength. The first study-case focusses on the forecast of dike strength in the Netherlands for the river Rhine branches Waal, Nederrijn and IJssel. A so-called reliability transformation is used to translate the predicted water levels at selected dike sections into failure probabilities during a flood event. The reliability of a dike section is defined by fragility curves - a summary of the dike strength conditional to the water level. The reliability information enhances the emergency management and inspections of embankments. Ensemble forecasting. The second study-case shows the setup of a flood impact forecasting system in Dumfries, Scotland. The existing forecasting system is extended with a 2D flood spreading model in combination with the Delft-FIAT impact model. Ensemble forecasts are used to make use of the uncertainty in the precipitation forecasts, which is useful to quantify the certainty of a forecasted flood event. From global

  19. Multi-dimensional perspectives of flood risk - using a participatory framework to develop new approaches to flood risk communication

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rollason, Edward; Bracken, Louise; Hardy, Richard; Large, Andy

    2017-04-01

    Flooding is a major hazard across Europe which, since, 1998 has caused over €52 million in damages and displaced over half a million people. Climate change is predicted to increase the risks posed by flooding in the future. The 2007 EU Flood Directive cemented the use of flood risk maps as a central tool in understanding and communicating flood risk. Following recent flooding in England, an urgent need to integrate people living at risk from flooding into flood management approaches, encouraging flood resilience and the up-take of resilient activities has been acknowledged. The effective communication of flood risk information plays a major role in allowing those at risk to make effective decisions about flood risk and increase their resilience, however, there are emerging concerns over the effectiveness of current approaches. The research presented explores current approaches to flood risk communication in England and the effectiveness of these methods in encouraging resilient actions before and during flooding events. The research also investigates how flood risk communications could be undertaken more effectively, using a novel participatory framework to integrate the perspectives of those living at risk. The research uses co-production between local communities and researchers in the environmental sciences, using a participatory framework to bring together local knowledge of flood risk and flood communications. Using a local competency group, the research explores what those living at risk from flooding want from flood communications in order to develop new approaches to help those at risk understand and respond to floods. Suggestions for practice are refined by the communities to co-produce recommendations. The research finds that current approaches to real-time flood risk communication fail to forecast the significance of predicted floods, whilst flood maps lack detailed information about how floods occur, or use scientific terminology which people at risk

  20. Flood management: prediction of microbial contamination in large-scale floods in urban environments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taylor, Jonathon; Lai, Ka Man; Davies, Mike; Clifton, David; Ridley, Ian; Biddulph, Phillip

    2011-07-01

    With a changing climate and increased urbanisation, the occurrence and the impact of flooding is expected to increase significantly. Floods can bring pathogens into homes and cause lingering damp and microbial growth in buildings, with the level of growth and persistence dependent on the volume and chemical and biological content of the flood water, the properties of the contaminating microbes, and the surrounding environmental conditions, including the restoration time and methods, the heat and moisture transport properties of the envelope design, and the ability of the construction material to sustain the microbial growth. The public health risk will depend on the interaction of these complex processes and the vulnerability and susceptibility of occupants in the affected areas. After the 2007 floods in the UK, the Pitt review noted that there is lack of relevant scientific evidence and consistency with regard to the management and treatment of flooded homes, which not only put the local population at risk but also caused unnecessary delays in the restoration effort. Understanding the drying behaviour of flooded buildings in the UK building stock under different scenarios, and the ability of microbial contaminants to grow, persist, and produce toxins within these buildings can help inform recovery efforts. To contribute to future flood management, this paper proposes the use of building simulations and biological models to predict the risk of microbial contamination in typical UK buildings. We review the state of the art with regard to biological contamination following flooding, relevant building simulation, simulation-linked microbial modelling, and current practical considerations in flood remediation. Using the city of London as an example, a methodology is proposed that uses GIS as a platform to integrate drying models and microbial risk models with the local building stock and flood models. The integrated tool will help local governments, health authorities

  1. Evaluation of various modelling approaches in flood routing simulation and flood area mapping

    Science.gov (United States)

    Papaioannou, George; Loukas, Athanasios; Vasiliades, Lampros; Aronica, Giuseppe

    2016-04-01

    An essential process of flood hazard analysis and mapping is the floodplain modelling. The selection of the modelling approach, especially, in complex riverine topographies such as urban and suburban areas, and ungauged watersheds may affect the accuracy of the outcomes in terms of flood depths and flood inundation area. In this study, a sensitivity analysis implemented using several hydraulic-hydrodynamic modelling approaches (1D, 2D, 1D/2D) and the effect of modelling approach on flood modelling and flood mapping was investigated. The digital terrain model (DTMs) used in this study was generated from Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) point cloud data. The modelling approaches included 1-dimensional hydraulic-hydrodynamic models (1D), 2-dimensional hydraulic-hydrodynamic models (2D) and the coupled 1D/2D. The 1D hydraulic-hydrodynamic models used were: HECRAS, MIKE11, LISFLOOD, XPSTORM. The 2D hydraulic-hydrodynamic models used were: MIKE21, MIKE21FM, HECRAS (2D), XPSTORM, LISFLOOD and FLO2d. The coupled 1D/2D models employed were: HECRAS(1D/2D), MIKE11/MIKE21(MIKE FLOOD platform), MIKE11/MIKE21 FM(MIKE FLOOD platform), XPSTORM(1D/2D). The validation process of flood extent achieved with the use of 2x2 contingency tables between simulated and observed flooded area for an extreme historical flash flood event. The skill score Critical Success Index was used in the validation process. The modelling approaches have also been evaluated for simulation time and requested computing power. The methodology has been implemented in a suburban ungauged watershed of Xerias river at Volos-Greece. The results of the analysis indicate the necessity of sensitivity analysis application with the use of different hydraulic-hydrodynamic modelling approaches especially for areas with complex terrain.

  2. Impact of the Three-Gorges Dam and water transfer project on Changjiang floods

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nakayama, Tadanobu; Shankman, David

    2013-01-01

    Increasing frequency of severe floods on the middle and lower Changjiang (Yangtze) River during the past few decades can be attributed to both abnormal monsoon rainfall and landscape changes that include extensive deforestation affecting river sedimentation, and shrinking lakes and levee construction that reduced the areas available for floodwater storage. The Three-Gorges Dam (TGD) and the South-to-North Water Transfer Project (SNWTP) will also affect frequency and intensity of severe floods in the Poyang Lake region of the middle Changjiang. Process-based National Integrated Catchment-based Eco-hydrology (NICE) model predicts that the TGD will increase flood risk during the early summer monsoon against the original justifications for building the dam, relating to complex river-lake-groundwater interactions. Several scenarios predict that morphological change will increase flood risk around the lake. This indicates the importance of managing both flood discharge and sediment deposition for the entire basin. Further, the authors assessed the impact of sand mining in the lake after its prohibition on the Changjiang, and clarified that alternative scenario of sand mining in lakes currently disconnected from the mainstream would reduce the flood risk to a greater extent than intensive dredging along junction channel. Because dry biomasses simulated by the model were linearly related to the Time-Integrated Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (TINDVI) estimated from satellite images, its decadal gradient during 1982-1999 showed a spatially heterogeneous distribution and generally decreasing trends beside the lakes, indicating that the increases in lake reclamation and the resultant decrease in rice productivity are closely related to the hydrologic changes. This integrated approach could help to minimize flood damage and promote better decisions addressing sustainable development.

  3. Methods for enhancing mapping of thermal fronts in oil recovery

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, D.O.; Montoya, P.C.; Wayland, J.R. Jr.

    1984-03-30

    A method for enhancing the resistivity contrasts of a thermal front in an oil recovery production field as measured by the controlled source audio frequency magnetotelluric (CSAMT) technique is disclosed. This method includes the steps of: (1) preparing a CSAMT-determined topological resistivity map of the production field; (2) introducing a solution of a dopant material into the production field at a concentration effective to alter the resistivity associated with the thermal front; said dopant material having a high cation exchange capacity which might be selected from the group consisting of montmorillonite, illite, and chlorite clays; said material being soluble in the conate water of the production field; (3) preparing a CSAMT-determined topological resistivity map of the production field while said dopant material is moving therethrough; and (4) mathematically comparing the maps from step (1) and step (3) to determine the location of the thermal front. This method is effective with the steam flood, fire flood and water flood techniques.

  4. Flood-proof motors

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Schmitt, Marcus [AREVA NP GmbH, Erlangen (Germany)

    2013-07-01

    Even before the Fukushima event occurred some German nuclear power plants (NPP) have considered flooding scenarios. As a result of one of these studies, AREVA performed an upgrade project in NPP Isar 1 with flood-proof motors as a replacement of existing air-cooled low-voltage and high-voltage motors of the emergency cooling chain. After the Fukushima event, in which the cooling chains failed, the topic flood-proof equipment gets more and more into focus. This compact will introduce different kinds of flood-proof electrical motors which are currently installed or planned for installation into NPPs over the world. Moreover the process of qualification, as it was performed during the project in NPP Isar 1, will be shown. (orig.)

  5. Flood-proof motors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schmitt, Marcus

    2013-01-01

    Even before the Fukushima event occurred some German nuclear power plants (NPP) have considered flooding scenarios. As a result of one of these studies, AREVA performed an upgrade project in NPP Isar 1 with flood-proof motors as a replacement of existing air-cooled low-voltage and high-voltage motors of the emergency cooling chain. After the Fukushima event, in which the cooling chains failed, the topic flood-proof equipment gets more and more into focus. This compact will introduce different kinds of flood-proof electrical motors which are currently installed or planned for installation into NPPs over the world. Moreover the process of qualification, as it was performed during the project in NPP Isar 1, will be shown. (orig.)

  6. Hurricane Harvey Riverine Flooding: Part 1 - Reconstruction of Hurricane Harvey Flooding for Harris County, TX using a GPU-accelerated 2D flood model for post-flood hazard analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kalyanapu, A. J.; Dullo, T. T.; Gangrade, S.; Kao, S. C.; Marshall, R.; Islam, S. R.; Ghafoor, S. K.

    2017-12-01

    Hurricane Harvey that made landfall in the southern Texas this August is one of the most destructive hurricanes during the 2017 hurricane season. During its active period, many areas in coastal Texas region received more than 40 inches of rain. This downpour caused significant flooding resulting in about 77 casualties, displacing more than 30,000 people, inundating hundreds of thousands homes and is currently estimated to have caused more than $70 billion in direct damage. One of the significantly affected areas is Harris County where the city of Houston, TX is located. Covering over two HUC-8 drainage basins ( 2702 mi2), this county experienced more than 80% of its annual average rainfall during this event. This study presents an effort to reconstruct flooding caused by extreme rainfall due to Hurricane Harvey in Harris County, Texas. This computationally intensive task was performed at a 30-m spatial resolution using a rapid flood model called Flood2D-GPU, a graphics processing unit (GPU) accelerated model, on Oak Ridge National Laboratory's (ORNL) Titan Supercomputer. For this task, the hourly rainfall estimates from the National Center for Environmental Prediction Stage IV Quantitative Precipitation Estimate were fed into the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) hydrologic model and Routing Application for Parallel computation of Discharge (RAPID) routing model to estimate flow hydrographs at 69 locations for Flood2D-GPU simulation. Preliminary results of the simulation including flood inundation extents, maps of flood depths and inundation duration will be presented. Future efforts will focus on calibrating and validating the simulation results and assessing the flood damage for better understanding the impacts made by Hurricane Harvey.

  7. Solving the Flood Propagation Problem with Newton Algorithm on Parallel Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chefi Triki

    2012-04-01

    Full Text Available In this paper we propose a parallel implementation for the flood propagation method Flo2DH. The model is built on a finite element spatial approximation combined with a Newton algorithm that uses a direct LU linear solver. The parallel implementation has been developed by using the standard MPI protocol and has been tested on a set of real world problems.

  8. Interactive Web-based Floodplain Simulation System for Realistic Experiments of Flooding and Flood Damage

    Science.gov (United States)

    Demir, I.

    2013-12-01

    Recent developments in web technologies make it easy to manage and visualize large data sets with general public. Novel visualization techniques and dynamic user interfaces allow users to create realistic environments, and interact with data to gain insight from simulations and environmental observations. The floodplain simulation system is a web-based 3D interactive flood simulation environment to create real world flooding scenarios. The simulation systems provides a visually striking platform with realistic terrain information, and water simulation. Students can create and modify predefined scenarios, control environmental parameters, and evaluate flood mitigation techniques. The web-based simulation system provides an environment to children and adults learn about the flooding, flood damage, and effects of development and human activity in the floodplain. The system provides various scenarios customized to fit the age and education level of the users. This presentation provides an overview of the web-based flood simulation system, and demonstrates the capabilities of the system for various flooding and land use scenarios.

  9. INCREASED OIL PRODUCTION AND RESERVES UTILIZING SECONDARY/TERTIARY RECOVERY TECHNIQUES ON SMALL RESERVOIRS IN THE PARADOX BASIN, UTAH

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Thomas C. Chidsey, Jr.

    2002-11-01

    The Paradox Basin of Utah, Colorado, and Arizona contains nearly 100 small oil fields producing from shallow-shelf carbonate buildups or mounds within the Desert Creek zone of the Pennsylvanian (Desmoinesian) Paradox Formation. These fields typically have one to four wells with primary production ranging from 700,000 to 2,000,000 barrels (111,300-318,000 m{sup 3}) of oil per field at a 15 to 20 percent recovery rate. Five fields in southeastern Utah were evaluated for waterflood or carbon-dioxide (CO{sub 2})-miscible flood projects based upon geological characterization and reservoir modeling. Geological characterization on a local scale focused on reservoir heterogeneity, quality, and lateral continuity as well as possible compartmentalization within each of the five project fields. The Desert Creek zone includes three generalized facies belts: (1) open-marine, (2) shallow-shelf and shelf-margin, and (3) intra-shelf, salinity-restricted facies. These deposits have modern analogs near the coasts of the Bahamas, Florida, and Australia, respectively, and outcrop analogs along the San Juan River of southeastern Utah. The analogs display reservoir heterogeneity, flow barriers and baffles, and lithofacies geometry observed in the fields; thus, these properties were incorporated in the reservoir simulation models. Productive carbonate buildups consist of three types: (1) phylloid algal, (2) coralline algal, and (3) bryozoan. Phylloid-algal buildups have a mound-core interval and a supra-mound interval. Hydrocarbons are stratigraphically trapped in porous and permeable lithotypes within the mound-core intervals of the lower part of the buildups and the more heterogeneous supramound intervals. To adequately represent the observed spatial heterogeneities in reservoir properties, the phylloid-algal bafflestones of the mound-core interval and the dolomites of the overlying supra-mound interval were subdivided into ten architecturally distinct lithotypes, each of which

  10. Health impacts of floods.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Du, Weiwei; FitzGerald, Gerard Joseph; Clark, Michele; Hou, Xiang-Yu

    2010-01-01

    Floods are the most common hazard to cause disasters and have led to extensive morbidity and mortality throughout the world. The impact of floods on the human community is related directly to the location and topography of the area, as well as human demographics and characteristics of the built environment. The aim of this study is to identify the health impacts of disasters and the underlying causes of health impacts associated with floods. A conceptual framework is developed that may assist with the development of a rational and comprehensive approach to prevention, mitigation, and management. This study involved an extensive literature review that located >500 references, which were analyzed to identify common themes, findings, and expert views. The findings then were distilled into common themes. The health impacts of floods are wide ranging, and depend on a number of factors. However, the health impacts of a particular flood are specific to the particular context. The immediate health impacts of floods include drowning, injuries, hypothermia, and animal bites. Health risks also are associated with the evacuation of patients, loss of health workers, and loss of health infrastructure including essential drugs and supplies. In the medium-term, infected wounds, complications of injury, poisoning, poor mental health, communicable diseases, and starvation are indirect effects of flooding. In the long-term, chronic disease, disability, poor mental health, and poverty-related diseases including malnutrition are the potential legacy. This article proposes a structured approach to the classification of the health impacts of floods and a conceptual framework that demonstrates the relationships between floods and the direct and indirect health consequences.

