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PETR , January 2
Vol. VIII Issue 8

January - March 2013

www.petrotechsociety.org

12-15 ew Delhi e 10
N w at pag
tervie

See in

CONTENTS

Corporate Members
Foreword

Sudhir Vasudeva, Chairman Petrotech, CMD ONGC

Message
Ashok Anand, Director General Petrotech

Editorial
Anand Kumar, Director Petrotech

Petrotech welcomes
New Corporate Leaders of Oil and Gas Industry

Petrotech - 2014
Face to Face with Chairman Petrotech

10

CEOs Speak
T K Ananth Kumar, CFO Oil India
R K Garg, Director Finance, Petrotech LNG
Marie-Helene Aubert, President INCE
R K Singh, Chairman BPCL

12

Upstream
Hydrocarbon Exploration in Assam & Assam Arakan Fold Belt

17

S K Jain

Estimating well Deliverability from a Thin-Bed Multi-layer gas well using Interval
Pressure Transient Testing

21

Siddhartha Nahar, Nitish Kumar, Vaibhav Deshpande, Viraj Nangia, Richard Jackson and K M Sundaram

Bio Energy
Algae-Based Biofuels: Current status and future trends

26

Ravi P Gupta, Dr. D K Tuli and Dr R K Malhotra

Case Study
Modification of extraction cum condensing turbine to back pressure turbine in STG1
(Russian make) of Barauni Refinery

33

D P Ghsoh, A P Joshi, S Choudhary and M A Parvez

Leadership: Built to Last

The Science of Employee Engagement

38

Gaurav Lahiri

Best Paper: Petrotech-2012

Microbial enhanced recovery of unconventional viscous oil of the Alaska North Slope

40

A L Ghotekar, M S Patil, S L Patil, Santanu Khataniar and A Y Dandekar

New Innovation HPNA management process to achieve virtually total conversion in a

hydrocracker

Editorial Team

45

Raju Chopra, Mike Hunter, Raj Patel and Sylvain Verdier

Ashok Anand Director General

Parametric study of injection fluid temperature, soaking time, amount of cyclic and
51
producing time toward efficiency and recovery factor on heavy oil cyclic steam well simulation

Anand Kumar Director & Editor

Sudjati Rachmat and Adi Firmansyah

Jatinder Peters Secretary

Best Paper: Petrotech IITM-ICDT 2012

Suman Gupta Manager

Oil-water emultion IFT alteration under rotational effect in enhanced oil recovery process

59

Tushar Sharma, Jitendra S Sangwai and G Suresh Kumar

Editorial Advisory Board

Oil Refinery & Petrochemical

Dr. D.M. Kale Former DG, ONGC Energy Centre

Natural Gas Fuels the integration of refining and petrochemicals

Mr. M.K. Joshi Former Director (Technical), EIL

Tanmay Taraphdar, Praveen Yadav and M K E Prasad

Dr. D.K. Tuli Executive Director, IndianOil R&D

Asset Reliability

Dr. B. Basu Executive Director (R&D), IndianOil R&D

Exploratory Studies on MSTT for Estimation of Mechanical Properties of Heater Tube

grade Steels at Room Temperature as well as at High Temperature

Dr. Shashikant GM (PC-R), IndianOil R&D

Dr. A.N. Bhaskarwar, Petrotech Chair Professor, IIT Delhi

Published by
Petrotech at 601-603, Tolstoy House,
Tolstoy Marg, Connaught Place, New Delhi - 110 001

73

Satya Pal Singh, Sova Bhattacharya and D K Sehgal

Essay: National Essay Competition Petrotech Chapter IITM

The Future of energy in India

The views expressed by the authors are their

own, and do not neccessarily represent that of
the Petrotech.

66

78

Smita Srivastava and R Sharma

TrendScan
Asia Drives Growth in 2013 Global R&D

86

Martin Grueber (Research Leader), Battelle and Tim Studt (Editorial Director)

TechScan

88

Petrotech Activities

92

Foreword
Dear Colleagues,
I bring you Warm Greetings from PETROTECH.
As we contemplate on the state of affairs of our industry vertical, it is opportune to identify a
few factors that impinge upon our performance collectively.
Each year industry leaders identify key risks that will become pertinent in the coming year to
provide some guidance and fore-warning to enable us to take pre-emptive action. I place
a brief list before you for consideration that in my opinion are relevant to us in this country
from a national perspective:
Integrated Energy Policy

The Ministry verticals in this country were apparently created to address constituents of the energy basket and make sense
from an administrative point of view in addressing the concerns of a particular constituent in isolation. In addition we have
the overarching influence of other ministries such as environment and forests, commerce, finance, external affairs and now
defence. To further complicate the broth we have both the public and the private sector active in this space with varying
allegiance to the market and the Government. The integration of energy policy presumably takes place in the Planning
Commission and perhaps at the PMO.
Overlaps and synergies exist between various constituents of the energy basket from pooled basic R & D, applied technology,
vendor chain development, carbon management, sharing of infrastructure, value added integration, fiscal consolidation,
consumer price discovery, talent pool development amongst others. Clearly, from a national perspective, we suffer on account of
inconsistent policies, turf wars and ad-hoc and suboptimal solutions driven from a myopic perspective. Though efforts toward
designing an integrated energy policy have been attempted, they have seldom been persisted with in terms of their currency
and holistic implementation. Our continued reliance on energy imports primarily in the hydrocarbon space and now even in coal
is a manifestation of this policy incongruence and going forward when we have to compete with other nations for energy equity
in resource rich countries; lack of a national strategy also plays out. It is a sheer case of abnegation and needs to be remedied
posthaste.
Frugal Operations

As we migrate toward EOR, frontier acreages and exigent hydrocarbon plays, cost containment is the key to profitability. Due
to lack of a robust R & D platform in this country, we remain exposed to being serviced by international specialist vendors
and technology providers who are apt to monetise their investment in R & D and charge a premium for their services. In
addition, we carry the concomitant currency risk exposure. While investment in R & D in areas that are yet to open up such
as shale gas / liquids gas hydrates and arctic exploration is desirable so that we are prepared to compete globally with
homegrown solutions to support us, we will have to seek other imaginative solutions to address our exposure to more
conventional reserves. Investment in innovation, multiskilling of manpower, mobile modular production assets, sharing
infrastructure and assets, pooled sourcing of services and investment in digital productivity-multiplier technology are
some areas that we could focus on.
Product Price Volatility

We all know about the perils of forecasting oil prices, however in our country the pricing of natural gas itself is playing havoc with
our project appraisal models, particularly as we enter frontier areas and unconventional plays. While Policy Makers are aware
and some action is afoot, it is best if the industry collaborates and prepares recommendations for submission to them taking a
longterm perspective. It is indeed opportune as the Policy on Shale Gas is expected and without the right fiscal regime, it would
serve little purpose.
Talent Pipeline

That a talent crunch is imminent in the hydrocarbon industry is well known globally; however little concerted action is actually
afoot in a holistic and integrated manner within our country. We need to take a leaf from the software industry that is now
actively reaching out to established educational institutions and collaborating with them to design courses that produce fit for
deployment graduates.
JoP, January-March 2013

Health, Safety & Environment

We are adequately sensitised to the consequences of negligence of Health, Safety and Environment and of the need to integrate
it into the organisational DNA of our respective organisations. Yet collectively, we have done little to mitigate common risk on
this account. As we move into frontier areas and begin to deploy new and developing technology for unconventionals, the need
to collaborate at the industry level to hedge risk becomes pertinent and must be explored further.
PETROTECH Society is one such platform that is uniquely positioned to create space and provide serviceable platforms for
implementing all the above and efforts have been made as part of the PETROTECH 2010 legacy projects that even enjoyed
the support of our parent Ministry. However, despite the initial babysteps, they have not matured into tangible outcomes.
Often a lack of interest in pursuing commoncause issues and projects is quoted and that most of us prefer to go it alone.
Other Nations have successfully worked collectively for common good and it is time for us to learn from their achievements and
strive toward collaboration and deployment of codestiny teams to implement commoncause projects.
I invite your views on this; please feel welcome to write to me at cmd@ongc.co.in to share your perspective and to lend your
support to PETROTECH Society

Sudhir Vasudeva
Chairman, Petrotech
CMD ONGC

JoP, January-March 2013

LNG The fuel for tomorrow

Petrotech has always been looking for the current and new topics which could be added to its yearly
calendar. Last year, we added a program on LNG. The program had an overwhelming response and
we decided to continue it every year so that maximum executives from industry can benefit from this
program. LNG is being talked about in every circle and practically all the oil companies are participating
one way or the other in LNG. Some oil companies are participating in setting up LNG terminals, some
are trading LNG and still other are using LNG. Considering the importance of LNG in future, I thought it
better to dwell on basics of LNG.
The LNG trade started in mid 60s and has increased rapidly. As per World LNG report 2011, from 2006
to 2011, the volume of LNG traded grew from 159.1 MT to 241.5 MT reflecting growth of about 52%.
Some 66% of this incremental LNG came from countries that had historically been LNG exporters
(largely from the growth in supplies from Qatar) with the remainder originating from countries that had previously not exported LNG. The
majority of growth in demand -82%- came from existing LNG importers, dominated by the increase of volumes into Japan and higher
imports to the United Kingdom, India and China.
Geographically, India is very strategically located and is flanked by large gas reserves on both the east and west. India is relatively close
to four of the worlds top five countries in terms of proven gas reserves, viz. Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi. The large natural gas
market of India is a major attraction to the LNG exporting countries. The existing and planned LNG terminals in India are Dahej & Hazira in
Gujrat, Kochi in Kerala, Dabhol in Maharahtra, East Coast (gangavaram) in Andhra Pradesh, Mangalore in Karnataka and Krishnapatnam /
Ennore in Tamilnadu.
India at present imports 70% of oil to meet its demand. The demand is ever increasing and considering the present scenario of domestic
production, India will be importing more oil to meet its requirement.
While we import the crude oil, we make various types of fuels including propane and diesel. From these fuels, we can produce a most
talked about alternative which is a safe, clean burning, and lower cost fuel from domestic resources. This alternative fuel is called Liquefied
Natural Gas or LNG.
Liquefied natural gas or LNG is natural gas predominantly methane (CH4) that has been converted to liquid form by cooling it to -162
C for ease of storage or transport. As a liquid, natural gas occupies about 600 times less space than when in its gaseous form. LNG is
colourless, odourless, non-toxic and non-corrosive. LNG weighs less than half the weight of water so it will float if spilled on water.
LNG has number of advantages over the other fuels. Some of these are:
LNG is a good automobile fuel as compared to gasoline and fuel oil when compared with its calorific value. LNGs calorific value is
55446 as compared to Gasoline 48238 and fuel oil 43781
LNG is a unique source of energy. The fossil fuels are highly emissions intensive whereas LNG emissions are very less and , therefore,
LNG is able to contribute directly to the global reduction of greenhouse gas emissions when used to replace more emissions intensive
fuels, such as coal. For every tonne of carbon dioxide emitted in the production of LNG, at least four tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions
are avoided when LNG is used in place of coal-fired power generation.
The use of LNG helps in considerable fuel saving, increasing the life span of the vehicle and reducing its maintenance as compared to
other fuel like Diesel. Also using LNG as ship fuel will reduce sulphur oxide emissions by about 90%.
LNG is used for generating electricity, steam and for heating application. LNG is also used as piped gas for heating houses in winter
and also for house hold use.
Vehicles using natural gas are less noisy as compared to diesel powered vehicles and the refuelling time is more or less the same as
diesel. Typical refuelling time for 1000 litres of LNG is less than 10 minutes.
LNG being non toxic, non corrosive, colourless and odourless is quite safe to use.
LNG evaporates quickly and disperses, leaving no residue.
We need to have very high safety standards, as well as protective equipment and clothing to ensure safe handling of LNG since it is
extremely cold and generally stored at around minus 135C.
India has abundant resources of natural gas which need to be explored and thereby using LNG will reduce our reliance on imported oil/LNG.
The use of LNG has been increasing world over for various applications and there is no doubt that LNG in real terms will become the fuel
for tomorrow.

Ashok Anand
Director General, Petrotech

JoP, January-March 2013

Editorial Notes
Dear Patrons of Petrotech,
It gives me immense pleasure in presenting the Jan-March13 issue of the JoP. This first quarter
of the year, inspite of the budget not providing much for the Indian Oil&Gas industry, it has been a
cheerful period due to falling oil prices and rolling out of a plans for gradual deregulation on diesel,
besides the Minister of Petroleum sharing his vision for 100% self reliance on O&G by 2030. In this
background, I would like to share, some of the noting from my note pad, with you: INNOVATION: Petrotech started the year with organization of 7th R&D Conclave, at Kochi, in
the beautiful environ of Gods own Country. It was for the first time, this Conclave shifted from,
its birthplace in Goa, where it first started in January 2006. With, IndianOil-R&D in the lead, all
subsequent six R&D Conclaves were held in the picturesque surroundings of Cidada-de-Goa. Kochi Conclave was different,
with its new format and refreshing theme.
Thanks to the tireless efforts made by Director (R&D) of IndianOil in conjunction of the team Petrotech and the high popularity of
this program cutting across O&G industry, researchers and academia, the 7th R&D Conclave broke all past records of participants
with over 100 delegates.
HRD and IP issues were discussed in greater details. The conclave underlined shortage of suitable people to fill the everincreasing demand in the areas of research, development and teaching. This conclave also tried to find out ways and means
for attracting best minds to the area of R&D and academia. There was unanimity on the greater role to be played by the
industry in this direction, however, it remains the sole responsibility of the academia to identify, attract and nurture the right
talent for research and teaching.
It was also concluded that investment in R&D and developing talents and leadership, must not curtailed in any circumstances,
as it would be like a futile act of trying to postpone the future. We shall be caught unprepared when the future arrives, if we cut
investment into R&D and T&D (Training & Development).
HSE: HSE in conjunction with Conservation, being of prime importance for sustainability of a business, this quarter had good share
of workshops, seminars and campaigns, on the subject. The second half of January is observed as PCRA Energy Conservation
Week under the aegis of MoPNG, and which is steered by PCRA. For over three decades, 4th March is observed as Indian National
Safety day, and the week following it as National Safety Week, for spreading awareness about the safety.
This quarter experiences two disasterous insidences in the US, In which a oil refinery and a fertilizer plant were involved which
now calls for greater attention for improving assest rehability & safety.
The O&G sector organized two programs on HSE. The Annual OISD program at Kolkatta, was followed by hugely attended
4th Petrotech-ONGC Worksop on HSE, in Delhi, on a central theme of Contract Workers Safety- lafonk dehZ lqj{kk. It was.
Unique program designed and developed in association of ONGC, The main sponsor of this unique program were ONGC &
IOCL, which was attended by a record number of over 180 participants ( for details please see Petrotech Activity Report).
There was consensus in the deliberations of this workshop that the contract workers or outsources activities are the
backbone of any business, and therefore, health, safety and welfare of contract workmen is as important as that of the
company employees. The safety policies of each company, which is part of its safety culture, therefore, must adequately
cover the HSE aspects of contract workers. But the policy alone does not reflect the Culture of Safety (HSE) of a company,
it reflected in its actions, speech and behavior. One thing is clear that HSE is not by Choice, and therefore it has to be Top
Driven and be enforced with Zero tolerance for failure.
This decade of 2010-20 has been declared by the Govt of India as Decade of Innovation. This conclave dwelt upon the theme
of Challenges for Inculcating Culture of Innovation in Hydrocarbon Sector.
Energy Security: The year 2012 ended on lower crude oil prices, and forecast for lower oil demand for the year 2013. The trend
has continued throughout the first quarter of the year, and indications are that the trend may continue. In this direction the US
Shale Gas and Oil has played an important role besides the depressed European economy. The shale has not only changed the
oil and gas landscape of the US, but also made very distinct impact on the world oil and gas scenario.
In the US for the first time in several decades, oil production peaked to 6.5mbpd, and it is said that the US crude oil production
specially from tight oil plays, shall increase to 7.5 mbpd in 2019, compared to less than 6 mbpd in 2011.

JoP, January-March 2013

It has resulted in restarting of many closed refineries in USA, and new investments in refineries, petrochemicals, pipelines, gas
liquificaction, storage and transpiration sectors. It has attracted many countries, including India to invest into the US Shale O&G
revolution.
Energy security is on the top of development agenda of every developing and developed country. The US shale gas revolution, has
also encouraged other countries to for exploiting their own reserves of Shale gas and oil, though each country will have its own
challenges in exploiting it.
The Govt of India had, last July, come out with the draft Shale Oil & gas Policy, asking for suggestions. The Petrotech Veterans Forum,
also, following a detailed deliberation on the draft policy, had sent its suggestions to the MoPNG.
The Govt. Policy on Shale Oil and Gas is expected to be announced soon. Its going to play an important role in enhancing energy
security of our country, but exploitation of Shale oil and gas is fraught with great challenges, which calls for accelerated R&D in this
area for finding innovative solutions customised to the Indian conditions. Here again, the countrys R&D institutions and academia
has to play a greater role, and the industry has to capture capability through acquisition of expertise in shortest possible time, which
may be through inorganic routes.
The first quarter of this year, the industry had pleasant developments in the form of incremental increase in the diesel prices and
complete deregulation of gasoline, which certainly, was a right decision in right direction, and consumers has benefited from the
lowering of crude oil prices.
The Govt of India, in March 2013, has set up Committee, under the leadership of Dr Vijay Kelkar, for preparing a roadmap for enhancing
domestic Oil & Gas Production and Sustainable reduction in import dependency of India by 2030. The committee in turn has asked
for suggestions from experts, institutions, and general public. The Petrotech Veterans Forum, once again met to deliberate on each
of the terms of reference of this committee and made a very valuable suggestion to the committee.
Gas Hydrate: In a world first successful development, JOGMEC (Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation) has successfully
extracted natural gas from frozen methane hydrate off its central coast, and is now hopeful for its commercial gas production as
early as 2016.
India has long been known to have massive deposits of methane hydrate. These are tentatively estimated at 1,890 trillion cu.m. An
Indo-US scientific joint venture in 2006 explored four areas: the Kerala-Konkan basin, the Krishna-Godavari basin, the Mahanadi
basin and the seas off the Andaman Islands. The deposits in the Krishna Godavari basin turned out to be among the richest and
biggest in the world. The Andamans yielded the thickest-ever deposits 600 metres below the seabed in volcanic ash sediments.
Hydrates were also found in the Mahanadi basin.
Meanwhile China and the US have major programmes for exploration and experimental extraction. India, alas, is nowhere in the
picture, in-spite of the fact that DGH, with the financing from OIDB and oil companies, has set up a fund for supporting R&D in this
area, which over a decade has remained dormant. The Japanese development, hopefully, shall reignite the Indian interest in this
area of great potential.
The Petrotech-2014: The flagship Indian biennial International O&G Conferences and exhibition (www.petrotech.in) has been
announced to be held from 12th to 15th January 2014, with ONGC as lead organizer under the aegis of ministry of petroleum &
natural gas, Govt of India. Hope, you have submitted abstracts of your papers online, if not yet, then please do it now. Please block
these dates on your calendar of engagements, and we look forward to see you and your team in this conference.
We have inducted eminent scientists, industry experts and academia on the editorial advisory board of the JoP, those who have
made great contribution in enriching the contents of this journal. We have also received highly encouraging comments from some
of the esteemed readers of JoP.
Looking forward to your contributions of articles and case studies for publication in the JoP and also your valuable suggestions and
critical comments, which shall help us in improving its content and quality,

(Anand Kumar)
anand.iocl@gmail.com
info@petrotechsociety.org

Petrotech Welcomes

New Corporate Leaders of Oil

and Gas Industry
Mr. Vivek Rae
Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas

Mr.
Vivek
Rae, took over
as Secretary,
Ministry
of
Petroleum &
Natural Gas
in the month
of February,
2013. A Bachelor of Arts
(Hons.) Degree in Economics from St.
Stephens College, University of Delhi
and a Masters Degree in Economics
and Politics from New College, University of Oxford, Mr Rae, entered the
Indian Administrative Service in 1978,
after a brief stint as a Management
Trainee with Hindustan Lever Limited
(subsidiary of Unilever Limited).
Mr. Rae, in his career spanning over
35 years, has wide ranging experience
cutting across social and economic sectors, including petroleum, health, education, planning and finance.

of Delhi during 1999-2001 and Joint

Secretary (Plan. Finance) in the Ministry of Finance, Government of India
during 2002-2006. The assignment in
the Ministry of Finance entailed responsibilities for appraisal and review
of all major development programmes
and investment decisions of the Government of India.

Mr. Rae served briefly at the Prime

Ministers Office during 1989-90 and
thereafter worked as Assistant Resident
Representative with the United National Development Programme, New
Delhi from 1991-1995, with responsibility for Industry, Trade and Technology programmes.

As Chief Secretary of the Andaman

& Nicobar Islands (2008-2010), the
highest ranking civil servant leading
an administration of more than 20000
employees, Mr. Rae was charged
with responsibilities for overall coordination, policy formulation and implementation of programmes across
the entire spectrum of development
activities including health, education, industries, labour, agriculture &
animal husbandry, fisheries, forests,
tribal welfare, social welfare, tourism, shipping, ports, public works
and other activities. The responsibilities also included direct oversight for
matters relating to internal security,
coastal security and police administration.

Mr. Rae worked as Finance Secretary

and Planning Secretary in the state of
Goa during 1996-1999, Planning Secretary in the National Capital Territory

Earlier, Mr. Rae served as Director

General (Acquisition) in the Ministry
of Defence of the Government of India,
during 2010-12 with responsibilities

Mr. Rae served as Deputy Commissioner in the state of Arunachal

Pradesh from 1985 to 1988 which is
the cutting edge of government administration for delivery of development programmes at the field level,
combined with magisterial responsibilities for law and order.

JoP, January-March 2013

for modernization of the Indian Armed

Forces, handling a budget of about
US$ 10-13 billion per annum. Mr. Rae
was posted briefly as Secretary, Micro,
Small and Medium Enterprises, Government of India, prior to taking up the
current assignment.
The Indian Oil& Gas industry is looking forward to extensively benefit from
the vast experience and vision of Mr
Vivek Rae, in making the country more
self reliant in meeting its ever growing energy demand of emergent India.
Petrotech, heartily welcomes Shri Rae,
and wish him all success in each of his
endeavor.

Mr. Narendra Kumar Verma

Director-Exploration of ONGC

On April 1,
2013,
Mr.
N K Verma
takes over the
responsibility
as
Director
Exploration
from Mr. S V
Rao, on his
Superannuation. Mr. Verma is known, as someone who deftly combines an enterprising risk taking capacity, strong

strategic foresight and an enviable

technical knowledge. Prior to taking
on present responsibility, Mr Verma
was Director-Exploration at ONGC
Videsh Ltd (OVL), where he was
responsible for development and implementation of exploration strategy
& Business Development and was
actively responsible for strategizing
and implementing the growth strategy of OVL. Mr. Verma moved to
OVL as Director Exploration from
his earlier position as Basin Manager of Frontier Basin .His earlier
stints as Head G&G at GEOPIC and
Block Manager (Exploration activities) at Assam & Assam Arakan Basin.

heading EILs initiatives in Fertilizers,

Coal-to-liquid conversion, upstream
exploration through NELP-IX bidding
round and Sustainable Development.

A dual Masters Degree holder in related technology domains, M. Sc(Spl)

in Applied Geology from Lucknow
University in 1979 and M. Tech in
Petroleum Exploration from ISM
Dhanbad in 1986 (Gold Medalist),
Mr. Verma also holds an MBA degree
in Finance.He is the proud recipient
of the prestigious National Mineral
Award, the highest recognition by
the Government of India in the field
of geosciences, mining and allied areas. He has more than 20 technical
papers and 40 technical reports to his
credit.

Director (HR), NTPC

Mr. Ajay Narayan Deshpande

Director (Technical), EIL

Shri Ajay Narayan Deshpande has assumed charge

as
Director
( Te c h n i c a l )
of Engineers
India Limited
(EIL) on April
1, 2013.
Shri Deshpande, a Chemical Engineering graduate from Nagpur University
and post-graduate in Systems & Management from IIT, Delhi has over 33
years of experience in EIL spanning
Oil & Gas, Refining & Petrochemicals
segments. He has worked in various
capacities in Process Design & Development and Project Management functions as well as headed the R&D Division of the Company. Shri Deshpande
has also been instrumental in spear-

He has co-authored a total of 4 patent

applications on behalf of EIL and has
been responsible for commercializing
several of EIL developed technologies,
beginning with the IIP/EIL Aromatics Extraction Technology for BPCL,
Mumbai in 1985 to the IOCL/EIL
DHDT technology for BRPL in 2012.
Prior to this appointment, Shri Deshpande was holding the position of Executive Director (Technical) in EIL.

U. P. Pani

As Director (HR), Shri Pani shall be

responsible for the entire Human Resource functions of the organization.
He shall be also responsible for the
Power Management Institute (PMI) of
NTPC and other corporate functions
such as Industrial Safety, Resettlement
& Rehabilitation, Corporate Social Responsibility, Medical Services and Corporate Security & Coordination.
The Team Petrotech wishes him greater
glory to him in his new assignment and
alal round development of Human Resources of NTPC -countys only Maharatna Power company.

Mr. Shashi Shanker

Director (Technology & Field Services), ONGC

Shri U.P. Pani

has taken over
the charge as
Director (Human Resources),
NTPC
with on 1st
March 2013.
Shri U.P. Pani,
a Graduate in Electrical Engineering
from BITS PILANI (1978), joined
NTPC in November, 1978 in the 3rd
batch of NTPC Executive Trainee.
He has vast experinec of power sector, specialising in the areas in Erection, Rehabilitation and Resettlement,
Technical Services. He was Business
Unit Head (BUH) of NSPCL (joint
Venture of NTPC & SAIL) at Bhilai
and Durgapur, and Head of NTPC
Kahalgaon Project. During hs career
spaning over 35 years, was Head of
NTPCs biggest. Vindhyachal STPP
(4260MW) projcet. Prior to joining
the Board of NTPC, Mr Pani was
Regional Executive Director (Eastern Region-I) and was responsible
for overall functioning of various regional projects of NTPC and projects
of various subsidiaries and joint venture of NTPC.
As Head of various Business Units, at
various locations and regions, Mr Pani
has been a practicing HR person, responsible for all HR functions, where
he steered numbers of new HR initiatives.

With an impressive professional experience of over

three decades
with ONGC,
Shanker
has
wide exposure
in diverse E&P
activities and
has been at the helm of drilling operations in various challenging assignments.
Having spent twelve years at the Mumbai
Offshore fields prior to his movement to
Delhi Corporate Office, Shanker was the
Head Deep Water Multi-Disciplinary
Team spearheading the deep/ultra-deep
water campaign of ONGC. Significant
contributions during posting in Deepwater group are drilling of more than 90
wells in deep and ultra-deep water, Rig
contracting on Integrated Well Completion basis, implementation of bundled
service contracts for deep-water exploration, introduction of the procurement
of drilling bits on consignment basis a
paradigm shift from L1 philosophy, induction of state of art technology in deep
water operations, 24X7 online monitoring of deep-water wells and various cost
reduction initiatives resulting in significant boosting of ONGCs bottom-line.
Shanker becomes the sixth Director
(erstwhile Member (Drilling) prior to
listing of ONGC in 1994 and Director
(Drilling) henceforth till implementation of CRC in 2001) to head the Technology & Field Services function of
ONGC since its inception.
JoP, January-March 2013

Petrotech-2014

Face to Face with

Chairman Petrotech

Shri Sudhir Vasudeva

Chairman Petrotech
CMD, ONGC

Following the announcement of The Pertotech-2014, to be held on 12-15,

January, JoP had an opportunity to catch up with Shri Sudhir Vasudeva, Chairman,
ONGC who is also the Chairman of Petrotech and the of Steering Committee
this biennial flagship event of the Indian Oil & gas Industry. Here are excerpts
from a very lively interview with Shri Sudhir Vasudeva, providing a glimpse of
his vision and plans for PETROTECH 2014
-Editor
JoP: Congratulations on being selected
yet again as organiser of PETROTECH
2014.
CMD: Thank you. Of the ten events
that have been organised since 1995,
this is the seventh time that ONGC
has been accorded this honour. We are
indeed grateful to the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas for reposing
faith in us yet again.
JoP: PETROTECH 2014 is positioned
as a Must- Attend oil and gas event
in the Asia-Pacific region. What are
the key attractions for the up-coming
PETROTECH -2014, Sir?
PETROTECH2014 is scheduled from
1215 Jan 2014 as we revert to the original schedules that were altered for the
past two events to avoid conflict with
other major events such as the Pravasi
Bhartiya Divas. This year the event migrates to the Noida Expo Centre and
Mart in Greater NOIDA and therefore
PETROTECH2014 will be a completely new experience for delegates as
the conference and exhibition will be co
located for the first time since 1995.
As you are aware, previous editions
were organised in two locations; while
the conference was organised in Vigyan
Bhawan, the exhibition was organised
in Pragati Maidan. The new venue will
provide a holistic experience with the
exhibition being completely integrated
with the conference. In addition, the gala
cultural evening and dinner that used to
be previously organised at various locations will also be hosted in the lawns of
the new venue. Heli-pads for VIP transit
and parking for more than 5000 vehicles
are additional features of the venue.
The exhibition can also now expand in
size as more than 10000 m2 of covered
space is available. In addition, ample uncovered paved space is available for hosting life-size exhibits. This removes an oft
felt irritant as previous editions of the exhibition could not be expanded on account

of limitation of space at Pragati Maidan.

JoP: Will the distance of this venue
from New Delhi play spoil-sport and is
there adequate accommodation for
delegates in the vicinity of the venue?
CMD: Notwithstanding the distance
from New Delhi, the travel time in
peak traffic is expected to be only 45
mins from Connaught Place. This I can
say from personal experience as I made
it a point to travel to the venue with my
senior colleagues to stake out the
venue first-hand and examine its feasibility from all perspective including
travel time from New Delhi.
We have already blocked an inventory
of more than 3600 rooms in various hotels near the venue and are currently in
the process of booking them to accommodate our distinguished delegates.
We are confident that we will be able to
create an ecosphere for our delegates
around the venue that will include hotels linked to the venue through an integrated transportation solution.
Further, it is important to note that other major events such as the high profile ADB conference being organised
by the Ministry of Finance and the Annual Auto Expo are also moving to this
new location on account of its state-ofart infrastructure.
JoP: Each PETROTECH event has
featured a unique theme. What is the
theme of PETROTECH 2014 and how is
it being addressed in the programme?
CMD: The theme Vision 2030: Emerging Energy Basket Challenges & Opportunities was selected in the first
Steering Committee meeting held on
10th Jan 2013 after much brain storming
and deliberation. The theme is relevant as
there is presently much debate around the
energy basket that will unfold in the coming years. Apex managers in the energy
space need to be fairly well informed

about this as they are expected to take decisions today based upon prognostications
of future energy production and consumption patterns. Presently however, no clarity
prevails as various protagonists have their
own versions based upon their understanding of the future. The effort in designing the
detailed agenda of PETROTECH 2014
is therefore targeted at enabling discussion
of the theme across its myriad dimensions
by various stakeholders so that a holistic
and integrated perspective relevant to India
emerges that is actionable by apex managers as well as policy makers of this country.
In this endeavour we have requisitioned the
support of McKinsey & Co as our Knowledge partner who will prepare an initial
theme paper that will subsequently be discussed by the senior leadership at a Leadership conclave later this year. The theme
documents will be revised to incorporate
perspectives emerging from this engagement and made available to plenary session
speakers. PETROTECH2014 features nine
plenary sessions focused on the conference
theme over three days. Discussions in these
sessions will be collated and the pre - conference theme document will be revisited to
incorporate them. The global context of the
theme document will then be made India
Centric and formally presented to the apex
leadership and policy makers of this country
as a legacy document that will be actionable
and outcome oriented.
As you notice, much thought has been invested toward the conference theme and
we are hopeful that the final recommendations will be useful to practitioners and
policy designers alike.
JoP: PETROTECH is largely a technology
conference; could you throw some light on
the technical track of PETROTECH 2014
A PETROTECH event attracts nearly 1200
1300 abstracts, of which the selection
committee selects about 400 for publication. Of this number, about sixty odd are
selected for oral presentations while the rest
migrate to digital presentation sessions. This

edition features as many as thirty technical

sessions that cover the entire gamut of the
hydrocarbon sector and address issues such
as demand side management, talent pipeline development, CSR, sustainability and
local community development, carbon management, HSE and disaster management in
addition to technological advancements in
Upstream, Midstream, Downstream, LNG
and Unconventional hydrocarbons. Call for
submission of abstracts has been issued and
abstracts can be submitted online at www.
petrotech.in upto May 15th 2013. We welcome your readers to participate wholeheartedly in the technology track to make it
even more enriching for delegates.
JoP: So, we have a plenary track and a
technical track, what else?
PETROTECH 2014 will also feature
two exclusive master classes that will
run over three days of the conference for
a select group of only 2025 participants
and upon successfully completing the
course they will receive certificates. These
courses will be on GRI G3 Reporting
and on Innovation & Intra-preneurship.
In addition, though completely unintended,
this event enables the senior leadership of
our sector and senior officers of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas to
congregate for a protracted period of time
away from their offices in New Delhi.
While their hospitality is being addressed
separately, we will also provide them intellectual stimulation by organising a special
track exclusively for them. The following
four 1 hour sessions with globally renowned speakers are being organised:
Boards of the future
Encouraging, Introducing and Managing Innovation
Imagineering: Work - place of the future
Management lessons from Indian
scriptures
JoP: What about pre conference
engagements?
Our approach in designing the event is to
consider it a campaign that pans out over
the entire year culminating in the event
rather than only a three day affair. In this
context, the following pre conference
events are planned:
Services Providers Meet (in partnership with CII)
Retail Marketing and Petrochemicals
event (in partnership with FICCI)
Youth & Gender Event
Shale Gas Policy Release event (In

partnership with MoP & NG)

Leadership Conclave on the conference theme
Shale Gas Training Programme
Launch Event (in partnership with
USIBC)
An investment seminar on the sidelines OTC2013 (In partnership
with FICCI & USIBC)
A Curtain Raiser event for the press
In addition, the following events are in
planning and will be organised if they
fructify:
USIndia R & D Conclave (In partnership with USIBC)
US India Premier B School Case
Analysis Competition (In partnership with USIBC)
CEO Conclave in Oxford, U.K (in
partnership with the Oxford Institute of Energy Studies)
In addition, the Ministry is keen to announce NELP X during PETROTECH
2014 and is working with DGH to
meet the event timeline.
You will notice that most of these
events are being organised in partnership with various partners. This is also
another objective of PETROTECH
2014; that is to open - up collaboration
and networking opportunities both in
India and overseas.
JoP: That is quite an elaborate list;
what else is notable about PETROTECH
2014?
CMD: You are aware that each
PETROTECH honours three veterans
of the hydrocarbon industry who have
rendered yeoman service to the Nation.
In PETROTECH 2010, we had introduced a lifetime award for an international achiever and we shall continue with
this tradition in this edition as well. In addition we have a host of technical awards
to which we have added two more i.e. for
a young achiever and a woman achiever.
In addition, the event will be carbon
neutral as was PETROTECH 2010
that ONGC had organised earlier. The
carbon footprint of the entire event
will be offset by CERs sponsored by
ONGC. We are developing an App
that can be downloaded by delegates on
their smart-phones to enable a paperless conference experience while the
exhibition will encourage exhibiters to
use recycled and environmental friendly
material that reduces their carbon footprint while maintaining the aesthetics

and grandeur of the event. We will also

acknowledge their efforts by awarding
a prize to the most Green Exhibiter.
PETROTECH2014 will also feature a
CSR track that we are presently working on. Finally, we have the gala cultural
evening and dinner on Jan 14th 2014.
JoP: What about the Ministerial Track?
As in each event, PETROTECH 2014
will also feature an elaborate Ministerial Track on Jan 13th 2014. The Honble
Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas
has invited his counterparts to grace the
Ministerial session and to hold bilateral
parleys. Countries of strategic interest
to India have been identified and the
Ministry is working hard to seek their
convenience to come to India.
JoP: How significant has been the role
played by PETROTECH events over the
years from the point of view of taking the
Indian hydrocarbon story to the world?
I salute the vision of the founding members of PETROTECH Society who
were also instrumental in the launch
of the PETROTECH conference & exhibition series in 1995. Since then this
outreach platform has helped position
India on the global hydrocarbon conferencing map and enabled inter as well as
intra networking of professionals. This
unique platform has facilitated a rich
convergence of global interests and Indian potential, primarily in the oil & gas
sector, of course within the larger ambit
of Asia-Pacific region. It has conveyed,
and will continue to convey, the worthy
message of an immensely resourceful,
technically competent and ambitious
energy industry that is well poised to
make its presence strongly felt in the
global arena through meaningful relationships and purposeful collaborations.
JoP: We thank you for your time and are
hopeful that under your stewardship
PETROTECH 2014 will set a new
benchmark.
CMD: I am grateful for your faith in
ONGCs ability. I am however enthused by the keen interest and support of the Ministry of Petroleum and
Natural Gas, particularly of the Secretary, who is the conference chairman,
toward PETROTECH 2014.
My colleagues who head various nodal
committees and its members, are investing considerable time and effort and with
their support, I am sure we will deliver
yet another memorable Petrotech event.
JoP, January-March 2013 11

