Green Car Congress

AUGUST 12, 2014

Results of a Rice University laboratory study suggests that using foam may maximize enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Oil resides in formations of rock and sand in small cracks and crevices that have proved devilishly difficult to tap. Drillers pump various substances downhole to loosen and either push or carry oil to the surface.

Oil 218

Oil United Arab Emirates Universal Oil-Sands 218

Green Car Congress

JUNE 19, 2022

Researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) have developed a process for fabricating polytriazole membranes with 10-nanometer-thin selective layers containing subnanometer channels. 1105-1110 doi: 10.1126/science.abm7686.

Oil 186

Oil Energy Polymer Carbon 186

Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 21, 2019

Eni and RenOils, the Italian national vegetable and animal oils and fats Consortium established in 2016 to ensure the correct management of the collection, transport, storage, processing and reuse of vegetable oils and animal fats, are promoting the recovery of used cooking oils (UCO) for biofuel production.

Oil 247

Oil Waste Italy Production 247

Green Car Congress

JULY 18, 2020

Scientists from ExxonMobil, the Georgia Institute of Technology and Imperial College of London have published in the journal Science joint research on potential breakthroughs in a new membrane technology that could reduce emissions and energy intensity associated with refining crude oil. —Thompson et al. Imperial College London.

Georgia 337

Georgia London Oil Polymer 337

Green Car Congress

JANUARY 18, 2019

The US Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) announced $11 million in funding for 7 projects in the fourth and fifth cohorts of the agency’s OPEN+ program: Energy-Water Technologies and Sensors for Bioenergy and Agriculture. Energy-Water Technologies cohort.

Water 170

Water Energy Oklahoma Utah 170

Green Car Congress

JUNE 19, 2014

They identified four potential modes of water resource degradation: (1) shallow aquifers contaminated by fugitive natural gas (i.e., They identified four potential modes of water resource degradation: (1) shallow aquifers contaminated by fugitive natural gas (i.e., Credit: ACS, Vengosh et al. Click to enlarge.

Water 306

Water Gas Oil Universal 306

Green Car Congress

JUNE 26, 2020

In an EU-funded research project, an international consortium is aiming to develop new production methods for sustainable marine fuels to replace heavy fuel oils in shipping. However, HFOs are banned in the national waters of many countries. Although cleaner fuels are available, many companies opt for HFOs due to their low cost.

Mariner 273

Mariner Oil Fuel Cleaner 273

Green Car Congress

MARCH 19, 2018

Researchers at Mississippi State University are developing technology that would alert pipeline managers about leaks as soon as failure begins, avoiding the environmental disasters and fuel distribution disruptions resulting from pipeline leaks. We no longer have to wait until the leak is out of hand. —Veera Gnaneswar Gude, Ph.D.,

Oil 170

Oil Water Mississippi Gas 170

Green Car Congress

MARCH 18, 2019

Researchers at the University of have developed an unusually rapid method to deliver cost-effective algal biocrude in large quantities using a specially-designed jet mixer. bacteria, fungi, and algae) may be grown on non-arable land and with saline water, wastewater or/and produced water from mineral and petroleum extraction.

Utah 277

Utah Convert Universal Engine 277

Green Car Congress

JUNE 28, 2021

The EU-funded research project HyFlexFuel recently successfully produced biocrudes via hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) from a variety of biomasses, including sewage sludge, food waste, manure, wheat straw, corn stover, pine sawdust, miscanthus and microalgae in a pilot-scale continuous HTL plant at Aarhus University (Denmark).

Convert 418

Convert Denmark Waste Conversion 418

Green Car Congress

AUGUST 21, 2014

In working to elucidate the chemistry of hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) for the catalytic upgrading of pyrolytic bio-oil to fuel-grade products, researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have discovered that water in the conversion process helps form an impurity which, in turn, slows down key chemical reactions.

Water 210

Water Oil Insight San Francisco 210

Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 20, 2016

US President Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau jointly announced sweeping restrictions to offshore oil and gas leasing in the US and Canadian Arctic waters. Obama designated the vast majority of US waters in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas as indefinitely off limits to offshore oil and gas leasing.