  11. Flood Mitigation and Response: Comparing the Great Midwest Floods of 1993 and 2008

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-12-01

    Robert Holmes and Heidi Koontz , “Two 500-Year Floods Within 15 Years—What are the Odds?,” http://64.233.167.104/custom?q...implies a 1-in- 100 (or 1 percent) chance a flood of that magnitude will occur in a given year. Robert Holmes and Heidi Koontz , “Two 500-Year Floods...Fact Sheet 2004-3024 (U.S. Geological Survey: May2004). 92 ______ and Koontz , Heidi. “Two 500-Year Floods Within 15 Years—What are the Odds

  12. GIS Support for Flood Rescue

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Liang, Gengsheng; Mioc, Darka; Anton, François

    2007-01-01

    Under flood events, the ground traffic is blocked in and around the flooded area due to damages to roads and bridges. The traditional transportation network may not always help people to make a right decision for evacuation. In order to provide dynamic road information needed for flood rescue, we...... to retrieve the shortest and safest route in Fredericton road network during flood event. It enables users to make a timely decision for flood rescue. We are using Oracle Spatial to deal with emergency situations that can be applied to other constrained network applications as well....... developed an adaptive web-based transportation network application using Oracle technology. Moreover, the geographic relationships between the road network and flood areas are taken into account. The overlay between the road network and flood polygons is computed on the fly. This application allows users...

  13. Assessment of flood Response Characteristics to Urbanization and extreme flood events-Typhoons at Cheongju, Chungbuk

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chang, HyungJoon; Lee, Hyosang; Hwang, Myunggyu; Jang, Sukhwan

    2016-04-01

    The changes of land use influence on the flood characteristics, which depend on rainfall runoff procedures in the catchment. This study assesses the changes of flood characteristics due to land use changes between 1997 and 2012. The catchment model (HEC-HMS) is calibrated with flood events of 1990's and 2000's respectively, then the design rainfall of 100, 200, 500year return period are applied to this model, which represent the catchment in 1990's and 2000's, to assess the flood peaks. Then the extreme flood events (i.e., 6 typhoon events) are applied to assess the flood responses. The results of comparison between 1990's and 2000's show that the flood peak and level of 2000's are increasing and time to peak of 2000's is decreasing comparing to those of 1990's :3% to 78% increase in flood peak, 3% in flood level and 10.2% to 16% decrease in time to peak in 100year return period flood. It is due to decreasing of the farmland area (2.18%), mountainous area (8.88%), and increasing of the urbanization of the area (5.86%). This study also estimates the responses to extreme flood events. The results of 2000's show that the increasing of the flood peak and time to peak comparing to 1990's. It indicates that the extreme rainfall is more responsible at unurbanized catchment ( 2000's), which resulting with a 11% increasing of the peak volume. Acknowledgement This research was supported by a grant (11-TI-C06) from Advanced Water Management Research Program funded by Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of Korean government.

  14. “Expect More Floods In 2013”: An analysis of flood preparedness in ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    In 2013, the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) issued a prediction of heavy rainfall with consequent flooding in some major cities of Nigeria particularly Ibadan. In light of the country's previous flood experiences, citizens and government were promptly alerted and advised to be fully prepared for imminent floods.

  15. Comparing Methods of Calculating Expected Annual Damage in Urban Pluvial Flood Risk Assessments

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Skovgård Olsen, Anders; Zhou, Qianqian; Linde, Jens Jørgen

    2015-01-01

    Estimating the expected annual damage (EAD) due to flooding in an urban area is of great interest for urban water managers and other stakeholders. It is a strong indicator for a given area showing how vulnerable it is to flood risk and how much can be gained by implementing e.g., climate change...... adaptation measures. This study identifies and compares three different methods for estimating the EAD based on unit costs of flooding of urban assets. One of these methods was used in previous studies and calculates the EAD based on a few extreme events by assuming a log-linear relationship between cost...... of an event and the corresponding return period. This method is compared to methods that are either more complicated or require more calculations. The choice of method by which the EAD is calculated appears to be of minor importance. At all three case study areas it seems more important that there is a shift...

  16. Climate-informed flood frequency analysis based on Bayesian theory and teleconnection for the Three Gorges Dam (TGD)

    Science.gov (United States)

    DONG, Q.; Zhang, X.; Lall, U.; Sang, Y. F.; Xie, P.

    2017-12-01

    With the current global climate changing and human activities intensifying, the uncertainties and danger of floods increased significantly. However, the current flood frequency analysis is still based on the stationary assumption. This assumption not only limits the benefits of the water conservancy projects, but also brings hazard because it ignores the risk of flooding under climate change. In this paper, we relax the stationary hypothesis in the flood frequency analysis model based on the teleconnection and use the intrinsic relation of flood elements to improve the annual flood frequency results by Bayesian inference approaches. Daily discharges of the the Three Gorges Dam(TGD) in 1953-2013 years are used as an example. Firstly, according to the linear correlation between the climate indices and the distribution parameters, the prior distributions of peak and volume are established with the selected large scale climate predictors. After that, by using the copula function and predictands, the conditional probability function of peak and volume is obtained. Then, the Bayesian theory links the prior distributions and conditional distributions and get the posterior distributions. We compare the difference under different prior distributions and find the optimal flood frequency distribution model. Finally, we discuss the impact of dynamic flood frequency analysis on the plan and management of hydraulic engineering. The results show that compared with the prior probability, the posterior probability considering the correlation of the flood elements is more accurate and the uncertainty is smaller. And the dynamic flood frequency model has a great impact on the management of the existing hydraulic engineering, which can improve the engineering operation benefit and reducing its flood risk, but it nearly didn't influence the plan of hydraulic engineering. The study of this paper is helpful to the dynamic flood risk management of TGD, and provide reference for the

  17. Breakthrough Adsorption Study of Crude Oil Removal Using Buffing Dust

    Science.gov (United States)

    Setyaningsih, L. W. N.; Yuliansyah, A. T.; Prasetyo, A.; Arimanintan, S. K.; Putri, D. R.

    2018-05-01

    The utilization of leather industry solid waste as adsorbent to separate oil from water emulsions of surfactant flooding process is a solution that is relatively inexpensive. This study was conducted aiming to obtain a mathematical model that is appropriate for the adsorption process of crude oil by buffing dust in emulsion phase with a continuous adsorption method. Variations in the column adsorption experiments were carried out, such as: flow rate of feed of water-crude oil-surfactant, the concentration of crude oil in the feed, and mass of adsorbent used. Data were evaluated using three models: Adams Bohart, Thomas and Yan. Best results are obtained on the following conditions, the feed flow rate of 60 mL/minute, the crude oil concentration in feed is 1.5% volume and the mass of adsorbent used was 10 g. The values of kinetic constant and adsorption capacity obtained from Yan Model was 21.7774 mL/mg/minute and 220.9581 mg/g with the relative error obtained is 5.4424%.

  18. Flooding correlations in narrow channel

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, S. H.; Baek, W. P.; Chang, S. H.

    1999-01-01

    Heat transfer in narrow gap is considered as important phenomena in severe accidents in nuclear power plants. Also in heat removal of electric chip. Critical heat flux(CHF) in narrow gap limits the maximum heat transfer rate in narrow channel. In case of closed bottom channel, flooding limited CHF occurrence is observed. Flooding correlations will be helpful to predict the CHF in closed bottom channel. In present study, flooding data for narrow channel geometry were collected and the work to recognize the effect of the span, w and gap size, s were performed. And new flooding correlations were suggested for high-aspect-ratio geometry. Also, flooding correlation was applied to flooding limited CHF data

  19. Flood Hazard Area

    Data.gov (United States)

    Earth Data Analysis Center, University of New Mexico — The National Flood Hazard Layer (NFHL) data incorporates all Digital Flood Insurance Rate Map(DFIRM) databases published by FEMA, and any Letters Of Map Revision...

  20. Flood Hazard Boundaries

    Data.gov (United States)

    Earth Data Analysis Center, University of New Mexico — The National Flood Hazard Layer (NFHL) data incorporates all Digital Flood Insurance Rate Map(DFIRM) databases published by FEMA, and any Letters Of Map Revision...

  1. Base Flood Elevation

    Data.gov (United States)

    Earth Data Analysis Center, University of New Mexico — The National Flood Hazard Layer (NFHL) data incorporates all Digital Flood Insurance Rate Map(DFIRM) databases published by FEMA, and any Letters Of Map Revision...

  2. A flash flood early warning system based on rainfall thresholds and daily soil moisture indexes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brigandì, Giuseppina; Tito Aronica, Giuseppe

    2015-04-01

    Main focus of the paper is to present a flash flood early warning system, developed for Civil Protection Agency for the Sicily Region, for alerting extreme hydrometeorological events by using a methodology based on the combined use of rainfall thresholds and soil moisture indexes. As matter of fact, flash flood warning is a key element to improve the Civil Protection achievements to mitigate damages and safeguard the security of people. It is a rather complicated task, particularly in those catchments with flashy response where even brief anticipations are important and welcomed. In this context, some kind of hydrological precursors can be considered to improve the effectiveness of the emergency actions (i.e. early flood warning). Now, it is well known how soil moisture is an important factor in flood formation, because the runoff generation is strongly influenced by the antecedent soil moisture conditions of the catchment. The basic idea of the work here presented is to use soil moisture indexes derived in a continuous form to define a first alert phase in a flash flood forecasting chain and then define a unique rainfall threshold for a given day for the subsequent alarm phases activation, derived as a function of the soil moisture conditions at the beginning of the day. Daily soil moisture indexes, representative of the moisture condition of the catchment, were derived by using a parsimonious and simply to use approach based on the IHACRES model application in a modified form developed by the authors. It is a simple, spatially-lumped rainfall-streamflow model, based on the SCS-CN method and on the unit hydrograph approach that requires only rainfall, streamflow and air temperature data. It consists of two modules. In the first a non linear loss model, based on the SCS-CN method, was used to transform total rainfall into effective rainfall. In the second, a linear convolution of effective rainfall was performed using a total unit hydrograph with a configuration of

  3. Flood control design requirements and flood evaluation methods of inland nuclear power plant

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhang Ailing; Wang Ping; Zhu Jingxing

    2011-01-01

    Effect of flooding is one of the key safety factors and environmental factors in inland nuclear power plant sitting. Up to now, the rule of law and standard systems are established for the selection of nuclear power plant location and flood control requirements in China. In this paper flood control standards of China and other countries are introduced. Several inland nuclear power plants are taken as examples to thoroughly discuss the related flood evaluation methods. The suggestions are also put forward in the paper. (authors)

  4. Chaos in oil prices? Evidence from futures markets

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Adrangi, B.; Chatrath, A.; Dhanda, K.K.; Raffiee, K.

    2001-01-01

    We test for the presence of low-dimensional chaotic structure in crude oil, heating oil, and unleaded gasoline futures prices from the early 1980s. Evidence on chaos will have important implications for regulators and short-term trading strategies. While we find strong evidence of non-linear dependencies, the evidence is not consistent with chaos. Our test results indicate that ARCH-type processes, with controls for seasonal variation in prices, generally explain the non-linearities in the data. We also demonstrate that employing seasonally adjusted price series contributes to obtaining robust results via the existing tests for chaotic structure. Maximum likelihood methodologies, that are robust to the non-linear dynamics, lend support for Samuelson's hypothesis on contract-maturity effects in futures price-changes. However, the tests for chaos are not found to be sensitive to the maturity effects in the futures contracts. The results are robust to controls for the oil shocks of 1986 and 1991

  5. Microbial enhanced heavy crude oil recovery through biodegradation using bacterial isolates from an Omani oil field.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Al-Sayegh, Abdullah; Al-Wahaibi, Yahya; Al-Bahry, Saif; Elshafie, Abdulkadir; Al-Bemani, Ali; Joshi, Sanket

    2015-09-16

    Biodegradation is a cheap and environmentally friendly process that could breakdown and utilizes heavy crude oil (HCO) resources. Numerous bacteria are able to grow using hydrocarbons as a carbon source; however, bacteria that are able to grow using HCO hydrocarbons are limited. In this study, HCO degrading bacteria were isolated from an Omani heavy crude oil field. They were then identified and assessed for their biodegradation and biotransformation abilities under aerobic and anaerobic conditions. Bacteria were grown in five different minimum salts media. The isolates were identified by MALDI biotyper and 16S rRNA sequencing. The nucleotide sequences were submitted to GenBank (NCBI) database. The bacteria were identified as Bacillus subtilis and B. licheniformis. To assess microbial growth and biodegradation of HCO by well-assay on agar plates, samples were collected at different intervals. The HCO biodegradation and biotransformation were determined using GC-FID, which showed direct correlation of microbial growth with an increased biotransformation of light hydrocarbons (C12 and C14). Among the isolates, B. licheniformis AS5 was the most efficient isolate in biodegradation and biotransformation of the HCO. Therefore, isolate AS5 was used for heavy crude oil recovery experiments, in core flooding experiments using Berea core plugs, where an additional 16 % of oil initially in place was recovered. This is the first report from Oman for bacteria isolated from an oil field that were able to degrade and transform HCO to lighter components, illustrating the potential use in HCO recovery. The data suggested that biodegradation and biotransformation processes may lead to additional oil recovery from heavy oil fields, if bacteria are grown in suitable medium under optimum growth conditions.

  6. Flood analyses for Department of Energy Y-12, ORNL and K-25 Plants. Flood analyses in support of flood emergency planning

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1995-05-01

    The study involved defining the flood potential and local rainfall depth and duration data for the Department of Energy's (DOE) Y-12, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and K-25 plants. All three plants are subject to flooding from the Clinch River. In addition, the Y-12 plant is subject to flooding from East Fork Poplar and Bear Creeks, the ORNL plant from Whiteoak Creek and Melton Branch, and the K-25 plant from Poplar Creek. Determination of flood levels included consideration of both rainfall events and postulated failures of Norris and Melton Hill Dams in seismic events

  7. Fault tree analysis for urban flooding

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ten Veldhuis, J.A.E.; Clemens, F.H.L.R.; Van Gelder, P.H.A.J.M.