CEOs Forum

T K Ananth Kumar

Looking into new opportunity

for Acquisition: Oil India

CFO, Oil India

T K Ananth Kumar, CFO, Oil India says that there have been talks regarding
the increase in gas prices for quite some time and the FM indicated that the
gas-pricing policy would be finalised soon
If gas prices increased by USD 4, it
would fetch the PSU Rs 1,500 crore, he
adds. Ananth Kumar expects the FY13
under-recovery at Rs 8,000 crore and
has received net realisation of USD 53
in the first nine-months of FY13.
We are exploring two acquisitionopportunities at the moment for which
talks are at an advanced stage and may
be concluded by FY13-end. We have
failed to maintain growth in crude production in the past two quarters. However, we have taken action to ensure
that from next year onwards the growth
momentum is revived and maintained,
he told CNBC-TV18.
Q: What are the indications from the
ministry regarding the gas price? Are
you expecting it to be nearly doubled
as recommended by the Rangarajan
Committee to USD 8 or do you think a
compromise will be reached?
A: We await the final outcome. We
understand that a note has been put up
and the Cabinet is to take the final decision which will be a big positive for oil
companies, especially Oil India.
Q: What are the benefits for Oil India?
With every dollar increase in gas, by
how much will Oil India profit or
earnings per share (EPS) go up? In your
opinion, what should the price be?
A: At the gross level, each dollar-increase should fetch us close to about
Rs 375 crore and at the net level about
Rs 225 crore. So if it goes up by about
USD 4, it should result in Rs 1,500 crore
gross and close to Rs 1,000 crore net.
Our EPS would increase by about Rs
15 per share which is quite positive. We
hope, considering the huge investments
that we have lined up in exploration and
production, this increase would certainly allow us to aggressively deploy funds
for exploration.
Q: The Budget subsidy Bill provided for
all of FY14 is Rs 61,800 crore which is a
jump over Rs 43,000 crore provided for
the current year. Do you have any clarity
12 JoP, January-March 2013

on what the government will have to

bear as the fourth-quarter subsidy?
A: The current year under-recovery
is expected to be around Rs 1,60,000
crore. Out of that, the upstream share
could possibly be at Rs 60,000 crore
taking into account the first nine
months trend of Rs 45,000 crore that
we have borne till date. Keeping in
mind the likely subsidy-sharing of Rs
1,00,000 crore from government, we
dont expect significant increase in our
share for the fourth quarter.
Q: If the fourth quarter subsidy is Rs
15,000 crore, how much will you get
and what will be your under-recovery?
A: Our net realisation in the first nine
months was at USD 53. So, if the fourth
quarter subsidy is at USD 56 for Oil India, our net realisation will at USD 54USD 55 because the crude price has been
slightly high this quarter. Overall, the under-recovery for the current year for Oil
India should be around Rs 8,000 crore.
Q: In that case, will the upstream share
remain at 37-38 percent or higher?
A: If the total under recovery Rs
1,60,000 crore and if government is
to bear about Rs 96,000 crore to Rs
1,00,000 crore, the upstream share
should be at 38%- 39%.
Q: Did the government indicate in any
way of not give you as much as it in
the first nine months?
A: We have not heard anything from
the government yet. But we have requested that it not be increased.
Q: There have been talks of the
company planning an international
acquisition. Is anything slated for FY14
and what is the quantum of the
acquisition lined up?
A: We made a small acquisition in
October 2012 and we are aggressively
pursuing some discovered, developed
and producing areas. At the moment,
two such acquisition opportunities are
in advanced stage of discussions. So if
everything goes well, this we should

be able to close at least two of acquisition

deals this calendar year.
Q: How much of the Rs 14,000-crore cash
reserves will use to for the acquisition?
A: We have earmarked a Rs 7,000-crore
budget for acquisition and we are capable
of deploying more funds. We also have the
ability to borrow funds for acquisition. So, if
the right opportunity comes along we have
the ability use more funds than budgeted.
Q: Since you have a cash reserve Rs 14,000
crore, is it not likely that the government
will ask you to pay a higher dividend?
A: We have been paying reasonably attractive dividend to our shareholders at a
payout ratio of 33-34 percent. Our dividend policy will depend on investors expectations as well capex requirements.
Q: So dividend policy remains the same?
A: Yes.
Q: What indication did you send out to your
shareholders during the share-sale issue
about what your subsidy burden might be?
A: A representative from the ministry
accompanied us at the roadshows conducted for the offer-for-sale. We informed our shareholders and investors
about the positive reforms introduced
by government from September 2012
and that the likelihood of such reforms
to continue which could result in reducing the under-recovery burden and help
oil companies.
Q: Do you expect any recovery in terms of
crude production because in Q3 your
EBITDA performance slipped by close to 20
% because of the unrest in Assam?
A: Unfortunately, we couldnt maintain the levels of growth sustained over
the last three-to-four years, this year.
We are expected to close this year with
negative crude oil production to the extent of 3-3.5 percent and flat gas production due to extraneous reasons. However, we have taken action to ensure
that from next year onwards the growth
momentum is revived and maintained.
Source: Moneycontrol, March 5, 2013

Petronet LNG likely to

commission Kochi terminal
by May-June, 2013

R K Garg
Director Finance,
Petronet LNG

RK Garg, Director - Finance, Petronet LNG expects the tie up with Kochi terminal
to be commissioned by end of May or early June.
In January and February because the prices were quite high, there has been a
slow demand because the consumers in those sectors cannot afford the prices
In an interview to CNBC-TV18 he
says, Kochi is connected with a small
pipeline within Kerala and that too
around 44 kilometers. There is not
much demand and for that we will be
buying spot LNG or short-term LNG
from the market.
Q: During January and February, the
international LNG prices have been
pretty tight, did you see a fall in volumes
because of the demanding prices?
A: In January and February because of
the high demand in the market, especially in Japan due to high winter, the
prices of spot cargoes and spot LNG
has moved up. The price prevailing
even for India was around USD 17 per
mmbtu. The market has now softened
and prices are coming down and it is
currently hovering around mid-15 and
therefore we are seeing the demand of
LNG now.
Q: What were your utilisation levels in
January and February, were they
around Q3 numbers, significant lower,
any number that you can give us?
A: In January and February because
the prices were quite high, there has
been a slow demand because the consumers in those sectors cannot afford
the prices. Overall January-February
even in March, is okay. As far as we
are concerned, that terminal has a
limitation that we cannot do beyond
a nameplate capacity. We are already
operating around 10 million tonne.
Q: With regards to fertilisers, have you
seen a slackening of demand because
that is usually a weak period, was the
off-take much lower?
A: Fertiliser yes, off-take is now
there and they are also looking for
more gas and in terms of LNG. One
thing is important for the fertiliser
sector because a new fertiliser policy

that had been announced few months

back, now there is a lot of interest in
the fertiliser industry for putting up
more fertiliser facility and expansion
and looking for more and more LNG
in future.
Q: For this quarter itself, what is the
volume that we can expect since you
have a 5 percent tariff permitted, what
might be the total value and volume
that you might re-gasify?
A: Since we have 10 million tonne
capacity, we are trying to meet the 10
million tonne mark in this quarter as
well. The prices of LNG were high
during this period as well as re-gasified
rates are also up by 5 percent, the value
will be higher. We will see as we close
this particular quarter.
Q: There is a bit of an apprehension
among the analysts that while volumes
maybe a bit weak, even margins on
spot will be significantly lower, could
that impact profitability? Should the
market be prepared for weaker
profitability this time because of
international factors?
A: It is very difficult to say at this moment. We will close the quarter and
then we will see the result. Let us wait
and then we will be able to share with
you.
Q: Couple of quick updates LNG tie up
for Kochi, do you think it is possible in
next one-two months?
A: LNG Kochi terminal, we are likely
to commission by end of May or early
June. Currently, Kochi is connected
only with a small pipeline connected
within Kerala and that too around 44
kilometers. The demand is not that
high. So, for that we will be buying
spot LNG or short-term LNG from the
market.

Q: When will the connection to the grid

happen?
A: Whatever indications are available
that could happen only in early 2014.
Q: What about the pipeline, according to
some reports there could be rerouting and
that will lead to a 20-25 percent jump in
the project cost? Do you think that is
likely because of the land problems?
A: There are issues that we are hearing. These matters have been discussed at the highest level within the
government and also state government
and are likely to be resolved soon. If
there is any hike request by the land
users, it would be resolved amicably
and has been done earlier as well.
Q: Can you update us on both Dahej
and Gangavaram?
A: Dahej is operating well, perfectly
fine and we are expanding it to 15
million tonne, all activities are going
on.
Q: What about the second jetty?
A: Second jetty is also on schedule and
we are expecting it would be ready by
early 2014.
Q: Will the 15 million tonne expansion
be around that time?
A: I do not have exact number because
second jetty is not exactly the expansion of Dahej terminal but it will give
us flexibility in importing more cargoes at Dahej which is restricted today. So, there will be some increase.
When we will have the jetty ready, we
will be able to share the exact number
with you.
With respect to Gangavaram, that project
is also going as planned and all pre-project activities are going on at the moment.
Sourcs: Moneycontrol.com
JoP, January-March 2013

13

Energy transition is now must

Marie-Helene Aubert
President, INCE

Marie-Hlne Aubert, adviser to the French president for International

Negotiations on Climate and Environment, was recently in New Delhi to attend
the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit. She was a member of the Green
party from 1990 to 2008. In an interview with Arnab Pratim Dutta and Uthra
Radhakrishnan she sheds light on Frances plans to reduce dependence on
nuclear power and explore alternatives.
What do the people of France think of
global warming?
A: France has temperate weather,
so we are not as badly hit. But there
have been big storms, and floods and
droughts and sometimes both. There
are a few scientists who are climate
skeptics but do not have much support.
People know they will have to face
the consequences of global warming.
Changes are taking place. Species are
moving north as the temperature is rising and farmers are trying new types
of crops. I would not say that it has
increased poverty in the country. We
have insurance companies that try to
repair damages, but the costs are increasing each year.
How is France looking at energy and
climate change?
A: For now, we have decided to start
a debate on energy transition. This is
not just because of climate change; we
import most of our oil and fuel. We
have nuclear plants that produce 75 to
80 per cent of our electricity. A lot of
them will soon reach the end of their
life cycle. We have to think about what
to do next. Do we shut them down or
build new ones?
France plans to diversify, with nuclear energy accounting for 75 to 50
per cent by 2025. The government
had announced closing of the oldest
plant, Fessenheim station in the east
of France. It has designated a special
envoy to manage the plants dismantling. Besides this, we have already
decided to increase energy efficiency,
save energy and develop renewables
like solar, land or offshore wind and
biomass.
France will have to shut down 22
nuclear plants. What is the plan?
A: The life span of some will probably

14

JoP, January-March 2013

be extended by 10 years but only if the

nuclear safety authority allows it. We
are building a European pressurised
reactor but huge cost overruns have delayed its development work. It will be
complete by 2016.

It is clearly not an option at the moment, but there is pressure to open

this to evaluate existing resources. A
few days ago, the French Parliament
started a mission to evaluate the alternatives to fracking.

The question is: do we extend the life

of the plants and then reduce their number or opt for another technology? We
are also trying to find places to bury nuclear waste. There are different issues
involved here such as environmental
risks and compensation to the local
communities where the waste will be
dumped. Besides, the nuclear power
stations generate a number of jobs. It is
not just about an ideological issue.

We have resources, and we should

have a debate about it, especially when
we import oil and gas worth a billion
dollars. We need to have consent over
fracking and be careful of the technology. You are elected for five years, but
if you need to make investment for a
new energy policy it will be for 20, 30
or even 40 years.

Nuclear has produced large amounts

of energy for the country. But we also
want to promote diversification. The
debate is on. The energy transition
will be done progressively and democratically.
So like the US, is shale gas an option
for France?
A: Shale gas with the fracking technology is not an option, that is clear.
Francois Hollande, the French president, and majority of the people are
not in the favour of shale gas primarily because it is a fossil fuel and the
water pollution caused by fracking.
(Fracking is the process of creating
fractures in shale rocks by injecting
a mix of water, sand and chemicals
at high pressure. This breaks up shale
formations, releasing the gas trapped
so it can be pumped to the surface.)
But there is pressure from industry
to explore the option of shale gas. Its
representatives cite the example of the
US, which has become energy independent because of shale gas and now
export. Before undertaking shale gas
we need to take measures to improve
energy efficiency and energy saving.

What role will renewable sources play

in France?
A: France produces 13 per cent of its
energy from renewable sources (including hydraulics). As per the EU renewable energy goals we have to reach
20 per cent by 2020. We want to do
even more. This is the first priority.
There was a talk about solar energy
from the northern part of Africa through
a project called Desertec. Personally, I
think we should produce our own solar
energy. If solar energy is being produced in northern Africa then it should
be used mainly for Africans first. This
is in regard to the 2015 deal. In Durban
we agreed that we will come up with a
deal by 2015 which will include all the
countries.
What are Frances expectations of the
deal? Does it see the world moving
towards a legally binding agreement?
A: France will host the 2015 climate
conference. We have started the organisation process from a logistical point
of view. We know that climate change
negotiations have slowed down because of the disagreements between
countries, and some are reluctant to
any binding commitments. Barack
Obama used strong words after he took

over his second term. He said global

warming is a priority, and it is a good
signal. He added that the US is ready
with new technologies. For the US it is
not just the climate issue, it is also a
business and technology issue.
Emerging economies like India, China
and Brazil refuse to separate development goals and growth from climate
issues. We understand that for a country like India fighting against poverty,
setting up infrastructure, providing access to energy to all, are the priority.
But it is important to realise that the
effects of global warming are being
felt in India too. Brazil, meanwhile,
developed renewable energy quite
early; it has been producing ethanol
from sugarcane. Chinas is another
situation: many people, big cities but
little resources. China is showing
more signs of opening up in terms of
climate change now. It is also due to
business and health reasons because

more and more people are protesting

against air pollution in big cities. We
will need to share our strategy with
the EU to have a common position,
while listening to India, China, Brazil and the rest of the developing and
developed countries. We need to fix
some common goals and obligations
that everybody agrees to. We have to
act quickly because the planet will be
a difficult place to live on by 2040.
Nine countries, including France, have
decided to start the financial
transaction tax. What are the other
methods of financing renewables and
fighting global warming?
A: To manage transitions, we need
huge investments. The international
energy agency says that we need billions of dollars to make this transition.
Where do we find that? Public funds
will not be able to support all kinds
of investments whether long term or
short term. So we have to find public/

private partnerships, and mobilise the

private sector. But for the private sector to invest stable rules are required.
It will invest only if there are rules on
what we will do in the next 10 years
about renewables.
Apart from this, we need to find some
innovative finances like tax on maritime and bunker fuels to finance development and green funds. Financial
transaction tax (FTT) or the Robin
Hood tax is not the only instrument.
We have not given up on the emission
trading system including aviation. We
may think about carbon tax. It is generating a lot of revenue in Sweden and
Denmark and is being used to finance
many sustainable projects.
There is a way to combine access to
energy, energy efficiency and clean
energy and fight against global warming. We all have the responsibility to
find the way to a better future.

JoP, January-March 2013

15

Upstream

Hydrocarbon Exploration
in Assam & Assam Arakan
Fold Belt
S. K. Jain
Basin Manager, A & A A Basin, Jorhat, ONGC, Assam

Abstract
While comparing the prognosticated resources of Upper Assam and Assam Arakan Fold belt which points to a conversion factor of 66 pc and 6.7 pc respectively, AAFB offers a
huge scope for future exploration. Till date all the structures
probed in West Tripura have proved to be gas bearing with
exploratory success ratio 1:2 and the Khubal gas discovery
from Lower Bhuban play in East Tripura has provided a
major boost in whole Tripura. Cachar area has one of the
longest history of exploration and production activities and
with recent successes in north Pathimara, south Adamtila
has given more impetus to hydrocarbon exploration in this
area. Recent hydrocarbon discovery of Hortoki in Mizoram
with tough logistics & terrain condition has opened up a new
vista & rejuvinated fold belt exploration. Looking at past &
present successes in fold belt, there seems to be more opportunity in future in these areas which needs rigorous exploration with induction of latest sophisticated technologies.

Introduction
Exploration in fold belts poses a great challenge to any explorationist, which has been expanding rapidly due to recent
discoveries, escalated demand for gas over oil and gradually
improved access to logistically difficult areas world wide.
A statistical analysis of reserves in fold and thrust belts,
grouped by their geological attributes indicates worlds fold
and thrust belts to be encouraging as the most prolific hydrocarbon provinces. At the same time, the methods for exploring in fold-thrust belts and in developing fields have also
evolved significantly. Much of the yet to find reserves in the
worlds fold thrust belt in several fields still to be discovered. Assam Arakan fold belt covers mainly Tripura (West &
East), Mizoram, Cachar and a part of Manipur. While comparing the resource potential conversion with shelf areas, the
Assam Arakan fold belt has got a huge untapped yet to find
potential. On account of their known hydrocarbon potential
and the existence of a series of large folded structure, the
folded belt of Tripura, Cachar, Mizoram have been attract-

ing the attention of geologists since long. The huge future

potential in Tripura-Cachar-Mizoram region is evident from
many indicators such as its proximity to source rich hydrocarbon generating depressions with source rock maturation
and trap formation happening simultaneously by dynamism
of crustal compressional process. Also overlapping stratigraphic record in Surma Group with availability of source,
reservoir and cap rocks in the same stratigraphic sequence
does a favour. Geomorphic Highs/Turtleback structure within broad synclines between the steep anticlines are the likely
locales for large gas reserves. All structures in west Tripura
probed so far have been proved to be gas bearing and the
success ratio of exploratory prospects probed are about 1:2
maintained over a period of 50 years of exploration.

General Geology, Structure, Tectonics & Petroleum

System
Assam Arakan Fold Belt is located to the south-southeast of
the Assam Shelf and is believed to be the product of the colFigure-1: Geological map of Assam

lision of the Indian plate with the Burmese plate. It is bounded by the Haila
- Hakalula lineament in the northwest,
the Dauki Fault in the north and the
Naga metamorphics in the east. The
plains of Bangladesh lie to its west and
south. The known sediments of this basin range in age from Late Mesozoic to
Recent (Fig 1). The area has two distinct tectonic divisions the CacharTripura-Mizoram fold belt and the Schuppen belt. The greatest thickness of
the sediments in the area is expected in
the Tripura-Cachar-Mizo belt, where it
is postulated to be greater than 13 km.
Tectonically, the folded belt of Tripura-Cachar and Chittagong (Bangladesh) comprises a series of subparallel elongated en echelon doubly
plunging anticlines separated by wide
and flat synclines where turtleback
structures have developed at many
places. The anticlines are usually
bounded by longitudinal reverse faults
on one or either limbs whose effect is
minimized towards both the plunge of
the folds. The young cross faults and
oblique faults of multiple alignments
with strike slip component offset the
longitudinal faults and the fold axis.
The area of interplay of these orthogonal trends, apart from the thrust driven
repetition of strata, may hold promise
from the point view of hydrocarbons.
The increasing intensity of deformation from west to east in Tripura is due
to increasing proximity of the plate
edge to the east. The increase of deformation in the eastward direction is
attributed to a change in competence
of strata due to an increase in the argillaceous content and increase thickness
of the sediments (Ganguly, 1983).

present Bay of Bengal). The Sylhet

Depression and Patuakhali Depression
is separated by relatively uplifted Barisal Chandpur Tangail - Tripura arch
(Gupta 2013).
Very large gas reserves are associated
with the Miocene of the Tripura- Cachar
folded belt, a hydrocarbon system with
tremendous exploration potential. Much
of the deformation occurred very late,
i.e., during the Upper Pliocene and
Pleistocene, and it is very likely that the
maturation of any deeper source beds
would occur well before the folding of
the Tripura Cachar structure. Tripura Cachar area is situated at the mouth of
the old Miocene gulf that extended into
Upper Assam through the south Assam
shelf and Naga Schuppen Belt. It is a
large size tectonic arch known as Tripura-Tangail arch that came into existence
probably during late Eocene as a result
of extension collision subduction uplift at the transition zone between Indian
and Burmese plates (Gangopadhyay et.
al, 2012). The process continued in Oligocene. The pericratonic sea around Assam platform becomes a gulf due to the
uplift of the area east of Disang Thrust
leading to largely continental sedimentation along the Assam Shelf and Naga
Schuppen Belt during Oligo Miocene.
The Miocene depo-system in the Tripura Cachar region is characterized
by a NE-SW trunk stream flowing over
the Basement arch flanked by the two
remnant oceanic basins, viz. the Sylhet
Low in the north and the Patuakhali
Low in the south, both falling in Ban-

gladesh. The trunk stream branched out

a series of distributaries with N-S trend
whose position were controlled by the
emerging narrow anticlines broad
synclines as shown by the present
physiography of the region. Long shore
currents redistributed the deposited
fine sand and silt leading to the current
sand distribution patterns. The Bhuban Formation is subdivided into the
Lower, Middle and Upper units and the
Middle Bhuban in particular, accounts
for the entire hydrocarbon system of
the region ( Roychoudhury, S. C 2010).
Considering the fact that the hydrocarbon migration is essentially short distance, in tens of kilometers, the long
N-S anticlines of Tripura and Cachar,
are likely to have hydrocarbon charging only in area closest to the Sylhet
and Patuakhali Lows.

Exploration Activities
Tripura Fold Belt

In Tripura, geo scientific surveys for

hydrocarbon prospects were carried
out by Assam Oil company in 1939.
ONGC started systematic geological
mapping in Tripura in 1962 and identified 21 major structures (17 surface
and 4 subsurface) for exploration (Fig
2). Aerial photographs and Landsat imageries have also covered almost the
entire area. These have brought out
number of geomorphic anomalies, lineaments, besides confirming the details
of exposed structures. To asses the hydrocarbon prospect of these structures,
ONGC started exploratory drilling

Figure-2: Oil and Gas fields in Tripura and Cachar

Beyond the geographical boundaries, the sub-basins of Tripura, Cachar,

Mizoram and Bangladesh form a single
geological entity representing the western basinal facies of Assam Arakan
Basin, which came into existence during the Late Cretaceous collision and
concomitant subduction of the Indian
plate margin below the Burmese plate.
The combined geological unit can be
subdivided into four broad tectonic elements; Sylhet Depression to the north,
Tripura-Chittagong fold belt to the east
and southeast and Patuakhali Depression in the southwest beyond which the
basin opens up into the open sea (the
JoP, January-March 2013

17

Figure-3: Envisaged field growth in West Tripura

in the Tripura State in 1972 on Baramura Structure (BM#1) which proved

the presence of gaseous hydrocarbons
in commercial quantity. Drilling commenced on a comparatively large structures Baramura and since then other
structures, viz Konaban and manikyanagar in Rokhia, Gojalia, Agartala
Dome, Hararganj, Tichna, Sundulbari,
Khubal, Rajnagar, Bamutia, Kunjaban,
Khowai- Kalyanpur, and Sonamura
have been targeted for exploration by
drilling. Of these Baramura, Gojalia,
Manikyanagar, Konaban, Agartala
Dome, Tichna, Tulamura, Kunjaban,
Sonamura and Sundulbari have turned
out to be gas fields (Fig 2). For better
understanding and delineation of struc-

tures ONGC initiated conventional

seismic surveys in Western Tripura in
1977, followed by more detailed CDP
surveys. The western part of the state
has been adequately covered by 2D
and 3D seismic surveys. A deliberate
search was made for stratigraphic plays
by moving away from anticlines into
the rising flanks of synclines.
So far drilling has been carried out only
on 11 prospects (9 in Western Tripura
and 2 in eastern Tripura). 6 prospects
(all in Western Tripura), proved to be
gas bearing and 5 prospects proved to
be dry. The success ratio of prospects
probed is 1:2.

Exploration has been mainly confined

to more accessible areas of Western
Tripura and even some of the large
structures remained unexplored/less
explored till now. Further, the exploration is limited to the shallower prospects in normal & transitional pressure
regimes and deeper prospects are yet to
be proved by drilling/testing. The exploration is mainly based on the surface
structures identified by field mapping
(except that of Agartala Dome, Khowai
- Kalyanpur, Bamutia and Kunjaban)
and drilling was mainly confined along
the structural axes. The fault closures
along the flanks and stratigraphic prospects are yet to be probed.
New pool discovery in south Gojalia Structure and promising result in
Baramura, encouraged by the leads
obtained from south Rokhia prospect
makes a huge promise for future potential in West Tripura. Gas discovery
from relict features for the first time
in Tripura in Sundulbari flank attains
major explolratory significance. Recent discovery of hydrocarbons in
western flank area of Agartala Dome
has generated major exploratory impetus in flank areas (Fig 3).
The khubal gas discovery from Lower
Bhuban formation has provided a major boost for hydrocarbon exploratrion
in eastern Tripura. Hitherto exploration
in Tripura was aimed at structural prospects in Western Tripura only. Attempts
to unlock the lower Bhuban potential
fields of Rokhia (Konaban & Manikya
Nagar), Agartala Dome, Baramura still
remain a challenge. Most of the wells in
the lower Bhuban or even in lower part
of Middle Bhuban have seen transition
from normal pressure to super pressure
regime causing drilling complications
and even premature termination. In East
Tripura, Khubal, Batchia, Manu would
be the focus areas (Fig 4) for plunge
and flank prospects for Bokabil, Upper,
Middle, Lower Bhuban and Renji Plays
(Gupta et. al 2013).
Cachar Fold Belt

Cachar block has one of the longest

history of exploration and production
activities since 1914. During the period
between 1914-1939 Burma Oil company drilled 72 wells and produced oil
from Badarpur field. Assam Oil Company drilled two wells over the crestal

18

JoP, January-March 2013

Figure-4: Envisaged field growth in EastTripura

part of Patharia anticline now falling

in Bangladesh and extracted oil. The
company also drilled a few shallow
wells in Masimpur (6 wells), Kanchanpur (1 well), Hilara (1 well) and Chattachura (1 well) without much success.
ONGC started its exploratory activities
in Cachar in 1959 starting with geological and geophysical surveys. Oil
and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC)
embarked on exploration work in
Cachar area in 1956 by field mapping
of exposed anticlines. Later on, seismic
survey was started in 1969. Several
structural highs namely Bhubandar,
Banskandi, Shridharpur, Gobindpur,
Narayanchara, Hilara, Shahbazpur,
Rengte, Pathimara, Adamtila were discovered (Fig 2). However, only a few
of them turned out to be hydrocarbon
producing fields (Fig 2).
Imaging of sub surface in Cachar still
remains a challenging task. Other serious problems faced in Cachar are
high Formation pressure, high strata
dips and severe drilling complications. The first exploratory well was
drilled on Chargola structure in 1977.
Oil has been under exploitation from
Paleogene sequence in Badarpur oil
field. The oil occurring in the structural traps of Badarpur, anticlinal core
of Hilara and Patharia (in Bangladesh)
are considered to belong to the older
Paleogene system. So far 23 prospects

have been probed out of

which seven prospects
viz Badarpur, Adamtila,
south Adamtila, Banaskandi, Bhubandar, Hilara, Patharia, North patharia (Fig 2) have proved
hydrocarbon presence.
Gas is the only form
of commercial hydrocarbon from Cachar
in Bokabil and Upper
Bhuban plays. Adamtila, Banaskandi and
Bhubandar have proved
commercial quantities
of gas and presently Adamtila and Banaskandi
are on commercial production since late nineties to the existing customers. Badarpur and
Hilara have tested presence of oil.

Exploration in Cachar with complex

geological and technological problems
require a sophisticated approach coupled with appropriate technology. As
the area is logistically challenging fast
track monetisation of the gas reserve
will be a function of market availability, supply and demand scenario and
future growth potential.
Realising the H/C potential of Cachar,
ONGC has gone ahead with the plan
for implementation of the state of the
art technology induction by employing Passive seismic tomography & Full
Tensor Gravity Gradiometry (planned)
in the area. These would help in fine
tuning the identified prospects for future exploration.
Mizoram Fold Belt

Mizoram lies in a belt of proven hydrocarbon province as commercial accumulations of oil and gas have been discovered in the surrounding areas viz. Burma,
Bangladesh, Tripura and Cachar. Commercial accumulations of gas have been
discovered in Bangladesh and further gas
discoveries have been reported from the
peripheral areas. The known commercial
occurrence of oil in the frontal folded belt
is from Badarpur oil field. Exploratory
drilling in Masimpur, Patharia, Kanchanpur and Chatachura anticlines indicated shows of oil and gas in Bhuban and
Barail strata. Commercial gas pools have

been established in Baramura, Rokhia,

Gojalia, Tulamura anticlines and in Kunjaban as well as Agartala Dome, a buried
geomorphic high, in Tripura.
In Mizoram, surface gas shows from
Hartoki near south Vanlaiphai, Demagiri, Mamit, Hnahthial and the Kaladan
river, east of Lunglesh and oil shows
at Champhai, and Teidukhan have been
reported.
First time gas discovery in phase-II,
MWP well HO-01 by ONGC during
the NELP regime in Mizoram state
has made a landmark achievement
in exploration front with success ratio of 1:1 after about two decades in
Mizoram. This first gas discovery in
Mizoram state in exploratory well
during NELP regime has opened up
a new vista for continuing future
hydrocarbon exploration in geologically complex Mizoram fold belt
area. Upside potential area has been
demarcated for further enhancement
of exploration.

Exploration in AAFB: Way ahead

For future exploration the road map
ahead constitutes identification &
probing of field growth areas like Barjala, South of Manikyanagar, South
& North Baramura, prospects around
Agartala Syncline & Agartala flank for
gas commitment, new prospect identification in North Baramura, South
Gojalia & Khowai-Kalyanpur and
Kunjaban areas. Generate deeper prospects & establishment of reserve base
around West Tripura for sustenance of
production will be one more task ahead
in future. Exploratory locations will
be prioritized to probe Bhuban play
around Barjala & Sundulbari flank and
prospects to be identified in N Baramura, S Sonamura & S Gojalia for Upper & Middle Bhuban plays. Chasing
of Lower Bhuban play around Khubal
discovery block, both in core area &
upside potential area of the adjoining
anticlinal area & its flank is the main
future task and probing of turtle back
within syncline is also equally important for the adjoining areas (Gupta,
2012).

Challenges in exploration in AAFB

The exploration challenges in AsJoP, January-March 2013

19

World Earth Day

sam and Assam Arakan fold belt
include tough terrain & difficult logistics with large forest cover that
retards the pace of land acquisition
for drilling. Seismic data acquisition
and processing problems inherent
to fold belt results in poor imaging
while high formation pressure causes
deeper wells facing problems during
drilling particularly in Lr. Bhuban &
Renji. Miocene (Bokabil) play established in Tichna Rokhia, Adamtila
area, which is prolific in adjoining
Bangladesh is to be to chased down
in other parts and to decipher assymetricity in the subsurface geometry
due to shifting of axis. Enhancement
of GIIP for Bokabil, Upp. Bhuban &
Middle Bhuban pay in Western part
of Tripura and chasing of deeper
Middle Bhuban, & probing Lr. Bhuban play in western part along with
delineation of Lr. Bhuban play in
eastern Tripura in all adjoining structures of Khubal will be a major challenge. Searching of reservoirs with
fine grained dirty sandstones offering very low contrast with the host
clay stones and shales and occurring
in narrow strings and thin blankets
along and across the structures which
are sometimes exposed, sometimes
buried will be another challenge. Exploratory success in this geological
setting requires efficient application
of all available technology & tools to
mitigate risk and costs. The complex
geology and relatively poor imageability, all explorationists must be eager to take up the challenge to usher
in successful results in exploration
and development programme in these
tough promising areas world over.

Conclusions
The past and recent successive success
stories in AAFB shows that many of
the areas still have significant remaining yet to find upside potential needs to
be realized. Though the challenges are
many but it is prudent to look at more
existing opportunity having huge upside
potential to be unlocked. With the new
& improved technology, an accelerated
exploratory programme will definitely
help in bringing more success in the
most difficult and tough areas of Assam
Arakan fold belt.

References
Ganguly, S., 1983, Geology and
hydrocarbon prospects of TripuraCachar-Mizoram region: Petroleum
Asia Journal, p. 105-109.
Gangopadhyay, S.,Lohani, N. C,
Saikia, S. D, Phanisekhar, N, Gupta,
S & Bharadwaj, A., 2012, Regional
Kinematics of Tripura Cachar Fold
belt and its Syncline Exploration,
9th Biennial SPG international conference & exposition on Petroleum
Geophysics
Gupta, S, Shyam, R, Samal, J.K.,
Feb 2013, Assam Arakan Fold Belt:
Khubal, ONGC Bulletin, Special issue, Volume 48, Number 2.
Gupta, S, May 2012: A talk on Yet
to find Hydrocarbon in A&AA Basin, delivered SPG lecture series at
ONGC, Jorhat
Roychoudhury, S. C. 2010, A Guide
Book on the Geology & Petroleum
exploration in Assam & Assam Arakan Basin & Adjoining Geological
Provinces. Past,Present & Future.

S K Jain

Mr. S K Jain, Group General Manager, is heading exploration activities in the Assam & Assam Arakan Basin of ONGC since June
2011.
A M.Sc. in Geology and holding management diplomas from IIM,
Ahmedabad and Calgary, has over 30 years experience in core
areas of Petroleum Exploration & Production, Petroleum Exploration Economics, Petroleum Risk Evaluation, Strategic & Perspective Planning, Exploration Planning, Project Monitoring & Evaluation and Development Geology
& Reserve Estimation.
jain_sk@ongc.co.in

20

JoP, January-March 2013

Earth Day is an annual day on which events are

held worldwide to demonstrate support for environmental protection. Earth Day is observed on April
22 each year. The April 22 date was designated
as International Mother Earth Day by a consensus
resolution adopted by the United Nations in 2009.
Earth Day is now coordinated globally by the Earth
Day Network,and is celebrated in more than 192
countries every year. The name and concept of Earth
Day was pioneered by John McConnell in 1969 at a
UNESCO Conference in San Francisco. He proposed
March 21, 1970, the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere. This day of natures equipoise was
later sanctioned in a Proclamation signed by Secretary General U Thant at the United Nations. A month
later a separate Earth Day was founded by United
States Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in first held on April 22, 1970. While
this April 22 Earth Day was focused on the United
States, an organisation launched by Denis Hayes,
who was the original national coordinator in 1970,
took it international in 1990 and organised events
in 141 nations. Numerous communities celebrate
Earth Week, an entire week of activities focused on
environmental issues.
The global theme for Earth Day 2013 is The Face
of Climate Change.Climate change can seem like
a remote problem for our leaders , but the fact is
that its impacting real people, animals, & places
everywhere. This Face of Climate Change is growing every day. Fortunately, a different Face of Climate Change is growing too: the people stepping
up to do something about it.
Climate change faces arent only human. Melting
arctic ice is jeopardising polar bears. Warmer North
Atlantic waters deplete plankton numbers, making it harder for whales to get food. The faces of
climate change are multiplying every day, effecting people, animals, and the ecosystems that we
depend on. Even if youve been insulated from the
effects of climate change, take note that the consequences of our actions are mounting. You too will
be directly affected.
The faces of people doing their part to fix the
problems are also multiplying. Entrepreneurs are
creating the new green economy. Activists are organising community actions.