Obama 150

Obama Water Oil Gas 150

Green Car Congress

MARCH 30, 2011

Universal Lubricants has hit the 1.5-million million gallon production mark for its ECO ULTRA line of recycled motor oil. billion gallons of used oil each year, of which about 10% is re-refined. The rest of the used oil is either improperly disposed of (damaging the environment) or burned as an industrial fuel.

Oil 199

Oil Universal Wichita Motor 199

Green Car Congress

MARCH 18, 2012

Bitumen production from the Canadian oil sands provides a point of reference that could be used to observe and better manage the land and water impacts of a rapid transition to unconventional fuels, suggests Dr. Sarah Jordaan of the Energy Technology Innovation Policy Research Group, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University.

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Oil-Sands Water Oil Fuel 231

Green Car Congress

SEPTEMBER 8, 2014

Researchers at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) have determined that biochar, a substance produced from plant matter, is a safe, effective and inexpensive method to treat flowback water following hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. —Maoqi Feng, SwRI.

Water 257

Water Low Cost Oil-Sands San Antonio 257

Green Car Congress

JULY 12, 2010

GE and FilterBox x recently signed an agreement to develop integrated de-oiling and water treatment options for Alberta’s oil sands. Specifically, the two companies will work together on heavy oil produced water treatment projects using in-situ thermal methods such as steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD).

Oil-Sands 186

Oil-Sands Water Oil Climate Change 186

Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 26, 2018

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded the University of Illinois a $10.6-million, The new research project Renewable Oil Generated with Ultra-productive Energycane (ROGUE) kicked off on 25 February with a team meeting held in conjunction with the 2018 Genomic Sciences Program Annual Principal Investigator Meeting in Tysons, Virginia.

Oil 239

Oil Illinois Fuel Engine 239

Green Car Congress

MARCH 25, 2013

Researchers at the University of Calgary are developing ultra-dispersed (UD) nanocatalysts for the in situ upgrading of heavy oil and bitumen from deep reservoirs. One of the challenges of such an approach is the placement of the catalyst deep into the heavy oil plume by transporting a catalyst suspension through the sand medium.

Oil-Sands 358

Oil-Sands Oil Production Hydrogen 358

Green Car Congress

NOVEMBER 17, 2009

A University of Utah engineer has developed an inexpensive new method to remove oil sheen by repeatedly pressurizing and depressurizing ozone gas, creating microscopic bubbles that attack the oil so it can be removed by sand filters. Water from mining of oil sands and oil shale. —Professor Andy Hong.

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Ozone Water Oil-Sands Oil 199

Green Car Congress

MARCH 17, 2011

A team from the University of Plymouth (UK) and Environment Canada has identified, for the first time, individual soluble naphthenic acids (NA) in the process water resulting from the oil sands industry in Canada. Frank (2011) Diamonds in the Rough: Identification of Individual Naphthenic Acids in Oil Sands Process Water.

Oil-Sands 186

Oil-Sands Water Oil Canada 186

Green Car Congress

AUGUST 22, 2016

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has made 11 awards totaling $55 million aimed at building research capacity to develop new innovations at the intersection of food, energy and water systems and to address fundamental questions about the brain. Research at the nexus of food, energy and water. Montana State University.

Water 150

Water Puerto Rico West Virginia Energy 150

Green Car Congress

JULY 18, 2018

The Oleo Sponge, a patent-pending technology to clean oil spills invented at the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, performed successfully in an experiment conducted off the coast of Southern California. After the oil is wrung out, Oleo Sponge can be used again.

Oil 170

Oil California Clean Cleaning 170

Green Car Congress

JUNE 6, 2013

Neste Oil, the world’s largest producer of renewable diesel (NExBTL), has signed a contingent commercial off-take agreement with Cellana, an algae biomass developer based in the United States. The agreement will enable Neste Oil to purchase Cellana’s algae oil for use as a feedstock in the future for producing renewable fuel.

Oil 275

Oil Renewable Hawaii Fuel 275

Green Car Congress

NOVEMBER 2, 2011

Researchers from Tianjin University and the National Engineering Research Centre for Distillation Technology, Tianjin, China, report on the use of an ionic liquid (IL) with low viscosity to enhance bitumen recovery from oil sands by solvent extraction while reducing adverse impacts in the ACS journal Energy & Fuels.