    2008-01-01

    Traditional methods to evaluate flood risk mostly focus on storm events as the main cause of flooding. Fault tree analysis is a technique that is able to model all potential causes of flooding and to quantify both the overall probability of flooding and the contributions of all causes of flooding to

  8. Flood-resilient waterfront development in New York City: bridging flood insurance, building codes, and flood zoning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aerts, Jeroen C J H; Botzen, W J Wouter

    2011-06-01

    Waterfronts are attractive areas for many-often competing-uses in New York City (NYC) and are seen as multifunctional locations for economic, environmental, and social activities on the interface between land and water. The NYC waterfront plays a crucial role as a first line of flood defense and in managing flood risk and protecting the city from future climate change and sea-level rise. The city of New York has embarked on a climate adaptation program (PlaNYC) outlining the policies needed to anticipate the impacts of climate change. As part of this policy, the Department of City Planning has recently prepared Vision 2020: New York City Comprehensive Waterfront Plan for the over 500 miles of NYC waterfront (NYC-DCP, 2011). An integral part of the vision is to improve resilience to climate change and sea-level rise. This study seeks to provide guidance for advancing the goals of NYC Vision 2020 by assessing how flood insurance, flood zoning, and building code policies can contribute to waterfront development that is more resilient to climate change. © 2011 New York Academy of Sciences.

  9. Forecast-based Integrated Flood Detection System for Emergency Response and Disaster Risk Reduction (Flood-FINDER)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arcorace, Mauro; Silvestro, Francesco; Rudari, Roberto; Boni, Giorgio; Dell'Oro, Luca; Bjorgo, Einar

    2016-04-01

    Most flood prone areas in the globe are mainly located in developing countries where making communities more flood resilient is a priority. Despite different flood forecasting initiatives are now available from academia and research centers, what is often missing is the connection between the timely hazard detection and the community response to warnings. In order to bridge the gap between science and decision makers, UN agencies play a key role on the dissemination of information in the field and on capacity-building to local governments. In this context, having a reliable global early warning system in the UN would concretely improve existing in house capacities for Humanitarian Response and the Disaster Risk Reduction. For those reasons, UNITAR-UNOSAT has developed together with USGS and CIMA Foundation a Global Flood EWS called "Flood-FINDER". The Flood-FINDER system is a modelling chain which includes meteorological, hydrological and hydraulic models that are accurately linked to enable the production of warnings and forecast inundation scenarios up to three weeks in advance. The system is forced with global satellite derived precipitation products and Numerical Weather Prediction outputs. The modelling chain is based on the "Continuum" hydrological model and risk assessments produced for GAR2015. In combination with existing hydraulically reconditioned SRTM data and 1D hydraulic models, flood scenarios are derived at multiple scales and resolutions. Climate and flood data are shared through a Web GIS integrated platform. First validation of the modelling chain has been conducted through a flood hindcasting test case, over the Chao Phraya river basin in Thailand, using multi temporal satellite-based analysis derived for the exceptional flood event of 2011. In terms of humanitarian relief operations, the EO-based services of flood mapping in rush mode generally suffer from delays caused by the time required for their activation, programming, acquisitions and

  10. Applying the Flood Vulnerability Index as a Knowledge base for flood risk assessment

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Balica, S-F.

    2012-01-01

    Floods are one of the most common and widely distributed natural risks to life and property worldwide. An important part of modern flood risk management is to evaluate vulnerability to floods. This evaluation can be done only by using a parametric approach. Worldwide there is a need to enhance our

  11. Effect of exogenous inoculants on enhancing oil recovery and indigenous bacterial community dynamics in long-term field pilot of low permeability reservoir.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Jing; Xue, Shuwen; He, Chunqiu; Qi, Huixia; Chen, Fulin; Ma, Yanling

    2018-03-20

    Pseudomonas aeruginosa DN1 strain and Bacillus subtilis QHQ110 strain were chosen as rhamnolipid and lipopeptide producer respectively, to evaluate the efficiency of exogenous inoculants on enhancing oil recovery (EOR) and to explore the relationship between injected bacteria and indigenous bacterial community dynamics in long-term filed pilot of Hujianshan low permeability water-flooded reservoir for 26 months. Core-flooding tests showed that the oil displacement efficiency increased by 18.46% with addition of exogenous consortia. Bacterial community dynamics using quantitative PCR and high-throughput sequencing revealed that the exogenous inoculants survived and could live together with indigenous bacterial populations. They gradually became the dominant community after the initial activation, while their comparative advantage weakened continually after 3 months of the first injection. The bacterial populations did not exert an observable change in the process of the second injection of exogenous inoculants. On account of facilitating oil emulsification and accelerating bacterial growth with oil as the carbon source by the injection of exogenous consortia, γ-proteobacteria was finally the prominent bacterial community at class level varying from 25.55 to 32.67%, and the dominant bacterial populations were increased by 2-3 orders of magnitude during the whole processes. The content of organic acids and rhamnolipids in reservoir were promoted with the change of bacterial community diversity, respectively. Cumulative oil increments reached 26,190 barrels for 13 months after the first injection, and 55,947 barrels of oil had been accumulated in all of A20 wells block through two rounds of bacterial consortia injection. The performance of EOR has a cumulative improvement by the injection of exogenous inoculants without observable inhibitory effect on the indigenous bacterial populations, demonstrating the application potential in low permeability water-flooded

  12. Do oil shocks predict economic policy uncertainty?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rehman, Mobeen Ur

    2018-05-01

    Oil price fluctuations have influential role in global economic policies for developed as well as emerging countries. I investigate the role of international oil prices disintegrated into structural (i) oil supply shock, (ii) aggregate demand shock and (iii) oil market specific demand shocks, based on the work of Kilian (2009) using structural VAR framework on economic policies uncertainty of sampled markets. Economic policy uncertainty, due to its non-linear behavior is modeled in a regime switching framework with disintegrated structural oil shocks. Our results highlight that Indian, Spain and Japanese economic policy uncertainty responds to the global oil price shocks, however aggregate demand shocks fail to induce any change. Oil specific demand shocks are significant only for China and India in high volatility state.

  13. Indirect Damage of Urban Flooding: Investigation of Flood-Induced Traffic Congestion Using Dynamic Modeling

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jingxuan Zhu

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available In many countries, industrialization has led to rapid urbanization. Increased frequency of urban flooding is one consequence of the expansion of urban areas which can seriously affect the productivity and livelihoods of urban residents. Therefore, it is of vital importance to study the effects of rainfall and urban flooding on traffic congestion and driver behavior. In this study, a comprehensive method to analyze the influence of urban flooding on traffic congestion was developed. First, a flood simulation was conducted to predict the spatiotemporal distribution of flooding based on Storm Water Management Model (SWMM and TELAMAC-2D. Second, an agent-based model (ABM was used to simulate driver behavior during a period of urban flooding, and a car-following model was established. Finally, in order to study the mechanisms behind how urban flooding affects traffic congestion, the impact of flooding on urban traffic was investigated based on a case study of the urban area of Lishui, China, covering an area of 4.4 km2. It was found that for most events, two-hour rainfall has a certain impact on traffic congestion over a five-hour period, with the greatest impact during the hour following the cessation of the rain. Furthermore, the effects of rainfall with 10- and 20-year return periods were found to be similar and small, whereas the effects with a 50-year return period were obvious. Based on a combined analysis of hydrology and transportation, the proposed methods and conclusions could help to reduce traffic congestion during flood seasons, to facilitate early warning and risk management of urban flooding, and to assist users in making informed decisions regarding travel.

  14. An exhaustive approach for identification of flood risk hotspots in data poor regions enforcing combined geomorphic and socio-economic indicators

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mohanty, M. P.; Karmakar, S.; Ghosh, S.

    2017-12-01

    Many countries across the Globe are victims of floods. To monitor them, various sophisticated algorithms and flood models are used by the scientific community. However, there still lies a gap to efficiently mapping flood risk. The limitations being: (i) scarcity of extensive data inputs required for precise flood modeling, (ii) fizzling performance of models in large and complex terrains (iii) high computational cost and time, and (iv) inexpertise in handling model simulations by civic bodies. These factors trigger the necessity of incorporating uncomplicated and inexpensive, yet precise approaches to identify areas at different levels of flood risk. The present study addresses this issue by utilizing various easily available, low cost data in a GIS environment for a large flood prone and data poor region. A set of geomorphic indicators of Digital Elevation Model (DEM) are analysed through linear binary classification, and are used to identify the flood hazard. The performance of these indicators is then investigated using receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve, whereas the calibration and validation of the derived flood maps are accomplished through a comparison with dynamically coupled 1-D 2-D flood model outputs. A high degree of similarity on flood inundation proves the reliability of the proposed approach in identifying flood hazard. On the other hand, an extensive list of socio-economic indicators is selected to represent the flood vulnerability at a very finer forward sortation level using multivariate Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). A set of bivariate flood risk maps is derived combining the flood hazard and socio-economic vulnerability maps. Given the acute problem of floods in developing countries, the proposed methodology which may be characterized by low computational cost, lesser data requirement and limited flood modeling complexity may facilitate local authorities and planners for deriving effective flood management strategies.

  15. Towards a better understanding of flood generation and surface water inundation mechanisms using NASA remote sensing data products

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lucey, J.; Reager, J. T., II; Lopez, S. R.

    2017-12-01

    Floods annually cause several weather-related fatalities and financial losses. According to NOAA and FEMA, there were 43 deaths and 18 billion dollars paid out in flood insurance policies during 2005. The goal of this work is to improve flood prediction and flood risk assessment by creating a general model of predictability of extreme runoff generation using various NASA products. Using satellite-based flood inundation observations, we can relate surface water formation processes to changes in other hydrological variables, such as precipitation, storage and soil moisture, and understand how runoff generation response to these forcings is modulated by local topography and land cover. Since it is known that a flood event would cause an abnormal increase in surface water, we examine these underlying physical relationships in comparison with the Dartmouth Flood Observatory archive of historic flood events globally. Using ground water storage observations (GRACE), precipitation (TRMM or GPCP), land use (MODIS), elevation (SRTM) and surface inundation levels (SWAMPS), an assessment of geological and climate conditions can be performed for any location around the world. This project utilizes multiple linear regression analysis evaluating the relationship between surface water inundation, total water storage anomalies and precipitation values, grouped by average slope or land use, to determine their statistical relationships and influences on inundation data. This research demonstrates the potential benefits of using global data products for early flood prediction and will improve our understanding of runoff generation processes.

  16. Estimating design flood and HEC-RAS modelling approach for flood analysis in Bojonegoro city

    Science.gov (United States)

    Prastica, R. M. S.; Maitri, C.; Hermawan, A.; Nugroho, P. C.; Sutjiningsih, D.; Anggraheni, E.

    2018-03-01

    Bojonegoro faces flood every year with less advanced prevention development. Bojonegoro city development could not peak because the flood results material losses. It affects every sectors in Bojonegoro: education, politics, economy, social, and infrastructure development. This research aims to analyse and to ensure that river capacity has high probability to be the main factor of flood in Bojonegoro. Flood discharge analysis uses Nakayasu synthetic unit hydrograph for period of 5 years, 10 years, 25 years, 50 years, and 100 years. They would be compared to the water maximum capacity that could be loaded by downstream part of Bengawan Solo River in Bojonegoro. According to analysis result, Bengawan Solo River in Bojonegoro could not able to load flood discharges. Another method used is HEC-RAS analysis. The conclusion that shown by HEC-RAS analysis has the same view. It could be observed that flood water loading is more than full bank capacity elevation in the river. To conclude, the main factor that should be noticed by government to solve flood problem is river capacity.

  17. Flood Water Segmentation from Crowdsourced Images

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nguyen, J. K.; Minsker, B. S.

    2017-12-01

    In the United States, 176 people were killed by flooding in 2015. Along with the loss of human lives is the economic cost which is estimated to be $4.5 billion per flood event. Urban flooding has become a recent concern due to the increase in population, urbanization, and global warming. As more and more people are moving into towns and cities with infrastructure incapable of coping with floods, there is a need for more scalable solutions for urban flood management.The proliferation of camera-equipped mobile devices have led to a new source of information for flood research. In-situ photographs captured by people provide information at the local level that remotely sensed images fail to capture. Applications of crowdsourced images to flood research required understanding the content of the image without the need for user input. This paper addresses the problem of how to automatically segment a flooded and non-flooded region in crowdsourced images. Previous works require two images taken at similar angle and perspective of the location when it is flooded and when it is not flooded. We examine three different algorithms from the computer vision literature that are able to perform segmentation using a single flood image without these assumptions. The performance of each algorithm is evaluated on a collection of labeled crowdsourced flood images. We show that it is possible to achieve a segmentation accuracy of 80% using just a single image.

  18. Numerical Analysis of Flood modeling of upper Citarum River under Extreme Flood Condition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Siregar, R. I.

    2018-02-01

    This paper focuses on how to approach the numerical method and computation to analyse flood parameters. Water level and flood discharge are the flood parameters solved by numerical methods approach. Numerical method performed on this paper for unsteady flow conditions have strengths and weaknesses, among others easily applied to the following cases in which the boundary irregular flow. The study area is in upper Citarum Watershed, Bandung, West Java. This paper uses computation approach with Force2 programming and HEC-RAS to solve the flow problem in upper Citarum River, to investigate and forecast extreme flood condition. Numerical analysis based on extreme flood events that have occurred in the upper Citarum watershed. The result of water level parameter modeling and extreme flood discharge compared with measurement data to analyse validation. The inundation area about flood that happened in 2010 is about 75.26 square kilometres. Comparing two-method show that the FEM analysis with Force2 programs has the best approach to validation data with Nash Index is 0.84 and HEC-RAS that is 0.76 for water level. For discharge data Nash Index obtained the result analysis use Force2 is 0.80 and with use HEC-RAS is 0.79.

  19. Flood Hazards - A National Threat

    Science.gov (United States)

    ,

    2006-01-01

    In the late summer of 2005, the remarkable flooding brought by Hurricane Katrina, which caused more than $200 billion in losses, constituted the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history. However, even in typical years, flooding causes billions of dollars in damage and threatens lives and property in every State. Natural processes, such as hurricanes, weather systems, and snowmelt, can cause floods. Failure of levees and dams and inadequate drainage in urban areas can also result in flooding. On average, floods kill about 140 people each year and cause $6 billion in property damage. Although loss of life to floods during the past half-century has declined, mostly because of improved warning systems, economic losses have continued to rise due to increased urbanization and coastal development.

  20. Physical Basis for Creating Energy and Resource-Saving Rheo-Technology in Oil Production

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Emin A. Panakhov

    2009-10-01

    Full Text Available In a previous paper we presented the results of our investigations on the application of externally imposed temperature fields for the improvement of the non-Newtonian properties of raw oil in the well and also on the possible use of electric and magnetic fields in the water flooding process of the oil layer. In this article, some additional results are presented with regards to the application of external pressure fields to the same purpose, with the goal of increasing the well output and improve the efficiency of gaslift wells and oil pipelines. The possibility of regulating the gas-liquid system saturation pressure is discussed as well, to expand the opportunity of varying the well operating regime.