Upstream

Estimating Well
Deliverability from a
Thin-Bed Multi-layer Gas
Well using Interval Pressure
Transient Testing (IPTT)
Siddhartha Nahar, Nitish Kumar, Vaibhav Deshpande, Viraj Nangia, Richard Jackson - Schlumberger
K.M. Sundaram - Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Ltd.

Introduction
In 2002, one of the largest natural gas reserves was found
during deepwater exploration operations off the east coast
of India. This spurred an increase in deepwater activity in
the region. Because such operations are traditionally expensive propositions with a high-risk, high-reward scenario, the
main focus was on expeditiously characterizing the reservoir
and identifying the reservoir fluid to determine well deliverability.
Traditionally, conventional well tests have been utilized
for determining reservoir fluid type and estimating deliverability. A conventional well test works by flowing the well
to surface and recording pressure transients to determine
reservoir properties. While this method has a considerably
large radius of investigation, the analysis is rendered more
complex due to wellbore dynamics and constraints in determining reservoir properties of individual layers in a multilayer thin-bed system. More importantly, conventional well
tests are time consuming (running into days and sometimes
weeks) and hence, expensive, considering the cost of deepwater rigs. This is especially true if the produced fluid turns
out to be water.
Interval Pressure Transient Testing (IPTT) using dual
packer configuration of wireline formation testers can
prove to be a cost-effective alternative to conventional
well tests for evaluating reservoir parameters, capturing
fluid samples and assessing the commercial viability and
flow potential for multiple reservoir intervals. IPTT on
wireline can be conducted in open hole and can access
multiple layers in a single run, thus significantly reducing operational time and hence, overall cost. The pressure

transient generated using this technique has sufficient

radius of investigation to determine essential reservoir
properties and uses the same analytical methods for interpretation as a conventional well test. This data is used to
determine zonal productivity index (PI) in case of oil or
absolute open flow potential (AOFP) in case of gas wells.
In the presence of multiple thin layers, conventional well
tests would not be as effective because individual layer
properties cannot be obtained and there would always be
a certain degree of uncertainty in knowing the potential
of individual layer.
This paper showcases a workflow in which well deliverability is calculated for a gas well based on transient testing of
multiple thin layers.

Motivation and Workflow

The Indian east coast deepwater environment contains several reservoirs that are composed of thin inter-bedded clay
and silt laminations with thicknesses ranging from several
meters to less than a meter, with multiple targets being exposed in a single openhole section. These reservoirs tend to
exhibit a wide range of flow properties, and in such cases,
advanced acquisition services such as tri-axial resistivity,
high-resolution borehole images, and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) logs have been increasingly used for reservoir
characterization.
To assess the viability of any well, especially in an exploration scenario, it is of the utmost importance to know the
kind of fluid present in the targeted wells, whether these
fluids can and should be produced, and if so, how economically they can be produced. For this purpose, fluid

Fig.1. Proposed Workflow for a typical IPTT operation

identification along with establishing

the dynamic properties of the reservoir rock becomes very critical. One
of the most important dynamic properties of rock is permeability, which
in turn, is used for well deliverability calculations. Conventional technology like drill stem testing (DST)
can become prohibitive in selective
cases where rig cost and environmental issues may not permit a full-scale
evaluation of the well productivity.
In such cases, Interval Pressure Transient Testing (IPTT) on wireline conveyance becomes a viable option. It
involves the use of straddle packers
which, when combined with downhole pump modules and fluid analyzers, enable controlled localized layer
production while enabling the operator to identify the reservoir fluid as
well as acquire good quality transient data. This data can then be interpreted using commercial software
to determine productivity index (PI)
in case of oil wells, or absolute open
flow potential (AOFP) in case of gas
wells. This technology becomes all
the more relevant in the case of thinbed multi-layer scenarios as the contribution of each individual layer can
be evaluated separately, as opposed
to a conventional DST. A workflow
for a typical IPTT operation is outlined below (see Fig. 1).

22

JoP, January-March 2013

Methodology
First, basic logs such as gamma ray,
resistivity, and neutron-density are
run to identify potential zones of interest. Establishing fluid type in such
zones on the basis of the open-hole
logs can be inconclusive. In the case
of thinly laminated reservoirs, advanced tools such as borehole image
logs are advised prior to the sampling runs to optimize the sampling
depth selection for both single-probe
and dual-packer runs. Once potential
zones of interest have been identified, a single-probe module of the

wireline formation tester (WFT) with

pumpout, downhole fluid analyzers
and multi-samplers is used to measure formation pressures and mobilities, identify the reservoir fluid, and
collect a representative sample in different zones of interest. Fluid identification involves pumping formation
fluid through the downhole fluid analyzer and is based on the principle of
optical spectroscopy. Fluid characterization is based on exposing the
flowline fluid to light and measuring
the resulting optical properties with a
spectrometer. As different reservoir
fluids react to specific wavelengths,

Fig.2. TVD depth plot for Well A with pressure-mobility, constructed fluid
gradients, and fluid identification/sampling stations

analyzing the resultant spectral responses can help in characterizing

the fluid in the flowline. In the case
of Well A, the measured formation
pressures are be plotted against true
vertical depth (TVD) to generate fluid gradients which can then be verified by collecting actual fluid samples
in the identified zones of interest (see
Fig. 2). As can be seen, the attempted sampling stations in Well A show
four gas stations followed by water at
the deepest tested point.
Once the hydrocarbon layers have
been defined, a straddle packer (referred to as a dual-packer module of
the modular formation dynamics tester) is used to isolate approximately
1 m of formation and a pressure transient test is conducted to derive dynamic flow properties of the zone.
The dual-packer is inflated by pumping wellbore fluid into the packer elements while the inflation pressure
is monitored using a pressure gauge
in dual-packer module. When a predefined limit is reached, pumping is
stopped and the inflation pressure is
monitored for stabilization. A packer
pretest (Buildup#1) is conducted by
pumping out a relatively small volume of fluid from the isolated interval,
thereby, bringing the interval pressure
to below formation pressure. Pumping
is then stopped and a small buildup is
recorded to confirm isolation integrity
of the selected interval as well as to get
an estimate of the formation pressure.
Once a seal is established, pumping is
continued from the interval in order to

remove the filtrate from the surrounding invaded zone until the reservoir
fluid breaks through, which is identified by the fluid analyzer. Pumping is
further continued until ideally, a single-phase formation fluid is achieved
or contamination decreases to a predetermined level. A second buildup
is conducted thereafter as a quality
check and to provide a benchmark
prior to the final buildup sequence.
Pumping is then resumed at low flow
rates. Once the flowline pressure is
stabilized, the pump flow rate is incremented by a preset amount (designed
to cause a measureable increase in
drawdown) and the process repeated
until a sequence of three to four different flow rates is achieved. This is
called the flow-after-flow method(1)
and the acquired pressure-rate data
can be used to calculate AOFP for
the gas zones. (see final drawdown in
Fig. 8). A final buildup (buildup #2) is
then recorded and a transient analysis
is done in real time to ensure that a
radial flow regime is obtained. The
derivative plots for the main buildup
data (Buildup#2) are compared with
buildup #1 as a quality check measure.
At this point, pumping can be resumed
in order to collect a representative reservoir fluid sample in one of the multisampler bottles.

Interval Pressure Transient

Testing (IPTT) Analysis
The main buildup data is analyzed using standard well-test software packages and basic inputs such as effec-

Figure. 3. Derivative plot for main buildup at station #1

Table.2. Semi-Log Straight Line

Analysis Results
Parameters

Value

K.h

8.67 mD.m

6.67 mD

Skin

15.6

P*

6291 psia

tive porosity, pay thickness and tested

interval thickness, to obtain dynamic
flow properties. As an example, at
one of the gas stations in Well A (station #1), an effective porosity of 20%
was used for a pay thickness of 1.3
m and a tested interval thickness of 1
m. As there are two separate gauges
available in the dual-packer module
for measuring the interval pressure,
a comparison of the measurements
of the two gauges is used as a quality check for the measured pressure
values. The final buildup is usually
selected for derivative analysis(2) as
it is usually the longest and cleanest
flow period, to identify an infinite
acting radial flow (IARF) regime
(see Fig. 3). A straight-line analysis
is done on the semi-log plot corresponding to the radial flow regime
time period (Fig. 4), which gives radial permeability thickness, extrapolated P*, and skin. Results are shown
in Table 1 below.
Table.2. Semi-Log Straight Line Analysis Results
The pressure and derivative log-log
plots are matched with modeled pres-

Figure. 4. Semi-log plot for main buildup for station #1

JoP, January-March 2013

23

Figure. 5. Model match with log-log plot

sure type curves (which best represent

the observed derivative behavior) on a
semi-log scale to determine reservoir
parameters. The parameters are further finetuned in order to have the best
possible fit between the model and recorded data.
The obtained response at station #1
was matched by assuming a model
approximating constant wellbore storTable 2. Parameters obtained from
model match
Parameter

Value

9.85E-06 bbl/psi

Skin

10

1.3 mD.m

k.h

9.14 mD.m

Fig. 6. History match with model generated response

at station #1

age, vertical limited-entry well and a

homogeneous reservoir with an infinite
boundary. A vertical limited-entry model was selected because of the spherical flow regime observed on derivative
plot; Fig. 5 shows the model match
with the data. The parameters obtained
from this log-log match were used to
history match the downhole data. Fig 6
shows the model behavior comparison
with the actual pressure history. As can
be seen, the history match model and
final drawdownbuildup sequence show
a good fit (boxed area in Fig. 6).
The consistency of the interpreted
model is checked against other nontesting information such as seismic
data, geology etc. The radius of investigation of IPTT generally ranges
within tens of feet, so an infinite

Figure. 7. AOFP estimation using the flow after flow method

boundary reservoir model could be

safely assumed in combination with
the radial flow regime identified.
The parameters obtained after model
match are shown in Table 2.
A total of five IPTT stations were performed in this well. The parameters obtained from semi-log analysis and model matching were in close agreement
for all five stations. The single point
AOFP is estimated using the reservoir
parameters obtained from the above
analysis and the method described by
Karthik et al, 2008(3). The flow-afterflow method is also employed to determine AOFP for each station (see Figure
7 for flow-after-flow determination at
station #1) and the results are presented
in Table 3, alongside the single point
AOFP. In the presented case study,
the AOFP value from the flow- afterflow method was in close agreement
with the AOFP calculated from single
point method (Table 5). No flow-afterflow AOFP could be calculated for the
fourth depth station #4 as stable flowing pressures were not obtained during
the pumping period.
For a gas well, AOFP is the theoretical
rate at which the well will produce if
the flowing pressure were atmospheric
and it may be necessary to extrapolate
the curve far beyond the range of test
data. It must be emphasized that deliverability estimates based on this
method assumes that pressure was
stabilized (ri re) during the testing
period used to construct the plot. If

24

JoP, January-March 2013

Table 3. AOFP estimates at individual IPTT stations

Test
Station #

Permeability

PermeabilityThickness (k.h)

AOFP(3) (without
AOFP(3) (with rate
rate depedent skin) dependent skin)

AOFP(1)
(Flow After
Flow)

mD

mD.m

MM SCMD

MM SCMD

MM SCMD

1.

19.4

19.4

0.3287

0.2103

0.3546

2.

7.03

9.14

0.1684

0.1166

0.1142

3.

3.9

3.90

0.0647

0.0503

0.07508

4.

0.42

1.08

0.0176

0.0152

N/A

5.

18

25.2

0.2862

0.1956

0.4198

this is not the case, deliverability estimates from the curve can be misleading. Graphical representation of AOFP
estimate from this method at station
#1 is shown in Fig. 7. It is to be noted
that the AOFP derived from such a
lengthy extrapolation may be prone to
some error.

presented at Oil and Gas Technical

Conference and Exhibition held in
Mumbai, India, 4 6 March 2008.
4. Duangkaew, S., Claverie, M.,

Cheong, B., Hansen, S., Leech,

R., Azam, M.N.H.M., Malim, E.,
Lasman, M.R., and Witjaksana,
R. Forecasting the Productivity of
Thinly Laminated Sands with a Single Well Predictive Model. Paper
SPE 116370 presented at SPE Asia
Pacific Oil and Gas Conference and
Exhibition held at Perth, Australia,
20 22 October 2008.
5. Kumar, N., Nangia, V., Deshpande,
V., Nahar, S., Jackson, R., Sundaram, K.M. Estimating Well Deliverability in Deepwater Wells with
Interval Pressure Transient Testing
(IPTT): A Case Study. Presented at
SPE Oil and Gas India Conference,
28-30 March 2012; SPE 155307.

Conclusions
As described, IPTT on wireline can be a
viable alternative to conventional testing for determining well deliverability, especially in a deepwater scenario,
where cost and safety are the primary
drivers for any operation. Moreover, in
the case of thinly laminated reservoirs,
IPTT on wireline can be implemented
to selectively determine the productivity of individual layers which is not
possible in the case of a conventional
well test.

Timeline of Shale Oil & Gas development

Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Oil
and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd, India and Schlumberger for permission to
publish this work.

References
1. Bourdet, D., Ayoub, J.A., Pirard,
Y.M. Use of Pressure Derivative in
Well Test Interpretation. SPE Formation Evaluation, June 1989: 293302; SPE-12777
2. Lee, J. 1982. Well Testing. Dallas:
SPE Textbook Series
3. Kumar, N.K., Joshi, S., Banerjee, R.,
and Sundaram, K.M. A New Method for Gas Well Deliverability Potential Estimation Using MiniDST
and Single Well Modeling: Theory
and Examples. Paper SPE 113650
JoP, January-March 2013

25

Bio Energy

Algae-Based Biofuels: Current

status and Future Trends
Ravi P Gupta, Dr. D K Tuli and Dr R K Malhotra
DBT- IOC Centre for Advanced Bio-energy Research

Introduction
Bio-fuels are now one of the acknowledged alternatives
to fossil fuels. Plant- seed based biodiesel was one of the
earlier developed biofuel which was thoroughly tested
and introduced commercially. However, as these plants
had to be specially grown and thus competed with food
crops for the use of land, biodiesel could not gain very
wide commercial use. Ethanol is one of the most widely
used alternative fuel component in gasoline. However,
most of the ethanol is either produced from corn or from
sugarcane and hence it commercial exploitation can only
be limited. Additionally, yields of these feedstock per
hectare are limited and therefore need a very vast track of
land, which at times lead to destruction of forest lands and
diversion of arable lands.
Compared to other feedstocks, algae can provide a highyield source of lipids, which can then be converted to biodiesel, ethanol or even aviation fuels and that too without
compromising food supplies, destruction of rainforests or
use of arable land. Algae are one of the fastest-growing
micro-organisms known to us. Like any other plants, they
use photosynthesis to harness sunlight and carbon dioxide as a carbon source. Energy is stored inside the cell as
lipids (the source for oil) and carbohydrates. Algal lipids
can be converted into biodiesel, ethanol, biocrude and
aviation fuels.
For biofuels markets, algal strains with high oil content will
help to bring much-needed feedstock to biodiesel production
plants world-wide. To supply this massive demand, several
algae R&D, universities, labs and commercial producers
are working on pilot tests, demonstration projects, and firststage commercial ventures to turn algae into biocrude that
can be refined into biodiesel, renewable diesel, renewable
gasoline and aviation and drop-in fuels.
The global market for algal biofuels is poised for rapid
growth and expansion over the next decade. Algae are attracting increased investment and interest from biofuels,
aviation and petroleum companies. The Algae 2020 study
finds the US and Europe cannot grow enough corn, soy, or

rapeseed to meet their biofuels targets. Fast growth in US

and European biodiesel markets from 2007-2012 has lead to
increased biorefining capacity but a shortage of feedstocks.
Market demand for feedstocks from biorefineries in the US
and Europe is expanding faster than soybean, corn and rapeseed feedstock producers can supply them. The demand for
biofuels in the US, EU and Asia will create new opportunities for algae and other non-food feedstocks to meet ambitious targets for biodiesel, ethanol, and next generation renewable fuels.

What is Algae ?
Algae are single-cell organisms that thrive in fresh or brackish water and convert CO2 into carbohydrates, protein, and
natural oils. For some algae species, as much as 75% of their
body weight is made up of non-edible natural oils. Through
transesterification (process of adding three molecules of alcohol to one molecule of natural oil), the algae natural oils
can be used to produce renewable fuels. Along with biodiesel, other, more advantageous, drop in transportation
fuels are also possible that have equivalent or better energy
density than the petroleum fuels we currently use and are
also compatible with the existing energy infrastructure.
Algae is commonly grown in two scenarios, in open
ponds, and in containers called photo-bioreactors. In both
cases the growth of algae requires a source of carbon,
light, nutrients, and warm water. Research has been conducted around the world to find the best strains of algae
for different climates/seasons, to develop the best growth
medium, to develop the best pond structure, and to test
harvesting and separation technologies. An emerging
trend in algal biofuels is the utilization of synthetic biology and genomics to enhance the productivity and increase the utility of algae to produce advanced drop-in
fuels, animal livestock and fish feed and green plastics
and chemicals for biopolymers.
A 1998 report from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) summarizes 18 years of research on using algae
to produce natural oils for use in biodiesel (Sheehan, Dunahay, Benemann, & Roessler, 1998) .The laboratory experi-

ments showed that the production of

algae oil was feasible in 1998 (Sheehan
et al., 1998). However, we have yet to
see any full-scale algae farms because
three issues have yet to be addressed.
An efficient process to harvest the
algae has not been demonstrated.
An efficient process to separate the
natural oil from the algae has not
been created.
The economic viability of algae
farms at realistic prices has not been
proven.

Algae Types
Two kinds of algae exist: macroalgae,
also known as seaweed and microalgae.
Microalgae are very small plant-like organisms (1 to 50 m), which can be seen
with the aid of a microscope. Unlike
higher plants, microalgae do not have
roots, stems and leaves. Microalgae,
capable to perform photosynthesis, are
important for life on earth; they produce
approximately half of the atmospheric
oxygen and use simultaneously the
greenhouse gas carbon dioxide to grow
photo-autotrophically. In addition, life
in oceans, seas and lakes is dependent
on microalgae, because these are at the
bottom end of the food chain.
Macroalgae are seaweed or kelp aquatic plants that are cultivated
either directly in the sea, attached to
solid structures like poles and rafts,
or, in some cases, as small individual
plants, kept in suspension in agitated
ponds. Macroalgae are produced for
their content of gelling substances:
agar, alginates and carrageenans
and for food and the annual global
production of seaweed is several million tons. Compared to other types of
aquaculture, the production of seaweed is only surpassed by freshwater
fishes. Presently there is also interest
in seaweeds as a feedstock for production of biofuels.
The biodiversity of microalgae is enormous and they represent an almost untapped resource. It has been estimated
that about 200,000-800,000 species
exist of which about 35,000 species
have been isolated and characterised.
Most of these microalgae species produce unique products like lipids, carotenoids, antioxidants, fatty acids,

enzymes, polymers, peptides, toxins

and sterols. The chemical composition of microalgae is not an intrinsic
constant factor but varies over a wide
range, both depending on species and
on cultivation conditions. It is possible
to accumulate the desired products in
microalgae to a large extend by changing environmental factors like temperature, illumination, pH, CO2 supply,
salt and nutrients.

Algal Growth Classification

Algae can be grown in three different ways which are phototropic or
autotrophic, heterotrophic and mixotrophic. Today, the most common
procedure for cultivation of microalgae is autotrophic growth. Because
all microalgae are photosynthetic,
and many microalgae are especially
efficient solar energy convertors, microalgae are cultivated in illuminated
environments naturally or artificially.
Under autotrophic cultivation, the
cells harvest light energy and use CO2
as a carbon source. The introduction
of sufficient natural or artificial light
to allow massive growth and dense
populations is the main objective and
a limiting factor of the cultivation.
A feasible alternative for phototrophic
cultures is the use of their heterotrophic
growth capacity in the absence of light,
replacing the fixation of atmospheric
CO2 of autotrophic cultures with organic carbon sources dissolved in the
culture media. Heterotrophy is defined
as the use of organic compounds for
growth of algae.

lina, Neochloris oleoabundans, Phaeodactylum tricornutum and Tetraselmis

sueica which can accumulate oils can
be used as raw material for biodiesel
production (Chisti 2007). An average
annual productivity of micro algal biomass in a well designed production system located in a tropical zone can be in
the region of 1.535 kg m-3d-1( Chisti,
2007). Production of high quality biodiesel from a mixotrophically grown
micro alga Chlorella protothecoides
was evaluated by Xu et al. (2006). A
lipid content of 55.2% was achieved
through the heterotrophic growth of C.
protothecoides.
Apart from algae species which has
varying levels of oil accumulation,
cultivation parameters, such as temperature, light intensity, pH, salinity,
mineral, and nitrogen sources, also influence the oil production. It was observed that limitation of nitrogen could
increase the oil content in all Chlorella
strains (Illman et al., 2000). It was observed that Fe+3 concentration and its
time of addition had affected oil accumulation to some extent . Solovchenko
et al(2008) had reported that stress and
nitrogen deficiency are the key factors
for oil accumulation. Lipid accumulation in oleaginous microorganisms can
also be improved by genetic engineering approaches by identifying the enzyme involved in the lipid production.
Another genetic engineering approach
is to reduce the size of their antenna
pigment, so that they are able to grow
in lower illumination conditions (Polle
et al., 2002).
Algae culture systems

Mixotrophic growth regime is a variant of the heterotrophic growth regime,

where CO2 and organic carbon are
simultaneously assimilated and both
respiratory and photosynthetic metabolism operates concurrently. Cost effectiveness and relative simplicity of operations and daily maintenance are the
main attractions of the heterotrophic
growth approach.

Algal bio-fuel
Many autotrophic microalgae, such as
Chlorella vulgaris, Botryococcus braunii, Navicula pelliculosa, Scenedsmus
acutus, Crypthecodinium cohnii, Dunaliella primolecta, Monallanthus sa-

Open pond systems

The simplest open air algae cultivation

systems are shallow, unstirred ponds.
The sizes range from a few m2 to 250
ha (Figure 1a and b). Natural CO2 is the
carbon source for phototrophic algae. Its
dissolution from air into water limits the
growth rate, making the yield per hectare relatively low. Other negative influences are the slow diffusion of nutrients
and flotation and sedimentation of dead
and living algae, limiting the usage of
available sunlight. This can be prevented by some form of agitation, which in
practice is done in raceway ponds (Figure 1c), in which a paddle wheel (Figure 1d) forces a circulating water flow
JoP, January-March 2013

27

pH Variations

The pH range for most cultured algal

species is between 7 and 9, with the
optimum range being 8.2-8.7. Complete culture collapse can result from
a failure to maintain an acceptable pH.
The pH adjustment is accomplished by
aerating the culture.
1a

1c

through a long narrow pond.

Blowing gas bubbles through the medium provides both agitation and a part of
the required CO2. Air, compressed CO2
or CO2-containing combustion gases
can be applied. The major bottlenecks
of these open systems are that there is
almost no possibility for temperature
control and that they are very susceptible to invasion of algal predators,
parasitic algae or other algal strains
that grow better at the applied conditions and therefore out-compete the
desired species. Only a limited amount
of species is dominant enough to maintain itself in an open system (Carlsson
et al., 2007; Chisti, 2007; Rodolfi et al.,
2009).

1b

1d

of controllability and elevated biomass

concentrations, which results in lower
space requirements and lower harvesting costs per tonne of algae. One example is the bubble column (Figure
2b), a vertical tubular reactor. Scalability of this system is limited since,
when putting several systems close to
each other, they will cast a shadow on
each other.
Using a reactor consisting of long horizontal tubes eliminates this problem1
(tubular reactor, Figure 2c-e). However, this has its own scaling problem:
algae will consume nutrients and CO2
while producing O2 (which could inhibit algal growth at elevated concentrations), so growth conditions deteriorate further along the tube.

Photo Bioreactors

Temperature, gas exchange and competition problems can be reduced to an

extent through closing an open system
by covering it with transparent material
or a greenhouse, but this is expensive
for large surfaces. Another simple, but
inexpensive example is using polyethylene bags or sleeves (Figure 2a) for batch
culture. Sizes go up to 1000 litres, but
sensitivity to environmental conditions
and short life expectancy make this system inappropriate for outside use.
Several more advanced systems have
been developed based on more durable
transparent materials: glass, polyethylene and polycarbonate. These reactors
offer continuous operation, a high level

28

JoP, January-March 2013

A detailed comparison of open vs

closed land based systems is shown in
Table-1

Factors Affecting Micro-Algal

Growth

1a

Aeration/mixing

Mixing is necessary to prevent sedimentation of the algae, to ensure that

all cells of the population are equally
exposed to the light and nutrients and
to improve gas exchange between the
culture medium and the air. The latter is of primary importance as the
air contains the carbon source for
photosynthesis in the form of carbon
dioxide. For very dense cultures, the
CO2 originating from the air (containing 0.03% CO2) bubbled through the
culture is limiting the algal growth
and pure carbon dioxide may be supplemented to the air supply (e.g. at a
rate of 1% of the volume of air). CO2
addition furthermore buffers the water against pH changes. However, it
should be noted that not all algal species can tolerate vigorous mixing.
Temperature

Most commonly cultured species of

micro-algae tolerate temperatures between 16 and 37C. Temperatures lower than 16C will slow down growth,
whereas those higher than 35C are
lethal for a number of species. If necessary, algal cultures can be cooled by
a flow of cold water over the surface
of the culture vessel or by controlling
the air temperature. Some algae culture
can grow upto 42oC and these can be
good for Indian conditions.
Salinity

Marine phytoplankton are extremely

tolerant to changes in salinity. Most
species grow best at a salinity that is

1b

1c

1d

1e

slightly lower than that of their native

habitat, which is obtained by diluting
sea water with tap water. Fresh water
algae have very low tolerance to salts.

density decreases rapidly and the culture eventually collapses. In practice,

culture crashes can be caused by a variety of reasons, including the depletion of a nutrient, oxygen deficiency,
overheating, pH disturbance, or contamination.

firm uses synthetic biology and genetic engineering to boost biofuel

yields from algae. Solazymes proprietary biotechnology platform creates renewable oils by harnessing
microalgaes prolific oil production
capabilities. Through their molecular biology and chemical engineering capabilities, they are able to
cost-effectively produce high-value
and tailored oils. By using standard
industrial fermentation equipment,
they are able to efficiently scale-up
and accelerate microalgaes natural
oil production time to just a few days
and at commercial levels.

Growth dynamics

The growth of a typical culture of micro-algae is characterized by five phases (See Fig 3):
Lag or induction phase : This phase,
during which little increase in cell
density occurs, is relatively long when
an algal culture is transferred from a
plate to liquid culture. Cultures inoculated with exponentially growing algae have short lag phases, which can
seriously reduce the time required for
upscaling.
Exponential phase
During the second phase, the cell density increases as a function of time t according to a logarithmic function: Ct =
C0.emt
with Ct and C0 being the cell concentrations at time t and 0, respectively,
and m = specific growth rate. The specific growth rate is mainly dependent
on algal species, light intensity and
temperature.

Global Leaders in Algal R&D

First attempt for systematic development and understanding of micro-algal
technology was initiated by National
Renewable Research Labs (NREL) of
US DOE in 1978. This research project continued for 18 years and resulted in a very effective report in 1998.
However, due to the depressed fossil
fuel prices prevailing in that period resulted in discontinued funding to this
project. Recent reports suggest that
US, DOE and US department of Defense have committed very large funding to algal research. However, most
of the advanced algal research is being
carried out in private companies with
active support of Govt and petroleum
MNC companies as a public-private
partnership. Some of the leaders in algal R&D are:

Inventure Chemical Technology:

Inventure makes a reactor system that
uses thermo-chemical processes and
catalysts to turn algae into three types
of fuel, including jet fuel. Inventure
next-generation synthetic biology pathways currently under development will
enable the conversion of sugars into
advanced biofuels and bioproducts
using microorganisms such as yeast,
bacteria, and algae.
Sapphire Energy: With more than
$100 million from high-profile inves-

Solazyme: The San Francisco based

Figure 3. Five growth phases of micro-algae cultures

Phase of declining growth rate

Cell division slows down when nutrients, light, pH, carbon dioxide or other
physical and chemical factors begin to
limit growth.
Stationary phase : In the fourth stage
the limiting factor and the growth rate
are balanced, which results in a relatively constant cell density.
Death or crash phase : During the
final stage, water quality deteriorates
and nutrients are depleted to a level
incapable of sustaining growth. Cell
JoP, January-March 2013

29

tors including Bill Gates Cascade Investment, ARCH Venture Partners and
Venrock, Sapphire is one of the bestfunded algae-to-fuel startups company.
Sapphire has already developed breakthrough technology to produce fungible, drop-in transportation fuelsincluding 91 octane gasoline, 89 cetane
diesel, and jet fuelall out of algae
utilising sunlight, and carbon dioxide
(CO2).
Aquaflow Bionomic Corp: The New

Zealand-based firm recently announced

that, using technology from Honeywell
subsidiary UOP, it has converted (for
the first time) wild algae into synthetic
paraffinic kerosene, which can be combined with conventional kerosene for
jet fuel.
Algenol Biofuels: Florida based companyl circumvents expensive refining
processes by collecting ethanol vapors
directly from algae. The startup has
$70 million in private funding. Algenol

Table 1: Comparison of open versus closed land based systems

Parameter or issue

Open ponds and raceways

Photobioreactors (PBR)

Required space

High

For PBR itself low

Water loss

Very high, may also cause salt

precipitation

Low

CO2-loss

High, depending on pond depth

Low

Oxygen concentration

Usually low enough because of

continuous spontaneous outgassing

Build-up in closed system requires

gas exchange devices (O2 must
be removed to prevent inhibition of
photosynthesis and photo oxidative
damage)

Temperature

Highly variable, some control possible by pond depth

Cooling often required (by spraying

water on PBR or immersing tubes in
cooling baths)

Shear

Usually low (gentle mixing)

Usually high (fast and turbulent

flows required for good mixing,
pumping through gas exchange
devices)

Cleaning

No issue

Required (wall-growth and dirt

reduce light intensity), but causes
abrasion, limiting PBR lifetime

Contamination risk

High (limiting the number of species

that can be grown)

Low (Medium to Low)

Biomass quality

Variable

Reproducible

Biomass concentration

Low, between 0.1 and 0.5 g/l

High, generally between 0.5 and 8 g/l

Production flexibility

Only few species possible, difficult

to switch

High, switching possible

Process control and reproducibility

Limited (flow speed, mixing, temperature only by pond depth)

Possible within certain tolerances

Weather dependence

High (light intensity, temperature,

rainfall)

Medium (light intensity, cooling

required)

Start-up

6 8 weeks

2 4 weeks

Capital costs

High ~ US$100 000 per hectare

Very high ~ US$250,000 to

1,000,000 per hectare (PBR plus
supporting systems)

Operating costs

Low (paddle wheel, CO2 addition)

Higher (CO2 addition, oxygen removal, cooling, cleaning, maintenance)

Harvesting cost

High, species dependent

Lower due to high biomass concentration and better control over

species and conditions

Current commercial applications

5 000 (8 to 10 000) t of algal biomass per year

Limited to processes for high added

value compounds or algae used in
food and cosmetics

30

JoP, January-March 2013

patented DIRECT TO ETHANOL

technology enables the production of
ethanol for less than $1.00 per gallon
using sunlight, carbon dioxide and saltwater and targets commercial production above 8,000 gallons of ethanol per
acre per year. The low production costs
and high yields are achievable because
DIRECT TO ETHANOL does not
involve killing or harvesting algae, and
relies on their patented photobioreactors and proprietary downstream techniques for the low-cost recovery and
purification of ethanol.
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL): Research into producing
microalgal biofuels for transportation
has been revitalized at NREL, USA.
Because algae have the potential to
produce the feedstock for a number
of transportation fuelsbiodiesel,
green diesel and gasoline, and jet
fuelNREL has developed strong capabilities in producing biofuels from
microalgae. The major NRELs RD&D
projects in converting microalgae
to biofuels are development of algal
strains; establishment of a BioenergyFocused microalgae strain collection
using rapid, high-throughput methodologies; development of algal-based
Jet fuel; development of a comprehensive high-throughput technique for assessing lipid production in algae and
development of a genetic model for
biodiesel from Cyanobacteria.

Algal Harvesting and Downstream

Processing
Harvesting

Harvesting of algae is also one of the

most challenging areas of any algal
biotechnology. There is need to develop a low energy cost process for
continuous harvesting of algae at
the scale intended The costs of harvesting microalgal biomass can be a
major component of production, accounting for up to 2030% of the total
cost. The key harvesting and dewatering operations currently used are
sedimentation in gravity field, centrifugation, flotation and filtration.
The first challenge is to concentrate
cells from relatively dilute solutions
of ~ 0.55 kg m3 dry weight to solutions between 20 and 100 per cent
more concentrated than the starting
material. In a concentrated state, with

710% volume as cells, the rheology

of the packed microalgae starts to become non-Newtonian and handling
of the cells becomes problematic. At
about 1520% solids, the systems
are no longer fluid and not amenable
to pumping, which makes handling
even more difficult. It is generally
preferable to maintain the system
as liquid slurry to facilitate efficient
handling for further downstream
processing using pumps. Although
sedimentation is a simple process, it
is very slow (0.12.6 cm h1), and
in high-temperature environments,
much of the biomass produced will
deteriorate during such a harvesting
process. In consequence, sedimentation alone is largely dismissed as a
viable harvesting method. However,
flocculation caused by alkaline adjustment has been used to effectively
remove some of the algae.
At present, different alternates are
being given and many of these have
proved unsuccessful on large scale. A
large amount of efforts should therefore be initiated for developing algae
harvesting and downstream processing
technologies. This area of work falls in
the expertise of general chemical engineering, however, biotechnologists can
help develop algal strains which are
easier to harvest. This fact was evident
from the approach in General Atomics,
San Diego.
Hurdles in Commercial Exploitation of
Algal Biofuels

One of the primary objectives of research

in algal biotechnology would be to attain
high density growth or in other words
achieving high productivity per rupee
spent in making and operating the algal bioreactors. The sheer scale of the
operations intended at producing several
thousands of tons of algal biomass also
necessitates that we decide well on what
best to do with the algae once grown in
the bioreactors. Thus the post-growth
work on algal biomass would comprise
three major research areas.
Harvesting and dewatering of biomass
Pre-treatment of the biomass and
densification of carbon
Process technologies for conversion
of the densified algal carbon to biofuel

If grown under conditions using strains

that have desired characteristics, algae
will form flocs that could be easily harvested using mechanized equipment
attached to the bioreactors. Simple
continuous filtration can dewater and
collect wet algae though still containing more than 70% water by weight.
However, this thick slurry will need to
be dewatered further using equipment
and at a cost depending upon the downstream processes.
Cost effective recovery of oils and lipids from algal biomass at super scale is
a huge challenge and much work needs
to go into this aspect if we are looking
at separation and recovery of triglyceride components to convert these into
FAME as biodiesel.
Another algal biofuel technology option is fast pyrolysis or supercritical
water hydrolysis to bio-oil that can
then be cracked to petro-like fractions
using variants of available technologies at petro-refineries. These aspects
need to be looked into especially vis-vis the water content these technologies can handle in the algal feedstock.
Supercritical water hydrolysis can indeed handle larger water contents and
may be more suitable for algal biomass. There is need to put up laboratory scale facilities at select places to
study potential of these technologies
in collaboration with petroleum companies.
Algal biomass may also be hydrolyzed
in its own water, without dewatering,
to component sugars that may in turn
be converted to ethanol. This would
require design of milder pre-treatment
technologies and new enzyme systems
as algal cell walls do contain polysaccharides other than cellulose and hemicellulose. This work can be taken up at
protein and enzyme engineering laboratories like ICGEB, National Institute
for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (NIIST), the DBT-ICT Centre
for Energy Biosciences and DBT-IOC
Centre of Advanced Bio Energy Research.
The single most basic requirement
for working on harvesting and downstream technologies is steady and sufficient supply of algal biomass. Thus
some initial, though sub-optimal, algal

strains can be selected and grown in

raceway ponds to generate sufficient
algal biomass required.

