Laboratory Studies to Determine Suitable Chemicals to Improve Oil Recovery from Garzan Oil Field

Garzan oil field is located at the south east of Turkey. It is a mature oil field and the reservoir is fractured carbonate reservoir. After producing about 1% original oil in place (OOIP) reservoir pressure started to decline. Waterflooding was started in order to support reservoir pressure and also to enhance oil production in 1960. Waterflooding improved the oil recovery but after years of flooding water breakthrough at the production wells was observed. This increased the water/oil ratio at the production wells. In order to enhance oil recovery again different techniques were investigated. Chemical enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods are gaining attention all over the world for oil recovery. Surfactant injection is an effective way for interfacial tension (IFT) reduction and wettability reversal. In this study, 31 different types of chemicals were studied to specify the effects on oil production. This paper presents solubility of surfactants in brine, IFT and contact angle measurements, imbibition tests, and lastly core flooding experiments. Most of the chemicals were incompatible with Garzan formation water, which has high divalent ion concentration. In this case, the usage of 2-propanol as co-surfactant yielded successful results for stability of the selected chemical solutions. The results of the wettability test indicated that both tested cationic and anionic surfactants altered the wettability of the carbonate rock from oil-wet to intermediate-wet. The maximum oil recovery by imbibition test was reached when core was exposed 1-ethly ionic liquid after imbibition in formation water. Also, after core flooding test, it is concluded that considerable amount of oil can be recovered from Garzan reservoir by waterflooding alone if adverse effects of natural fractures could be eliminated.     

Electrowetting-Assisted Generation of Ultrastable High Charge Densities in Composite Silicon Oxide–Fluoropolymer Electret Samples for Electric Nanogenerators

Electric nanogenerators that directly convert the energy of moving drops into electrical signals require hydrophobic substrates with a high density of static electric charge that is stable in “harsh environments” created by continued exposure to potentially saline water. The recently proposed charge-trapping electric generators (CTEGs) that rely on stacked inorganic oxide–fluoropolymer (FP) composite electrets charged by homogeneous electrowetting-assisted charge injection (h-EWCI) seem to solve both problems, yet the reasons for this success have remained elusive. Here, systematic measurements at variable oxide and FP thickness, charging voltage, and charging time and thermal annealing up to 230 °C are reported, leading to a consistent model of the charging process. It is found to be controlled by an energy barrier at the water-FP interface, followed by trapping at the FP-oxide interface. Protection by the FP layer prevents charge densities up to −1.7 mC m⁻² from degrading and the dielectric strength of SiO₂ enables charge decay times up to 48 h at 230 °C, suggesting lifetimes against thermally activated discharging of thousands of years at room temperature. Combining high dielectric strength oxides and weaker FP top coatings with electrically controlled charging provides a new paradigm for developing ultrastable electrets for applications in energy harvesting and beyond.     

Operation principles for hydrogen spark ignited direct injection engines for passenger car applications

The sustainable reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from road transport requires solutions to achieve net-zero carbon dioxide emissions. Therefore, in addition to vehicles with electrified powertrains, such as those implemented in battery electric of fuel cell vehicles, internal combustion engines fueled with e-fuels or biofuels are also under discussion. An e-fuel that has come into focus recently, is hydrogen due to its potential to achieve zero tank-to-wheel and well-to-wheel carbon dioxide emissions when the electrolysis is powered by electricity from renewable sources. Due to the high laminar burning velocity, hydrogen has the potential for engine operation with high cylinder charge dilution by e.g. external exhaust gas recirculation or enleanment, resulting in increased efficiency. On the other hand, the high burning velocity and high adiabatic flame temperatures pose a challenge for engine cooling due to increased heat losses compared to conventional fuels. To further evaluate the use of hydrogen for small passenger car engines, a series production 1 L 3 cylinder gasoline engine provided by Ford Werke GmbH was modified for hydrogen direct injection. The engine was equipped with a high pressure external exhaust gas recirculation system to investigate charge dilution at stoichiometric operation. Due to limitations of the turbocharging system, very lean operation, which can achieve nitrogen oxides raw emissions below 10 ppm, was limited to part load operation below BMEP = 8 bar. Thus, a reduction of the nitrogen oxides emission level at high loads compared to stoichiometric operation was not possible. At stoichiometric operation with external exhaust gas recirculation engine efficiency can be increased significantly. The comparison of stoichiometric hydrogen and gasoline operation shows a reduced indicated efficiency with hydrogen with significant faster combustion of hydrogen at comparable centers of combustion. However, higher boost pressures would allow to achieve even higher indicated efficiencies by charge dilution compared to gasoline engine operation.     

Tactile colour pictogram to improve artwork appreciation of people with visual impairments

A recent development in tactile technology enables an improvement in the appreciation of the visual arts for people with visual impairment (PVI). The tactile sense, in conjunction with, or a possibly as an alternative to, the auditory sense, would allow PVIs to approach artwork in a more self‐driven and engaging way that would be difficult to achieve with just an auditory stimulus. Tactile colour pictograms (TCPs), which are raised geometric patterns, are ideographic characters that are designed to enable PVIs to identify colours and interpret information by touch. In this article, three TCPs are introduced to code colours in the Munsell colour system. Each colour pattern consists of a basic cell size of 10 mm × 10 mm to represent the patterns consistently in terms of regular shape. Each TCP consists of basic geometric patterns that are combined to create primary, secondary, and tertiary colour pictograms of shapes indicating colour hue, intensity and lightness. Each TCP represents 29 colours including six hues; they were then further expanded to represent 53 colours. Two of them did not increase the cell size, the other increased the cell size 1.5 times for some colours, such as yellow‐orange, yellow, blue, and blue‐purple. Our proposed TCPs use a slightly larger cell size compared to most tactile patterns currently used to indicate colour, but code for more colours. With user experience and identification tests, conducted with 23 visually impaired adults, the effectiveness of the TCPs suggests that they were helpful for the participants.     

