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THE DAILY TELEGRAPH THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2008
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| VII
The Daily Telegraph
INNOVATION CAREERS IN OIL AND GAS
THE EDGE OF REASON
THE DRIVE TO MAKE FOSSIL FUELS CLEANER AND GREENER IS RESULTING IN SOME AMAZING TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES THROUGHOUT THE INDUSTRY, SAYS ESME MCAVOY. WE TAKE A LOOK AT THREE OF THEM
THE MAGIC WAND Some types of crude oil can be viscous and therefore difficult to pump through pipelines -- a real problem when it comes to offshore oil, where deep sea pipes can stretch for hundreds of miles. The conventional answer to dealing with such a problem would be to thin the oil by heating it, but its thickness makes this impossible and it is prone to congealing in near-freezing temperatures. US scientists Rongina Tao and Xiaojun Xu have devised the offshore oil producers dream -- an oil-thinning "magic wand". The device is made of two metallic meshes, which are connected to a long tube and, as the oil passes through, a voltage is applied. The wand temporarily thins out even very thick crude oil in pipelines. The change only lasts for a few hours, but it allows the oil to be pumped more quickly and economically. The wand works by using either an electric pulse or magnetic field depending on whether the oil is paraffin- or asphalt-based. The waxy particles found in paraffinbased crude oil clump together in the presence of a magnetic field pulse. Similarly, an electric field pulse will make the tiny particles in asphalt-based crude oil stick together. Both lead to fewer, larger particles and effectively thin out both types of oil without changing the temperature. The effect lasts for several hours and can be repeated when necessary. Tao says: "Shell is working with us to use the technology on pipelines in the US and we hope to have results in one year." method of pumping extra Co2 into the atmosphere. This C02 boost, which increases growth by up to 25 per cent, has traditionally been provided by the addition of gas heaters. Now, however, Shell has devised a system in conjunction with local farmers whereby the Co2 produced by its Pernis refinery near Rotterdam is captured and re-routed via pipelines to regional farms. The system is now being extended to connect a further 100 greenhouses and the refinery will be delivering up to 130 tons of CO2 an hour.
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THE SMART GREENHOUSE SYSTEM Dutch greenhouses, which supply fruit, vegetables and flowers to countries all over the world, have, up until now, relied on the speedy growing
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THE SUPER BUGS
Scientists in Silicon Valley, California, have developed tiny bugs that eat waste and excrete... petrol. It may have the whiff of a science-fiction plot about it, but the "renewable petroleum" firm LS9 has genetically altered single-cell microbes so that when they feed on agricultural waste, such as straw, they excrete oil. The bug poop, or "designer biofuel", resembles petroleum and is "pump-ready", meaning it can be put directly into a car engine without further processing. Better still, the product needs no lengthy pipelines or polluting refineries and could do away with reliance on unstable supplies. All this, and its carbon neutral, too. The single-cell bacteria naturally excrete fatty acids that are similar to the molecular structure of crude oil. Scientists then tinker with their DNA to get the exact oil excretion desired. Its an exciting prospect but the technology has yet to be scaled up. The companys biggest output to date is a fermenting machine that can produce one barrel of biofuel a week. To put that into perspective, the UK consumed an average 1,816 barrels of oil a day in 2006; the US over 20,000. However, the company plans to have a commercial-scale plant by 2011, and estimates that it will be able to produce oil at $50 a barrel -- around half of what one costs today.
THE MOBILE CLEAN-UP SYSTEM Drilling for oil is a messy business. It forces large quantities of oil-contaminated drill cuttings out of the ground and requires a constant supply of "drilling mud", a lubricating mixture of water, clays, chemicals and oil. The machinery, supply vessels and tankers need regular washouts to remove this and other sludgy waste. A favoured technique is to transport this waste onshore then use an energy-intensive, thermal treatment method to get rid of hazardous oil and chemicals. It costs billions of pounds a year and is a logistical headache for offshore oil producers. But the UK company Surface Active Solutions Ltd, has come up with the MicroEmulsions system, a simpler, mobile cleaning method which makes waste separate into fractions of clean solids, water and recovered oil. "Once separated, each component can be reused," says the companys managing director John Harrison. "Solids can be used for construction and recovered oil as product -- while the water fraction can be safely returned to the environment."
JOBS ONLINE: jobs.telegraph.co.uk/ careers-insider
Food for thought From the cultivation of biofuels to the recycling of carbon dioxide, nature is meeting many of our energy needs
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