Petrotech Journal June 2008

Journal of the

PETROTECHSociety

Journal of thePetrotech Society

June 2008

Volume VNo. 2

Dear Patrons,

Yet another issue of the Journal of Petrotech Society is in your hands. With this issue, an attempt has been made to bring in a varied

mix of relevant articles on all aspects of hydrocarbon chain. We sincerely thank our expert contributors who have taken pains to focus

relevant ideas on the latest technology development both in upstream and down stream areas. As you may be aware, we are mid way

through the preparatory year of the forthcoming mega event viz PETROTECH 2009, the 8th International Oil & Gas Conference and

Exhibition being held under the aegis of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. Indian Oil Corporation, the lead company organizing

this event on behalf of our Society, has constituted seven nodal committees under the leadership of all functional directors to continu-

ously review the progress and make midcourse corrections wherever necessary. The Conference has a very important theme “Energy

Independence with Global Cooperation: Challenges and Solutions” and call for papers related to the theme has already been sent by

technical committee. A countdown calendar released by Chairman during the 2nd Steering Committee held on 12th march 2008 is in

place for monitoring progress/milestones for the Conference. Major milestones achieved so far are :

• Vigyan Bhawan has been booked as Conference venue and Hall No 14 &18 at Pragati Maidan has been booked for Exhibition.

• M/s Reed Exhibition Ltd, UK has been selected as the Professional Exhibition Organizer for the above Exhibition.

• The Parallel Track Event is being Organized by IndianOil alongwith BPCL and FICCI.

• Hon’ble Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas has kindly consented to be Patron-in-Chief for PETROTECH-2009.

• Hon’ble Minister of State for Petroleum & Natural Gas and Secretary, MoP&NG have also agreed to be Patron and Conference

Chairman respectively.

• Hon’ble Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas has sent request letter to Hon’ble Prime Minister of India for inaugurating the

Conference.

• During the 1st Core Group Meeting held on 17th January 2008, Hon’ble Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas & Patron-in-Chief,

PETROTECH-2009 had formally released the fi rst Information Brochure and launched website of PETROTECH-2009.

• For promotion & Marketing of the above event, PETROTECH 2009 Posters were displayed in International Aviation Conference held

on 21st-22nd February 2008 at Jodhpur; 5th Asia Gas Partnership Summit 2008, held on 14th-15th April 2008 at New Delhi & “Made in

India” Exhibition held in November 2007 at Cairo. A stall was set up during ISFL-2008, held from 9th -12th March 2008 at New Delhi.

The stalls would also be set up at 19th World Petroleum Congress being held from 29th June-3rd July 2008 at Madrid, Spain.

While the preparations of the above event are in full swing, the Society has been equally active on other fronts particularly in organizing

several programmes for the benefi t of industry and academia. As informed earlier, the Society had organized 2nd R&D Conclave along-

with Indian Oil Corporation, R&D Centre at Goa from 9th-11th January 2008. Similar preparations are through for 3rd Summer School

Programme “Petroleum Refi ning and Petrochemicals” which is being organized with Indian Oil Corporation Ltd from 23rd-28th June 2008

at IIPM, Gurgaon and also 4th seminar on “Modern Practices in Petroleum Exploration” alongwith ONGC being organized on 22nd-27th

September 2008 at Dehradun. For the fi rst time, Society joined hands with National Institute of Personnel Management to organize a

Pre Conference-Panel Discussion “Linking Management, Industry and Education: Challenges” during NatCon08 under the leadership

of Dr A K Balyan, National President, NIPM & Director (HR), ONGC, It was a live debate between academia and industry experts on 7th

February 2008 at Vadodara and telecast by NDTV Profi t on 27th February 2008. Similarly, Petrotech Society also associated itself with

Directorate General of Hydrocarbon during International Conference on ‘Gas Hydrates’ held from 6-8 February 2008 at Radisson MBD

Hotel, Noida. A programme on “Hydrocarbon Industry Growth - Prospects & Challenges in North East” on April 24-25th 2008 was also

organized for the fi rst time in north-east at Guwahati alongwith IndianOil Guwahati Refi nery. As many as 58 participants from academia

and industry from north-east region participated. Again for the fi rst time, an industry education tour to Alberta is being organized by

the Society alongwith its MoU partner, University of Alberta for experts of different member organizations. As part of Industry Aware-

ness Programme, the Society has embarked on organizing industry expert visits to different Universities for imparting basic hands-on

type knowledge to senior under/post graduate students. Several universities and institutions have responded very favourably to the

programme. Draft Vision/Mission statement has been debated with senior experts and their views are being incorporated before fi nal-

izing the same. Two new Corporate Members viz Lubrizon India Pvt Ltd & British Gas India Pvt Ltd have joined Petrotech during the

month of February & March 2008 respectively in addition to 27 Corporate members and 11 Institutional Members. Student Chapters are

active at UPES, Dehradun, ISM Dhanbad and MIT Pune and the initiative is continuing with other Universities. The Society is planning to

hold fi rstever seminar on ‘Technology Advancement’ in South India alogwith Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd during later half of the

year. The Secretariat is trying to keep updated its esteemed members through regular monthly activity highlight reports and it is hoped

that all members are receiving this regularly. With this issue, a focal write up on various universities imparting Petroleum Engineering

Courses in India and abroad, is proposed to be started, starting with exposure on University of Alberta, our MoU Partner.

J L RainaSecretary General & CEO

Editorial

Message

By the time the next Petrotech Journal would be in

your hand we would be about the fi nish Petrotech

2009 which is to be held January 11-15 in New Delhi.

Countdown has already begun and everybody is looking

forward for the Petrotech 2009 which we hope will be class

apart from any other oil and gas conference and exhibition.

“Energy Independence with global Cooperation: Challenges

and Solutions” probably the most suitable theme for the

conference, will generate interesting debate and address

some of the most critical concerns of modern day problem

– ‘Energy Security’.

The Petrotech Journal is carrying forward the good work of

sharing knowledge and providing technological update to

hydrocarbon industry professionals.

With crude prices in the range of $140 a barrel, we can only

speculate what would be the future of crude prices, But

that’s for sure sole dependency on fossil fuel can be decisive

for any country like India which imports three quarter of the

energy needs. Future lies in conservation and optimum use

of energy sources that too on a global scale.

I again wish all the best for all the stakeholders who are

putting their best efforts to make “Petrotech 2009” show a

grand success.

(Naresh Kumar)MD Jindal Drilling and Industries Ltd.

President, Petrotech Society

JOURNAL OF THE PETROTECH SOCIETY

C O N T E N T S JANUARY 2008

Diamonds are Forever, Oil is Not... 6by R S Sharma

Polyolefin Materials and Catalysts: An Introduction 10G S Kapur, D K Tuli, R K Malhotra, Anand Kumar

Revival of Non-Flowing wells and production enhancement through 17implementation of Hydrofracturing Technology in Geleki field of Assam Asset Shri J G Chaturvedi

Sustainable Development – Key issues and steps for oil industries 23A B Chakraborty, Shantanu Dasgupta

Surface Exploration Techniques for Hydrocarbons: An Overview 26R R Singh

Energy Beyond Oil - Underground Coal Gasification 34R K Sharma

Ethanol from Lignocellulosic Biomass: Prospects and Challenges 39M P Singh, D K Tuli, R K Malhotra and Anand Kumar

Bacterial biosurfactant in enhancing solubility of petroleum hydrocarbons 45B K Konwar and N K Bordoloi

Flow Measurement Applications in the Oil & Gas 53Industry – Different Technologies for Different Applications Dieter Huller

PETROTECH Activities 60

Advisory Board

Dr Hari NarainFormer Director, NGRI

N B PrasadFormer Chairman, ONGC

Dr Avinash ChandraFormer DGH

Dr S VaradarajanFormer DG, CSIR

Dr A K BharnagarFormer Director (R&D), IOC

Dr T S R Prasad RaoFormer Director, IIP

Dr M O GargDirector, IIP

Dr S RamanathanFormer Member Personnel ONGC

P K MukhopadhyayFormer Director (R&D) IOC

Dr D M KaleED (R&D) ONGC

Editorial Board

J L RainaEditor

Secretary General & CEO,

PETROTECH Society

G SarpalSecretary

Suman GuptaManager

The views expressed by the authors are their

own, and do not neccessarily represent that

of the Petrotech Society.

Printed and published byPetrotech Society at Core 8, Scope Complex,

3rd Floor, New Delhi - 110 003 India

Is the writing on the wall? Ageing fi elds, tight supplies, rising demand,

soaring oil prices…. Oil which ruled the 20th century seems like its shortage will rule the next few decades of the 21st century.

Oil, unquestionably has driven the globe predominantly since middle of the last century. It is critical for almost every important function of modern life. No other existing energy source can match its versatility and convenience. The demand for oil is not waning, not even at the current prices which has breached USD138 (June 6th 2008) from a mere USD10, barely a decade earlier. It is expected to grow exponentially fu-elled by rising demand from developing nations, led by China.

Will the supply sustain the rising demand?

Evidences point to the contrary; that our tank may not be able to last long at the current rate of extraction or at the rate at which it is predicted to be extracted in future.

Though, the debate is on; whether we have reached the peak or not? Many

argue that peak lies within the very near future, if not already reached. However, few others feel that the peak is still some decades away and would be a bumpy plateau. But it is quite clear that the peak in world production will happen soon and after it oil produc-tion will start its terminal decline. For our economy to grow, a plateau would be disastrous, let alone a decline in oil production.

Quoting offi cials from The International Energy Agency (IEA), The Wall Street Journal online on May 22, 2008, men-tioned that the IEA which earlier had been predicting that supplies of crude and other liquid fuels will arc gently upwards and keep pace with rising demand crossing 116 million barrels a day by 2030 from the current level of 85 million barrels per day, has been forced to rethink. The agency now feels that companies could struggle to surpass 100 million barrels a day over the next two decades. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) of the U.S. Energy Department also has started casting a gloomier picture; that it will be tough to push global fuel supplies over 100 million barrels a day by 2030.

The decision to rigorously survey sup-ply, instead of just demand as was done in the past – by these and many other agencies is a grim reminder of the fact that supply is not on the same track as demand.

These fears are also echoed in the avail-able production data. Our past optimism stemmed from the reserves and produc-tion capacity of the Middle East and the Russians despite slumps in production from other major producers viz: the USA, North Sea, Mexico, Venezuela etc. Former Soviet Union countries (FSU) had recorded a massive growth of 34% in the last 5 years (ending 2007; Source : BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2008) while OPEC production grew by 18% over the same period. These two

contributed signifi cantly to increase in the global oil production which has recorded a growth of 10% during this period.

However, while OPEC did grow during 2002 to 2004, its growth in later years has been stunted and in fact registered a negative growth in 2007. OPEC’s aver-age annual production growth declined from 8% in 2004 to 3% in 2005 and fi nally to (-)1% in 2007. Similarly, though oil production in FSU countries are still growing, its average annual production growth had dipped from 9% in 2004 to 4% in 2005 and remained almost static till 2007. Global oil production, following a trend similar to OPEC, grew with an average annual growth of 4% in 2004, but there after started its downward slide to fi nally register a negative growth of (-)0.2% in 2007.

To add to the woes, Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) in a recent report (Sept’2007) titled Finding the Critical Numbers: What Are the Real Decline Rates for Global Oil Production, has drawn a conclusion that the deple-tion rate of the world's 811 largest fi elds is around 4.5% a year. At that rate, oil companies have to make huge invest-ments just to keep overall production steady. But if the projections of various other agencies, which say the depletion rate could be higher still, the situation may well be hardly redeemable.

IEA researchers have warned that even if there is enough oil under the ground, which are probable, supply barriers may not be surmountable due to lack of sufficient investments in surface facilities and equipment.

Diamonds are Forever, Oil is not … R S SharmaCMD, ONGC

Mr R S Sharma, is the Chairman & Managing Director of India’s fl agship Navratna Publ ic Sector Undertaking,

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation. He is a Fellow Member of the Institute of Cost & Works Accountants of India and an Associate Member of the Indian Institute of Bankers. Mr Sharma is also the Chairman of Mangalore Refi neries and Pet-rochemicals Ltd., ONGC Videsh Ltd., and other group companies of ONGC.

Bad habits are like a comfortable bed, easy to get into, but hard to get out of6 6 JU NE 2008


In fact in an article published in The Scientifi c American in April 2008, the last decade has been described as “The Lost Decade”. First, it points out, when the oil price collapsed from $25 to $12 per barrel at the end of the 1990’s, E&P companies slashed their technical and scientifi c staffs. These cuts were so extreme that when the companies fi nally began, belatedly, to hire again in 2005 (when oil was >$40/ bbl), an entire generation of knowledge-workers had been lost, leaving the industry techni-cally crippled. Today, there are few new scientists or engineers entering the industry and even fewer top-notch, experienced petroleum professionals to hire, leading to poaching and attrition.

Secondly, the booming markets of the early to mid 2000 led to massive industry failure to invest for sustain-able profi tability in the long haul. The record jump in the crude prices in the recent past has once again left many fretting on a diminished incentive for the producers to sink more billions to ramp up output.

Today, the oil industry is spending lot of money and using all available technolo-gies to fi nd new oil in unfavorable areas (like the Arctic and deep seas). But resources are few, especially deepwa-ter drilling rigs. The loss of investment in technical people and infrastructure due to oil industry having taken a holi-day- “missing-in-action”, over the last 10 years is going to cost dearly. And therefore pessimism is sweeping, so much so that many feel that it may not take long for the taps to run dry.

Perhaps, Brazil may delay this even-tuality. The state owned Brazilian oil company, Petrobras, recently made three huge oil discoveries in its ultra deepwaters which prompted the Bra-zilian President to even comment that “God is Brazilian”. The Tupi and the Ju-piter fi elds each are estimated to have 5-8 billion barrels of oil equivalent while the Carioca fi eld is estimated to be even bigger, though earlier claims of it having 33 billion barrels have later been denied by the company. However, sceptics are quick to point out that these sub-salt layers fi nds located in ultra deepwaters would pose considerable technological and investment challenges.

What do we have in our part of the world?

Oil production in India grew by 6% in the last fi ve years up to 2006-07; even though the p reced-ing five years had witnessed a decl ine, a trend identical to ONGC.

ONGC oil pro-duct ion had declined from 31.64 MMt in 1 9 9 5 - 9 6 t o 25.06 MMt in 2000-01. And also our contribution to national oil production reduced from 90% to 77%, thanks largely to the handing over in 1994-95 of our medium sized fi elds like Ravva, Panna-Mukta-Tapti and PY3 to JVs with ONGCs interest reduced to 40% in these fi elds.

However, in the next 5 years, i.e. 2001-02 to 2006-07, ONGC registered a growth of 5.4% at a CAGR of 1.1%. More remarkably, ONGC group’s oil production grew by 28% (including overseas production through ONGC Videsh Ltd.) with a CAGR of 5.0% during the same period. In comparison during the same period, some of the international oil majors, like Chev-ron (-2%), Royal Dutch Shell (-2%) registered negative CAGR, while BP (5.1%), ExxonMobil (2%), PetroChina (2%), Sinopec (2%), Total (1%) all ranged on or below ONGCs’ growth trajectory path. The oil production of the other Indian NOC, Oil India Ltd. registered but a modest fall during the same period.

ONGCs’ Reserve Replacement Ratio (RRR) (i.e. ratio of reserve being re-plenished to being extracted) at 132% in FY 2008 is more impressive than most of its illustrious global counter-parts. Organic RRR of some of the major E&P companies for calendar

year 2007 remained below that of ONGC, viz: Exxon Mobil-XOM (106%), Chevron-CVX (21%), BP (113%), Total (79%), ConocoPhillips-COP(117%). To dispel any sceptism that this may be an aberration, 7 years data taken from the year 2001 to 2007 and smoothened by taking 3 years moving average, shows that while the International Oil Companies had more or less a roller coaster ride, ONGC has grown con-sistently.

ONGC’s RRR with 1P reserves at 149% and 161% in FY 2008 and FY 2007 respectively, is still more impressive. This is primarily on account of reserve up-gradation to proved category from probable and possible category, which the company is constantly endeavour-ing to achieve.

The reversal in the oil production of ONGC has been made possible by the three corporate strategies which ONGC implemented f rom 2001. Though it would take time for reaping the benefits from the first strategy, that of doubling the reserves by 2030, the second strategy of enhancing recovery factor from 28% to 40% and the third of acquiring overseas equity have already started paying rich dividends.

Internal RRR3 years Moving Average

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

1.30

1.20

1.10

1.00

0.90

0.80

0.70

0.60

0.50

Data Source : PFC Energy

ONGC

XOM

Shell

BP

COP

Total

Chevro

n

Only the person who is going somewhere needs to watch his step JU NE 2008 7


The growth of OVL (ONGC Videsh Lim-ited), the wholly owned subsidiary and the foreign arm of ONGC has been phe-nomenal. From a single equity till 2001, it has now truly turned global acquiring 38 projects spanning 18 countries. In fact it has become the second highest hydrocarbon producer in India after its parent, ONGC.

The other initiative, the Improved Oil Recovery (IOR) / Enhanced Oil Re-covery (EOR) scheme implemented in 2000-01 to enhance recovery, has been the major contributor in augmenting production and arresting production decline from mature fi elds. These IOR/EOR schemes enabled arrest of over-all production decline of around 21% (CAGR : -4.5%) that set in between 1995-96 and 2000-01 and if continued with the same rate, would have resulted in production of only 18.09 MMt in 2007-08. Instead we produced 25.95 MMt in 2007-08 (over 43% more).

The recovery factor (RF) of the 15 major fi elds accounting for 80% of ONGC oil production and where these schemes were implemented, went up from 27.5% in 2000-01 to 30.5% in 2005-06. Though, it is diffi cult to draw comparison as reservoir char-acteristics and the drive mechanism differ across the reservoirs, however, the average range of global RF has been statistically estimated between 27% and 35% by several agencies/ literature.

In fact we have acquired a high degree of competence in arresting decline of mature fields through IOR/EOR schemes and the In-Situ-combustion (ISC) project, one of the high point of ONGC’s successes in IOR/EOR schemes. ONGC expertise has spe-cifi cally been sought by PDVSA, the Venezuelan state oil company for con-ceptual mining of their 80 API heavy crude. IOR/EOR schemes have already been implemented by ONGC in Sudan and are currently being sought by Oman as well. ONGC has also developed an ingenious and cost effective Microbial EOR (MEOR) technology in collabora-tion with The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI). After successfully pilot testing in few sick wells, ONGC is now planning to roll out MEOR technique on fi eld scale.

These technologies and the fi nds like those in Brazil have given us hope that ever evolving technology and the men behind them can squeeze out additional barrels of oil from exist-ing reserves and even unearth a few more prospects that are as yet un-discovered. Notwithstanding the dire predictions of the ‘Peak Oil’ school of thought, we can draw comfort from CERA that has consistently maintained that the remaining global oil resource base is three times (3.7 trillion barrels) as large as estimated by the ‘Peak Oil’ proponents (1.2 trillion barrels). Even United States Geological Survey (USGS) in its last estimate in 2000

31.63

25.0625.95

ONGC Oil Production (MMt)

1995-96 1997-98 1999-00 2001-02 2003-04 2005-06 2007-08

predicted that a large pool still lay undiscovered.

While we are hovering around the practical limits of Recovery Factor using present technology, new-age technology may yet be on the horizon that could enhance the global Recovery Factor even further. This would add substantially to the currently estimated resource base.

However we can not play Ostrich and assume that oil is going to last for ever. All our resources and technol-ogy are bounded by the finiteness of the reserves and our extraction capability.

Therefore, we must try to manage oil judiciously. Demand-side management is vital for economies that shield con-sumers from market driven oil prices through subsidies.

We would also need to discover and exploit the bridge fuel, i.e. gas, in all its manifestations viz.: natural gas, CBM, UCG, Gas hydrates etc. Fuel diversification, use of bio-fuel, use of waste products for energy, fuel ef-fi cient vehicles, energy saving building and devices, wide use of Mass Rapid Transport system etc. would not only conserve energy but in turn add extra units of energy for consumption for longer period. But, above all, for a sustainable future, we need to de-velop alternate source(s) of energy. A smoother transition to new energy era will depend on our ability to develop abundant, economical and sustainable alternative source(s) of energy. Earnest effort to discover alternate sources must start now itself, lest it becomes too late.

Lord Oxburgh, the former CEO of Shell in September 2007 had reminded us about the danger, “we are just about to enter hot water. And the danger is that we sit there blissfully like the frog in the pan of water gently heating on the stove until it wakes up to fi nd itself dead.”

While oil will certainly be with us for some time yet, it is opportune to commit resources to development of alternatives now lest Lord Oxburgh’s prediction comes true.

Live as it you were to die to-day. Learn as if you have to live forever — M Gandhi8 8 JU NE 2008


Introduction

Petrochemicals and Polymers (Polyolefins)

Petrochemical industry has become the largest part of global chemical industry by virtue of its importance in the day-to-day modern living. Petrochemicals are chemicals, obtained by refi ning or processing petroleum and are used in many manufacturing fi elds. The indus-try is built in a small number of basic commodity chemicals, also known as basic building blocks such as ethylene, propylene, butadiene, benzene, toluene and xylene. Ethylene, propylene and

butadiene are commonly refereed to as olefi ns, while benzene, toluene, xylene are known as aromatics. Together, they form the basis of all petrochemical production. Manufacturing involves a whole range of chemical reactions to convert base chemicals into either inter-mediate petrochemicals, such as vinyl chloride and styrene monomer (used in the production of polyvinyl chloride and polystyrene respectively), or directly into downstream end products, such as polyethylene and polypropylene.

Polymers/plastics are the most impor-tant component of the petrochemical industry. Today, it is not possible to

Polyolefi n Materials and Catalysts: An IntroductionG S Kapur, D K Tuli, R K Malhotra, Anand KumarIndian Oil Corporation Limited, Research and Development Centre, Sector-13, Faridabad, Haryana, India ([email protected])

Figure 1: A generic manufacturing process sequence for various petrochemical products

is depicted below: Figure 2: Low Density PE (LDPE)

0.915-0.030 g/cc

Figure 3: High Density PE (HDPE)

0.940-0.965 g/cc

Figure 4: Linear Low Density PE (LLDPE)

Dr R K Mal-hotra, did his Mechanical Engi-neering from IT, BHU and Ph .D . from IIT, Delhi.

He has 30 years of experience in the application and testing of Fuels and lubricants, engine / vehicle testing, vehicular emissions and alternative fuels.

He has publ ished more than 50 research papers on fuels, alternate fuels, lubricants and emissions and has 4 international patents to his credit. He has been member of several national com-mittees for formulation of fuel quality and emission norms in India and is closely associated with the Expert Committee on Auto Fuel Policy headed by Dr.R. A. Mashelkar.

Dr. Malhotra is Secretary in the ISAS India Board and Chairman of ISAS India Northern Section. Presently he is Executive Director (R&D) of IndianOil Corporation Ltd.

Dr G S Kapur, is presently working as Senior Research Man-ager–Petrochemicals and Polymers at the IndianOil R&D.

He did his M.Tech. and Ph.D. from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi in the area of synthesis and char-acterization of polymers. After that, he carried out postdoctoral work

at Institute of Macromolecular Sci-ence, Prague and at the University of Leipzig, Germany. He is a recipient of prestigious international fellow-ships like Alexander Von-Humboldt, Germany and UNESCO. He has 4 patents and more than 60 research papers to his credit, published in International peer reviewed Journals and presented more than 35 papers in various National/international conferences.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter10 10 JU NE 2008


imagine life without polymers, the won-der materials found in such a large va-riety of products that they have shaped the modern world. Polyolefi ns, which is the generic term used to describe a family of polymers derived from a par-ticular group of base materials known as olefi ns, are the world’s fastest grow-ing polymer family. Polyolefi ns, such as

polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), are commodity plastics found in applications varying from house hold items such as grocery bags, contain-ers, carpets, toys and appliances, to high-tech products such as engineering plastics, industrial pipes, automotive parts, medical appliances, and even prosthetic implants.

Polyolefi ns are very attractive materials in terms of cost-performance. Modern day Polyolefi ns cost much less to pro-duce & process, than other plastics and materials they tend to replace. Besides, there has been a continuous improve-ment in strength & durability, which enables to use less of them in various applications. For example, weight of a super market bag was reduced from 23 grams in 1982 to merely 6 grams in 1990.

Besides, these are highly versatile material and come in many varieties. Some are tough & rigid materials for car parts, outdoor furniture applications, whereas, others are used as soft & fl exible fi bers for babies' diapers. Some have high heat resistance (microwave food containers), while others melt easily (heat-sealable food packaging). Some are as clear as glass, whereas, others are completely opaque.

The base monomers, ethylene and propylene are gases at room tem-perature and getting the monomers to link together is achieved through polymerization in the presence of a catalyst system. All the above varied properties coming from same set of raw materials is a result of advances in catalyst and reactor technology lead-ing to tailor made polyolefi n materials. Without these powerful, sophisticated and remarkable catalysts systems, production of polyolefi ns and hence the polyolefi n success story would simple be not possible.

Basic structure of polyolefi ns can be represented as follows, which also place these materials into different categories. Polyethylene, for example, can be placed in three broad cat-egories like; low density polyethylene (LDPE), High-density polyethylene (HDPE), linear low density polyethyl-ene (LLDPE)

Propylene being slightly more complex, could attach itself to the growing poly-mer chain in one of the three different ways, resulting in different alignment of the backbone (grey) and pendant methyl groups (red), as shown in fi gure 5:

Main PP products consist of the following types, dominated by homopolymers:

Polymer Types

Grade Market Coverage

HDPE

Film gradeBlown films with paper like quality, suitable for counter bags, carrier bags & wrapping films

Pipe grade Pipes PE-80/100 class, drinking water & gas pipes, waste pipes & sewer pipes-their fittings etc

Large BM gradeUniversal container grade, vol. appx 1-500 lit; heating oil storage tanks, transport containers

Small BM gradedisinfectant bottles up to 2 lit, tubes for cosmetics, containers from few ml upto 10 lit

Raffia gradeStretched films & tapes for production of high strength knitted & woven sacks /bags/ nets etc

Injection Molding For transport & stacking crates, particularly bottle crates

LLDPE

FilmsGarment bags, grocery sacks, liners, blends, trash bags, cast like film diapers etc

Roto MouldingLarge industrial parts used indoors, large industrial / agricultural tanks, shipping drums, toys etc.

Injection MouldingHouse wares, crates, master batches, pails, food containers etc

PP

Homopolymer

Injection moulding (Battery cases, crates, furniture, house ware, luggage, sports/toys), Blow moulding, Sheets, Tape/Raffia, FIBC, TQPP/BOPP films (food packaging, bottle labels etc), Extrusion coatings etc.

Random CopolymerThin walled Injection moulding, Low heat seal & high transparency films, Blow moulding, Packaging parts, Automotive parts etc.

Impact Copolymer-Automotive parts (bumper, exterior trims, instrument panels, interior trims), Appliances, House wares, Rigid packaging, Thermoforming etc.

Table 1: Polyethylene/Polypropylene-Market Coverage

Figure 5

An honest man never fears to eyes of strangers JU NE 2008 1111


Global Scenario

Today, Polymer industry is worth more than 180 Billion US$. Global polymer consumption (including Thermoplas-tics, Thermosetting and others) in 2007 has estimated to reach almost 235-240 Million tons from 225 Million tons in 2006. Out of which, 183 Million MT is the market for thermoplastic polymers. Demand for commodity Polymers;

Homopolymers (HPP) - 78% market ■shareImpact Co-polymers (ICP) – 16% ■market shareRandom Co-polymers (RCP) – 6% ■market share

Figure 6: Breakup-World Major Thermoplastics Demand Estimate -2007(183 Million MT)

Figure 7: Per Capita consumption (Kg) of Plastics in 2005- 06

Polymer (KT) (KT)Polyolefins Total 3950 LDPE/EVA 325 LLDPE 750 HDPE 1100 PP 1775PVC 1480

Others (PS/EPS, ABS, SAN, PET, Acrylates, PU and other thermosets)

1440

Total 6790

Table 2: Polymer Consumption Estimate

of India in 2007

CompanyProducts (in KTA)

PPLLDPE/HDPE

LDPE

Reliance Industries Ltd 1665 850 205Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd 300 560 -Gas Authority of India Ltd - 310 -Total 1965 1720 205

Table 3

made up of LDPE, LLDPE, HDPE, PP & PVC, was estimated at 148 Million MT during 2007.