  1. Probabilistic Flood Defence Assessment Tools

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Slomp Robert

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The WTI2017 project is responsible for the development of flood defence assessment tools for the 3600 km of Dutch primary flood defences, dikes/levees, dunes and hydraulic structures. These tools are necessary, as per January 1st 2017, the new flood risk management policy for the Netherlands will be implemented. Then, the seven decades old design practice (maximum water level methodology of 1958 and two decades old safety standards (and maximum hydraulic load methodology of 1996 will formally be replaced by a more risked based approach for the national policy in flood risk management. The formal flood defence assessment is an important part of this new policy, especially for flood defence managers, since national and regional funding for reinforcement is based on this assessment. This new flood defence policy is based on a maximum allowable probability of flooding. For this, a maximum acceptable individual risk was determined at 1/100 000 per year, this is the probability of life loss of for every protected area in the Netherlands. Safety standards of flood defences were then determined based on this acceptable individual risk. The results were adjusted based on information from cost -benefit analysis, societal risk and large scale societal disruption due to the failure of critical infrastructure e.g. power stations. The resulting riskbased flood defence safety standards range from a 300 to a 100 000 year return period for failure. Two policy studies, WV21 (Safety from floods in the 21st century and VNK-2 (the National Flood Risk in 2010 provided the essential information to determine the new risk based safety standards for flood defences. The WTI2017 project will provide the safety assessment tools based on these new standards and is thus an essential element for the implementation of this policy change. A major issue to be tackled was the development of user-friendly tools, as the new assessment is to be carried out by personnel of the

  2. Numerical simulation of flood barriers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Srb, Pavel; Petrů, Michal; Kulhavý, Petr

    This paper deals with testing and numerical simulating of flood barriers. The Czech Republic has been hit by several very devastating floods in past years. These floods caused several dozens of causalities and property damage reached billions of Euros. The development of flood measures is very important, especially for the reduction the number of casualties and the amount of property damage. The aim of flood control measures is the detention of water outside populated areas and drainage of water from populated areas as soon as possible. For new flood barrier design it is very important to know its behaviour in case of a real flood. During the development of the barrier several standardized tests have to be carried out. Based on the results from these tests numerical simulation was compiled using Abaqus software and some analyses were carried out. Based on these numerical simulations it will be possible to predict the behaviour of barriers and thus improve their design.

  3. Measuring flood footprint of a regional economy - A case study for the UK flooding

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guan, D.

    2013-12-01

    Analysis of the urban economy and society is central to understanding the broad impacts of flooding and to identify cost-effective adaptation and mitigation measures. Assessments of the flooding impacts on cities have traditionally focused on the initial impact on people and assets. These initial estimates (so-called ';direct damage') are useful both in understanding the immediate implications of damage, and in marshalling the pools of capital and supplies required for re-building after an event. Since different economies as well as societies are coupled, especially under the current economic crisis, any small-scale damage may be multiplied and cascaded throughout wider economic systems and social networks. The direct and indirect damage is currently not evaluated well and could be captured by quantification of what we call the flood footprint. Flooding in one location can impact the whole UK economy. Neglecting these knock-on costs (i.e. the true footprint of the flood) means we might be ignoring the economic benefits and beneficiaries of flood risk management interventions. In 2007, for example, floods cost the economy about £3.2 bn directly, but the wider effect might actually add another 50% to 250% to that. Flood footprint is a measure of the exclusive total socioeconomic impact that is directly and indirectly caused by a flood event to the flooding region and wider economic systems and social networks. We adopt the UK 2012 flooding. An input-output basic dynamic inequalities (BDI) model is used to assess the impact of the floodings on the level of a Yorkshire economy, accounting for interactions between industries through demand and supply of intermediate consumption goods with a circular flow. After the disaster the economy will be unbalanced. The recovery process finishes when the economy is completely balance, i.e., when labour production capacity equals demands and production and all the variables reach pre-disaster levels. The analysis is carried out

  4. Geochemistry and flooding as determining factors of plant species composition in Dutch winter-flooded riverine grasslands

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Beumer, V.; Wirdum, G. van; Beltman, B.; Griffioen, J.; Grootjans, A.P.; Verhoeven, J.T.A.

    2008-01-01

    Dutch water policy aims for more frequent, controlled flooding of river valley floodplains to avoid unwanted flooding elsewhere; in anticipation of increased flooding risks resulting from climate changes. Controlled flooding usually takes place in winter in parts of the valleys which had not been

  5. Promoting adaptive flood risk management: the role and potential of flood recovery mechanisms

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Priest Sally J

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available There is a high potential for recovery mechanisms to be used to incentivise the uptake of flood mitigation and loss reduction measures, undertake adaptation and promote community resilience. Indeed, creating a resilient response to flooding requires flood risk management approaches to be aligned and it needs to be ensured that recovery mechanisms to not provide disincentives for individuals and business to take proactive action to reduce risk. However, the degree to which it is desirable and effective for insurers and governments providing compensation to promote resilience and risk reduction depends upon how the cover or compensation is organised and the premiums which are charged. A review of international flood recovery mechanisms has been undertaken to identify firstly the types of schemes that exist and their characteristics. Analysis of existing instruments highlights that there are various potential approaches to encourage or require the uptake of flood mitigation and also discourage the construction of new development in high flood risk. However despite the presence of these instruments, those organising recovery mechanisms could be doing much more to incentivise increased resilience.

  6. Flood rich periods, flood poor periods and the need to look beyond instrumental records

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lane, S. N.

    2009-04-01

    For many, the later 20th Century and early 21st Century has become synonymous with a growing experience of flood risk. Scientists, politicians and the media have ascribed this to changing climate and there are good hypothetical reasons for human-induced climate change to be impacting upon the magnitude and frequency of extreme weather events. In this paper, I will interrogate this claim more carefully, using the UK's instrumental records of river flow, most of which begin after 1960, but a smaller number of which extend back into the 19th Century. Those records that extent back to the 19th Century suggest that major flood events tend to cluster into periods that are relatively flood rich and relatively flood poor, most notably in larger drainage basins: i.e. there is a clear scale issue. The timing (inset, duration, termination) of these periods varies systematically by region although there is a marked flood poor period for much of the UK during the late 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. It follows that at least some of the current experience of flooding, including why it has taken so many policy-makers and flood victims by surprise, may reflect a transition from a flood poor to a flood rich period, exacerbated by possible climate change impacts. These results point to the need to rethink how we think through what drives flood risk. First, it points to the need to look at some of the fundamental oscillations in core atmospheric drivers, such as the North Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, in explaining what drives flood risk. Consideration of precipitation, as opposed to river flow, is more advanced in this respect, and those of us working in rivers need to engage much more thoughtfully with atmospheric scientists. Second, it points to the severe inadequacies in using records of only a few decades duration. Even where these are pooled across adjacent sub-catchments, there is likely to be a severe bias in the estimation of flood return periods when we look at instrumental

  7. A free and open source QGIS plugin for flood risk analysis: FloodRisk

    Science.gov (United States)

    Albano, Raffaele; Sole, Aurelia; Mancusi, Leonardo

    2016-04-01

    An analysis of global statistics shows a substantial increase in flood damage over the past few decades. Moreover, it is expected that flood risk will continue to rise due to the combined effect of increasing numbers of people and economic assets in risk-prone areas and the effects of climate change. In order to increase the resilience of European economies and societies, the improvement of risk assessment and management has been pursued in the last years. This results in a wide range of flood analysis models of different complexities with substantial differences in underlying components needed for its implementation, as geographical, hydrological and social differences demand specific approaches in the different countries. At present, it is emerging the need of promote the creation of open, transparent, reliable and extensible tools for a comprehensive, context-specific and applicable flood risk analysis. In this context, the free and open-source Quantum GIS (QGIS) plugin "FloodRisk" is a good starting point to address this objective. The vision of the developers of this free and open source software (FOSS) is to combine the main features of state-of-the-art science, collaboration, transparency and interoperability in an initiative to assess and communicate flood risk worldwide and to assist authorities to facilitate the quality and fairness of flood risk management at multiple scales. Among the scientific community, this type of activity can be labelled as "participatory research", intended as adopting a set of techniques that "are interactive and collaborative" and reproducible, "providing a meaningful research experience that both promotes learning and generates knowledge and research data through a process of guided discovery"' (Albano et al., 2015). Moreover, this FOSS geospatial approach can lowering the financial barriers to understanding risks at national and sub-national levels through a spatio-temporal domain and can provide better and more complete

  8. On the Use of Global Flood Forecasts and Satellite-Derived Inundation Maps for Flood Monitoring in Data-Sparse Regions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Beatriz Revilla-Romero

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available Early flood warning and real-time monitoring systems play a key role in flood risk reduction and disaster response decisions. Global-scale flood forecasting and satellite-based flood detection systems are currently operating, however their reliability for decision-making applications needs to be assessed. In this study, we performed comparative evaluations of several operational global flood forecasting and flood detection systems, using 10 major flood events recorded over 2012–2014. Specifically, we evaluated the spatial extent and temporal characteristics of flood detections from the Global Flood Detection System (GFDS and the Global Flood Awareness System (GloFAS. Furthermore, we compared the GFDS flood maps with those from NASA’s two Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS sensors. Results reveal that: (1 general agreement was found between the GFDS and MODIS flood detection systems, (2 large differences exist in the spatio-temporal characteristics of the GFDS detections and GloFAS forecasts, and (3 the quantitative validation of global flood disasters in data-sparse regions is highly challenging. Overall, satellite remote sensing provides useful near real-time flood information that can be useful for risk management. We highlight the known limitations of global flood detection and forecasting systems, and propose ways forward to improve the reliability of large-scale flood monitoring tools.

  9. Reconstruction of the 1945 Wieringermeer Flood

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hoes, O. A. C.; Hut, R. W.; van de Giesen, N. C.; Boomgaard, M.

    2013-03-01

    The present state-of-the-art in flood risk assessment focuses on breach models, flood propagation models, and economic modelling of flood damage. However, models need to be validated with real data to avoid erroneous conclusions. Such reference data can either be historic data, or can be obtained from controlled experiments. The inundation of the Wieringermeer polder in the Netherlands in April 1945 is one of the few examples for which sufficient historical information is available. The objective of this article is to compare the flood simulation with flood data from 1945. The context, the breach growth process and the flood propagation are explained. Key findings for current flood risk management addresses the importance of the drainage canal network during the inundation of a polder, and the uncertainty that follows from not knowing the breach growth parameters. This case study shows that historical floods provide valuable data for the validation of models and reveal lessons that are applicable in current day flood risk management.

  10. The Aqueduct Global Flood Analyzer

    Science.gov (United States)

    Iceland, Charles

    2015-04-01

    As population growth and economic growth take place, and as climate change accelerates, many regions across the globe are finding themselves increasingly vulnerable to flooding. A recent OECD study of the exposure of the world's large port cities to coastal flooding found that 40 million people were exposed to a 1 in 100 year coastal flood event in 2005, and the total value of exposed assets was about US 3,000 billion, or 5% of global GDP. By the 2070s, those numbers were estimated to increase to 150 million people and US 35,000 billion, or roughly 9% of projected global GDP. Impoverished people in developing countries are particularly at risk because they often live in flood-prone areas and lack the resources to respond. WRI and its Dutch partners - Deltares, IVM-VU University Amsterdam, Utrecht University, and PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency - are in the initial stages of developing a robust set of river flood and coastal storm surge risk measures that show the extent of flooding under a variety of scenarios (both current and future), together with the projected human and economic impacts of these flood scenarios. These flood risk data and information will be accessible via an online, easy-to-use Aqueduct Global Flood Analyzer. We will also investigate the viability, benefits, and costs of a wide array of flood risk reduction measures that could be implemented in a variety of geographic and socio-economic settings. Together, the activities we propose have the potential for saving hundreds of thousands of lives and strengthening the resiliency and security of many millions more, especially those who are most vulnerable. Mr. Iceland will present Version 1.0 of the Aqueduct Global Flood Analyzer and provide a preview of additional elements of the Analyzer to be released in the coming years.

  11. Environmentally responsive surface-modified silica nanoparticles for enhanced oil recovery

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Behzadi, Abed; Mohammadi, Aliasghar

    2016-01-01

    Environmentally responsive surface-modified nanoparticles are colloidal nanoparticles coated with, at least, two physicochemically distinct surface groups. Recent advances in the synthesis and production of nanoparticles have enabled the production of environmentally responsive surface-modified nanoparticles with both hydrophilic and hydrophobic surface groups. These nanoparticles act like colloidal surfactants. In this paper, environmentally responsive surface-modified silica nanoparticles are synthesized and used for enhancement of oil recovery. For this purpose, silica nanoparticles are coated with polyethylene glycol chains as hydrophilic agent and propyl chains as hydrophobic agent at various quantities, and their ability to modulate oil–water interface properties and oil recovery is examined. Oil–water interfacial tension and water surface tension are decreased by 50 % in the presence of silica nanoparticles coated with both agents. Measuring oil-drop contact angle on oil-wetted glass slides and carbonate rock sections, after aging in various surface-modified silica nanofluids, indicates that the wettability of various oil-wetted surfaces is modified from strongly oil-wet to water-wet. Flooding nanofluids to glass micro-models and pore-level investigations demonstrate that surface modification of silica nanoparticles, specially, with both hydrophilic and hydrophobic agents improves considerably their performance in increasing oil recovery and wettability alteration.

  12. Environmentally responsive surface-modified silica nanoparticles for enhanced oil recovery

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Behzadi, Abed; Mohammadi, Aliasghar, E-mail: amohammadi@sharif.edu [Sharif University of Technology, Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering (Iran, Islamic Republic of)

    2016-09-15

    Environmentally responsive surface-modified nanoparticles are colloidal nanoparticles coated with, at least, two physicochemically distinct surface groups. Recent advances in the synthesis and production of nanoparticles have enabled the production of environmentally responsive surface-modified nanoparticles with both hydrophilic and hydrophobic surface groups. These nanoparticles act like colloidal surfactants. In this paper, environmentally responsive surface-modified silica nanoparticles are synthesized and used for enhancement of oil recovery. For this purpose, silica nanoparticles are coated with polyethylene glycol chains as hydrophilic agent and propyl chains as hydrophobic agent at various quantities, and their ability to modulate oil–water interface properties and oil recovery is examined. Oil–water interfacial tension and water surface tension are decreased by 50 % in the presence of silica nanoparticles coated with both agents. Measuring oil-drop contact angle on oil-wetted glass slides and carbonate rock sections, after aging in various surface-modified silica nanofluids, indicates that the wettability of various oil-wetted surfaces is modified from strongly oil-wet to water-wet. Flooding nanofluids to glass micro-models and pore-level investigations demonstrate that surface modification of silica nanoparticles, specially, with both hydrophilic and hydrophobic agents improves considerably their performance in increasing oil recovery and wettability alteration.