Indian Efforts in Algal

Development--Network of
Institutes and R & D organizations
As is evident from the above discussions, development of algal technology
involves expertise of several disciplines
like biotechnology , chemical / process
engineering and chemists. It is also
therefore necessary to form a network
of institutes and/or R&D organization
wherein the work on algal biotechnologies would be undertaken in all aspects
from strain biology to scalable biofuel
technologies. To build expertise in various interdisciplinary areas under a common umbrella that provide facilities
from molecular biology labs to technology incubation facilities, Department of
Biotechnology (DBT), Govt. of India
established an algal network. Several
projects on different aspects of algal
technology were funded in Universities
and R&D institutes.
DBT promoted bio-energy centres like
DBT-ICT Centre for Energy Biosciences, DBT- ICGEB centre , DBT-IOC
Centre of Advanced Bio Energy Research have also been made part of the
network so as to make sound scientific
based advancements in algal technology. This is in line with actions of several premier global research efforts like
that of Department of Energy (DOE) of
US Government.

Algal Research at IndianOil-R&D

IndianOil (IOC) R&D Centre has isolated around 120 fresh water algal
strains. Process has been optimized for
growth of potential strain up to 600L
culture volume in open ponds. Efforts are underway for development of
micro-algal strains for higher biomass
and lipid content.
IOC intends to develop demonstration
plant after optimizing cost effective approach for microalgae cultivation and
harvesting. DBT-IOC centre, established in 2012, has kept development of
algal based biofuels as a major focused
project. This centre will have access to
two algal banks established by DBT
which are repositories to high lipid alJoP, January-March 2013

31

gal strains. Additionally this centre can

also utilize genetically modified algal
strains which are under development at
DBT-ICGEB centre. Major emphasis
of DBT-IOC centre will be to develop
cost effective processes for achieving
higher growth, harvesting methods and
extraction of lipids.

4)

5)

References
6)
1) The Economics of Microalgae Oil
; Richardson, Outlaw, & Allison;
AgBioForum, 13(2), 2010
2) A look back at the US Department of Energys aquatic species
programBiodiesel from algae
(NREL/TP-580-24190) ; Sheehan,
J., Dunahay, T., Benemann, J., &
Roessler, P. (1998); Golden, CO:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), US DOE.
3)Algae Based Biofuels : Review of
Challenges and Opportunities for
Developing Countries ; Sjors van

7)

8)

Iersel (Ecofys); May 2009

Biodiesel from microalgae. ;
Chisti, Y. (2007); Biotechnol. Adv.
25(3): 294-306.
High quality biodiesel production
nom a micro alga Chlorella protothecoides by heterotrophic growth
in fermenters.; Xu H, Miao X and
Wu Q (2006); Journal of Biotechnology; 126: 499-507.
Increase in Chlorella strains calorific values when grown in low
nitrogen medium; Illman AM,
Scragg AH and Shales SW (2000);
Enzyme Microb Technol; 27: 631635.
Truncated chlorophyll antenna
size of the photosystems- a practical method to improve micro algal
productivity and hydrogen production in mass culture ; Polle JEW,
Kanakagiri S, Jin E, Masuda T and
Melis A (2002); Int J Hydrogen Energy; 27: 1257-1264.
Micro and macroalgae - utility for

industrial applications Bioproducts

Carlsson, A., Beilen van, J., Mller,
R., Clayton, D. and Bowles, D. e.
(2007)., CNAP, University of York:
86.
9) Microalgae for Oil: Strain Selection, Induction of Lipid Synthesis
and Outdoor Mass Cultivation in a
Low-Cost Photobioreactor.; Rodolfi, L., Zittelli, G. C., Bassi, N.,
Padovani, G., Biondi, N., Bonini,
G. and Tredici, M. R. (2009); Biotechnol. Bioeng. 102(1): 100-112.
10)MNRE - Issue paper on algal biofuels - Arvind Lali, V. Sivasubramanian, D.K. Tuli
11)Effects of light intensity and nitrogen starvation on growth, total
fatty acids and arachidonic acid,sin
the green micro alga Parietochloris
incisa.; Solovchenko AE, KhozinGoldberg I, Didi-Cohen S, Coben Z
and Merzlyak MN (2008); J Appl
Phycol; 20: 245-251

Ravi P Gupta

Mr. Ravi P. Gupta is Research Manager & HOD at DBT IOC centre for Advanced Bio Energy Research and working
in the development of indigenous technologies in Bio energy area. Mr. Gupta is a M. Tech. in Chemical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi. He has 17 years of varied experience in the areas of technology
development and commercialization. His work experience includes technical evaluation, installation, commissioning,
optimization and trouble shooting of several refining and bio energy based pilot plants. He has published several
research papers in reputed national & international journals.
guptarp1@indianoil.In

Dr D K Tuli
Dr R K Malhotra

Dr. D K Tuli is Executive Director and

Centre coordinator at DBT IOC centre for
Advanced Bio Energy Research. He holds
Ph.D. in Synthetic Chemistry with over
three decades of rich and varied experience in R&D in the hydrocarbon industry
with a special interest in synthetics and
biotics. Dr. Tuli has to his credit, 12 U.S.
patents, two European patents and over
20 Indian patents. He has published over 60 research papers in professional journals. Dr. Tuli was also a SERC post-doctoral fellow at the
University of Liverpool, England during 1979-81 and 1987-89.
tulidk@indianoil.in

32

JoP, January-March 2013

Dr R K Malhotra A Mechanical Engineering Graduate from Institute of

Technology, Banaras Hindu University
and Ph.D. (Energy Studies) from Indian
Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi. He is
full time Director on the Board of Indian
Oil Corporation as Director (R&D).
He is the Non-Executive Chairman of
Indocat Pvt. Limited, a JV company of
Indian Oil and Intercat, USA and Board Member of Lubrizol India, a
JV Company of Indian Oil and Lubrizol USA. He is also member of the
Oil Industry Development Board, Govt. of India.
malhotrark@indianoil.in

Case Study

Modification of extraction
cum Condensing turbine to
Back Pressure Turbine in STG
1 (Russian make) of Barauni
Refinery
D P Ghosh, A P Joshi, S Choudhary and M A Parvez
IndianOil - Barauni Refinery

The Barauni Refinery of IndianOil commissioned on 1st

January 1964, is the second public sector oil refinery to have
been set up with technical and financial collaboration of the
then USSR. Designed to process Assam Crude oil, originally
this refinery had two primary distillation units each of
1mmtpa capacity and a Delayed Coker unit, tow Kerosene
Treating units (KTU), one Phenol Extraction Unit (PEU)and
Solvent Dewaxing unit (SDU).
It had two extraction cum condensing Russian Steam Turbine and generators (STGs) 6 MW each for meeting the
steam and power requirement of refinery.
In the year 1971 one more distillation unit , based in entirely
inhouse design and engineering, was added, taking the refinery capacity to 3mmtapa. In 1986, the refinery was raised to
4.2 raised to 4,2 mtpa by revamping of its primary units and
addition of second DCU, both with indigenously design and
engineered by EIL. In the eyar 1997, a Catalytic Reforming
Unit was added to phase out lead from gasoline. This project
was completed ahead of schedule, with significant savings
in its cost.
With IndianOil becoming a Navaratna company in 1998, a
crude pipeline was laid from Haldia to Barauni or bringing
in imported crude oil and in the year 2000, its nameplate
capacity was raised to 6mmtpa, by modernizing its Primacy
units and Coker, and addition of RFCC, DHDT, HGU, SRU,
GTG with HRSG and addition of linked offsite and inutilities under the project code BXP (Barauni Expansion Project), setting new industry benchmark in design , engineering, project execution and distillate yield.
In the year 2011 Isomerisation units was added for improving MS quality to meet EURO III standards.

This refinery , today is among countrys highest distillate

producing refinery, is also well known for its continuous improvement through innovation. This case study borings out
one such innovation of the Baraunians ( the refiners located
at Barauni), adding great value to idling and inefficient old
Russian STG. Its first ever such initiative, in the IndianOil,
which has won great laurels.

Introduction
Thermal Power Station of Barauni Refinery is having following Power & Steam Generating Units:
Table- 1
Power Generation

Steam Generation

Steam Turbines (TG): 2 x 12 MW + 1 Boilers: 5 x 75 TPH @ 39 kg/cm2(g)

x 12. 5 MW
& 440oC
Gas Turbines (GT): 2 x 20 MW

HRSG: 2 x 48 TPH @ 39 kg/cm2(g)

& 440oC

Installed capacity: 76.5 MW

Installed capacity: 471 TPH

To meet the maximum load condition of 45 MW, 210 TPH

HP steam and 120 TPH of process steam, two GTs + HRSGs,
two Boilers and one STG (extraction cum condensing type)
being operated. In addition to this HP/MP PRDS remains in
operation to meet the process steam demand beside the STG
extraction.

Pre Back pressure Scenario:

A total System power Load was around 42 MW while HP
steam demand was in the range of 200 TPH with process
steam demand around 120 TPH.

To meet the power demand and process

steam demand, 2 GT and 1 STG was
normally kept in service. As STG-3 is
design for higher extraction even on
lower load as against the STG-1 & 2,
it was normally kept in service along
with 2 GT. The power balance is given
in Table-2
Table-2- Power Balance
Power Generation
Unit

Load ( MW)

STG-3

5.0

Gas Turbines -1 (GT1)

18.5

Gas Turbines -2 (GT2)

18.5

Total

42

Similarly a detailed Steam Balance is

Given below in Table-3
Following Loss Area identified In Preback pressure scenario
1- STG-3 maximum extraction is limited to 80 to 85 TPH as per its design
capacity.
2- As per limitation of Turbine extractions, balance Process steam (MP)
load is supplied by PRDS. So PRDS
loading remains on higher side.
3- As on low load of 4 to 5 MW, LP
extraction is very minimal in STG,
so total TPS LP steam demand was
only be supplied by PRDS (MP to
LP).
4- As per design requirement of Condensing cum extraction turbine, a
minimum condensing flow is must
which is around 10 TPH for STG-3.
So a minimum condensing loss was
inevitable.
In summary Following loss focus
point identified1- High Let down of Steam through
PRDS due to design limitation of
Turbines.
2- Condensing loss of condensing
cum extraction turbines.

Evolution of Idea & redesign

parameters:
With a load demand from STG limited to 5 MW, and for production of
process steam in a most economical
& efficient method, idea evolved for
converting one of the existing extraction cum condensing steam turbine
into back pressure turbine. This change

34

JoP, January-March 2013

Table-3 Steam Balance

HP Steam Balance
Generation

MT/
Hr

Consumption

Table-5
Attributes
MT/
Hr

Specification

Rated output (on

alternator terminals)

5.3 MW ( max 6.0

MW)

Rated values of the

inlet steam Pressure &
Temperature.

35 ata 445 degC

Boiler-1

56

STG-1

Boiler-2

60

STG-2

Boiler-3

STG-3

90

PRDS (HP to
MP)

37

Maximum Inlet steam

flow

112 TPH

Boiler-4
Boiler-5

HP steam to unit

73

First controlled
extraction ( MP)

HRSG-1

42

13 ata - nominal flow

80 TPH & maximum
flow 100 TPH

HRSG-2

42

Turbine exhaust
(LP system)

5 ata Nominal flow

12 TPH

Total

200

Total

200

MP Steam Balance
Generation

MT/
Hr

Consumption

MT/
Hr

TG-1

TPS ( MP to LP
steam )

25

TG-2

Export to
process unit

95

TG-3

80

PRDS

40

Total

120

Total

120

LP Steam Balance
Generation

MT/
Hr

Consumption

MT/
Hr

TG-1

Deaearator +
DM wate heater

18

TG-2

HP heater

TG-3

FO heater &
atomisation

PRDS

25

Total

25

Total

25

Table-4
Attributes

Specification

No. of stages in
Turbine: 1 impulse +
16 reaction stages

17

Rated output (on

alternator terminals)

12 MW

Rated values of the

inlet steam Pressure &
Temperature.

35 ata 445 degC

Maximum Inlet
steam flow

112 TPH

First controlled
extraction ( MP)

13 ata & max flow

50 TPH

Second controlled
extraction ( MP)

1.2 ata & max flow

40 TPH

lead to reduction of PRDS operation to

most optimum level & will completely

eliminate the condensing losses. One

of Russian turbine units have been selected for Modification into Back pressure turbine
Original Design Specification

STG-1 was originally Russian make

Condensing Cum extraction turbine with
2 controlled & 2 uncontrolled extractions
with following design specification Re-designing Criteria

Our re-designing done on the following guiding factors 1- Minimum Load requirement is 5 to
6 MW ( to meet 42 MW power demand along with 2 GT)
2- Process steam (MP- 13 ata) extraction should be maximized to 90 to
100 TPH from present limit of 50
TPH as Units process steam demand is in that range and accordingly steam let down can be reduced
to minimum.
3- Turbine exhaust shall be limited in
the range of 15 TPH to 25 TPH as
per internal heating steam demand
requirement.
4- Turbine exhaust pressure/back pressure shall be in the range of 2 to 3
Kg/cm2 so that all level of internal LP
steam supply can be catered fully.
5- Maximum Inlet steam limit are 112
TPH as per turbine design.
So based on above guiding & limiting criterias following re-design
nominal parameters are defined

Modification
With the above concept, Extraction cum
condensing Russian steam Turbo Generator#1 (STG#1) is converted into back
pressure type to increase turbine efficien-

cy, energy conservation and for overall

improvement of Power plant efficiency.
Following major modifications carried
out for converting STG#1 into back
pressure turbine:
1) Total seven LP stages blades of
STG-1 were removed (out of original 17 stages).
2) 16 Nos. of Extraction Diaphragm
ports of MP sides are blinded for

Maximizing 13 Ata extraction from

50 TPH to 100 TPH.
3) Isolation of turbine condenser by
inserting the Blind flange inside
casing with provision of One Open
atmospheric drain.
4) LP diaphragm Removed & blind
plate provided.
5) 1.2 Ata Extraction Bleed system
converted into Turbine Exhaust port
( Back pressure system) & Redesign
up to 5 Ata back Pressure operation

6) Intermediate Gland in LP section

modified with Higher Length for
High Pressure operation
7) Modification done in 5 Ata Turbine
exhaust system (earlier 1.2 Ata Extraction system) for provision of
Atmospheric vent with a Pressure
Control valve to regulate the back
pressure during startup & in any exigency
8) 2 Nos. of PSV provided in 5 Ata
system for improved safety.
JoP, January-March 2013

35

9) Rupture diaphragm in Exhaust hood

side is blinded.

Table-6

HP Steam Balance

Challenges Faced During

Commissioning & their correction

Generation

Before TPH

After Consumption
TPH

Before TPH

After TPH

Boiler-1

56

51

STG-1

104

1) High LP steam Flow in turbine Exhaust Side (more than design) - LP

exhaust flow found as high as 37
TPH. In view of this additional 4
nos. of ports of MP to LP diaphragm
was closed. Now only 4 ports kept
open out of 24 ports and accordingly LP steam flow in turbine exhaust
is reduced to around 25 TPH
2) During start-up due to venting of
exhaust steam there was huge noise
through exhaust vent. To minimize
the same an in-house design silencer
is provided
3) High Front Gland pressure lead to
heavy steam leak from gland: Front
gland leak-off steam is connected to
one of the DM water heat exchanger
(CTWH) for Heat recovery and reduction in Gland pressure.
4) High gland pressure & steam leak
from intermediate glandFurther
strengthening done with provision
of fins. One open vent is provided
for release of gland pressure.
5) High exhaust hood temperature
Due to increase in steam flow in
exhaust hood side, its operating
temperature increased exceptionally
high. A DM water spray system provided in the exhaust hood part.
6) Addition of new piping system for
full utilization of back pressure in
regenerative feed water heating system (HP Heater, DM water heater)
& in Deaerator for de-aeration.

Boiler-2

60

55

STG-2

Boiler-3

STG-3

90

Boiler-4

PRDS ( HP to MP)

37

13

Boiler-5

HP steam to unit

73

73

HRSG-1

42

42

HRSG-2

42

42

Total

200

190

Total

200

190

MP Steam Balance
Gen-

Before TPH

After Cons.
TPH

Before TPH

After TPH

TG-1

80

TPS ( MP to LP steam )

25

TG-2

Export to process unit

95

95

TG-3

80

PRDS

40

16

Total

120

96

Total

120

96

LP Steam Balance
Gen-

Before TPH

After Cons.
TPH

Before TPH

After TPH

TG-1

25

Deaearator + DM water
heater

18

18

TG-2

HP heater

TG-3

FO heater & atomisation

PRDS

25

Total

25

25

Total

25

25

Summary of Efficiency
Parameters:
Parameter

Before
(with
STG #3)

After
(with
STG #1)

Investment details

TPS overall
efficiency

78.3%

80.3%

1) Material cost : For necessary system

modifications at IOCL battery limit
area the cost of material required
was Rs 40 lacks (approximately)
2) A consultant cum execution agency
was lined-up for detail engineering and necessary modification of
the system. The cost of investment
in this regard was Rs 70 lacks (approximately).
3) The total investment for this project (Conversion of condensing cum
extraction Turbine to Back pressure turbine) was Rs 110.00 lacks
(approximately

STG Efficiency in
Extraction mode

86.67%

98.73%

Specific fuel
consumption for STG
in extraction mode
(subtract heat of
extraction steam &
condensate)

0.285
SRFT/
MW

0.105
SRFT/
MW

36

JoP, January-March 2013

Benefits
1) A Net reduction of 10 TPH observed in HP steam demand due to
elimination of condensing loss and
let down loss. A detail comparative
steam balance is given in Table 6-

2) A Sustain operation of STG-1 in

back pressure mode has reduced refinery MBN by around 0.9 unit and
expected to achieve a fuel savings
@ 5600 SRFT/Yr (Approx Rs.20
Crore per year)
3) Heat load on Cooling Tower got reduced due to reduction in Circulation water flow as there is no surface
condenser in case of Back pressure
turbine. This resulted in reduction
in consumption of CW treatment
chemicals as well in fresh water
make up in cooling tower (in the
range of 15 m3/hr)
4) Reduction in Aux. power consumption in STG (stopped CEP operation)
and in Cooling tower (CW Pumps)
@ 300 KWH. The equivalent cost
saving is around Rs 2 Crore per year
5) This will also reduce CO2 foot print.
An estimated reduction in Emission
is around 18000 MT/Yr.

D P Ghosh
A P Joshi

D.P.Ghosh An Electrical Engineering

graduate from NIT Durgapur with a very
vast experience of 26 years in the field
of Electrical Maintenance, Projects, Engineering & power plant operation. He
is presently working as Chief Manager (
Power & utilities) at Barauni Refinery of
Indian Oil Corporation Limited

A.P.JOSHI A Mechanical Engineering

graduate from NIT Nagpur and has a rich
20 years experience in the field of Plant
maintenance, Project planning & execution. He is presently working as Senior
Manager ( Maintenance) at Barauni Refinery of Indian oil corporation Limited.

S Choudhary
M A Parvez

S. Choudhary- He is a Mechanical Engineering Graduate from NIT, Suratkal with

BOE certification. He is also a certified
Energy Auditor from BEE. He is having a
rich experience of 18 years in the field
of Power plant operation & maintenance.
He is presently working as Manager in
Power plant

M.A.Parvez An an Electrical Engineering Graduate from NIT, Nagpur with a 12

years of experience in the field of Power
plant operation and maintenance, Project
execution. He is also a certified energy
Auditor from BEE. He is Presently working as Deputy manager in Power plant.

JoP, January-March 2013

37

Leadership: Built to Last

The science of employee

engagement
Gaurav Lahiri
Managing Director, Hay Group India

Weve all heard that joke about the CEO who was asked how
many people worked in his organization. Oh, about half of
them, he replied. But jokes apart, measuring how engaged
your staff really is with your organization could make for
frightening reading today. Recent research conducted by
Hay Group has found that just about two-thirds of employees worldwide are engaged at the workplace. Further, our
study found that an average of 33 per cent of employees are
unable to perform optimally, admitting that barriers put in
place by the organization are preventing them from excelling at work. These are startling figures indeed.
On the brighter side, all of our research shows that employees want to work and they want to work hard; it is what
human beings naturally want to do. Given that the vast majority of us want to work, what then is the driving force behind those who want to work in the same direction as the
employer and those that dont?
The science of measuring and following up on employee
engagement (the measure of enthusiasm and alignment
to organizational goals) has come a long way in the past
three decades. Years of global research with many millions of employees of all levels and demographic groups
has given Hay Group a pretty definitive understanding of
what really drives people to come to work and to work effectively. A well aligned workforce results in better bottom-line performance. It delivers higher scores on pretty
much any business critical key performance indicators
you care to mention, whether they be profit, innovation,
safety or anything else. It also means comparatively better share performance.
Clearly, these days, more than ever, employee engagement
must be part of any companys key performance indicators
and should be tied into decisions that affect return on investment.
What is worrying then, is that at a time when global companies are looking to deliver increasingly better performance,
we are seeing employee engagement across the world decline or stagnate at 2008 levels. Our study on Engagement,
that spanned 1610 organizations across 46 countries, repre-

sents the views of almost five million employees and a

great number amongst them are unwilling and unable to go
the extra mile for their organization. With global engagement scores pegged at 66 per cent, we have found that employers in India are only marginally better off with 68 per
cent of engaged employees.
This unique study also showed that employees across the
globe are not properly supported at work and are unable
to perform to their full potential as a result. Less than two
thirds of employees around the world (62 per cent) feel
that conditions at work allow them to be as productive as
they could be. Clearly, there is a stubborn gap between
the level of discretionary effort that employees globally
are willing to put into their work and the corresponding
level of support available to enable them to excel. For
organizations looking to harness the full productivity
of their workforce, leaving this pool of motivation untapped is a wasted opportunity. Employees based in India
are slightly better off in terms of employee enablement;
however, more than a quarter admit that they could be
more effective if workplace conditions allow for greater
productivity.
Our experience shows that to truly drive productivity,
business leaders must understand the role they have to
play in enabling high levels of performance removing
the barriers that are holding their employees and their organizations back. This ability of engaged individuals to
make maximum contributions has two key components.
The first, personal utilization, requires that employees are
effectively matched to their roles, such that their skills
and abilities are put to best use. The second component,
an enabling environment, involves structuring work arrangements such that they facilitate, rather than hinder,
individual productivity.
Even so, company loyalty is another metric that has taken
a hit in these tough times, with commitment levels falling
to a five-year low in every major region. More than twofifths (44 per cent) of the global workforce has expressed
their intent to leave their present employers within five
years, with more than one in five employees (21 per cent)

amongst these intending to leave

within two years! A much larger majority of employees in India (58 per
cent) have acknowledged their intent
to exit their present organizations
within the next years, with about one
in every three planning this shift within two years. It is a worrying sign that
Indian organizations, despite averaging higher engagement levels than
the Asia average, find that only about
40 per cent intend to remain loyal to
their present organizations in the next
five years. Frustrated employees are
unlikely to persist over the long-term
in this state. Clearly, the opportunities currently available for organizations to improve the bottom line by
actively engaging the workforce have
never been so good and the time to
act is now.

The share performance curve of organizations with highly engaged employees is generally smoother and generally
moves in an upward direction, compared to that of organizations with poor
engagement levels, our research shows.
In other words, market forces have less
of an effect on high engagement environments. Investors are increasingly
seeing the link between engagement
and business outcomes. Engagement
is a great predictor of future financial
performance. In fact, our work on The
Enemy of Engagement found that organizations in the top quartile on employee engagement demonstrate revenue growth 2.5 times that of those in
the bottom quartile; even as companies
in the top quartile on both engagement and enablement achieve revenue
growth 4.5 times greater.

More than ever, the benefits of real engagement are being recognized. Even
minor improvements in employee engagement see measurable, often significant, improvements in business
outcomes. In turbulent times a highly
engaged workforce dramatically improves the chance of weathering the
storm it is a real differentiator between winners and losers at such times.

Despite the numbers, getting engaged

performance is not just about investing financially in employees through
perks or pay hikes. It is about striking
a new contract in which the organization invests emotionally in its workforce. In exchange, employees make a
similar emotional investment, pouring
their discretionary effort into their
work and delivering superior perfor-

mance. The new contract says, Well

make your job (and life) more meaningful. You give us your hearts and
minds.
Engagement (and enablement) is
about motivating employees to perform at their best by providing necessary resources and support. Managers
must combine engagement (the use
of motivational tools), with enablement (the act of providing employees
with effective resources), in order
to reach optimal levels of employee
satisfaction and productivity. They
must listen carefully to their teams
for common frustration themes, and
address them by prioritizing goals,
advocating for resources and minimizing workflow disruptions. They
must provide adequate training, support, and discretion to growand not
hold employees back with excessive
procedures, decision processes, lack
of resources and overly narrow roles.
Evidently, the need of the hour is for
organizations and managers to create
sustainable long-term strategies to
better enable their employees; in effect equipping them for the organizations success.

Gaurav Lahiri

A founding member of the Hay Group India Office, Gaurav is the Managing Director for Hay Group India. Focusing
primarily on M&A and organization transformation, Gaurav works with clients to align their organizations with their
strategic agenda this includes reviewing strategies, designing organization structures, implementing talent management programs and formulating reward strategies to drive performance and motivation.
Having been part of Hay Group London, Singapore as well as Melbourne practices, Gaurav has served clients all
across Europe, US, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific. Gaurav specializes in the FMCG, Telecom, Media and Energy
sectors. He has led the Telecom and Media practice of Hay Group in Europe and has been involved in several business
transformation projects with clients in the sector in Asia and Europe. While Gauravs expertise is in Organization Effectiveness, he has also helped
clients research and develop competency models for outstanding performance. He managed a seminal Indian CEO research study sponsored by
Bharat Petroleum under the aegis of Indias Public Enterprises Selection Board and co-authored the book The Indian CEO : a Portrait of Excellence
published in 2007.
Gaurav is a graduate with Honors in Mathematics from Delhi University and holds an MBA from the XLRI School of Management.
Gaurav.Lahiri@haygroup.com

JoP, January-March 2013

39

Best Paper: Petrotech 2012

Microbial enhanced
recovery of unconventional
viscous oil of the Alaska
North Slope
A. L. Ghotekar, M. S. Patil, S. L. Patil, Santanu Khataniar and A. Y. Dandekar
University of Alaska Fairbanks,

Abstract
Viscous oil reservoirs are difficult to produce by conventional enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods such
as water, gas, or chemical injection. Thermal methods
such as steam injection or in-situ combustion are usually
needed to produce such reservoirs. The Alaska North
Slope (ANS) is estimated to contain nearly 30 billion
barrels of viscous oil. Use of thermal methods for enhanced recovery of these oils is not feasible because of
the presence of a thick layer of permafrost (permanently
frozen soil), and the proximity of these reserves to the
cold permafrost overburden. Microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) is an emerging EOR method that seems
to be applicable to a wide range of reservoirs, however, it
has not yet been applied to the ANS fields. In this study, a
microbial formulation that could be applicable to the ANS
oil was experimentally identified. Coreflooding experiments were performed to study and quantify the incremental oil recovery by MEOR. Microbial composition
of the oil was monitored to propose a mechanism for microbial enhanced recovery. Terminal restriction fragment
length polymorphism (T-RFLP) was performed on the oil
samples to qualitatively study the effect of the microbial
formulation on a molecular scale. The study identified a
microbial formulation using Bacillus Licheniformis as
being potentially applicable to the ANS oil reservoirs for
improving oil recovery. Improvement in oil recovery was
found to be sensitive to the residence time of the bacteria
in-situ. Compositional analysis of oil sample indicated
bacterial degradation of the heavy hydrocarbons as a potential mechanism behind increased oil recovery.

Introduction
The Alaska North Slope (ANS) is located north of the
Brooks Range, between the foothills and the Chukchi
and Beaufort Seas, and extends approximately 700 miles
westward from the Canadian border to Point Hope. According to the Energy Information Administration Of-

fice of Oil and Gas, not only is the ANS responsible for
approximately 15% of the oil production in the United
States (May 2001), but it also contains the largest estimated volume of undiscovered petroleum reserves of any
domestic onshore sedimentary basin. Therefore, the ANS
oil resources may contribute significantly towards providing some relief of the global energy crisis.
The majority of ANS oil resource is viscous to heavy oil,
which have limited ability to flow in the reservoir. The main
reason ANS oil is viscous is because its formations occur
within a depth 6,000 feet, which is not only shallow, but also
is close to the permafrost region of the ANS. Permafrost refers to a layer of permanently frozen soil covering the ANS
and it extends to about 2000 feet in depth. Therefore, ANS
reservoir temperatures are unusually low.
Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) methods traditionally
used for developing viscous and heavy oils, such as steam
injection, are not applicable to ANS because of high heat
loss and potential thawing of the permafrost. In Microbial
Enhanced Oil Recovery (MEOR), selected microorganisms are introduced into the reservoir to produce harmless
by-products, which mobilize the oil and increase recovery
without the use of heat injection. Thus, it appears to be a
viable alternative to using thermal methods for improving
ANS oil recovery.
The objective of this research was to conduct several experiments to assess the amenability of the ANS viscous
oils for natural or induced microbial population viscosity
reduction processes. A microbial formulation suitable for
the application of MEOR to ANS oil was developed. Several coreflooding experiments were performed to evaluate
the performance of MEOR. Terminal restriction fragment
length polymorphisms (T-RFLP) of the oil samples were
performed to analyze the ANS viscous oils for the microbial community. This study was used to propose a potential
mechanism for the incremental oil recovery resulting from
MEOR.

Experimental Apparatus and

Materials
Microbial Formulation: A freeze-dried
sample of the JF-2 strain of Bacillus
Lichniformis (American Type Culture
Collection) was used for the major microbial component of this experiment
due to its previous isolation from connate water of the oil fields in Oklahoma, USA (McInerney et al., 1999).
A dehydrated culture media known
as Bushnell-Haas broth was used as
a component of the nutrient medium
due to its recommendation for the
microbiological examination of fuels
by the Society of Industrial Microbiology Committee on Microbiological Deterioration of Fuels (Allred et
al., 1963). A liter of nutrient medium
(3.27 g. Bushnell-Haas broth, 10 g.
1% sucrose, and 50 g. 5% sodium
chloride) was prepared and 0.3-0.4
ml of this medium was used to revive
the B. lichniformis in aseptic conditions. The bacteria and the medium
were then transferred to a test tube
containing 5-6 ml of broth medium.
The B. lichniformis was then cultured
on agar gel plates (15 g. agarose to 1
liter of nutrient medium) incubated
at 30C to test purity of or purify the
obtained culture. The culture was then
transferred into a test tube of 10 ml of
nutrient medium and was grown overnight. 500 ml of nutrient medium was
added and placed in a shaker for 3 to
4 hours at 30C. The concentration
of the resultant microbial formulation was determined by the Miles and
Mishra protocol (1938).
Coreflooding Experiments: A coreflooding apparatus was designed to
conduct the experiments at the simulated reservoir conditions (Error! Reference source not found.). Six berea
sandstone cores (Cleveland Quarries,
Ohio, USA), each 1.5 in. in diameter
and 6 in. in length, were used in these
corefloods. Synthetic brine (2.0 M
NaCl) was used as a representative of
the connate water in the experiments.
The dry cores were weighed, saturated
with the brine solution in a flask under
vacuum for a week, and were weighed
once again to determine pore volume
and bulk volume of the cores. The core
sample was loaded in the Hassler-type
core holder and an overburden pressure of 500 psi was applied in the ra-

dial direction. The brine was injected

using a constant rate pump at the flow
rate of 10 ml/min from a floating piston fluid accumulator. Core #1 and
core #2 contained n-decane while the
other four cores were saturated with
an oil sample from the ANS oil fields.
Cores #1 and #6 were injected with 2
M brine solution at a constant flow rate
of 0.1 ml/min to simulate waterflood,
while the other cores were injected
with the microbial formulation. Following this initial (Stage 1) coreflood,
cores #1 and #6 were then injected
with the microbial formulation. All
the core samples, except for core #3,
were then shut in the core holder for a
week. Core #3 was in contact with the
microbial formulation for two months
in a tightly corked conical flask. After the week-long (or month-long for
Core #3) shut-in period, the core samples were flooded with the brine solution (Stage 2 coreflood) to determine
the incremental oil recovery.
Terminal Restriction Fragment Polymoprhisms (T-RFLP): T-RFLP was
utilized for microbial community
analysis. DNA was extracted utilizing
the protocol included with a commercial DNA Stool Mini Kit. After the
DNA extraction, Polymerase Chain
Reaction (PCR) was performed on the
samples of the DNA using the protocol outlined by Leigh et. al (2007).
Primers 27F and 1392R, primers
that target the eubacterial 16s rRNA
genes (Johnson, 1994) were used to
amplify the DNA samples. Primer
27F was labeled with 6-carboxyfluorescien (6-FAM) on the 5 end. PCR
was performed by initially amplify-

ing 1 ng template with 5pmol primer

in a 25 l reaction using a thermocycler program of 95C for 9 min, then
25 cycles of 95C for 1 min, 59C
for 1 min, 72C for 1 min 40 s and
final extension at 72C for 10 min.
These PCR reactions were followed
by a reconditioning step in which 5
l aliquots of initial PCR product
were transferred to new reactions
and amplified for three cycles under
the same PCR conditions except in
50 l volumes with 10 pmol primers. Agarose gel electrophoresis was
performed at 100 volts for 45 minutes to determine the yield and purity
of DNA and to size fractionate DNA
molecules. The PCR products were
then eluted from the gel and purified
using a commercial PCR purification
kit. Nanodrop was used to quantify
the purified PCR products. 40 ng of
each sample was digested with HhaI
endonuclease in reaction volumes of
15 l for 3 hours in a 37C bath. Each
digested sample was precipitated by
adding 1.5 l of 0.75 M sodium acetate, 0.3 l glycogen, and 47 l of
100% ethanol and was then incubated overnight at room temperature.
The mixture was then transferred in
a 1.5 ml tube and 100 l of 70% cold
ethanol was added before letting the
mixture stand for 5 min. The mixture
was spun at maximum speed for 20
min and the supernatant was dried
completed in the DNA Speed Vac.
The dried pellet was suspended in
14.5 of HDi formamide and 0.5 l
of BioVentures ladder, vortexed, and
then set aside for 5 or 10 minutes.
The mixture was then transferred to
the MicroAmp plate, denatured for 6

Figure 1 Experimental setup of the coreflooding apparatus

JoP, January-March 2013

41

Table 1 Core properties and oil recovery values for the core flood
experiments
Cores

Porosity (%)

Permeability
(md)

Oil recovery
(Stage 1) (%)

Incremental oil recovery

(Stage 2) (%)

Core # 1

13.8

27.16

53.29

7.04

Core # 2

15.79

48.89

62.59

12.73

Core # 3

14.39

61.11

64.91

11.94

Core # 4

14.73

67.90

67.64

12.61

Core # 5

15.03

64.32

65.53

11.57

Core # 6

15.42

61.11

52.64

7.27

minutes at 97C in the Thermocycler,

and then subjected to T-RFLP fingerprinting using an ABI 3100 genetic
analyzer.
Additional Measurements: To determine the effect of the microbial formulation on the composition of the
oil samples, a gas chromatograph was
used to analyze the compositions of the
ANS oil sample before and after the
microbial treatment using the simulated distillation technique.

