Decarbonizing energy production is critical to slowing the effects of climate change and furthering global sustainability. Progress is often gauged via carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>) emissions; however, sources of CO<sub>2</sub> vary beyond combustion, presenting a significant challenge to accurate tracking due to these various sources and sinks and the ubiquitous nature of CO<sub>2</sub> in the atmosphere. Nitrogen oxide (NO<sub>X</sub>) emissions have previously been proposed as a surrogate for tracking sustainability, as they are primarily released from combustion processes. Facility-level data from Canada’s National Pollutant Release Inventory and Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program over a six-year period is used to assess the correlation between NO<sub>X</sub> and CO<sub>2</sub> emissions from integrated facilities across Canada. Combustion-related CO<sub>2</sub> emissions accounting for approximately 94% of Canadian industrial emissions are examined, targeting eleven industries which together encompass over 90% of combustion emissions. Multiple linear regressions (MLRs) on each industry correlating NO<sub>X</sub>, CO<sub>2</sub>, and the inventory methods used (i.e., emission factors (EFs), source monitoring, mass balance, engineering estimates, and speciation) show R<sup>2</sup> values ranging from 0.81 to 0.96 for all but one industry. Several industries indicate that the methods used to calculate emissions influence the correlation of CO<sub>2</sub> to NO<sub>X</sub>, highlighting issues in the current inventory techniques. The NO<sub>X</sub>-to-CO<sub>2</sub> ratios calculated for the integrated facilities are similar to the ratios of the published main process-level EFs for NO<sub>X</sub> to CO<sub>2</sub> (where available). These MLR models on NO<sub>X</sub> could be used to predict CO<sub>2</sub> emissions with relative ease and accuracy in other jurisdictions, thereby simplifying large-scale emission inventory compilation while tracking sustainability.
Background: Preventing contamination of technogenic fractures formed by hydraulic fracturing and by chemical interaction of reactive fluids with the rock is a key condition for increasing reservoir fluid production rates. Reducing the risks of formation and precipitation of insoluble reaction products within the fracture and the near-fracture zone is achieved through experimental research and mathematical modelling of the interaction processes between technological fluids, reservoir rocks, and formation fluids. At the same time, the most important task in preparation for experiments, modelling, and the actual execution of operations can be considered the identification of the principal interacting elements entering into reactions whose products may reduce stimulation efficiency, especially under conditions of limited availability of core material and specialized software for comprehensive chemical molecular modelling. Consequently, theoretical investigation of the main causes of unsuccessful chemical treatments of formations and hydraulic fracturing operations with chemically active technological fluids, as well as assessment of the risks of negative events, becomes particularly important. Aim: Increasing the efficiency of stimulation by acid hydraulic fracturing methods through optimization of technological fluid composition and prevention of the negative impact on the reservoir of reaction products formed by interaction of reservoir rocks or formation fluids with technological fluids. Materials and methods: To evaluate the main causes of insoluble precipitate formation and other factors for reduced stimulation efficiency, a detailed literature review was carried out, and mechanisms increasing and decreasing the corresponding risks were identified. A mechanical and lithological model was constructed in the vicinity of several wells of one of the Central Asian fields, which shows that one of the main reactions leading to negative consequences may occur when several conditions are simultaneously met. The feasibility of such conditions was assessed based on calculations and modelling. Results: Analysis of the geological and mechanical environment at one of the fields and a detailed study of the main reactions with formation rocks made it possible to identify the causes of ineffective acid hydraulic fracturing treatments. A treatment program was prepared aimed at preventing future risks of reduced efficiency of acid hydraulic fracturing. Conclusion: The applied approach is aimed at the justified, targeted selection of hydraulic fracturing technological fluids, which makes it possible to reduce risks or prevent fracture plugging by reaction products, avoid clay migration and swelling, and other negative impacts on the filtration properties of the formation in the vicinity of technogenic fractures. All these measures are aimed at improving the efficiency of stimulation by acid hydraulic fracturing.
Oil and gas operations are categorized as high-risk because they involve numerous equipment and complex processes. Asset integrity management (AIM) aims to mitigate the risk of failure resulting from degradation with corrosion as the primary cause and to maintain equipment safety and functionality. The risk-based inspection (RBI) methodology is one of the AIM processes that considers risks in decision-making to prioritize inspection and maintenance. This paper provides a comprehensive review of risk-based studies in the context of AIM activities. Risk-based AIM is categorized and reviewed based on risk analysis methods, including quantitative, qualitative, semi-quantitative, probabilistic, deterministic, hybrid probabilistic-deterministic, and dynamic or traditional risk. Most research areas used in case studies focus on pipeline applications. Analysis tools for risk assessment and control applied in risk-based AIM, including the evolution of tools from traditional to machine learning approaches, are examined. The current trends and future research opportunities for applying risk-based AIM are also discussed. This study offers risk assessment models for researchers and oil and gas industry practitioners that fit their specific requirements.