Demand for Global Thermoplastics is dominated by Polyolefi ns (PP & PE). They represent over 60 % of all the commodity resins consumed on an annual basis. PE is the largest category including LDPE, LLDPE & HDPE. PP represents the single largest category at 24 %. Global Per capita consump-tion for PE is about 10 Kg while PP is about 6 Kg.

In 2007, the global capacity of poly-ethylene was 78 Million tones and consumption crossed 68 Million tones. Whereas, global capacity of PP was 49 Million tones and demand was 44 million tones.

Indian Polymer Industry

The total consumption of polymers for plastics application in India in 2007 was of the order of 6.5-7.0 million tons. Polyolefi ns consumption in 2007 was around 4 million tons and thus contin-ues to account for more than 60% of total polymer consumption. With 4.2 Kgs per capita consumption of poly-mers annually the scope of growth is tremendous when compared to global average of 25 Kgs, with the developed nations having it as high as 100 Kgs on a per annum basis.

Aggregated consumption of PE, PP and PVC in India crossed 5 Million tones in 2007-08, registering an impressive growth of 15%.

Domestic Suppliers

There are three domestic suppliers of polyethylene and polypropylene, with total production capacity of around 3.9 Million tones of PE and PP.

Reliance Industries Ltd. including ■Vadodara Manufacturing Plant (erst-while IPCL)

Haldia Petrochemi- ■cals Ltd.

Gas Authority of In- ■dia Ltd

Most of the suppliers men-tioned in table 3 are en-hancing their capacities to meet the growing demand

To forget your troubles remember GOD12 12 JU NE 2008


Implemented Under Implementation Planned

MTBE – 38 KTA(CD Tech)

Naphtha Cracker (ABB Lummus)857 KTA of Ethylene / 600 KTA of propylene

Liquid Cracker (PDRP-Phase-II)

1-Butene– 15 KTA(IFP/Sulzer)

MEG - 320 KTA(Scientific Design)

HDPE /LLDPE, LDPE(PDRP-Phase-II)

LAB - 120 KTA(UOP)

Swing LLDPE/ HDPE - 350 KTA (Nova-SCLAIRTECH)-Solution

PP 680 KTA (PDRP-Phase-I) (Basell-Spheripol

PX - 360 KTA(UOP)

HDPE - 300 KTA(Basell-Hostalen) Slurry

PX (PDRP-Phase-I)

PTA - 553 KTA(Invista)

PP - 600 KTA(Basell-Spheripol) Bulk/Gas

MEG (PDRP-Phase-II)Styrene 600 KTA (PDRP-Phase-I) (ABB Lummus)

Table 4

Figure 8

of polymers. With the new 900 KTA ca-pacity expected to come on stream by Reliance, the company’s total capacity will increase to 2.7 Million tones. This expansion will take Reliance from current 7th largest producer of PP to 3rd largest producer globally.

In addition to the existing suppliers, Indian Oil Corporation is also setting up plants for production of HDPE, LLDPE and PP, with a total capacity of 1.25 Million tons per annum. A summary of the Petrochemicals and Polymers plants of IOCL, already implemented and/or under implementations, using

world class technologies are shown in table 4.

Catalysts for polyolefi ns

At the heart of all polyolefi n manufac-turing processes is the catalyst system used to initiate polymer chain growth.

Technology Drivers for Polyolefin Catalysts

There are various technology drivers for Polyolefi n catalysts, both at resin level and at end-use level, as depicted in fi gure 8.

Polyolefin Catalysts Family

There are four major families of cata-lysts used for olefi n polymerization:

Ziegler-Natta, ■Phillips (Chrome) ■Metallocene and ■Late-transition metal catalysts. ■

The main characteristics, with some representative examples, of these cata-lyst systems are given in table 5.

The fi rst two categories; Ziegler-Natta and Chrome are so called Conventional Polyolefin catalysts, whereas, Metal-locene and Late-transition metal based catalysts are termed as Non-convention-al or single site catalysts (SSCs). This is so because these catalysts produce polymers with much more uniform prop-erties than the ones made with Phillips or heterogeneous Ziegler-Natta catalysts.

Today, more than 90% of the commercial

catalysts are Conventional Catalysts

(Ziegler-Natta based systems and

Chrome), whereas, more than 90% of

the research efforts are focused on the

development of single site catalysts

(SSCs).

Conventional PO Catalyst

Catalysts for PolyethyleneThere are two main types of the con-ventional catalysts systems for polyeth-ylene used widely in the industry:

Ziegler* ■Chrome on silica (Philips Catalysts) ■

• The term Ziegler and Ziegler-Natta

catalysts will be used interchangeably

in this article. Karl Ziegler successfully

prepared linear polyethylene in 1953,

whereas, Giulio Natta prepared

polypropylene in 1954.

• Karl Ziegler and Giulio Natta shared

the Noble prize in chemistry in 1963.

However, the federal courts decided

that Robert L. Banks and J. Paul

Hogan of Phillips Petroleum Company

were in fact the fi rst to discover these

catalysts and, the composition-of-

matter patent on PP was awarded to

Phillips in 1983

Phillips and Ziegler-Natta catalysts, discovered in the 1950s, were the fi rst catalysts systems to be used for olefi n

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Type State Typical ExamplesZiegler /Ziegler-Natta

HeterogeneousHomogeneous

TiCl3, TiCl4/MgCl2VCl4, VOCl3

Philips (Chrome) Heterogeneous CrO3/SiO2

MetalloceneHomogeneousHeterogeneous

Cp2ZrCl2Cp2ZrCl2/MgCl2

Late-transition metal absed

HomogeneousNi, Pd, Co, Fe with diimine, and other ligands

Table 5

Figure 9

polymerization. They created a revolu-tion in the polyolefi n industry; they are, to this day, the dominant catalysts for polyolefi n production.

Ziegler

Ziegler-Natta catalysts can be ho-mogeneous i.e. soluble in the reac-tion medium, or heterogeneous. The most common type of heterogeneous Ziegler-Natta catalyst today is TiCl4 supported on MgCl2, while one of the fi rst types was crystalline TiCI3. Homogeneous Ziegler-Natta catalysts are generally (but not exclusively) vanadium-based. Contrary to their heterogeneous counterparts, soluble vanadium-based Ziegler-Natta cata-lysts have only one site type and synthesize polyolefi ns with uniform properties. They make polymers with uniform microstructures: narrow MWD and CCD, and polydispersity indices (PDI) close to 2.0.

Co-Catalysts

Both homogeneous and heterogeneous Ziegler-Natta catalysts must be activated by a cocatalyst(s). Most commonly used Co-cata lysts are; a lky l aluminum compounds such as trimethyl alumi-num (TMA) and triethyl

aluminium (TEAL), Diethyl aluminium chloride, Di-ethyl aluminium ethoxide etc.

Salient features of the Ziegler Catalysts can be described as follows:

Products: LLDPE & HDPEProcesses: Gas-phase and Solution

End use demand drivers: LLDPE (AAGR ~ 7.8%) ■- Film (Major growth area)- Wire & cable - Injection mouldingHDPE (AAGR ~ 5%) ■- Film- Injection moulding - Rotational mouldingBimodal HDPE (AAGR ~ 7.2% ) ■- Film- Pipe (Major growth area)

Chrome on Silica (Philips Catalysts)

Phillips catalysts are always heteroge-neous. Phillips catalysts are based on Cr (IV) supported on Si02. Most of the existing chromium-based catalyst po-lymerization technology employs oxo-chromium systems; organochromes like silylchromate derived catalyst are also extensively used for commercial PE manufacturing. These catalysts systems are different from Ziegler-Natta catalysts in the following respects:

No co-catalyst is required ■MWD is regulated by the character- ■istics of the support;The catalyst needs to be treated at ■high temperatures to be active;long induction times are very com- ■mon andHydrogen, the usual chain transfer ■agent for Ziegler-Natta, Metallocene, and late transition metal catalysts, is not effective for Phillips catalysts.

As Phillips catalysts also have lower reactivity ratios toward a-olefi n incor-poration, they are not used to produce LLDPE and polypropylene. However, they are excellent catalysts for HDPE and dominate the market for this resin. HDPEs made with Phillips catalysts have a very broad IMWD, often with PDls of 10 or higher.

Salient Features of Chrome Catalysts are:

Work-horse catalyst for Slurry Pro- ■cesses for producing HDPE (Can’t be used for making LLDPE and polypropylene)Key resin attributes : Broad MWD, ■Long chain branchingProcess technology: Slurry and ■Gas-PhaseEnd use demand drivers (AAGR ~ ■5 %)- Blow molding applications (major

growth Area)- Pipe and Conduits- Blown fi lms- Thermoforming

Global PE Catalysts MarketChrome-on-Silica Catalysts continue ■to be the major catalyst for HDPEZiegler catalysts find extensive ■use in LLDPE production, and in injection molded (and other grades requiring narrow MWD) HDPE

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are all in harmony14 14 JU NE 2008


Figure 10

Figure 11

In summary, the global PE Catalysts Mar-ket (2006) can be depicted as in fi gure 9:

Catalysts for Polypropylene (PP)

The history of the development of Ziegler-Natta catalysts for polypropylene is truly fascinating. Since G. Natta’s discovery in 1954 for preparing highly Isotactic-PP, with TiCl4, and later with TiCl3 along with AlR3/AlR2Cl as co-catalysts, the development of more stereo specifi c, effi cient and sophisticated catalyst has been relentless, even today.

The original catalysts had relatively lower activity and poor stereo-selec-tivity, requiring the removal of both atactic polypropylene and catalyst residues (deashing; from the isotactic polypropylene product). Whereas, Polypropylene made with latest gen-eration catalysts, has an insignifi cant amount of catalyst residues because of their very high activity and practically no atactic content. For this reason, modern processes do not require post-reactor purifi cation. Some catalysts, such as the ones used in the Spheripol process of Basell (now LyondellBasell) are capable of producing large spheri-cal polypropylene particles with con-trolled morphology, and may not even require pelletization.

The phenomenal development in PP catalyst systems, resulting in different Generations of the catalyst systems, is mainly driven by; the discovery of MgCl2 as an ideal support for TiCI4, and the development of appropriate Lewis bases, called ‘internal donors (Di)’ and external donors (De)’electron donors. The donors are used to control stereoregularity by selectively poisoning or modify aspecifi c sites responsible for the formation of atactic polypropylene. Aromatic esters (Ethyl benzoate) can be used as internal donors, whereas, aromatic esters, alkoxysilanes and hindered amines can be used as ex-ternal donors.

Non-Conventional Catalysts

Metallocene catalysts

Metallocene catalysts are single-site catalysts. They produce polyolefi ns with unimodal and narrow Chemical

composition distribution (CCD) and narrow MWD with PDls close to 2.0. Under some conditions, usually when supported, they may make polymer with broader distributions. Metallo-cenes had a very large impact in the polyolefi n industry when they were discovered in the 1980s because, for the fi rst time, polyethylene and polypropylene could be produced under conventional industrial condi-tions with uniform and well controlled microstructures.

Structurally, Metallocene catalysts are called sandwich compounds because they are composed of a transition metal atom sandwiched between two rings and the rings may be connected through different bridges to vary the angle between the two rings.

Another important type of Metallocene catalyst i.e. monocyclopentadienyl

complexes are called constrained ge-ometry catalysts (CGC) or half-sandwich catalysts. Their most important property is a very high reactivity ratio toward a-olefi n incorporation, allowing the easy copolymerization of ethylene with long a-olefi ns (1-hexene, 1-octene).

Metallocenes can be used directly in solution processes but need to be sup-ported (SiO2) to be used in slurry and gas-phase processes.

Structures of some of the commercial Metallocene catalyst are shown in fi gure 10.

Metallocene Catalysts are still used

primarily in-house by the catalyst

technology developers to produce

differentiated products.

The global Metallocene market demand, sector wise is shown in fi gure 11.

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Global demand for m-polyolefi ns in

2006 was of the order of 2,700 KT,

and Metallocene based Polyolefi ns are

expected to grow at an AAGR ~ 12.5%

The drawback of Metallocene catalysts is that they are unable to polymerize polar molecules, such as acrylics or vinyl chloride. Introduction of a polar monomer into reaction system kill the catalyst activity to almost zero.

Co-Catalysts for Metallocenes

Bulky non-coordinating anions such as methylaluminoxane (MAO) can activate and stabilize metallocene catalysts, re-sulting in a highly active, stable catalyst. MAO is an oligomeric compound with de-gree of oligomerization varying approxi-mately from 6 to 20. In general, a large excess of MAO is needed to achieve high activity, and ratios of 1000 aluminum atoms (or hundreds, in case of supported catalysts) to transition metal atoms are common for solution polymerization. Other co-catalysts used with Metallo-cene catalysts are tris(pentafl uorophenyl) borane (TPFB), which has the advantage of being required in nearly stoichiometric amounts.

Late-transition Metal Catalysts

The above limitation of Metallocene catalyst forced polymer scientist to search for new types of single site catalysts, using metals from all over the periodic table. This led to the discovery of ‘late transition metal compounds (Group 6 and higher). These catalysts being much less sensitive to polar com-pounds can be used, to copolymerize olefi ns with polar monomers such as acrylates and methylacrylates. By varying the polymerization temperature and monomer pressure, it is possible to make polymers with densities varying from those of HDPE to LLDPE, VLDPE, ULDPE etc. A typical late-transition metal catalyst is shown below:

Catalyst Attributes

While developing a catalyst system suitable for production of a particular grade of polyolefi n depends upon many factors. In summary, following catalyst attributes determine the suitability of a catalyst system, apart from cost con-siderations:

Activity: ■ unit polymer/unit catalyst obtained in the polymerisatioFouling tendency: ■ propensity for polymer formation on reactor wallsFines: ■ propensity for catalyst or polymer fi nes to form, related to line choking problemsBulk density: ■ bulk density of the poly-mer in the reactor and transfer linesCatalyst quality: ■ lot-to-lot consis-tency and catalyst performanceProduct breadth: ■ ability of catalyst to make wide range of density, MI (polymer with varied molecular weights)Melt Index (MI) fl oor: ■ related to the ability of catalyst to make high MW productH2 response: ■ Reflects ability of catalyst to respond to Hydrogen to control molecular weight of the polymersH2 response differential: ■ ability of catalyst to make polymers with high and medium molecular eightComonomer incorporation: ■ ability of catalyst to incorporate comono-mer (i-hexene, 1-octene) in different concentrationCatalyst life: ■ kinetic lifetime of the catalyst, especially in presence of Hydrogen

Application/product focuses and process technology used, determine the desired balance/combination of catalyst attributes.

Summary

Out of 183 million tonnes of thermoplas-tic consumption globally, polyethylene (HDPE, LDPE and LLDPE) constitute around 38%, followed by polypropylene (PP) at 24%. Combined global demand for PE and PP was estimated at 113 million tones during 2007, with China and India contributing signifi cantly to the global demand. Aggregated consump-tion of Polyolefi ns in India was around 4 million tones, witnessing domestic

demand growth for PE at 17% and PP at 16% during the year 2007-08.

Technology advances continue to re-shape the competitive landscape glob-ally despite Polyolefi ns being introduced over 60 years ago. Catalyst technology has tremendous infl uence over the type and quality of Polyolefi n resins being produced today. Conventional Ziegler-Natta catalyst are robust, cheap and ver-satile systems that are still going strong, more than 55 years after their discovery, thanks to the development of advanced Donor chemistry. Even today, more than 90% of the commercial catalysts are Conventional Catalysts (Ziegler-Natta based systems and Chrome), whereas, more than 90% of the research efforts are focused on the development of single site catalysts (SSCs). Metallocene Catalysts are still used primarily in-house by the catalyst technology developers to pro-duce differentiated products.

General References/Source of Infor-mation:

Chemical Market Resources (CMR) ■Inc., USAwww.dow.com ■www.mitsuichem.com ■www.plastmart.com ■Reliance Industries Limited, Annual ■Report, 2007-08, and www.ril.comwww.gailonline.com ■www.haldiapetrochemicals.com ■Proceedings, “Workshop on Ad- ■vances in Polyolefins 2007), CA, USA, Sept, 2007

The opinion/data expressed in the ar-ticle are ascribed to authors only and not to the organization they belong to. Illustrations shown in this article are for representation purposes only only.

The more you try to guess, the less you are at rest16 16 JU NE 2008


Geleki fi eld in Assam Asset of ONGC was discovered in 1968 and put

on commercial production in 1974. The reservoir is sandstone and multi-layered, with composition of sand and silt. The Tipam Sands are the main oil bearing sands. Among the various Tipam Sands, TS-4B and TS-5A are very tight and hydraulic fracturing provides a viable alternative for production from these sands. Despite the intention for hydro-fracturing since 1980s, success could be attained only in 2006 after meeting all the constraints like high breakdown pressures, surface/sub surface comple-tion restrictions, procurement of sintered bauxite etc. All the constraints were overcome by meticulous planning, coordination of Assam Asset with other Well Stimulation Services (WSS) units of ONGC and re-completion of wells with higher grade tubings, 10,000 psi differ-ential pressure permanent packer etc.

The frac job design was carried out on 3-D Frac Simulator FRACPRO and validated after analyzing the minifrac job in each well. The frac fl uid formula-tion was done after ensuring that it is

able to carry sintered bauxite, which is heavier than conventional proppant, into the fracture created deep inside the reservoir and to break in time, so as to allow better fl owback and also minimize damage to formation.

The equipments required like 2250 HP frac pumpers, blender, sand dumper, tree-saver etc were mobilized from all over ONGC in addition to chemicals and sintered bauxite. The renowned WSS Base of ONGC at Ahmedabad alongwith IOGPT (Institute Of Oil and Gas Production Technology) of ONGC at Navi Mumbai with assistance of WSS Karaikal/Rajahmundry and operational support of WSS, Sivasagar carried out the hydro-fracturing. The pre-HF well preparation and post-HF well comple-tion/activation was done as per require-ments by meticulous planning and execution by Workover and Geleki Sub Surface Team of Assam Asset.

The start of hydro-fracturing was with Phase-I in which 6 wells namely GLK# 23, #44, #76, #77, #233 & #272 were fractured in March 2006. Though teeth-ing problems were encountered dur-

ing this Phase, satisfactory fracturing was completed. In view of technology breakthrough achieved, three (3) more Phases i.e. Phase-II, Phase-III and Phase-IV were also taken up in the Geleki Field. 12 (twelve) more wells were covered under these three (3) Phases, thus completing a total of 18 (eighteen) wells till Jan’08.

An MDT was constituted in the Asset with representatives of different sec-tions like surface, subsurface, workover, WSS, Civil, logistics, chemistry and WSS, Ahmedabad. The regular interac-tion and close coordination with detailed planning led to successful implementa-tion of HF Jobs in the Geleki Field.

It was also worked out with WSS, Ahmedabad that HF jobs are imple-mented in Phases and the wells are prepared accordingly. This will help in smooth coordination and better execution.

Keeping in view of the above fact, the next three Phases were implemented during April’07, Oct’07 and Jan’08 respectively. Phase wise implementa-

Revival of Non-Flowing wells and production enhancement through implementation of Hydrofracturing Technology in Geleki fi eld of Assam AssetShri J G ChaturvediExecutive Director, Assam Asset, ONGC, Nazira, Assam

J G Chaturvedi, Executive Direc-tor, Assam Asset, ONGC has an ex-perience of more than 30 years in

ONGC and has worked in various positions. These positions include Basin manager, Chief – HR and now as Asset Manager. During his tenure in ONGC he has worked on number of projects leading to major gains of ONGC. He was involved in mapping of Geleki fi eld where fracturing has been carried out during last two (2) years.

Figure 1: Number of wells covered for HF in Geleki fi eld.

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tion approach helped in organizing the resources in an organized way and WSS, Ahmedabad team took up the challenge in batches. Following fi g-ure has given the details of the wells taken up for fracturing during different Phases: Refer Fig-1.

Geleki fi eld

Geleki fi eld, the second largest oil fi eld of ONGC in Assam, located towards the southern fringe of Upper Assam valley, was discovered in 1968. It covers an area of about 25 sq km. Trial production from this fi eld began in August 1970 and regular production started from August 1974. Commercial oil produc-tion has been established in Tipam of Miocene age, Barails of Oligocene age

and Kopilis of Eocene age.

The main oil bearing formations in Geleki fi eld are Tipam sandstone of Miocene age. Tipam sands in Geleki field are interpreted as fresh water sands deposited under complex braid-ed river system. Braided river system is characterized by multiple channels fl owing with relatively high energy and changing their position rapidly leaving behind thick pile of coarser clastics. At the terminal part of depositional cycle, energy is depleted and thin layers of fi ner sediments such as silts and clays are deposited. So Tipams sands are heterogenous and tight in nature

Hydraulic Fracturing

Hydraulic fracturing is widely used to stimulate oil and gas production from a reservoir. This technique improves well productivity by removing near well bore damage and by increasing conductiv-ity in low as well as high permeable formations. A hydraulic fracture is a superimposed structure that remains undisturbed outside the fracture, however, thus effective permeability of reservoir remains unchanged by this process. The increase of productivity results from an increase of the well bore radius, because after hydro fracturing there will be a large contact surface between the well and reservoir.

Hydraulic fracturing fl uids are used to initiate and propagate fracture, as well as transport proppant into fracture to create a conductive path to enhance production. Proppant are sand grains or other granular substances that are injected into the formation to hold or “prop” open formation fractures that have been created by hydraulic fracturing. Proppants wedged within the fracture serve to increase the con-ductivity which promotes liberation of hydrocarbon from the reservoir rock and thereby enhanced production. The fracturing fl uids injected through the fractures and into the wellbore. Refer Fig-2. The Design of Frac Unit opera-tion layout is referred in Fig-3.

Hydraulic Fracturing Methodology Adopted

Selection of Candidate Wells

HF wells were selected based on sub surface position with respect to nearby water injectors, production history of well and block, oil saturation, logs, reservoir characteristics, CBL-VDL and completion of well. As the tech-nology was tried for the fi rst time, the non-fl owing wells were identifi ed for fracturing in the fi eld.

Pre-HF Work Over of Wells

These wells were required to be com-pleted for Hydrofracturing and this re-quired lowering of P-110 new tubing in the well. Following job was involved:

The Old completion strings were ■pulled out and Well bore was cleared and if required, the desired interval

It is not the mountain ahead that wears you out. It’s the grain of sand in your shoe18 18 JU NE 2008


was opened up by zone transfer or cement squeeze. The Casing her-miticity was tested at around 250 ksc and injectivity improvement, if required, was carried out in the interval of hydro-fracturing. Solvent jobs were taken up in identifi ed wells against the perforations for remov-ing organic deposition.All the wells were completed with ■permanent packer of 10,000 psi differential pressure, new 2 7/8”, 8.7 PPF tubing together with seal-bore assembly so that the old casings are not exposed to fracturing pressures. The wells were tested at 4000 psi with respect to casing and tubing integrity.

Hydro-fracturing job design & Execution

The job execution strategy was ■prepared after detailed delibera-tions and a tentative job design was prepared for the wells with the aid of latest 3-D Frac Simulator FRACPRO based on the known parameters. Further, the hole probing / acid / xylene job was carried out by CTU prior to HF so as to ensure clear forma-tion and no obstruc-tion is available. The mini frac Job was

carried out by hooking up all equip-ments, installation of tree saver, pressurized annulus and applied pressure through tubing to achieve formation break down. 2% KCI formulation was used for carrying out the mini-frac job. An analysis of mini-frac data was taken up with design improvement which was followed by main HF job. The esti-mated and designed quantity of sin-tered bauxite was placed as on line job monitoring was carried out.The wells were fl owed back with ■bean. A typical frac chart can be seen ■below in Fig- 4 .

Post-HF Work Over of Wells

Most of the wells require installation of Artifi cial Lift and the wells required to be worked over for the same. Prior to installation of A/Lift the well bore was cleaned upto bottom by CTU to lift out

any excess proppant. The higher grade tubings pulled out through workover rig and activation carried out for checking / improving productivity. Wells were com-pleted with GLV through Gas lift design.

Well Production

As most of the wells had water / gel of about 150-200 m3 it required knocking out of same through compressor appli-cation. Post activation of wells required consistent application of compressor and gas through intensive efforts. In some of the wells the rate of infl ux was found to be poor and it required hole clearing / acid / stimulation job carried out through CTU. This helped in acti-vation of wells and thus leading to the production from wells.

Chemicals used in Hydrofracturing job execution

The fracture fl uid formulation was fi -nalized on the basis of the laboratory studies carried out on the chemicals proposed for use, at the known forma-tion depths and temperatures. The fi eld is having high fracture gradient and generally wells have high skin around well bore. The fl uid had to carry the sintered bauxite into the fracture and break for fl ow back. The frac fl uid for-mulation also plays a crucial role in the success of the frac job. The candidate wells in Geleki fi eld are deep (about 2800 meters), which could contribute to high pressure during fracturing. An-other typical parameter in these wells is low formation temperature (70-75°C), which makes breaking of fracturing fl uid during post-frac fl owback very crucial. Following chemicals/ liquid were used for the fracturing job:1. Treated Water 2. Gelling agent (GD-II/III Guar poly-

mer)

Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment JU NE 2008 1919


3. Sintered Bauxite (20/40 mesh)- Proppant

4. Potassium Chloride (KCl)- To prevent formation clay swelling

5. Soda Ash- for raising pH6. Borax / Boric Acid- As cross-

linker7. Non- Emulsifi er- To prevent emul-

sion formation in the reservoir 8. Breaker (APS)- For breaking the

gel after proppant placement9. Formaldehyde- As Bactericide

The Gel formulated was tested at the well site with chemical operation and continuous monitoring was carried out at the site. Refer Fig-5.

Equipments used in Hydrofracturing job execution

The Hydrofracturing job required mobili-zation of set up from karaikal/ Rajahmun-dry and Ahmedabad and mobilization of same safely to Assam Asset. Following units were brought to Assam Asset.1. Frac Pumpers (2250 HP) – 2 nos

from Karaikal/Rajahmundry & 1 (one) from Ahmedabad. (refer Fig.5.4)

2. Sand dumpers – 2 nos. from Karaikal/ Rajahmundry.(refer Fig.5.2)

3. Blender - Karaikal/ Rajahmundry. (refer Fig.5.3)

4. Frac Tanks – WSS, Sivasagar.5. Treating iron – WSS, Ahmeda-

bad.6. Tree Saver - WSS, Ahmedabad.7. Data acquisition system - WSS,

Ahmedabad.

Improvement in Injectivity for HF job

Based on the experience of Phase-I it emerged that wells require pre-HF acid treatment for enhancing the injectivity and after detailed analysis the acid receipe was formulated. The composi-tion included solvent, pad/ Spacer, acid prefl ush, mud acid and pad/ Spacer. Following chemicals were used for the solvent & acid job for injectivity enhancement.

Solvent: Xylene with diesel & naphthalene.

Pad/spacer: Water and ammonium chloride.

Acid prefl ush: Water with HCL, Acetic Acid, EDTA & surfac-tant.

Mud Acid: Water with HCL, Acetic Acid, EDTA, surfactant, ACI and ABF.

Pad/spacer: Water with ammonium chloride.

The above formulation greatly helped in improving the injectivity and following results were obtained:

These jobs helped in better HF job execu-tion and smooth proppant placement in the wells. The combination of proppants and Chemicals is shown in Fig- 5.

Analysis of Hydrofracturing Pressure

Till January’2008 a total of 18 wells have been fractured in Geleki fi eld with sandwise breakup as following:

TS-3A - 2 Wells (G#128 & G# 317TS-4B - 7 wells (G#77, G#272,

Fig-5: Photograph of Gel quality prepared for HF Job.

Fig. 5.4 Pumper during the execution of

HF Job

Fig. 5.1 ED visit during HF Job. Fig. 5.2 Sand Dumper during the

execution of HF Job

Fig.-5.3 Blender during the execution of

HF Job

Sl. No.

Well NoPre Job

InjectivityPost Job

Injectivity

1 G#13080 lpm at 3000 psi

130 lpm at 3000 psi

2 G#20150 lpm at 2000 psi

400 lpm at 2000 psi

3 G#178180 lpm at

1000psi300 lpm at 1000 psi.