排风扇前盖注射模设计

分析了排风扇前盖塑件的工艺特点,介绍了排风扇前盖注射成型模结构及模具的工作过程。     

Simplified anode architecture for PEMFC systems based on alternative fuel feeding: Experimental characterization and optimization for automotive applications

The need to reduce PEMFC systems cost as well as to increase their durability is crucial for their integration in various applications and especially for transport applications. A new simplified architecture of the anode circuit called Alternating Fuel Feeding (AFF) offers to reduce the development costs. Requiring a new stack concept, it combines the simplicity of Dead-End Anode (DEA) with the operation advantages of the hydrogen recirculation. The three architectures (DEA, recirculation and AFF) are compared in terms of performance on a 5-kW test bench in automotive conditions, through a sensitivity analysis. A gain of 17% on the system efficiency is observed when switching from DEA to AFF. Moreover, similar performances are obtained both for AFF and for recirculation after an accurate optimization of the AFF tuning parameters. Based on DoE data, a gain of 25% on the weight of the anodic line has been identified compared to pulsed ejector architecture and 43% with the classic recirculation architecture with blower only (Miraï).     

Expression of Main Toll-Like Receptors in Patients with Different Types of Colorectal Polyps and Their Relationship with Gut Microbiota

Abnormal activation of Toll-like receptor (TLRs) signaling can result in colon cancer development. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of important TLRs in different histological types of colorectal polyps and evaluate their relationship with intestinal microbiota. The expression levels of TLR2, 3, 4, and 5 were analyzed in intestinal biopsy specimens of 21 hyperplastic polyp (HP), 16 sessile serrated adenoma (SSA), 29 tubular adenoma (TA), 21 villous/tubulovillous (VP/TVP) cases, and 31 normal controls. In addition, selected gut bacteria including Streptococcus bovis, Enterococcus faecalis, Enterotoxigenic Bacteroides fragilis (ETBF), Fusobacterium nucleatum, Porphyromonas spp., Lactobacillus spp., Roseburia spp., and Bifidobacterium spp. were quantified in fecal samples using absolute qRT PCR, and, finally, the association between TLRs and these gut microbiota- was evaluated by Spearman’s correlation coefficient. Higher expression of TLR2 and TLR4 in VP/TVP and TA, and lower expression levels of TLR3 and TLR5 in all type of polyps were observed. The differences in TLR expression patterns was not only dependent on the histology, location, size, and dysplasia grade of polyps but also related to the intestinal microbiota patterns. TLR2 and TLR4 expression was directly associated with the F. nucleatum, E. faecalis, S. bovis, Porphyromonas, and inversely to Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus, and Roseburia quantity. Furthermore, TLR3 and TLR5 expression was directly associated with Bifidobacterium, Roseburia, and Lactobacillus quantity. Our results suggest a possible critical role of TLRs during colorectal polyp progression. An abnormal regulation of TLRs in relation to gut microbial quantity may contribute to carcinogenesis.     

Parameter estimation for a morphochemical reaction-diffusion model of electrochemical pattern formation

The process of electrodeposition can be described in terms of a reaction-diffusion partial differential equation (PDE) system that models the dynamics of the morphology profile and the chemical composition. Here we fit such a model to the different patterns present in a range of electrodeposited and electrochemically modified alloys using PDE constrained optimization. Experiments with simulated data show how the parameter space of the model can be divided into zones corresponding to the different physical patterns by examining the structure of an appropriate cost function. We then use real data to demonstrate how numerical optimization of the cost function can allow the model to fit the rich variety of patterns arising in experiments. The computational technique developed provides a potential tool for tuning experimental parameters to produce desired patterns.     

Probing the degenerate pattern growth of {100}<011> orientation in a directionally solidified Al-4.5 wt% Cu alloy

Degenerate pattern is a seemingly disordered morphology but it exhibits the inherently ordered crystal connected with tip-splitting and limited stability which makes it difficult to observe in the metallic system. Here we employ (100)[011] orientated planar-front seeds using directional solidification and reveal the fundamental origins of the degenerate pattern growth in an Al-4.5 wt% Cu alloy. We find that the spacing of the tip-splitting (λ) in the degenerate of the alloys followed a power law, λ∝V^−0.5, and the frequency (f) of the splitting was related to the growth velocity (V) by ƒ∝V^1.5. The dimensionless growth direction (θ/θ₀) increased monotonously and approached 0.6 with faster velocity, attributed to its anisotropy in the interface kinetics. Once growth velocity exceeded a threshold, two types of pattern transitions from degenerate to regular dendrites were proposed. One of them exhibited a random and chaotic mode and the other underwent a rotation in growth direction.