Investigation of Combustion Properties and Soot Deposits of Various US Crude Oils

Gurjap Singh, Mehdi Esmaeilpour and Albert Ratner
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Gurjap Singh: Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
Mehdi Esmaeilpour: College of Information Technology and Engineering, Marshall University, Huntington, WV 25755, USA
Albert Ratner: Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 12, 1-16

Abstract: The oil boom in the North Dakota oilfields has resulted in improved energy security for the US. Recent estimates of oil production rates indicate that even completion of the Keystone XL pipeline will only fractionally reduce the need to ship this oil by rail. Current levels of oil shipment have already caused significant strain on rail infrastructure and led to crude oil train derailments, resulting in loss of life and property. Treating crude oil as a multicomponent liquid fuel, this work aims to understand crude oil droplet burning and thereby lead to methods to improve train fire safety. Sub-millimeter sized droplets of Pennsylvania, Texas, Colorado, and Bakken crude were burned, and the process was recorded with charge-couple device (CCD) and complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) high-speed cameras. The resulting images were post-processed to obtain various combustion parameters, such as burning rate, ignition delay, total combustion time, and microexplosion behavior. The soot left behind was analyzed using a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). This data is expected be used for validation of combustion models for complex multicomponent liquid fuels, and subsequently in the modification of combustion properties of crude oil using various additives to make it safer to transport.

Keywords: crude oil; petroleum; droplet combustion; burning rate; ignition delay; soot deposits; Bakken crude; Pennsylvania crude; Colorado crude; Texas crude (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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