Iraqi Journal of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering

The present research has investigated the effect of microwave energy on improving the flow properties of heavy crude oil. The fragmentation of crude oil molecules was carried out with and without using 1 and 10 wt. % concentration of various types of H-donors like tetralin, cyclohexane, and naphtha. Microwave power of 320, 385, and 540 W and radiation time 1-9 min, and temperature were studied. The kinematic viscosity and asphaltene content were measured for evaluation the improving of heavy crude oil.
Results show that viscosity of crude oil decreased with increase H-donor concentration, a maximum percentage of viscosity reduction was10.63 % for tetralin at 6 min radiation time, while 8.67%, and 7.34% for cyclohexane and naphtha at 4 min respectively. The high H-donor polarity is the high viscosity reduction.
The asphaltenes content of crude oil was decreased during microwave treatment process, a maximum percentage of reduction was 39.73% for tetralin at 6 min radiation time, while 34.40% and 46.29 % for cyclohexane and naphtha at 4 min respectively. The viscosity of crude oil was decreased with asphaltenes content decrease.
The temperature of a crude oil was varied during the microwave treatment and it was depended on radiation time and radiation power and H-donor type.
The best reduction of crude oil viscosity and asphaltenes content was achieved at a moderate radiation power385 W.

In this paper, nanofluid of TiO2/water of concentrations of 0.002% and 0.004% volume was used. This nanofluid was flowing through heat exchanger of shell and concentric double tubes with counter current flow to the hot oil. The thermal conductivity of nanofluid is enhanced with increasing concentrations of the TiO2, this increment was by 19% and 16.5% for 0.004% and 0.002% volume respectively relative to the base fluid (water). Also the heat transfer coefficient of the nanofluid is increased as Reynold's number and nanofluid concentrations increased too. The heat transfer coefficient is increased by 66% and 49% for 0.004% and 0.002% volume respectively relative to the base fluid. This study showed that the friction factor of nanofluid was decreased as Reynold's number increased.

Sadi formation is one of the main productive formations in some of Iraqi oil fields. This formation is characterized by its low permeability values leading to low production rates that could be obtained by the natural flow.
Thus, Sadi formation in Halfaya oil field has been selected to study the success of both of "Acid fracturing" and "Hydraulic fracturing" treatments to increase the production rate in this reservoir.
In acid fracturing, four different scenarios have been selected to verify the effect of the injected fluid acid type, concentration and their effect on the damage severity along the entire reservoir.
The reservoir damage severity has been taken as "Shallow–Medium– Severe" and (Medium–Severe-sallow) for better fluid invasion.
While, in hydraulic fracturing, a three cases have been selected using three different main fracturing fluid and three different proppant size and types, to verify their effects on fracturing efficiency, and dimensionless fracture conductivity.
The results show that both treatments have successful results, but the hydraulic fracturing gives about (1.5) times greater than acid fracturing.
However, the maximum dimensionless fracture conductivity reached by all the treatments was about (Fcd = 4) , with fracture efficiency reached to (82%).

Integration of laminar bubbling flow with heat transfer equations in a novel internal jacket airlift bioreactor using microbubbles technology was examined in the present study. The investigation was accomplished via Multiphysics modelling to calculate the gas holdup, velocity of liquid recirculation, mixing time and volume dead zone for hydrodynamic aspect. The temperature and internal energy were determined for heat transfer aspect.
The results showed that the concentration of microbubbles in the unsparged area is greater than the chance of large bubbles with no dead zones being observed in the proposed design. In addition the pressure, due to the recirculation velocity of liquid around the draft tube, increased the retention time of microbubbles in the same area.
Thus it was expected that their effect on mass and heat transfer phenomena would be positive for biological applications. For example the gas fraction volume of microbubble in the downcomer region is 0.0063, while with fine bubble diameter of 1 mm, this region was free from any bubble. Furthermore, the velocity of liquid in the center of ring diffuser would be 0.175 m/s, if the sparging system operated with bubble diameter of 100 micrometer, whilst would be 0.035 m/s with fine bubble diameter of 1 mm.
The study also proved the importance of bubble diameter on the heat transfer in gas and liquid phases in the proposed design. Microbubbles gave greater responsiveness to stability and homogeneity in all parts of the bioreactor. Finally, this study concluded the efficiency of the proposed design with the microbubbles technology thermally and hydrodynamically.