To the typical individual, the oil and gas industry might seem easy a matter of literally tapping right into a natural resource and distributing it to prospects. Of course the matter of extraction is never simple, and in the case of emergent hydraulic fracturing technology, it is particularly complex and capital-intensive.
In fact, the world of petroleum and natural gas extraction, distribution and use is an exercise surrounded by a thicket of very important requirements and requirements-making actions. For instance, within the case of pure gasoline, requirements for measuring and categorizing gas in its variability from location to location are vital to making certain its marketability and protected use. Without the lingua franca supplied by requirements, the trade can be unimaginable to sustain globally.
Right this moment, a few of crucial points facing the oil and fuel and different gaseous fuels sector span from the underground reservoir to the ignition point in an engine or an industrial process.
Thomas Kurth, a associate with the regulation agency of Haynes and Boone LLP, Dallas, Texas, outlined a few of the challenges in a latest Oil and Gas Journal article.1
In keeping with Kurth, these challenges stem in part from the industry success, with production in the United States increasing at the very best charge in the industry history. Certainly, the first of the highest considerations that he identified is dealing with authorities insurance policies relative to both local weather change and sustainability goals. In addition, Kurth says the business should pay attention to air and water pollution, along with water use and conservation.
With issues broadly expressed, particularly within regulatory businesses, about pollution basically and carbon emissions in particular, the necessity to measure and management all features of the processes surrounding fuels continues to grow. Related complexities are also rising relative to the usage of fuels manufactured through biological processes, such as methane.
Measuring Liquid Property
Among the many ASTM technical committees targeted on the area is D02 on Petroleum Products, Liquid Fuels and Lubricants. It has a large purview, a large body of members more than 2,300 and dozens of subcommittees. e are engaged on so many things that it hard to summarize,explains Randy Jennings, chairman of D02 and program operations director, Division of Agriculture with the State of Tennessee, in Nashville.
In actual fact, D02 dates again to 1904 and through the years has labored to craft more than 800 worldwide standards. The committee has been instrumental in growing specifications that present for cleaner gasoline and higher automobile efficiency.
Though each subcommittee has important and related work underneath consideration, a few of the extra familiar initiatives are occurring within the product specification subcommittees, notes Jennings.
Subcommittee D02.J0 on Aviation Fuels has just lately handed a significant revision to ASTM D7566, Specification for Aviation Turbine Fuel Containing Synthesized Hydrocarbons. This revision to the specification permits the usage of synthesized iso-paraffins, produced from hydroprocessed fermented sugars for use as a synthetic mixing element in aviation turbine fuels, and enhances the opportunity for commercial airlines to extend their use of biomass-based renewable components in jet gas. Moreover, Subcommittee D02.J0 has developed latest specs for a new grade of unleaded aviation gasoline certification and take a look at gasoline (D7592) and high octane unleaded take a look at fuel (D7719).2
Likewise, Subcommittee D02.A0 on Gasoline and Oxygenated Fuels has a number of great items beneath consideration. One initiative focuses on the strong potential for butanol, which might be produced by fermentation, to be used as a biofuel.
Moreover, subcommittee members are considering information for possible revisions to ASTM D4814, Specification for Automotive Spark-Ignition Engine Gasoline, for quite a lot of property updates. Among the steps being considered are as follows, in response to Jennings.
Jennings says Subcommittee D02.E0 on Burner, Diesel, Non-Aviation Gasoline Turbine and Marine Fuels is analyzing data that might presumably result in a brand new grade of gasoline oil that permits between 6 and 20 volume % biodiesel. As well as, Subcommittee D02.H0 on Liquefied Petroleum Fuel just lately developed a new customary, D7901, Specification for Dimethyl Ether for Gasoline Functions, which covers the product supposed to be used in goal-constructed diesel engines.
In help of all of the product specification changes, at any given time, D02 may have as many as 100 new standards registered as work objects under growth with even more registered for updates or revisions.
Gaseous Fuels
Committee D03 on Gaseous Fuels is another area with a wide range of ongoing activity, in line with chairman Raul Dominguez Jr., Ph.D., senior air high quality chemist on the South Coast Air Quality Administration District in Diamond Bar, California.
Pure gas newly ample because of new extraction technologies is getting a whole lot of consideration. The main focus for Allan Morrison, as a committee member and as senior environmental scientist at the California Department of Meals and Agriculture in Sacramento, is a pure fuel normal for motor vehicle fuels. e were initially looking at trying to incorporate the use of natural gasoline in trains and marine makes use of, but for now we are focusing just on autos; our purpose is to have a worldwide customary,he says. A main issue is that there are totally different regional tariff requirements for pipeline gases and important seasonal variability. he motorized vehicle manufacturers would like to have the ability to have one gasoline product as a result of it makes their job much simpler; our strategy is to look into establishing courses of fuels to cover the broad regional differences in pure gas,Morrison says.
There are two predominant elements for engineering and design to think about. One is the Wobbe Index, which is used to match the combustion energy output of various composition fuel gases. The other is the methane number used a lot like the octane quantity or cetane quantity in rating, respectively, gasoline and diesel gasoline. Although there are presently a quantity of various methods, a few of them are proprietary to organizations in Europe and some are extra open. ecause of the difficulties of measuring the methane quantity, it is essentially a derived number and there isn’t a worldwide standard for the way it must be measured so we’re engaged on choosing a method,notes Morrison.