If you have your sight, you are blessed. If you have insight, you are a thousand times blessed20 20 JU NE 2008


G#76, G#178, G#20, G#60 & G#55)

TS-5A - 9 wells (G#233, G#23, G#22 , G#70 , G#104 , G#127, G#63 & G#130

Total 18 wells

An analysis of pressures shows that in TS-3A sand break down pressures vary from 6300 to 8000 psi. TS-4B sand has witnessed a maximum breakdown pressure of 9450 psi & minimum being 7300 psi.

Further, deeper sand i.e. TS-5A saw the minimum pressure as 5600 psi while maximum breakdown pressure was 9500 psi.

Fig-6. (Fracturing Pressure Graph)

The wide variation of pressure occurred due to location of wells in different blocks and different geological charac-teristics. The analysis of Frac Pressures is shown in Fig.6.

Job size in different sands

The maximum job size in the well was 40 tons and four (4) wells were fractured with 40 tons of sintered bauxite. These wells were G#128, G#60 G#70 & G#23. The minimum size of the job was 10 tons in wells no G#272 which was ter-minated due to operational problems. The remaining 13 wells witnessed a job size of 20 to 30 tons as shown below. The Phase wise implementation ap-proach helped in planning for the opti-

mum job size through design and data analysis with continuous improvement. (refer Fig-7)

Production from HF Wells

Out of 18 (eighteen) numbers of wells fractured. 16 (sixteen) wells were non fl owing prior to Hydrofracturing and only one (1) well was fl owing i.e. G#128. One water injection well i.e. G#317 was also fractured resulting in enhancement of water injection through this well.

Most of the non-fl owing wells have now been brought in the fl owing category as shown below thus enhancing the production from these wells which were closed for more than a decade.

A cumulative production of more than 27000 Tons has been taken from these wells thus generating a revenue of about 55 Crores of rupees till Feb’2008 (refer Fig-8)

The success of fracturing has opened up a new dimension of production in Geleki fi eld and has become a favoured option for better recovery from the tight sands of Geleki. It has been an actual fi eld based learning experience for As-sam Asset with different section and working as a team approach.

Current status of Hydro-fractured Geleki wells:

Costing of Hydrofracturing

A detailed cost analysis of Hydrofrac-turing jobs has been carried out by the Asset team which includes pre & post HF workover, HF job execution along-with chemical cost, site preparation and activation cost. It has been calculated that a total expenditures of Rs. 28 crores has been made inclusive of all the above cost components and aver-age cost works out to be following:

Field implementation and resultsThe hydro-fracturing jobs in Geleki ■fi eld were planned and executed for six non fl owing wells (G#23, G#76, G#44, G#77, G#233 & G#272) of TS-4B and TS-5A sands in Phase-I. The jobs were executed in March 2006. With the success of Phase –I, ■further HF was done in four wells

Figure 7: HF Jobs size in different phases.

It is not the weathercock that changes; it is the wind JU NE 2008 2121


A new lease of life has been given ■to the non fl owing wells as a result of a meticulous planning and careful execution of mini-fracturing followed by main-fracturing job.

Conclusions1. Six (6) nos. of Hydraulic fracturing

jobs in Phase-1, on R&D basis, have technically proved success-ful which led to implementation of a total of four (4) Phases of Hydrofracturing in Geleki cover-ing 18 (eighteen) wells.

2. Dedicated team effort, focused attention and coordination at the highest level enabled “Assam

Asset with WSS Team” to achieve this technological breakthrough despite several challenges.

3. The success of hydro-fracturing in Geleki fi eld has again proven the abilities of the in-house WSS, Ahmedabad, ONGC alongwith other Sections.

4. The reliability of Surface and Sub Surface well completion hard-ware used (especially the X-mass tree saver of 15000 psi rating) in high pressure situations has been validated.

5. Post-job production and eco-nomic analysis are in favour of hydraulic fracturing jobs. This technique can be applied on a routine basis to enhance produc-tion in Assam Asset.

6. Total oil production from these non fl owing wells till Feb’08 has generated a revenue of more than Rs. 50 crores with a cumu-lative expenditure of about Rs. 28 crores including all the cost components.

(G#22, G#70, G#128 and G#178) under phase-II, in April 2007. Out of these four wells two wells (G#128 & G#178) are presently fl owing and two other wells (G#22 & G#70) have produced water.After technological break through of ■hydro-fracturing, this campaign was taken up in a structured manner and third Phase of HF was executed in October 2007 in two non fl owing wells (G#20 & G#130).The fourth Phase was completed in ■January 2008 in six (6) wells. Out of six (6) wells one (1) water injector has also been hydro-fractured for the fi rst time in Assam.

Sl. No. PhaseNo of Wells

Well No SandDate of

Non-flowingPre HF

Well StatusOil Rate (M3/

day)Gas Rate (M3/

day)1

Phase-I ( March'06 - April'06)

6

G # 77 TS-4B Mar'98 NF 10 4502 G # 272 TS-4B Mar'02 NF Poor influx Nil3 G # 233 TS-5A1 Mar'02 NF 13 2850 4 G # 76 TS-4B Apr'04 NF 12 199505 G # 23 TS-5A1 Mar'97 NF 6 14306 G # 44 TS-5A1 Mar'02 NF 1 Negligible7

Phase-II ( April'07-May'07)

4

G # 22 TS-5A1 Dec'06 NF Water Only Nil8 G # 70 TS-5A Jun'87 NF Water Only Nil9 G # 178 TS-4B Feb'99 NF 4 3570

10 G # 128 TS-3A Flowing before HF F 7 1320 11

Phase - III 2G # 130 TS-4B+5A Oct'05 NF 4 20000

12 G # 20 TS-4B Mar'98 NF 6 Negligible13

Phase - IV ( Jan'08)

6

G # 104 TS-5A No Yield NF 14 G # 63 TS-5A Jul'98 NF 15 G # 60 TS-4B Jan'04 NF 16 G # 55 TS-4B Dec'94 NF 17 G # 127 TS-5A NF 18 G # 317 TS-3A Water injection W I

Current status of Hydro-fractured Geleki wells:

Cost summary of HF Jobs (in Lakhs): Phase I to Phase - IV

Cost component Phase-I Phase-II Phase-III Phase-IV TotalHydraulic Fracturing (A) 187.00 112.00 56.02 256.82 611.84Civil work (B) 9.30 10.00 9.37 19.40 48.07Workover (C ) 235.00 416.00 165.92 303.28 1120.20Well Completion (D) 242.52 180.00 90.00 270.00 782.52Activation (E) 36.40 40.00 12.00 60.00 148.40Manpower (F) 20.00 20.00 20.00 20.00 80.00Total cost 730.22 778.00 353.31 929.50 2791.03

22 22 JU NE 2008


This article is a treatise of the sus-tainable development and the ways

to develop a sustainable development business model in an oil industry. With global warming threatening the basic survival of the living beings, the greatest challenge today is to synergise the eco-nomic development with environmental sustainability and social development. This calls for the concept of sustainable development.

Introduced in the UN charter way back in 1987, sustainable development is a concept of an all encompassing development for the present without jeopardizing the future. To actually project sustainable development into actionable programme, measurement of the resource utilization is the most important step.

In an energy intensive industry as oil industry, energy is the main resource. Thus sustainable development in fact connotes measurement of energy usage, which in turn implies measure-ment of CO2( GHG) emission. Thus

sustainable development in the oil industry is synonymous to ‘Carbon management’.

Carbon management has two aspects, Accounting and Management. This article has dealt various steps involved in accounting and management with reference to an oil industry. The article concludes that sustainable develop-ment in an oil industry can be devel-oped as a viable business model.

Scenario-An introduction

World has witnessed rapid economic growth after industrial revolution in 1740. Post World War II, the economic growth has been unprecedented. As per the Earth Policy Institute’s report on Eco Economic Indicators 2005, World output of goods and services increased from $7 trillion in 1950 to $56 trillion in 2004, while annual income per person grew from $2,835 to $8,753 during this time1. It is estimated that the growth will continue which seems inevitable consid-ering the increasing population.

Economic growth so far is closely asso-ciated with increased usage of energy. In its World Energy Outlook 2006 report, the International Energy Agency pointed out that the economies and population of developing countries were growing faster than those of the wealthier na-tions, “shifting the centre of gravity of global energy demand”. It estimated that more than 70 % of the increase in global primary energy demand between now and 2030 would come from the developing countries2. India needs to increase its primary energy supply 3 to 4 fold over 2003-04 level to sustain a continuous 8-10% growth for next 25 years, which is absolutely crucial to eradicate poverty.

Energy, till date, is mostly sourced by fossil fuel. As per an estimate, the fossil fuel dependence scenario will remain unchanged at least for another 300 years unless a viable alternative source is established. Fossil fuel burn-ing generates CO2, the most signifi cant Green House Gas accounting for more than 60% of the total atmospheric concentration of GHG. Increased us-age of energy will thus increase the per capita GHG emission. Increased eco-

A. B. Chakraborty, Group General Manag-er, is currently heading the Carbon Manage-ment Group in ONGC. He is responsible for

the development of ONGC’s CDM Projects, Climate Change & Sustainable development activities. Being the proj-ect proponent of ONGC CDM Projects, four projects have been registered by UNFCCC so far & many more projects are under development. Since joining ONGC in June 1975, he has worked in different areas; Quality control, Workshops, Maintenance, Operations, Drilling, HSE, CDM, Climate Change & Sustainable development. He has considerable experience in the area of Carbon Management, HSE, and development of procedures, guide-lines & regulations besides addressing

HSE organizational issues. He has also initiated M2M program with US EPA in ONGC. He has presented 7 papers in the SPE’s HSE international conferences & few on Carbon Management, as well. His core specialization includes Environ-ment, Safety, Occupational health, CDM & Sustainable development.

He has done M.Tech (Production Engg) from IIT Delhi, MAM (Jamnalal Bajaj) Mumbai, MSc (Environmental Science) from Kakatiya University Warangal be-sides, PG Diplomas in Environmental Management & Environmental Eco-nomics from Hyderabad University and Safety Management from British Safety Council, London. He is ‘Fellow of the institute of Engineers’ India, Chartered Engineer, Member SPE & life member of the National institute of Personal Mgt.

Shantanu Das-gupta, Superin-tending Chemist, ONGC is working with the Carbon M a n a g e m e n t

Group. Shantanu has 19 years professional experience in ONGC in different areas: drilling, production and processing, R&D on process-ing, training institute, and carbon management. A gold medalist from Ranchi University and a KS Krishnan DAE research scholar, Shantanu has also done his PG Diploma on Ecology& Environment and Masters in Business Administration. He has published several papers in national and international journals.

Sustainable Development – Key issues and steps for oil industriesA B Chakraborty, Shantanu Dasgupta

Education is not only for earning a living but also for learning to live JU NE 2008 2323


nomic growth has therefore affected the ecological balance adversely and has caused unprecedented climate change and global warming, as per IPCC reports3.

Herein lays the importance of Sus-tainable Development, a holistic de-velopment of economy, society and environment. The article is a treatise on the concept of sustainable devel-opment with special reference to oil industries.

Concept of Sustainable Development

Sustainable development is a pattern of resource use that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but in the indefi nite future. The term was used by the Brundtland Commission in 1987 which coined what has become the most often-quoted defi nition of sustain-able development as development that "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future gen-erations to meet their own needs”4

However, Sustainable Development does not focus on environment alone. The UN 2005 World Summit Outcome document refers to the "interdependent and mutually reinforcing pillars" of sustainable development as economic development, social development, and environmental protection 5.

Sustainable development—In context of Oil industry

To project the concept of sustainable development into actual actionable parameters in an industry, exact mea-surement of the resource usage and its management are of paramount importance. Resource includes both physical and intellectual resources. The Oil industry is one of the most energy intensive industries where all its operation in up, mid and downstream use energy to a substantial degree. Thus energy becomes the most impor-tant physical resource. The fi rst step of sustainable development therefore amounts to measuring of energy us-age or Carbon footprinting. Carbon footprinting derives its term from the

word “Carbon” of CO2 which is one of the most common Green House Gases. Sustainable development in oil industry is therefore closely linked to the Carbon management.

Carbon Management in oil industry

Carbon Management pertains to Ac-counting & Management of Green House Gases--commonly called GHG Accounting & Management6. Thus the entire process has two facets:

Accounting and Management

The Accounting is done based on spe-cifi c standards, using Carbon foot print assessment tools or GHG inventories.Various processes involved in GHG accounting are as follows:

Carbon Mapping, where the total fuel consumption related to all the opera-tions of the organisation will be mapped in terms of emission. The operations typically for oil industry include op-erations survey, drilling, workover, production, transportation, process-ing R&D( up and midstream),refi ning, processing, distribution and marketing( for downstream), as well as usage of energy in offi ce and travels etc. This carbon mapping is the basic inventory of any oil company and will be refl ected as Carbon Disclosure in the Balance Sheet.

Benchmarking, where the inventory will be benchmarked against the industry best practices. There may be areas where a company is the best and thus form the industry benchmark, there may be areas, where a company will need to improve its activities in terms of energy consumption.

Various steps involved in management are as follows

Developing Corporate Strategy: It is about developing and implementing a management tool to assess and ad-dress the risks and opportunities that climate change poses to the business. Climate change is one of the more diffi -cult and challenging issues for business today. The scientifi c complexity, Gov-ernment policy, international debate

and competitive pressure, all combine to present an even more diffi cult and challenging situation. Managing the risk involves extensive exploration and discovery of organizational potential, business processes and options for greenhouse gas abatement. Timing of investment, technological investment and place of investment are of distinct competitive advantage. What is Com-pany’s goal towards GHG emissions is important i.e. Whether the Company’s long term objective is to become Carbon Positive or Carbon neutral or remain as it is. Carbon Strategy for the Carbon Management is to address ‘tomorrow’s actions today’.

Assessment of Risks and Opportu-nity: Climate change poses regulatory, physical and other risks to business all over the world. A smart corporate strategy on GHG management can help to convert these risks into com-mercial opportunities and/or better corporate risk management.There is a need to enhance understanding of the risks and opportunities that climate change presents and to develop an effective risk management strategy. For example, a Company is looking at busi-ness expansion in terms of Greenfi eld projects or Brown fi eld acquisitions. The expansions may be in the existing facilities within the country or new / ac-quired projects in other countries which include developed (featuring in annex 1 of Kyoto Protocol) as well as developing countries6. Accordingly, the likely com-mitments in terms of GHG reductions have to be factored in while arriving at the business investment decisions.

Foot printing, to develop a corporate target. This foot printing will conform to the corporate strategy on Sustainable development. It may like to improve in curtailing wastage in offi ce usages but may think otherwise about the business trips. In any case, the company will have to decide how it wants to improve upon its energy consumption. This will help develop the carbon foot printing. It is absolutely essential, since a future action plan will emerge from this foot printing. It requires a proper cost ben-efi t analysis of every operation. This foot printing should form the basis of the future sustainability reporting. This will form the annual target, as well.

Meditation is the way to a healthy heart24 24 JU NE 2008


Implementation of the target set in the footprinting. Action plan has to be developed in this regard. It is extremely critical because a proper cost benefi t analysis is a must to consider the best option. A company may mull over set-ting up alternative energy sources to offset the energy consumption. Another may mull over developing green build-ings or invest in social forestry, the choices are many and hence caution is required. The fi nal aim is to limit the GHG emission to a corporate decided strategy. Once this has been achieved, the programme has to be communi-cated to everyone.

Sustainability reporting indicating the initial target and the achievement. The target must be in terms of limiting GHG emission which includes offsets if con-sidered. This will be a publicly available document.

Exploiting opportunities: Climate change and its mitigation has opened up a number of opportunities6 to an oil company. The proper assessment , coupled with carbon footprinting and implementation will open up many potential opportunities to explore. This can be divided into two aspects:

Quantifying benefi ts: For example, if an upstream oil company in a developing nation decides to adopt a zero leak-age norm and implements the strict

monitoring and maintenance practice by detecting and arresting any leakage, the company will be able to improve its operational effi ciency and its natu-ral gas production. At the same time, the company may derive benefi ts by developing a potential CDM project. Similarly, any energy effi ciency initiative after benchmarking the operations will ensure less usage of energy and help develop potential CDM. Such a project developed by an oil industry in an An-nex 1 nations( Kyoto Protocol) will help them achieve the cap.

Monetising: In the above example, monetising involves trading of the emission reductions achieved by imple-menting the emission reduction project and also the additional natural gas saved. In some cases, the monetisation may be notional.Similar project devel-oped in an Annex 1 country will reduce its dependence on the external source and hence saves money. However, all the money received/ receivable from the project is reportable as additional revenue.

Conclusions

It is evident from the above that Sus-tainable Development in oil industry meets all criteria of good business practices and can be developed as a viable and sustainable business model which synergizes economic develop-

ment with environmental and social development.

Sustainable development will be suc-cessful only when the we all are com-mitted to it and proper communication channels are established so that people down below are adequately informed about the imperatives and their reserva-tions, if any, are properly addressed.

A word of caution, though. No business model is a talisman or a change agent unless it is properly practiced. Sustain-able Development is no exception. A model is as good as the sincerity and commitment of the organization. In short, “Think Ahead, Think Fast and Act Forward”, the basic tenets of any leader should be the mantra.

References1. E c o E c o n o m y i n d i c a t o r s

2005—Earth Policy institute re-sources on economic growth

2. World energy outlook 2006- Inter-national Energy Agency

3. 4th Assessment Report – IPCC4. United Nations. 1987."Report of

the World Commission on Envi-ronment and Development

5. 2005 World Summit Outcome document

6. Carbon Management – The Emerging Paradigm for the oil industry,Ashok B. Chakraborty, SPE(110239)

India Oil Corporation Ltd (IOC), along with Oil India Ltd (OIL), has reached an understanding with Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) to acquire stake in the latter’s offshore oil block in East Timor. Sources told Business Line that an agreement was inked between the State-owned companies and RIL this week.

Both IOC and OIL will acquire an eq-uity stake of 12.5 per cent each in the project. RIL will hold a majority stake in the block and will be the operator of the area spread over 2,384 sq km. Sources said that IOC and OIL have made a fi nancial commitment of $27

million. The entries are now going to approach the East Timor Government for approval.

Though the consortium of IOC and OIL has been working together in acquir-ing hydrocarbon assets abroad, this is the fi rst time that the two have joined hands with RIL. Under phase-I, in three years of the exploration activity the companies are going to undertake three-dimensional seismic surveys and drill one exploratory well.

Both IOC and OIL had taken their re-spective Board’s approval to acquire

IOC, Oil India acquire stake in Reliance’s East Timor blockNew Delhi – June 7

equity in RIL’s asset as farm-in part-ners in 2007-08 fi scal. The approval of the respective Boards was taken after the technical teams of IOC and OIL expressed satisfaction on the data made available by RIL.

In May 2006, RIL had won a block in East Timor – area ‘K’ – offshore blocks tendered. RIL has now signed an agreement to explore for oil and gas in East Timor and will explore the offshore area in contract area ‘K’ that has proven reserves in the Australian North West Shelf and is adjacent to the Timor Sea.

Stop analyzing life. Just live it. Analysis is what makes it complicated JU NE 2008 2525


India is a growing economy facing the critical challenge of meeting a rapidly

increasing demand for energy. Import of petroleum products constitute the single largest item in the country's total annual import bill. More than 40 per cent of the export earnings are funneled back into importing petroleum products for domestic consumption. There is a tremendous growth in exploration and production (E&P) activities in hydrocar-bon sector in India. The advancement in technology is crucial in every sphere of energy sector including petroleum sec-tor. The surface geochemical exploration technology is a reconnaissance explora-tion tool applied to soils or seabed sedi-ments in order to detect and determine the nature of any hydrocarbons that may have seeped to the surface from underlying reservoirs within the lithifi ed strata of sedimentary basins. Surface geochemical exploration for petroleum is the search for chemically identifi able surface or near-surface occurrences of hydrocarbons, or hydrocarbon-induced changes, as a clue for sub-surface oil and gas accumulations.

Surface indications of oil and gas seep-age have been noted for thousands of years and such seeps have led to the discovery of many important petroleum producing areas in the past. Over the past sixty years, numerous geochemi-cal methods have been developed and the application of these methods to oil and gas exploration has resulted in var-ied success. Surface geochemical sur-vey is applied as a reconnaissance tool provide direct evidences hydrocarbon generation and thus they document the presence of a sub-surface active petroleum system. Geomicrobial survey is the technique based on specifi c utili-zation of seeped hydrocarbons by spe-cialized groups of bacteria. The basis for microbial detection of hydrocarbons is the principle that light hydrocarbons from oil and gas reservoirs escape to the earth’s surface and creates condi-

tions favorable for the development of specialized bacterial populations that feed on the hydrocarbons. This leads to signifi cant increases in the microbial cell numbers and cell activity of these specialized microbes.

The state of art development in the fi eld of surface geochemical exploration involves the use of a sorbent based passive sampler for detecting and quantifying organic compounds in the C2 (ethane) to C20 (phytane) range. To-day geochemical surface prospecting is a mature technology which on integra-tion with geophysical and geological inputs provides additional exploratory leads for prioritization of prospects and reducing exploration risk. For reconnaissance surveys, hydrocarbon seeps and microseeps provide direct evidences for presence of an active petroleum system and identify and pri-oritize the prospects. The geochemical surface exploration have been carried out in Western and Eastern offshore basins, Cambay, Krishna-Godavary, Cauvery and most of the frontier on-shore basins of India.

Introduction

Energy is the most vital input for economic and social development of any society. It is also a fair index for benchmarking nation’s progress. The economy is highly dependent upon the availability of energy. The sustainable, environmentally-friendly and socially responsible management of energy resources forms an integral component of any economic activity. "Energy Se-curity" as a transition to total "Energy Independence" is an important area. As we know, India has 17% of the world's population, and we have just 0.8% of the world's known oil and natural gas resources.

India is a growing economy facing the critical challenge of meeting a rapidly

increasing demand for energy. With over a billion people, a fi fth of the world population, India ranks sixth in the world in terms of energy demand. Its economy is projected to grow 7%-8% over the next two decades, and in its wake will be a substantial increase in demand for oil to fuel land, sea, and air transportation. While India has sig-nifi cant reserves of coal, it is relatively poor in oil and gas resources. Its oil reserves amount to 5.9 billion bar-rels, (0.5% of global reserves) with total proven, probable, and possible reserves of close to 11 billion barrels. The majority of India's oil reserves are located in fi elds offshore Bombay and onshore in Assam and Cambay. Due to stagnating domestic crude production, India imports approximately 70% of its oil, much of it from the Middle East. Its dependence is growing rapidly. The World Energy Outlook, published by the International Energy Agency (IEA), projects that India's dependence on oil imports will grow to 91.6% by the year 2020.

The past few months have seen global oil prices entering the "super-spike" phase. International oil prices have vaulted to over $135 a barrel. Energy experts predict that prices could surge all the way above $200 as consump-tion peaks in near future. With the prospect of a further steep hike in fuel prices looming large, the vulnerability of the economy to the vagaries of the global oil market comes into focus yet again. Studies have indicated that a sustained 5 per cent rise in the oil price over a year would slash India's GDP growth rate by 0.25 per cent and raise the infl ation rate by 0.6 per cent. India’s energy vulnerability can be gauged from the fact that the country imports about 70 per cent of the total oil consumed. Oil imports constitute the single largest item in the coun-try's total annual import bill. About 40 per cent of the export earnings are

Surface Exploration Techniques for Hydrocarbons: An OverviewR.R. SinghGeochemistry Group, KDM Institute of Petroleum Exploration, Kaulagarh Road, Dehradun-248195, Uttrakhand, India

[email protected]

Success is a measure decided by others. Satisfaction is a measure decided by you26 26 JU NE 2008


funneled back into importing oil for domestic consumption.

These are challenging times. Energy consumption is growing at a rapid pace worldwide and each nation is faced with the widening gap in supply and demand. Fossil fuels like oil, natural gas and coal will remain the predominant means of energy, meeting the world’s growing energy needs in near future. To meet the increasing demand of energy and feed stock for petrochemicals, new options are seriously considered all over the world. In India also the non conventional sources of energy are receiving special attention. To maintain our economic growth rate of 8-10%, India needs all the energy it can get. Our focus is to develop our economy through effi cient utilization of available energy resources while preserving the ecology and be instrumental in giving social and economic equity to the one billion population of India. This grim situation requires immediate acquisi-tion and application of all available state-of-art techniques and technolo-gies in the fi eld of petroleum explora-tion. Surface Geochemical Exploration (SGE) is one of the techniques which establish the presence and distribution of hydrocarbons in a basin.

Surface geochemical exploration for hydrocarbons

Surface indications of oil and gas seepage have been noted for thou-sands of years, and such seeps have led to the discovery of many important petroleum producing areas. Over the past sixty years, numerous geochemi-cal and non-seismic geophysical sur-face exploration methods have been developed. The application of these geochemical prospecting methods to oil and gas exploration has resulted in varied success and occasional controversy. Surface geochemical methods have been used since the 1930s, (Laubmeyer, 1933) but the past decade has seen a renewed interest in geochemical exploration. Many of these developments are summarized in American Association of Petroleum Geology Memoir No. 66 (AAPG Mem-oir-66, Hydrocarbon Migration and Its Near-Surface Expression ed. Schu-macher and Abrams, 1996).

AAPG Memoir 66 contained papers on hydrocarbon migration and it’s near surface expression. It included an introduction to the main mecha-nisms, models, interpretation methods and analytical techniques as well as selected case histories (Piggot and Abrams 1996, Abrams, M.A, 1996a; Abrams, M.A, 1996b; Machel, H.G., 1996; Matthews, M.D., 1996; Potter, R.W et al., 1996; Thrasher, J.A. et al., 1996). It was a landmark publication which presented a clear overview of the scientifi c background of geochemi-cal prospecting and its application which was viewed skeptically by many organic geochemists and petroleum geologists.

Surface geochemical principlesAll petroleum basins exhibit some ■type of near-surface hydrocarbon leakagePetroleum accumulations are dy- ■namic and their seals are imperfectHydrocarbon seepage can be active ■or passive and is visible (microseep-age) or only detectable analytically (microseepage)Hydrocarbons move vert ical ly ■through thousands of meters of strata without observable faults or fractures in a relatively short time (weeks to years)Migration is mainly vertical but can ■also occur over great distances laterallyRelationships between surface ■anomalies and subsurface accu-mulations range from simple to very complex.

Objectives and Benefits

The principal objective of a geochemi-cal exploration survey is to establish the presence and distribution of hydrocarbons in the area and, more importantly, to determine the prob-able hydrocarbon charge to specifi c exploration leads and prospects. For reconnaissance surveys, seeps and microseeps provide direct evidence that thermogenic hydrocarbons have been generated; that is, they docu-ment the presence of a working petro-leum system and identify the portions of the basin that are most prospective. Additionally, the composition of these seeps can indicate whether a basin

or play is oil-prone or gas-prone. If the objective is to evaluate individual exploration leads and prospects, the results of geochemical surveys can lead to better risk assessment by iden-tifying those associated with strong hydrocarbon anomalies, thereby high-grading prospects on the basis of their probable hydrocarbon charge (Price, 1986).

In petroleum exploration, surface geo-chemistry is applied to soils or seabed sediments in order to detect and deter-mine the nature of any hydrocarbons that may have leaked to the surface from sources at depth within the lithifi ed strata of sedimentary basins. Naturally, many of the fi rst discoveries of oil and gas reservoirs were made following attention to obvious occurrences of seeps (‘macro-seeps’) onshore. These crude visible methods of seep detec-tion were followed by developments of analytical instruments to detect invis-ible amounts of seeping hydrocarbons (‘micro-seeps’) in both onshore and offshore sediments (Brooks, et al., 1986; Jones and Drozd, 1983, Klus-man, 1993; Link, 1952).

The potential benefi ts of a success-ful geochemical exploration program include the following:

Directly detect hydrocarbons and/ ■or hydrocarbon-induced changes in soils, near surface sediments, and/or on the sea fl oor.Document the presence of a work- ■ing petroleum system in the area of interest.Permit high-grading of basins, plays, ■or prospects prior to acquiring leases or before conducting detailed seismic surveys.Permit post seismic high-grading of ■leads and prospects; generate geo-chemical leads for further geological or geophysical evaluation.Use geochemical data to infi ll be- ■tween seismic lines and constrain mapping of AVO/amplitude anoma-lies between lines.Evaluate areas where seismic ■surveys are impractical or are ineffective due to geological or en-vironmental factors.Have little or no negative environ- ■mental impact (most surface geo-chemical methods).