Results and Discussion

The main objective of this research
was to determine the effect of microbes on oil recovery and find out
the mechanism of increase in oil recovery, if any. The microbes utilized
in this project, the bacteria Bacillus
licheniformis, grew very well at the
temperature of 30C, which represents typical reservoir temperature
for the ANS oil fields, with the con-

centration coming out to 8x106

1x107 cells/ml. This indicates that all
experiments involving this particular
microbial formulation can successfully use the microbial formulation
designed in this project.
Porosities of the cores used in this
study ranged from 13.0 to 16.0 percent,
and the absolute permeability values of
the cores ranged between 27 to 68 md
(Table 1). Core #1 had a high differential pressure of 45 psi and therefore had
an absolute permeability of 27.16 md,
but the differential pressures of the remaining cores ranged from 18-25 psi,
and their absolute permeability, from
48 67 md. Any particular reason for
the high differential pressure and low
absolute permeability for Core #1 is
not known. The irreducible water saturation values for the cores range between 32 47 percent.
In the initial (Stage 1) coreflood,
cores #1 and #6 were flooded with

Figure 2 T-RFLP Chromatogram of the ANS oil sample

brine solution only, while cores #2,

#3, #4, and #5 were injected with
the microbial formulation. The Stage
1 coreflood resulted in oil recovery
from brine injection (cores #1 and
#6) between 52 to 54%. Oil recovery from the microbial solution injection (cores #2, #3, #4, #5) ranged
from 62 to 68% (Table 1), which is in
conformation with previous findings
(Crescente et al., 2005) that injection
of microbial formulation results in
increased oil recovery when the microbial formulation is injected from
the initial oil saturation (without previous waterflooding).
Stage 2 corefloods were then conducted to further investigate the effect of
tertiary MEOR (i.e. after waterflood)
and the effect of residence time of the
microorganisms. For cores #1 and #6,
microbial formulation was injected
after the initial waterflood. Core #3
was kept in contact with the microbial formulation for two months to
test whether variation in shut-in time
impacts oil recovery. The remaining
three cores were shut-in for one week
after the stage 1 coreflood. The oil
produced by injecting brine solution
through the cores after their respective
shut-in periods was considered incremental oil recovery. The incremental
oil recovery in cores #1 and #6 ranged
from 7 8%, while the incremental
oil recovery for the other cores ranged
from 11 13% (Table 1). This not only
suggests that microbial formulation
enhances incremental oil recovery,
but it also indicates that the microbial
activity required for incremental oil
recovery occurs within a week, and
that additional shut-in time has no significant impact on the incremental oil
recovery. It is possible that the microbial formulation reaches a stationary
phase within a week because the nutrients present in the broth are used up
by the microorganisms. There could
also be a production of toxins by the
microorganisms that inhibits their further growth. Further study is needed
to test the life span of the microbial
formulation by monitoring the daily
concentration of the microorganisms.
The compositions of the ANS oil
samples were measured by gas chromatography both before and after the
microbial treatment (Table 2). There is

42

JoP, January-March 2013

Figure 3 T-RFLP Chromatogram of ANS oil sample after microbial treatment

parable to previous samples. It is also

worth noting that there is no confirmation of whether the microorganisms present in the samples and chromatograms are still alive, because
DNA analyses target the DNA of both
viable and unviable microorganisms.
To test for viable microorganisms,
RNA analyses are required, but these
are highly complex analyses that are
both time-consuming and out of the
scope for this particular project.

Conclusions

a slight decrease in the C25+ group,

which indicates some degradation
of the long chained hydrocarbons by
the microbes. However, the increase
in concentrations of the middle hydrocarbons (around C14 C18) is
notable. There is also a decrease in
the concentrations of the light carbon groups (C6 C11), which is believed to mathematically compensate
the increase in the concentrations of
the middle carbon groups. The microbes also decrease the density of the
oil (from 0.9484 g/cc or 17.7API to
0.8954 g/cc or 26.5API) and the viscosity of the oil (from 67.5 cp to 50.2
cp). This decrease in both viscosity
and density can also be attributed to
the biodegradation of the higher hydrocarbons in the oil to lighter hydrocarbons. In addition, the biogas produced by this strain of bacteria during
metabolic activity can dissolve in the
oil and cause it to swell, thus decreasing viscosity and density.
The T-RFLP chromatograms taken
after the T-RFLP tests showed very
high peaks at the size of 204-205 base
pairs and 236-237 base pairs, which
were present in all chromatograms.
However, these peaks were attributed
to contamination resulting from either
incomplete digestion or contamination of buffers utilized for post-PCR
procedures, as the gel-electrophoresis
had no indication of contamination.
The T-RFLP chromatogram for the
microbial formulation showed a major
peak at the size of 225 bp, indicating
that the microorganism representing

this peak constitutes 11.66 percent of

the total microbial community in the
formulation. This lower number could
be attributed to the contamination
peaks factoring into the calculations
during the normalization process, but
this major peak is most probably the
microorganism B.
licheniformis JF-2 strain. From the
ANS oil fields, there are a large number of peaks, but this chromatogram
(Figure 2) also shows a peak at the
224.5 bp, the same as the position
of the B. licheniformis. While it can
be argued that the oil sample already
contains the strain of bacteria, the
peak could also be other microorganisms of the Bacillus species or from
another species. There is no conclusive evidence suggesting whether
the oil sample contains the injected
microbial strain. After the one-week
shut in, the T-RFLP chromatogram
(Figure 3) indicates that the peak at
225 bp contributes to 11.11% of the
chromatogram, thus representing
11.11% of the microbial community,
which is significantly higher than that
of the crude oil sample, thus suggesting that the microorganism can flourish in the oil sample even if it is not
indigenously present. After the twomonth shut in, the T-RFLP chromatogram peak at 225 bp only contributes
to 0.4 0.7% of the total microbial
community. However, the DNA for
this particular chromatogram was
extracted from a mixture of oil and
microbial formulation, so the sample
is of a different nature and is incom-

This study successfully designed a

microbial formulation using Bacillus Licheniformis JF-2 strain that
successfully grew under ANS reservoir conditions. Use of this microbial formulation in waterflooding
experiments showed improvement in
oil recovery, and this improvement
was found not to be sensitive to the
residence time of the bacteria in-situ.
Table 2 Composition analysis of
the ANS oil sample
Component Concentration
before
microbial
treatment
(% wt/wt)

Concentration
after
microbial
treatment
(% wt/wt)

C6

8.1141

4.53538

C7

0.4638

0.02819

C8

0.9996

0.22068

C9

3.1374

0.84800

C10

3.1276

1.45824

C11

3.5417

2.74514

C12

4.5894

5.67851

C13

6.5752

6.99560

C14

6.1723

7.71113

C15

6.9842

9.75397

C16

4.6520

4.76297

C17

6.3153

7.15860

C18

5.7460

6.90621

C19

4.9002

5.56656

C20

4.6336

5.36645

C21

4.6304

4.53684

C22

2.4470

3.11105

C23

3.8778

4.06205

C24

2.1898

2.43360

C25+

16.9025

16.12081

JoP, January-March 2013

43

Compositional analysis using gas

chromatography indicated that bacterial degradation of the heavy hydrocarbons was a possible mechanism
behind increased oil recovery. This
reduced the density and viscosity of
the ANS oil samples, thus emphasizing the benefits of microbial degradation of heavy oils to lighter oils.
While this experiment successfully
designed an oil recovery process using microbial enhanced oil recovery,
there are still many avenues that need
to be explored, such as examination
of byproducts of microbial metabolic activity, analysis of the microbial
community present in the oil samples
before waterflooding, and dependency of incremental oil recovery on the
shut-in time period. However, this
study served as a preliminary step towards designing a successful MEOR
process for the ANS region.

References
1. Alaska Department of Revenue-Tax
Division, Revenue Sources Book,
Fall 2006.
2. Allred R. C., DeGray R. J., Edwards R. W., Hedrick H. G., Klemme D. E., Rogers M., Wulf M.
and Hodge H., Proposed Procedures for Microbiological Examination of Fuels, Society of
Industrial Microbiology Special
Publications, No. 1. Merck, Sharp
& Dohme Research Laboratories,
Rahway, N.J, 1963.
3. Crescente C., Rasmussen K.,
Torster O., Strm A. and Kowalewski E, An Experimental
Study of Microbial Improved Oil
Recovery by Using Rhodococcus
sp. 094., The International Symposium of Society of Core Analysts, Toronto, Canada, August
2005.
4. Leigh M. B., Pellizari V. H., Uhlik

O., Stuka R., Rodrigues J., Ostrom

N., Zhou J. and Tiedje J., Biphenyl-utilizing Bacteria and Their
Functional Genes in a Pine Root
Zone Contaminated with Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs), The
International Society for Microbial
Ecology Journal, 2007.
5. McInerney M. J., Marsh T. L.,
Zhang X., Knapp R. M., Nagle D.
P., Sharma P. K. and Jackson B. E.,
Development of More Effective
Biosurfactants for Enhanced Oil
Recovery, US Department of Energy, Semi Anuual Report , October
1998 to March 1999.
6. Miles, A.A., and Misra, S.S., The
Estimation of the Bactericidal Power of the Blood. J. Hygiene, (London), 38, pg. 732-749, 1938.
7. US Department of Energy, Energy
Information Administration Office
of Oil and Gas, Future Oil Production for the Alaska North Slope,
May 2001.

Prof. Santanu Khataniar

Currently Professor Santanu Khataniar is teaching classes at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, in the areas of Petroleum.
Education
Ph.D. in Petroleum Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, 1991
M. S. in Petroleum Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, 1985
B. S. in Petroleum Engineering, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, 1983
Areas of Specialization
Water-flood and Enhanced Oil Recovery
Reservoir Simulation
Gas-to-Liquid (GTL) transportation through pipeline
Well Log Analysis
Research
Dr. Khataniars main research interests include Water-flood, Enhanced Oil Recovery, Reservoir Simulation, Relative Permeability, and Gasto-Liquid (GTL) transportation issues.
skhataniar@alaska.edu

44

JoP, January-March 2013

Best Paper: Petrotech 2012

New innovative HPNA

management process
to achieve virtually total
conversion in a hydrocracker
Raju Chopra, Mike Hunter, Raj Patel, Sylvain Verdier
Haldor Topsoe India Pvt. Ltd.

Abstract
Hydrocracking is well suited for selective middle distillate
production from heavy vacuum gas oils and operation with
recycle of unconverted oil for maximizing the conversion to
middle distillate products is highly desirable. However, certain
undesired side reactions that are characteristic of all catalytic
hydrocracking processes result in the production of small quantities of highly condensed aromatic ring structures commonly
referred to as Heavy Poly-Nuclear Aromatics or HPNAs. Unless purged from the system the HPNAs will build up to unacceptable levels. The undesired formation of HPNA therefore
represents a practical limitation on the total conversion achievable in almost all hydrocracking processes. The new innovative
and simple HPNA management process reduces the unconverted oil bleed requirement from a hydrocracker and thereby
increases the total conversion to distillate products that can be
practically achieved. The new process can deliver substantial
economic benefits depending on the relative value of distillate
product over the value of purged oil. This benefit is realized by
concentrating heavy poly-nuclear aromatics so that the steady
state purge requirement can be lowered by 50 to 80%. The process equipment requirements are minimal and can be retrofit to
existing units with a low cost modular approach to give a very
high return on capital investment.

Introduction
The demand for high quality, ultra low sulphur diesel fuel
in particular is growing rapidly throughout the world and its
growth is expected to continue as a consequence of fuel efficiency and new developments in engine technology. Hydrocracking is quickly becoming the dominant conversion process in petroleum refining by virtue of its ability to produce
high quality, ultra low sulfur middle distillate fuels. Hydrocracking is highly suitable for maximizing middle distillate
production from heavy vacuum gas oils producing middle
distillate volumetric yields of close to 90 percent and total

liquid volumetric yields in excess of 110 percent in most

cases. In the present scenario, it is a real challenge for the
refiners to handle the most difficult feed in the unit while
achieving close to 100% conversion and while producing the
higher middle distillate. It is highly desirable to maximize
the conversion of heavy gas oil to distillate products and the
preferred mode of operation is to recycle unconverted product in order to push the total conversion to as high a level as
possible while maintaining the best possible selectivity to
liquid products over light ends.
Certain undesired side reactions that are characteristic of all
catalytic hydrocracking processes result in the production of
small quantities of highly condensed aromatic ring structures
commonly referred to as Heavy Poly-Nuclear Aromatics or
HPNAs. Once they are formed, HPNAs are very difficult to
convert catalytically in the process and will build up in the unconverted recycle oil stream unless physically removed from
the system most commonly by purging a small quantity of the
unconverted oil from the hydrocracker. This bleed stream can
represent as little as one percent to as much as 10 percent of
the feed and is commonly in the range of two to five percent in
many middle distillate hydrocrackers. The undesired formation
of HPNA therefore represents a practical limitation on the total
conversion achievable in almost all hydrocracking processes.
The conversion of this incremental purge to diesel and lighter
products can deliver substantial economic benefits depending
on the relative value of distillate products over the value of the
purged oil. Topsoes HPNA Trim process is a unique, compact and highly cost effective design to control HPNAs while
achieving virtual total conversion in a hydrocracking unit.

Formation and characterization of HPNA

The formation of Heavy Poly-Nuclear Aromatics is not fully understood, but is thought to be related to the following
mechanisms (1).

cause accelerated deactivation and associated loss of liquid yields from the hydrocracker. As the concentration builds
in the reactor effluent, the HPNAs can
precipitate on cold heat exchange surfaces, most commonly in the reactor effluent air cooler. The loss of heat transfer can lead to premature shutdowns and
require mechanical cleaning to restore
the cooling capacity.

Fundamentals

1. Condensation of small poly-nuclear

aromatics present in the feedstock
boiling range
2. Dehydrogenation of larger saturated
poly-cyclic compounds
3. Dehydrocyclization of side chains
on existing poly-nuclear aromatics
Haldor Topsoe utilizes HPLC for quantitative analysis of five specific HPNA
compounds shown below with 6 to 10
aromatic rings. Larger ring structures
as shown below can also be formed
potentially by further condensation of
two HPNA molecules (2). Though the
standard test does not specifically identify these very large ring structures, the
five HPNA compounds serve as quantitative markers for the concentration
of all HPNA molecules in the hydrocracker unconverted oil which can include molecules with 30 or more rings.

Causes and Consequences of

HPNA Formation
HPNA formation is an undesired side
reaction in the hydrocracker which is
generally promoted by low hydrogen
partial pressure and high reactor temperatures. Heavier, highly aromatic
feedstocks are always more prone to
form HPNA than lighter, low aromatic
stocks. In general, high distillation
end points will bring increased levels
of poly-nuclear aromatic precursors
with four to five aromatic rings into
the feedstock. As vacuum gas oil feedstock end points are increased, there
can also be a tendency to carryover
asphaltenic molecules from crude oil
residue. Asphaltenes in hydrocracker
feeds can dramatically increase HPNA

46

JoP, January-March 2013

formation.
Though HPNA formation occurs with
all hydrocracking catalysts, in general, the formation is less if the catalyst
has enhanced hydrogenation activity.
HPNA formation is also impacted by
the reaction environment (high ammonia single stage or low ammonia second stage) and by the relative cracking
severity employed.
Since the large condensed aromatic
structures are very difficult to convert,
they will simply build up in the recycle
oil stream of a full conversion hydrocracker until they are physically removed from the system. This build-up
will lead to both loss of catalyst activity
and potentially to fouling of cold heat
exchanger surfaces downstream of the
reactor. HPNAs are precursors for severe coking on catalyst surfaces and will

Scientific and reliable literature about

HPNA structure and formation is scarce.
Furthermore, the understanding of
HPNA formation is quite dependent on
the analytical tools used. Topsoe has developed a variety of analytical chromatographic procedures dedicated to HPNA
studies (e.g. GC-MS, GCxGC-TOFMS
and HPLC-UV) that enable a better understanding of HPNA formation and
study of HPNA management strategies.
Through dedicated testing in hydrocracking pilot plant units, Topsoe has gained
insight into how catalyst selection and
process conditions affect HPNA buildup.HPNA formation is not limited to
recycle operation but can in fact be observed even in high conversion oncethrough operation. Using a two-reactor
unit (loaded with pre-treatment catalyst
in the first reactor and hydrocracking
catalyst in the second one), HPNA contents were observed in the unconverted
oil (UCO) at significant levels already
at 85% conversion and dramatically increasing when going to 95% conversion.
When changing to single-stage recycle
mode, where the UCO is recycled to the
pre-treater and the overall conversion is

stream and thereby reduce the purge

flow requirement while providing the
necessary removal of HPNA from the
hydrocracker process. Since the heaviest and most problematic HPNA compounds have extremely high boiling
points, the hydrocracker unconverted
oil can in principle be separated by a
distillation step into a light and heavy
portion with the HPNA concentrated in
the heavy liquid product. A commercial
sample of hydrocracker unconverted
oil was obtained and the following
analyses performed on the full sample.

close to 100%, the HPNA level steadily

increases. This is also observed when the
UCO is recycled to the hydrocracking
reactor. The following graph illustrates
these findings.
Topsoes proprietary HPLC method
allows for the simultaneous tracking
of several different HPNA structures
as seen in the following figure. From
such studies - combined with other
analytical methods that survey other
molecular structures that can be involved in the formation mechanism - it
is possible to observe differences in the
build-up rate of different HPNAs and
suggest models for the formation of
HPNA. It may also be used to discriminate between different catalyst systems
and learn how reactor process variables
affect HPNA creation and destruction.

Common HPNA Control Strategies

Early hydrocrackers were commonly
designed with a single high pressure
separator vessel operating at low temperature. The entire reactor effluent
was cooled and condensed to between
about 38 and 55C before separating
the liquid product and recycle gas. The
final cooling is accomplished with an
air cooler or a combination air and water trim cooling. When HPNA levels in
the reactor effluent are too high, precipitation on these cold heat exchanger
surfaces can cause rapid fouling and
loss of condensing duty.
Virtually all hydrocrackers are now designed with a hot high pressure separator in the reactor section of the plant.
With a hot separator operating at typi-

cally 230 to 290C, HPNA in the reactor effluent will be in the liquid phase
but remain above the temperature level
at which solid precipitation can occur.
This stream is transferred hot to the
product recovery section of the unit
and the fouling of cold heat exchanger
surfaces, especially the reactor effluent
air cooler, is eliminated.
While the hot separator design element prevents exchanger fouling,
the HPNAs are still present in the
unconverted oil and will build up in
the recycle stream causing significant catalyst deactivation. To limit
the concentration of HPNA in recycle
oil it is still necessary to physically
remove the HPNAs from the hydrocracker and this is most commonly accomplished by removing a small portion of the unconverted oil as a purge
stream. This purge stream can be as
little as one percent to as much as 10
percent of the feed and represents a
substantial loss of valuable distillate
yield in many cases. Most typically, in
units processing heavy vacuum gas oil
feeds, the purge stream is in the range
of two to five percent of feed. Topsoe
established a development program to
look for new ways to manage HPNAs
and reduce the purge requirements
from commercial hydrocrackers.

HPNA can be concentrated by

distillation
As the result of a dedicated effort,
Topsoe has developed the new HPNA
Trim patent pending (4) process that
can be used to effectively concentrate
HPNA in a heavy unconverted oil purge

The unconverted oil sample was distilled using the ASTM D-1160 apparatus and samples collected at both 50
vol.% and 80 vol.% overhead distillate
recovery. The test results for the overhead and bottoms fractions are summarized below.
Based on these results and observations made in a laboratory autoclave
simulating the steam stripping of a
commercial UCO, it was investigated
if HPNA could be concentrated by a
simple stripping operation in a commercial unit. HPNAs that are heavier
and thus higher boiling than ovalene
(which have not been measured) will
be predominantly concentrated in the
bottoms product. It should also be
noted that these very heavy HPNA
structures which will be selectively removed by the steam stripping are the
same molecules that will be removed in
an adsorption process, as these are also
the most polar compounds.

Process Conceptualization
The idea of concentrating HPNA by
HVGO Hydrocracker Unconverted Oil
Sample
Gravity
HPNA
BenzoPerylene
Coronene
1-MethylCoronene
NaphCoronene
Ovalene
Total HPNA
Simulated Distillation
IBP
10%
30%
50%
70%
90%
FBP

API
Wppm

36.2
1377
422
142
137
87
2165

JoP, January-March 2013

342
397
429
450
474
513
576

47

D-1160 Distillation
Yields

Vol.%

Bottoms
50

Overhead
50

Bottoms
20

Overhead
80

API

35.2

37.4

34.0

37.0

BenzoPerylene

1790

1000

735

1525

Coronene

650

105

775

245

1-MethylCoronene

240

20

385

55

NaphCoronene

235

<5

565

<5

Ovalene

175

<5

475

<5

3090

1125

2935

1825

IBP

406

288

439

338

10%

439

379

473

391

30%

461

408

494

422

50%

479

426

509

441

70%

500

442

526

458

90%

531

463

551

483

FBP

546

475

562

496

Gravity

HPNA

Wppm

Total HPNA
Simulated Distillation C
o

distillation has been previously described in the patent literature (3) and
elsewhere. Topsoes objective was to
develop a process that would improve
on previous technology and provide a
cost effective way to achieve HPNA
concentration and reduce hydrocracker
purge rates. In a typical modern hydrocracker producing middle distillates,
the product recovery section contains
a product stripper tower for light ends
removal and a main fractionating tower
for product separation.
After brainstorming possible process
concepts, detailed simulation work was
initiated to study steam stripping of the
unconverted oil (UCO) using the basic
flow sheet configuration shown below.
The normal bleed stream can be routed
to a small stripping tower attached to the
bottom of the fractionator tower. All, or
a majority of the normal stripping steam
used in the tower can be supplied to the
side column resulting in a very high
steam to hydrocarbon ratio. The normal
steam to hydrocarbon ratio applied in
the fractionator is equivalent to approximately 20 to 35 kg per bottom sm3.
This same steam rate results in a steam
to hydrocarbon ratio in the bottom of
the HPNA stripper that is five to ten
times greater. A small heat input to the
unconverted oil feed to the side stripper,
together with the resultant large excess

48

JoP, January-March 2013

steam flow can allow 50 to 80 percent

of the oil to be vaporized and returned to
the bottom of the fractionator.
The key to achieving the desired stripout performance is the addition of a
small increment of heat to raise the
temperature in the tower. Topsoe has
evaluated a number of possible process options and developed a unique,
compact, and cost effective design for
the HPNA Trim technology. Steam
requirements are not increased for the
process and the incremental utilities requirement is minimal.

Prototype Example
As part of an HPNA Trim study proposal for a potential client, a detailed
design of the HPNA stripper system
was developed for the purpose of
making a definitive cost estimate for
a skid to be installed in the existing
hydrocracker. The fresh feed capacity
of the hydrocracker is approximately
39,000 BPSD and it operates in recycle mode with approximately 33,000
BPSD of unconverted oil recycle. The
total conversion is constrained by the
need to manage the HPNA content in
the unconverted oil and a net bleed
rate of approximately 1280 BPSD or
3.3 vol.% of the fresh feed is normally
required for HPNA control. Topsoe
proposed adding an HPNA Trim
module to the bottom of the fractionator that would vaporize 80% of the
normal UCO bleed and concentrate
the HPNA in a purge oil stream of
only about 270 BPSD.
The normal UCO bleed of 1280 BPSD
is fed on level control to the top of
the HPNA stripper column which is a
small diameter packed tower. The normal fractionator low pressure steam
is supplied to the bottom of the tower
at about 11,000 pounds per hour. The
small heat input of approximately 0.6
MM Kcal/hr is supplied to increase
vaporization of the UCO. The light
portion of the UCO that is stripped out
in the overhead stream is returned to
the bottom of the hydrocracker main
fractionator tower. The final net purge
of heavy unconverted oil is air cooled

Configuration

Existing Unit

With HPNA Trim

LPG

3.4

3.5

Light Naphtha

13.4

13.7

Heavy Naphtha

4.4

4.6

Jet Fuel

24.6

25.2

Diesel Fuel

63.1

64.6

UCO Bleed

3.3

0.7

Yields

vol.%

Jet + Diesel

vol.%

87.7

89.8

Total Liquid

vol.%

112.2

112.3

Hydrogen Demand

SCFB

Base

Base+13

to the required rundown temperature

of about 90-110C and transferred
to the battery limits on flow control.
The heavy unconverted oil (typical
spgr = 0.840-0.850, viscosity 9-12
cSt @ 80C, pour point=45-50C)
stream can be easily handled and can
be routed to delayed coker unit, fluid
catalytic cracking unit or fuel oil pool
depending upon the refinery requirement.
It is predicted that the Topsoe HPNA
Trim module will reduce UCO bleed
by approximately 80% from 3.3% to
0.7 vol.% of feed. The typical liquid
yields with normal bleed and with the
concentrated HPNA bleed from Topsoes HPNA Trim module are presented below.
The unconverted oil bleed in this refinery can only be used or sold as low
sulfur fuel oil (LSFO) and as a consequence there is a significant econom-

ic incentive to increase conversion to

distillate and lighter products. In particular, jet and diesel fuel are the most
highly valued products, and increasing the total conversion from 96.7%
of feed to 99.3% of feed increases
the jet plus diesel fuel yield by 2.1
vol.% or approximately 820 BPSD.
To assess the relative economics of
the application, fourth quarter 2009
Singapore spot prices (5) for naphtha
($74.51 per bbl), gasoil ($81.58 per
bbl) and LSWR ($65.25 per bbl) were
used to calculate the improvement in
gross product margin for the refinery.
The net price differential of $16.33
per bbl for diesel over low sulfur fuel
and $9.26 per bbl for naphtha over
low sulfur fuel gives a total increase
of gross margin for the liquid products of approximately $4.8 million
per year.
The operating costs associated with the
HPNA Trim revamp are very low.

The incremental electrical utility is less

than 250 kilowatt-hours per day. Since
all of the low pressure steam supply is
re-used as stripping steam in the main
fractionator, there is no increase in cost
for steam. The biggest cost will be for
the incremental hydrogen required for
the increased conversion of vacuum
gas oil to lighter products.
In order to prepare a detailed cost estimate for a skid mounted HPNA Trim
module, the major equipment items were
rigorously sized. The total estimated installed cost including license and basic
engineering design was $2.2 million. The
simple payout of this investment is estimated to be only seven months.
The project payout is most sensitive to
the differential value of middle distillate product as compared to the unconverted oil bleed (low sulfur fuel oil).
The following figure shows the estimated simple payout as a function of
the uplift value of jet plus diesel fuel
vs. LSFO. Often times the unconverted
oil bleed can have higher value when
used as FCC feed or especially if it can
be sold as lube oil base-stock. However, the project should show a very good
return on investment with a price differential between middle distillate (jet
plus diesel) and unconverted oil bleed
as low as $10 per barrel.
As an alternative to reducing the net
bleed rate from the hydrocracker, the
HPNA Trim technology can be utilized to lower the steady state HPNA
concentration in the recycle oil at the
same level of conversion.
Lower HPNA will reduce the net catalyst deactivation in the hydrocracker
and extend cycle life. Still another
option is to utilize the concentration
effect to facilitate the processing of
heavier, higher end point vacuum gas
oil feeds while maintaining the same
hydrocracker conversion level and catalyst cycle life.

Conclusions
Haldor Topsoe has developed the
simple new HPNA Trim process to
reduce the unconverted oil bleed requirements from a hydrocracker and
thereby increase the total conversion
to distillate products that can be practiJoP, January-March 2013

49

cally achieved. This benefit is realized

by concentrating heavy poly-nuclear
aromatics so that the steady state
purge requirement can be lowered.
The process equipment requirements
are minimal and can be easily retrofit
to existing units with a low cost modular approach. Hydrocracker purge rates
can be reduced by 50 to 80 percent
and give a very high return on capital
investment if the relative value of the
unconverted oil is low compared to the
distillate products.
The primary benefit of the HPNA
Trim technology is increased distillate product yields from a hydrocracker. Other benefits can also include
the ability to improve catalyst life and
process heavier, higher end point feed-

stocks. There is also the potential to design grassroots hydrocrackers at lower

total pressure with lower capital cost.
The new innovative Topsoes HPNA
TrimTM is a very attractive process
to all those refiners having a full conversion middle distillate hydrocracker
unit which is designed for unconverted
oil purge rate typically in the range of
2-5% and are willing to improve their
profit margins by maximizing the middle distillate production just by investing minimum capital expenditure.

References
1. Gruia, A.J. and Scherzer, J., Effect
of Polynuclear Aromatics, Hydrocracking Science and Technology,

Section 11.4.
2. Fetzer, J.C., The Role of the Scholl
Condensation in the Chemistry of
Catalytic Hydrocrackers, Polycyclic Aromatic Compounds, 1994,
Vol. 4, pp. 19-24.
3. Stine, L.O., et al. High conversion
high vaporization hydrocracking
process, US Patent No. 5,120,427,
1992.
4. Low,G.G. and Hunter,M.G.: Process for hydrocracking a hydrocarbon feedstock, WO patent application PCT/EP2011/004949, 2010
5. International Energy Agency, Oil
Market Report: Annual Statistical
Supplement, 2010 Edition, Table1
6. 1.(http://omrpublic.iea.org/omrarchive/sup2010.pdf)

Raju Chopra
Mike Hunter

Raju Chopra is General Manager in Refinery Technology with Haldor Topsoe India Pvt. Ltd. His responsibility includes hydroprocessing technology
and catalyst promotion, preparation of hydroprocessing technology proposals, providing engineering support to hydroprocessing group both domestically and internationally. He has experience in the
areas of basic process design of hydrotreating and
hydrocracking units, design of open art refinery units, process design under different phases of a project such as configuration study, feasibility report, FEED, basic
design, detailed engineering, licensor evaluation, revamps and project management
for various refinery units, plant operation, start-up, shutdown, trouble shooting, catalyst loading and commissioning activities. His 20 year career includes working for
Topsoe technology Ammonia Plant in Tata Chemical for 3 years, Engineers India
Limited for 12 years and 5 years currently with Haldor Topose. Mr Raju has B.Tech
degree in Chemical Engineering from Harcourt Butler Technology Institute.
rach@topsoe.in

Mike Hunter is Principal Hydroprocessing Engineer with

Haldor Topsoe, Inc. in Orange,
California. He provides engineering support to the Hydroprocessing Catalyst and
Technology business unit both
domestically and internationally. He has experience in the
areas of process engineering, research and development and
refinery operations principally in the areas of hydrotreating
and hydrocracking. His 35 year career includes working for
Unocal Science and Technology Division, Kellogg Brown and
Root and 12 years currently with Haldor Topsoe. Mr. Hunter
has BS and MS degrees in Chemical Engineering from Arizona
State University.

Raj H Patel
Sylvain Verdier

Raj has over 30 years of hydroprocessing experience. He earned his BS degree in Chemistry from
University of California in Irvine and received his
MS degree in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from University of
California in Fullerton. He joined Unocal Science
and Technology Division in 1980 and worked in
the process development and process engineering groups. Primary responsibilities included pilot plant operations, correlation
development, design, start-up, and technical service for the Hydroprocessing
units licensed by Unocal. He worked for two years for Fluor Daniel in their process
engineering group. He joined Haldor Topsoe in 1996 and has the primary responsibility for process design of licensed Hydroprocessing units, technical service
and marketing support. Raj has written and presented numerous papers at technical conferences and has participated as a panelist for NPRA Q&A.

50

JoP, January-March 2013

Sylvain Verdier got a M. Sc. in

Chemical Engineering from the
University of Pau (France) in
2001 and a PhD in Chemical
Engineering from the Technical
University of Denmark in 2006.
He has been working since
2006 for Haldor Topsoe A/S as
a research engineer, mainly on
hydroprocessing catalysts and technologies.

Best Paper: Petrotech 2012

Parametric study of injection

fluid temperature, soaking
time, amount of cyclic and
producing time toward
efficiency and recovery
factor on heavy oil cyclic
steam well stimulation
Sudjati Rachmat, Adi Firmansyah
Petroleum Engineering Department, Institut Teknologi Bandung

Abstract
Heavy crude oil is one of the largest oil reserves in the world.
It is estimated, 40% of world oil reserves comes from this
type of oil. Heavy oil is one kind of oils which has low API
density and high viscosity. The existence of high viscosity
in heavy oil will cause oil difficult to flow for natural flowing. To overcome this problem, one kind of Enhanced Oil
Recovery (EOR) methods called thermal recovery has been
applied since 1931 in the USA and proved to be a successful method for solving this problem. Cyclic steam stimulation is one of thermal recovery methods that is mostly used
and most successful method in the world applied in heavy
oil reservoirs. The principle of this method is forming hightemperature steam zone in reservoir by injecting steam from
the surface so that the viscosity of oil which is go through or
present in this zone will decrease. The injection well is act as
the production well in this method. This method consists of
three periods, there are injection period, soaking period, and
production period. Sensitivity studies are conducted to find
out and understand more about the effects of injection fluid
temperature, soaking time, amount of cyclic, and production
time that are affect to successful of this method. The successful method of EOR depends on amount of oil that can be
recovered and also the efficiency of this method.

Introduction
The worlds energy demand continues to increase from year
to year. On the other side, the worlds oil reserves will gradually depleted due to exploitation that improved continuously

to meet the worlds energy needs. To overcome this, the energy industries, especially petroleum industry must find the
other ways in exploring and exploiting oil in order to maintain the worlds energy supply.
A fact said that about 40% of oil reserves in the world comes
from heavy oil15. Most heavy oil reservoirs are found in shallow area and some of them also found in deep area.
Heavy oil is an oil with a density greater than light crude oil
or usually defined for API gravity between 10-200 API13.
Beside high density, heavy oil has a very high viscosity. The
Figure 1. Total World Oil Reserves15

viscosity value of heavy oil could reach

more than 1000 cP, so it will be very
difficult to be produced to the surface
and it takes an unusual method. Heavy
oil itself is divided into two types, live
oil and dead oil. The difference between these types can be seen from the
initial GOR contained in the reservoir.
If GOR is 0 or no gas dissolved then
the type of oil is dead oil and if there is
gas then the type of oil is live oil.
Several methods have been developed
previously till now to produce this type
of oil, generally it performed thermal
recovery method that aims to reduce the
viscosity of the oil to be produced easier
to the surface. The methods include hot
water flooding, cyclic steam stimulation,
steam flooding, steam assisted gravity
drainage, and in situ combustion.
Cyclic steam stimulation is one of the
methods that most frequently used and
most successful in its application in the
production of heavy oil. This method is
also known as steam soak or huff and
puff. This process consists of a number
of steam inject through a well and then it
is closed for a few days to dissipate heat
in the reservoir and then the well is reused as a production well. If this process
was successful, then the oil production
rate and cumulative oil recovery would
increase. This method could be repeated
on the same well. Cyclic steam stimulation process is known as one of the
methods that are practical and economical in thermal recovery methods.
Several factors could affect the success and economy rate of this method.
Some of them are the injection fluid
temperature, soaking time, injection
and production time, and the amount
of cycles. In this experiment we will
study about the effects of these four
factors on the injection efficiency and
oil recovery factor from cyclic steam
stimulation method. The injection limit
for this experiment is limited by the
maximum pressure below the surface
(bottom hole pressure).