Unique tools manufacturers have been driving this effort because they are the ones most fascinated with utilizing what the pipelines suppliers have been delivering for heating and for operating gas turbines, Morrison notes.
Andy Pickard, Ph.D., a retired chemist in Qualicum Seashore, British Columbia, Canada, and chairman of Subcommittee D02.H0 on Liquefied Petroleum Gas (which has had a historic and ongoing position in working with liquefied gaseous merchandise which can be used for fuels in heating and transportation), notes that requirements are important for outlining what’s required for specific applications. hile the pure gas pipeline operators will restrict things like sulfur content on pure fuel to regulate emissions and corrosion, they aren’t prone to embrace new specific requirements for the motor fuels market because it is a tiny part of their enterprise,he says. Still, he expects to see more use of pure gas in the type of compressed natural gas and liquefied natural gas. (Specifications for CNG and LNG fall beneath the duties of Committee D03 on Gaseous Fuels.)
Dominguez agrees that the pure gasoline specification growth work will assist vehicle OEMs standardize engine design and should not solely help boost sales by standardizing minimum gasoline high quality but additionally might cut back a number of the obstacles related to constructing fueling stations. have nice interest in seeing the attainment of healthful air quality, and while you go with natural gasoline instead of petroleum you scale back the emissions of air toxics and different pollutants,he adds.
With regard to creating biogas (methane) right into a extra viable fuel, another area of focus and an ongoing problem has involved impurities. As an example, says Dominguez, methane generated inside landfills sometimes incorporates substantial amounts of siloxanes, a class of compounds that include a siliconxygenilicon linkage. When methane containing siloxanes is burned, it generates solids that can damage engines, turbines and different mechanisms. Standards are crucial for measuring impurities in and assessing gasoline quality for biogas and other gaseous fuels used in engines, burners and other functions, he says.
Work can be underneath means associated to the emerging use of hydrogen as a gas. n the case of hydrogen, SAE Worldwide has develop into the chosen organization for establishing a fuel specification for hydrogen, but Committee D03 has performed the instrumentation and test technique specs to assist meet the requirements of the SAE specification,says Morrison.
Instruments for the Extraction Revolution
And what of the expertise that has not too long ago helped make oil and gasoline so readily obtainable? Hydraulic fracturing is another space getting standards attention, underneath the auspices of ASTM Committee D18 on Soil and Rock and, in particular, Subcommittee D18.26 on Hydraulic Fracturing.
John T. ackGermaine, senior lecturer and senior research associate, civil and environmental engineering on the Massachusetts Institute of Know-how, Cambridge, is now chairman of Committee D18. He was previously chair of the subcommittee. Germaine says that D18.26 held its first assembly in January of 2013. The originally stated goal of the subcommittee was to develop consensus standards relative to the assorted activities which are associated with hydraulic fracturing operations. This included monitoring within the broadest sense, site infrastructure, injected and return supplies, and documentation, he says. ince then the conferences have been very well attended by a wide range of stakeholders. Now we have membership from the petroleum sector, the federal government regulatory agencies, manufacturers, engineering consultants, testing laboratories, lecturers and attorneys,says Germaine.
ver the previous two years, it has develop into that hydraulic fracturing is one small operation within the extra normal drilling and hydrocarbon extraction enterprise. As such, I expect lots of the products popping out of this subcommittee will serve the general drilling sector,he adds.
At current the subcommittee has about 250 members. Given the size of the subcommittee and the fact that a really massive percentage of the members are new to the ASTM course of, Germaine says it has taken a while to develop traction and establish helpful subjects for standardization. e organized a workshop on site investigations and monitoring at our January 2014 committee week to realize visibility and generate standardization matters,he says.
Thus far, the subcommittee has one commonplace within the balloting process, a information for sampling and analysis of water wells, which could be used to establish base ranges for contaminants of interest previous to any drilling operations in addition to to evaluate modifications over time. e also have several requirements in draft type to characterize varied parameters of proppant materials,he says. Proppants are solids (usually sands) that are injected into the fractures to keep pathways open and supply stream paths to the borehole.
The document now in draft form is a information for data management and reporting, which would offer a template offering a unified format to archive essential information about drilling actions. That effort once more showcases how vital the details are and how crucial standards and standardized methods are in a subject as vital to the economic system as liquid and gaseous fuels.
Moreover, an ASTM International subcommittee, D19.09 on Water Hydraulic Fracturing Fluids, part of Committee D19 on Water, is specializing in developing requirements that will likely be used by contract laboratories, water utilities and others requiring or creating methods used for hydraulic fracturing. The standards can be used to assess water quality and determine impacts of a spill or potential contamination.
Richard Jack, North American environmental advertising and marketing manager, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Sunnyvale, California, and a member of D19, explains that thus far the committee is validating one method for dissolved gases in water. The subcommittee can also be trying to ascertain a liaison with Subcommittee D18.26 on Hydraulic Fracturing, and to work intently with the D19 govt subcommittee section D19.90.04 to continue to coordinate communication with the U.S. Environmental Protection Company on fracturing water issues.