  13. Estimating flood discharge using witness movies in post-flood hydrological surveys

    Science.gov (United States)

    Le Coz, Jérôme; Hauet, Alexandre; Le Boursicaud, Raphaël; Pénard, Lionel; Bonnifait, Laurent; Dramais, Guillaume; Thollet, Fabien; Braud, Isabelle

    2015-04-01

    The estimation of streamflow rates based on post-flood surveys is of paramount importance for the investigation of extreme hydrological events. Major uncertainties usually arise from the absence of information on the flow velocities and from the limited spatio-temporal resolution of such surveys. Nowadays, after each flood occuring in populated areas home movies taken from bridges, river banks or even drones are shared by witnesses through Internet platforms like YouTube. Provided that some topography data and additional information are collected, image-based velocimetry techniques can be applied to some of these movie materials, in order to estimate flood discharges. As a contribution to recent post-flood surveys conducted in France, we developed and applied a method for estimating velocities and discharges based on the Large Scale Particle Image Velocimetry (LSPIV) technique. Since the seminal work of Fujita et al. (1998), LSPIV applications to river flows were reported by a number of authors and LSPIV can now be considered a mature technique. However, its application to non-professional movies taken by flood witnesses remains challenging and required some practical developments. The different steps to apply LSPIV analysis to a flood home movie are as follows: (i) select a video of interest; (ii) contact the author for agreement and extra information; (iii) conduct a field topography campaign to georeference Ground Control Points (GCPs), water level and cross-sectional profiles; (iv) preprocess the video before LSPIV analysis: correct lens distortion, align the images, etc.; (v) orthorectify the images to correct perspective effects and know the physical size of pixels; (vi) proceed with the LSPIV analysis to compute the surface velocity field; and (vii) compute discharge according to a user-defined velocity coefficient. Two case studies in French mountainous rivers during extreme floods are presented. The movies were collected on YouTube and field topography

  14. Quantification of uncertainty in flood risk assessment for flood protection planning: a Bayesian approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dittes, Beatrice; Špačková, Olga; Ebrahimian, Negin; Kaiser, Maria; Rieger, Wolfgang; Disse, Markus; Straub, Daniel

    2017-04-01

    Flood risk estimates are subject to significant uncertainties, e.g. due to limited records of historic flood events, uncertainty in flood modeling, uncertain impact of climate change or uncertainty in the exposure and loss estimates. In traditional design of flood protection systems, these uncertainties are typically just accounted for implicitly, based on engineering judgment. In the AdaptRisk project, we develop a fully quantitative framework for planning of flood protection systems under current and future uncertainties using quantitative pre-posterior Bayesian decision analysis. In this contribution, we focus on the quantification of the uncertainties and study their relative influence on the flood risk estimate and on the planning of flood protection systems. The following uncertainty components are included using a Bayesian approach: 1) inherent and statistical (i.e. limited record length) uncertainty; 2) climate uncertainty that can be learned from an ensemble of GCM-RCM models; 3) estimates of climate uncertainty components not covered in 2), such as bias correction, incomplete ensemble, local specifics not captured by the GCM-RCM models; 4) uncertainty in the inundation modelling; 5) uncertainty in damage estimation. We also investigate how these uncertainties are possibly reduced in the future when new evidence - such as new climate models, observed extreme events, and socio-economic data - becomes available. Finally, we look into how this new evidence influences the risk assessment and effectivity of flood protection systems. We demonstrate our methodology for a pre-alpine catchment in southern Germany: the Mangfall catchment in Bavaria that includes the city of Rosenheim, which suffered significant losses during the 2013 flood event.

  15. Salinity-Dependent Contact Angle Alteration in Oil/Brine/Silicate Systems: the Critical Role of Divalent Cations

    OpenAIRE

    Haagh, Martinus Everardus Johannes; Sîretanu, Igor; Duits, Michel; Mugele, Friedrich Gunther

    2017-01-01

    The effectiveness of water flooding oil recovery depends to an important extent on the competitive wetting of oil and water on the solid rock matrix. Here, we use macroscopic contact angle goniometry in highly idealized model systems to evaluate how brine salinity affects the balance of wetting forces and to infer the microscopic origin of the resultant contact angle alteration. We focus, in particular, on two competing mechanisms debated in the literature, namely, double-layer expansion and ...

  16. How Specific Microbial Communities Benefit the Oil Industry: Case Study - Proof of Concept that Oil Entrained in Marginal Reservoirs Can Be Bioconverted to Methane Gas as a Green Energy Recovery Strategy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gieg, Lisa

    Conventional oil recovery techniques such as water flooding typically remove only up to 40% of the oil present in reservoirs. Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques are considered tertiary strategies that may be applied to recover a greater volume of oil. In particular, the use of microorganisms to aid in oil production (microbial-enhanced oil recovery or MEOR) is considered a green energy recovery strategy since microbial processes do not require large amounts of energy input and can potentially produce large amounts of useful byproducts from inexpensive and renewable resources (Youssef et al., 2008). These byproducts can include the generation of biosurfactants, emulsifiers, acids, alcohols, and/or gases that can serve as agents for oil recovery. Recent reviews have summarised MEOR efforts undertaken since the 1950's with varying degrees of success (e.g. Jack, 1993; Belyaev et al., 2004; McInerney et al., 2005; Youssef et al., 2008). In MEOR schemes, petroleum reservoirs may be either stimulated with nutrients or inoculated with microorganisms with known activity to achieve desired effects (Youssef et al., 2008).

  17. Operational flood forecasting, warning and response for multi-scale flood risks in developing cities

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Rogelis Prada, M.C.

    2016-01-01

    Flood early warning systems are recognized as one of the most effective flood risk management instruments when correctly embedded in comprehensive flood risk management strategies and policies. Many efforts around the world are being put in place to advance the components that determine the

  18. Geomorphic changes caused by the 2011 flood at selected sites along the lower Missouri River and comparison to historical floods: Chapter H in 2011 floods of the central United States

    Science.gov (United States)

    Juracek, Kyle E.

    2014-01-01

    An analysis of recent and historical U.S. Geological Survey streamgage information was used to assess geomorphic changes caused by the 2011 flood, in comparison to selected historical floods, at three streamgage sites along the lower Missouri River—Sioux City, Iowa; Omaha, Nebraska; and Kansas City, Missouri. Channel-width change was not evident at the three streamgage sites following the 2011 flood and likely was inhibited by bank stabilization. Pronounced changes in channel-bed elevation were indicated. At Sioux City and Omaha, the geomorphic effects of the 2011 flood were similar in terms of the magnitude of channelbed scour and recovery. At both sites, the 2011 flood caused pronounced scour (about 3 feet) of the channel bed; however, at Omaha, most of the channel-bed scour occurred after the flood had receded. More than 1 year after the flood, the channel bed had only partially recovered (about 1 foot) at both sites. Pronounced scour (about 3 feet at Sioux City and about 1.5 feet at Omaha) also was caused by the 1952 flood, which had a substantially larger peak discharge but was much shorter in duration at both sites. Again, at Omaha, most of the channel- bed scour occurred after the flood had receded. At Sioux City, substantial recovery of the channel bed (about 2.5 feet) was documented 1 year after the 1952 flood. Recovery to the pre-flood elevation was complete by April 1954. The greater recovery following the 1952 flood, compared to the 2011 flood, likely was related to a more abundant sediment supply because the flood predated the completion of most of the main-stem dam, channelization, and bank stabilization projects. At Omaha, following the 1952 flood, the channel bed never fully recovered to its pre-flood elevation. The geomorphic effect of the 2011 flood at Kansas City was fill (about 1 foot) on the channel bed followed by relative stability. The 1952 flood, which had a substantially larger peak discharge but was much shorter in duration, caused

  19. Increasing resilience through participative flood risk map design

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fuchs, Sven; Spira, Yvonne; Stickler, Therese

    2013-04-01

    In recent years, an increasing number of flood hazards has shown to the European Commission and the Member States of the European Union the importance of flood risk management strategies in order to reduce losses and to protect the environment and the citizens. Exposure to floods as well as flood vulnerability might increase across Europe due to the ongoing economic development in many EU countries. Thus even without taking climate change into account an increase of flood disasters in Europe might be foreseeable. These circumstances have produced a reaction in the European Commission, and a Directive on the Assessment and Management of Flood Risks was issued as one of the three components of the European Action Programme on Flood Risk Management. Floods have the potential to jeopardise economic development, above all due to an increase of human activities in floodplains and the reduction of natural water retention by land use activities. As a result, an increase in the likelihood and adverse impacts of flood events is expected. Therefore, concentrated action is needed at the European level to avoid severe impacts on human life and property. In order to have an effective tool available for gathering information, as well as a valuable basis for priority setting and further technical, financial and political decisions regarding flood risk mitigation and management, it is necessary to provide for the establishment of flood risk maps which show the potential adverse consequences associated with different flood scenarios. So far, hazard and risk maps are compiled in terms of a top-down linear approach: planning authorities take the responsibility to create and implement these maps on different national and local scales, and the general public will only be informed about the outcomes (EU Floods Directive, Article 10). For the flood risk management plans, however, an "active involvement of interested parties" is required, which means at least some kind of multilateral

  20. Neural networks-based operational prototype for flash flood forecasting: application to Liane flash floods (France

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bertin Dominique

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The Liane River is a small costal river, famous for its floods, which can affect the city of Boulogne-sur-Mer. Due to the complexity of land cover and hydrologic processes, a black-box non-linear modelling was chosen using neural networks. The multilayer perceptron model, known for its property of universal approximation is thus chosen. Four models were designed, each one for one forecasting horizon using rainfall forecasts: 24h, 12h, 6h, 3h. The desired output of the model is original: it represents the maximal value of the water level respectively 24h, 12h, 6h, 3h ahead. Working with best forecasts of rain (the observed ones during the event in the past, on the major flood of the database in test set, the model provides excellent forecasts. Nash criteria calculated for the four lead times are 0.98 (3h, 0.97 (6h, 0.91 (12h, 0.89 (24h. Designed models were thus estimated as efficient enough to be implemented in a specific tool devoted to real time operational use. The software tool is described hereafter: designed in Java, it presents a friendly interface allowing applying various scenarios of future rainfalls, and a graphical visualization of the predicted maximum water levels and their associated real time observed values.

  1. Probing the intrinsically oil-wet surfaces of pores in North Sea chalk at subpore resolution

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hassenkam, Tue; Skovbjerg, Lone Lindbæk; Stipp, Susan Louise Svane

    2009-01-01

    been drilled in a water-bearing formation. At this site, the chalk has never seen oil, though at other locations, the same stratigraphic horizon with the same rock properties is known to be a productive oil reservoir. Thus the properties of the investigated particle surfaces are inherent to the chalk......Ultimate Oil recovery from chalk reservoirs is limited by many factors - including the grain size and the surface properties of the small mainly biogenic calcite particles that chalk is made off . Wettability, the tendency for water or oil to spread over a surface, of the particle surfaces is one...... of the controlling factors for the effectiveness of water flooding, one of the most common methods to improve oil recovery in Chalk reservoirs. Understanding surface wetting and its variability at scales smaller than the pore dimension will potentially provide clues for more effective oil production methods. We used...

  2. Jojoba oil and derivates

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wisniak, T

    1977-01-01

    Jojoba oil differs from all known seed oils by its almost complete absence of glycerides, making it more a liquid wax than a fat. It has become important as a possible substitute for sperm-whale oil to produce lubricants, lubricant additives and other products. The plant occurs naturally in southern Arizona and N.W. Mexico and its oil has long been used by Indians for medicinal, culinary, ritual and other purposes. It tolerates extreme daily fluctuations of temperature and grows well under the difficult soil and moisture conditions of the region. In the first part of this review the plant and its uses are described, including its floral, fruit and seed anatomy and the use of liquid wax during germination. Stored coryledon wax is used up by the embryo as a linear function of time during the first 30 days of germination and growth. Before germination, seeds weight about 0.59 mg and contain about 54% wax. The second and greater part of the review deals with jojoba oil (its extraction, properties, molecular description, toxicity and composition), jojoba meal, which remains after the oil has been extracted, and the chemical modification of the oil.

  3. Assessment of static flood modeling techniques: application to contrasting marshes flooded during Xynthia (western France

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. F. Breilh

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available This study aims to assess the performance of raster-based flood modeling methods on a wide diversity of coastal marshes. These methods are applied to the flooding associated with the storm Xynthia, which severely hit the western coast of France in February 2010. Static and semi-dynamic methods are assessed using a combination of LiDAR data, post-storm delineation of flooded areas and sea levels originating from both tide gauge measurements and storm surge modeling. Static methods are applied to 27 marshes showing a wide geomorphological diversity. It appears that these methods are suitable for marshes with a small distance between the coastline and the landward boundary of the marsh, which causes these marshes to flood rapidly. On the contrary, these methods overpredict flooded areas for large marshes where the distance between the coastline and the landward boundary of the marsh is large, because the flooding cannot be considered as instantaneous. In this case, semi-dynamic methods based on surge overflowing volume calculations can improve the flooding prediction significantly. This study suggests that static and semi-dynamic flood modeling methods can be attractive and quickly deployed to rapidly produce predictive flood maps of vulnerable areas under certain conditions, particularly for small distances between the coastline and the landward boundary of the low-lying coastal area.

  4. Effect of catchment properties and flood generation regime on copula selection for bivariate flood frequency analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Filipova, Valeriya; Lawrence, Deborah; Klempe, Harald

    2018-02-01

    Applying copula-based bivariate flood frequency analysis is advantageous because the results provide information on both the flood peak and volume. More data are, however, required for such an analysis, and it is often the case that only data series with a limited record length are available. To overcome this issue of limited record length, data regarding climatic and geomorphological properties can be used to complement statistical methods. In this paper, we present a study of 27 catchments located throughout Norway, in which we assess whether catchment properties, flood generation processes and flood regime have an effect on the correlation between flood peak and volume and, in turn, on the selection of copulas. To achieve this, the annual maximum flood events were first classified into events generated primarily by rainfall, snowmelt or a combination of these. The catchments were then classified into flood regime, depending on the predominant flood generation process producing the annual maximum flood events. A contingency table and Fisher's exact test were used to determine the factors that affect the selection of copulas in the study area. The results show that the two-parameter copulas BB1 and BB7 are more commonly selected in catchments with high steepness, high mean annual runoff and rainfall flood regime. These findings suggest that in these types of catchments, the dependence structure between flood peak and volume is more complex and cannot be modeled effectively using a one-parameter copula. The results illustrate that by relating copula types to flood regime and catchment properties, additional information can be supplied for selecting copulas in catchments with limited data.

  5. A novel quantitative analysis method of three-dimensional fluorescence spectra for vegetable oils contents in edible blend oil

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Jing; Wang, Yu-Tian; Liu, Xiao-Fei

    2015-04-01

    Edible blend oil is a mixture of vegetable oils. Eligible blend oil can meet the daily need of two essential fatty acids for human to achieve the balanced nutrition. Each vegetable oil has its different composition, so vegetable oils contents in edible blend oil determine nutritional components in blend oil. A high-precision quantitative analysis method to detect the vegetable oils contents in blend oil is necessary to ensure balanced nutrition for human being. Three-dimensional fluorescence technique is high selectivity, high sensitivity, and high-efficiency. Efficiency extraction and full use of information in tree-dimensional fluorescence spectra will improve the accuracy of the measurement. A novel quantitative analysis is proposed based on Quasi-Monte-Carlo integral to improve the measurement sensitivity and reduce the random error. Partial least squares method is used to solve nonlinear equations to avoid the effect of multicollinearity. The recovery rates of blend oil mixed by peanut oil, soybean oil and sunflower are calculated to verify the accuracy of the method, which are increased, compared the linear method used commonly for component concentration measurement.