There are no unanswered prayers. At times, the answer is NO JU NE 2008 2727


Surface geochemistry as a reconnaissance exploration tool

The objective of a reconnaissance survey is to find seeps and micro-seeps that provide direct evidence that thermogenic hydrocarbons have been generated, i.e., they document the presence of a working petroleum system. Additionally, the composition of these seeps can indicate whether a basin or play is oil prone or gas prone. Hydrocarbons from surface and seafl oor seeps can be correlated with known oils and gases to identify the specifi c petroleum system(s) present. Seepage data allow the exploration-ist to screen large areas quickly and economically, determining where ad-ditional and more costly exploration is warranted. For example, results of preseismic geochemical surveys can guide the location and extent of subse-quent seismic acquisition by ensuring that areas with signifi cant hydrocarbon anomalies are covered by seismic data. (Abrams, M.A., 1992, Piggot and Abrams 1996, Schiemer et al. 1995, Thrasher et al. 1996). The signifi cance of Surface Geochemistry as a Recon-naissance Exploration Tool in petroleum

exploration is explained in Fig. 1.

Innovative surface geochemical exploration for conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon reservoirs

Organic and inorganic surface geo-chemical methods are integrated to explore for hydrocarbon reservoirs. Where possible, these geochemical data are combined with geological and geophysical data to further reduce risk in hydrocarbon exploration. The organic variables are a direct indicator of hydrocarbon presence and type, and inorganic variables such as calcium, magnesium, strontium, barium, lithium, lead, zinc and chloride can be indica-tive of fl uid leakage from underlying hydrothermal dolomite.

Surface geochemical exploration for petroleum is the search for chemically identifiable surface or near-surface occurrences of hydrocarbons, or hydrocarbon-induced changes, as clues to the location of oil and gas ac-cumulations. It extends through a range of observations from clearly visible oil and gas seepage (microseepage) at

one extreme to identifi cation of minute traces of hydrocarbons (microseepage) or hydrocarbon-induced changes at the other.

It should however be emphasized that the results from a surface geochemical study should not be used alone in de-termining the petroleum potential and the possible commercial exploitability of a region. Results should always be considered alongside those from other techniques such as seismic. Under these conditions there can be little doubt that they make a contribution to more successful basin evaluation and subsequent selection of drilling sites. The use of surface geochemistry data, integrated with other geological infor-mation, will then give a more thorough recommendation for exploration in a basin.

Evaluating leads, prospects and development projects

If the objective is to evaluate individual exploration leads and prospects, the results of geochemical surveys can identify those leads associated with strong hydrocarbon anomalies and thereby enable high-grading prospects on the basis of their association with hydrocarbon indicators. Regional geo-chemical surveys can help determine which leases should be renewed and which ones do not warrant additional expense. Detailed seepage surveys can also generate geochemical leads for evaluation with geologic and seismic data—leads that might otherwise go unnoticed. For development projects, detailed microseepage surveys can help evaluate infi ll or step out drilling locations, delineate productive limits of undeveloped fields, and identify bypassed pay or undrained reservoir compartments. Hydrocarbon micro-seepage surveys have the potential to add value to 2-D and 3-D seismic data by identifying those features or reservoir compartments that are hy-drocarbon charged.

Detailed geochemical surveys of pros-pects generated by other means can be very useful. Often the integration of the geochemical data will improve the interpretation of the data used to generate the prospect. An ultra high

Fig. 1: Surface Geochemistry as a Reconnaissance Exploration Tool

Peace is not absence of activity, but absence of uncertainty and confusion28 28 JU NE 2008


density geochemical survey is often warranted based on the relatively minor additional costs verses the enhanced data. Geochemistry can be used to "check" prospects. Depending on the size, as few as four high density lines using 40 to 60 samples can confi dently evaluate a prospect. Failure to fi nd a geochemical signature does not mean the prospect will not be successful it just means the odds have gotten very long. If on the other hand the limited evaluation shows promise the survey can be expanded to help guide drill site selection and future development. The surface geochemistry as a detailed exploration tool is detailed in Fig. 2.

Offshore surface geochemical exploration

All petroliferous basins exhibit some type of near-surface occurrence of hydrocarbons in very-minute concen-trations. When these are in subtle chemically detectable concentrations, they are called micro seeps. Offshore sampling programme are specially de-signed to detect, identify and charac-terize the micro seeps greatly enhance conventional exploration programme. The best practices in detection, iden-

t i f i c a t i o n a n d characterization of near-surface migrated hydro-carbons are well d o c u m e n t e d (Abrams and Se-gall, 2001).

S t a n d a rd i z e d , comprehensive shallow sea bed samp l ing p ro-grams are spe-cial ly designed fo r de tec t i on , identifi cation and characterization of adsorbed hy-drocarbons on the sediments. The sediment samples are normally col-lected through grab sampl ing or gravity coring. The sh ipboard sampling proce-

dures are conducted immediately upon retrieval of core. The sub-sampling is done to collect sub-samples from sev-eral depth intervals to provide multiple geochemical measurements through-out the full length of the core.

Geomicrobial prospecting for hydrocarbon exploration

Geomicrobial survey for hydrocarbon exploration is a surface prospecting technique based on specifi c utilization of seeped gases from sub surface pe-troleum deposits by specialized groups of bacteria i.e. Propane and butane oxi-dizers. The basis for microbial detection of hydrocarbons is the principle that light hydrocarbons from oil and gas res-ervoirs escape to the earth’s surface, and this increased hydrocarbon sup-ply above the fi elds creates conditions favorable for the development of highly specialized bacterial populations that feed on the hydrocarbons. This leads to signifi cant increases in the microbial cell numbers and cell activity of these specialized microbes. The technique on integration with geophysical and geological inputs provides additional exploratory leads for prioritization of prospects and reducing the risks.

Microbiologists Mogilewskii (1938, 1940) in the U.S.S.R. and Taggart (1941) and Blau (1942) in the United States described the use of hydrocarbon-oxidizing bacteria (HCO), when mea-sured in surface soil samples, as an indicator for oil and gas fi elds in the deeper subsurface. In the 1950s and early1960s many relevant publications (Updegraff et al., 1954; Maddox, 1956; Subbota, 1947a, b; Bokova et al., 1947) documented the applicability of this technique with case histories. Davis (1967) and Sealy (1974 a, b) published reviews of early work carried out in this fi eld.

Several microbiological methods for detecting the distribution and activ-ity of HCO were developed, such as enumeration of cell content in soil samples, measuring gas-consumption rates, and radioautography. Beghtel et al. (1987) described a new Microbial Oil Survey Technique (MOST) which uses the higher butanol resistance of butane-oxidizing bacteria to detect hydrocarbon microseepage. The activi-ties of hydrocarbon-oxidizing bacteria cause the development of near-surface oxidation-reduction zones and the al-teration of soils and sediments above the reservoirs. These changes form the basis for other surface exploration techniques, such as soil carbonate methods, magnetic and electrical meth-ods, and radioactivity and satellite-based methods (Richers et al., 1982; Jones and Drozd, 1983; Schumacher, 1996; Saunders et al., 1999). In ad-dition to onshore exploration, micro-bial prospecting has also been used successfully offshore (Hitzman et al., 1994; Baum et al., 1997; Wagner et al., 1998a).

Today Geomicrobial prospecting along with the surface geochemical prospect-ing for hydrocarbon exploration is a ma-ture technology and microbial surveys have been carried out in most of the frontier onshore basins of India.

Case studies

Geochemical surveys have been carried out in Western and East-ern offshore, Cambay, Cauvery and most of the frontier onshore basins of India. Two case studies, one from

Fig. 2: Surface geochemistry as a detailed exploration tool

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Mandapeta–Endamuru Area of Krish-na-Godavary Basin and other from NELP-IV Block in Gujarat - Saurastra Deep Water Offshore Basin, are de-scribed below:

Surface Geochemical Exploration in Mandapeta–Endamuru Area of Krishna-Godavary Basin

Surface Geochemical Exploration in Mandapeta–Endamuru Area of Krishna-Godavary Basin was carried out with following objectives:

To detect the hydrocarbon micro- ■seeps.To delineate the adsorbed gas ■anomalies in the studied area.To establish the genesis of seeped/ ■adsorbed gases.To prioritize the prospective areas ■for hydrocarbon exploration based on above studies in KG Basin.

The studies conclude that:Adsorbed gas (C1 – C4) analysis ■results show presence of light hydrocarbons in decreasing order, C1>C2>C3>C4, indicating ther-mogenic nature of hydrocarbons.The gases studied are of catagenic ■origin, petroliferous in nature and have migrated from sub surface petroleum sources. Further, these gases are not infl uenced by second-

ary alteration effects during their upward migration and subsequent adsorption onto soil particles. The seeped hydrocarbons are co-ge-netic in natureHalos resulted due to strong anoma- ■lies are discernible in the northwest-ern and southwestern parts of the study area. The other one seen in the northeastern part does not seem to be promising

The north – northeastern and south- ■western parts of study area appear to be interesting (warm due to pres-ence of hydrocarbons). However, extension of anomalies further, to the southwest part of the study area, indicate the block to be prospec-tive for focusing future exploration activities and possible leads.

Adsorbed hydrocarbon concentration (C1, C2, C3, iC4 and nC4) from soil samples at 30m depth in the study area is shown in Fig. 3.

C2+ (sum of ethane through butane) concentration contour map in the study area is shown in Fig. 4.

Surface Geochemical Exploration of NELP-IV Block from Gujarat - Saurastra Deep Water Offshore Basin

Surface Geochemical Exploration in Gujarat - Saurastra Deep Water Off-shore Basin was carried out with fol-lowing objectives:

To detect the hydrocarbon micro- ■seeps.To genetically classify the seeped/ ■adsorbed gases.To delineate the adsorbed gas ■anomalies in the studied area.To prioritize the prospective areas ■for hydrocarbon exploration based on above studies in block.

Fig. 3: Adsorbed hydrocarbon concentration (C1, C2, C3, iC4 and nC4 from soil samples

at 30m depth in the study area. (Concentration in ppm by weight)

Fig. 4: C2+ (sum of ethane through butane) concentration contour map in Mandapeta–

Endamuru Area of Krishna-Godavary Basin

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Conclusions of the studyAll the samples show the presence ■of light hydrocarbons (C1 – C4).The microseeps contain hydro- ■carbons in order, C1>C2>C3>C4, indicating thermogenic nature of hydrocarbons.The microseep gases are of late ■catagenetic origin, petroliferous in nature and have not been infl uenced by secondary alterations during their upward migration and subsequent adsorption onto soil particles.Based on Point anomalies distribu- ■tion, the southern part of the study area is better than northern part. However, no prominent geochemi-cal anomaly is observed in the block. C2+ (sum of ethane through butane) concentration contour map in the study area is shown in Fig. 5.

The state-of-art in surface geochemical exploration:

Amplified geochemical imaging

The state of art development in the fi eld of SGE is offered by many companies. One of them, Amplifi ed Geochemical Imaging, is currently under application in ONGC. This is an advanced surface geochemical prospecting tool capable of directly detecting and quantifying many organic compounds in the C2 (ethane) to C20 (phytane) range. When the results are integrated with other geological/ geophysical data, it l re-duces exploration risk.

This technology involves the use of a patented sorbent based passive sam-pler (Fig. 6). This hydrophobic adsor-bent of 5-6 mm diameter allows easy insertion in pre-drilled small diameter (~1cm) holes of 30 to 60cm depth. For soil gas sampling an insertion rod pushes the adsorbent into bottom of the hole. This adsorbent contains sorbent material selected for their af-fi nity to a large range of volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds. The sampler is then retrieved from the hole for further analysis.

Sampl ing p lan typically follows a grid pattern with regular or vari-able spacing of samplers. Loca-tions of samplers are marked on a map and location co-ordinates are secured with GPS receiver. The tar-get time for expo-sure in the ground is 17 days. This time is found opti-mum for most re-gions and climatic conditions.

All soil gas sam-ples are thermally deso rbed and analyzed by gas chromatographic

separation and mass selective detec-tion (TD/GC/MS). This yields chemical data from methane (C1) to phytane (C20). Data processing and modeling is carried out by Hierarchical Cluster Analysis, Principal Component Analy-sis, Canonical Variate Analysis, Dis-criminant Analysis and other methods. Contour maps of geochemical prob-ability are drawn. Survey results are then integrated with other geological and geophysical data to prioritize area for future exploration.

Conclusion

Energy is the most vital input for eco-nomic and social development of any society. India imports approximately 70% of its oil, mainly from the Middle East ant its dependence on imported oil is growing rapidly. The World Energy Outlook, published by the International Energy Agency (IEA), projects that India's dependence on oil imports will grow to 91.6% by the year 2020. Studies have indicated that a sustained 5 per cent rise in the oil price over a year would slash India's GDP growth rate by 0.25 per cent and raise the infl ation rate by 0.6 per cent. This grim situation requires immediate acquisi-tion and application of all state-of-art techniques and technologies in the fi eld of petroleum exploration. Surface

Fig. 5: C2+ (sum of ethane through butane) concentration contour map in the study area

Fig. 6: Module (a synthetic, patented sorbent) used for sampling

of hydrocarbon vapors emanating from deeply buried source

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Geochemical Exploration (SGE) is one of the available technologies which establishes the presence and distribu-tion of hydrocarbons in the area. For reconnaissance surveys, hydrocarbon seeps and microseeps provide direct evidence that thermogenic hydrocar-bons have been generated; thus they establish the presence of an active petroleum system and identify and prioritize the prospects.

Geomicrobial survey for hydrocarbon exploration is a surface prospecting technique based on specifi c utilization of seeped gases from sub surface pe-troleum deposits by specialized groups of specializes bacteria i.e. Propane and butane oxidizers. The technique on integration with geophysical and geological inputs provides additional exploratory leads for prioritization of prospects leading to risk reduction in exploration. The state of art develop-ment in the fi eld of SGE involves the use of a sorbent based passive sam-pler selected for their affi nity to a large range of volatile organic compounds and directly detecting and quantifying organic compounds in the C2 (ethane) to C20 (phytane) range.

Today Surface Geochemical Explora-tion (SGE) for hydrocarbon exploration is a mature technology and geochemi-cal surveys have been carried out in Western and Eastern offshore, Cam-bay, Cauvery and most of the frontier onshore basins of India.

References1. Abrams, M.A. and M.P. Segall,

2001, Best practices for detec-tion, identifi cation and character-ization of near-surface migration of hydrocarbons within marine sediments, OTC 13039, Pre-sented in Offshore Technology Conference, Houston, Texas, 2001

2. Abrams, M.A., 1992, Geophysical and geochemical evidence for subsurface hydrocarbon leakage in the Bering Sea, Alaska: Marine and Petroleum Geology, vol. 9, p. 208–221.

3. Abrams, M.A, 1996a, Distribu-tion of subsurface hydrocarbon seepage in near-surface marine sediments, in D. Schumacher and

M.A. Abrams, eds., AAPG Memoir 66, p. 1–14.

4. Abrams, M.A, 1996b, Interpreta-tion of methane carbon isotopes extracted from surfi cial marine sediments for detection of sub-surface hydrocarbons, AAPG Memoir 66, p. 309–318.

5. Baum, M., K. H. Bleschert, M. Wagner, and M. Schmitt, 1997, Application of surface prospect-ing methods in the Dutch North Sea: Petroleum Geoscience, v. 3, p. 171–181.

6. Beghtel, F. W., D. O. Hitzman, and K. R. Sundberg, 1987, Micro-bial oil survey technique (MOST): Evaluation of new wildcat wells in Kansas: The Association of Petro-leum Geochemical Explorationist Bulletin, v. 3, no. 1, p. 1–14.

7. Blau, L. W., 1942, Process for lo-cating valuable subterranean de-posits: U. S. Patent 2,269,889.

8. Bokova, E. N., V. A. Kusnetsova, and S. I. Kusnetsov, 1947, The oxidation of gaseous hydrocar-bons through bacteria as a basis of microbial indication of reser-voirs: Doklady, Akademia Nauk, S.S.S.R., 56, p. 755–757.

9. Brooks, J.M., M.C. Kennicutt, and B.D. Carey, 1986, Offshore surface geochemical exploration: Oil & Gas Journal, October 20, p. 66–72.

10. Davis, J. B., 1967, Petroleum Microbiology: Elsevier Publishing Company, p. 197–245.

11. Duchscherer, W., Jr., 1984, Geo-chemical Hydrocarbon Prospect-ing, with Case Histories: Tulsa, PennWell Publishing Co., 196 p.

12. Hitzman, D. C., J. D. Tucker, and P. D. Heppard, 1994, Offshore Trinidad survey identifies hy-drocarbon microseepage: 26th Annual Offshore Technology Conference, OTC 7378, Houston, Texas.

13. Jones, V.T., and R.J. Drozd, 1983, Predictions of oil or gas potential by near-surface geochemis-try: AAPG Bulletin, vol. 67, p. 932–952.

14. Klusman, R.W., 1993, Soil gas and related methods for natural resource exploration: New York, John Wiley & Sons, 483 pp.

15. Link, W.K., 1952, Significance

of oil and gas seeps in world oil exploration: AAPG Bulletin, vol. 36, p. 1505–1541.

16. Lopez, J.P., D.C. Hitzman, and J.D. Tucker, 1994, Combined microbial, seismic surveys predict oil and gas occurrences in Bolivia: Oil & Gas Journal, October 24, p. 68–70.

17. Laubmeyer, G., 1933, A new geophysical prospecting method, especially for deposits of hydro-carbons, Petroleum, Vol. 29, No. 18, pp. 1-4

18. Macgregor, D.S., 1993, Relation-ships between seepage, tecton-ics, and subsurface petroleum reserves: Marine and Petroleum Geology, vol. 10, p. 606–619.

19. Machel, H.G., 1996, Magnetic contrasts as a result of hydro-carbon seepage and migration, in D. Schumacher and M.A. Abrams, eds., AAPG Memoir 66, p. 99–109.

20. Maddox, J., 1956, Geomicrobio-logical prospecting: U. S. Patent 2,875,135.

21. Matthews, M.D., 1996, Migration a view from the top, in D. Schu-macher and M. A. Abrams, eds., AAPG Memoir-66, p. 139–155.

22. Mogilewskii, G. A., 1938, Mi-crobiological investigations in connecting with gas surveying: Razvedka Nedr, v. 8, p. 59–68.

23. Mogilewskii, G. A., 1940, The bacterial method of prospect-ing for oil and natural gases: Razvedka Nedr, v. 12, p. 32–43.

24. Piggott, N. and M.A. Abrams, 1996, Near-surface coring in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas, northern Alaska, in D. Schu-macher and M.A. Abrams, eds., AAPG Memoir 66, p. 385–399.

25. Potter, R.W. P.A. Harrington, A.H. Silliman, and J.H. Viellenave, 1996, Signifi cance of geochemi-cal anomalies in hydrocarbon exploration: one company’s ex-perience, in D. Schumacher and M. A. Abrams, eds., AAPG Memoir 66, p. 431–439.

26. Price, L. C., 1986, A critical overview and proposed working model of surface geochemical exploration, in M. J. Davidson, ed., Unconventional Methods in Exploration for Petroleum and

The biggest limitation is the thought, “I Can’t”32 32 JU NE 2008


Natural Gas IV: Dallas, Texas, Southern Methodist Univ. Press, p. 81–129.

27. Richers, D.M., and L.E. Maxwell, 1991, Application and theory of soil gas geochemistry in petro-leum exploration, in R.K. Merrill, ed., Source and Migration Pro-cesses and Techniques: AAPG Treatise of Petroleum Geology, Handbook of Petroleum Geology, p. 141–158

28. Richers, D. M., R. J. Reed, K. C. Horstman, G. D. Michels, R. N. Baker, L. Lundell, and R. W. Marrs, 1982, Landsat and soil-gas geochemical study of Patrick Draw oil fi eld, Sweetwater Coun-try, Wyoming: AAPG Bulletin, v. 66, p. 903–922.

29. Saunders, D. F., K. R. Buraon, and C. K. Thompson, 1999, Model for hydrocarbon microseepage and related near-surface alterations: AAPG Bulletin, v. 83, no. 1, p. 107–185.

26. Saunders, D.F., K.R. Burson, J.J. Brown, and C.K. Thompson, 1993, Combined geological and surface geochemical methods discovered Agaritta and Brady

Creek fi elds, AAPG Bull., Vol. 77, p. 1219–1240.

27. Schiemer, E.J., G. Stober, and E. Faber, 1995, Surface geochemi-cal exploration for hydrocarbons in offshore areas—principles, methods and results, in Petro-leum Geochemistry in Explora-tion of the Norwegian Shelf: London, Graham and Trotman, p. 223–238.

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32. Subbota, M. I., 1947a, A complex

study of the causes of seasonal variation of data in soil-gas sur-veys: Neftjanoe Khozjostwo, v. 25, p. 13–17.

33. Subbota, M. I., 1947b, Field problems in oil prospecting by the bacterial survey method: Razvedka Nedr, v. 13, p. 20–24.

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36. Thrasher, J.A., D. Strait, and R.A. Lugo, 1996, Surface geochemis-try as an exploration tool in the South Caribbean, in D. Schu-macher and M.A. Abrams, eds., AAPG Memoir 66, p. 373–384.

37. Updegraff, D.M. and H.H.Chase, 1954, Microbiological prospecting method: U. S. Patent 2,861,921.

38. Wagner, M., M. Wagner, H. J. Rasch, J. Piske, and M. Baum, 1 9 9 8 a , M P O G — M i c ro b i a l prospection for oil and gas: Field examples and their geologic background: Conference Cracow, Poland, AO-05, p. 118– 121.

Gas transmission and marketing ma-jor GAIL (India) Ltd has entered into a gas cooperation agreement with Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corpora-tion (Tidco)-to evaluate medium and long term demand of gas potential of the state. As per the agreement, a working committee will be set up soon to conduct a preliminary techno-economic feasibility study on this, said UD Choubey, chairman and managing director, GAIL (India) Ltd.

Addressing a press conference along with Tidco CMD S Ramasundaram here on Friday, the GAlL chief said the work-ing committee, comprising members of both the companies, will evaluate the short-medium-long term demand of gas in industrial, commercial, transport, residential sectors of the state, gas pipelines and other networks required

for gas marketing, sources for ensuring continued supply at competitive prices, optical fi bre cable network in potential gas pipelines. “We expect to come out with a comprehensive study in the next six months and accordingly go ahead with this project”, Choubey said.

While Tidco will provide all the neces-sary data/information, including studies pertaining to gas demand in the state, extend its cooperation on best effort basis to developers of gas pipeline infrastructure, associated facilities and optic fi bre cable networks and other back-up supports. Based on this, GAIL will determine the exact natural gas supply options to the state, he said.

According to him, the company has identifi ed gas sources in places such as Nagapattinam, Karaikkal, Puduchery,

GAIL inks gas co-op pact with TidcoInfrastructure Bueau, Chennai, June 6

Kuttalam, Bhuvanagiri among other ar-eas to put up gas pipline and the same will be extended to Chennai.

According to Ramasundaram, the corporation has entered into a non-exclusive basis agreement with GAIL. “We have options to source from Cau-very basin or from neighbouring KG basin sources or can even import and supply to the requirement. Our objec-tive is to go for optimal gas utilisation of the available gas resources”, he added. The move will immensely benefi t the state in a big way in bringing in new industries apart from cutting down the cost of manufacturing / production of the industries.

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Concept of converting coal into gas has existed for many years.

Underground Coal Gasifi cation (UCG) involves in-situ conversion of coal into combustible gas without physi-cally mining it. In the simplest terms, the process involves drilling a pair of wells (Injector and Producer) into a coal seam, establishing a link between these two wells and injecting gasifying agents like oxygen or air and steam through the Injector. After ignition and gasifi cation of coal, the product gas known as Syngas is brought to the surface through the Producer and used as fuel or chemical feedstock. Though the principle appears simple, practical conversion of coal into gas in-situ and ensuring a consistent and environmentally safe exploitation of coals especially deeper seams, is a challenging task. Overcoming these diffi culties provides a good opportunity for today’s highly developed drilling and engineering technologies. A number of disciplines like geology, mining, chem-istry, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, production, drilling etc. need to be applied for the exploitation of coal in this manner.

Coal gasifi cation is a two step process: Pyrolysis and Char gasifi cation. The fi rst step of Pyrolysis involves evolution of low molecular weight compounds. These compounds are mainly tars and non-condensable gases. The pyrolysis occurs at 300-500o C. Normally, pyroly-sis residue or char represents 55-70% of original coal. During char gasifi cation

the following main reactions may be considered:

C+CO2→2CO ΔH = +159.7 kJ mol-1 (1)

C+H2O→CO+H2 ΔH = +118.9 kJmol-1 (2)

C+O2→CO2

ΔH = -405.9 kJ Mol-1 (3)

CO+H20→CO2+H2

ΔH = -40.9 kJ mol-1 (4)

C+2H2→CH4 ΔH = -87.4 kJ mol-1 (5)

Reactions (1) and (2) are endothermic and can be considered the most impor-tant for gasifi cation process. Oxidation reaction (3) provides energy needed for the promotion of reactions (1) and (2). The shift reaction (4) occurs mainly at high steam concentrations, while reaction (5) is more important at high pressures. As gasifi cation proceeds, char loses mass. The burnout rate is used to determine the gasifi cation re-activity. Reaction rate is studied when char is reacting with CO2 or H2O at

Energy Beyond Oil - Underground Coal Gasifi cationR K SharmaInstitute of Reservoir Studies, Chandkheda, Ahmedabad, India

Sri R K Sharma, Genera l Manage r, Head UCG, ONGC, IRS, Ahmedabad • Took his M.Tech. in Applied Geophysics

in fi rst class fi rst from erstwhile University of Roorkee, Roorkee in 1976.

• Joined ONGC as Petroleum Reser-voir Engineer in 1977.

• Has received extensive training in Petroleum Reservoir Engineering subjects like Reservoir Simulation and Petroleum Data Management.

• Involved for over one and half de-cade in the fi eld of Development of Oil and Gas fi elds and Reservoir Management.

• Handled a state- of- art Petroleum

Data Management project in West-ern and Eastern sectors of ONGC operational areas.

• Involved in implementing a knowl-edge management project in the entire Eastern sector of ONGC.

• Involved in the UCG Project since the year 2005 with base at Institute of Reservoir Studies, ONGC, IRS, Ahmedabad.

• Has been on a number of task forces both technical and related to organizational matters.

• Has participated in a number of Na-tional and International conferences on the subjects related to Hydro carbon and Coal Gasifi cation.

• 25 internal publications and 15 publications in National and Inter-national journals.

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temperatures between 800 and 1200o

C. Typically Syngas consists of CO, H2 and CH4 in addition to non-combustible gases like N2, CO2. The calorifi c value of gas ranges from 800-1000 Kcal/m3 when air is used as an injectant. The calorific value can be enhanced by replacing air injection with oxygen.

Historical Perspective

Sir William Siemens, in the year 1868, was perhaps the fi rst to suggest under-ground gasifi cation of waste coal in the mine. The fi rst experimental work can be traced to 1912 when William Ram-sey began work on UCG in Durham but was not able to complete it till the onset of fi rst world war. All the efforts in

Underground Gasifi cation in Western Europe were discontinued till the end of Second World War. On the other hand, intensive work on coal gasifi cation be-gan in the then USSR in 1930s in coal seams at shallower depths. This led to industrial scale UCG in several parts of USSR particularly in Russia and Uzbeki-stan. One project in Uzbekistan is still operational. These trials established the basic technology of underground gas-ifi cation. Shortage of energy between 1944 -1959 induced a renewed interest in in-situ coal gasifi cation in Western European coal mining countries. The first attempts were directed at thin seams at shallower depths. Borehole method was tested in Britain in Newman Spinney and Bayton (1949-50) and a few years later attempt was made for a commercial pilot in P5 trial in Newman Spinney (1958-59). During 1960s, low cost fuel was available in plenty and therefore, there was lull on progress of UCG in Europe. However, after the fi rst

oil crisis, USA again embarked on the development of UCG in 1972, involving in the process a number of institutes. More than 30 trials were conducted till early 1990s. This led to considerable technological development.