Oil production from fields with hard-to-recover reserves always remains a challenge for the oil and gas industry, mainly due to one special factor – the high viscosity of oil, which implies low mobility of oil in a porous medium. Over time, traditional methods of increasing oil recovery become less effective due to a decrease in readily available oil reserves and the complexity of geological conditions for field development. In this regard, the need to use innovative methods to increase oil recovery is becoming more urgent. In recent decades, research in this area has shown significant progress, various methods have been introduced to reduce the viscosity of oil. One of the most effective and actively developing approaches in this area is thermal methods of enhanced oil recovery. They are based on the injection of thermal energy into the reservoir in order to reduce the viscosity of oil and, consequently, increase mobility, which in turn will greatly facilitate the displacement of oil from the rock to the surface. Despite certain successes achieved in the use of various methods of increasing oil recovery in the production of heavy oil, the problem of finding alternative methods remains relevant. This article presents the review of alternative methods of enhanced oil recovery, including principle of operation of electromagnetic heating of the reservoir, the influence and effectiveness of radio waves and microwave frequencies on the reservoir and the properties of oil, ultrasonic exposure, advantages and disadvantages of alternative methods, comparing them with traditional methods, analyzing the productivity of fields where alternative methods of enhanced oil recovery were used.
Sourojeet Chakraborty, Sadafnaz Kashi Kalhori, Yris Gonzalez
et al.
Research demonstrates a predominantly negative public perception of the oil and gas (O&G) industry, regardless of initiatives created to minimize the environmental impact. This might be attributed to a lack of open communication and debate spaces where these initiatives are learned and discussed. To test our hypotheses within a university setting, a major revamp of the course “Petroleum Processing” in our university was implemented, where sustainability concepts and open discussion were assimilated into the lecture content. Pre- and post-surveys were conducted to assess students’ perceptions regarding sustainability in the O&G industry before and after the course. Perceptions remained unchanged following course delivery. However, students believe they are more informed about the sustainability approaches implemented.
Muhammad Hanif Lashari, Sarang Karim, Musaed Alhussein
et al.
Due to global warming and climate change, the poultry industry is heavily impacted, especially the broiler industry, due to the sensitive immune system of broiler chickens. However, the continuous monitoring and controlling of the farm’s environmental parameters can help to curtail the negative impacts of the environment on chickens’ health, leading to increased meat production. This article presents smart solutions to such issues, which are practically implemented, and have low production and operational costs. In this article, an Internet of Things (IoT) based environmental parameters monitoring has been demonstrated for the poultry farmhouse. This system enables the collection and visualization of crucially sensed data automatically and reliably, and at a low cost to efficiently manage and operate a poultry farm. The proposed IoT-based remote monitoring system collects and visualizes environmental parameters, such as air temperature, relative humidity (RH), oxygen level (O2), carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), and ammonia (NH3) gas concentrations. The wireless sensor nodes have been designed and deployed for efficient data collection of the essential environmental parameters that are key for monitoring and decision-making process. The hardware is implemented and deployed successfully at a site within the control shed of the poultry farmhouse. The results revealed important findings related to the environmental conditions within the poultry farm. The temperature inside the control sheds remained within the desired range throughout the monitoring period, with daily average values ranging from 32 °C to 34 °C. The RH showed slight variations monitoring period, ranging from 65% to 75%, with a daily average of 70%. The O2 concentration exhibited an average value of 17% to 18.5% throughout the monitoring period. The CO2 levels showed occasional increases, reaching a maximum value of 1,100 ppm. However, this value was below the maximum permissible level of 2,500 ppm, indicating that the ventilation system was effective in maintaining acceptable CO2 levels within the control sheds. The NH3 gas concentration remained consistently low throughout the duration, with an average value of 50 parts per million (ppm).