  6. MIOR - Microbial Improved Oil Recovery. Basics studies on the suitability of microorganisms for improved oil recovery. Final report; MIOR - Microbial Improved Oil Recovery. Grundlagen der Eignung von Mikroorganismen fuer die Verbesserung der Erdoelgewinnung. Abschlussbericht

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Naeveke, R. [Technische Univ. Braunschweig (Germany). Inst. fuer Mikrobiologie; Fischer, K. [Technische Univ. Braunschweig (Germany). Inst. fuer Mikrobiologie; Timmis, K.N. [Gesellschaft fuer Biotechnologische Forschung mbH, Braunschweig (Germany); Yakimov, M. [Gesellschaft fuer Biotechnologische Forschung mbH, Braunschweig (Germany); Kroeger, A. [Gesellschaft fuer Biotechnologische Forschung mbH, Braunschweig (Germany); Bosecker, K. [Bundesanstalt fuer Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe, Hannover (Germany); Kruckemeyer, I. [Bundesanstalt fuer Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe, Hannover (Germany); Mengel-Jung, G. [Bundesanstalt fuer Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe, Hannover (Germany); Bock, M. [Bundesanstalt fuer Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe, Hannover (Germany); Schink, B. [Konstanz Univ. (Germany). Fachgebiet Mikrobielle Oekologie; Denger, K. [Konstanz Univ. (Germany). Fachgebiet Mikrobielle Oekologie; Kessel, D. [Institut fuer Erdoel- und Erdgasforschung, Clausthal-Zellerfeld (Germany); Amro, M. [Institut fuer Erdoel- und Erdgasforschung, Clausthal-Zellerfeld (Germany); Jacobs, G. [Institut fuer Erdoel- und Erdgasforschung, Clausthal-Zellerfeld (Germany); Hoffmann, G.G. [Institut fuer Erdoel- und Erdgasforschung, Clausthal-Zellerfeld (Germany); Wagner, M. [Erdoel - Erdgas Gommern GmbH (Germany); Ziran, B. [Erdoel - Erdgas Gommern GmbH (Germany); Nowak, H.U. [Erdoel - Erdgas Gommern GmbH (Germany); Eins, I. [Erdoel - Erdgas Gommern GmbH (Germany); Rosenspiess, K. [Erdoel - Erdgas Gommern GmbH (Germany); Lungershausen, D. [Erdoel - Erdgas Gommern GmbH (Germany)

    1996-03-01

    Microbial improved oil recovery (MIOR) is the use of microorganisms or microbial products that are injected into the oil reservoir to improve oil flow. The aim of this project was the application of MIOR in case of clastic reservoir rocks of the type encountered typically in Northern Germany. Microorganisms were concentrated, insolated and characterized from samples that were taken from oil production wells, oil processing facilities and soil contaminated with hydrocarbons. More than 500 bacteria strains were investigated for ability to grow under anaerobic conditions, halotolerance, heat tolerance and production of substances that increase viscosity or are surface active. 39 strains were selected for specific tests and genetic investigations. The two bacteria strains Bacillus licheniformis BNP 29 and Sporohalobacter showed to the capable for MIOR. Dynamic flooding experiments were carried out under realistic reservoir conditions, in order to quantify the ability of the microorganisms to mobilize residual oil in place, as well as to investigate the oil mobilizing mechanisms in more detail. It could be shown that the injectivity and migration of the bacteria in porous media are ensured. The microorganisms are able to grow under reservoir conditions as present in oil reservoirs of Northern Germany. Their application in flooding experiments leads to a significant increase of oil recovery. The most important factors influencing the oil recovery are the reduction of the permeability of the reservoir pores and changes in the wettability because of the bacterial growth. A suitable nutrient medium with an acid buffer was developed for the application of MIOR in sandstone reservoirs. An executive summary is prublished in DGMK-Report 441-2/1. (orig.) [Deutsch] MIOR (microbial improved oil recovery)-Verfahren dienen dazu, den Entoelungsgrad einer Erdoellagerstaette durch den gezielten in-situ-Einsatz von geeigneten Mikroorganismen und deren Stoffwechselprodukten zu erhoehen

  7. MIOR - Microbial Improved Oil Recovery. Basic studies on the suitability of microorganisms for improved oil recovery. Executive summary; MIOR - Microbial Improved Oil Recocery. Grundlagen der Eignung von Mikroorganismen fuer die Verbesserung der Erdoelgewinnung. Kurzbericht

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Naeveke, R. [Technische Univ. Braunschweig (Germany). Inst. fuer Mikrobiologie; Timmis, K.N. [Gesellschaft fuer Biotechnologische Forschung mbH, Braunschweig (Germany); Bosecker, K. [Bundesanstalt fuer Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe, Hannover (Germany); Schink, B. [Konstanz Univ. (Germany). Fachgebiet Mikrobielle Oekologie; Kessel, D. [Institut fuer Erdoel- und Erdgasforschung, Clausthal-Zellerfeld (Germany); Wagner, M. [Erdoel - Erdgas Gommern GmbH (Germany); Tessmer, G. [Deutsche Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft fuer Erdoel, Erdgas und Kohle e.V., Hamburg (Germany)

    1996-03-01

    Microbial improved oil recovery (MIOR) is the use of microorganisms or microbial products that are injected into the oil reservoir to improve oil flow. The aim of this project was the application of MIOR in case of clastic reservoir rocks of the type encountered typically in Nothern Germany. Microorganisms were concentrated, isolated and characterized from samples that were taken from oil production wells, oil processing facilities and soil contaminated with hydrocarbons. More than 500 bacteria strains were investigated for ability to grow under anaerobic conditions, halotolerance, heat tolerance and production of substances that increase viscosity or are surface active. 39 strains were selected for specific tests and genetic investigations. The two bacteria strains Bacillus licheniformis BNP 29 and Sporohalobacter showed to the capable for MIOR. Dynamic flooding experiments were carried out under realistic reservoir conditions, in order to quantify the ability of the microorganisms to mobilize residual oil in place, as well as to investigate the oil mobilizing mechanisms in more detail. It could be shown that the injectivity and migration of the bacteria in porous media are ensured. The microorganisms are able to grow under reservoir conditions as present in oil reservoirs of Nothern Germany. Their application in flooding experiments leads to a significant increase of oil recovery. The most important factors influencing the oil recovery are the reduction of the permeability of the reservoir pores and changes in the wettability because of the bacterial growth. A suitable nutrient medium with an acid buffer was developed for the application of MIOR in sandstone reservoirs. (orig.) [Deutsch] MIOR (microbial improved oil recovery)-Verfahren dienen dazu, den Entoelungsgrad einer Erdoellagerstaette durch den gezielten in-situ-Einsatz von geeigneten Mikroorganismen und deren Stoffwechselprodukten zu erhoehen. Ziel des Projektes war es, die Anwendbarkeit von MIOR

  8. Toward more flood resilience: Is a diversification of flood risk management strategies the way forward?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dries L. T. Hegger

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available European countries face increasing flood risks because of urbanization, increase of exposure and damage potential, and the effects of climate change. In literature and in practice, it is argued that a diversification of strategies for flood risk management (FRM, including flood risk prevention (through proactive spatial planning, flood defense, flood risk mitigation, flood preparation, and flood recovery, makes countries more flood resilient. Although this thesis is plausible, it should still be empirically scrutinized. We aim to do this. Drawing on existing literature we operationalize the notion of "flood resilience" into three capacities: capacity to resist; capacity to absorb and recover; and capacity to transform and adapt. Based on findings from the EU FP7 project STAR-FLOOD, we explore the degree of diversification of FRM strategies and related flood risk governance arrangements at the national level in Belgium, England, France, the Netherlands, Poland, and Sweden, as well as these countries' achievement in terms of the three capacities. We found that the Netherlands and to a lesser extent Belgium have a strong capacity to resist, France a strong capacity to absorb and recover, and especially England a high capacity to transform and adapt. Having a diverse portfolio of FRM strategies in place may be conducive to high achievements related to the capacities to absorb/recover and to transform and adapt. Hence, we conclude that diversification of FRM strategies contributes to resilience. However, the diversification thesis should be nuanced in the sense that there are different ways to be resilient. First, the three capacities imply different rationales and normative starting points for flood risk governance, the choice between which is inherently political. Second, we found trade-offs between the three capacities, e.g., being resistant seems to lower the possibility to be absorbent. Third, to explain countries' achievements in terms of

  9. Developing a Global Database of Historic Flood Events to Support Machine Learning Flood Prediction in Google Earth Engine

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tellman, B.; Sullivan, J.; Kettner, A.; Brakenridge, G. R.; Slayback, D. A.; Kuhn, C.; Doyle, C.

    2016-12-01

    There is an increasing need to understand flood vulnerability as the societal and economic effects of flooding increases. Risk models from insurance companies and flood models from hydrologists must be calibrated based on flood observations in order to make future predictions that can improve planning and help societies reduce future disasters. Specifically, to improve these models both traditional methods of flood prediction from physically based models as well as data-driven techniques, such as machine learning, require spatial flood observation to validate model outputs and quantify uncertainty. A key dataset that is missing for flood model validation is a global historical geo-database of flood event extents. Currently, the most advanced database of historical flood extent is hosted and maintained at the Dartmouth Flood Observatory (DFO) that has catalogued 4320 floods (1985-2015) but has only mapped 5% of these floods. We are addressing this data gap by mapping the inventory of floods in the DFO database to create a first-of- its-kind, comprehensive, global and historical geospatial database of flood events. To do so, we combine water detection algorithms on MODIS and Landsat 5,7 and 8 imagery in Google Earth Engine to map discrete flood events. The created database will be available in the Earth Engine Catalogue for download by country, region, or time period. This dataset can be leveraged for new data-driven hydrologic modeling using machine learning algorithms in Earth Engine's highly parallelized computing environment, and we will show examples for New York and Senegal.

  10. Optimization of Surfactant Mixtures and Their Interfacial Behavior for Advanced Oil Recovery, Annual Report, September 30, 1999-September 30, 2000

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Somasundaran, Prof. P.

    2001-04-04

    The goal of this report is to develop improved extraction processes to mobilize and produce the oil left untapped using conventional techniques. Current chemical schemes for recovering the residual oil have been in general less than satisfactory. High cost of the processes as well as significant loss of chemicals by adsorption on reservoir materials and precipitation has limited the utility of chemical-flooding operations. There is a need to develop cost-effective, improved reagent schemes to increase recovery from domestic oil reservoirs. The goal of the report was to develop and evaluate novel mixtures of surfactants for improved oil recovery.

  11. Developing a Malaysia flood model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haseldine, Lucy; Baxter, Stephen; Wheeler, Phil; Thomson, Tina

    2014-05-01

    Faced with growing exposures in Malaysia, insurers have a need for models to help them assess their exposure to flood losses. The need for an improved management of flood risks has been further highlighted by the 2011 floods in Thailand and recent events in Malaysia. The increasing demand for loss accumulation tools in Malaysia has lead to the development of the first nationwide probabilistic Malaysia flood model, which we present here. The model is multi-peril, including river flooding for thousands of kilometres of river and rainfall-driven surface water flooding in major cities, which may cause losses equivalent to river flood in some high-density urban areas. The underlying hazard maps are based on a 30m digital surface model (DSM) and 1D/2D hydraulic modelling in JFlow and RFlow. Key mitigation schemes such as the SMART tunnel and drainage capacities are also considered in the model. The probabilistic element of the model is driven by a stochastic event set based on rainfall data, hence enabling per-event and annual figures to be calculated for a specific insurance portfolio and a range of return periods. Losses are estimated via depth-damage vulnerability functions which link the insured damage to water depths for different property types in Malaysia. The model provides a unique insight into Malaysian flood risk profiles and provides insurers with return period estimates of flood damage and loss to property portfolios through loss exceedance curve outputs. It has been successfully validated against historic flood events in Malaysia and is now being successfully used by insurance companies in the Malaysian market to obtain reinsurance cover.

  12. Characterising Record Flooding in the United Kingdom

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cox, A.; Bates, P. D.; Smith, J. A.

    2017-12-01

    Though the most notable floods in history have been carefully explained, there remains a lack of literature that explores the nature of record floods as a whole in the United Kingdom. We characterise the seasonality, statistical and spatial distribution, and meteorological causes of peak river flows for 521 gauging stations spread across the British Isles. We use annual maximum data from the National River Flow Archive, catchment descriptors from the Flood Estimation Handbook, and historical records of large floods. What we aim to find is in what ways, if any, the record flood for a station is different from more 'typical' floods. For each station, we calculate two indices: the seasonal anomaly and the flood index. Broadly, the seasonal anomaly is the degree to which a station's record flood happens at a different time of year compared to typical floods at that site, whilst the flood index is a station's record flood discharge divided by the discharge of the 1-in-10-year return period event. We find that while annual maximum peaks are dominated by winter frontal rainfall, record floods are disproportionately caused by summer convective rainfall. This analysis also shows that the larger the seasonal anomaly, the higher the flood index. Additionally, stations across the country have record floods that occur in the summer with no notable spatial pattern, yet the most seasonally anomalous record events are concentrated around the south and west of the British Isles. Catchment descriptors tell us little about the flood index at a particular station, but generally areas with lower mean annual precipitation have a higher flood index. The inclusion of case studies from recent and historical examples of notable floods across the UK supplements our analysis and gives insight into how typical these events are, both statistically and meteorologically. Ultimately, record floods in general happen at relatively unexpected times and with unpredictable magnitudes, which is a

  13. OIL RESERVOIR CHARACTERIZATION AND CO2 INJECTION MONITORING IN THE PERMIAN BASIN WITH CROSSWELL ELECTROMAGNETIC IMAGING

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Michael Wilt

    2004-02-01

    Substantial petroleum reserves exist in US oil fields that cannot be produced economically, at current prices, unless improvements in technology are forthcoming. Recovery of these reserves is vital to US economic and security interests as it lessens our dependence on foreign sources and keeps our domestic petroleum industry vital. Several new technologies have emerged that may improve the situation. The first is a series of new flooding techniques to re-pressurize reservoirs and improve the recovery. Of these the most promising is miscible CO{sub 2} flooding, which has been used in several US petroleum basins. The second is the emergence of new monitoring technologies to track and help manage this injection. One of the major players in here is crosswell electromagnetics, which has a proven sensitivity to reservoir fluids. In this project, we are applying the crosswell EM technology to a CO{sub 2} flood in the Permian Basin oil fields of New Mexico. With our partner ChevronTexaco, we are testing the suitability of using EM for tracking the flow of injected CO{sub 2} through the San Andreas reservoir in the Vacuum field in New Mexico. The project consisted of three phases, the first of which was a preliminary field test at Vacuum, where a prototype system was tested in oil field conditions including widely spaced wells with steel casing. The results, although useful, demonstrated that the older technology was not suitable for practical deployment. In the second phase of the project, we developed a much more powerful and robust field system capable of collecting and interpreting field data through steel-cased wells. The final phase of the project involved applying this system in field tests in the US and overseas. Results for tests in steam and water floods showed remarkable capability to image between steel wells and provided images that helped understand the geology and ongoing flood and helped better manage the field. The future of this technology is indeed bright

  14. Production, Characterization, and Application of Bacillus licheniformis W16 Biosurfactant in Enhancing Oil Recovery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Joshi, Sanket J; Al-Wahaibi, Yahya M; Al-Bahry, Saif N; Elshafie, Abdulkadir E; Al-Bemani, Ali S; Al-Bahri, Asma; Al-Mandhari, Musallam S

    2016-01-01

    The biosurfactant production by Bacillus licheniformis W16 and evaluation of biosurfactant based enhanced oil recovery (EOR) using core-flood under reservoir conditions were investigated. Previously reported nine different production media were screened for biosurfactant production, and two were further optimized with different carbon sources (glucose, sucrose, starch, cane molasses, or date molasses), as well as the strain was screened for biosurfactant production during the growth in different media. The biosurfactant reduced the surface tension and interfacial tension to 24.33 ± 0.57 mN m -1 and 2.47 ± 0.32 mN m -1 respectively within 72 h, at 40°C, and also altered the wettability of a hydrophobic surface by changing the contact angle from 55.67 ± 1.6 to 19.54°± 0.96°. The critical micelle dilution values of 4X were observed. The biosurfactants were characterized by different analytical techniques and identified as lipopeptide, similar to lichenysin-A. The biosurfactant was stable over wide range of extreme environmental conditions. The core flood experiments showed that the biosurfactant was able to enhance the oil recovery by 24-26% over residual oil saturation (S or ). The results highlight the potential application of lipopeptide biosurfactant in wettability alteration and microbial EOR processes.

