Safety Considerations by Synergy of HAZOP/DMRA with Safety Color Maps—Applications on: A Crude-Oil Processing Industry/a Gas Transportation System

A collaborative framework by the synergy of Hazard and Operability (HAZOP) process and the Decision-Matrix Risk Assessment (DMRA) in association with safety-color mapping (SCM) is presented, in order to identify critical points and prioritize risks, and also to visualize the occupational safety and health (OSH) situation, at the workplaces (i) of a sour crude-oil processing industry (SCOPI), and (ii) of a measurement and regulatory station (MRS) in a gas transportation system (GTS), situated in Greece. Firstly, the conventional HAZOP analysis is executed in order to identify the potential fault causes of abnormal conditions (deviations) in the plants. The application of the DMRA-modus is valuable to rank the identified risks (hierarchy of risks). In view of the results, both of the HAZOP pattern (for identifying the hazards) and also the DMRA one (for assessing and ranking the risks), SCMs have been derived for the specific workplaces of the SCOPI and the MRS/GTS station, which could be a precious means for safety managers to appraise the urgency of investing limited budgets in measures preventing particular types of deviations, and also protecting the employees.

Biodesulfurization of Sour Crude Oil

Crude oil is one of the most important types of fossil fuel in the world. It is an economically important commodity that is massively used in many industrial activities. The poor quality of crude oil is related to high sulfur content, which translates to lower profit margins and negatively impacts air quality standards. Polyaromatic sulfur heterocycles (PASHs) that exist in crude oil requires an efficient reduction method to achieve significant desulfurization levels. Recently, biodesulfurization (BDS) is gaining greater attention attributed to its environmentally benign bioprocess; possible benefits of BDS include lower capital and processing costs. Studies have reported that BDS is urgently needed for desulfurization of recalcitrant organic sulfur relative to traditional approach, hydrodesulfurization (HDS). The establishment of commercial scale biorefining technology relies on major advancement with respect to less expensive and sufficient production of highly active and stable biocatalysts that can be adapted to intense conditions encountered in petroleum refineries. In this paper, a review on BDS processes for removing recalcitrant thoiphenic components from sour crude oil is conducted, covering the aim of most studies concerning desulfurizing bacteria, which enables a deep desulfurization of organosulfur compounds by 4S pathway, maintaining the caloric value of fuel.

Influence of sour oil on calcareous deposit nucleation

Purpose The aim of this paper is to investigate the influence of sour crude oil contaminant on the calcareous scale deposition under cathodic protection of carbon steel in artificial seawater. Design/methodology/approach Electrochemical and surface characterizations are carried out using chronoamperometry, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, scanning electron microscope/energy dispersive spectroscopy, X-Ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy techniques. Findings Results showed that sour oil limited the deposit nucleation regarding its volume concentrations. The inhibition mechanism was examined to be simultaneous acts of pH reduction and mackinawite formation beside minor physical adsorption of oil molecules on steel electrode. Originality/value There is no paper concerning the proposed subject, and the idea of this work is fully novel which is of great significance because of the consequences of disastrous oil spill phenomena on the integrity of exposed offshore facilities in terms of optimum protection against probable corrosion mechanisms.

Introduction of Novel Process for Sweetening of Sour Crude Oil: Optimization of Process

The subject of this experimental report is the application of nanoparticles in petroleum refining. Sulfur removal from petroleum using carbon nanotubes is considered in this study. The properties related to the process characterization are measured experimentally and reported. The effect of low range temperature and pressure, initial concentration, interfacial velocity, the ratio of height to diameter of the bed and particle diameter on the outlet sulfur is investigated. Design of experiment is performed to show which of the controllable parameters affects the sulfur removal process and a predictive model is developed. Optimization of the model is performed with the aim that the outlet sulfur content less than 0.6 ppm is achievable. Also, the increase in the amount of pollutant higher than 50 ppm sulfur and increase in the amount of superficial velocity higher than 0.4 m/s lead the adsorption process to the improper results. Finally, cost estimation due to pressure and temperature is presented and the optimum conditions of 1.7 atm pressure and 35 °C temperature with the height to diameter ratio of three and nano carbon tubes of 50 nm for packed bed are proposed.