French attempted to gasify the coals at deeper depths which were convention-ally un-mineable and their objective was to bring to surface, the medium caloric value gas through injection of oxygen and steam and convert the gas into high caloric value methane at the surface. Two main tests carried out in Bruay-en-Artois (1978-1981) and Haute Deule (1982-85) provided some valuable insights into adequate well fi ttings to withstand pressure variations, possibility to link by hydrofracturing, easy ignition of coal with an electric heater, possibil-ity to prevent spontaneous combustion with the injection of low oxygen content. In a related development, in Loire fi eld, electrolinking was tried. The results were successful and the same was confi rmed by open casting the coal seam and back checking the results.

Attempts were made to link wells by Reverse Combustion in a Belgo-Ger-man trial at Thulin. The attempt was un-successful because of high overburden lithostatic pressure. Reverse combus-tion attempts were stopped. However, a collaborative project in 1985 attempted connecting existing wells at Thulin through lateral drilling. The two wells were linked through lateral drilling and side tracking. A small gasifi er circuit was established and about 340 tons of coal were gasifi ed at a depth of 860 meters for about six months. The gas-ifi er pressure was maintained at about 20-30 bar. The greatest benefi t of this

trial was that it established that deeper coals could be gasifi ed through devia-tion and horizontal in-seam coal drilling for linking wells. Another innovation was insertion of “fl exible casing” into the deviated and horizontal section of the well. Technical risks included inaccurate azimuth, insertion of fl ex-ible casing, low permeability of coal at deeper depths, corrosion and high temperature. Economic risks included high cost of deep boreholes, uncer-tainty about consistent heating value of produced gas, effi ciency of gasifi cation and percentage of unburned coal.

The results of this experiment encour-aged further research and this resulted in the formation of European Working Group on Underground Coal Gasifi -cation for formulating a proposal for further research. The Group submitted a proposal for a large scale experiment involving the Belgian team of Thulin experiment, Spain and UK. The aim of this project was to test the technology on coals which are thinner and deeper and typical of Europe. Initially, it was proposed to test the technology at about 500m and later at 1000m and beyond. Deviation and in seam drilling was used to establish link between injector and producer and different methods for Gasifi er control and devel-opment were to be tested. The project was proposed in “Al Tremidal” in the province of Tereul, NE Spain. The site was chosen on the grounds of geo-logical suitability. Extensive borehole data was also available for this site. The trial was successful and it proved the viability of directional drilling and benefi ts of CRIP (Controlled Retract-able and Injection Point). About 90 m of channel was created and estimates concluded requirements of about 300 tons of coal for conversion into power of 8MW. The quality of gas was very high in this case. The programme also included a post burn activity material analysis, environmental impact moni-toring, cavity sampling etc. The pilot duration was short but lessons were learnt on the detailed engineering, drill-ing and plant design.

Developments in the millennium

UK has large coal reserves and includ-ing that of offshore, is probably the larg-

Violence at home can lead to blood in the streets JU NE 2008 3535


est in Western Europe. It is estimated that only 1-2% has been mined since Industrial Revolution. Most of the coal in UK is bituminous and exists right from the outcrop to a depth of 2000m. Exploitation of this resource at deeper depths is not possible through conven-tional mining. As per an estimate, 17 billion tones of un-mineable coal are suitable for UCG. Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), U.K., identifi ed UCG as a potential source of future energy. The DTI Report (2004) highlights that coal will continue to play a prominent part in future as a source of energy. UCG could provide a combination of high generating effi ciency and poten-tially satisfactory method for clean coal technology. The report also mentions that evidence to date suggests that UCG compares well with, for example Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) and supercritical thermal plant. The report concludes that if plan-ning and environmental issues can be dealt with, UCG, in conjunction with carbon capture and storage, increases diversity of supply and hence contrib-ute to security within the context of a low carbon economy.

UK and China have collaborated for UCG. The principal partners in this proj-ect are Wardell Armstrong, Cranefi eld University, Alstom Power, University of Nottingham, China University of Min-ing and Technology and many other organizations. China has adopted two approaches for the exploitation of coal. One is Undersurface Gasifi cation (UG) method and the other is Long Tunnel, large section, two stage method. Un-dersurface Gasifi cation is an extension of underground mining in which gasifi er replaces working faces and are con-trolled from underground independently for optimal performance. The access is made all the time from underground. In the other method, a long tunnel is constructed using mining methods and connections to the surface are made using production and injection wells drilled. The system is monitored and operated from the surface. The two stage method involves injecting air fi rst so that a high temperature is attained. Then the steam is injected resulting in the process of gasifi cation. The method has been shown to produce gas with heating values of 12-14 MJ/m3 and a

hydrogen content of 50%. The method has been found to be diffi cult to con-trol. China as per the latest reports has embarked on a programme of testing UCG at deeper depths.

Chinchila IGCC Project, Australia, has been under development since 1999. This is the largest UCG trial so far and resulted in the gasifi cation of 35,000 tons of coal and claimed 95% recovery of targeted coal resource. Consistency and high quality of syngas has also been claimed and availability of gas has been ensured for 28 months at a time. The project has reported no contamination of aquifer and has had a special shut-down programme. Several companies are preparing for operating industrial UCG sites in the state of Queensland (Australia) and with two centers of UCG research located in Brisbane (at The University of Queensland and CSIRO Division of Exploration and Mining). During the last decade, the Queensland capital became one of the world's lead-ing centers in UCG development. The large coal reserves of Queensland are suitable to UCG and there is evidence of low gas production costs. UCG-IGCC produces lower green house gas emis-sions. In terms of technical operation and cost, Chinchila UCG test is perhaps the most successful ever conducted in the western world. The company has now embarked on a UCG project called “Kingaroy UCG Project” spread over about 15 sq. km with 12 m thick coal seams at depths below 160m.

Eskom Holdings Ltd. has commis-sioned 6-MW underground coal gas-ification pilot plant based on Ergo Exergy’s technology at Majuba coalfi eld in Mumalanga, South Africa. The fi rst fl aring of gas from UCG pilot plant oc-curred in January 2007 as a result of systematic work for four years. There are now plans to set up a 2100MW power plant using Syngas as fuel. Besides power generation (IGCC), syn-thesis of liquid fuels, synthetic natural gas, ammonia and Dimethyl Ether is also possible using Syngas.

It is estimated that Powder River Basin has 307 Billion tons of coal amenable to UCG where the seams are >500 ft deep and > 30 ft thick. UCG project of Gas Tech in Wyoming's Powder River

Basin (PRB) has coal leases covering 125 Sections containing 13 billion tons of coal at depths from 500 feet to 2,400 feet. Each section could support 200 MWe UCG power plant for about 68 years. Well spacing of 200 ft is pro-posed here and the resource recovered could be 65% of coal- in place. Raw syngas production was expected to cost US$ 1.62 /MMBtu including 15% ROI on UCG investment. These leases are spread across the basin, giving GasTech the perfect "natural labora-tory" for demonstrating and commer-cializing UCG, where any combination of coal depth, seam thickness, hydro-static head, surface infrastructure, etc., can be selected. GasTech reported last fall that it had essentially completed its analysis of the entire PRB and its 80,000-acre leasehold is in the choic-est spots, where the coal is thick and around 1,000 feet deep. GasTech is in advanced discussions with potential partners.

Laurus Energy’s UCG project in Canada is developing a base load UCG-IGCC power plant in Alberta with further expansion in syngas production to sup-ply fuel for Alberta oil sands projects. Laurus energy is shortly completing site selection and pre-feasibility stage of project development.

BP and Ergo Exergy Technologies Inc. signed a technical alliance agreement to work cooperatively on UCG tech-nology.

Environmental Issues

UCG process, as a method for exploita-tion of coal/lignite is an environmental improvement over the combination of conventional mining and surface combustion of coal. As the process is carried out underground, there are lower particulate emissions, lower water requirement, no waste (like ash) generation, no venting of green house gases as in mining etc. In short, the detrimental impacts of UCG process are perceived to be fairly low as the main product of the process is gas and by products are either left in the ground or they can be removed by conventional processes. Therefore, the environmen-tal impacts of mining and ash disposal are avoided.

Being co-operative does not mean becoming a slave36 36 JU NE 2008


However, there are environmental is-sues that arise and can be summarized as surface and subsurface impacts. Along with Syngas, pollutants like phe-nols, tars, aromatic hydrocarbons are co-produced, which could contaminate ground or surface waters. Gaseous pol-lutants may include hydrogen sulphide, ammonia, oxides of nitrogen etc. Some of these gases could be converted into valuable products. As the coal/lignite is consumed, a void is created in the subsurface. This could lead to strata relaxation and some subsidence of the overburden.

The environmental impacts of UCG can be minimized by choosing an appropri-ate site suitable to UCG. For example, for preventing contamination of ground/surface waters those sites are avoided where major good quality aquifers ex-ist. Tectonically stable sites are favor-able. Sites, where more than a specifi c overburden ratio exists, are considered to be suitable. Infact, a complete suite of data consisting of geological, hydro geological, geo-mechanical data of coal seams and the overburden etc. is evaluated for arriving at the suitability of a site to UCG.

More than 30 UCG trials have been conducted in USA and only two trials showed environmental problems of aquifer contamination. The main objec-tive of these two trials was to evaluate different permeability enhancement techniques that could be used to link

the injection wells with the production wells. In one case explosive fracturing was used and in another case reverse combustion technique was tried. Wa-ter influx occurred in the latter and therefore, gasifi cation pressure had to be increased resulting in gas loss and collapse of burn zone. It is perhaps noteworthy to mention here that the recent protocols developed for site evaluation, would have classed this site as having high environmental risk.

The possibility of carbon capture and storage (CCS) during the process of UCG has been highlighted by Law-rence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), USA. Close proximity of CO2 storage found near coal seams chosen for UCG, make an attractive carbon management package. The Labora-tory's current CO2 capture program combines ASPEN analysis of surface processes with advanced membranes and novel engineering concepts for downhole separation. The CO2 stor-age program focuses on advanced simulation, monitoring and verifi cation technology and risk assessment and quantifi cation. A number of companies worldwide are seeking assistance from LLNL, USA for environmental issues of UCG as the laboratory has developed a large suite of tools for environmental assessment. LLNL has developed expertise in carbon management and CO2 sequestration. However, CO2 storage in the cavity is not commer-cially ready yet. It was pointed out that

it is possible to reduce risk of UCG to acceptable levels through assessment tools for Site selection and screening, operations and facilities planning based on site specifi c risk indexing and set-ting operation guidelines based on site parameters. We should also identify operating ranges that limit production of contaminants and prevent migration of contaminants out of cavity during and post UCG. One should also include evaluation of mitigation and remedia-tion options and economics appropri-ate to UCG sites.

Strides made in India

ONGC embarked on Underground Coal Gasifi cation in 1980s. The core team at that time recommended that UCG is the only technology available for exploitation of coal at deeper depth in India. One well (UCG-1) was drilled to a depth of 1005 m to acquire data. All ex-ploratory studies such as complete set of logs, VSP, dipmeter, geohydrology, production, testing etc. were carried out in this well. The coal samples were also collected from UCG-3 and detailed studies were carried out. The contracts with Indian and foreign agencies, could not be fi nalized due to various reasons and the project was shelved.

Horizontal drilling, in-situ combustion etc. were some of the developments which could be extended to UCG technology. Coupled with the fact that oil and gas prices were rapidly increasing, ONGC embarked again on UCG by signing an Agreement of Col-laboration with Skochinsky Institute of Miming-National Mining Research Centre, Moscow in November 2004. The institute was established in 1927 and has a long experience in the fi eld of UCG. The fi rst phase of work involved identifi cation of a suitable site for the UCG project. MOUs were signed with a number of major coal companies in In-dia for their involvement in the Project. Initially eleven sites belonging to the partnering coal companies were taken up for evaluation of suitability to UCG. Various types of data like Geological, geo-hydrological, geo-mechanical data including properties of coal and over-burden etc. was generated and used for selecting a suitable site for UCG. Out of these sites, one site in south of

In the long run the most diffi cult thing is to search for an easy way out JU NE 2008 3737


Gujarat was selected as suitable for the process. The site has been chosen because of minimum possible impact on the environment apart from that the fact that site has suffi cient coal / lignite reserves. Premier agencies of India viz. National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Indian School of Mines and Central Institute of Mining of Fuel Research have been involved for environmental monitoring issues. UCG pilot to be carried out at the site shall involve drilling of a few wells, some of which shall have to be drilled horizontally at shallow depths. The task is quite challenging. Syngas process-ing is different from the conventional natural gas since the hot gas comes to surface and needs to be processed accordingly. Seismic survey for map-ping of lignites was carried out for the fi rst time on trial basis and the results were quite encouraging. The survey has now been carried out in entire area. Ad-ditional sites needed to be evaluated for UCG and for this process, knowledge gained from previous screening was applied more thoroughly and it is quite likely that additional sites shall become available for UCG.

Per capita consumption of energy in India is one of the lowest in the world. India consumed 520 Kg of oil equivalent (kgoe) per person of primary energy in 2003 as compared to the world aver-age of 1688 kgoe. Per capita electricity consumption in India is 435 KWH and world average is 2429 KWH. Presently electricity shortage varies from state to state, from 0 to 25.4% with an all India average of 11.7%. Similarly the present energy shortage varies from 0 - 20.1% with an all India average of 7.3%. The total oil reserves of India are stagnat-ing in the range of 739 MMt. India is importing 72.2% of its consumption, and our import dependence is grow-ing rapidly.

Coal shall remain India’s primary energy source till 2031-2032. Coal accounts for over 50% of India’s commercial energy consumption and 78 % of do-mestic coal production is dedicated to power generation. With current growth rate of 5% in domestic production, cur-rent extractable coal reserves will be

exhausted in about 40 years. Extract-able coal reserves can be increased by underground coal gasifi cation which permits using coal deposits at greater depths which are not easily extractable by conventional methods. Only 5% of world coal resources are economically extractable as reserves and most re-sources are simply too deep. UCG has the potential to convert coal resources to coal reserves.

India faces formidable challenges in meeting its energy needs and providing adequate energy of desired quantity in various forms, in a sustainable manner and at reasonable cost. GDP of India is growing at 8 to 10% and is likely to maintain the rate in future as well. To deliver a sustained growth of about 8% upto 2031, India would need to grow its primary energy supply by 3-4 times and electricity supply by 5-7 times of today’s consumption. Power genera-tion capacity would have to increase from 1,31,424 MW to 7, 78,095 MW by 2031-2032 and the annual coal requirement would increase to 2040 MT. Assured supply of such energy at all times considering the shocks and distribution is essential to providing energy security. Meeting such energy needs would require that India pursues all available fuel options and forms of energy, both conventional and non conventional as well as new emerging technologies and energy sources. It is here that UCG can play an important role in view of the fact that out of 255.15 BT of coal, only 93 BT are mineable and out of 38.76 BT lignite, only 2.0 BT are mineable. The potential for UCG in India is thus immense.

Conclusions

Worldwide, UCG is being pursued with renewed vigour and a number of countries have embarked on Syngas production. India is an energy defi-cient country with a rapidly growing economy. The growth can be sustained by exploiting other forms of energy in view of limited oil and gas reserves. India has large un-mineable coal and lignite and thus has potential for UCG in a big way. ONGC in cooperation with Indian coal companies has made

a fresh beginning and has reached pilot stage for UCG.

References1. Best Practices in UCG – Draft

Report by Elizabeth Burton, Julio Friedmann and Ravi Upadhye”, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 2006.

2. Germany, 23-24Sept 1998. Rug-by, UK, Institution of Chemical Engineers, pp 1-15 (1998).

3. Covell, J.R. and Thomas M.H., 1996 Combined air sparging and bioremediation of an Underground Coal Gasifi cation site. EG &G re-port DEAC21-95MC31346.

4. Creedy D and Tilly H (2002) Under-ground Coal Gasifi cation. World Coal:11(1);40-42(Jan.2002)

5. Creedy, D.P. and K.Garner, 2004. Clean energy from Underground Coal Gasifi cation in China, DTI Cleaner Coal Technology Transfer Programme,

6. Draft Report of the Expert Com-mittee on Integrated Energy Policy, Planning Commission, GOI, New Delhi, Dec’2005.

7. DTI Report (September 2004) Review of the Feasibility of Un-derground Coal Gasifi cation in the UK.

8. Green MB (1999) Underground Coal Gasification-a joint Euro-pean trial in Spain. Report no. COAL R 169. Harwell, UK, ETSU Energy Technology Support Unit, 50 pp(Aug. 1999).

9. Sapru, R. K., Sharma, R.K., Kuz-netsov, A. A. and Kapralov, A.V., Petrotech, (2007), New Delhi, India.

10. Schilling, H., Bonn, B. and Krauss, U., Coal Gasification: Existing Process and New Developments. Graham and Trotman, London, 1981.

11. Summerfield I (2000) Environ-mental studies. In: New oppor-tunities for deep cola resources in the UK.CD-ROM. Mansfi eld, Nott inghamshire, UK, Coal Authority,11pp (January 2000)

12. Vamuka D (1999) Underground Coal Gasification. Energy Ex-plorat ion and Exploi tat ion: 17(6);515-581.

This is a mad world, but it is good sense to be madly in love with GOD38 38 JU NE 2008


The crude oil prices are surging unabated. The global crude oil

reserves are fi nite and hence, the only prudent energy policy could be one of diversity and fl exibility. Therefore, in the recent years, a new round of en-thusiasm on alternate energy sources has been initiated to ameliorate the economic dependency of various countries on crude oil as well as the resulting effect on global climate and environment.

The alternate energy sources will play a growing role and biofuels, mainly ethanol, are expected to grow fairly rap-idly, reaching about 2% of total liquid supplies by 2030. The major drivers for ethanol fuel has been the:

Cause of energy security ■

Slower potential for global warm- ■ing andConverting waste to energy ■

There are three main types of feed-stocks used for ethanol production:

Sugars ■ (like molasses, cane sugar, beet, sweet sorghum and fruits)Starches (like corn, wheat, rice, ■potatoes, cassava, sweet potatoes etc.) andLignocelluloses (like rice straw, ba- ■gasse, other agricultural residues, wood, and energy crops).

The most common sugar used for bio-ethanol production is sucrose, which is composed of glucose and fructose. Fermentation of sucrose is performed using commercial yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. After the enzymatic hydrolysis (invertase enzyme present in the yeast)

step of sucrose glucose or fructose is fer-mented into ethanol and CO2 by zymase enzyme also present in the yeast.

Sucrose comes mainly from sugar-cane and sugar beet. It may be sweet

Ethanol from Lignocellulosic Biomass: Prospects and ChallengesM P Singh, D K Tuli, R K Malhotra and Anand KumarIndian Oil Corporation Ltd., Research & Development Center, Sector-13, Faridabad 121 007, India

Advantages of lignocellulose for ethanol production:To a larger extent, locally/domestically and provide security of supply. ■Generate low net greenhouse gas emission, reducing environmental ■impacts, particularly climate change.Also provide employment in rural areas. ■Greater avoidance of confl icts with land use for food and feed produc- ■tion.A much greater displacement of fossil energy per litre of fuel, due to ■nearly completely biomass-powered system.Much lower net well-to-wheels greenhouse gas emissions than with ■grain-to-ethanol processes powered primarily by fossil energy.

Dr D K Tuli, hold Ph.D. in Synthet ic Chemistry with over two decades of rich and varied experience in research and devel-

opment in the hydrocarbon industry with a special interest in synthetics and biotics. Dr. Tuli has to his credit, 12 U.S.patents, two European patents and over 20 Indian patents. He has published over 50 research papers in professional journals.He has guided students from various Indian Univer-

sities for their Ph.D. thesis. Dr. Tuli was also a SERC post-doctoral fellow at the University of Liverpool, Robort Robinson Laboratories, England during 1979-81 and 1987-89 and carried out advance research in the areas of new synthetic and analytical methods.

Since July 2003, Dr. Tuli is the Chief Executive Offi cer of IndianOil Technol-ogies Limited, a subsidiary of Indian Oil Corporation. He is responsible for marketing of technologies & technical services of IOC(R&D).

Anand Kumar, is a Chemical En-gineer and after a brief stint of teach-ing, joined India Oil in 1974. He has

undergone specialized training in Petroleum Refining Engineering from IIP and Refi nery Planning and Economics from Oxford Petroleum School, besides having attended management development pro-

grammes at MDI and IIM-A and business school in Europe and USA.

He has a rich experience of 30 years, in various areas of oil refi ning viz Process En-gineering, Projects, Supply Chain Manage-ment and Human Potential Management and has served at all major refi neries of Indian Oil including Port Harcourt Refi nery of NNPC, Nigeria, where he left behind a distinct mark in commissioning and op-erating the refi nery and setting up related

system training and improving of Re-fi nery profi tability. An Environmentalist to the core, he developed one of the country’s best ECO-PARK at Barauni, which became an important bird spot and he is also credited with the fi rst experimentation of biodegradation of menacing oily sludge process. Cur-rently he is Director (R&D), IndianOil Corporation Ltd. He is an active mem-ber of many forums, associations and professional bodies.

Things not understood are best admired JU NE 2008 3939


sorghum also. Worldwide bioethanol fuel (>60%) comes from sugarcane juice. Being advantaged for sugarcane production Brazil exhibits the lowest production costs of bio-ethanol fuel. Starch from corn, wheat, rice, pota-toes, cassava, sweet potatoes etc is converted to ethanol by a hydrolysis of starch (α-glucose polymer) with glu-coamylose enzyme into glucose units and then fermentation process.

Food verses Fuel

On the earth there is limited arable land and grain reserves have been limiting. There is typically a 30 day supply of wheat in storage at any given time. When supply is 33 days, it is considered a glut and prices drop; at 27 days the prices skyrocket (Gressel, 2008). The aggressive diversion of grains (mainly sugarcane, maize, wheat, rice and oil seeds etc.,) for biofuel has had a domino effect, leading to doubling of food prices. Hence, a dramatic increase in ethanol production using the cur-rent grain based technology may not be practical because crop production for ethanol will compete for the limited agricultural land needed for food and feed production. Thus to overcome the bioethical issue of burning grain for fuel to run automobiles at cost of undernourished people, a potential source for ethanol production is to utilize lignocellulosic materials such

as crop residues, grasses, sawdust, wood chips, solid animal waste and industrial wastes.

Lignocellulosic Biomass

Ameliorating the food verses fuel conflict

Lignocellulosic biomass typically re-fers to organic material such as wood chips, corn stalks, switch grass, straw, animal waste and food-processing by-products etc., is the most abundant renewable biological resource on earth. It contributes to around 12% of today’s world primary energy supply, while in many countries its contribution ranges from 40% to 50% (Demirbas, 2006). Biomass comes in many different types, which may be grouped into four main categories:

Energy crops: The energy crops ■group includes herbaceous energy crops, woody energy crops, indus-trial crops, agricultural crops and aquatic crops. Agricultural residues and waste: ■Agricultural waste mainly includes crop waste remained after harvest-ing and processing of crop and animal waste.Forestry waste and residues: In this ■group mill wood waste, logging residues, trees and shrub residues are the major wastes. Industrial and municipal waste: Mu- ■nicipal solid waste (MSW), sewage sludge and industry wastes.

India’s Biomass Potential

In India, agricultural, urban and indus-trial residue is present in huge amount and increasing day by day, which could be utilized for ethanol production and improve upon disposal problem of wastes and to make clean environ-ment (Pachauri and Sridharan, 1998; Ravindranath et al., 2005).

Straw, a low-density residue, is the dominant residue. Rice husk, a byprod-uct of rice milling, accounts for 20% of paddy. Unlike the cereals, crops such as red gram, cotton, rapeseed, mustard, mulberry and plantation crops produce woody (ligneous) residues. In-dustrial wheat bran usually accounts for 14–19% of the grain and comprises the outer coverings, the aleurone layer and the remnants of the starchy endosperm and has the potential to serve as low cost feedstock to increase the produc-tion of fuel ethanol (Palmarola-Adrados et al., 2005). The dominant residues are those of rice, wheat, sugarcane and

Agricultural residue Cellulose (%) Hemicellulose (%) Lignin (%)Hardwood stem 40–50 24–40 18–25Softwood stem 45–50 25–35 25–35Nut shells 25–30 25–30 30–40Corn cobs 45 35 15Grasses 25–40 35–50 10–30Wheat straw 33–40 20–25 15–20Rice straw 40 18 5.5Leaves 15–20 80–85 0Sorted refuse 60 20 20Cotton seed hairs 80–90 5–20 0Coastal Bermuda grass 25 35.7 6.4Switch grass 30–50 10–40 5–20Solid cattle manure 1.6–4.7 1.4–3.3 2.7–5.7Swine waste 6.0 28Primary wastewater solids 8–15 NA 24–29Paper 85–99 0 0–15Newspaper 40–55 25–40 18–30Waste papers from chemical pulps 60–70 10–20 5–10

Table-1: Composition of common agricultural residues and wastes

Source: Boopathy (1998), Cheung and Anderson (1997), Dewes and Hunsche (1998), Kaur et al.

(1998), McKendry (2002) and Reshamwala et al. (1995).

Figure-1: Cellulose Structure

H

CH2OH

OH

O

H

HHOH

O

H

H

CH2OH

OH

O

H

HHOH

O

H

H

CH2OH

OH

O

H

HHOH

O

H

H

CH2OH

OH

O

H

HHOH

O

H

H

CH2OH

OH

O

H

HHOH

O

H

H

CH2OH

OH

O

H

HOH

H

OH

O

OHHO OH

H

H

HH

CH2OH

glucose

Laughter is a tranquilizer with no side effect – Arnold Glasow40 40 JU NE 2008


cotton accounting for 66% of the total residue production. Sugarcane and cotton residue production is 110 and 50 Mt, respectively. Crop residues, which are used as fodder, may not be avail-able as feedstock for energy. The total

potential of non-fodder crop residues available for energy is estimated to be 450 MMT for 2010. Only the woody (ligneous) crop residues, rice husk and bagasse are considered for energy pro-duction (Ravindranath et al., 2005).

Ethanol from lignocellulosic biomass

Composition of lignocellulosic biomass

Lignocellulosic biomass is composed of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin and a remaining smaller part (extrac-tives, acids, salts and minerals).. The carbohydrate polymers (cellulose and hemicelluloses) are tightly bound to the lignin, by hydrogen and covalent bonds. Typically, biomass contains 40% to 60% cellulose, 20% to 40% hemicellulose, and 10% to 25% lignin. The contents of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin in common agricultural residues and wastes are presented in Table-1.

Cellulose is a very large polymer mol-ecule composed of many hundreds or thousands of glucose molecules (poly-saccharide). The molecular linkages in cellulose form linear chains that are rigid, highly stable, and resistant to chemical attack. Hemicellulose consists of short, highly branched, chains of sugars. It contains fi ve-carbon sugars (usually D-xylose and L-arabinose) and six carbon sugars (D-galactose, D-glucose and D-mannose) and uronic acid.

Hemicellulose is amorphous and relatively easy to hydrolyze to its con-stituent sugars. When hydrolyzed, the hemicellulose from hardwoods releases products high in xylose (a fi ve-carbon sugar). The hemicellulose contained in softwoods, by contrast, yields more six-carbon sugars. There is more expe-rience for fermenting six-carbon sugars than the fi ve-carbon sugars, but both are valuable fermentation feedstocks, especially with recent advances in fer-menting fi ve-carbon sugars.

Lignin is a large, cross-linked, mac-romolecule having molecular masses in excess of 10,000u. It is relatively hydrophobic and aromatic in nature. Different types of lignin have been described depending on the means of isolation. Lignin is a polymer con-structed of non-carbohydrate, alcohol units that are not fermented, but must be separated from the cellulose and hemicellulose by chemical and other means. Lignocellulose materials vary in their proportions of cellulose, hemicel-lulose, and lignin.

CH2OHCH2OH

CH2OH

HH HH

HH

H

HH

H

H

H

H

HH H

GalactoseMannofuranoseArabinofuranoseXylose

OH

OH

OHOH

HO

HOHO

OOO

O

HOHOH

OH

OH

OH

O

O

O

O

O O

O

O

O

O

O

O

OH

OH

OH

HO

COOHCOCH3

OCH3

OH

OH

OHOH

OH

OH H

H

H

R

R

R

Figure-2: Structure of hemicellulose

C C

R1= H R2= H

OHR1

R2

Cα

GH

S

R2= OCH3

R2= OCH3

R1= HR1= OCH3

C

65

4

3 21α β γ

Figure-3: Lignin monomeric structure

Figure- 4: A schematic view lignocellulosic biomass and pretreatment (Hsu et. al., 1980)

Greater the self-discipline, less is theimpose discipline — Jawaharlal Nehru JU NE 2008 4141


The combination of hemicellulose and lignin provides a protective sheath around the cellulose, which must be modifi ed or removed before effi cient hydrolysis of cellulose can occur, and the crystalline structure of cellulose makes it highly insoluble and resistant to attack. Lignin is the most refractory component of biomass and poses dif-fi culties in pre-treatment of biomass conversion processes.