  15. Study to determine the technical and economic feasibility of reclaiming chemicals used in micellar polymer and low tension surfactant flooding. Final report. [Ultrafiltration membranes and reverse osmosis membranes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Stephens, R.H.; Himmelblau, A.; Donnelly, R.G.

    1978-02-01

    Energy Resources Company has developed a technology for use with enhanced oil recovery to achieve emulsion breaking and surfactant recovery. By using ultrafiltration membranes, the Energy Resources Company process can dewater an oil-in-water type emulsion expected from enhanced oil recovery projects to the point where the emulsion can be inverted and treated using conventional emulsion-treating equipment. By using a tight ultrafiltration membrane or a reverse osmosis membrane, the Energy Resources Company process is capable of recovering chemicals such as surfactants used in micellar polymer flooding.

  16. Salt Marsh Bacterial Communities before and after the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Engel, Annette Summers; Liu, Chang; Paterson, Audrey T; Anderson, Laurie C; Turner, R Eugene; Overton, Edward B

    2017-10-15

    Coastal salt marshes along the northern Gulf of Mexico shoreline received varied types and amounts of weathered oil residues after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. At the time, predicting how marsh bacterial communities would respond and/or recover to oiling and other environmental stressors was difficult because baseline information on community composition and dynamics was generally unavailable. Here, we evaluated marsh vegetation, physicochemistry, flooding frequency, hydrocarbon chemistry, and subtidal sediment bacterial communities from 16S rRNA gene surveys at 11 sites in southern Louisiana before the oil spill and resampled the same marshes three to four times over 38 months after the spill. Calculated hydrocarbon biomarker indices indicated that oil replaced native natural organic matter (NOM) originating from Spartina alterniflora and marine phytoplankton in the marshes between May 2010 and September 2010. At all the studied marshes, the major class- and order-level shifts among the phyla Proteobacteria , Firmicutes , Bacteroidetes , and Actinobacteria occurred within these first 4 months, but another community shift occurred at the time of peak oiling in 2011. Two years later, hydrocarbon levels decreased and bacterial communities became more diverse, being dominated by Alphaproteobacteria ( Rhizobiales ), Chloroflexi ( Dehalococcoidia ), and Planctomycetes Compositional changes through time could be explained by NOM source differences, perhaps due to vegetation changes, as well as marsh flooding and salinity excursions linked to freshwater diversions. These findings indicate that persistent hydrocarbon exposure alone did not explain long-term community shifts. IMPORTANCE Significant deterioration of coastal salt marshes in Louisiana has been linked to natural and anthropogenic stressors that can adversely affect how ecosystems function. Although microorganisms carry out and regulate most biogeochemical reactions, the diversity of bacterial

  17. Combining Empirical and Stochastic Models for Extreme Floods Estimation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zemzami, M.; Benaabidate, L.

    2013-12-01

    Hydrological models can be defined as physical, mathematical or empirical. The latter class uses mathematical equations independent of the physical processes involved in the hydrological system. The linear regression and Gradex (Gradient of Extreme values) are classic examples of empirical models. However, conventional empirical models are still used as a tool for hydrological analysis by probabilistic approaches. In many regions in the world, watersheds are not gauged. This is true even in developed countries where the gauging network has continued to decline as a result of the lack of human and financial resources. Indeed, the obvious lack of data in these watersheds makes it impossible to apply some basic empirical models for daily forecast. So we had to find a combination of rainfall-runoff models in which it would be possible to create our own data and use them to estimate the flow. The estimated design floods would be a good choice to illustrate the difficulties facing the hydrologist for the construction of a standard empirical model in basins where hydrological information is rare. The construction of the climate-hydrological model, which is based on frequency analysis, was established to estimate the design flood in the Anseghmir catchments, Morocco. The choice of using this complex model returns to its ability to be applied in watersheds where hydrological information is not sufficient. It was found that this method is a powerful tool for estimating the design flood of the watershed and also other hydrological elements (runoff, volumes of water...).The hydrographic characteristics and climatic parameters were used to estimate the runoff, water volumes and design flood for different return periods.

  18. Gas injection may have triggered earthquakes in the Cogdell oil field, Texas.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gan, Wei; Frohlich, Cliff

    2013-11-19

    Between 1957 and 1982, water flooding was conducted to improve petroleum production in the Cogdell oil field north of Snyder, TX, and a contemporary analysis concluded this induced earthquakes that occurred between 1975 and 1982. The National Earthquake Information Center detected no further activity between 1983 and 2005, but between 2006 and 2011 reported 18 earthquakes having magnitudes 3 and greater. To investigate these earthquakes, we analyzed data recorded by six temporary seismograph stations deployed by the USArray program, and identified 93 well-recorded earthquakes occurring between March 2009 and December 2010. Relocation with a double-difference method shows that most earthquakes occurred within several northeast-southwest-trending linear clusters, with trends corresponding to nodal planes of regional focal mechanisms, possibly indicating the presence of previously unidentified faults. We have evaluated data concerning injection and extraction of oil, water, and gas in the Cogdell field. Water injection cannot explain the 2006-2011 earthquakes, especially as net volumes (injection minus extraction) are significantly less than in the 1957-1982 period. However, since 2004 significant volumes of gases including supercritical CO2 have been injected into the Cogdell field. The timing of gas injection suggests it may have contributed to triggering the recent seismic activity. If so, this represents an instance where gas injection has triggered earthquakes having magnitudes 3 and larger. Further modeling studies may help evaluate recent assertions suggesting significant risks accompany large-scale carbon capture and storage as a strategy for managing climate change.

  19. Sex-specific responses to winter flooding, spring waterlogging and post-flooding recovery in Populus deltoides

    OpenAIRE

    Ling-Feng Miao; Fan Yang; Chun-Yu Han; Yu-Jin Pu; Yang Ding; Li-Jia Zhang

    2017-01-01

    Winter flooding events are common in some rivers and streams due to dam constructions, and flooding and waterlogging inhibit the growth of trees in riparian zones. This study investigated sex-specific morphological, physiological and ultrastructural responses to various durations of winter flooding and spring waterlogging stresses, and post-flooding recovery characteristics in Populus deltoides. There were no significant differences in the morphological, ultrastructural and the majority of ph...

  20. Application of RUNTA code in flood analyses

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Perez Martin, F.; Benitez Fonzalez, F.

    1994-01-01

    Flood probability analyses carried out to date indicate the need to evaluate a large number of flood scenarios. This necessity is due to a variety of reasons, the most important of which include: - Large number of potential flood sources - Wide variety of characteristics of flood sources - Large possibility of flood-affected areas becoming inter linked, depending on the location of the potential flood sources - Diversity of flood flows from one flood source, depending on the size of the rupture and mode of operation - Isolation times applicable - Uncertainties in respect of the structural resistance of doors, penetration seals and floors - Applicable degrees of obstruction of floor drainage system Consequently, a tool which carries out the large number of calculations usually required in flood analyses, with speed and flexibility, is considered necessary. The RUNTA Code enables the range of possible scenarios to be calculated numerically, in accordance with all those parameters which, as a result of previous flood analyses, it is necessary to take into account in order to cover all the possible floods associated with each flood area

  1. A Cascading Storm-Flood-Landslide Guidance System: Development and Application in China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zeng, Ziyue; Tang, Guoqiang; Long, Di; Ma, Meihong; Hong, Yang

    2016-04-01

    than other parts, while the northeast of Yunnan are most susceptible to floods and landslides, which agrees with the distribution of observed flood and landslide events. Moreover, risks for the multi-hazards were classified into four categories. Results show a strong correlation between the distributions of flash flood prone and landslide-prone regions and also highlight the counties with high risk of storms (e.g., Funing and Malipo), flash floods (e.g., Gongshan and Yanjing) and landslides (e.g., Zhaotong and Luxi). Compared to other approaches, the Cascading Storm-Flood-Landslide Guidance System uses a straightforward yet useful indicator-based weighted linear combination method and could be a useful prototype in mapping characteristics of storm-triggered hazards for users at different administrative levels (e.g., catchment, town, county, province and even nation) in China.

  2. Adjustable Robust Strategies for Flood Protection

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Postek, Krzysztof; den Hertog, Dick; Kind, J.; Pustjens, Chris

    2016-01-01

    Flood protection is of major importance to many flood-prone regions and involves substantial investment and maintenance costs. Modern flood risk management requires often to determine a cost-efficient protection strategy, i.e., one with lowest possible long run cost and satisfying flood protection

  3. Comparison of deterministic and stochastic techniques for estimation of design basis floods for nuclear power plants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Solomon, S.I.; Harvey, K.D.

    1982-12-01

    The IAEA Safety Guide 50-SG-S10A recommends that design basis floods be estimated by deterministic techniques using probable maximum precipitation and a rainfall runoff model to evaluate the corresponding flood. The Guide indicates that stochastic techniques are also acceptable in which case floods of very low probability have to be estimated. The paper compares the results of applying the two techniques in two river basins at a number of locations and concludes that the uncertainty of the results of both techniques is of the same order of magnitude. However, the use of the unit hydrograph as the rainfall runoff model may lead in some cases to nonconservative estimates. A distributed non-linear rainfall runoff model leads to estimates of probable maximum flood flows which are very close to values of flows having a 10 6 - 10 7 years return interval estimated using a conservative and relatively simple stochastic technique. Recommendations on the practical application of Safety Guide 50-SG-10A are made and the extension of the stochastic technique to ungauged sites and other design parameters is discussed

  4. Comparative analysis of experimental methods for quantification of small amounts of oil in water

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Katika, Konstantina; Ahkami, Mehrdad; Fosbøl, Philip Loldrup

    2016-01-01

    ) and the quantification of oil is then difficult. In this study, we compare four approaches to determine the volume of the collected oil fraction in core flooding effluents. The four methods are: Image analysis, UV/visible spectroscopy, liquid scintillation counting, and low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR...... comparison to a pre-made standard curve. Image analysis, UV/visible spectroscopy, and liquid scintillation counting quantify only the oil fraction by comparing with a pre-made standard curve. The image analysis technique is reliable when more than 0.1 ml oil is present, whereas liquid scintillation counting...... performs well when less than 0.6 ml oil is present. Both UV/visible spectroscopy and NMR spectrometry produced high accuracy results in the entire studied range (0.006-1.1 ml). In terms of laboratory time, the liquid scintillation counting is the fastest and least user dependent, whereas the NMR...

  5. Internal flooding analyses results of Slovak NPPs

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sopira, Vladimir

    2000-01-01

    The assessment of the flood risk was the objective of the internal flooding analysis for NPPs Bohunice V1, V2 and Mochovce. All important flooding sources were identified. The rooms containing safety important components were analyzed from the point of view of: Integrity of flood boundaries; Capability for drainage; Flood signalisation; Flood localization and liquidation; Vulnerability of safety system component. The redundancies of safety systems are located mostly separately and no flood can endanger more than single train. It can be concluded that NPPs with WWER-440 are very safe against the flooding initiating event

  6. Offset Risk Minimization for Open-loop Optimal Control of Oil Reservoirs

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Capolei, Andrea; Christiansen, Lasse Hjuler; Jørgensen, J. B.

    2017-01-01

    Simulation studies of oil field water flooding have demonstrated a significant potential of optimal control technology to improve industrial practices. However, real-life applications are challenged by unknown geological factors that make reservoir models highly uncertain. To minimize...... the associated financial risks, the oil literature has used ensemble-based methods to manipulate the net present value (NPV) distribution by optimizing sample estimated risk measures. In general, such methods successfully reduce overall risk. However, as this paper demonstrates, ensemble-based control strategies...... practices. The results suggest that it may be more relevant to consider the NPV offset distribution than the NPV distribution when minimizing risk in production optimization....

  7. Smoky River coal flood risk mapping study

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2004-06-01

    The Canada-Alberta Flood Damage Reduction Program (FDRP) is designed to reduce flood damage by identifying areas susceptible to flooding and by encouraging application of suitable land use planning, zoning, and flood preparedness and proofing. The purpose of this study is to define flood risk and floodway limits along the Smoky River near the former Smoky River Coal (SRC) plant. Alberta Energy has been responsible for the site since the mine and plant closed in 2000. The study describes flooding history, available data, features of the river and valley, calculation of flood levels, and floodway determination, and includes flood risk maps. The HEC-RAS program is used for the calculations. The flood risk area was calculated using the 1:100 year return period flood as the hydrological event. 7 refs., 11 figs., 7 tabs., 3 apps.

  8. Report on the costs of domestic and international emergencies and on the threats posed by the Kuwaiti oil fires as required by P. L. 102-55

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    1991-06-01

    The report fulfills the requirements of Public Law 12-55, the FY 1992 dire emergency supplemental appropriations bill, signed by the President on June 13, 1991. This law required the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to prepare and submit to the appropriate committees of Congress a report on: unfunded costs of dire emergencies because of floods, droughts, tornadoes, unemployment, and other disasters in the United States; unfunded costs, including food assistance, of international disaster emergencies existing because of floods, droughts, tornadoes, and other disasters; and the threats to oil supply, human health, and the environment that the Kuwaiti oil fires might pose.

  9. Exploring the role of flood transience in coarse bed load sediment transport

    Science.gov (United States)

    Phillips, C. B.; Singer, M. B.; Hill, K. M.; Paola, C.