Basic Theory
Thermal EOR

Improved oil recovery advanced stage

(Enhanced Oil Recovery) is a method
used to acquire additional oil by using energy derived from outside reser-

52

JoP, January-March 2013

voir9. This method is used to change

the rock or reservoir fluid characteristics which is expected to ease oil to be
produced to the surface. One of method
that commonly used for heavy oil or oil
with API value 10-200API in EOR is
thermal recovery.
Thermal Recovery consists of two
methods, first is the method in which
high-temperature fluid is injected into
reservoir (known as steam flooding) and
second is the method in which the heat is
delivered by the combustion in the reservoir (known as in-situ combustion).
This method has been developed and
applied a few years ago and had a lot
of success especially in the shallow reservoir, whereas the applications in deep
reservoir is still quite limited. Thermal
recovery which is specifically discussed
in this paper is steam flooding.
The principle of steam flooding is to
use the heat energy carried by the fluid
in the form of steam that injected into
reservoir in order to increase the temperature in the reservoir. The temperature increase will result in reducing
reservoir fluid viscosity, so the oil will
be easier to be produced to the surface.
This method resulted in some changes
in both rock and fluid characteristics,
such as : oil viscosity, irreducible water saturation, thermal conductivity,
and phase equilibrium factor.
The advantages of steam flooding9 are :
Steam injection is easier to control
than in situ combustion, and for the
same pattern size, steam injection
has 25-50% response time faster than
response time of in situ combustion.
The process of steam injection did not
cause the outbreak of oil, so it does
not produce gaseous fuels that would
damage the environment, in addition,
produced water is not corrosive as in
the case of in situ combustion.
Steam injection and oil production
wells have a lower temperature than
in situ combustion.
Steam injection could be applied
also to the reservoir that has a high
API oil.
Steam injection is more efficient.
And the disadvantages of steam flooding9 are :

Steam injection requires fresh water

supply with good quality and big
quantity.
Steam injection cant be applied at a
depth more than 5000 ft because of
heat loss in the injection process.
Steam injection is not suitable for
reservoir which is sensitive to clay.
Steam injection is inefficient for
reservoir that has a high vertical
permeability or nearly equal to the
horizontal permeability.
Steam injection is not suitable for a
thin reservoir.
Emissions from steam generators
could cause air pollution.
Cyclic Steam Stimulation

One of steam flooding method is cyclic

steam stimulation. Cyclic steam stimulation is a steam injection method that
uses the same well for the injection and
production process. This method consists of three periods, huff period (injection time), soak period (soaking time),
and puff period (production time).
When steam is injected into the formation (huff phase period), then the vapor
zone area are formed near the wellbore
and the heat will spread into reservoir.
Steam is injected for a few days or a few
months while considering fracturing
pressure of the formation.
After the steam injected is enough,
then the next period is the period in
which the reservoir is left for soaking in a few days with the purpose
to spread the heat given from steam
to the reservoir and left not too long
in order to avoid substantial heat loss
in the reservoir. After soaking period,
then the last stage is a puff period or
production period. When the wells
produce, the reservoir fluids will flow
into the well and expanded through
the steam zone that was formed when
huff period. As a result, the oil which
is initially affected only slightly or not
at all affected by the heating of the
steam injection will begin affected by
flowing through the steam zone, so the
viscosity will be gradually reduced.
Puff period time is usually equal to or
longer than the huff period time. It is
intended that the injection efficiency
would be maintained, and obtained a
greater oil recovery.
Time that consist of one huff period,
one soaking period, and one puff pe-

Figure 2. Steam Huff and Puff Process16

ulate the thermal models. CMG-STARS

is chosen because it could facilitate the
simulation of thermal recovery better than other simulations, so with this
model we could get better result that we
want from experiment and study.
Reservoir modeling which is created
is radial models with homogeneous
fluid and rock properties. The size of
the model is 13x1x4. Figure 4 shows a
view of reservoir model that is made.
Complete data on reservoir model
which is created are :
This reservoir model is without aquifer
or gas cap so that the composition of
the primary fluid reservoir model is the
remaining oil and water from oil migration. Gas content in the oil itself is 0
which is classified as dead oil.

riod is time for one cycle. Cyclic steam

stimulation process is usually repeated
on a certain number of cycles so that the
influence of steam injection can spread
further, but from the few applications
that have been applied, the influence
cant be reached until drainage area.
The recovery at the beginning of cycle
would be big enough, but over the time,
the increasing number of cycles obtained will decrease additional recovery. In many case, the method of cyclic
steam stimulation could only increase
about 20% recovery from Original Oil
In Place (OOIP) and when the cyclic
steam stimulation method is at uneconomical phase then its often changed
the project to steam flooding.
The main purpose of this method is to
provide maximum heat in the formation with the media through the well.
Figure 3. Steam and cold zone2

During this process, the advantages

are not only the reducing value of viscosity of the oil but also the cleaning
of the wellbore damages like all kinds
of solid, asphalt pile, and paraffin pile.
Some factor that affect the successful
application of cyclic steam method
stimulation3 are:
Good reservoir characteristics with
high porosity and permeability.
High oil saturation
Higher oil viscosity
High steam quality at wellbore
High cold productivity index
Permeability damage near the wellbore
Thick sand with high net to gross
ratio
Low water-oil and gas-oil ratio
Weak aquifer support
Shallow depth
Higher reservoir pressure but below
1500 psia for saturated steam injection.

Methodology
To get the relationship or the effect of injection fluid temperature, soaking time,
production time, and amount of cycles
toward efficiency and recovery factor
on cyclic steam stimulation process, we
use numerical simulation methods to
modeling that process. The method is
the CMG-STARS simulation.

To generate the relationship between

viscosity and temperature, we used the
Table 1. Reservoir Model
Properties

Model Properties

Value

Model

Radial, Homogen

Grid Size

13 x 1 x 4

Reservoir Radius (ft)

203

Wellbore Radius (ft)

0.25

Depth (ft)

1000

Thickness (ft)

92

Reservoir Pressure (psig)

420

Reservoir Temperature ( F)

95

Swi (%)

76

Soi (%)

24

Permeability (mD)

3000

Porosity (fraction)

0.35

API

13

Oil Viscosity @95 F (cP)

1600

Oil Viscosity @250 F (cP)

16

Figure 4. Reservoir Model

CMG-STARS Model

CMG-STARS is a software used to simJoP, January-March 2013

53

Figure 5. viscosity vs temperature

Figure 6. viscosity vs temperature

Figure 7. Kro and Krw vs Sw Curve

Figure 8. Krg and Krl vs Sl Curve

Figure 9. 3-phase Kr Curve

model contained in the simulator by

entering values of Swi and Soi which
are known by using reservoir type
given from data (unconsolidated sand)
and some assumptions in order to get
the relationship between relative fluid
permeability and water saturation as
follows :
While the gas relative permeability
curves between the fluid is modeled as
follows:
So, the relative permeability curves for
3-phase fluid is :

equations from paper SPE 150503-MS :

=29.051724.75945

=+ + 2

And obtained the relationship between

viscosity and temperature as follows :

With the two viscosity data known at

different temperatures then it was obtained a value is 29.05172, b value is
-4.75945, and c value is 0. So the equation to generate a relationship between
viscosity and temperature is:

54

JoP, January-March 2013

If we enlarged the chart for temperature

above 2000 F, then it could be:
The relationship between relative
fluid permeability and water saturation are obtained by calculating Kr Sw

Thermal rocktypes values for models made are 35 Btu/(ft3*F) for the
volumetric heat capacity and 24 Btu/
(ft*day*F) for the thermal conductivity
with the same value for overburden and
underburden conditions.
The location of well in this methodology is in the middle of the reservoir
with a perforation through the four radial grid in the direction of k and with a
0.5 ft wellbore diameter.

Results and Discussion

Simulations performed on 20-year duration with the cyclic steam stimulation studies at first year and the production well is left to still produce
until it reached economical limit at
5 bbl/d oil rate. Limitation for injection well is by the maximum allowable bottom hole pressure of 700 psia
and for the production well is by the
minimum allowable bottom hole pressure of 300 psia, so that the well can
flow from the reservoir to the surface.
From initialization, we got the value
of OOIP is 1057 Mbbl. For base case
with natural depletion without cyclic
steam stimulation process obtained
Np or cumulative oil recovery at
40419.8 bbl (RF about 3.82%). Profiles between oil production vs. time
is shown in Figure 10.
The result from natural depletion is
very disappointed because we only obtained the oil about 3.82% from OOIP.
This is due to the high viscosity of oil
that is about 1600 cP and also due to
low pressure reservoir. High viscosity
values will cause the oil harder to flow
and produce to the surface, in addition,
the drawdown pressure differences are
too small so there is not enough energy
to produce oil.
To improve the RF from the reservoir
then we perform cyclic steam stimulation process in order to increase oil
recovery that is caused from steam injection which will form the steam zone
and give effect to oil in the reservoir.
The thermal distribution will occur on
the reservoir because the presence of
steam zone with high temperatures,
so that the viscosity value of oil will
gradually decrease. Some parameters
such as the injection fluid temperature, soaking time, amount of cycles,
and the production time is analyzed to
determine how effective and efficient
the cyclic steam stimulation process
is. The effectiveness depends on how
much oil recovery will be obtained,
while efficiency depends on a comparison between cumulative oil recovery
and cumulative fluid injected.
Injection Fluid Temperature

Sensitivity analysis performed from

injection fluid temperature of 3000F
to 5000F with the same injection and

production time
at 14, 21, and 30
days, while soaking time is 3 days
for injection and
production time
of 14 days and
6 days for injection and production time of
21 and 30 days.
Sensitivity studies
conducted
for every 500F
temperature increased. Steam
quality
values
for all cases is
constant at 0.7.

Figure 10. Qo vs time base case

Figure 11. Efficiency vs Injection Fluid Temperature

From simulation
results and calculation, we got
the
correlation
between temperature, efficiency,
and additional RF
from base case as
follow :
Temperature sensitivity test of injection fluid on
injection and pro- Figure 12. Additional RF vs Injection Fluid Temperature
duction time of 14
days made up till
4800F
because
there is anomaly
in simulator at
5000F. At temperatures of 5000F,
the
production
well is not produced after cyclic
steam stimulation
process, so oil recovery is really
small and almost
the same with the
base case. Therefore, it is necessary to
steam zone formed will be wider and
further study in terms of both experimenthus the injected fluid would be more.
tal and numerical so we can know the
Injected fluid will be more because of
simulator readings on production well
higher temperature fluid injected, more
that are not producing after cyclic steam
effective steam formation zone will be
stimulation process.
formed and the injection fluid are easier move to the oil zone.
From simulation results, the sensitivity
of injection fluid temperature showed
But on the other hand, the effectiveness
that if we constrain the maximum bhp
of the addition injection fluid temperaon injection well, then with increasture does not always increase. If the ining temperature of fluid injection, the
jection fluid temperature is too high then
JoP, January-March 2013

55

Figure 13. Temperature vs Distance

Figure 14. Oil Saturation vs Distance

Figure 15. Efficiency vs Soaking Time

Figure 16. Additional RF vs Soaking Time

the heavy oil that

contained in the reservoir will turn into
gas. This phenomena
is refer to the phase
diagram that stated
in a constant pressure if the temperature of fluid is higher,
then the liquid phase
will turn into the gas
phase. The results of
simulation also shows
the phenomenon that
could be seen in figure 14.
The steam injection
efficiency will decrease with increasing
temperature.
Its because the increasing of steam
zone area formed
is not proportional
to the increasing
of injection fluid
temperature. These
results could be a
consideration on determining value of
injection fluid temperature. For this
case, I recommend
to choose injection
fluid temperature at
4500F because from
the relationship between additional RF
and injection fluid
temperature, RF increased dramatically
from the previous
temperature and the
efficiency trend is
same as previous, so
we could conclude
the optimal temperature is at 4500F .
Sensitivity test for
soaking time is applied between 3-7
days with same injection and production time of 14, 21,
and 30 days. Sensitivity performed in
the range of 3-7 days
due to the reference
that stated the soak-

56

JoP, January-March 2013

ing time is only few days after steam

injection performed. It is intended to
prevent any heat loss that will occur
and also we could get oil faster from
this process. Value of steam injection
quality and fluid temperature constant
for all cases is 0.7 and 4500F.
From simulation results and calculation, we got the correlation between
soaking time, efficiency and additional
RF as follow :
If we restrict the cyclic steam stimulation process only by 1 year, then the
soaking time difference will affect the
number of CSS cycles that could be applied so that it will affect the oil recovery. With the same amount of cyclic,
the longer soaking time applied the
greater oil recovery will obtained. This
condition will certainly increase the injection efficiency because longer soaking time will make heat transmit further in reservoir. However, the longer
soaking time will not change the steam
zone that will formed after huff period.
Longer soaking time will result in a
reduced number of cycles that can be
performed on cyclic steam stimulation
project which in this case is limited to
a period of 1 year. Since the number of
cycles is reduced, then the additional
oil recovery obtained will be smaller
than before. Contrast to addition of
oil recovery, the value of injection efficiency will continue to increase as
longer soaking time. It is because the
heat from injected steam will transmit
into area further than the steam zone,
so it will be more amount of oil with
reduced viscosity and it will be obtained more oil produced to surface.
From the sensitivity analysis results,
we found the value of soaking time
that gives highest recovery is 3 days
for injection and production time of
14 days and 6 days for injection and
production time of 21 and 30 days.
Amount of Cyclic

Sensitivity test performed in all cases

(3 cases) for same injection and production time: 14, 21, and 30 days,
while soaking time is 3 days for injection and production time of 14 days
and 6 days for injection and production
time of 21 and 30 days. Sensitivity test
performed from beginning of cyclic
steam stimulation process until end of

Figure 17. Efficiency vs Amount of Cyclic

Figure 18. Additional RF vs Amount of Cyclic

Figure 19. Temperature vs Distance

Figure 20. Efficiency vs Huff and Puff Period

the process in 1 year.

Value of steam injection quality and fluid
temperature constant
for all cases is 0.7
and 4500F.

od but not by considering the efficiency

of EOR itself. From this relationship
we can estimate when the cyclic steam
stimulation project is not economical
anymore and could be considered to
change into steam flood project.

From simulation results and calculation,

we got the correlation between amount
of cyclic, efficiency
and additional RF as
follow :

Producing Time

From
sensitivity
analysis showed that
the efficiency of cyclic steam stimulation process will
decrease followed
to polynomial trend.
It is because the effectiveness of forming steam zone will
decrease when the
number of cycles
increased. One example of relationship between amount
of cycles with steam
zone formed can be
seen in Figure 19.
The zone which temperature greater than
initial reservoir temperature (950F) indicated as the steam
zone.
Additional recovery
tends to increase
with approximately
linear trend but a decreasing trend when
larger amount of
cycles performed. It
showed that the presence of cyclic steam
stimulation process
performed in heavy
oil reservoir will
continue to provide
additional oil recovery, but still, the
main consideration
is the efficiency of
the EOR process itself. It would be disadvantage when we
perform EOR meth-

Sensitivity test performed for different

cases of injection time 14, 21, and 30
days, while soaking time is 3 days for
injection time of 14 days and 6 days for
injection time of 21 and 30 days. Production time performed with different
injection time to see the effect of time
difference to the efficiency and oil recovery that could be obtained from cyclic steam stimulation. The production
time difference perform with the production / injection time of 1; 1.5; 2; and
3 with a total time of cyclic steam stimulation project for 1 year. Value of steam
injection quality and fluid temperature
constant for all cases is 0.7 and 4500F.
From simulation results and calculation, we got the correlation between
production time, efficiency and additional RF as follow :
Result obtained from this study is the
efficiency of cyclic steam stimulation
method will increase as production and
injection time ratio increased. This is
because the load time of production
period is longer than the injection period that could create an opportunity
for oil to flow to the surface longer and
would result in higher cumulative oil
produced on the surface .
In contrast to efficiency, the additional
RF factor will decrease because it depends on the number of cycles that
can be performed during first year and
also steam zone that can be formed. If
amount of cycles that can be performed
a lot more then it will affect the extent area of steam zone. As a result, it
would be more amount of oil affected
by increasing temperature and it would
influence on how much oil can be easily produced to the surface. However,
oil production will continue to follow
the decline rate, so in late time the oil
rate will tend to be small and cause less
oil recovery.
Results from this analysis can be considered when amount of cycles start to
be unefficient and then plan to change
JoP, January-March 2013

57

Figure 21. Additional Recovery vs Huff and Puff Period

period when cyclic

steam stimulation is
not economical anymore.
Recommendations

Need to evaluate
the economical factor from this method by considering
the steam and oil
prices.

List of Symbols
the huff and puff period to increase the
efficiency and still got additional recovery from this process before changing to steamflooding project.

Conclusions and
recommendations
Conclusions

1. Higher temperature will affect the

effectiveness of steam zone formed.
Higher temperature will decrease
the efficiency of cyclic steam stimulation due to temperature change is
not proportional to extent area of
steam zone. Too high temperature
will change the oil phase. Value of
injection fluid temperature which
gives the best result in recovery for
this case is 4500F.
2. Longer soaking time will increase
efficiency of cyclic steam stimulation. For same amount of cycle,
longer soaking time will also increase oil recovery. Soaking time
optimization could be applied by
considering the number of cycles
that can be performed during cyclic
steam stimulation project. Value of
soaking time which gives best result in recovery for this case are 3
days for injection time of 14 days
and 6 days for injection time of 21
and 30 days.
3. Amount of cycles is one of consideration to assess how effectively
and efficiently cyclic steam stimulation project that we did. Longer
cycles performed will give greater
oil recovery, but it reverse to the efficiency of this project.
4. Production time longer than injection
time will give better efficiency but
it would be decreasing oil recovery
along the project. This result could
be a consideration to change the puff

58

JoP, January-March 2013

a
API
b
bhp
c
GOR
OOIP
RF
Swi
Soi
T

=constanta
= oil density in units of API
= constanta
= bottom hole pressure, psia
= constanta
= oil and gas ratio, scf/stb
= original oil in place, bbl
= recovery factor, %
= initial water saturation, %
= initial oil saturation, %
= oil temperature, 0F
= dead heavy oil viscosity, cP

Bibliography
1. Alomair, O., et al. : Viscosity Predictions of Kuwaiti Heavy Crudes at
Elevated Temperatures, paper SPE
150503, 2011.
2. Closmann, P.J. : A Steam-Soak
Model for Depletion-Type Reservoirs, paper SPE 2516, 1970.
3. Deo, R., et al. : Successful Cyclic
Steam Stimulation Pilot in Heavy
Oilfield of Sudan, paper SPE
144638, 2011.
4. Hascakir, B., Kovscek, R. : Reservoir Simulation of Cyclic Steam
Injection Including the Effects of
Temperature Induced Wettability Alteration, paper SPE 132608,

2010.
5. Holladay Jr., C.H. : The Basic Effects of Steam on a Reservoir, paper SPE 1666, 1966.
6. Martin, J.C. : A Theroretical Analysis of Steam Stimulation, paper
SPE 1579, 1967.
7. Mousa, S. : Evaluation of Steam
Flooding and Cyclic Steam Stimulation (CSS) for a Fractured Carbonate Heavy Oil Reservoir, paper
IPTC 15454, 2011.
8. Rahman, P. : Thesis : The Effects
of Combination of Steamflood, Cyclic Steam Stiulation, CO2, and Nitrogen Injection : Case of X-WBW
Field, ITB, 2010.
9. Siregar, S. : Peningkatan Perolehan
Minyak (Enhanced Oil Recovery)
TM-312, ITB, 2000.
10.Seba, R.D, Perry, G.E. : A Mathematical Model of Repeted Steam
Soaks of Thick Gravity Drainage
Reservoirs, paper SPE 1894, 1969.
11.Trebolle, R.L., et al. : Parametric
Study of the Design Factors for Cyclic Steam Injection in Lake Maracaibo Oil Fields, paper SPE 25810,
1993.
12.Wu, Z., Vasantharajan, S. : Optimal Soak Time for Cyclic Steam
Stimulation of a Horizontal Well in
Gravity Drainage Reservoirs, paper SPE 146716, 2011.
13.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Heavy_crude_oil
14.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Steam_injection_%28oil_industry%29
15.http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minyak_bumi
16.http://www.netl.doe.gov/technologies/oil-gas/publications/eordrawings/BW/bwcyclic_stm.PDF
17.http://www.pdo.co.om/pdoweb/tabid/277/Default.aspx

Dr Sudjati Rachmat

Dr. Sudjati Rachmat is associated with the Department of Petroleum Engineering, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia. His
research interests are: drilling technology, drilling fluid design and
analysis and well stimulation. He can be contacted at: sudjati@
tm.itb.ac.id.
Mr. Adi Firmansyah is associated with the Department of Petroleum Engineering, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia. His research interests are: drilling technology, heavy oil recovery and well stimulation.
sudjati@tm.itb.ac.id

Best Paper: Petrotech IITM-ICDT 2012

Oil - Water emulsion IFT

alteration under rotational
effect in enhanced Oil
recovery process
Tushar Sharma, Jitendra S. Sangwai, G. Suresh Kumar
Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai

Abstract:
In view of increasing demand of energy of the world and on
contrary, depleting oil and gas resources, it is important to exploit and increase the production from existing reservoirs by
introducing new technologies for enhanced oil recovery (EOR).
These technologies will also help in addressing challenges to
recover oil from subsea, deep-sea reservoirs and also from the
formations where the mobility of the in-situ oil being recovered is significantly less than that of drive fluid used to displace
the oil. One of the suggested routes is to use emulsions as a
promising drive fluid to improve oil recovery of moderately
viscous oils from the formations. However, these emulsions
found to be inefficient at high pressure and high temperature
(HPHT) environments and also do not migrate enough through
the pores of the formations thereby reducing the efficiency of
the process. However, alteration in emulsions physicochemical
properties may offer promising solution to overcome above disadvantages, which offer better stability at HPHT conditions and
also penetrate well through the formations. This helps increased
range of reservoir to be suitable for EOR applications.
Experimental investigations are being carried out to characterize the oil in water emulsion and to analyze the alteration in physicochemical properties like interfacial tension
(IFT) of emulsions under rotational effect and extend their
use for hard to produce reservoirs. IFT of emulsions under
rotational effect is likely to change and expected to help in
understanding the stability of emulsions at elevated rotation.
These emulsions are created or formed using surfactants and
colloidal stabilizers, which help in reducing the IFT. These
Emulsions are expected to form a slug at down hole conditions which help plug water channels so as to increase sweep
efficiency and also help in maintaining pressure drive. Gradually at HPHT environments, these emulsions break down
due to adsorption onto the rock surfaces.
However, a slight rotation is expected to reduce the IFT value
and preventing emulsion droplets to coalesce and also main-

taining its stability by reducing its adsorption onto the rock surface. The experimental investigations are being carried out (a)
to decrease IFT between oil and water; (b) to improve sweep efficiency by altering the shape of emulsion droplet thus reducing
water permeability in swept zones; (c) to decrease in mobility
ration; and (d) to increase the recovery factor.

Introduction
Oil in water emulsions can be an effective tool to chemical enhanced oil recovery process. As the reservoir energy
depletes with oil production, oil saturation in reservoir also
starts decreasing. However, oil from the large size pore
openings produced first under the effect of primary recovery and left around 3/4 oil into small size pore openings.
Oil saturation left in small size pore openings is of sufficient
quantity and referred to as residual oil saturation. In view
of increasing demand of oil necessity rose to produce the
residual oil saturation using advanced recovery techniques.
Oil industry experts and researchers have attempted many
times to retrieve that residual oil as much as possible. And
of course, they succeed in reducing the residual oil saturation of reservoir using chemical EOR techniques like surfactant flooding, surfactant-polymer flooding and the latest one
alkaline-surfactant-polymer (ASP) flooding system.
Oil reservoirs can be considered as porous and permeable
reservoir with fair porosity and permeability, but they can
never be homogenous with constant reservoir properties.
Reservoir is composed of strata with wide ranging properties.
For a successful completion of EOR project the divergence
of reservoir permeability should be taken into account. As
this disparity in permeability throughout the reservoir can
have a reflective effect on the flow of fluids in a reservoir and
thereby influence the oil recovery (Van Poollen H.K. 1980).
The presence of high permeability zones in reservoir failed
the piston like displacement of oil towards production well
as water or slug injected into the reservoir under pressure will

seek the path of high permeability zone

where resistance to stop this fingering
effect is very least. Because of this water fingering most of the oil trapped in
the lower permeability zones. Now onwards production of oil converts into the
few barrels with rapid increase in water
to oil ration (WOR) observed at the surface (Garland T.M. 1966). This increase
in water to oil ration is further also confirmed through the relative permeability
concept. In initial flooding hours oil produced from the high permeability zones
and simultaneously this void space is
taken by the injected water. Residual oil
saturation in these zones decreases due
to the displacement by injected water
under pressure. In later hours of flooding process a relative flow rates between
the high and low permeability zones are
observed as water in high permeability
zones moves faster. Which results in
ever increasing water to oil ratios in the
producing well and low ultimate recovery of oil (Garland T.M. 1966).
Luis E. Zerpa et al. (2005) highlighted
the importance of EOR processes as
after conventional water flooding process a sufficient and reasonable amount
(around 70% of the original oil in place
(OOIP)) of oil left in form of residual oil.
He also mentioned that oil trapped into
the reservoir due to high capillary forces.
Important highlight of his research work
was the introduction of a new scheme to
enhance recovery efficiency by applying
EOR process. Later on his suggested approach is adopted by the people working
in EOR area and became a very effective
tool to enhance recovery efficiency. This
was again confirmed by the promising
results obtained through lab experimental work as well as industrial application
results. But these advanced conventional
recovery techniques found to be inefficient in following situations like reservoir temperature, water salinity, permeability and oil viscosity(to maintain
mobility ration).
Gao Shutang (2010) highlighted the
importance associated with use of ASP
flooding over other flooding systems:
Field applications of alkaline floods
alone result in poor oil recovery due to
the alkaline loss caused by the chemical
reactions with the reservoir rocks, low
acid number of the crude oil, and adverse mobility ratio. The mechanism of
the polymer flooding is to increase the

60

JoP, January-March 2013

viscosity and can increase apparent viscosity and viscous elasticity, the injected polymer can significantly improve
the mobility ratio and polymer flood
enhanced both the areal and the vertical
sweep efficiencies (Gao Shutang 2010).
Emulsions along with the suitable combinations of chemicals can also be considered for improving the recovery efficiency under one of the chemical EOR
technique. Emulsion can be classified
into two categories: 1. Macroemulsions;
2. Microemulsions. Macroemulsions are
thermodynamically unstable as dispersed
oil droplets eventually lead to coalescence and convert into a large oil droplet.
This is called as breaking of emulsion.
Microemulsions look transparent in nature as size of dispersed oil droplet is very
small. Microemulsions form in mixtures
of surfactant, oil and water. High amount
of surfactant is needed to reduce the oil
droplet size from macro to micro. Emulsions have been used in various oil field
jobs on vital scale.
Romero L. (1996) explained the
plugging of high permeability zones
through the retention process and coalescence of emulsion drops. He injected emulsions into various porous media having wide range of permeability
ranging from 22 md to 2615 md. Plugging of high permeability zones is observed into each porous media through
the reduction in effective permeability of water. Globally, it has become a
challenge to all the reservoir engineers
to reduce the saturation of trapped as
low as possible. The situation becomes
more critical if we route our conventional EOR processes to recover oil
from deep offshore reservoirs, tight
formations where permeability is in
fractions of md and to recover heavy
oil where mobility of oil is very low.
Mc-Auliffe (1973) was one of the first
researchers to explain the importance
of emulsion in oil recovery area. Emulsions are injected into the reservoir with
an objective to touch the trapped oil by
beating capillary pressure of the pore.
He explained many important features
associated with field application of
emulsion flow to improve oil recovery.
He concluded on the basis of field results that emulsion in bulk can be easily prepared on field as well as it can be
injected into the reservoir without any

difficulty. He also proposed an optimum

injection volume of emulsion to have
improved sweep efficiency with significant reduction in fingering (Mc-Auliffe
1973). His research findings again supported by the following field results: 1.
Increased oil production and low water
to oil ratio (WOR) from all wells surrounding emulsion injection wells; 2.
Large production of saline formation
water from production wells, indicating
decrease in injection water channelling;
3. Desired change in flood pattern after
emulsion injection.
Schmidt D.P. (1984) came out with a
very important aspect of emulsion flow
through the reservoir. He observed significant oil displacement by virtue of
decreasing mobility of displacing phase
under emulsion flow through the reservoir. Mobility reduction of water phase
was due to the capturing of dispersed oil
droplets on high permeability zones of
porous media. Continuous loading of
oil droplets at the entry of pore resulted
into interception and straining hence
reducing effective permeability to water (Schmidt D.P. 1984). He also proposed a design for the successful flow
of the emulsion through the reservoir
without any entrapment. He suggested
providing a shock or turbulence to the
entrapped droplet can generate a sufficient force to penetrate droplet into the
pore. Mobility of water phase should
not be altered while performing the said
method for emulsion flow through the
reservoir Schmidt D.P. (1984).
Apart from that Schmidt D.P. (1984)
also realized that best oil recovery can
be expected with medium size emulsion
drops as small size emulsion drops flow
easily through the pore without any retention but unable to lower the permeability of water. In turn, large emulsion
drops increased oil recovery by maintaining water permeability at low level.
But retention of larger drops was higher leading to less penetration of drop
through the reservoir. Ultimately less
penetration resulted into low ultimate
oil recovery (Schmidt D.P. 1984).
Significant research has been carried
out to increase the viscosity of injected
water and the very most direct way of
increasing water viscosity is the addition of polymer to water. Hornof et al.
(1983) and Ajay Mandal et al. (2008)

studied the effect of adding polymer to

injected water. They realized that mobility ration between displaced phase and
displacing phase can be improved by
increasing the viscosity of injected water. Not only polymer, other chemicals
like surfactant and alkali chemicals also
play an important role in improving the
recovery of oil. Emulsion flooding like
ASP flooding is having combination of
all chemicals along with additional oil
droplets dispersed in water phase. Actually in emulsion flooding, surfactant not
only reduces capillary trapping of oil in
porous media but also helps in separating
emulsified drops apart by reducing IFT in
between them (Mc-Auliffe 1973 and Mai
et al. 2009). As in oil in water emulsion
oil droplets must be evenly distributed
throughout the continuous water phase
for stable propagation into the porous
media (Devereux O. R. 1974).
N. Mungan (1969) and N. Mungan
(1972) highlighted the other important
facts affecting oil recovery from the
reservoir. He conducted rheology tests
for polymer aqueous solutions and
concluded flooding systems rheology
was the key factor to affect oil recov-

ery. He also concluded that solutions

of polymers exhibiting pseudo-plastic
behavior over shear rate.
Mohammad Yunus Khan et al. (2009)
studied the interaction between polymer and surfactant by conducting
surface tension and conductivity measurements. He concluded that oil flow
through the reservoir under flooding
was found to be dependent on both surfactant and polymer concentrations.
Here, we would like to report that we
are working on oil in water emulsion
emulsification, displacement mechanism and emulsion flow behaviour
during emulsion flooding process. For
stable flow of emulsion through the
reservoir without any retention, it is
very important to analyze the effect of
HPHT environment on emulsion flow
through the porous media.
M.L.Mao et al. (1977) already proposed
that emulsions found to be unstable at
elevated temperature conditions (T >
700 C). These emulsions at room/low
temperatures are imparting promising and favourable conditions to flow

through the reservoirs with auspicious

mobility ration. Several researchers
have presented their results of stabilizing emulsions at HPHT environment using clays, colloids and nanoparticles etc.
Zhang et al. (2009) studied the characteristics and advantages of SiO2
nanoparticle stabilized oil in water
emulsions through phase behavior and
rheometric study of the emulsions. But
again these experiments were conducted at room temperature.
Luis Villamizar et al. (2010) proposed to
the possibility of using interfacialy active Si-nanoparticle to make them stay
at the oil- water interface with a desired
contact angle. This helps in reducing
the retention of oil droplets through
maintaining desired interface curvature.
Well structured monolayer formed by
the spherical nanoparticles at oil-water
interface makes emulsion extremely stable even under harsh conditions such as
high temperature, saline environments
etc. However, emulsions stabilized with
nanoparticles may offer promising solution to overcome above disadvantages,
which offer incremental oil recovery as

Figure. 1 Schematic representation of apparatus used in emulsion characterization experiments

(a) Capillary block with software controlled tilt mechanism

(b) Schematic physical model with all components

(c) System software details for auto tracking and auto

Calibration of droplet

(d) Fast rotating liquid droplet in another Liquid (e.g Water)

JoP, January-March 2013

61

Figure. 2 Schematic representation of O/W emulsion contained oil droplet

packing arrangement captured using polarizing microscope

(a) Droplet packing at 50X magnification

well as better stability at HPHT conditions and also penetrate well through
the formations with fair mobility ration
(Zhang et al. 2009).
Here, we like to report that we also look
forward of using nanoparticles to make
emulsions stable at HPHT conditions
and followed by the core flood tests using nanoparticle stabilized oil in water
emulsions. Flooding apparatus will be
used to flood the designed emulsion
samples through the core to understand
the recovery process and compare this
technique with the other conventional
flooding processes to justify the importance of this nanotechnology application in chemical EOR field.
We agree to Schmidt D.P. (1984) research findings of emulsion flow through
the reservoir and we carry forward his research work further to explore the impact
of rotational effect on IFT between emulsified drop and continuous phase to understand the retention, stability of emulsion and improved oil recovery process
under emulsion flow. We conducted experimental tests for IFT characterization
of emulsified drop under rotational effect
to analyze emulsion flow through the reservoir. Spinning drop tensiometer (SVT
20N) is used to characterize the emulsion
drop under rotational/turbulence effect.
As Schmidt D.P. (1984) mentioned providing a shock or turbulence to the entrapped droplet can generate a sufficient
force to penetrate droplet into the pore.
However, our main objective is to provide a shock or centrifugal force to emulsion drop for enough penetration through
the pore as well as reducing effective
permeability of water by maintaining
significant viscosity.