Conversion Technologies: Status

Several schemes for conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to sugars and then ethanol have been demonstrated in laboratory and pilot scale (Hahn- Hagerdal et al 2006). But regardless of which one is chosen, following issues

are important for comparison with conventional and established sugar or starch based processes:

Effi cient depolymerisation of cel- ■lulose and hemicelluloseEffi cient fermentation of hexose and ■pentose sugarsProcess integration for reduced ■energy demandCost effi cient use of lignin. ■

All the conversion schemes involve following basic steps:

Feedstock harvest, trans port and ■storage.Pretreatment of lignocellulosic ■biomass.Enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose ■in the lignocellulosic materials to fermentable reducing sugars.

Fermentation of sugars into etha- ■nol. Downstream processing of etha- ■nol.

Pre-treatment

Most of the conversion schemes rely on combination of chemical and enzymatic treatments. The basic purpose of pre-treatment is to reduce recalcitrance by depolymerizing and solubilizing the hemicellulose, which can be further hydrolysed or fermented. Table –2 sum-marizes the advantages and limitations of selected pre-treatment processes.

The most commonly used methods are steam explosion and dilute acid pre-hydrolysis, which are followed by

enzymatic hydrolysis.

After pre-treatment, solid suspen-sion is subjected to hydrolysis to re-lease glucose sugars from crystalline cellulose. The reaction is catalysed by dilute acid, concentrated acid, or enzymes (cellulase). Hydrolysis with-

Pre-treatment process Main Principle Advantages LimitationsSteam Explosion Partial hydrolysis and

solubilization of hemicellulose, redistribution of lignin on fiber surfaces

• Provision for Chemical recycling,

• Less waste generation • Low energy inputs.• Effective for hardwood.

• Production of large number of inhibitors.

• Lignin and carbohydrate matrix is not completely broken down, generation of degradation products.

• High cost involved and produced low-value lignin

Ammonia fiber explosion (AFEX) Cleavage of lignin and partial depolymerisation of cellulose and hemicellulose

• Improves saccharification of various herbaceous crops, grasses and other wastes.

• Less inhibitors • Less waste generation

• Not very effective for biomass with high lignin content

• No/less scope for Chemical recycling,

• High cost involved

Dilute acid Partial hydrolysis and solubilization of hemicellulose, redistribution of lignin on fiber surfaces

• Fermentable sugars produced very high

• Production of large number of inhibitors

• pH neutralization is necessary.• No/less scope for Chemical

recycling• Waste generation• High cost involved

Wet Oxidation Removal and partial degradation of lignin, solubilisation and oxidation of some hemicelluloses

• Scope for Chemical recycling • Less Inhibitors

• Fermentable sugars produced is less

• Moderate cost involved

Organosolvents Removal of lignin and some hemicelluloses

• Fermentable sugars produced very high

• Less inhibitors • Less Waste generated• Produce lignin of high quality.

• No/less scope for Chemical recycling,

• High cost involved• Enzyme loading & recoveries of

solvent and hemicellulose remain issue

Table-2: Characteristics of selected pretreatment processes

Consumable Temperature

(oC)Time

Glucose yield

Available

Dilute acid < 1% H2SO4 215 3 min 50-70% YesConcentrated acid 70-30% H2SO4 40 2-6 h 90% Yes Enzymatic Cellulase 70 1.5 days 75% - 95% Now - 2010

Table-3: Comparison of process conditions and performances of three cellulose hydrolysis

processes

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out proceeding pre-treatment yields typically <20%, whereas yields after pre-treatment often exceed 90%.

The typical process conditions and performance of these hydrolysis ap-proaches are summarized in Table -3. The dilute acid process has a low sugar yield (50–70% of the theoretical maximum). The enzymatic hydrolysis has currently high yields (75–85%) and improvements are still projected (85–95%).

Acid hydrolysis is only applied in the two-stage acid processes, following acid pre-treatment. Both dilute and concentrated versions occur. The dilute acid process is the oldest tech-nology for converting cellulose bio-mass to ethanol. If the reaction would continue, the sugars produced would convert into other chemicals typically furfural. The sugar degradation not only reduces the sugar yield, but the furfural and other by-products can also inhibit the fermentation process. Therefore, the fi rst stage is conducted under mild process conditions (e.g., 0.7% sulphuric acid, 190 oC) to re-cover the 5- carbon sugars, while in the second stage only the remaining solids with the more resistant cellulose undergo harsher conditions (215 oC, but a milder 0.4% acid) to recover the 6-carbon sugars. Both stages have a 3-min residence time.

The enzymatic hydrolysis is accom-plished by cellulase enzyme. The cellulase enzyme is a complex mix of enzymes that work together syner-gistically to attack typical parts of the cellulose fi bre and. Effective cellulose hydrolysis requires several different kinds of cellulases working synergically. The enzymatic hydrolysis has several advantages:

Very mild process conditions give ■potentially high yields,Maintenance costs are low com- ■pared to acid or alkaline hydrolysis (no corrosion problem).The process is compatible with ■many pre-treatment options, Enzymes can be recovered and re- ■cycled, so that the enzyme concen-tration can be higher against lower enzyme cost, although the enzyme quality decreases.

In the past few years, new cellulases and hemicellulases from both bacteria and fungal sources have been isolated. Signifi cant progress has been made in the cost of cellulases, particularly the non-complexed cellulases. Cellulases from the aerobic fungus Trichoderma and Aspergillus are the most commonly used cellulases in the lab and pilot-scale bioethanol production. A greater than 10-fold cost reduction for T. reesei cellulases was recently reported (Greer, 2005; Moreira, 2005). Cost reduction was achieved by combination of en-zyme engineering and fermentation process developmen.

Fermentation

The sugars from the pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis steps are fermented by bacteria, yeast or fi la-mentous fungi, enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation can be performed in combination, the process known as simultaneous saccharifi cation and fermentation (SSF). The fermentation of xylose released from pre-hydrolysis process can be carried out in sepa-rate vessel or in SSF reactor using genetically modified strain from the bacterium Zymomanas mobilis that can convert both glucose and xylose. The latter method is named simultaneous saccharifi cation and co-fermentation (SSCF). Compared to the sequential saccharification and fermentation process, SSCF exhibits several advan-tages like low requirement of enzymes, shorter process time and cost reduc-tion due to economy in fermentation reactor.

Contrary to sucrose and starch-based ethanol production, lignocellulose-based production is a mixed-sugar fermentation in the presence of inhibit-ing compounds – low molecular weight organic acids, furan derivatives, pheno-lics and inorganic compounds released and formed during pretreatment and/or hydrolysis of the raw material. Ligno-cellulosic raw materials, in particular hardwood and agricultural raw materi-als contain 5 – >20% of the pentose sugars xylose and arabinose, which are not fermented to ethanol by the most commonly used industrial fermentation microorganism, the yeast Saccharo-myces cerevisiae. Anaerobic bacteria

ferment pentoses, but are inhibited already at low sugar and ethanol con-centrations. In addition, the ethanolic fermentation occurs with considerable by-product formation, which reduces the ethanol yield (Desai, et al 2004). Natural xylose-fermenting yeast, no-tably Pichia stipitis CBS 6054, ferment xylose to ethanol with reasonable yield and productivity; however, these yeast strains are inhibited by compounds generated during pretreatment and hydrolysis of the lignocellulose material (Hahn-Hagerdal, 1994). Filamentous fungi tolerate inhibitors but are too slow for a competitive industrial process. Therefore, efforts have predominantly been made to obtain recombinant strains of bacteria and yeast able to meet the requirements of industrial lignocellulose fermentation. Some of the commonly used genetically en-gineered microbes for lignocellulosic ethanol fermentation are Escherichia coli Klebsiella oxytoca, Pichia stipitis and Zymomonas mobilis.

Downstream processing of ethanol

After the fermentation of pretreated biomass the downstream process involves recovery of ethanol from the fermentation broth. The most common method employed for the recovery of ethanol from fermentation liquid is distillation process, rectifi cation and dehydration. Since, distillation process is energy consuming thereby, increase the cost of downstream processing. Beside this process solid sorption (e. g., commercially available divinyl ben-zene cross-linked polystyrene in bead form, molecular sieve with hydrophobic properties) and pervaporation are used to recover the ethanol from fermenta-tion broth.

Challenges

Although, in the last three decades sig-nifi cant R&D advancements have been made in the area of lignocellulosic etha-nol production but no commercial plant exists. A key challenge to commercial-izing production of fuels and chemicals from cellulosic biomass is to reduce processing costs enough to achieve attractive goals for investors. Economic analyses point out that the greatest fraction of projected cost almost 40%

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is associated with pre-treatment, hy-drolysis and enzyme. Pre-treatment is alone responsible for 8% of this cost. Therefore, drastic improvement in fol-lowing areas are needed to realize the goal of commercialization:

Developing fast growing biomass ■with minimized external inputs such as water, fertilizers and pesticides which can be easily processed. Pretreatment is among the most ■costly steps and has a major infl u-ence on the cost of both prior (e.g., size reduction) and subsequent (e.g., enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation) operations. Better pre-treatment can reduce use of expen-sive enzymes. Thus, more attention must be given to gaining insight into interactions among these operations and applying that insight to advance biomass conversion technologies that reduce costs.In addition, although several pre- ■treatments are promising, their relative attributes differ, but com-parisons have been diffi cult due to differences in research methodol-ogy and substrate use. Improving the understanding of differences among pretreatment technologies and the effect of each pretreatment on other operations can facilitate selection, reduce commercialization risk and suggest opportunities for step change improvements.Cellulases are relatively costly en- ■zymes, and a signifi cant reduction in cost will be important for their commercial use in lignocellulosic ethanol. Cellulase-based strate-gies that will make the processing more economical include: increas-ing commercial enzyme volumetric productivity, producing enzymes using elevated temperature and at a certain pH, and higher tolerance to end-product inhibition.Overcoming the recalcitrance of ■cellulosic biomass to utilize all sug-ars present in the feedstock (i.e. converting cellulosic biomass into reactive intermediates).Product diversification to value ■recovery from non-carbohydrate feedstock fractions (i.e. converting

reactive intermediates into useful products.All the known xylose-fermenting or- ■ganisms possess some drawbacks, among them low ethanol-production rate and low yield are the most im-portant parameters.

Concluding remarks

Lignocellulosic ethanol represents a sustainable solution to offset the in-creasing cost and dwindling supply of crude oil. In the last three decades sig-nifi cant R&D efforts have been made for biological processing for ethanol pro-duction to reap the benefi ts this abun-dantly available renewable resource. In order to overcome the challenges of commercialization sincere efforts in the improvement of various process steps like pre-treatment, cellulase enzyme improvement and cost reduction, pro-cess integration and co – processing of lignin for value added products are needed. With these concerted efforts, full potential of lignocellulosic ethanol may be realized in 10 to 15 years.

References1. Bhoopathy, R. 1998. Biological

treatment of swinewaste using anaerobic baffl ed reactors. Biore-sour Technol., 64:1–6.

2. Cheung S.W. and Anderson B.C. 1997. Laboratory investiga-tion of ethanol production from municipal primary wastewater. Bioresour Technol; 59: 81–96.

3. Demirbas, M. F. 2006. Cur-rent technologies for biomass conversion into chemicals and fuel. Energy Source, Part A, 28: 1181-1188.

4. Desai S.G., Guerinot M. L. and Lynd L. R. 2004. Cloning of the L-lactate dehydrogenase gene and elimination of lactic acid production via gene knockout in Thermoanaerobacterium saccha-rolyticum JW/SL-YS485. Appl. Mi-crobiol. Biotechnol. 65, 600–605.

5. Dewes T. and Hunsche E. 1998. Composition and microbial de-gradability in the soil of farmyard manure from ecologically man-

aged farms. Biol Agric Hortic;16: 251–68.

6. Greer, D., 2005. Spinning straw into fuel. Biocycle, 46: 61-65

7. Gressel J., 2008, Transgenics are imperative for biofuel crops, Plant Science 174,246-263

8. Hahn-Hagerdal, B. et al. 1994. An interlaboratory comparison of the performance of ethanol-producing microorganisms in a xylose-rich acid hydrolysate. Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol., 41: 62–72

9. Hahn-Hagerdal B., Galbe, M., Gorwa-Grauslund, M.F., Liden, G. and Zacchi, G. 2006. Bio-ethanol – the fuel of tomorrowfrom the residues of today. Trends in Bio-technol., 24(2): 549-556.

10. Kaur P.P., Arneja J.S. and Singh J. 1998. Enzymatic hydrolysis of rice straw by crude cellulose from Trichoderma reesei. Bioresour Technol; 66: 267–9.

11. McKendry P. 2002. Energy pro-duction from biomass (part I): overview of biomass. Biores. Technol., 83: 37–46.

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13. Pachauri RK and Sridharan PV. 1998. Solid wastes. In looking back to think ahead. New Delhi: Tata Energy Research Institute; pp. 245–265.

14. Hsu, T.A., Ladisch, M.R., Tsao, G.T. 1980. Alcohol from cellulose. Chemical Technology 10 (5), 315–319.

15. Ravindranath N.H., Somashekar H.I., Nagaraja M.S., Sudha P., Sangeetha G and Bhattacharya S.C. 2005. Assessment of sus-tainable non-plantation biomass resources potential for energy in India. Biomass Bioenergy, 29: 178–90.

16. Reshamwala S, Shawky BT, Dale BE. 1995. Ethanol production from enzymatic hydrolysis of AFEX-treated coastal Bermuda grass and switch grass. Appl Bio-chem Biotechnol., 51/52:43–55.

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Bio-surfactant exerts infl uence on inter-faces in both aqueous solu-

tions and hydrocarbon mixtures. It can make hydrocarbon complexes more mobile with the potential use in en-hanced oil recovery, pumping of crude oil as well as in bioremediation of crude oil contaminant. In the culture medium supplemented with the poly-cyclic aromatic hydrocarbons like phenan-threne, pyrene and fl ourene, there was a gradual decrease in their concentra-tion with corresponding increase in bio-mass and protein. The medium having the combined application of fl ourene and phenanthrene caused better bio-surfactant production by Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains MTCC7815 and MTCC7814. Bio-surfactants pro-duced by the strains MTCC7815 and MTCC7812 exhibited more solubiliza-tion of pyrene; MTCC8165 caused three times higher solubilization of phenanthrene, whereas the biosur-factant of MTCC7812 and MTCC8163 caused more solubilization of fl ourene. Bio-surfactants secreted by the strains MTCC7815 and MTCC8163 were lipo-peptide in nature, whereas, those se-creted by MTCC7812, MTCC8165 and MTCC7814 were complex mixtures of

lipopeptides and glycoproteins. Further study is necessary to understand the microbial ecology and their application in bioremediation, pumping of crude oil and enhanced oil recovery through enhanced mobility caused by the bio-surfactant induced reduction of surface tension (σ).

Key words: Crude oil, mobility, bacte-ria, biosurfactant

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, a major component of petroleum requires solubi l ization in aque-ous phase through the addition of surfactants. Surfactant amendment may enhance the oil mobility and increase its availability, improving the biodegradation rates (Alexander, 1994; Laha and Luthy, 1992; Kim et al., 2000). Microbial biosurfactants can also exert some influence on interfaces in both aqueous solutions and hydrocarbon mixtures. These properties cause micro-emulsions in which micelle formation occurs where hydrocarbons can solubilize in water, or water in hydrocarbon (Banat, 1995; Das and Mukherjee, 2005 and Bordoloi and Konwar, 2008). The

structures of various biosurfactants are elaborately reviewed (Cooper et al., 1986). Generally biosurfactants are classified into five major groups viz glycolipids, phospholipids and fatty acids, lipopeptides (lipoprotein); polymeric biosurfactant and par-ticulate biosurfactant. Biosurfactant production is generally associated with utilization of hydrocarbon by microbial community. At low con-centrations, surfactants are soluble in water, and with the increasing concentration, they form micelles in solution. The concentration at which micelles begin to form is called the critical micelle concentration (CMC). Above the CMC, biosurfactants can solubilize petroleum hydrocarbons in soil-water systems, but some bio-surfactants may increase the water solubility of hydrocarbon molecules below the CMC (Deshphande, 1999 and Bordoloi and Konwar, 2008). Therefore, biosurfactants may be useful in degradation of soil con-taminating hydrocarbons. The aim of the present work was to evaluate biosurfactants and their effective concentration to enhance the biodeg-radation of petroleum hydrocarbons in a contaminated soil.

Materials and Methods

Biosurfactant producing Microorganisms

Biosurfactant producing five bacte-rial strains belonging to the species P. aeruginosa MTCC7815, MTCC7812, MTCC7814, MTCC8165 and MTCC8163 were isolated from petroleum contami-nated soil samples collected from differ-ent oil fi elds of Assam and Assam-Arkan Basin and identifi ed in collaboration with the IMTECH, Chandigarh. The bacterial strains were sub-cultured on nutrient agar or LB agar plates before use as inoculums.

Bacterial biosurfactant in enhancing solubility of petroleum hydrocarbonsB K Konwar and N K Bordoloi ONGC Centre for Petroleum Biotechnology, Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Tezpur University, Tezpur-784028, Assam, India

B K Konwar, ob-tained DIC in Micro-biology from Imperial College, London and Ph D in Biotechnol-ogy from University

of London in 1992. He started the career as a Lecturer in Assam Agricul-tural University, Jorhat from 1984. He became Asstt. Professor in 1986 and Associate Professor in 1994. In 1995, he joined Tocklai Experimental Station, TRA, Jorhat as a Sr. Scientist (Biotech) and Head, Dept of Botany. In 2002, he joined as Professor & Head, Dept of Mol Biology & Biotechnology, Tezpur

University (Central), Assam. He was also the Head, ONGC-Centre for Pe-troleum Biotechnology since 2002 to 2008. In 2008, Prof. Konwar became the Dean, School of Science & Tech-nology of the University. He carried out 11 research projects funded by agencies like DBT, Tea Board, ICAR, CSIR, ONGC and NMPB. He published more than 90 research papers in national/international journals and conference/seminar proceedings and wrote extensively in news papers and magazines on popular science and other topics. He published a historical book in Assamese.

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Media and microbial growth in the presence of PAHs

The mineral salt medium (MSM) was used for the culture of the bacterial strains. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocar-bons (PAHs) dissolved in N, N-dimeth-ylformamide (5% v/v) was taken in a sterile 250ml Erlenmeyer fl ask, shaken in an orbital shaking incubator at 200 rpm and 37oC before addition to the MSM to give a fi nal concentration of 200 mg.l-1 as described by Boonchan et al. (2000). Phenanthrene was used as the second or co-carbon source at a fi nal concentration of 100 mg.l-1.

Replicated batch cultures were grown in 100 ml of mineral salt medium supplemented with either pyrene/fl oueren/fl oueren or phenanthrene as the carbon source. All culture flaks were maintained in a rotary shaker in-cubator at 32oC, pH 7.0 and 200 rpm. Un-inoculated fl asks and those without PAHs were used as controls.

PAHs were purchased from Merck-Schuchardt, Germany; acetone and HPLC grade hexane from Merck limited, Mumbai, India. Crude oil was collected from ONGC, Assam, India.

Determination of bacterial growth in the presence of PAHs

Bacterial growth by utilizing pyrene, f lourene and phenanthrene were assessed by the bacterial protein concentration and the residual PAHs remained in the culture medium after 48 and 96h of culture following the method of Vila et al. (2001). Bacterial dry biomass was determined after extracting the residual PAH from the culture broth and pelleting of cells as done by Makkar and Cameotra (1998). The protein concentration was measured using the fl ask contents of duplicate cultures by a modifi cation of the Lowry method (Daniels et al., 1994).

PAHs biodegradation

PAHs degradation by bacteria was determined by quantization the amount remained in the culture broth at differ-ent time intervals. The residual PAHs in the flasks were extracted with a mixture of chloroform and methanol (v/v 20:10) as described by Zhang et al. (2004). An aliquot of 1ml extracted sample was then filtered through a 0.4µm pore sized filter and 20µl of the filtrate was analyzed for PAHs content by high – performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) on a Waters reverse-phase C18 Nova pak column (3.9 mm X 150 mm) by using isocratic elution with acetonitrile-water (Pickard et al., 1999). Flow rate was adjusted to 1.0ml/min and elution was monitored at 273, 250 and 253 nm. The decrease in the amount of pyrene, fl ourene and phenanthrene was estimated by mea-suring the peak area of UV absorbance at the said wave lengths, respectively and by comparing with the peak area

Bacterial isolates

Carbon source After 48 h of growth After 96 h of growth

Pyrene PhenanthreneDry biomass

(g.l-1)

Yield of biosurfactant

(g.l-1)

Dry biomass (g.l-1)


(g.l-1)

P. aeruginosa (MTCC7815)+ - 0.80±0.01 0.20±0.01 1.00±0.1 0.30±0.01+ + 1.00±0.1 0.25±0.01 1.20±0.2 0.50±0.01





Table 1. Bacterial growth and yield of biosurfactant in pyrene and pyrene + phenanthrene containing media in 96 h of culture (Mean

+S.D of 3 experiments)

Table 2. Bacterial biomass and yield of biosurfactant in fl uorene and fl uorene + phenanthrene supplemented media in 96 h of culture

(Mean +S.D of 3 experiments)

Bacterial isolates

Carbon source After 48 h of growth After 96 h of growth

Fluorene PhenantherneDry biomass

(g.l-1)


(g.l-1)

Dry biomass (g.l-1)


(g.l-1)






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of the control fl asks. The concentration of pyren, fl ourene and phenanthrene was expressed as the mean and the standard deviation based on the results obtained with triplicate fl asks.

Uptake of pyrene, flourene, phenanthren and crude oil by bacteria

Pyrene, fourene, phenanthrene and crude oil uptake by bacterial isolates was measured by spectrophotometric rate assay as described by Stringfel-lows and Aitken (1995). Briefl y 1X107 bacterial cells (fi nal volume of 3ml in 20mM phosphate buffer containing 150mM NaCl, pH 7.0) were placed in a 3.5 ml quartz cuvette in a Backman DU-530 Life Science UV/Vis Spectro-photometer (USA) and 60µg of pyrene, fl ourene, phenanthrene and crude oil (in 10µl of acetone) were injected in to the cuvette. A decrease concentration at A273, A250, A253 and A254 was measured from 0 sec to 60 min post addition of PAHs and crude oil. PAHs and crude oil uptake was also measured in the presence of suspension of killed cells. From a standard curve of representative PAHs and crude oil, the decrease con-centration in PAHs and crude oil was calculated and results were expressed as µg of PAHs and crude oil uptake by 1X107 bacterial cells.

To study the bacterial uptake of solubi-lized PAHs and crude oil as mediated by biosurfactant, stock solutions of PAHs and crude oil (in acetone) were incubated overnight with biosurfac-tants (0.5mg/ml) from the respective bacterial isolates at 32oC. Aliquots of 60µg of biosurfactant-solubilized PAHs and crude oil were injected in to the separate cuvettes containing 1X107 bacterial cells (fi nal volume of 3ml). PAHs and crude oil uptake measure-ment was done in the same manner as describe above.

PAHs and crude oil solubilization assay

PAHs and crude oil solubilization assay was carried out as described by Barkay et al. (1999). Aliquots of 60µg of PAHs and crude oil (6mg/ml stock in hexane) were distributed in to glass test tubes and kept open inside a chemical fume hood to remove the solvent. Then 3ml assay buffer (20mM Tris-HCL, pH 7.0)

and 1ml biosurfactant solution (0.5mg/ml) were added. Tubes were capped and incubated in vertical position over-night at 32oC with shaking (200 rpm) in dark. Samples were fi ltered through 1.2µm pore sized fi lters (Whatman), 2ml was removed in to a clean test tube to which 2.0ml hexane was added prior to extraction by vortexing for 2 min. The emulsion was centrifuged at 10,000 rpm for 10 min to separate the aqueous and hexane phases. PAHs and crude oil in the hexane extracts were measured spectrophotometrically at A273, A250, A253 and A254 nm and also using the calibration curve of PAHs and crude oil in hexane, the concentrations were determined. Control experiments were also run in parallel where no biosurfac-tant was added to PAHs and crude oil before extraction with hexane.

Isolation of biosurfactant and determination of its surface-active properties

The crude biosurfactant from each of the bacterial strains was isolated following the method of Makkar and Cameotra (1998). Surface tension of the culture broth was determined us-ing a Du-Nouy Tensiometer (Kruss 9KT Tensiometer, Kruss, Germany) at room temperature (25oC) using the ring cor-rection mode of the instrument.

Results

Growth of microbes using PAHs

All bacterial isolates used in the inves-tigation were able to utilize PAHs as the sole source of carbon and energy. This was evident as there was a decrease in the concentration of phenanthrene, pyrene and fluorene in the medium supplemented with PAHs with a con-comitant increase in the bacterial dry biomass and protein content with respect to time. The bacterial isolates were separately cultured in mineral salt medium supplemented with phenan-threne, pyrene and fl uorene for 12 days. Increase in protein concentration as the index for bacterial growth and utiliza-tion of the hydrocarbon component was estimated at an interval of 2 days. Data thus obtained are presented in Fig. 1, 2 and 3. The utilization of phenanthrene as the sole source of carbon and energy

by the bacterial isolates was confi rmed by its removal from the medium with a corresponding increase in the bacterial protein. The concentration of phenan-threne decreased dramatically in the culture medium over the next 12 days. The bacterial strains MTCC7815, fol-lowed by MTCC7812 and MTCC7814 exhibited the maximum utilization of phenanthrene with reduction to 70, 85 and 87µg, respectively from initial ap-plication of 180 µg.

In the case of pyrene supplemented medium, no significant growth was observed in the initial 24h period of culture. The strains MTCC7814, fol-lowed by MTCC8165 exhibited better utilization of pyrene with reduction to 89 and 93 µg, respectively from the initial application of 180 µg in 12 days of culture.

In fluorene-supplemented medium, the strains MTCC7814, followed by MTCC7815 and MTCC8163 exhibited higher utilization in 12 days of culture with reduction of concentration to 89, 90 and 92 µg, respectively from the initial application of 180 µg .

Biosurfactant production during microbial growth on PAHs

Observation on surface-active proper-ties supported that all the isolates used in this study produced biosurfactants in pyrene or fl uorene-supplemented medium with or without the addition of phenanthrene. Results obtained are presented in Table 1 and 2. The yield of biosurfactant in the culture supernatant increased dramatically after 96h of culture. The bacterial isolates exhibited better biosurfactant yield of 0.23 – 0.5 g.l-1 in the medium supplemented with pyrene and phenanthrene as compared to the medium without phenanthrene (0.18 – 0.30 µg.l-1). Concomitantly, the bacterial biomass of 0.7-1.2 g.l-1 increased to 0.7-1.4 g.l-1 after 96 h of culture.

In the case of medium having the com-bined addition of fl ourene and phenan-threne caused better biosurfactant yield of 0.45 and 0.38 g.l-1 in the case the strains MTCC7815 and MTCC7814, respectively in the growth period of 96h. In fl uorene containing medium,

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devoid of phenanthrene the bacterial biomass increased from 0.6-1.2 g.l-1 in 48h of culture to a maximum of 1-1.5 g.l-1 in 96h.

Solubilization of PAHs and crude oil by biosurfactants

The effect of biosurfactants on the solubility of phenanthrene, pyrene, flourene (PAHs) and crude oil was determined by the test tube solubili-zation assay (Barkay et al., 1999) in the presence of biosurfactant at the

rate 500 µg.ml-1. Data obtained are presented in Fig. 4. The solubility of PAHs and crude oil in the mineral salt medium was found to be higher due to the addition of biosurfactant as com-pared to the one without the addition of biosurfactant. The solubilization of PAHs in biosurfactant-supplemented medium occurred when the concen-tration of the biosurfactant exceeded the CMC value. However, biosur-factant from the strains MTCC7815 and MTCC7812 exhibited 41 and 26 µg.ml-1, respectively more solubiliza-

tion of pyrene as compared to the control.