Oil-Sands 170

Oil-Sands Water Oil Sodium 170

Green Car Congress

AUGUST 27, 2010

A team at Penn State University has demonstrated that a previously developed method employing ionic liquids (ILs) together with a nonpolar solvent such as toluene can effect a separation of bitumen from oil sands in the Western US at ambient temperatures (~25 °C), although with greater difficulty than Canadian oil sands.

Oil-Sands 210

Oil-Sands Utah Water Oil 210

Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 10, 2015

With OPEC breaking down and any kind of coordination among its members on price cuts looking increasingly unlikely, it now appears that oil prices could remain below $50 a barrel for a year or more. A stripper is a small operator of very old oil wells that frequently produce less than five barrels per day of oil.

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Oil Prices Oil Price 2002 150

Green Car Congress

APRIL 20, 2017

Researchers led by a team from Kobe University in Japan have revealed the mechanism behind oil synthesis within microalgae cells. JSC4, a new species of green alga harvested from brackish water, combines a high growth rate with high levels of lipids. Focusing on marine microalgae, the researchers found that Chlamydomonas sp.

Oil 170

Oil Water Mariner Carbon 170

Green Car Congress

SEPTEMBER 5, 2009

Vattenfall and Aalborg University are partnering with Danish startup SCF Technologies in a two-year project to design a demonstration plant based on SCF’s CatLiq process—an application of the firm’s supercritical fluid technology in the catalytic production of bio-oil from organic waste. SCF Technologies 2008 Annual Report.

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Oil Universal 2008 Waste 218

Green Car Congress

JULY 16, 2017

OPEC exports have come under pressure this week from technical threats to oil fields, with Saudi Arabia’s Manifa problems grabbing the headlines. At present, the main issue being reported on is that there has been corrosion of the water injection system, which is used to keep pressure in the reservoir.

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Oil Libya Nigeria Qatar 186

Green Car Congress

APRIL 6, 2012

Petrobras and the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte inaugurated a pilot plant in Extremoz (state of Rio Grande do Norte) for the cultivation of microalgae for biodiesel production. The project has identified approximately 10 species of microalgae capable of growing in oil production water and cultivated in tanks.

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Universal 2006 Oil Water 240

Green Car Congress

JULY 21, 2011

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and Rice University led by RPI Professor Nikhil Koratkar have shown that flowing water with various molarities of hydrochloric acid (HCl) over graphene generates induced voltages an order of magnitude higher as compared to carbon nanotubes. M HCl solution. Credit: ACS, Dhiman et al.

Water 186

Water Oil Gas Power 186

Green Car Congress

AUGUST 31, 2010

New research from a team at the University of Alberta, Canada, finds that Alberta’s oilsands industry is releasing more pollutants into the Athabasca River, its tributaries and its watershed than previously estimated. An open access article on their study was published online in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Oil-Sands Pollution Oil Universal 210

Green Car Congress

JULY 23, 2012

CNOOC Limited—China’s largest producer of offshore crude oil and natural gas and one of the largest independent oil and gas exploration and production companies in the world—is acquiring all of the Common Shares of Canada-based energy company Nexen Inc. It is the second-largest oil producer in the UK North Sea.

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Oil-Sands Oil Canada Gas 325

Green Car Congress

OCTOBER 16, 2015

Shale oil production generates greenhouse gas emissions at levels similar to conventional crude oil production, according to a pair of new studies released by the US Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory. These are shale formations with low permeability and must be hydraulically fractured to produce oil and gas.

Oil 150

Oil Gas Emissions Davis 150

Green Car Congress

MAY 22, 2012

Resource managers now have a method to determine the source of oil found in the waters off Southern California and differentiate between naturally seeped oils and those produced by offshore oil and gas production.

Oil 199

Oil California Water Mariner 199

Green Car Congress

JULY 21, 2012

Billions of barrels of oil may be potentially recoverable from residual oil zones in the US, according to initial findings from a study supported by the US Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy (FE). Residual oil zones (ROZs), are areas of immobile oil found below the oil-water contact of a reservoir.

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Oil New Mexico Texas Mexico 210

Green Car Congress

APRIL 27, 2012

The majority (62%) of the plantations were located on the island of Sumatra, and more than two-thirds (69%) of all industrial plantations were developed for oil palm cultivation, with the remainder mostly being Acacia plantations for paper pulp production. —Miettinen et al. Earlier post.).

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Oil-Sands Oil Emissions Climate 314