Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Crude oil”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1979

Burning crude oil without pollution

Crude oil can be burned at drilling sites by two-stage combustion process without producing pollution. Process allows easier conformance to strict federal or state clean air standards without installation of costly pollution removal equipment. Secondary oil recovery can be accomplished with injection of steam heating by burning oil.

Houseman, J.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Crude oil desulfurization

High sulfur crude oil is desulfurized by a low temperature (25-80 C.) chlorinolysis at ambient pressure in the absence of organic solvent or diluent but in the presence of water (water/oil=0.3) followed by a water and caustic wash to remove sulfur and chlorine containing reaction products. The process described can be practiced at a well site for the recovery of desulfurized oil used to generate steam for injection into the well for enhanced oil recovery.

Kalvinskas, J. J.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Maglev crude oil pipeline

This maglev crude oil pipeline consists of two conduits guiding an endless stream of long containers. One conduit carries loaded containers and the other empty returns. The containers are levitated by permanent magnets in repulsion and propelled by stationary linear induction motors. The containers are linked to each other in a manner that allows them, while in continuous motion, to be folded into side by side position at loading and unloading points. This folding causes a speed reduction in proportion to the ratio of container diameter to container length. While in side by side position, containers are opened at their ends to be filled or emptied. Container size and speed are elected to produce a desired carrying capacity.

Knolle, Ernst G.↗
NASA NTRS2014

Crude Oil Remote Sensing, Characterization and Cleaning with CW and Pulsed Lasers

For detection, identification and characterization of crude oil we combine several optical methods of remote sensing of crude oil films and emulsions (coherent fringe projection illumination (CFP), holographic in-line interferometry (HILI), and laser induced fluorescence). These methods allow the three-dimensional characterization of oil spills, important for practical applications. Combined methods of CFP and HILI are described in the frame of coherent superposition of partial interference patterns. It is shown, that in addition to detection/identification laser illumination in the green-blue region can also degrade oil slicks. Different types of surfaces contaminated by oil spills are tested: oil on the water, oil on the flat solid surfaces and oil on the curved surfaces of pipes. For the detection and monitoring of the laser-induced oil degradation in pipes, coherent fiber bundles were used. Both continuous-wave (CW) and pulsed lasers are tested using pump-probe schemes. This finding suggests that properly structured laser clean-up can be an alternative environmentally-friendly method of decontamination, as compared to the currently used chemical methods that are dangerous to environment.

Kukhtareva, Tatiana↗
NASA NTRS1993

Thermal infrared remote sensing of crude oil slicks

Unambiguous detection of oil slicks by remote sensing techniques has proven an elusive goal. This article presents new thermal infrared spectra of oil slicks made from five different crude oil samples with a wide range of API gravities and compositions. After a brief outgassing phase, all oil slick spectra are quite similar and little affected by thickness, extended exposure to air or sunlight, and even by emulsification with seawater (mousse formation). Thus, oil slicks provide a remarkably unvarying spectral signature as remote sensing targets in the thermal infrared compared to other regions of the spectrum. This spectral signature in the 8-14 micron atmospheric window is flat, with an average reflectance of 4 percent. Seawater, on the other hand, has a spectrum that varies in reflectance with wavelength in the 8-14 micron window from 0.90 to 3.65 percent. In addition, we show that sea foam displays a reflectance spectrum quite similar to that of seawater in the 8-14 micron region. This results in a relatively uniform spectral background, against which oil slicks can be detected, based on their different spectral signature.

Salisbury, John W.↗
NASA NTRS1986

The discrimination between crude-oil spills and monomolecular sea slicks by an airborne lidar

Airborne lidar measurements were performed over a deployed monomolecular oleyl alcohol surface film ('slick'), the physicochemical characteristics of which are known to be similar to biogenic organic compounds secreted by plankton and fish, and adjacent 'clean' sea surfaces in the North Sea. In the presence of the slick, the suppression of the Raman backscatter at 381 nm and of two spectral bands indicative of water column fluorescent organic material at 414 and 482 nm were observed. This effect is explained by two possible mechanisms giving rise to a modification of the transmission or coupling of the laser beam into the water column: (1) the damping of capillary and short gravity water waves by the oleyl alcohol slick, and (2) the modification of the uppermost water layer by the oleyl alcohol film. The results obtained in the presence of a slick are compared with data measured over a Murban crude-oil spill with the same lidar system off the coast of the U.S.A. The consequences of the lidar-monomolecular film experiments with regard to the remote detection of crude-oil spills and oil-thickness measurements with an airborne laser fluorosensing system will be discussed.

Huehnerfuss, H.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Comparison of Michigan Basin crude oils

Michigan Basin oils from the Ordovician Trenton, Silurian Niagaran, and Devonian Dundee formations have been geochemically compared by GC, GC-MS, and carbon isotope mass spectrometry. One oil from each formation was selected for detailed analysis which included measurement of individual n-alkane delta 13 C values. The Ordovician and Devonian oils are strikingly similar to one another, yet clearly different from the Silurian oil. This pattern is unexpected because Ordovician and Devonian reservoirs are physically separated by the Silurian strata. From time-temperature considerations, the Devonian oil probably was formed in older strata and has migrated to its present location. Our analyses suggest a common source for the Devonian and Ordovician oils.