62

JoP, January-March 2013

(b) Emulsion droplet packing at

100X magnification

Experimental apparatus and

experimental method
Experimental apparatus

The experimental set up SVT 20N is an

analytical instrument for the measuring
and analysis of surface chemical and
rheological quantities according to the
spinning drop method. Its application
areas are the development of emulsions
and micro emulsions, especially to optimize emulsifying agents and emulsion
stabilizers. The apparatus is capable to
measure static and time dependent interfacial tension between two immiscible
liquids. It is also capable to measure
thermal expansion and contraction tension of emulsified agents. The detailed
description about the apparatus is shown
schematically in Fig. 1.
The experimental set up consists of following technical features like video system with CCD camera, software controlled speed, LED lighting with built-in
triggering of the video system for the
observation of droplets in different orientations relative to CCD camera system, high performance six-fold power
zoom lens with an integrated continuous
fine focus, easy exchangeable motor/
capillary block with a liquid temperature controlled system, capillary stage
with software controlled tilt mechanism
and measuring capillaries made of borosilicate glass. System equipped motor
is attached to capillary and it can rotate
sample filled in capillary at RPM ranging from 100-10000 RPM. Motor is also
connected to tap water supply. Water is
used as a cooling medium to keep its
bearing cool while running.
The experimental set up is also having

an external hot oil circulator to heat the

capillary chamber. Silicon oil having
boiling point 2500 C is used to heat the
sample. Circulator pumping capacity is
up to 1800 C. Capillary material renders
heating of sample only up to 1500 C.
The apparatus equipped software is control and calculation software for IFT, used
to calculate video based measurement
of the time and temperature dependent
IFT. It can also be used for calculation
of IFTs based on spinning drop contours
according to various methods including
Young-Laplace method, presentation of
measurement values as well as storage
of video sequences for the controlled
calculation of fast processes, automatic
calibration of drop size, automatic temperature recording and automatic compensation of temperature dependent
changes of densities. The other equipped
software is control and analysis software
for oscillation experiments. It is capable
to analyze time dependent control of the
rotational speed, inclination of the tilting
base with measuring cell and the camera
position for observing the elongations/
contractions of drops.
Experimental procedure

Petroleum gear oils are used to prepare

oil in water emulsion. The gear oil is
mixed with water along with suitable
concentrations of emulsifiers. To prepare 100 ml of oil in water emulsion,
concentration of oil-water adopted for
preparation of emulsion ranges from: 10
ml oil + 90 ml pure water (10/90), 15
ml oil + 85 ml of water(15/85), similarly
(20/80), (25/75) and (30/70) etc.
Types of oil used are: SAE (Society of
Automotive Engineers) 90, SAE140,
Milcy 40.
Types of surfactant used are: Sodium
dodecyl sulphate (SDS), sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SDBS), detergent. Types of polymer used are:
Partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide
(PHPA), Guar Gum, Xanthan Gum.
The method adopted for emulsion preparation: The oil (oily phase) is kept in
one beaker and all water soluble components (Surfactants and polymers)
are dissolved in the water in a separate
beaker. Both beakers are heated to approximately 70C in a water bath and
then mixed together at the same temper-

Figure. 3 Mechanism of emulsion flow through the reservoir

(a) Oil sweeping from medium and large pore under emulsion flow

IFT characterization
Water soluble chemicals polymer and
surfactant with selected concentrations
mixed into pure water. The prepared
solution is then filled into the capillary
and attached it into chamber stage. Oil is
dosed into the capillary through a long
needle syringe. Capillary can be rotated
at various RPM. Rotation is required
to stabilize a clean and single droplet.
Stabilization is necessary to capture and
track the drop for the IFT measurement
and it is done by software operated tilt
mechanism. First, instrument need
to be calibrated before going for IFT
measurement. During rotation strong
centrifugal forces deform droplets to a
Prolate (Prolongated) shape as shown
in Fig .1(d). IFT measurement is done
by auto inbuilt software by capturing a
clean droplet profile.
Experimental results and discussion

(b) Emulsion droplet interception at low pore entry point

(c) Oil sweeping from low pore under rotational effect

ature while stirring is on. The internal

phase is now the oil phase and the external phase is water phase. The emulsion is prepared for keeping a surfactant
concentration constant and varying the
polymer concentration, to see the packing of the droplets under microscope for
45 days of stability and at standard condition. This is then followed by keeping
the polymer concentration obtained as a
constant value and surfactant concentration is varied to see the packing of the
emulsion droplets for same time period.
Typical range of polymer concentration used for oil field chemical flooding processes ranges from 800-2000
PPM (0.8 to 2.0 wt %). Critical mi-

celle concentration (CMC) of surfactant blend is obtained by IFT vs

surfactant concentration graph. Thus,
adopted chemical concentrations to
prepare oil in water emulsion for experiment contained: 20 ml oil + 80 ml
pure water(20/80), 0.15 wt% partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide, 1 wt
% surfactant blend mixture of 53/47
blend of sodium dodecyl sulphate
(SDS) and Detergent. Mean size of
dispersed oil droplets ranges from
10-11 m. Good emulsion in which
oil droplets evenly distributed in water phase, obtained at the said chemical concentrations, showed packing
of emulsion droplets as shown schematically in Fig. 2.

A lot of IFT measurements at various

RPM have been conducted. In this paper, RPM 5000 have been considered
for experimental test or IFT characterization. As mentioned by Schmidt D.P.
(1984), continuous loading of droplet at
pore entry resulted into low ultimate oil
recovery. For plugging/blocking high
permeability zones, loading of oil droplets is acceptable as it helps in restricting water fingering through high permeable zones. At low pore opening entry
point, droplet intercepted and stopped
from penetrating into the pore due to its
size as shown in Fig. 3(b). For high and
medium size pores, interception is minimum due to less or almost equal size of
droplet than pore size as shown in Fig.
3(a). Thus, resulting improved sweeping of oil from these pores. Interception
is higher for low size pores and resulting
in low recovery of oil from these pores
as residual oil left unswept in these
pores (Schmidt D.P. 1984).
Oil from high pores already has been
swept under primary and secondary recovery. Now, residual oil dwells into the
low pore openings, where capillary pressure is very high. In order to recover this
trapped oil from low pores, it is essential
to push emulsion into the pore by beating the capillary pressure of the pore. Oil
droplet interception/blocking at low pore
entry occur due to its size as shown in
Fig. 3(b). To penetrate oil drop into the
pore, oil droplet vertical diameter must
JoP, January-March 2013

63

Figure. 4 Rotational/Turbulence effect on the emulsified drop as a function of droplet shape

(a) Droplet images at different RPM

be sufficiently reduced to equal or less

than the pore size as shown in Fig. 3(c).
In our experiment it is confirmed through
the captured droplet images and graph
as shown in Fig. 4 that under increasing
rotation/RPM droplet height decreases to
make droplet possible to penetrate into
the pore. It is also confirmed through
emulsified droplet IFT graph as shown
in Fig. 5 that a slight rotation or centrifugal thrust to emulsified droplet helps in
reducing its own IFT. Here, we like to
report that IFT reduction under rotational
effect occurs due to stretching (Fig. 4a)

(b) Droplet height variation as a function of RPM

of the droplet and allow larger droplet

to separate into smaller droplets (Stable
Emulsion). Rotational/Turbulence effect
with displacing phase drive generates
sufficient force/shock to penetrate droplet into the pore and improves the recovery of trapped oil by reducing capillary
pressure of the pore.

Conclusion

Oil in water emulsion is introduced to

address challenges of EOR like; to improve the recovery of trapped residual
oil from the tight
Figure. 5 Rotational/Turbulence effect on the emulsified
and deep offshore
drop as a function IFT
reservoirs where
capillary pressure
is high and also
from the formations where the
mobility of the
in-situ oil being recovered is
significantly less
than that of drive
fluid used to displace the oil.
This research work
has presented:

Slight shock/turbulence to the

emulsified drop at
the low size pore
entry modifies the
shape of droplet to

64

JoP, January-March 2013

make it compatible for penetration into

the pore. Penetration under the turbulence helps in sweeping the trapped oil
from the pore under capillary rise phenomenon.
Turbulence also reduces IFT of the
emulsified blocked drop due to straining/stretching and stretching will result
conversion of blocked larger drop into
the smaller size drops as IFT of the
blocked drop decreasing.
Conversion of blocked drop into smaller size drops indicates easy penetration into the pore since drops are small
enough to pass through the pore throat.
It can also be concluded that small size
drops will be flowed back easily with
the producing trapped oil, indicating
minimum emulsion retention and higher emulsion stability.

Acknowledgement
First and foremost, the authors take
immense pleasure in acknowledging
Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University (PDPU), Gandhinagar, Gujarat,
for providing such platform to perform
IFT characterization experiments using Tensiometer. We also acknowledge in gratitude the generous support
and responsive motivation that we
have received from Pandit Deendayal
Petroleum University, Gandhinagar,
Gujarat.

References
1. T. M. Garland (1966), Changing
Water Injection Profiles by Selective
Plugging: A Field Study, U.S. Dept.
of the Interior, Bureau of Mines.,
USA.
2. N. Mungan (1969), Rheology and
Adsorption of Aqueous Polymer
Solutions, Journal of Canadian Petroleum, pp. 45-50.
3. N. Mungan (1972), Shear Viscosities of Ionic Polyacrylamide Solutions, SPE Journal, Vol. 12, no. 6,
pp. 469-473.
4. C. D. McAuliffe (1973), Crude Oil
in Water Emulsions to Improve Fluid
Flow in an Oil Reservoir, Journal of
Petroleum Technology, pp. 721-726.
5. C. D. McAuliffe (1973), Oil in Water Emulsions and Their Flow Properties in Porous Media, Journal of
Petroleum Technology, pp. 727-733.
6. O. R. Devereux (1974), Experiments
with a Crude Oil in Water Emulsion
in Porous Sandstone, Chemical Engineering Journal, pp. 129-136.
7. M. L. Mao and S.S. Marsden
(1977), Stability of Concentrated
Crude Oil-In-Water En1ulsions as
a Function of Shear Rate, Temperature and Oil Concentration, Journal

of Canadian Petroleum Technology,

Vol. 16, no. 2.
8. H.K. Van Poollen (1980), Fundamentals of Enhanced Oil Recovery, Penwell Books, USA.
9. V. Hornof et al. (1983), Effect of
Flooding Sequence on the Displacement of Acidic Oil by Alkaline Solutions, Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, Vol. 4, no. 3,
pp. 189-196.
10.D.P. Schmidt and H. Soo (1984),
Linear Oil Displacement by the
Emulsion Entrapment Process, Society of Petroleum Engineers Journal, pp. 351-360.
11.L. Romero et al. (1996), Plugging of
High Permeability-Fractured Zones
using Emulsions, Symposium on
Improved Oil Recovery, pp. 611-621.
12.L. E. Zerpa et al. (2005), An Optimization Methodology Of AlkalineSurfactantPolymer Flooding
Processes Using Field Scale Numerical Simulation And Multiple Surrogates, Journal of Petroleum Science
and Engineering, pp. 197-208.
13.Ajay Mandal et al. (2008), Optimum
Formulation of Alkaline-SurfactantPolymer Systems for Enhanced Oil
Recovery, Society of Petroleum
Engineers Journal, Australia.

14.Mai et al. (2009), Insights into NonThermal Recovery of Heavy Oil,

Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology, Vol.48, no. 3, pp. 27-35.
15.Mohammad Yunus Khan et al.
(2009), Design of Alkaline/Surfactant/Polymer (ASP) Slug and
its use in Enhanced Oil Recovery,
Petroleum Science and Technology Conference, Vol.27, no.17, pp.
1926-1942.
16.Mohammad Yunus Khan et al.
(2009), Combined Effects of Alkali, Polymer and Surfactant on Enhanced Oil Recovery, Petrotech International Conference, New Delhi.
17.T. Zhang and M.R. Roberts (2009),
Foams and Emulsions Stabilized
with Nanoparticles for potential
Conformance Control Applications, SPE International Symposium on Oil Field Chemistry, USA.
18.Luis Villamizar et al. (2010), Interracially Active SWNT/Silica
Nanohybrid Used in Enhanced Oil
Recovery, SPE Improved Oil Recovery Symposium, USA.
19.Gao Shutang (2010), Recent Progress and Evaluation of ASP Flooding for EOR in Daqing Oil field,
SPE EOR Conference at Oil & Gas
West Asia, Oman.

Dr G Suresh Kumar
Tushar Sharma

Dr. G. Suresh Kumar is an Associate Professor in the Department of Ocean Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras,
Chennai 36. He has secured his Doctoral
degree from Indian Institute of Science,
Bangalore, India. He pursued his PostDoctoral works at US and Canada, before
joining IIT during 2006. His research interests include numerical modeling of fluid flow and solute transport through
fractured reservoirs; Onshore and Offshore Oil Spill; Coupled fluid flow and
geomechanics; EOR; and EGS. He has published over 35 research papers in
International Journals. He is currently guiding 9 doctoral and 5 MS students.
gskumar@iitm.ac.in.

Mr. Tushar Sharma is currently pursuing Ph.D in the Petroleum Engineering Program, Department of Ocean
Engineering at Indian Institute of
Technology Madras, Chennai, India.
He is also working as a Lecturer in
School of Petroleum Technology, Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University,
Gandhinagar, Gujarat. He obtained
B.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering from BIET, Jhansi in 2005 and
M.Tech. in Petroleum Engineering from ISM, Dhanbad in 2009. His
research interest lies mainly in the field of Enhanced oil Recovery and
Drilling Engineering.
tusharsharma.ism@gmail.com

Dr Jitendra S Sangwai

Dr. Jitendra S. Sangwai is currently working as an Assistant Professor in the Petroleum Engineering Program, Department of Ocean Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India. He obtained M.Tech. in Chemical
Engineering from IIT Kharagpur in 2001 and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from IIT Kanpur in 2007. He gained industrial and research experience in an upstream oil and gas industry, Schlumberger from 2007 - 2009 dealing with flow
assurances issues and on several commercial projects (including reservoir fluid characterization, PVT studies) and WAGEOR with IRS, ONGC. He published over 45 papers in international journals and conferences of international repute. He
has two patents in his credit and is awarded with research projects from Government of India and oil and gas industries.
His research interest lies mainly in the field of gas hydrates, enhanced oil recovery and flow assurance.
jitendrasangwai@iitm.ac.in.
JoP, January-March 2013

65

Oil Refinery & Petrochemical

Natural gas fuels the

integration of refining
and petrochemicals
Maximising the use of natural gas in a
refinery-petrochemicals complex offers higher
margins and lower carbon emissions
Tanmay Taraphdar, Praveen Yadav and M K E Prasad
Technip KT India

Rising oil prices and weak fuel demand in the recent past
have had a significant impact on gross refinery margin
(GRM). Historical data show that refineries with bottomof-the-barrel processing facilities and an integrated petrochemicals complex have performed well to stay ahead of the
competition because of their greater flexibility to maintain
a healthy GRM. A robust refinery configuration that is flexible enough to process a variety of crudes, including difficult
opportunity crudes, along with an integrated petrochemicals
complex is key to sustaining a healthy GRM.
However, simple integration of a refinery and a petrochemicals complex may not be enough. Integration should be
smart enough to address volatility in the market by ensuring
a healthy GRM and minimising environmental impact by reducing carbon footprint. Use of natural gas fuel addresses
this issue to some extent by enabling the recovery of valuable components from refinery off-gases and facilitating the
release of a good quantity of naphtha for the generation of
a valuable petrochemicals feedstock. It also enables the production of more middle distillate from bottom-of-the-barrel
processing and helps reduce the carbon footprint of the overall complex. The price differential between crude and natural gas, especially in countries where natural gas is readily
available, makes the use of gas a hugely profitable proposition. Even in countries where both natural gas and crude are
imported, there is a case for gas Maximising the use of natural gas in a refinery-petrochemicals complex offers higher
margins and lower carbon emissions Tanmay Taraphdar, Pr
aveen Yadav and M K E Pr asad Technip KT India that needs
to be looked into. This article aims to explore various options available to refiners to enhance their GRM and reduce

Figure 1 Fuel consumption pattern in a refinery

their carbon footprint through the use of natural gas.

Refinery fuel consumption and generation

A refinery consumes fuel gas and fuel oil produced from various refinery processes. No supplementary fuel is required for
refinery operation. Generally, naphtha is used as feed and fuel
for the hydrogen generation unit and gas turbines. A typical
fuel consumption pattern in a refinery is shown in Figure 1.
Fired heaters in various process units consume about 4050% of fuel. The utility system, including boilers and gas
turbines, consumes about 30-40% of fuel and the hydrogen generation unit consumes about 15- 20% of fuel. The
contribution of the hydrogen generation unit includes both
feed and fuel. Typically, a refinery with secondary processing facilities such as fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) and hydrocracking consumes about 8-10 wt% of crude throughput
as fuel, including naphtha used in the hydrogen generation
unit and gas turbines. If the refinery is integrated with a pet-

Figure 2 Fuel gas generation in a refinery

rochemicals complex, which is highly

energy consuming, fuel consumption is
significantly higher. This fuel requirement is satisfied by fuel oil and fuel gas
generated from various process units.
Fuel oil is mainly generated from the
vacuum distillation unit and the FCC
units main fractionator bottoms in the
absence of bottomof- the-barrel processing facilities in the refinery. Vacuum residue is generally taken through
a visbreaker unit to produce fuel oil.
Generation of fuel oil can vary between
5 and 50% of feed to the vacuum distillation unit, depending upon the type
of crude processed, while fuel oil from
the FCC units main fractionator bottoms can vary between 4 and 6 wt% of
the FCC units feed.
A typical contribution of fuel gas generation from various process units of
a refinery using Arabian Heavy and
Arabian Light crude mix is shown in
Figure 2. Delayed coker, FCC unit,
gasoline block (catalytic reforming
unit with isomerisation or alkylation),
crude distillation unit and hydrocracker/ hydrotreaters (naphtha, kerosene,
diesel and VGO) contribute typically
about 40%, 16%, 17%, 2% and 25%
respectively towards fuel gas generation from the refinery.
Many modern refineries have an integrated petrochemicals complex to
improve profitability. A significant
amount of fuel gas is also generated
from the naphtha cracker complex,
while a small amount of fuel gas is
generated from the aromatics complex (excluding the catalytic reforming unit). Typically, about 16-17 wt%
of feed is converted into fuel gas in the
ethane cracker, while about 17-18 wt%
of feed is converted into fuel gas in the
naphtha cracker. Fuel oil generation
from the ethane cracker is negligible,
but it can be as high as 10 wt% of feed
for the naphtha cracker.

A petrochemicals complex is also a

major energy consumer. A steam cracker consumes lot of power in its cracked
gas compressors and refrigeration
compressors. Typically, 600-620 kWh
of power is required for one ton of ethylene production. Generally, a naphtha
cracker is a net exporter of fuel gas and
fuel oil, while an ethane cracker is a
net consumer of fuel gas. A paraxylene
complex is a net consumer of fuel gas/
fuel oil and power. About 0.3 tons of
fuel gas and 320-360 kWh of power
are required for one ton of paraxylene
production. Refinery products such as
fuel gas, fuel oil, naphtha and diesel
are used to satisfy the fuel and power
requirement of the steam cracker and
aromatics complex. Natural gas can
be utilised as fuel for an integrated
refinery-cum-petrochemicals complex
while maintaining flexible product objectives.

Use of natural gas in the refinery

Natural gas or regasified liquid natural
gas can be used in a refinery for various
purposes:
Fuel for process and utility heaters,
replacing fuel oil
Feed and fuel for the hydrogen generation unit, replacing naphtha
Fuel for gas turbines, replacing
naphtha
Fuel for process heaters, replacingfuel gas.
Each of these cases will be discussed
in detail.

nologies that are available and used

presently offer lower yields of distillates and do not eliminate fuel oil generation completely. New technology
such as slurry hydrocracking, which
is on the verge of commercialisation,
promises to offer a better distillate
yield and minimum residue generation. However, our discussion is restricted to the delayed coker, since it
has a proven operational track record.
Typically, a distillate yield (combining
naphtha and diesel) of about 65% is obtained from the delayed coker, which
may result in 10-12% more distillate
from the refinery. Additional naphtha
generated from the delayed coker can
be used as feedstock for the naphtha
cracker. Moreover, off-gas from the
delayed coker contains good amounts
of ethylene, ethane and propylene. Ethylene and propylene can be recovered
and used as petrochemicals feedstock
after suitable treatment for the removal
of impurities, while ethane can be sent
to a steam cracker for the production
of petrochemicals feedstocks. Thus,
replacing fuel oil with natural gas not
only eliminates low-value fuel oil generation, but also enhances refinery and
petrochemicals integration along with
high-value middle distillate production. This changeover, replacing fuel
oil by natural gas in the existing fired
heaters, requires careful evaluation of
the thermal, mechanical and hydraulic
adequacy of existing hardware, particularly with respect to burners, tube
metallurgy, refractory, air preheater
systems and so on.
Natural gas as feed and fuel for steam
reforming

Natural gas as fuel for process and utility

heaters, replacing fuel oil

Hydrogen is one of the most important

utilities in the refinery. It is required to
remove impurities, including sulphur
and nitrogen, from various refinery
products and intermediate streams.
Hydrogen is produced mainly by the
steam reforming of naphtha. The hydrogen requirement varies widely, depending on the crude processedand the
refinerys product specifications.

Use of natural gas as a fuel to replace

fuel oil provides the opportunity to either reduce or eliminate fuel oil generation from the refinery by utilising
bottom-of-the-barrel processing technology. So far, the delayed coker unit
is one of the most economical options
for this type of processing. Other tech-

Typically, four tons of naphtha are required as feed and fuel to produce one
ton of hydrogen, while about 3.5 tons
of natural gas are required to produce
one ton of hydrogen. Use of natural gas
as feed and fuel for the hydrogen plant
will release a good quantity of naphtha.
JoP, January-March 2013

67

This naphtha can be utilised further for

producing valueadded petrochemical
feedstocks. A switch from naphtha to
natural gas requires certain modifications in various sections of the hydrogen generation unit:
Feed pumping/compression and
preheating Naphtha pumps, naphtha vaporisers and superheaters are
not required, while a natural gas
compressor may be required
Hydrodesulphurisation If regasified liquid natural gas is used
as feedstock, pre-desulphurisation
is not required due to the very low
sulphur content of the feed. Additionally, natural gas is olefin free, so
there will be no threat from olefins
to the reformer catalyst
Reformer firing The stoichiometric
air requirement will be changed due
to the change in the hydrogen-tocarbon ratio of the fuel, which will call
for burner tip modifications
High-temperature shift reaction,
steam generation and pressure
swing adsorption A lower load on
the high-temperature shift reactor
and lower steam generation due to
less firing are to be expected. Pressure swing adsorption is generally
not affected by this change-over.
Replacing naphtha with natural gas as
feed and fuel for the hydrogen plant
not only helps the refiners to produce
more valuable products but also helps
to reduce the carbon footprint of the refinery. Typically, the changeover from
naphtha to natural gas will help refiners to reduce CO2 emissions from the
hydrogen generation unit by 25%.
Natural gas as fuel for gas turbines

The gas turbine is the main workhorse

for power generation in the refinery. A
part of the power requirement of the
refinery is satisfied by steam turbines
utilising the cogeneration potential to
generate various levels of steam required in the refinery. The balance part
of the power requirement is satisfied by
gas turbines. Generally, naphtha is used
as fuel for gas turbines. Typically, 0.25
tons of naphtha is required to generate
1 MWh of power from a gas turbine.
When naphtha is replaced by natural
gas as fuel for a gas turbine, it releases
a significant amount of naphtha which
can further be utilised for valuable

68

JoP, January-March 2013

Figure 3 Units producing refinery off-gases

product generation. About 0.2 tons of

natural gas are required for 1 MWh of
power generation. This switchover also
helps refiners to reduce CO2 emissions
from a gas turbine by 25-30%.
Natural gas as fuel for fired heaters,
replacing fuel gas

Fuel gas is mainly generated from the

following refinery sources:
Saturated gas from the crude distillation unit
Off-gases from hydrodesulphurisation/ hydrotreating units: naphtha
hydrotreater, kerosene hydrotreater,
diesel hydrotreater and vacuum gas
oil hydrotreater
Off-gas from the catalytic reforming
unit
Off-gas from the FCC unit
Off-gas from the hydrocracking unit
Off-gas from the delayed coker unit
Aromatics complex
Naphtha cracker complex.
Table 1

Typical off-gas yields from various

refinery units, the aromatics complex
and the naphtha cracker complex are
shown in Figure 3. Total fuel gas generation from the refinery accounts for
about 8-10 wt% of crude throughput,
whereas on integration with a naphtha
cracker and aromatics complex it can
be as high as 15 wt% of crude throughput.
Table 1 shows the valuable components present in off-gases from various
refinery process units, an aromatics
complex and a steam cracker complex.
A refinery that is processing crudes
with light ends typically has a saturated
gas unit to recover LPG.
However, saturated off-gas from this
unit, primarily consisting of methane
and ethane, still contains some propane. Ethane and propane from satu-

rated gas unit off-gas can be recovered

in a cryogenic separation unit after
suitable purification and can be fed to
the steam cracker for the production of
ethylene and propylene.
Hydrogen recovery from refinery offgases is an important factor in reducing the size of an on-purpose hydrogen
generation unit. This can be achieved
by developing a hydrogen balance
model across the refinery, identifying
the constraints/ flexibility of hydrogen
usage, and hydrogen pinch analysis
for possible alternatives of hydrogen
reuse from off-gases. It should be
noted that a careful techno-economic
evaluation is required before implementing any project for hydrogen
recovery from off-gases. The reason
behind is that, on the one hand, it reduces the size of the hydrogen generation unit and thus CO2 emissions,
while, on the other hand, it degrades
the quality of off-gases in terms of
calorific value and reduces the opportunity to burn hydrogen to reduce
CO2 emissions. However, for a larger
hydrogen contributor, a dedicated recovery system is justified. A catalytic
reformer is one such source for hydrogen recovery. Technip has developed
a dedicated tool called HyN.DT for
hydrogen management to help refiners
optimise hydrogen recovery and the
size of on-purpose hydrogen generation units.
Off-gas from the FCC unit and delayed
coking units contains a good quantity of
ethane, ethylene, propylene and some
propane. Separate recovery of ethylene and propylene through cryogenic
separation after suitable treatment may
be economical if the quantity of gas is
significant. Otherwise, a combined recovery section with a cracker complex
may be considered. Ethane and propane separated from off-gases are sent
to the cracker for further production of
ethylene and propylene.

Figure 4 Additional naphtha for petrochemicals production

ing to enhanced refinery profitability.

A changeover from fuel gas to natural
gas needs careful evaluation of existing
hardware, especially fired heaters, with
respect to thermal, mechanical and hydraulic adequacy.

Synergies between refining and

petrochemicals production
Use of natural gas as refinery fuel
unleashes a host of opportunities in
terms of synergies between a refinery and petrochemicals complex.
The availability of full-range naphtha
(C5-165C cut) as a result of utilising
natural gas for steam reforming and
gas turbines can be fruitfully used as
feedstock for a petrochemicals complex. From this full-range naphtha,
a portion of naphtha (light naphtha,
mainly C5) can be utilised in a steam
cracker for the production of ethylene
and propylene, while C7-C9 cut naphtha can be utilised for the production
of aromatics such as benzene, toluene
and paraxylene. The middle cut can

be blended in the gasoline pool. Recent specifications of gasoline limit

the aromatics content in gasoline, thus
restricting the blending of reformate
in the gasoline pool and leading to
the use of alternate octane boosters
such as isomerate and alkylate. Octane booster isomerate is produced
by isomeri sation of the C5 naphtha
stream.
However, if we use the C5 stream to
produce valuable products (such as
ethylene and propylene) in a steam
cracker, an alkylation unit can be considered for octane boosting. Isobutane
reacts with olefins such as propylene
and iso-butylene to produce alkylates
in the presence of solid or liquid catalyst in an alkylation unit. Generally,
FCC C4 cut is a good feedstock to produce alkylates with a RON of 92 and
above.
A significant quantity of ethylene
and propylene can be recovered from
FCC and coker off-gases. In addition,

Figure 5 Recovery of components from refinery off-gas for petrochemicals

production

Recovery of valuable components

such as hydrogen, ethylene and ethane
from off-gases significantly reduces
the available fuel gas in the refinery,
leading to a requirement for an external fuel such as natural gas. In other
words, the use of natural gas as fuel for
the refinery will help to recover valuable components from off-gases, leadJoP, January-March 2013

69

ethane and propane recovered from

saturated gases from the crude distillation unit and from FCC and coker
off-gases can be utilised to produce
ethylene and propylene by processing
in a steam cracker. Hence, the steam
cracker can be designed as a dual feed
cracker (both liquid and gas) to take
advantage of off-gases and any surplus naphtha, leading to more flexibility of operation. A Technip-designed
steam cracker is capable of taking any
feed, from ethane to gas oil, providing
a great deal of flexibility. Spyro from
Technip is first principle-based software capable of predicting yield and
run length accurately for any feed. It
is used by ethylene producers worldwide to monitor and control cracking
furnace performance.
A great deal of synergy exists between
the refinery, aromatics complex and
steam cracker complex. Off-gases
from the FCC unit and coker containing ethylene and propylene can
be integrated with the cold section of
the steam cracker. On the other hand,
pyrolysis gasoline produced from the
steam cracker contains a good quantity
of xylenes and can be integrated with
the aromatics complex. Propylene produced from the steam cracker complex
and benzene produced from the aromatics complex are feedstocks for the
production of cumene and phenol for
producing bis-phenol and polycarbonates. Figures 4 and 5 show enhanced
integration between a refinery and a
petrochemicals complex when natural
gas is used as fuel.
Reducing carbon footprint: a bonus
In addition to achieving good synergy
between a refinery and a petrochemicals complex, the use of natural gas as
refinery fuel helps in reducing the carbon footprint of the refinery, especially
when fuel oil is replaced by natural
gas. Typically, the replacement of fuel
oil with natural gas gives about a 30%
reduction in CO2 emissions and *the
replacement of fuel gas with natural
gas gives about a 5-10% reduction in
CO2 emissions from fired heaters. This
is in addition to a reduction of 25%
in CO2 emissions from the hydrogen
generation unit and 25-30% from gas
turbines, which can be achieved by replacing naphtha with natural gas.

70

JoP, January-March 2013

Figure 6 Base case refinery configuration

Case study
This study concerns a base case of a
refinery complex of 15 million t/y capacity with a steam cracker and aromatics complex. The refinery consists
of a CDU/VDU primary unit, a catalytic reforming unit and alkylation for
gasoline production, an FCC unit and
once-through hydrocracker unit as
secondary units, and a delayed coker
is considered for bottom-of-the-barrel
processing. Hydrotreating of all products such as kerosene, diesel, naphtha
and VGO is considered to meet the
product specifications required for
downstream units and to meet environmental regulations. Since light
naphtha (mainly C5 cut), which is fed
into the naphtha cracker, is not available for isomerisation for boosting the
octane number of gasoline, an alkylaTable 2

tion unit is considered for the purpose.

C4 cut from the FCC unit is the feed to
the alkylation unit. Light naphtha (C5
cut) from a naphtha hydrotreater and
hydrocracker, along with hydrocracker bottoms, is the main feed to the
naphtha cracker. Pyrolysis gasoline
generated from the naphtha cracker
goes through an aromatics separation
unit, the aromatics are fed into a paraxylene complex and raffinate is recycled back to the naphtha cracker. A butadiene extraction unit is considered
within the naphtha cracker complex.
Hydrogen is recovered from catalytic
reformer and naphtha cracker off-gases through pressure swing adsorption.
The sulphur block includes an amine
treating unit, sour water stripper,
amine regenerator unit and sulphur recovery unit. A block flow diagram for
the base case refinery configuration is

Figure 7 Natural gas case refinery configuration

shown in Figure 6. A linear programming model was developed based on

this configuration, with maximisation
of GRM as the objective on the following basis:
Capacity: 15 million t/y (300 000
b/d)
Crude: 50% Arab Heavy and 50%
Arab Light
Desired products: ethylene, propylene, LPG, butadiene, gasoline, aviation turbine fuel, diesel, benzene
and paraxylene
A base case (without supplementary fuel such as natural gas) material balance is performed using this
model and product yields are shown
in Table 2 under base case. With the
same configuration, the model was
rerun with natural gas as fuel, replacing off-gases and naphtha as feed and
fuel for hydrogen generation and gas
turbines.
Integration between a refinery and
a petrochemicals complex is maxi-

mised by optimising the refinery

configuration to generate more value-added products such as ethylene,
propylene, butadiene, benzene and
paraxylene. The revised (natural gas)
cases material balance is performed
with natural gas as the refinery fuel.
A comparison of the material balances of the base case and the revised
case is shown in Table 2. For the base
case, a part of the heavy products
such as vacuum residue and FCC bottoms is utilised for the generation of
fuel oil to satisfy the fuel requirement
of the complex. However, for the
natural gas case, all heavy products
are sent to the delayed coker, resulting in more distillates and a marginal
increase in coke production.
Fuel and loss are estimated based on
the total consumption of fuel gas,
naphtha used for hydrogen generation
and gas turbines, and fuel oil consumption in boilers and heaters for the base
case. For the natural gas case, estimates
are based on natural gas and fuel gas
consumption.

Figure 8 Percent incremental production of petrochemicals feedstocks

Comparison of the base case and

natural gas case material balances
shows that about 7 wt% of crude is
converted into valuable products
such as ethylene, propylene, LPG,
butadiene, gasoline, benzene and paraxylene when natural gas is used as
a supplementary fuel in the refinery.
The increase in production of these
petrochemicals feedstocks is shown
in Figure 8.
Figure 8 shows that the increase in production of ethylene, propylene, butadiene, benzene and paraxylene is 64%,
19%, 33%, 40% and 43%, respectively, which has a significant impact on
GRM. In addition, there is a significant reduction in CO2 emissions, about
2.5%, for the entire complex. This
reduction can be achieved despite the
increased production of petrochemicals
feedstocks, which consumes additional
energy.

Conclusion
Use of natural gas as refinery fuel unleashes a host of opportunities to make
a refining and petrochemicals business
more efficient. It benefits an integrated
complex in multiple ways:
Use of natural gas releases a good
quantity of naphtha, which is normally used as feed and fuel for
steam reforming and gas turbines.
This naphtha can further be utilised
for producing value-added petrochemicals feedstocks such as ethylene, propylene and paraxylene
Use of natural gas as fuel for the
refinery gives the opportunity to recover valuable components such as
hydrogen, ethane, ethylene and propylene from off-gases
Replacement of fuel oil by natural gas
enables a refinery to process complete
vacuum residue in the delayed coker
to enhance distillate yield.
In addition to these possibilities,
which help to improve significantly
the GRM, the use of natural gas as
fuel reduces the carbon footprint of
a refinery substantially. The price
differential between natural gas and
crude and, more importantly, the price
differential between natural gas and
petrochemical feedstocks such as ethylene, propylene, butadiene, benzene
JoP, January-March 2013

71

and paraxylene will be a key driver

to consider natural gas as refinery
fuel for better integration with a
petrochemicals complex.

agement of TPKTI for their kind permission to publish this article.

Acknowledgement

References

The authors are thankful to the man-

1 Taraphdar T, Reducing carbon foot-

SPYRO is a mark of Technip

print an integrated programme of

process integration techniques lowers CO2 emissions levels in refineries through energy savings, PTQ,
Q2 2011, 65-73.
2 Ratan S, van Uffelen R, Curtailing
refinery CO2 through H2 plant, PTQ
Gas 2008.

Tanmay Taraphdar
Praveen Yadav

Tanmay Taraphdar is Group Leader, Refinery & Petrochemicals, in the Process

& Technology Department of Technip KT
India Ltd., New Delhi. He holds a masters in chemical engineering from Indian
Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, India.
Email: ttaraphdar@technip.com

Praveen Yadav is a Process Engineer

in the Refining, Process and Technology Division of Technip KT India Ltd.
He holds a degree in chemical engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, and a masters in
processes and polymers from IFP
School, Paris, France.
Email: pryadav@technip.com

M K E Prasad

M K E Prasad is Head of the Process and Technology Department of Technip KT India Ltd. He has over 30 years
experience in process design and holds degree in chemical engineering from Osmania University, Hyderabad, India.
Email: mkeprasad@technip.com

72

JoP, January-March 2013

Asset Reliability

Exploratory Studies on MSTT

for Estimation of Mechanical
Properties of Heater Tube
Grade Steels at Room
Temperature as well as at
High Temperature
Satya Pal Singh, Sova Bhattacharya & D K Sehgal
R&D, Indian Oil Corporation Limited and IIT Delhi

Abstract
Miniature sample testing technology (MSTT) has extensively been studied, explored and several empirical correlations
been proposed for estimation of mechanical properties namely yield strength (YS) and ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of
variety of materials at room temperature. High temperature
miniature sample experimentation has been attempted but no
empirical relationships are available in the literature for estimation of YS and UTS at elevated temperature. In the ongoing research work, the key objective is to establish a single
empirical correlation for estimation of each of the two parameters namely yield strength and ultimate tensile strength
at room temperature as well as high temperature using small
punch test (SPT) for heater tube grade Cr-Mo steels. So far
the required fixture has been designed and developed. The fixture has been designed to create inert environment around the
test specimen and punch tip to avoid any oxidation effect. The
preliminarily studies carried out and oxidation effect avoided
with a very low consumption of argon. The studies carried out
so far suggest that the various characteristics regimes of SPT
can be clearly delineated repeatedly at all the test temperatures
and results of characteristic parameters obtained by analysing
small punch tests curves are encouraging towards estimation
of YS/ UTS values at all test temperature.