The blast furnace and basic oxygen furnace (BF-BOF) is still the main process used for the production of iron and steel in China. With the approach of the “dual carbon” target, the iron and steel industry needs to transform and upgrade to “green” and “low-carbon” practices. At present, the low-carbon hydrogen metallurgy technology route based on hydrogen instead of carbon is mainly adopted at home and abroad, and the domestic route is mainly based on oxygen-rich BFs and hydrogen-based shaft furnaces (SFs). It promotes the transformation of the traditional BF to hydrogen-rich, oxygen-rich, and carbon-recycled (Hy-O-CR) technology. A new ironmaking system and method for a reduction smelting furnace (RSF) with Hy-O-CR is presented in this paper. The ironmaking system includes nine sets of equipment, such as an RSF, gas dust collector, dryer, CO<sub>2</sub> separator, electrolytic water device, blower, heat exchanger, storage tank of reduction gas, and chimney. From top to bottom, the RSF includes an indirect reduction zone, a soft melting dripping zone, and a coke combustion zone. The ironmaking methods include coke and ore mixed charging, injection of the mixed reduction gas composed of electrolytic green hydrogen and circulating gas from the furnace gas into the indirect reduction zone, injection of oxygen into the coke combustion zone, CO<sub>2</sub> recovery of the furnace top gas, and slag and iron treatment. By redesigning the size of the furnace type and optimizing the parameters, the metallization rate of the indirect reduction zone can be as high as 85–95%, and the carbon consumption per ton of hot metal can be greatly reduced. By using oxygen to recycle the reduction gas produced by its reactor, the process achieves the goal of reducing CO<sub>2</sub> emissions by more than 50%, thus realizing green and low-carbon metallurgy.
Elín Þórólfsdóttir, Áróra Árnadóttir, Jukka Heinonen
Addressing the growing issue of climate change demands active measures. With its significant carbon footprint, the building industry needs to make immediate efforts contributing to achieving the Paris Agreement’s objective of restricting global warming to 1.5 °C. This review focuses on net zero emission buildings (NZEBs) which are claimed to offer a viable option to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the built environment. The review covers both the recent academic literature on NZEBs, and the NZEB roadmaps from the member organizations of the World Green Building Council, focusing on those Green Building Councils actively working to implement NZEBs in their local contexts. By synthesizing a broad range of viewpoints and practices derived from academic literature and roadmaps, this review provides a holistic overview of the different perspectives to the current state of NZEBs and to their future. The review shows that NZEBs have the potential to provide significant environmental, economic, and social advantages, improving the built environment’s overall sustainability. The review also promotes a more thorough understanding over NZEBs that can facilitate collaborative policymaking and action amongst stakeholders.
Career competencies refer to the knowledge and skills that are central to the development of a young specialist's future career. They are especially important at the beginning of a career because this choice can affect career outcomes in the long run. The aim of this study is to determine how career competencies change during the transition from education to labor market. Methodology of the study consisted in search and analysis of literature data from authoritative sources included in international scientometric databases. According to the results of the study, it was found that for successful employment career competencies must be developed during training, which guarantees their stability after entering the labor market. Also, based on the literature data, three profiles of changes in career competencies were identified, described in accordance with their initial values and the nature of changes after graduation. Thus, the development of career competencies will increase at the final courses, when students feel a sense of anxiety about the expected entry into the labor market. Career competencies developed at a university after transition to the labor market remain stable, which indicates that a training of future personnel should be carried out in universities.
Achiraya Chaichaloempreecha, Puttipong Chunark, Tatsuya Hanaoka
et al.
Abstract Background The Paris Agreement aims at minimizing threats of climate change by keeping global temperature rise well below 2 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level and to pursue efforts to limit the rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. The Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) are developed to investigate GHG emission pathways. RCP2.6 focuses on limiting the global temperature rise to less than 2 degrees Celsius. This paper assesses the impacts of carbon price and CCS on energy and GHG emissions in Thailand. The no carbon price (T0) and the carbon price pathways are compared. In addition, the net-zero emissions and year are discussed. Results The decarbonized energy system with low-carbon power generation and increased electricity usage in the final energy consumption is the main pillar of GHG mitigation. Imposing carbon prices; increasing solar, wind, and biomass electricity generation; energy efficiency improvements in power generation; and energy savings in the industry and the building sectors, will be the key options for clean power generation in the carbon prices (CT) scenarios. Renewable electricity, coal and natural gas, coupled with CCS and bio-energy with CCS (BECCS) will be utilized significantly to curb GHG emissions. The increase of renewable energy and the electrification of end-use plays a key role in reducing GHG emissions. Fuel switching from diesel to biodiesel, energy efficiency improvement and electric pick-ups and trucks will help reducing GHG emissions in the transport sector. Conclusions There are three major policy implications to meet Thailand’s 2 degrees Celsius target. First, carbon prices will be the mechanism to accelerate the transformation in the energy sector. Wind and solar electricity will be key pillars of clean electricity in 2050. Policy-makers should update the renewable electricity plans to meet Thailand’s 2 degrees Celsius target in 2050. Second, coal- and gas-fired plants, and BECCS will become important options in reducing CO2 emissions. The policy-makers should investigate the application of CCS in the power sector and the storage location. Third, a major transformation in the transport sector is critically needed. Liquid biofuel and electrification in pick-ups, sedans, and trucks will help reduce GHG emissions.