    2015-12-01

    The rate of bed load transport under steady flow is known to vary both spatially and temporally due to various hydrologic and granular phenomena. Grain size distributions and riverbed properties (packing, imbrication, etc.) are known to affect flux for a particular value of applied flow stress, while hydrology is mainly assumed to control the magnitude of the applied bed stress above the threshold for bed material entrainment. The prediction of bed load sediment transport in field settings is further complicated by the inherent transience in flood hydrology, but little is known about how such flood transience influences bed load flux over a range of applied bed stress. Here we investigate the role of flood transience for gravel bed load transport through controlled laboratory experiments in a 28 m long 0.5 meter wide flume. We explore transient flow as the combination of unsteady and intermittent flow, where unsteady flow varies in magnitude over a given duration, and intermittent flow is characterized by turning the flow on and off. We systematically vary these details of flood hydrographs from one experiment to the next, and monitor the bed load as it varies with water discharge in real time by measuring sediment flux and tracking particles. We find that even with a narrow unimodal grain size distribution and constant sediment supply we observe hysteresis in bed load flux, different thresholds for entrainment and distrainment for the rising and falling limbs of a flood, and a threshold of entrainment that can vary one flood hydrograph to the next. Despite these complex phenomena we find that the total bed load transported for each flood plots along a linear trend with the integrated excess stress, consistent with prior field results. These results suggest that while the effects of transient flow and the shape of the hydrograph are measurable, they are second-order compared to the integrated excess stress.

  10. Flood risk governance arrangements in Europe

    Science.gov (United States)

    Matczak, P.; Lewandowski, J.; Choryński, A.; Szwed, M.; Kundzewicz, Z. W.

    2015-06-01

    The STAR-FLOOD (Strengthening and Redesigning European Flood Risk Practices Towards Appropriate and Resilient Flood Risk Governance Arrangements) project, funded by the European Commission, investigates strategies for dealing with flood risk in six European countries: Belgium, the UK, France, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden and in 18 vulnerable urban regions in these countries. The project aims to describe, analyse, explain, and evaluate the main similarities and differences between the selected EU Member States in terms of development and performance of flood risk governance arrangements. It also discusses the scientific and societal importance of these similarities and differences. Attention is paid to identification and characterization of shifts in flood risk governance arrangements and in flood risk management strategies and to determination of triggering factors and restraining factors. An assessment of a change of resilience and appropriateness (legitimacy, effectiveness, efficiency) of flood risk governance arrangements in Poland is presented and comparison with other European countries is offered.

  11. Flood risk governance arrangements in Europe

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    P. Matczak

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available The STAR-FLOOD (Strengthening and Redesigning European Flood Risk Practices Towards Appropriate and Resilient Flood Risk Governance Arrangements project, funded by the European Commission, investigates strategies for dealing with flood risk in six European countries: Belgium, the UK, France, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden and in 18 vulnerable urban regions in these countries. The project aims to describe, analyse, explain, and evaluate the main similarities and differences between the selected EU Member States in terms of development and performance of flood risk governance arrangements. It also discusses the scientific and societal importance of these similarities and differences. Attention is paid to identification and characterization of shifts in flood risk governance arrangements and in flood risk management strategies and to determination of triggering factors and restraining factors. An assessment of a change of resilience and appropriateness (legitimacy, effectiveness, efficiency of flood risk governance arrangements in Poland is presented and comparison with other European countries is offered.

  12. Tacking Flood Risk from Watersheds using a Natural Flood Risk Management Toolkit

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reaney, S. M.; Pearson, C.; Barber, N.; Fraser, A.

    2017-12-01

    In the UK, flood risk management is moving beyond solely mitigating at the point of impact in towns and key infrastructure to tackle problem at source through a range of landscape based intervention measures. This natural flood risk management (NFM) approach has been trailed within a range of catchments in the UK and is moving towards being adopted as a key part of flood risk management. The approach offers advantages including lower cost and co-benefits for water quality and habitat creation. However, for an agency or group wishing to implement NFM within a catchment, there are two key questions that need to be addressed: Where in the catchment to place the measures? And how many measures are needed to be effective? With this toolkit, these questions are assessed with a two-stage workflow. First, SCIMAP-Flood gives a risk based mapping of likely locations that contribute to the flood peak. This tool uses information on land cover, hydrological connectivity, flood generating rainfall patterns and hydrological travel time distributions to impacted communities. The presented example applies the tool to the River Eden catchment, UK, with 5m grid resolution and hence provide sub-field scale information at the landscape extent. SCIMAP-Flood identifies sub-catchments where physically based catchment hydrological simulation models can be applied to test different NFM based mitigation measures. In this example, the CRUM3 catchment hydrological model has been applied within an uncertainty framework to consider the effectiveness of soil compaction reduction and large woody debris dams within a sub-catchment. It was found that large scale soil aeration to reduce soil compaction levels throughout the catchment is probably the most useful natural flood management measure for this catchment. NFM has potential for wide-spread application and these tools help to ensure that the measures are correctly designed and the scheme performance can be quantitatively assessed and predicted.

  13. Giant jem wing skimmer and separator for oil and other floating materials, liquids

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Meier, D.G.

    1991-01-01

    A skimmer and separation process are provided for cleaning oil spills, in which both water and oil can be handled in large amounts. One version of the skimmer is designed for attachment to a ship and includes a floating winglike body for skimming oil comprising flotation tanks, a water passage for minimizing buildup of water in front of the skimmer, vacuum chambers and screens for receiving overflowing oil and water, vacuum pipes for oil and water transfer to a distribution tank, a deflector shield to keep oil and water in front of the skimmer, automatic control valves for flooding, emptying, and depth-setting of the skimmer, an operating platform and control center for observation and operation of the skimmer, a curved oilguiding plate to direct oil to the front of the skimmer, and a swivel attachment for providing free movement of the skimmer when attaching it to the ship's hull. A variant of this skimmer, without the oil-guiding plate and water passage, is provided for stationary operation in the case where oil must be skimmed from a water surface adjacent to a stationary leaking oil source. An associated overflow and separation system consists of pumps, transfer pipes, flotation vessels, separation equipment, and collector tanks. 13 figs

  14. Mechanisms of microbial oil recovery by Clostridium acetobutylicum and Bacillus strain JF-2

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Marsh, T.L.; Zhang, X.; Knapp, R.M.; McInerney, M.J.; Sharma, P.K.; Jackson, B.E.

    1995-12-31

    Core displacement experiments at elevated pressures were conducted to determine whether microbial processes are effective under conditions that simulate those found in an actual oil reservoir. The in-situ growth of Clostridium acetobutylicum and Bacillus strain JF-2 resulted in the recovery of residual oil. About 21 and 23% of the residual oil was recovered by C. acetobutylicum and Bacillus strain JF-2, respectively. Flooding cores with cell-free culture fluids of C. acetobutylicum with and without the addition of 50 mM acetone and 100 mM butanol did not result in the recovery of residual oil. Mathematical simulations showed that the amount of gas produced by the clostridial fermentation was not showed that the amount of gas produced by the clostridial fermentation was not sufficient to recover residual oil. Oil recovery by Bacillus strain JF-2 was highly correlated to surfactant production. A biosurfactant-deficient mutant of strain JF-2 was not capable of recovering residual oil. These data show that surfactant production is an important mechanism for microbially enhanced oil recovery. The mechanism for oil recovery by C. acetobutylicum is not understood at this time, but the production of acids, solvents, or gases alone cannot explain the observed increases in oil recovery by this organism.

  15. Refined reservoir description to maximize oil recovery

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Flewitt, W.E.

    1975-01-01

    To assure maximized oil recovery from older pools, reservoir description has been advanced by fully integrating original open-hole logs and the recently introduced interpretive techniques made available through cased-hole wireline saturation logs. A refined reservoir description utilizing normalized original wireline porosity logs has been completed in the Judy Creek Beaverhill Lake ''A'' Pool, a reefal carbonate pool with current potential productivity of 100,000 BOPD and 188 active wells. Continuous porosity was documented within a reef rim and cap while discontinuous porous lenses characterized an interior lagoon. With the use of pulsed neutron logs and production data a separate water front and pressure response was recognized within discrete environmental units. The refined reservoir description aided in reservoir simulation model studies and quantifying pool performance. A pattern water flood has now replaced the original peripheral bottom water drive to maximize oil recovery

  16. Interconnected ponds operation for flood hazard distribution

    Science.gov (United States)

    Putra, S. S.; Ridwan, B. W.

    2016-05-01

    The climatic anomaly, which comes with extreme rainfall, will increase the flood hazard in an area within a short period of time. The river capacity in discharging the flood is not continuous along the river stretch and sensitive to the flood peak. This paper contains the alternatives on how to locate the flood retention pond that are physically feasible to reduce the flood peak. The flood ponds were designed based on flood curve number criteria (TR-55, USDA) with the aim of rapid flood peak capturing and gradual flood retuning back to the river. As a case study, the hydrologic condition of upper Ciliwung river basin with several presumed flood pond locations was conceptually designed. A fundamental tank model that reproducing the operation of interconnected ponds was elaborated to achieve the designed flood discharge that will flows to the downstream area. The flood hazard distribution status, as the model performance criteria, will be computed within Ciliwung river reach in Manggarai Sluice Gate spot. The predicted hazard reduction with the operation of the interconnected retention area result had been bench marked with the normal flow condition.

  17. Study of CT Scan Flooding System at High Temperature and Pressure

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, X. Y.

    2017-12-01

    CT scan flooding experiment can scan micro-pore in different flooding stages by the use of CT scan technology, without changing the external morphology and internal structure of the core, and observe the distribution characterization in pore medium of different flooding fluid under different pressure.thus,it can rebuilt the distribution images of oil-water distribution in different flooding stages. However,under extreme high pressure and temperature conditions,the CT scan system can not meet the requirements. Container of low density materials or thin shell can not resist high pressure,while high density materials or thick shell will cause attenuation and scattering of X-ray. The experiment uses a simple Ct scanning systems.X ray from a point light source passing trough a micro beryllium shell on High pressure stainless steal container,continuously irradiates the core holder that can continuously 360° rotate along the core axis. A rare earth intensifying screen behind the core holder emitting light when irradiated with X ray can show the core X ray section image. An optical camera record the core X ray images through a transparency high pressure glazing that placed on the High pressure stainless steal container.Thus,multiple core X ray section images can reconstruct the 3D core reconstruction after a series of data processing.The experiment shows that both the micro beryllium shell and rare earth intensifying screen can work in high temperature and high pressure environment in the stainless steal container. This way that X-ray passes through a thin layer of micro beryllium shell , not high pressure stainless steal shell,avoid the attenuation and scattering of X-ray from the container shell,while improving the high-pressure experiment requirements.

  18. Communicating Flood Risk with Street-Level Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sanders, B. F.; Matthew, R.; Houston, D.; Cheung, W. H.; Karlin, B.; Schubert, J.; Gallien, T.; Luke, A.; Contreras, S.; Goodrich, K.; Feldman, D.; Basolo, V.; Serrano, K.; Reyes, A.

    2015-12-01

    Coastal communities around the world face significant and growing flood risks that require an accelerating adaptation response, and fine-resolution urban flood models could serve a pivotal role in enabling communities to meet this need. Such models depict impacts at the level of individual buildings and land parcels or "street level" - the same spatial scale at which individuals are best able to process flood risk information - constituting a powerful tool to help communities build better understandings of flood vulnerabilities and identify cost-effective interventions. To measure understanding of flood risk within a community and the potential impact of street-level models, we carried out a household survey of flood risk awareness in Newport Beach, California, a highly urbanized coastal lowland that presently experiences nuisance flooding from high tides, waves and rainfall and is expected to experience a significant increase in flood frequency and intensity with climate change. Interviews were completed with the aid of a wireless-enabled tablet device that respondents could use to identify areas they understood to be at risk of flooding and to view either a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) flood map or a more detailed map prepared with a hydrodynamic urban coastal flood model (UCI map) built with grid cells as fine as 3 m resolution and validated with historical flood data. Results indicate differences in the effectiveness of the UCI and FEMA maps at communicating the spatial distribution of flood risk, gender differences in how the maps affect flood understanding, and spatial biases in the perception of flood vulnerabilities.

  19. The effect of ZnO nanoparticles on improved oil recovery in spontaneous imbibition mechanism of heavy oil production

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tajmiri, M.; Ehsani, M. R.; Mousavi, S. M.; Roayaei, E.; Emadi, A.

    2015-07-01

    Spontaneous imbibition (SI) gets a controversial subject in oil- wet carbonate reservoirs. The new concept of nanoparticles applications in an EOR area have been recently raised by researches about oil viscosity reduction and generate emulsion without surfactant. But a lot of questions have been remained about which nanoparticles can alter wettability from oil- wet to water- wet to improve oil recovery. This study introduces the new idea of adding ZnO nanoparticles (0.2%wt concentration) by experimental work on oil recovery. The main goals of this research were to prove that ZnO nanoparticles have the ability to reduce viscosity and also alter wettability. The ultimate objective was to determine the potential of these nanoparticles to imbibe into and displace oil. Through the use of Amott- cell, laboratory tests were conducted in two experiments on four cylindrical core samples (three sandstones and one carbonate) were taken from real Iranian heavy oil reservoir. In the first experiment, core samples were saturated by crude oil and in the second experiment, nanoparticles were flooding into core samples and then saturated by crude oil for about two weeks and after that they were immersed in distilled water and the amount of recovery was monitored during 30 days for both tests. We expected that ZnO nanoparticles decreased the surface tension which reduced the capillary forces through SI and wettability alteration took place towards a more water-wet system and caused the oil relative permeability to increase which dominated the gravitational forces to pull out the oil. Our results proved this expectation from ZnO nanoparticles clearly because carbonate core was oil- wet and the capillary pressure was high and negative to push water into the core so the original oil in place (OOIP) was zero whereas by adding ZnO nanoparticles OOIP was increased to 8.89%. SI yielded recovery values from 17.3, 2 and 15 without nanoparticles to 20.68, 17.57 and 36.2 % OOIP with

  20. Assessment of channel changes, model of historical floods, and effects of backwater on flood stage, and flood mitigation alternatives for the Wichita River at Wichita Falls, Texas

    Science.gov (United States)

    Winters, Karl E.; Baldys, Stanley

    2011-01-01

    In cooperation with the City of Wichita Falls, the U.S. Geological Survey assessed channel changes on the Wichita River at Wichita Falls, Texas, and modeled historical floods to investigate possible causes and potential mitigation alternatives to higher flood stages in recent (2007 and 2008) floods. Extreme flooding occurred on the Wichita River on June 30, 2007, inundating 167 homes in Wichita Falls. Although a record flood stage was reached in June 2007, the peak discharge was much less than some historical floods at Wichita Falls. Streamflow and stage data from two gages on the Wichita River and one on Holliday Creek were used to assess the interaction of the two streams. Changes in the Wichita River channel were evaluated using historical aerial and ground photography, comparison of recent and historical cross sections, and comparison of channel roughness coefficients with those from earlier studies. The floods of 2007 and 2008 were modeled using a one-dimensional step-backwater model. Calibrated channel roughness was larger for the 2007 flood compared to the 2008 flood, and the 2007 flood peaked about 4 feet higher than the 2008 flood. Calibration of the 1941 flood yielded a channel roughness coefficient (Manning's n) of 0.030, which represents a fairly clean natural channel. The step-backwater model was also used to evaluate the following potential mitigation alternatives: (1) increasing the capacity of the bypass channel near River Road in Wichita Falls, Texas; (2) removal of obstructions near the Scott Avenue and Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard bridges in Wichita Falls, Texas; (3) widening of aggraded channel banks in the reach between Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard and River Road; and (4) reducing channel bank and overbank roughness. Reductions in water-surface elevations ranged from 0.1 foot to as much as 3.0 feet for the different mitigation alternatives. The effects of implementing a combination of different flood-mitigation alternatives were