Vogler, E. A.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Characteristics and combustion of future hydrocarbon fuels

As the world supply of petroleum crude oil is being depleted, the supply of high-quality crude oil is also dwindling. This dwindling supply is beginning to manifest itself in the form of crude oils containing higher percentages of aromatic compounds, sulphur, nitrogen, and trace constituents. The result of this trend is described and the change in important crude oil characteristics, as related to aircraft fuels, is discussed. As available petroleum is further depleted, the use of synthetic crude oils (those derived from coal and oil shale) may be required. The principal properties of these syncrudes and the fuels that can be derived from them are described. In addition to the changes in the supply of crude oil, increasing competition for middle-distillate fuels may require that specifications be broadened in future fuels. The impact that the resultant potential changes in fuel properties may have on combustion and thermal stability characteristics is illustrated and discussed in terms of ignition, soot formation, carbon deposition flame radiation, and emissions.

Rudey, R. A.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Microwave remote sensing measurements of oil pollution on the ocean

Microwave and optical remote sensors were flown over fresh and weathered crude oil released from a surface research vessel and also over a slick formed on the sea by frozen oleyl alcohol cubes released from a helicopter. For the crude oil experiments, microwave radiometric measurements at 1.43, 2.65, 22, and 31 GHz are reported, along with the variable incidence angle scattering measurements at 13.9 GHz. For these experiments, unusual depressions in the L-band brightness temperature were observed, possibly related to dispersants applied to the crude oil. Similar depressions, but with much larger values, were observed over the oleyl alcohol monomolecular slicks. Images obtained at 31 and 22 GHz were used to infer oil volume, yielding values which bound the known amounts spilled. Ku band measurements obtained in repeated passes over crude oil slicks are also discussed.

Croswell, W. F.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Component testing of a ground based gas turbine steam cooled rich-burn primary zone combustor for emissions control of nitrogeneous fuels

This effort summarizes the work performed on a steam cooled, rich-burn primary zone, variable geometry combustor designed for combustion of nitrogeneous fuels such as heavy oils or synthetic crude oils. The steam cooling was employed to determine its feasibility and assess its usefulness as part of a ground based gas turbine bottoming cycle. Variable combustor geometry was employed to demonstrate its ability to control primary and secondary zone equivalence ratios and overall pressure drop. Both concepts proved to be highly successful in achieving their desired objectives. The steam cooling reduced peak liner temperatures to less than 800 K. This low temperature offers the potential of both long life and reduced use of strategic materials for liner fabrication. These degrees of variable geometry were successfully employed to control air flow distribution within the combustor. A variable blade angle axial flow air swirler was used to control primary zone air flow, while the secondary and tertiary zone air flows were controlled by rotating bands which regulated air flow to the secondary zone quench holes and the dilutions holes respectively.

Schultz, D. F.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Characteristics and combustion of future hydrocarbon fuels

Dwindling supply of high-quality crude is beginning to manifest itself in the form of crude oils containing higher percentages of aromatic compounds, sulfur, nitrogen, and trace constituents. In the present paper, problems which have arisen with regard to the hydrogen content in jet fuels derived from these crude oil sources are discussed, with particular reference to the effects of varying the fuel properties on the combustion and thermal stability characteristics of a fuel. The importance of knowing how severe the effects of variations in hydrogen content, fuel-bound-nitrogen content, and boiling range are on such combustion phenomena as soot and carbon formation, emissions, and ignition is pointed out.

Rudey, R. A.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Characteristics of 13.9 GHz radar scattering from oil films on the sea surface

Aircraft microwave scatterometer measurements are presented, which were made in 1979 as part of a project to study the response of a number of active and passive microwave and optical remote sensors to an oil-covered sea surface conducted by NASA Langley Research Center. A 13.9-GHz Doppler scatterometer with a fan beam antenna and coherent detection was used to measure radar backscatter as a function of incidence angle. The radar scattering signature of the clear surface and signatures of the surface covered with various crude oil films are compared. Reductions in Ku band microwave backscatter up to 14 dB are observed for both treated and untreated LaRosa and Murban crude oil films deposited on the sea surface. Maximum Ku band sensitivity to the effects of the oil in terms of differential scatter is observed in the 25-35 deg incidence angle region.

Johnson, J. W.↗
NASA NTRS1979

Alaska Pipeline Insulation

Crude oil moving through the 800-mile Trans-Alaska Pipeline must be kept at a relatively high temperature, about 180 degrees Fahrenheit, to maintain the fluidity of the oil. In Arctic weather, that demands highly effective insulation. General Electric Co.'s Space Division, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, provided it with a spinoff product called Therm-O-Trol. Shown being installed on the pipeline, Therm-O-Trol is a metal-bonded polyurethane foam especially formulated for Arctic insulation. A second GE spinoff product, Therm-O-Case, solved a related problem involved in bringing hot crude oil from 2,000-foot-deep wells to the surface without transferring oil heat to the surrounding permafrost soil; heat transfer could melt the frozen terrain and cause dislocations that might destroy expensive well casings. Therm-O-Case is a double-walled oil well casing with multi-layered insulation which provides an effective barrier to heat transfer. Therm-O-Trol and Therm-O-Case are members of a family of insulating products which stemmed from technology developed by GE Space Division in heat transferlthermal control work on Gemini, Apollo and other NASA programs.

Source record↗