In the case of crude oil, the biosurfactant from the strain MTCC8165 showed 20 µg.ml-1 more solubilization as com-pared to the control. The biosurfactant of MTCC8165 displayed three times more solubilization of phenanthrene as compared to the biosurfactant of MTCC7812. On the other hand, the crude biosurfactants from MTCC7815, MTCC7814 and MTCC8163 displayed almost similar solubilization. The bio-

Table 3. Reduction of crude oil, phenanthrene, pyrene, and fl uorene from the culture medium as acted upon by the bacterial isolates

following the addition of biosurfactant (Mean +SD of 3 experiments)

Carbon sources

Bacterial strains of P.aeruginosa

BiosurfactantUptake (µg) in min

0 15 30 45 60

Crude oil

MTCC7815- 0 6.8±0.2 10.00±0.30 10.24±0.02 10.65±0.14+ 0 36.9±0.1 40.21±0.06 40.31±0.02 40.31±0.02

MTCC7812- 0 1.6±0.04 2.54±0.21 4.40±0.18 4.49±0.07+ 0 8.8±0.03 11.37±0.31 11.45±0.06 11.53±0.77

MTCC7814- 0 4.5±0.1 7.87±0.47 9.05±0.10 10.2±0.08+ 0 42.8±0.1 44.79±0.84 45.92±0.10 45.92±0.71

MTCC8163- 0 3.9±0.1 5.21±0.07 8.38±0.58 10.24±0.08+ 0 34.1±1.0 35.28±0.22 35.28±0.02 35.28±0.26

MTCC8165- 0 4.4±0.4 8.73±0.05 9.00±0.14 9.14±0.11+ 0 10.7±0.7 18.64±0.28 19.60±0.37 20.31±0.52

Phenanthrene

MTCC7815- 0 7.9±0.2 10.58±0.16 12.30±0.10 12.57±0.16+ 0 17.1±0.02 18.32±0.07 19.47±0.52 20.55±0.13

MTCC7812- 0 9.1±0.1 9.69±0.15 11.23±0.05 11.72±0.10+ 0 21.4±0.3 42.00±0.65 43.12±0.10 43.87±0.79

MTCC7814- 0 16.5±0.4 23.50±0.49 23.71±0.08 23.71±0.06+ 0 14.3±0.4 25.14±0.05 25.22±0.06 25.05±0.17

MTCC8163- 0 21.1±0.13 22.34±0.09 22.39±0.11 22.44±0.13+ 0 15.7±0.4 28.12±0.21 28.12±0.18 28.37±0.54

MTCC8165- 0 7.3±0.1 11.30±0.23 10.95±0.23 10.95±0.14+ 0 42.6±0.5 33.01±0.11 33.26±0.18 33.84±0.20

Pyrene

MTCC7815- 0 16.0±0.15 15.02±0.13 15.84±0.30 15.68±0.17+ 0 18.3±0.5 27.80±0.13 35.12±0.09 41.70±0.32

MTCC7812- 0 5.8±0.3 8.07±0.03 8.26±0.08 8.37±0.04+ 0 5.5±0.4 20.91±0.22 26.42±0.35 26.97±0.09

MTCC7814- 0 9.2±0.2 20.32±0.09 20.80±0.13 21.77±0.14+ 0 14.1±0.4 21.45±0.21 21.45±0.13 21.54±0.05

MTCC8163- 0 1.0±0.01 3.40±0.14 3.60±0.16 4.15±0.04+ 0 8.8±0.1 11.83±0.27 15.33±0.08 15.67±0.17

MTCC8165- 0 7.9±0.7 14.35±0.14 14.87±0.09 15.64±0.17+ 0 20.4±0.2 20.98±0.19 21.35±0.12 21.71±0.09

Fluorene

MTCC7815- 0 2.4±0.2 4.91±0.46 5.94±0.10 8.27±0.16+ 0 5.1±0.8 9.12±0.22 10.17±0.52 11.23±0.13

MTCC7812- 0 0.5±0.05 6.91±0.17 15.87±0.05 16.17±0.10+ 0 11.4±0.8 24.27±0.32 24.36±0.10 24.45±0.79

MTCC7814- 0 13±0.2 14.14±0.07 14.52±0.08 14.75±0.06+ 0 21.9±0.3 48.26±0.26 49.04±0.06 49.56±0.17

MTCC8163- 0 4.3±0.2 10.60±0.21 11.30±0.11 11.65±0.33+ 0 18.7±0.1 20.36±0.0.19 13.80±0.23 24.49±0.54

MTCC8165- 0 4.1±0.0 6.19±0.26 6.70±0.18 6.70±0.14+ 0 16.3±0.1 16.06±0.07 16.69±0.30 17.01±0.20

Man never made any material as resilient as the human spirit48 48 JU NE 2008


surfactant from MTCC7812, followed by MTCC8163 exhibited more solubiliza-tion of fl uorene with 24.4-24.5 µg.ml-1.

Role of biosurfactants in culture media

Following the addition of biosurfactant of the respective bacterial isolates, the uptake of crude oil and its components like pyrene, fl uorene and phenanthrene by the cultured bacteria was assayed. Data obtained are presented in Table 3. The uptake of crude oil and its com-ponents increased signifi cantly in all bacterial cultures on addition of biosur-factant. The bacterial strain MTCC7814, followed by MTCC7815 and MTCC8163 showed the highest uptake of crude oil with 45.92, 40.31 and 36.28 µg during the incubation period of 60min. In the case of biosurfactant-supplemented medium, MTCC7812 and MTCC8165 utilized 43.87 and 33.84 µg of phenan-threne, respectively in 60min of culture. Similarly, MTCC7815 utilized 41.70 µg pyrene from the medium while supplemented with the biosurfactant. The strain MTCC7814 exhibited the

highest uptake of fl ourene with 49.6 µg in 60min culture. MTCC8163 and MTCC7812 exhibited comparatively higher uptake of fl ourene with 24.5 and 24.4 µg, respectively.

Uptake of crude oil and PAHs like pyrene, fluorene and phenanthrene was also measured in the presence of a suspension of heat killed bacterial cells. Heat killed bacterial cells were put in culture medium separately supple-mented with biosurfactant isolated from the respective bacterial strain. Crude oil and PAHs uptake did not occur in the presence of the suspension of heat killed bacterial cells.

Discussion

Variation was observed in the utiliza-tion of phanathrene, pyrene, fl uorene (PAHs) and crude oil as the sole source of carbon and energy by fi ve strains of P. aeruginosa. There was a decrease in the content of PAHs in the media with a concomitant increase in the bacterial dry biomass and protein with

respect to time. The utilization of phenanthrene as the sole source of carbon and energy by the bacte-rial isolates was confi rmed by its removal from the medium, with a corresponding increase in the bac-terial protein. The concentration of phenanthrene decreased dramati-cally in the culture medium over the next 12 days. The bacterial strains MTCC7815, followed by MTCC7812 and MTCC7814 exhibited the maxi-mum utilization of phenanthrene reducing the content from that of the initial application of 180µg (Fig. 1, 2 and 3).

Non-actinomycetes bacteria such as P. aeruginosa, P. pudita and Fla-vobacterium species were reported to utilize pyrene, when supple-mented with other forms of organic carbons (Trzesicka-Mlynarz et al., 1995). In the present investigation, the bacterial strains MTCC7814 and MTCC8165 exhibited better utilization of pyrene with increased biomass and protein production, and a concomitant reduction in pyrene content from the culture medium. The growth of the bacterial isolates at the expense of fl uorene

as the sole source of carbon suggested higher utilization of fl uorene from the initial application. There were reports Pseudomonas species capable of degrading PAHs, but it failed to utilize them as the sole source of carbon and energy (Foght et al., 1988).

Phylogenetic analysis revealed the existence of wide diversity among the biosurfactant-producing microbes suggesting biosurfactant production to be an important survival tool for the producing microbes and this has evolved to be an independent but a parallel process (Bodour et al., 2003). Biosurfactant producing bacteria are present in higher concentration in hydrocarbon-contaminated soils (Bodour and Maier, 2003,; Bordoloi and Konwar, 2008). In the present in-vestigation, biosurfactant production by all fi ve bacterial strains increased significantly when the medium was supplemented with phenanthrene along with pyrene and fl uorene (Table 1 and 2). The yield of biosurfactant in the culture supernatant with acid precipita-

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(c) MTCC8163 (d) MTCC8165) and (e) MTCC7814 in phenanthrene containing medium at

30ºC and 200 rpm. [growth as an increase in cell protein in cultures (�) and in controls(�);

phenanthrene (�) and controls (�)]

Adopt the pace of nature, her secret is patience – Ralph Waldo Emerson JU NE 2008 4949


tion increased dramatically after 96h of culture. The bacterial isolates exhibited better biosurfactant yield in medium having combined application of pyrene and phenanthrene, as compared to phenanthrene alone. Concomitantly, the bacterial biomass increased. This result might be viewed in the context of increased rate of co-metabolism of pyrene in the presence of phenanthrene (McKenna, 1977 and Cerniglia, 1984). Stringfellow et al. (1995) observed that Pseudomonas saccharophila p-15 could degrade pyrene on being induced by either phenanthrene or salicylate. In media having the combined addition of fl ourene and phenanthrene caused better biosurfactant yield (0.45 and

Table 4. Reduction of crude oil, phenanthrene, pyrene, and fl uorene from the culture medium as acted upon by the heat killed bacterial

isolates following the addition of biosurfactant

Carbon sources

Heat killedP.aeruginosa

StrainsBiosurfactant

Uptake (µg)

0 min 15 min 30 min 45 min 60 min

Crude oil MTCC7815 + 0 0 0 0 0Phenanthrene MTCC7812 + 0 0 0 0 0Pyrene MTCC8163 + 0 0 0 0 0Fluorene MTCC8165 + 0 0 0 0 0

0.38 g.l-1) in the case of the strains MTCC7815 and MTCC7814, respec-tively during the growth period of 96h. In the same medium, the bacterial biomass increased from 0.6 –1.2 g.l-1 at 48h of inoculation to a maximum of 1-1.5 g.l-1 at 96h of culture. Bouchez et al. (1995) reported that addition of fl uo-rene as a co-substrate could increase utilization of phenanthrene. Bouchez et al. (1995) also reported that phenan-threne might be a poor inducer of its own degradation, but fl uorene could enhance phenanthrene biodegradation, possibly by a positive analog effect on enzyme induction.

Production of biosurfactant is related to

the utilization of available hydrophobic substrates by the producing bacteria from their natural habitat, presumably by increasing the surface area of sub-strates and increasing their apparent solubility (Ron and Rosenberg, 2001). Therefore, use of biosurfactants has been reported as a mechanism to enhance the bioavailibility of hydro-phobic pollutants and PAHs for micro-bial degradation (Thiem, 1994). Low molecular weight biosurfactants like lipopeptides having low critical micelle concentrations increased the apparent solubility of hydrocarbons by incor-porating them in to the hydrophobic cavities of micelles (Miller and Zhang, 1997). On the other hand, alasan, a

high molecular weight bioemulsifi er complex produced by Acinetobacter radioresistens KA 53 enhanced the aqueous solubility of PAHs by a physical interaction most likely of a hydrophobic nature and increases the biodegradation rate of PAHs (Barkay et al., 1999).

In this investigation, biosurfactant of the bacterial strains belonging to P. aeruginosa MTCC7815 and MTCC7812 having the concentra-tion of 0.5mg.ml-1 exhibited 41 and 26µg.ml-1 solubilization of pyrene. Subsequently, the apparent solu-bility of pyrene was enhanced by factors 5-7 resulting in its higher uptake and metabolism as com-pared to non-solubilized pyrene. The difference in pyrene solubilization by the biosurfactants from different bacterial strains in this investigation might be related to the chemical nature as well as surface properties of the biosurfactants. The biosur-factants secreted by MTCC7815 and MTCC8163 were lipopeptide in nature, whereas those secreted by MTCC7812, MTCC8165 and MTCC7814 were complex mixtures of lipopeptides and glycoproteins.

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(c) MTCC8163 (d) MTCC8165 and (e) MTCC7814 in phenanthrene containing medium

at 30ºC and 200 rpm. [growth as an increase in cell protein in cultures (�) and in controls (�);


Before God we are all equally wise – and equally foolish – Albert Einstein50 50 JU NE 2008


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(c) MTCC8163 (d) MTCC8165 and (e) MTCC7814 in phenanthrene containing medium

at 30ºC and 200 rpm. [growth as an increase in cell protein in cultures (�) and in controls (�);


Higher solubilization of pyrene by the biosurfactant of MTCC7815 and MTCC7812 reinforced the hypoth-esis that variation in biosurfactant isoforms between these two isolates might result in a large variation of the emulsification property and specifi city of biosurfactants. It may be concluded that higher pyrene solubilization effect of biosurfac-tant from MTCC7815 dramatically enhanced the metabolism of pyrene that sustained the growth of this bacterial isolate in pyrene; otherwise it would not be able to grow on pyrene. Similar trend was observed in the case of fl uorene solubilization by the biosurfactant of MTCC7812 as compared to MTCC8163. Further studies to understand the microbial ecology leading to PAHs degrada-tion is necessary.

Acknowledgment

We gratefully acknowledge the re-ceipt a generous project grant from the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, India. We would also like to thank the university authority to allow us to participate in the seminar organized by the Petrotech Society of India.

ReferencesAlexander, M. 1994. Biodegrada- ■tion and Bioremediation. Academic Press, New York.Banat, I. M. 1995. Biosurfactants ■

production and possible uses in microbial enhanced oil recovery and oil pol- ■lution remediation: A review. Biore-sour. Technol. 51: 1-12.Barkay, T., Navon-Venezia, S., ■

Ron, E.Z. and Rosenberg, E. 1999. Enhancement of solubilization and biodegradation of polyaromatic hydrocarbons by the bioemulsifi er Alasan. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 65: 2697-2702.Bodour, A.A., Drees, K.P. and Maier, ■R.M. 2003. Distribution of bio-surfactant-producing bacteria in undisturbed and contaminated arid southwestern soils. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 69: 3280-3287.Boonchan, S., Britz, M. and Stanley, ■G.A. 2000. Degradation and miner-alization of high molecular weight polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons by defi ned fungal-bacterial cocul-tures. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 66, 1007-1019.Bouchez , M . , B lanche t , D . , ■Besnainou,B., and Vandecasteele, J.-P. 1995. Substrate availability in phenanthrene biodegradation: transfer mechanism and infl uence on metabolism. Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 43: 952 – 960.Cerniglia, C. E. 1984. Microbial ■metabolism of polycyclic aromatic

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control P.aeruginosa(MTCC7815)

P. aeruginosa(MTCC7812)

P. aeruginosa(MTCC7814)

P.aeruginosa(MTCC 8163)

P.aeruginosa(MTCC 8165)

Biosurfactants of bacterial isolates

PA

Hs

and

Cru

de

oil s

olub

iliza

tion

(ug/

ml) Phenanthrene

Pyrene

Flourene

Crude oil

Fig. 4. Solubilization of PAHs and crude oil by the bacterial biosurfactants (Mean +S.D)

Let hundreds like me perish, but let truth prevail — Mahatma Gandhi JU NE 2008 5151


hydrocarbons. Adv. Appl. Microbiol. 30: 31-71.Cerniglia, C. E. 1992. Biodegrada- ■tion of polycyclic aromatic hydrocar-bons. Biodegradation. 3:351-368.Cooper, D.G. 1986. Biosurfactants. ■Microbiol. Sci. 3: 145-149.Daniels, L., Handson, R.S. and Phil- ■lips, J.A. 1994. Chemicals analysis. Pp. 512. In: Gerhardt, A.P., Murray, R.G.E., Wood, W.A. and Krieg, N.R. (ed). Methods for general and mo-lecular bacteriology. ASM Press, Washington, D.C.Daniel, W.W. 2000. In: Biostatistics: A ■foundation for analysis in the health sciences.7th ed. pp 166-167. John Wiley and Sons, Inc, New York, Foght, J.M. and Westlake, D.W.S. ■1988. Degradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and aro-matic heterocyctles of Pseudomo-nas species. Can. J. Microbiol. 34: 1135-1141.Kanaly, R. A. and Harayama, S. ■2000. Biodegradation of high-mo-lecular weight polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons by bacteria. J. Bac-teriol. 182: 2059-2067.Kim, H. S., Lim, E. J., Lee, S. O., Lee, ■J. D. and Lee, T.H. 2000. Purifi cation and characterization of biosurfactants from Nocardia sp. L-417. Biotechnol. Appl. Biochem. 31: 249–253.

Makkar, R. S. and Cameotra, S.S. ■1998. Production of biosurfactant at mesophilic and thermophilic conditions by a strain of Bacillus subtis. J. Ind. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 20: 48-52.McKenna, E. J. 1977. In Biodegrada- ■tion of polynuclear Aromatic Hydro-carbon Pollutants by soil and water Microorganisms. 70th Annu. Mtg. Am. Inst. Chem. Eng., New York.Miller, R.M. and Zhang, Y. 1997. ■Measurment of biosurfactant-en-hanced solubilization and bio-degradation of hydrocarbons. In: Sheehan, D. (Ed.), Methods in Biotechnology, vol.2.Humana Press, Totowa, pp 59-66.Pickard, M. A., Roman, R., Tinoco, ■R. and Vazquez-Duhalt, R. 1999. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon metabolism by white rot fungi and oxidation by Coriolopsis gallica UAMH 8260 laccase. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 65: 3805-3809.Ron, E. Z. and Rosenberg, E. 2001. ■Natural roles of biosurfactants. En-viron. Microbiol. 3: 229-236.Stringfellow, W. T. and Aitken, M. D. ■1995. Competitive metabolism of naphthalene, methylnaphthalenes and fluorene by phenanthrene-degrading Pseudomonads. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 61: 357-362.

Tiehm, A. 1994. Degradation of ■polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the presence of synthetic surfac-tants. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 60: 258-263.Trzesicka-Mlynarz, D. and Ward, O. ■P. 1995. Degradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) by a mixed culture and its component pure cultures obtained from PAH-contaminated soil. Can. J. Microbiol. 41: 470–476.Vila, J., Lopez, Z., Sabate, J., ■Minguillon, C., Solanas, A. M. and Grifoll, M. 2001. Identification of a novel metabolite in the degrada-tion of pyrene by Mycobacterium sp. strain AP1: Actions of the isolate on two-and three-r ing polycycl ic aromatic hydrocar-bons. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 67: 5497-5505.White, K. L.1986. An overview of ■immunotoxicology and carcino-genic polycyclic aromatic hydro-carbons. Environ. Carcinogen Rev. C 4:163-202.Zhang, H., Kallimanis, A., Koukkou, ■A.I. and Drainas, C. 2004. Isolation and characterization of novel bac-teria degrading polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from polluted Greek soils. Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 65: 124-131.

Norwegian fi rm Sevan Marine ASA said it has bagged a contract from state-run Oil and Natural Gas Company for deepwater drilling rigs. In a fi lling to the Oslo stock exchange, Sevan said, “Subject to the signing of a ‘Letter of Intent’ between the parties shortly, the

Sevan Marine bags contract from ONGCNew Delhi

drilling contract will have a fi xed term of 3 years. “The company expects to generate revenue of about 569 million dollars, including mobilization, over the contract period, the fi ling added. Last month Sevan Marine and ONGC carried out a detailed technical clari-

As part of its efforts to bring some parts of Tamil Nadu under the Com-pressed Natural Gas (CNG) ambit, GAIL (India) Ltd has proposed to set up a CNG corridor, consisting of Naga-pattinam, Karaikkal, Puducherry, Tiru-varur, Ramanathapuram among other areas of the state, said UD Choubey,

Plans CNG corridor in TN Infrastructure BureauChennai, Jun 6

CMD of GAIL. GAIL Gas, a 100% sub-sidiary of GAIL will work out a suitable strategy in this regard. He said the plan is in initial stage and the company will consider exploiting the gas sources in these places at maximum level to sup-ply as a fuel for the increasing demand from host of sectors in the state, he

said the Given the growing fuel cost and the expected increase over the years, it is ideal to go for natural gas, which is more cleaner, cheaper and environment-friendly. It not only help utilizing the gas optimally but will also help indutrialising the state in a big way, he said.

fi cation process in order to qualify the Sevan drilling rig for operations off-shore India. “After technical qualifi ca-tion, the commercial bids were opened on Thursday, in which Sevan emerged as the lowest bidder”, the fi ling said. The rig provided by the fi rm would be based on its proprietary Sevan 650 design. The rig will have a capacity to drill in water depths down to 10,000ft. The Norwegian company partners Jin-dal Drilling & Industries in India.

52 52 JU NE 2008


While in the manufacturing indus-tries discrete products need to

be handled, fl owing product streams need to be controlled in the process industries. This is valid for every stage of production – in the Oil&Gas and Hydrocarbon Processing Industry the products “flow” from the wellhead through several processing steps and fi nally to the end user. Every stage of the oil industry has fl ow measurement applications that have an impact on the overall plant performance.

The internet search engine “Google” leads to approx. 0,7 Million hits for the expression “Flow measurement” (in in-verted commas, as indicated here), and by the time this article reaches publica-tion, it defi nitively will be several more. “Flow” is likely to be the most frequently measured parameter in industry. The large number of suppliers of instruments may also be surprising and underline the signifi cance of fl ow measurement: Ac-cording to the Internet directory “Global Spec – The Engineering Search Engine” 2) you can fi nd 965 (!) companies listed under the key word “fl ow meters”.

From the beginning of the last century standard practices and methods were developed. They are all still in com-mercial use today: Examples are Ven-turi tubes, turbine wheels and devices based on the principles of positive dis-placement or variable area. Any of these devices based on the principles above, function the transfer of energy from the

fl owing fl uid. A loss of energy from the fl owing fl uid, primarily a loss of pressure, is the consequence in any case.

Electrical and electronic technology have had a major impact on develop-ments in the last 50 years. New technol-ogies were employed, which used their own energy source instead of relying on energy contained in the process fl uid. These devices did not necessarily lead to a pressure loss in the medium that was being measured. Such measure-ment principles are magnetic-inductive, ultrasonic, and in certain cases the mass fl ow measurement, based on the Coriolis’ principle.

The various measurement principles are classifi ed into 10 groups in the Brit-ish Standard BS 7405.

The different technologies have been developed to cover a wide range of applications, as with other instruments or measurement principles, no “ideal” principle can be found. The selection of the best suited principle is a com-promise between desired accuracy, unwanted side effects and cost.

Flow Measurement Applications in the Oil&Gas Industry – Different Technologies for Different ApplicationsDieter HullerSiemens AG, Germany

Fig 1 - Overview of the most frequently used principles of fl ow measurement

Only he who can see the invisible can do the impossible

Dieter Huller, born 24.5.52 in Freiburg / Germany1971 – 1974 Study of Physics, Bachelor of Physics 19741974 – 1978 Study of Chemical Engineering, Diploma of

Engineering (Master degree) 19781978 – 1984 Researcher at the University of Karlsruhe,

Institute of Mechanical and Chemical Engi-neering

July 1984 Doctor degree (Ph.D.) Thesis about optical measurement of particle size and shape analysis

June 1984 Siemens AG, Control and Process Automation, Technology introduction of Machine Vision

Oct. 1994 Marketing and Business development for Automotive Diag-nostic Systems

July 2001 Akquisition and Integration of Laser Analytics businessFrom July 2002 Field Instrumentation and Analytics: Cross-group business

support for the Oil & Gas Industries, Account Management for Oil & Gas Industries, Business Development for Process Analytics

JU NE 2008 5353


An overview of the most commonly used principles of fl ow measurement is given in fi g 1

Various technologies for flow mea-surement are applied in the process industries. All of these are based on different physical principles. These are: differential pressure, ultrasonic sound propagation, magnetic fi eld induction, Coriolis force, Doppler effect, thermal conductivity, the hydrodynamic effects of gases, mechanical force balance and even others.

The presence of all these different technologies in the marketplace dem-onstrates that there is no “universal” fl ow measurement principle or device available. Depending on the respective application and its conditions the most

suitable principle of operation needs to be carefully selected to ensure correct operation and return on investment.

The different principles of fl ow measurement

Differential pressure

Primary differential pressure devices are standardized mechanical fl ow sensors. This technology takes benefi t of Bernoul-li‘s law and the principle of continuity.

Through a constriction of the pipe diameter by the device the fl ow cre-ates a differential pressure across the device, that is converted by the use of a differential pressure transmitter into an electrical current signal which is proportional to the fl ow value. The

correlation of the differential pressure is created by means of an orifi ce plate.

Primary differential pressure devices are suitable for single-phase media such as gas, vapor and liquids without solid components. On lines with small nominal diameters (DN 10 to DN 50) the measurements are infl uenced by the wall roughness and diameter toler-ances of the pipe. These infl uences can be compensated for by using specially manufactured metering pipe sections made of precision engineered pipe. The fl ow coeffi cient C must be determined experimentally to permit exact mea-surements with metering pipes.

Magnetic Flow Meters

An electromagnetic fl ow meter gener-ally consists of a magnetically non-conducting metering tube with an internal electrically insulated surface. Electromagnetic coils connected in se-ries are mounted on the tube, diametri-cally opposite each other. At least two electrodes are inserted through the pipe wall perpendicular to the magnetic fi eld and are in contact with the fl uid to be measured. The magnetic fi eld produced by the coils through which the current passes generates a pulsed electromag-netic fi eld perpendicular to the pipe axis. This magnetic fi eld penetrates the magnetically non-conducting metering tube and the fl uid fl owing through it, which must be electrically conductive, above a minimum level.

According to Faraday’s law of induc-tion, a voltage U is generated in an electrically conductive fluid, and is proportional to the velocity of the fl ow-ing fl uid, the magnetic fl ux density, and the distance between the electrodes (internal diameter of pipe). The signal voltage U, which is proportional to the velocity of the fl owing fl uid, is detected by the electrodes which are in contact with the fl owing fl uid,passing through the electrically insulated pipe wall and converted into appropriate standard signal, such as 4 to 20 mA, by an as-sociated transducer.

Coriolis Mass Flow Meter

The fl ow measuring principle is based on the Coriolis law of movement.

Benefits Limitations+ Primary differential pressure devices are very robust and can be used in a wide range of nominal diameters

- Causes a pressure drop

+ Suitable for wide ranges of temperature and pressure

- Low dynamic range (Turndown)

+ No calibration required as the process is standardized

- Non-linear relationship between pressure and flow

+ The electronics required in addition can be used over a long distance from the measuring location

- Standardized build-in conditions to be met

+ The differential pressure method is well known and has a large installed base

- Sensitive for variations in density and deposit of material

+ The electronics is easy to re-parameterize if process data should change. Adaptation is done by recalculation and re-parameterization of the transmitter or, in the case of the version with annular chamber orifice plate, by using a new orifice disk

- Aging

Fig 2 - Flow measurement based on the principle of differential pressure measurement.

A change in the diameter of the tube results in an increased velocity of fl ow at the

orifi ce and leads to a differential pressure Δpp. The differential pressure represents a

relationship to the fl ow.

Love is the invitation of the wise one who loves what he knows, and knows what he loves54 54 JU NE 2008


The sensors are energized by an electro mechanical driver circuit which oscillates the pipe at its resonant frequency. Two pick-ups are placed symmetrically on both sides of the driver. When liquid or gas fl ows through the sensor, Coriolis force will act on the measuring pipe and cause a pipe defl ection which can be measured as a phase shift on the pick-ups. The phase shift is proportional to the mass fl ow rate. The temperature of the sensor is measured by a Pt1000, in a Wheatstone confi guration (4-wire). The fl ow-proportional signal from the 2 pick-ups, the temperature measurement and the driver frequency are fed into the transmitter for calculations of mass, vol-ume, fraction, temperature and density.

The mass fl ow meter does not require any fl ow conditioning inlet straight sec-tions. Care should be taken to ensure that any valves, gates, sight glasses etc. do not cavitate and are not set into vibration by the fl ow meter.

Ultrasonic Flow Meter – Wetted Sensors

Ultrasonic fl ow meters in general are used to measure liquids with good

acoustic permeability, independent of conductivity, viscosity, temperature, density, and pressure. In Ultrasonic Flow Meters two ultrasonic transducers are placed at an angle φ in relation to the pipe axis. The transducers func-tion as transmitters and receivers of the ultrasonic signals. Measurement is performed by determining the time the ultrasonic signal takes to travel with and against the fl ow. This measuring principle offers the advantage of being independent of variations in the actual sound velocity of the liquid, i.e. inde-pendent of the temperature.

