Tag: Production

Do you remember Peak Oil? This was the theory, driven by research originally conducted by petroleum geologist M.K. Hubbert in the 1950s, that oil production inevitably followed a bell curve, with supply eventually peaking as easier reserves were exhausted, leading to an inflexion point in production and a long tailing off. Originally Hubbert was talking solely about US oil production, and he seemed to have been borne out by the evidence. But a lack of discoveries of new large fields in the 1990s led to a revision of the theory that predicted a global production peak in 2005-6, potentially leading to rapidly rising oil prices until demand destruction occurred.

In spite of continuing safety concerns due to the Beirut explosion, and the rise of the use of urea as a nitrogen fertilizer, ammonium nitrate demand continues to increase in several key markets.

Although the Covid-19 pandemic has been the big story in every market this year, the disruption and dislocations that this has caused have masked some of the bigger trends in the urea market, such as the revival of Chinese exports and India’s push for self-sufficiency.

Falling costs for production of hydrogen by electrolysis are encouraging more serious consideration of using recovered carbon dioxide as a feedstock for chemicals and even fuels production.

Fugitive dust emissions during the handling and storage of formed sulphur can result in negative environmental impacts and under specific conditions result in an explosion hazard. Enersul has developed a dust suppression system specifically targeted at controlling sulphur dust particles. The Enersul SafeFoam Transfer System (STS) reduces sulphur fines at critical transfer points throughout any sulphur handling system, resulting in a significantly safer and more environmentally friendly sulphur handling system.

IPCO provides an update on its latest activities, with flexible processes enabling IPCO’s project for the first drum granulation plant in Europe to remain on track despite unprecedented Covid-19 restrictions.

Although amine solution foaming problems have been studied and reported extensively, direct correlations about the root causes of foaming have not been completely established. This article approaches the problems of foaming from a different perspective, rather than theoretical discussions, the topic is centred exclusively on Amine Experts’ field-related experiences with amine foaming episodes.

The Sulphur Institute (TSI) has announced the selection of Ron Olson as its agronomist. Olson has over 30 years of experience as an independent consulting agronomist as well as 15 years with Cargill and The Mosaic Company. His agronomic consulting company worked directly with farmers and agricultural retailers offering custom soil sampling and soil analysis, and crop management expertise. The company pioneered the implementation of using precision agriculture tools for taking soil samples on a 2.5 acre grid, converting that data to computer maps and linking that data to GPS/GIS technology to develop crop management programs to achieve maximum economic yields. With Cargill and Mosaic he served as Research and Development Manager and led the team that developed the MicroEssentials™ suite of products., which has grown to become the leading commercial sulphur enhanced fertilizer sold globally.

The removal of hydrogen sulphide (H2 S) has become increasingly important as the oil and gas industry moves towards more efficient and sustainable production of lower emission clean fuels. BASF and ExxonMobil* have jointly developed a proprietary amine, OASE® sulfexx™ , to help refiners and gas processors achieve sulphur removal targets while reducing their carbon footprint via lower energy consumption. This new solvent technology is suitable for low and high pressure applications and shows superior performance characteristics over generic and promoted MDEA formulations, as well as sterically hindered amines such as FLEXSORB™ SE and SE Plus.

There was a rapid increase in sulphuric acid demand for copper, uranium and nickel leaching from 1995-2015, but over the past few years growth in this sector has slowed dramatically. Now however there are signs that demand is starting to pick up again with several new projects under development.