PETROCHEMICAL/PETROLEUM/CHEMICAL
ENGINEERING
Petrochemical engineering is a
specialized branch of chemical engineering which deals with the operations of
refining and petrochemical technology. The term petrochemical refers to the
organic crude petroleum. It is the task of the petrochemical engineer to
discover natural gas of oil, extract them from the earth, refine them and make
it usable.
Petroleum engineering can be divided
into two parts; upstream and downstream sector. The upstream sector activities
include exploration, production and exploitation of oil and natural gas. The
downstream sector consists of activities such as the refining market and
distribution of petroleum product. Refining process is crucial for an oil
product as then it can be used. Petrochemical engineers mainly have need in
refineries, petrochemical plants as well as downstream petroleum industries,
bulk storage and transport companies, oil marketing companies, etc.
People
go to fitting shops for maintenance of their automobile with the awareness of
changing engine oils, checking their tyre pressure and attending to their
brakes with the neglect of checking whether or not if water suspension has made
its way into their fuel tank. This is due to ignorance on their part. As an engineering student, I
intend to create awareness of the damages created when water find its way into
fuel tanks. Therefore, with little research I conducted, i intend to outline
some few procedures that can be carried out by any layman who intend to check
whether or not if there is water suspension in the fuel tank.
Things that will be needed;
•
Fuel
•
2 yards of plastic tube
•
Clear drinking glass
Steps
•
Fill up the car with fuel. Wait two or more hours
•
Siphon off a small amount (about 2 fluid oz.) of the content
of the tank into the glass using the plastic tube. This should be done from the
bottom of the fuel tank as water is dense than fuel.
•
Siphon off a small amount (about 2 fluid oz.) of the fuel
from upper layer of the fuel tank into the glass.
•
Check the glass to see if there is distinct separation of
the liquid when u hold up the glass to eye level. There is contamination as
this denotes a separation of water and fuel. If the contents are uniform, there
is no contamination.
CONTROLLING WATER IN FUEL
The
simplest way to control water, if it’s in an above ground tank, is to drain the
water off. But many users especially if they use underground fuel storage (fuel
stations). They can use water coalescing filters, but those have to be change.
There are additization options available. Additives to control water tend to
fall into a emulsifying and demulsifying –type options. An emulsifier will make
water combine with the fuel (Robert bell inverted one of the these back in the
1920’s.). A demulsify does the opposite-it makes sure that any water that is
floating around in the fuel body drops down the bottom and out of the fuel.
Of course Bell performance has offered
water –controlling options, both in its multi-functions formulas and single
–function problem solves. Bell‘s formulas tend to skew toward emulsifying the
water i.e. combing it with the fuel in tiny particles( micelles) that has
suspended in the fuel until it passes through the injectors and into the
combustion chamber for disposal. Bell also has developed absorbing technologies
that absorbs water into phase with the fuel so it is seamlessly bound into
water and does not drop out.
CONCLUSION
Water
makes way into fuel due to temperature changes and rain seeping into it
sometimes due to poor housekeeping of storage site. This can cause problems to
the engine. For that reason, there has been the need to check our fuel in our
tanks to eradicate such problems.
RECOMMENDATION
•
I recommend that oil marketing firms ensures proper
housekeeping storage by putting up water tight premises
•
I recommend that both the marketing firm and the customers
will be checking the water content in fuel
with additives like water finder which changes colour to white thereby
indicating that there is water in the fuel and apply the necessary approach to
solve it before causing havoc to the engine.
•
I recommend that the ministry of energy will create
awareness of this situation on any platform.
•
I recommend the people will purchase Bell’s fuel product
because I found it to be very effective with situations like this.
APPENDICES
•
Questionnaires
•
Could there be situation where by some marketing firms will
try to mix water with fuel with the intention of having more products?
Ans; well I
don’t think so because water in the first place won’t mix with fuel because
water is denser than fuel
•
How does water comes
into fuel if no marketing firm will do that?
Ans; when
there is poor housekeeping of storage tanks and most times is due to
temperature changes.
•
How can that affect your market?
Ans; well,
customers will think we give them contaminated product which of course will
have consequences on their vehicle.
•
So what are some of the problems it has for vehicles?
Ans; I know of
reducing horse power and speed of the vehicle and causing damages to engine
parts.
•
So what do you do to solve this if you are already aware of
this?
Ans; we conduct regular checks with
water finder which changes colour in the presence of water and apply a pumping
machine to draw the water out.
•
How?
Ans; we
ensure that the tube connected to the pump touches the bottom of the tank since
the water is found there due to its density difference and we start the
machine. So it will draw out the water beneath until we see a change of colour
of what is coming out then it tells that it has drawn out the water and now
drawing out the fuel so we stop the machine.
•
So do you find this effective?
Ans; Not
really because sometimes it can draw some of our product away. It becomes
difficult to off the machine when you realize that there is no water coming out
but rather fuel.
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