Ultrasonic flow measurement com-prises of two different methods of operation. In the fi rst the ultrasonic sensors are directly in contact with the fl owing fl uid. These devices are com-monly called “wetted fl ow meters” or “intrusive” to distinguish them from the so called “clamp on” sensors which are mounted on the outside of the pipe.

Ultrasonic Flow Meter – Clamp-on Sensors

Ultrasonic clamp-on transducers transmit and receive acoustic signals

through the existing pipe wall, without any interference or need to interrupt the fl ow in the pipe during installation. The fl ow meter automatically compen-sates for any change in fl uid sound velocity (or beam angle) in response to variations in the average transit time between transducers 1 and 2. By subtracting the computed fi xed times (within the transducers and pipe wall) from the measured average transit time, the meter can then infer the required transit time in the fluid. The sound waves traveling in the same direction as the fl ow arrive earlier than sound waves traveling against the direction of fl ow. This time difference is used to compute the line integrated fl ow velocity.

Once the raw fl ow velocity is deter-mined, the fl uid Reynolds number must be determined to properly correct for a fully developed fl ow profi le. In all wetted type ultrasonic fl ow meters the meter constants are confi gured prior to leav-ing the factory. As this is not possible with clamp-on meters, the settings must be made by the customer at the time of installation. These settings include pipe diameter, wall thickness, liquid viscosity, etc. State-of-the-art Clamp-On meters that include temper-ature sensing such as the SITRANS F US clamp-on meter can be confi gured to dynamically infer changes in fl uid viscosity for the purpose of computing the compensation value to provide the most accurate fl ow profi le.

Two basic types of clamp-on transduc-ers are in use. The lower cost “univer-sal” transducer is the most common type in the industry and is suitable for most single liquid applications where the sound velocity of the fl uid does not vary much. This transducer type can be used on any sonically conductive pipe material (including steel) making it well suited to portable survey ap-plications.

The second transducer type is the pat-ented high precision WideBeam trans-ducer (ZeroMatic Path™), which utilizes the pipe wall as a kind of loudspeaker to optimize the signal to noise ratio and provide a wider area of vibration. That makes this kind of transducer less sen-sitive to any change in fl uid properties. The WideBeam transducer is designed

Fig 3 - Basic principle of a magnetic fl ow meter

Benefits Limitations+ Well proven in use, large installed basis - Fluid must be conductive+ Accurate measurement, down to 0,2 % of the measured value

- Spool piece is part of the pipe

+ High linearity over the entire range - Lost of signal for deposits on electrodes+ No pressure drop+ Influence of particles (suspensions, sludge, slurries) can be calibrated out.

My obligation is to do the right thing. The rest is in God’s hands — Martin Luther King, Jr JU NE 2008 5555


for steel pipes, but can also be used with aluminum, titanium, and plastic pipes. It is the preferred transducer for the Hydrocarbon and Petrochemical Industries as well as gas applications. Note that unlike the universal type, this transducer selection is dependent only on the pipe’s wall thickness.

When WideBeam transducers are in-stalled in the “Refl ect” mode confi gura-tion shown in fi g.6, the acoustic signal travels in two different paths between transducers. One path travels through the pipe wall and fl uid, while the other path never enters the fl uid medium. This latter path provides the meter with a reference signal that is completely independent of the fl ow rate and can therefore be used as a measure of transducer “mis-match”. By continu-ally analyzing this pipe-wall signal the meter can dynamically correct for fl ow errors caused by zero drift.

For improved flow profile averaging, redundancy, or better cost per measure-ment, clamp-on meters can be supplied with 1, 2 or 4 measurement channels.

Applications of Flow Meters in the Oil & Gas Industry

Most applications of fl ow measurement are in process measurement. The sig-nals are used by the DCS system for plant control. Additional applications, not described in detail here, comprise safety and environmental measure-ment tasks.

Flow measurement can provide much more benefi t in plants. Applying the ap-propriate principles, such applications range from exact dosing of chemicals by injection of scale inhibitors on an offshore platform, fi scal metering for custody transfer, providing interface detection of two dissimilar products being pumped sequentially through a pipeline, help to keep fl oating platforms in their horizontal position and trigger an alarm when a leak is detected in oil and gas transportation pipelines and locate its position somewhere out in the desert.

Examples of fl ow measurement appli-cations for the different principles are described below.

Fig 4 -Basic principle of a Coriolis fl ow meter: A mass M moving from the center to

the edge of a rotating plate will take path B as shown above. A fl uid of mass M fl owing

through an oscillating bended tube will tend to defl ect the tubes. A phase shift of the

oscillation is observed and measured

Benefits Limitations+ Most accurate flow measurement today - Sensitive to vibrations

+ Independent of temperature variations, entrained air, viscosity, density, conductivity, and pressure changes

- Limited to small and medium pipe diameters due to technology and product cost

+ Measures density and temperature as well+ Multi-parameter Information: flow, density, and temperature

Fig 5 – Intrusive Ultrasonic fl ow meter (wetted sensors): An ultrasonic wave is directed

from transducer 1 to transducer 2 and vice versa. If there is a fl ow in direction of the

arrow, the wave from 1 to 2 is faster than the wave from 2 to 1. The measured difference

between the two signals expresses the fl ow velocity.

Benefits Limitations+ No pressure drop - Installation requirements to be respected+ Not dependant on media conductivity - Liquid needs to be free of gas bubbles+ Economic for large dimensions - Deposits affect the measurement+ Fiscal Metering and custody transfer meters available

- Pipes need to be completely full

+ Multi channel option for higher accuracy

It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer — Albert Einstein56 56 JU NE 2008


Differential pressure based Flow Meters

Differential pressure is worldwide the most frequently used technology for fl ow meters, as the method is proven and standardized. Applications are found in many places in the Oil&Gas and petrochemical industries for the measurement of water, steam and liquid or gas hydrocarbons.

In the case of the use of differential pressure fl ow meters, the medium to be measured is extracted from the pro-cess to a measurement station. Here the pressure transmitter is situated. In

contrast, in any other of the methods described later, the sensors are directly mounted in or at the process stream, they generate an electrical signal which is transferred to the transmitter, in case that the transmitter itself is mounted in a remote location.

An application for a gas pipeline in the Libyan Desert is shown below, including the measurement station (containing two differential pressure transmitters).

Magnetic Flow Meters

Magnetic fl ow meters, due to the prin-ciple of operation are not capable of

measuring oil or gas fl ow, but neverthe-less are used in many applications in the Oil&Gas industry. Typically, magnetic fl ow meters measure water fl ow. Water is used at many locations within oil and gas production. The crude which comes out of the ground is a composite of hydrocarbons in a liquid and gas phase of water and solids. An oil reservoir can be considered a wet sponge. As it gets dryer by exploitation, the more diffi cult it is to make the hydrocarbons accessible. Water is separated, processed and used for re-injection. Re-injection causes a pressure increase in the hydrocarbon reservoir and thus increases the produc-tion rate. Pressures used are in the range of 10.000 – 15.000PSI (700-1000bar).

Even after processing, the water is never really clean. MAG Flow meters can deal with contaminants like sand and low quantities of oil. The meter tends to indicate a low value (as oil and sand have no electrical conductivity), but the meter still continues to measure the water phase. Siemens has applica-tions in the Netherlands where the sand content in water is as high as 70 % and the fl ow meter still functions.

A totally different application in the industry is the stabilization of offshore platforms. Based on the fact that oil and gas reserves are increasingly located in deeper waters, platforms for drilling in deep water are not fi xed on the seabed. They fl oat in the sea. In order to main-tain platform stability, even in rough seas, complex electronic systems are employed. This stabilization is called ballasting and requires the use of large quantities water to weight the platform, as loads on the platform vary the water is moved around the so called ballast-ing tanks to keep the platform level and stable. The sensors used to measure the water fl ow for this application are typically Magentic Flow Meters.

The photo below shows an application for stabilization of an offshore platform.

Coriolis Mass Flow Meters

Mass Flow Meters based on the Coriolis Effect have clear benefi ts as their prin-ciple of operation does not depend on physical effects like conductivity, density, viscosity, pressure or temperature. They

Fig 6 - Ultrasonic clamp-on fl ow meter. Ultrasonic “clamp-on“ sensors are mounted

externally to the wall of the pipe in a refl ect confi guration. Sensors act as transmitters

and as receivers, to provide measurement in both directions. Sensors can operate in

direct mode (mounted opposite of each other) or in refl ection mode (mounted on same

side of the pipe).

Benefits Limitations

+ No wetted parts, no pressure drop- Gas measurement in steel pipe requires 10bar min.

+ No limitation in pressure rating - Does not work on concrete pipes

+ Wide turn-down ratio- Coupling media between sensors and pipe needs certain maintenance

+ Easy installation without pipe intervention or shutdown of the process

- Pipes need to be completely full

+ Not affected by corrosive media+ Multi-channel option for higher accuracy+ Portable meters available

Fig 7 - Differential pressure method for fl ow measurement in a gas pipeline

Perfection is possible otherwise there would be no word for it — Dadi Janki JU NE 2008 5757


Fig 8 - MAG Flow Meters used for stabilization of an offshore platform

are well suited for exact measurement of low fl ow rates for a wide variety of differ-ent fl uids. In Oil&Gas applications, this is the case for chemical dosing. Chemicals are used as drilling mud (or “drilling fl uid”) and also as scale inhibitor which is used to production wells. Drilling fl uids have various functions to fulfi ll, such as carry-ing the pieces of rock excavated by the drill bit, called cuttings, up to the surface, these cuttings are carried in suspension in the drilling mud , controlling formation pressures, cooling, lubricating and sup-porting the bit and drilling assembly.

Water-based drilling mud may consist of bentonite clay (gel) with additives

such as barium sulfate (barite), calcium carbonate (chalk) or hematite. Various thickeners are used to infl uence the viscosity of the fl uid, e.g. Xanthan Gum, guar gum, glycol, carboxymethylcel-lulose, polyanionic cellulose (PAC), or starch. In turn, defl occulants are used to reduce viscosity of clay-based muds; anionic polyelectrolytes (e.g. acrylates, polyphosphates, lignosulfonates (Lig) or tannic acid derivates such as Que-bracho) are frequently used. Red mud was the name for a Quebracho-based mixture, named after the color of the red tannic acid salts. Many other chemicals are also used to maintain or create some of the properties needed

2). The exact quantities of the constitu-ent chemicals need to be measured very accurately in the make up of the drilling mud this application is ideally suited to Coriolis fl owmeters.

Ultrasonic Flow Meter – Wetted Sensors

The example below shows a crude oil transfer station at the South Arne fi eld in Denmark on ANSI 20’’ fl anges. The two systems shown in the picture work on the same line; one is operated by the exporting company, the other by the importer.

Ultrasonic Flow Meter – Clamp-on Sensors

Clamp-on fl ow meters are the perfect fi t for applications involving liquid hydro-carbons including crude oil, refi ned pe-troleum products and liquefi ed gas. The major benefi t over other technologies is the ability to get those meters installed without any interruption of the fl ow or major encroachments to the pipe.

A proper installation, provided, clamp-on fl ow meters provide the same range of accuracy as the meters with wetted sensors.

As ultrasonic fl ow meters measure the ultrasonic velocity of the fl uid being transported, this fl uid material property can be used for additional applications beyond just fl ow.

Pipelines often are used in batch op-eration; they do not only transport one single product. They are transporting different refined products or crude sequentially. At the end of the pipe the different batches need to be separated by switching a valve to the respective storage vessels. This so called “Batch tracking” is performed by ultrasonic fl ow sensors, in addition to their ability to measure fl ow they are also capable of detecting changes to density. Typical applications are batch tracking of dif-ferent refi ned products such as diesel, kerosene, super and regular fuels.

But fl ow meters can do even more than just measure the fl ow. By combining the fl ow values with the measured density, the temperature as an additional param-

Fig 9 - Coriolis Mass Flow Meters for dosing of chemicals in an offshore operation

process

Man does not live by bread alone. Many Prefer self-respect to food — Mahatma Gandhi58 58 JU NE 2008


PEMEX, the state-owned oil company of Mexico with 98 Billion USD annual revenue and 138,000 Employees, has insuffi cient refi ning capability. There-fore they need to export crude oil and import refi ned products. Pipelines are their primary delivery mechanism and greatly increase the points of vulner-ability to illegal tapping of pipelines. Pemex incurs annual losses due to theft in excess of 2 billion USD, 51 % of stolen product is diesel.

In early 2006, a pilot project was launched into the viability of non-invasive leak detection technology. Clamp-on Ultrasonic Flow Meters were installed on the extreme ends of an 8 km pipeline. Ultrasonic Flow Meters are used as they are extremely sensitive at and around zero fl ow and provide fl ow data during both fl ow and no fl ow

eter and with the help of a fl ow table, the mass fl ow can be calculated. By calculat-ing a mass fl ow balance along the pipe an additional and important measurement task is achieved: leak detection.

Oil producers and transporters are under high pressure to reduce or eliminate the amount of petroleum products lost from pipelines either through theft or leaks, accidentally or otherwise. 15% of the total petroleum products transported by pipelines world wide are at risk of theft by illegal tapping of the pipelines

At over $100USD per barrel (March 2008) and a world wide consumption of over 84,000,000 barrels per day, the losses from pipeline intrusions are staggering economically and environ-mentally. In Mexico alone, 5 Billion USD in product value is at risk.

conditions. They permit the system to detect and integrate very small leaks and extractions.

Even in the pilot phase of the project unanticipated benefi ts of the program became obvious: After unloading the fi rst ship into the supervised pipe, 22 suspicious events were identifi ed. Soon after, a rumor spread within the local community that Pemex was deploying a new weapon that would locate unau-thorized extractions and catch thieves. This immediately caused thieves to stop tapping. After rumor spread, only one suspicious event was recorded (and turned out to be an actual known leak).

The second and third ships had no loss-es during unloading. The cost return on investment was given within a month of activation; the deterrence value had been underestimated by far.

The different examples given here only serve to demonstrate a small selection of the various applications of fl ow measurement in the Oil&Gas industry. The intention with the selec-tion of these examples is not to give a complete picture of applications, but to show some typical applications and to discuss some experience with these applications.

Bibliography1) “Global Spec – The Engineering

Search Engine” http://sensors-transducers.globalspec.com/Industrial-Directory/vortex_fl ow-meter_guide

2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drill-ing_mud

Fig 10 - Ultrasonic Flow Meters in a crude oil transfer station

Fig 11 - Setup of the leak detection system and location of the leak detected

Success is to stand in the presence of God unashamed JU NE 2008 5959


“R&D Conclave II of Petroleum Industry” was organized by PETROTECH Society in collaboration with IOCL R&D and held at Hotel Cidade de Goa, Goa from 9th-11th January 2008.

The conclave was attended by 110 participants, who were drawn from various R&D Centres both in the public, private sector and Practicing Manag-ers from the upstream/downstream of the oil industry. During the two and a half days conclave various topics were covered by 33 eminent Speakers / Chairpersons and 5 VVIPs, who ad-dressed the delegates in the inaugural and valedictory sessions.

Mr J L Raina, Sec-retary General & CEO welcomed the delegates to the Conclave and assured PETRO-TECH’s untiring efforts to encour-age R&D as well as to be an agent in enhancing its ef-fectiveness in the Hydrocarbon Sec-tor. To catalyze this, PETROTECH has instituted 5 Research Scholarships per year for re-search in the Hydrocarbon Sector.

Mr Anand Kumar, Director (R&D), IOCL gave an overview of the R&D efforts of IOCL and stressed the need for research for the common cause of the hydrocarbon sector. He indicated that research should be such, which is implementable and be benefi cial in chalking out new procedures/

processes besides reducing costs.

Mr B M Bansal, Direc-tor (Business Devel-opment & Planning), IOCL; Mr K K Acha-rya, Managing Direc-tor, CPCL alongwith Mr M K Joshi, Director (Tech), EIL delivered the Keynote Address-es. They stressed upon the need to en-courage research and

PETROTECH ACTIVITIES

R&D Conclave II of Petroleum Industry9th - 11th January 2008, Hotel Cidade de Goa, Goa

NIPM pre conference panel discussions7th - 9th February 2008, Baroda

Dignitaries lighting the ceremonial lamp

Mr. Sarthak Behuria, Chairman IOCL delivering inaugural address during R&D conclave II

bring together partnerships between technical institutes and the industry.

Mr M B Lal, Chairman, Scientifi c Advisory Committee, Ministry of Petroleum & Natu-ral Gas delivered the Inaugural Address.

A Special Address was given by Swami Sukhabodhananda, Chairman of Pras-anna Trust, who spoke on “Nurturing Innovations in Oneself, Organization and Society”. This two hours address to the participants was mind blowing, tantaliz-ing and kept the participants glued at-tentively throughout the session.

The Valedictory Address was deliv-ered by Mr Subir Raha, Executive Vice Chairman, Hinduja Group India. While addressing the need for research & development in the industry, he wanted the ownership to be that of the top brass of each organizations. Meaningful R&D which can be commercialized was the need of hour.

NIPM had their 26th Annual National Con-ference-NatCon08 at Baroda from 7th-9th February 2008. Petro-tech was requested by the organizers NIPM/ONGC to organ ize and sponsor the Pre Conference-Panel Dis-cussions on the theme “Linking Management, Education and Indus-

try: Challenges” held on 7th February 2008 at ONGC Baroda.

The Pre Conference-Panel Discussions was presided over by Dr A K Balyan, National President NIPM and Keynote Address was delivered by Dr B S Sahay, Director, IMT, Ghaziabad and Mr S P Parashar, Director, IIM (Indore).

Besides the above dignitaries 14 eminent panelists from the academia, industry and management had participated in the above

Mr. Subir Raha, Executive Vice Chairman Hinduja Group India, delivering valedictory address

60 60 JU NE 2008


PETROTECH Society and Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, Guwahati Refinery took an initiative to bring together the Academia and practicing managers by organizing a seminar on “Hydro-carbon Industry Growth – Prospects & Challenges in the North East” held on 24-25 April 2008 at Indian Oil Guwahati Refi nery.

The two days programme was designed to share the advances made in the fi eld of exploration/production, refi ning and petrochemicals and was attended by 58 participants.

The topics covered were oil scenario – international, national & in north east; Petroleum exploration – National &

International Scenario; Petroleum Ex-ploration – Synergy is Key; Overview

Seminar on “Hydrocarbon Industry Growth – Prospects & Challenges in North East”April 24-25th 2008, Guwahati Refi nery

of N E Refi neries; Indane Maximization Unit – In house design for maximization of LPG; Hydroprocessing – Process; Catalyst & Reactors; Polyolefi n – Re-cent Advances in Catalysts & Materials, Napthacracker to produce petrochemi-cal feedstock, thermal cracking pro-cess – delayed coking with reference to needle coke measures; auto fuel policy and Alternate Fuels; Bio-diesel; Hydrogen etc.

Mr. Raina while extending a warm welcome to the Chief Guests and Par-ticipants also expressed his happiness for the assistance provided by IOCL Guwahati Refi nery.

Mr. Bhanumurthy in his Keynote Ad-dress spoke on the crude oil scenario

Pre Conference-Panel Discussions. Over 300 delegates from various organizations/institutes also attended this event.

Pre Conference-Panel Discussions revolved around the needs of the academia and the oil industry and how both could be brought together to assist each other in their respec-tive activities for the benefi t of the industry as a whole.

The Pre Conference-Panel Discussions were a grand success and the event was anchored, covered and telecast by NDTV Profi t. A view of the audience at the pre-conference discussions

During the inaugural session of the workshop

Group photograph of participant of dignitaries

JU NE 2008 6161


of Assam and mantras of profi tability – high distillate yield, reduction in fuel and loss and low MBN.

The Inaugural Session was presided over by Mr Anand Kumar, Director (R&D), IOCL. In his speech Mr. Kumar said oil and gas scenario in the North East poses many challenges as well as provides several opportunities.

He said that Tripura, Bangladesh and Myanmar with the available natural gas can form a special economic

The 2nd Steer ing Committee of PETROTECH - 2009 was held on 12th

March, 2008 at Hotel Le-Meridian. The meeting was chaired by Shri Sarthak Behuria, Chairman, Indian Oil Corpora-tion Limited and Chairman, Steering Committee, PETROTECH-2009. Among others, the meeting was attended by Shri R S Sharma, Chairman, ONGC and Chairman, PETROTECH SOCIETY. Shri Behuria welcomed Shri R S Sharma and all other members of the Steer-ing Committee. He also informed the members about the formal release of 1st

Announcement Brochure and launch of PETROTECH-2009 website by Mr Murli Deora, Hon’ble Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Patron-in-Chief,

2nd Steering Committee Meeting

PETROTECH-2009 during the 1st Core Group Meeting held on 17th January, 2008 and gave a brief overview about the development so far and the salient decisions of 1st Core Group Meet-ing. Shri R S Sharma complimented Indian Oil for taking early initiatives in commencing the planning process of PETROTECH-2009 and expressed his happiness about the progress made by the Organising Committee, PETROTECH-2009.

The Chairman, Organising Commit-tee gave a detail presentation about the activities so far undertaken by the Committee and plans for further activities for taking the event forward. Thereafter, all the Nodal Committees gave their presentations about the activities undertaken by them so far and their plan of activities for taking the event forward.

region like the UAE for free flow of trade.

The Govt. of India has approve Rs 54 billion for the Brahmaputra Cracker and Polymer Ltd, which would her-ald an ear of economic growth for the region.

North East is endowed with rich deposits of coal and shale oil. The oil shale reserves which can yield a liquid similar to natural crude oil can sustain production of 140 mil-lion tones of crude oil for 100 yrs.

Assam also has a re-serve of 295 MMT of low ash high Sulphur Coal which has the possibil-ity of being converted to liquid fuel.

He also spoke on contribution of IOC R&D to the growth of oil industry of NE.

The valedictory session was chaired by Dr B K Das, Managing Director, NRL and the two panelists were Dr R K Malhotra, ED (R&D), IOCL and Mr. A C Mishra, DGM(T), IOCL Guwahati Refi n-ery. Dr Das exhorted the participants to carry forward the knowledge gained for meeting the objectives of academia. He wished good luck to all the participants in their future endeavour.

Dr B K Das, MD Inductory with the participants

A View of the Participant of the North East Workshop

62 62 JU NE 2008


ONGC's good work in Combating Cli-mate Change has won it international recognition. An eminent jury, under the chairmanship of Justice P N Bhagwati, former Chief justice of India and Member of UN Human Rights Commission, ad-judged ONGC the winner for 2008 Golden Peacock award for an impeccable record in the Climate change mitigation.

Apart from this corporate recognition, ONGC's Institute of Drilling Technology secured the Golden Peacock award under ECO-Innovation category in Oil & Gas Sector, while Corporate Health Safety & Environment (HSE) section of ONGC bagged the award under the Environment Management category.

The award for Combating Climate Change was handed over to ONGC by the Hon'ble Chief Minister of Hi-machal Pradesh Professor Prem Ku-

ONGC's pursuit towards sustainable management is well documented and has earned ONGC many laurels. The latest initiative towards this is the registration of the fourth Clean Development Mecha-nism (CDM) project with the United Na-tions Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on May 16, 2008. The formal communication from the UNFCCC in this regard came late hours of May 19. The project, 'Flare Gas Recovery Proj-ect at Hazira Gas Processing Complex (HGPC), Hazira' involves reducing gas

ONGC bags international recognition for Combating Climate Change

ONGC's fourth CDM project registered by UNFCCCMay 24, 2008

mar Dhumal on 30th May 2008 during the Global Convention on Climate Change at Palampur, wit-nessed by many dignitar-ies, corporate leaders and opinion makers from 25 countries. ONGC's Director (Onshore) Mr. A K Hazarika, who is Director In-Charge of Environment Manage-ment, received along with ONGC's Head Carbon Management Group Dr. A B Chakraborty.

Speaking on the occasion Mr. Hazarika said, "ONGC has taken the ongoing Climate Change and Global Warming very seriously. Cli-mate change entails risks, costs as well as opportunities. We feel that Sustain-able development is the solution; and

sustainable developments solutions can be evolved into a business model of a company thereby creating value for the company and also contribute effec-tively to Climate change mitigation".

ONGC Director A K Hazarika (2nd from right) and Dr. A B Chakraborty (extreme right) receiving the inter-national Golden Peacock award 2008 for Combat-ing Climate Change, from Hon'ble Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh Professor Prem Kumar Dhumal

fl aring from the Hazira processing plant and qualifi es for a CDM project under the fuel substitution category. The expected annual accruable CER is 8793 for a sus-tained period of 10 years, equivalent to an annual earning of Rs 7.7 million (approx.) of green revenue (1 CER drawing 16 Euro these days on a conservative basis).

Mr. A B Chakraborty, GGM, Head - Car-bon Management Group formally handed over the registration certifi cate to CMD on May 23, 2008. CMD has conveyed his compliments on the registration of the fourth CDM project of ONGC. ONGC was the only PSU under MoPNG to have included two CDM Projects as parameter in the MoU with MoPNG for 2007-08. It was as much a belief and confi dence of the Board on ONGC's capability as a test of ONGC's conviction to sustainable de-velopment. Registration of the project has enabled ONGC to achieve the coveted target of 100% performance in this pa-rameter (the GFR at Uran plant, ONGC's third registered CDM project was the other project). It has, at the same time, vindi-cated the confi dence and conviction.

Mr A B Chakraborty handing over UNFCCC registration to CMD

The registration of this project has come shortly after ONGC's bagging the inau-gural Earth Care Award. This is a day of rejoice for ONGC that has come through untiring efforts of CMG and constant guidance from Director(Onshore), Mr. A K Hazarika over two years. However, the success would not have been possible without the extremely proactive coopera-tion from the Hazira Plant. Sustainable Development is fast becoming a viable business model across the world. De-veloping CDM projects is just a part of the entire model, albeit a very alluring part. ONGC has realized its business potential like other global oil majors, as is evident from the recent letter from Mr. R S Sharma, CMD to all Key executives to consider CDM benefi ts in any future project at the inception level and his desire to set up a separate web page on CDM. We are hopeful that with such unwavering commitment and guidance, ONGC's quest for sustainable develop-ment will reach its desired destination successfully.

A view of the Hazira Plant

JU NE 2008 6363


The University of Alberta is our province’s leading university. It was

founded exactly a century ago, and now is a cornerstone institution for a region that is setting Canadian standards in economic growth, technological in-novation, and workplace diversity. There is a very wide range of part-time professional, or short term post-degree training programs offered here, includ-ing courses for resident executives in the energy sector. More than 35,000 regularly enrolled students pursue stud-ies in over 170 accredited graduate, and 200 undergraduate, fi elds of study here. The ‘U of A’ also has a signifi cant international footprint, with over 1500 non-resident students in attendance, from over 105 countries.

The University of Alberta was ranked in 2007 as ‘best overall’ in the annual rankings of Canadian universities by Maclean’s magazine.

Professional training should provide to participating managers several op-portunities to gain types of experience which would not easily be available to them in their

normal work, and yet which should none-theless positively affect their outlooks and capacities when they return to work. If I were to describe what specifi cally these types of experience were, I would cite at least three. First, most employees, even ones who are outstanding and who are recognized as likely leaders or as “high fl yers” in their departments, still often feel that their work duties don’t usually enable them to gain a broad or full understanding of how the several functional units or departments within their company or ministry connect one to another. The oil and gas program which is our fl agship course, although it is only four weeks’ duration, still en-ables participating managers to gain a comprehensive and current picture of the larger petroleum sector–from exploration and development, to transportation, to downstream aspects.

Secondly, this type of training is de-signed t o

About the University of AlbertaJohn Doyle

be interactive. That is, the participants come together with managers from several different regions of the world, and are encouraged within sessions to share related experience, debate perspectives on the problems which are presented to them, and take away valuable, long-term sectoral contacts from the time together.

The end result, we believe, is an em-ployee who is much more prepared to see him or herself as a manager. They understand better the leadership ele-ment which being a manager entails. They feel much more enduringly the need to think broadly on how their own department fi ts within the larger company, or even how the company fi ts strategically within the entire global pe-troleum framework.

64 64 JU NE 2008


The Petrotech SocietyCore 8, Scope Complex, 3rd fl oor, 7 Institutional Area

Lodhi Road, New Delhi - 110003Phones +91 11 2436 0872, 2436 1866

Telefax +91 11 2436 0872Email [email protected], [email protected]

web www.petrotechsociety.org

PETROTECHSociety

Petrotech Journal June 2008

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Transcript of Petrotech Journal June 2008