Renewable energy sources, Energy industries. Energy policy. Fuel trade
Introduction: Industrial progress is characterized by the increasing use of machinery in factory which has a negative impact on workers' health, one of which is tinnitus symptoms. Tinnitus is a hearing loss due to exposure to noise. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship of worker characteristics and intensity of work environment noise with tinnitus symptoms in gas industry workers in Sidoarjo. Methods: Based on the study design, this study used analytic research, in terms of time including cross-sectional research. Research variables include age, years of service, noise intensity and tinnitus symptoms. Data are from observation, measurement, questionnaire filling and interview. Result: The results showed that there was a relationship between noise intensity and tinnitus symptoms (p = 0.033). There was no relationship between the age of workers and tinnitus symptoms (p = 1.000). There was no significant relationship between years of work (p = 0.505) with tinnitus symptoms suffered by workers at PT. X Sidoarjo Gas Industry. There was no association between exposure pattern and complaints of tinnitus (p=0.165). Conclusion: So as to reduce the risk of tinnitus complaints the company can apply the use of ear protector for workers and install silencers that can absorb sound with high noise intensity such as glasswool, rockwool, foam, cellulose fiber and acourete fiber carpets to reduce noise.
Navid Vafamand, Amir Afsharinejad, Mohammad Mehdi Arefi
et al.
Abstract Fossil fuels play a significant role in the automobile industry, as well as marine vessel systems, with a lot of benefits like high‐density and low‐cost power supply, which is relatively easy to reserve, apply and carry. However, fossil fuel combustion produces several emissions such as CO2, which become greenhouse gas emissions and harmful to human health. One of the most favorable emission‐free modern technologies is fuel cells, which can be applied to supply power to marine vessel propulsion systems. In such a most electrified ship, the whole of the shipboard grid can be regarded as a direct current (DC) stand‐alone microgrid (MG) configuration with linear resistive and nonlinear constant power loads (CPLs). The main challenge in this new configuration of the shipboard MG is stabilizing the system's currents and voltages, subjected to stochastic disturbances arising from the effect of external winds and waves. Hence, the key objective of this research is to introduce a new modified robust adaptive stochastic backstepping controller, which is equipped with an artificial neural network, for stabilizing the current and voltage of the DC MG. The developed approach is robust against uncertainties and disturbances, has a systematic design procedure, and offers a low computational burden compared to the other complicated nonlinear controllers. In the end, a simulation is run for investigating the performance of the proposed controller over the state‐of‐the‐art methods.
Dennis Severin Hansen, Mads Valentin Bram, Steven Munk Østergaard Lauridsen
et al.
The importance and awareness of accurate online water quality measurements increase every year in the oil and gas sector, whether it is for reducing oil discharge, preparing produced water for reinjection, or improving operational performance. For online measurement techniques to yield valuable analytical information, an understanding of their outputs must be established. Produced water reinjection has gained increasing attention in the last decade, as it can minimize negative environmental impacts by reducing oil discharge and has the potential to extend the economic life of reservoirs. To increase the amount of produced water that can be reinjected, the water must be maintained at a sufficient quality to prevent unintended formation damage. This review paper thoroughly describes different water quality issues related to suspended solids that can occur in an injection water treatment system and how the issues are often interlinked. A case study of measuring the total suspended solids concentration of seawater sampled from the Danish sector of the North Sea has been carried out to effectively quantify water quality in an injection water treatment facility. Furthermore, numerous on- and in-line techniques have been evaluated as candidates for measuring suspended solids. The last part of the paper discusses considerations regarding future microscopy analyzers based on five promising online microscopy technologies.
Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) problems, such as high relative humidity and microbiological (bacteria and mold) growth in accommodation and office buildings, can cause health effects for the occupants. People commonly have activities inside the buildings all day long. This study aimed to determine the impact of HVAC systems on IAQ parameters and microbiological growth. The study was conducted in accommodation and office buildings that had been identified with IAQ problems. The research methodology used a quantitative cross-sectional study design with statistical comparison analysis and statistical correlation analysis. The statistic results showed that relative humidity (RH) significantly had a strong correlation (r=0.520, 95% CI) with mold growth in ambient air of accommodation; O2 had a significantly strong correlation (r=0.541, 95% CI) with bacteria growth in ambient air at the office; VOC (r=0.853, 95% CI) and CO2 (r=0.803, 95% CI) had a very strong correlation with mold growth at office surface area. High humidity contributed to risk on IAQ (OR=50, 95% CI). Significant improvement was shown in relative humidity at all buildings, especially at the office, but mold and bacteria growth were offered only at the accommodation. Therefore, a comprehensive evaluation was needed to improve the IAQ and modify the HVAC system.