Introduction
The safe and economic operation of the process plants
needs the quantitative assessment of mechanical properties at regular intervals. The conventional methods of
determination of mechanical properties of metals require bulk metal removal leading to process shutdown

and post repair. There has been constant emphasis for

many years now on quantitative assessment of degradation in mechanical properties of the components for reliable health assessment and Remaining Life assessment
(RLA) without any loss of production time. To achieve
such an objective, research work has progressed on
many techniques e.g. miniature sample testing technology (MSTT), portable automated ball indentation (PABI),
etc. for many years. Mostly the techniques have primarily been revolving around nondestructively removing a
very small quantity of metal from component surface to
form a miniature sample and performing a destructive
test on the miniature sample using specialized miniature
sample testing facility to assess mechanical properties
of parent metal. Such techniques being nondestructive
in nature, lead to no process time loss or post sampling
treatment. The earliest MSTT based small punch tests
studies are reported in 1981 [1]. Such studies have been
extensively taken up for irradiated materials of nuclear industry [2-6] and chemical process industries such
petrochemical, fertilizer etc to limited extent for determination of mechanical properties. However, so far the
research work available in the literature has been primarily revolving around estimation of room temperature
mechanical properties and limited work has been attempted at elevated temperature [7]. An effort has been
made to develop an experimental setup for small punch
test at elevated temperature. This paper enumerates the
design and development of test fixture, limited number
of experimental carried out on the service exposed CrMo material and their analysis of the test results in the
context of capabilities of the indigenously developed
SPT setup.

Experimental Set Up

Figure 2: Lower die

Figure 3: Upper die

The experimental setup for SPT consists of the followings:

Small punch test setup
Small punch test specimens
Software controlled test machine
having load cell for accurate measurement of load values and LVDT
for precise measurement of displacement of punch
Computer to operate the test machine through software and record
and display of data
Electronically controlled SPT setup/
specimen heating system attached
with test machine
Argon gas for creating inert gas
environment around specimen and
punch tip to avoid oxidation during
high temperature tests
Pressure reducing valve to reduce
argon pressure from 200 bar to less
than 100 mbar and gas flow meter to
appraise the argon flow.

The selection of fabrication material

needed due care as the SPT system was
intended for use in temperature ranging from cryogenic to as high as 7000C.
Design and Development of Small
It was essential that the selected material does not soften and has oxidation
Punch Test (SPT) Setup
resistance at the elevated application
The SPT setup essentially consist of
temperature. Accordingly hot work
lower die, upper die, punch and a botsteel AISI H11 was utilised for fabricatom fixture to seat and rigidly hold
tion of entire test set up. The AISI H11
the upper die and lower die clamped
steel has good softening resistance on
at a specific location on it. Further
account of medium chromium contents
the bottom fixture consist a threadand addition of carbide forming eleed arrangement to fix this system
ments such as molybdenum, vanadium
on the ram of the test machine. The
and tungsten. All the parts of the test
complete test up is given at Figure 1
set up i.e. lower die, upper die, punch
along with the close up views of fixand bottom fixture were austenitised by
ture parts and its assembled view at
slow heating to temperature of 10100C,
the right and left side of the top corsoaking at this temperature for 30 minners respectively.
utes and followed by oil quenching
and tempering
Figure 1: Small punch test set up on test machine with two
at 4750C for
close up views on side top corners
90 minutes to
achieve a final
hardness
of
HRC 53.
The upper and
lower dies are
primarily circular plates of
48 mm outer
diameter held
together with
bottom fixture
by means of
four equally
spaced clamp-

74

JoP, January-March 2013

ing screws at periphery. The outer dimensions of the die set were selected
based on the entire test set up to be fitted on push/ pull rod of the test machine
and enclosed for heating/ cooling in the
furnace/environmental chamber. The
lower die has a central hole of 2.5 mm
which is counter bored to 4 mm. This is
further counter bored to 8 mm diameter
to create the seat for specimen of 8 mm
diameter. Upper die has a hollow cylindrical part of 8 mm outer diameter and
4 mm inner diameter machined in it and
matching with the counter bored cavity in the lower die. The upper die has
another cylindrical part at 180 degree
opposite to the earlier one and with an
internal hole drilled in it. It has inner
hole matching with outer diameter of
punch and provides guided movement
to the punch during the process of load
application on the specimen. When
the two dies are assembled, the lower
protruding part of upper die clamps the
test specimen with the lower die while
screws passing through both the dies
are tightened on bottom fixture. Under assembled condition, the system of
lower die, test specimen, upper die and
punch are highly coaxial. The lower die
has two more drilled side passages to
fulfil another important functional requirement. One passage ends up just
below the specimen and the other one
just above it. Through these passages
argon is supplied and inert atmosphere
is created below and above the specimen and around the hemispherical tip

Figure 4: Punch

Figure 5: Bottom Fixture

rods were machined through cold fabrication process obtained with the help of
cutting fluid/ coolant. The outer surface
of the rods was machined smooth with
the help of grinding. The rod was further
sliced into discs of thickness approximately 510 m using electro discharge
machining (EDM) wire cut.
Subsequently, the miniature samples
were mechanically polished on both
their circular faces with a series of emery papers up to a finish of 600 grade
SiC abrasive paper resulting in thickness of 5002 m. This was followed
by cleaning of the abrasive debris with
acetone and storing under moisture free
air tight bottles in order to avoid rusting.

Experimental Work
A typical load - central displacement
curve obtained for a small punch test
is given at Figure 6. It has five regimes
namely elastic bending (I), plastic
bending (II), membrane stretching
(III), instability (IV) and fracture (V).
of the punch to prevent their oxidation
during high temperature test. The engineering drawings of the lower die and
upper die are given at Figure 2 & 3 respectively.
The punch is used for application of
load on the specimen. The diameter of
the punch and guiding hole on the upper
die are decided such that the punch remains highly coaxial with both the dies
at the same time avoids any frictional
resistance during its down ward movement. At one of its end, the punch has
hemispherical tip to apply load on the
specimen which is gradually enlarged.
The upper end of the punch has been
provided conical cavity to accommodate
a hardened steel ball. The tip dimension
of the punch used was measured using
a microscope having 0.0005 mm least
count and found to be 2.502 mm. The
engineering drawing of the punch is
shown at Figure 4.

the seating arrangement to the die set

and allows heat to flow freely into the
die system enabling the faster heating of the specimen. The engineering
drawing of the bottom fixture is shown
in Figure 5.

Preparation of test sam ples

In the present research work, a circular
disc shaped specimen of 0.5 mm thick
and 8.0 mm diameter is being used. The
samples were fabricated by slicing of
8.0-0.005 mm rods machined from Cr-Mo
steel heater tubes for investigation. The

Preliminary experimental work carried

has been carried out at room temperature
as well as various elevated temperatures
using service exposed medium CrMo
steels removed from furnaces of refineries. The obtained load-central displacement responses show clearly delineated
tests from each other at all the test temperatures and are repeatable as shown in
Figure 7. Also, the load central displacement curves of all test temperatures demonstrate all the five regimes as mentioned
earlier. The load central displacement
curves of tests at various temperatures

Figure 6: Load - central displacement curve & the various regimes of SPT
and characterstics parameters

The bottom fixture is an attachment

on which the upper and lower dies are
screwed with the help of four M5 Allen
screws spaced equally. The bottom fixture in turn has threaded arrangement
at one of its end matching with that of
lower loading ram of the test machine
and thus gets screwed on it. It has been
designed in such a way that it provides
JoP, January-March 2013

75

Figure 7: Load-central displacement curve of small punch tests

ing, instability and fracture regime

on repeatable basis.
4. Axial deformation behavior of material as obtained on uniaxial standard tensile tests is qualitatively
replicated in small punch tests.
5. The characteristic parameters obtained by analyzing small punch
load central displacement curves
at all the test temperatures are repeatable and encouraging towards
estimation of mechanical properties
i.e. YS and UTS.

References
have been analysed and characteristic
parameters such as yield load, transition
points between plastic bending to membrane stretching and membrane stretching to instability, peak load and fracture
point have been found repeatable. The
specimens fractured at elevated temperatures alike to the room temperature
specimen. Figure 8 shows a SEM image
of typically failed specimen.

the yield strength (YS) and Ultimate

tensile strength (UTS) obtained through
standard mechanical properties with
characteristic parameter of small punch
tests to obtain YS and UTS.

Figure 9 shows the load displacement

curves of standard uniaxial tensile tests
carried out to obtain the standard tensile properties i.e. yield strength (YS)
and universal tensile strength (UTS)
for one of the chosen serviced exposed
test material (i.e. 9Cr1Mo steel). The
test material has shown varying total
elongation at fracture point with minimum being at 4000C during standard
tensile tests. It is interesting to observe
that the behaviour has been replicated
in small punch tests also (Figure 7).

1. The small punch test set up has been

designed and developed using H11
grade hot steel and successfully
been used at test temperature up to
700 0C.
2. The set up has effectively been able
to avoid the oxidation of small specimen with argon consumption of
only 1.2 liter per test.
3. Essentially the behavior of small
punch tests at elevated temperature
has been found similar to that of at
room temperature and has exhibited
all the regimes like elastic bending,
plastic bending, membrane stretch-

The work is finally going to correlate

Conclusions
From the studies carried out so far, following conclusions can be drawn:

Figure 8: Figure 8: SEM image of a typically failed

specimen

76

JoP, January-March 2013

1. M. P. Manahan, A. S. Argon & O.

K. Harling, The development of
Miniaturised disk bend test for the
determination of post Irradiation
mechanical properties, Journal
of Nuclear materials, 103-104, pp.
1545-1550 (1981).
2. E. A. Krasikov., O. O. Zabusov, J.
I. Shtrombakh, M. E. Korshunov,
R. N. Kuzmin & V. M. Kapitanov,
Development of miniaturised
specimens for the study of neutron
irradiation / plasma exposure synergistic effects on candidate fusion reactor materials, Journal of nuclear
materials, 233-237, pp.1590-1592
(1996).
3. M. Suzuki, M. Eto, K. Fukaya, Y.
Nishiyama, T. Kodaira, T. Oku, M.
Adachi, A. Umino, I. Takahashi, T.
Misawa and Y. Hamaguchi, Evaluation of toughness degradation by
small punch (SP) tests for neutronirradiated 2Cr-1Mo steel, Journal
of Nuclear Material, 179-181, pp.
441-444 (1991).

Figure 9: Stress-Strain curve of standard tensile tests

4. X. Mao, H. Takahashi and T. Kodaira, Super small punch test to

estimate fracture toughness JIC
and its application to radiation embrittlement of 2.25Cr-1Mo steel,
Materials Science & Engineering
A: Structural Materials: Properties, Microstructure and Processing,
A150, No. 2, pp. 231-236 (1992)

5. M. Suzuki, M. Eto, Y. Nishiyama,

K. Fukaya, M. Saito and T. Misawa,
Small specimen test techniques for
the evaluation of toughness degradation, Journal of Nuclear Materials, 191-94, pp. 1023-1027 (1992).
6. T. Misawa, T. Adachi, M. Saito and
Y. Hamaguchi, Small punch tests
for evaluating ductile-brittle transi-

tion behavior of irradiated ferritic

steels, Journal of Nuclear Materials, 150, pp 194 -702(1997).
7. E. Fleury & J. S. Ha, Small punch
tests to estimate the mechanical
properties of steels for steam power
plant: I Mechanical strength, International Journal of pressure vessels
and piping, 75, pp. 699-706 (1998).

Satya Pal Singh

Prof. D K Sehgal

Satya Pal Singh is with R&D Center, Indian

Oil Corporation Limited, Faridabad, as Dy.
Research Manager. He holds BE (Mech.
Engg.) from University of Roorkee and ME
(Manufacturing Engg.) from IISc., Bangalore.
His research interests include Remaining
life assessment, Design of mechanical systems and Miniature specimen techniques.
singhsp2@indianoil.in

Prof. D. K. Sehgal is with Department of Applied Mechanics, Indian

Institute of Technology, New Delhi. His
research interests include Finite Element methods, Experimental stress
analysis, Failure analysis, Miniature
specimen techniques and design optimization.
dks@am.iitd.ac.in

Dr Sova Bhattacharya

Dr Sova Bhattacharya is with R&D Center, Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Faridabad, as Sr. Research Manager. She
holds BE & ME (Metallurgical Engg.) from Bengal Engineering College and PhD in Fracture Mechanics from IIT, Delhi.
Her research interests include Fitness for Service assessment & Remaining Life Assessment of refinery infrastructure, Material characterization, Miniature specimen techniques, Material Failure analysis etc. She has more than 25
papers published in international and national journals and conferences.
bhattacharyas1@indianoil.in

JoP, January-March 2013

77

Essay: National Essay Competition Petrotech Chapter IITM

The future of energy in

India
Smita Srivastava, R. Sharma
Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai

Introduction
History of the mankind can be thought as the utilization of
the energy resources. Since the first encounter with heat or
fire, human efforts in the first few centuries were concentrated only on the generation of heat or fire. Then steam
generation from fire gave new wings to the concept of the
energy (i.e. more precisely thermal energy). Normally, heat
is a form of energy that is dual in characteristics, is partly
potential energy and partly kinetic energy.
Fire from resources like wood, coal and others, remained
in focus for a long time, starting very early in human civilization. Initially, the focus was on utilizing fire for cooking, heating, lighting in night, etc. Later, the idea of steam
from heated liquid was explored by the early thinkers. The
idea of using boiling water to produce mechanical motion
is very old and had some early applications. However,
the early devices were not practical power producers. The
first application of steam was removing water from mines
using vacuum engines. Later, pressurized steam was used
to convert linear to rotational motion which enabled the
powering of a wide range of manufacturing machinery.
Also, this concept of pressurized steam was utilized in
transportation industry, e.g. in vehicles such as steam
tractors and railway locomotives. The steam engine was
a critical component of the Industrial Revolution, and
provided an important base for modern mass-production
manufacturing methods. At present, steam is also used for
power generation, e.g. modern steam turbines generate
about 90% of the electric power in the USA using a variety of heat sources, [1].
To generate heat and steam from the application of heat to a
liquid, a combustible material is critically needed. For this,
historically humankind has been dependent upon coal. The
coal is considered as a mineral of fossilized carbon and is a
combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock. It
usually occurs in rock strata in layers or veins called coal
beds or coal seams. It can be in a soft form or a hard form.
The harder forms (e.g. anthracite coal) are considered as

metamorphic rock because of their exposure to higher temperature and pressure. Chemically, the coal is composed, primarily of carbon along with variable quantities of other elements (i.e. mainly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen).
Since, starting very early in human history, coal has been
and remains a useful resource for heat, fire, and electricity. At present, it is primarily utilized for the production
of electricity and/or heat, and is also used for other important industrial purposes, e.g. in metal and metal based
industries. Coal - a fossil fuel, forms when dead green
plants (i.e. living organisms of the kingdom Plantae including such multi-cellular groups as flowering plants,
conifers, ferns and mosses, and green algae, etc.) are
converted into peat first, peat to lignite second, lignite
to sub-bituminous coal, and then to bituminous coal, and
anthracite. This conversion process is complicated and its
dynamics is not completely known so far. However, based
upon the current research, the conversion process is assumed to consist of biological and geological processes
over a very long period of time.
Currently, coal is the largest source of energy for the generation of electricity worldwide and one of the largest worldwide anthropogenic sources of carbon dioxide releases in to
the atmosphere. As per [2], in 1999 world gross carbon dioxide emissions from the coal usage were around 8, 666 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. The coal-fired electric power
generation emits around 2, 000 pounds of carbon dioxide for
every megawatt-hour of electricity generated. This emission
is almost double the carbon dioxide released by a natural
gas-fired electric plant per megawatt-hour of electricity generated. Since, the CO2 emissions are damaging to the environment there has been serious criticism of coal-fired plants.
The world efforts have been to reduce the coal and increase
natural gas-fired plants.
Heat or fire - thermal energy can be converted into electricity
and thermal power plants work on this principle. The fuel can
be coal or natural gas or petroleum products or agricultural
waste or any other domestic/industrial trash/waste. Recent

efforts have concentrated on using fuels of biological origins, e.g. bio-gases.

A combination of renewal fuels is also
possible though limited in applications,
e.g. bio-gas with coal.
In India, the coal and lignite accounts
for about 57% of the installed power
generation capacity. In practice it is
even higher than that because some
other energy resources used by India
are dependent upon environmental
parameters always uncertain, e.g.
wind energy depends on wind speed,
and hydropower energy on water levels. The electricity alone consumes
about 80% of the coal produced in
the country. Indian coal is mainly
of Gondwana types and that is of
low calorific value and with high ash
content, [3]. The iron content is very
low in the coal of India and the toxic
trace element concentrations are also
extremely low. This low quality (i.e.
the gross calorific value (GCV) of
the Indian coal is about 4500 Kcal/
kg as compared to the Australian coal
of 6500 Kcal/kg) along with high ash
content and low technology usages
make the Indian thermal plants a serious threat to environment.
The coal mining and later its use in the
coal fired thermal plants have serious
adverse health effects and environmental effects (for details see [4-8]), e.g.:
- the effects of ash and fine particles
on human lungs,
- the generation of hundreds of millions of tons of waste products, i.e.
fly ash, bottom ash, and flue-gas desulfurization sludge containing mercury, uranium, thorium, arsenic, and
other heavy metals,
- the acid rain because of high sulfur
contents in coal,
- the groundwater pollution and water
table levels fluctuations because of
mining,
- the contamination of land and waterways and destruction of homes
from fly ash spills,
- the water loss in the flows of rivers because of water use in thermal
plants and consequential impact of
water loss on other land uses like
agriculture,
- the dust and fine particles (heavy)
release into environment,
- the subsidence above tunnels,

- the coal seam fire,

- the emissions of mercury, selenium,
and arsenic, and
- the release of carbon dioxide.
Even though there are serious problems associated with the coal fired
thermal power plants, there exists no
solution to reduce worlds reliance on
coal in near future. This is even truer,
for developing nations like India. The
reasons are many: 1) every source of
energy has its own set of problems,
2) energy generated by coal is cost
efficient, 3) amongst the fossil fuels, coal has the most widely distributed reserves, 4) high values of years
reserves-to-production ratio based on
proven coal reserves worldwide, and
5) with advancements in technology
the coal fired thermal plants can reduce
their environmental effects.
Though, in theory Indias Ministry of
Environment and Forests has mandated the use of beneficiated coals
whose ash content is 34% (or lower)
in power plants in urban, ecologically
sensitive and other critically polluted
areas, and ecologically sensitive areas;
the implementation has been a difficult
issue. In recent times, there have been
advancements in technologies related
to the coal fired plants to reduce their
ecological and environmental effects,
and some of these are:
- use of steam cycle facilities,
- use of gas turbines,
- the co-generation and combined cycle facility, e.g. the combination of
gas turbines or internal combustion
engines with heat recovery systems,
- internal combustion engines, and
- use of bio-enhanced coal.
As has been mentioned previously, the
Indian reliance on coal cannot be reduced in near future. Based upon available research results [9-10], in India
the efforts must focus on the following:
- clean coal technology with carbon
capture and sequestration (CCS),
- coal gasification and its conversion
into transportation fuels such as gasoline and diesel through additional
treatment via the Fischer-Tropsch
process, for details see [11],
- underground
coal
gasification
(UCG),

- coal liquefaction, and

- refined coal, and bio-enhanced coal.
Also, in India basic thinking related to
coal in particular and mining in general needs to change. An absurd thinking prevails in Indian mindset that coal
uses and mining leads to environment
pollution, displacement of tribals and
greater poverty. Indian policy makers to
a large extent believe that only agriculture and rural development can reduce
poverty. These kind of thinking patterns
have never allowed India to attain a
high growth. The world over, the coal
and mining are an important economic
activities that provide essential raw
materials and generates vast wealth for
local communities, industries and governments. If the Indian coal and mining
experiences have been different, then
the policies of the government are to be
blamed only because extensive regulatory lapses have allowed mal-practices
to take banyan roots in Indian coal and
mining industries.
In India, the thermal plants and mines
degraded the environment because
comprehensive environment assessment programs, a basic requirement
for clearing power and mining projects,
were started only in 1994. Even then, as
it is true of any Indian policy plan, there
were enough loopholes for the industry and miners to escape the provisions
on restoring the land, reforestation and
closure of mines. Later, in 2003, mine
closure plans were strengthened and
made mandatory, but again the fines
for non-compliance were kept absurdly
low. And, there has never been a system for blacklisting the defaulters. The
focus must be on strong government
regulation to check corruption, environmental degradation and illegal mining.
The policy framework must be developed to promote private participation,
de-monopolize coal mining, and ensure
exemplary penalties on defaulters and
non-followers.

Electricity generation in India

Hydro-electric power

The song Sare Jahan Se Achchha,

written by Sir Muhammad Iqbal, mentions Godi mein khelati hain jiski
hazaaron nadiyaan (thousands of
rivers play in the lap of our country (India)). In view of this it is shocking to
JoP, January-March 2013

79

understand that though Israel has only

one prominent river and managing its
water resources exceptionally well, but
even with thousands of rivers India is
struggling for water for power generation, drinking, sanitation, irrigation and
industrial uses.
The potential for hydroelectric power
in India is one of the highest in the
world. In hydro-electric power generation, the potential of the water falling
under gravitational force is utilized to
rotate a turbine which is coupled to a
generator, and that leads to generation
of electricity. India started quite early
in establishing hydro-electric power
plants. Later, these plants got entangled in controversies because of a clear
depth of scientific and technological
understanding. And, now dams are
considered a serious threat to the ecology and environment even without any
technical or scientific study.
In theory, India is endowed with economically exploitable and viable hydro
potential assessed to be about 1, 48,
700 MW at 60% load factor, [12]. The
basin wise assessed potential is shown
in Table 1. This potential cannot be exploited without clear political vision
with efficient scientific and technological support. Any hydro-electric power
generation plant is a challenge on multiple fronts, e.g. engineering, ecological,
environmental, social science and economic. Apart from power generation, a
proper designed dam can increase the
shipping capacity of the river, reduce
the potential for floods downstream by
providing flood storage space, and serve
irrigation and other needs for water. The
associated ecological, environmental
problems with a dam can be solved easily with proper afforestation, and the
social problems can be addressed by
sensitive, democratic and participatory
rehabilitation policies.
All these clearly need a vision and national consensus both lacking in Indian leaderships at the national and state
levels. In our opinion, India must focus
on the following:
- to build a national water grid (for
details see [13-14]),
- every river must be utilized to build
a network of multipurpose hydro
power plants,

80

JoP, January-March 2013

Table 1: The basin wise assessed potential of

hydro-electric power generation, adapted from [12]

remote areas. E.g. the

small solar PV systems
can provide electricity
Basin/river
Probable capacity (in
MW)
to a few million households, and micro-hydro
Indus basin
33, 832
power plant configured
Ganga basin
20, 711
into mini-power grids
can serve many milCentral Indian river system
4, 152
lion households. The
Western flowing rivers of southern India
9, 430
bio-gas can be made in
Eastern flowing rivers of southern India
14, 511
household-scale digesters for lighting and/or
Brahmaputra basin
66, 065
cooking. The renewable
Total
1,48,701
energy can increase the
access to power for the
weaker and poor sections of the soci- water, each and drop of it from every
eties the world over, and with better
possible source, needs to be stored,
access the economic prosperity can set
harvested and utilized to build large
in. Furthermore, the carbon neutral and
water reservoirs, and
negative fuels can store and transport
- large water reservoirs to be utilized
renewable energy through existing natfor using water for irrigation, drinkural gas pipelines. These can be used
ing, domestic, industrial, and other
with existing transportation infrastrucuses.
Renewable energy
ture, displacing fossil fuels, and reducEarth eco-system has distinct natural reing greenhouse gases without much of
sources, e.g. sunlight, wind, rain, tides,
any additional financial burden.
waves and geothermal heat. The energy
extracted from these sources is called
The ecological and environmental conthe renewable energy. About 15-17
cerns over energy generation plants
% of the final global energy consumphave grown serious in the last decade.
tion comes from renewable resources,
These climate change concerns couwith 10% of all energy from traditional
pled with high oil prices, fears over
biomass, mainly used for heating, and
peak oil, extremely volatile oil and gas
3.4% from hydroelectricity. The new
supply chain; have forced the focus
renewable resources like small hydro,
to shift from oil and gas to renewable
resources. According to a 2011 promodern biomass, wind, solar, geotherjection by the International Energy
mal, and bio-fuels account for another
Agency (IEA), solar power generators
3-5 % and are growing very rapidly,
[15]. The worldwide share of renewcan produce majority of the worlds
able resources in electricity generation
electricity within 50 years, and hence
dramatically reducing the emissions of
is around 18-20 %, with 15-17 % of
greenhouse gases that harm the ecolelectricity coming from hydro-electric
ogy and environment, [16].
plants and 2-4 % from new renewable
resources, [15].
Despite one of the earliest nation to
In recent time, the focus has grown
constitute a ministry of non-convenon renewable energy, especially wind
tional energy resources, in early 1980s,
power. The use of wind power is inthe renewable energy in India still recreasing at an annual rate of around 18mains underdeveloped. Even now,
22 %, and it is widely used in Europe,
India has been extremely slow on the
exploration and utilization of renewAsia, and the United States. Similarly,
able energy (RE). At present, Indias
photo-voltaic (PV) systems are growcumulative grid interactive or grid tied
ing impressively. At present, the solar
renewable energy capacity (excluding
thermal power stations operate in the
USA and Spain, and the largest of these
large hydro-power) is around 26,368.36
are around 300-400 MW.
MW, of which 69.5% comes from wind
and solar PV contributes nearly 4%,
There is a distinct advantage with re[17]. The problems are lack of clarity in
newable energy plants: scalability. The
identifying proper sites for renewable
renewable energy plant can be both:
energy, slow project implementation,
large scale and small scale to rural and
lack of capital and skewed and deeply

flawed cost recovery mechanism. And,

to complicate the issues further, much
of India does not have a proper electric
grid. Hence, connectivity and capacity
addition cannot happen.
Technically, India is densely populated
and has high solar in-solation, and this
implies that solar power has great potential in India. In recent times, there
has been some interest in large solar powered projects, e.g. a project of
35,000 km2 area of the Thar desert to
generate 700 to 2, 100 GW. The PV
systems use no fuel and modules can
last anywhere between 25 to 40 years.
The cost of installation is very high but
almost the only cost, as there is very
little repair and maintenance involved.
Recent data shows that the PV systems
can pay back their investment in 8 to
12 years, [18]. So, if power prices are
determined in a just and rational manner, then it is economical to install PVs
for free in return for a long term power
purchase agreement. This model has
been proved successful and gaining
wide popularity in the world, [19]. In
our opinion, India needs to follow the
same. Furthermore, to exploit its true
potential for solar power, India needs
to focus on the following,
- concentrated solar thermal power
(CSP) plants to efficiently add thermal storage, allowing the dispatching of electricity over up to a 24
hour period,
- integrated power plants of wind and
solar,
- development of efficient and economic transmission and distribution
lines, and
- combined power plant integrating solar, wind, bio-gas and hydro-storage.
Apart from the solar power, India needs
to explore other renewable energy resources too. In our opinion, for a nation
like us heavily populated, densely
packed and under-developed nation with
limited oil and gas reserves each and
every source of energy need to be exploited. We must focus on the following,
Wind power: In general for coastal
and tropical countries, wind is widely
available, renewable, fairly evenly
distributed, clean, produces no greenhouse gas emissions during operation
and uses little land, [20]. Further-

Table 2: Levelized costs of new generation resources, 2017, adapted from [37]
Plant type

Range for total system levelized costs (2010 USD/MWh)

Minimum

Average

Maximum

Conventional coal

90.1

99.6

116.3

Advanced coal

103.9

112.2

126.1

Advanced coal with CCS

129.6

140.7

162.4

61.8

68.6

88.1

Advanced combined cycle

58.9

65.5

83.3

Advanced CC with CCS

82.8

92.8

110.9

Conventional combustion turbine

94.6

132.0

164.1

Advanced combustion turbine

80.4

105.3

133.0

Advanced nuclear

108.4

112.7

120.1

Geothermal

85.0

99.6

113.9

Biomass

101.5

120.2

142.8

Wind On shore

78.2

96.8

114.1

Wind - Off shore

307.3

330.6

350.4

Solar PV

122.2

156.9

245.6

Solar thermal

182.7

251.0

400.7

Hydro-electric

57.8

88.9

147.6

Natural gas fired

Conventional combined cycle

more, effects of wind power plants

on the environment are normally less
problematic than those from other
power plants. Because of these benefits, a large number of countries are
generating electricity from wind, i.e.
83 countries around the world are
using wind power on a commercial
basis, [15]. The cost of per unit of energy produced by wind power is similar to the cost for new coal and natural gas installations. Although wind
power is an efficient, economic and
popular form of energy generation,
the construction of wind farms is met
with resistance because of poor aesthetics, noise and vibration levels associated with wind power plants. In
our opinion these are design issues
that can be addressed by new design
that are evolving and proper selection
of the sites of installation.
Though, the wind power is very consistent from year to year but has significant
variation over shorter time scales. This
intermittency of wind creates problems
when wind power is used to supply up
to 20% of total electricity demand, [15].
This demands an up-gradation in grid,
efficient adoption of power management
techniques (i.e. storage of excess capac-

ity, dispatching of backing sources, use

of pumped-storage hydroelectricity, export and import of power to neighbouring areas or less demand). These measures mitigate the common problems
associated with wind power plants, [21].
Against the worldwide available cost
figures, initial cost for wind turbines is
higher than that of conventional fossil
fuel generators for every MW installed.
Furthermore, noise levels associated
with Indian wind power plants are high.
These issues are related to poor technical designs and wrong selection of
sites. India needs to focus on acquiring
technical know-how, follow best design
practices and select the sites based upon
technical analysis and not upon local
preferences. We need to focus on both
small/large scale and onshore/offshore
wind power plants. The focus must be
on everyone, small for remote and local applications, and large for capacity
addition in the national power grid. The
integration of wind power with solar
power can open new opportunities for
power generation.
Hydro-power: In addition to our previous opinions, in the Asia-Pacific region
there is a great potential for hydropower. The cost of hydroelectricity is
JoP, January-March 2013

81

comparatively low and this makes it a

competitive source of renewable electricity. Furthermore, hydro-power is
flexible, i.e. the plant can be upgraded
or downgraded to adapt to changing
energy demands. However, locally the
construction of a large reservoir and
damming interrupt the natural flow of
the rivers and can harm local ecosystems, and building large dams and reservoirs will involve displacing people and
wildlife. For hydro-power there is no direct waste, and lower output level of the
greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2)
than fossil fuel powered energy plants.
There is an urgent need in India to
focus on water management, and concentrate on building: hydro-electric
energy plants, micro-hydro systems
to focus on remote-area power supply
(RAPS) and run-of-the-river hydroelectricity systems to derive kinetic
energy from rivers and oceans without
the creation of a large reservoir, for
details see [22].
Bio-mass: The bio-mass (plant material) is a renewable energy source
because the energy it contains comes
from the sun via the process of photosynthesis. This energy stored in the
plant can be extracted by burning or
combustion. Since, bio-mass can be
grown sustainably, it can serve energy
needs on a sustainable basis. There exists three approaches to convert biomass into energy and these are: first
and third generation - growing plants
specifically for energy use, and second
generation - using the residues and
wastes from plants that are used for
other purposes. A nation will choose an
appropriate approach depending upon
climate, soil conditions and geography.
At present, the bio-mass is about twice
as expensive as natural gas, slightly
more expensive than nuclear power,
and much less expensive than solar
panels, [23]. This makes the option of
bio-mass attractive for India.
India has an arable land that is next
only to USA. Also, it is a tropical country and hence has tremendous potential
for agriculture. There is no reason for
India to ignore the bio-mass energy
plants, e.g. use of bagasse, plant waste
from forest and agricultural wastes.
Bio-fuels: A bio-fuel is a form of fuel

82

JoP, January-March 2013

that can be produced from plants, e.g.

bio-ethanol from agricultural feedstocks. The plants can be grown sustainably and even very common crops
such as sugar cane, potato, cassava
or manioc (Manihot esculenta) and
corn extend themselves easily for biofuels. The choice between fossil fuels
and bio-fuels is not very obvious and
there has been considerable debate
about how useful bio-ethanol can be
in replacing gasoline? There are some
concerns about the production of biofuels and their use related to increased
food prices due to the large amount of
arable land required for crops, as well
as the energy and pollution balance of
the whole cycle of ethanol production,
especially from corn, [24].
However, for energy there can never be
an easy solution. Every source of energy has its own advantages and disadvantages. There is no perfect solution
for energy. Furthermore, the idea is to
explore a source which is less damaging to the ecology and environment,
affordable and can be sustained. Biofuels that are under development (e.g.
cellulosic ethanol, [25]) offer promise
because cellulose fibres (i.e. a major
and universal component in plant cells
walls) contained in them can be used
to produce ethanol and they can play
an important role in the future. Similarly, other bio fuels options need serious attention in India, e.g. Algae fuel,
bio-hydrogen, bio-methanol, 2-5: Dimethylfuran (DMF), Dimethyl ether or
Bio-DME, Fischer-Tropsch diesel, biohydrogen diesel, mixed alcohols, wood
diesel, Jatropha, and Fungi, etc. In our
opinion India needs to have a policy in
place for bio-fuels and vehicles need
to have flexible fuel options, e.g. fuels
with 15 - 25 % ethanol as are common
USA, Europe and Brazil.
Geo-thermal energy: The geothermal power is cost effective, reliable, sustainable, and environmentally friendly, and has per unit cost
of electricity production comparable
to coal-fired thermal plants. Initially,
the concept of geo-thermal energy
was restricted to areas near tectonic
plate boundaries of the earth. However, now recent technological advances have expanded the range and
size of viable resources. Though, the
geo-thermal wells release greenhouse

gases trapped deep within the earth,

but these emissions are much lower
per energy unit than those of fossil
fuels. This advantage has motivated
energy policy planners to explore the
geo-thermal power applications over
a wide range. India has potential resources to harvest geo-thermal energy.
Only the nation needs to implement
the findings from [26], explore new
sites too and then actually build a
plant. India can ignore any energy option available at its own peril.
Other renewable energy technologies: There exist some other renewable
energy technologies that are under research and development: hot-dry-rock
geothermal power, and ocean energy,
[27]. These technologies have not matured so far for practical application
and proved to have limited commercialization possibilities. However, with
more research and development efforts
they can become comparable to other
renewable energy technologies. This
demands sufficient attention and funding for research, development and demonstration (RD&D). In theory, India
is a costal country and hence has significant possibilities for utilizing ocean
power, e.g. marine current power, osmotic power, wave power, tidal power,
ocean thermal energy, and enhanced
ocean thermal energy, etc. We believe
that Indian research efforts must focus
on them. Similarly, in Indian context
synthetic renewable fuels (e.g. renewable methanol and carbon neutral fuel)
need to be explored by our researchers
both from industry and the academia.
These synthetic renewable fuels can be
blended into transportation fuel or processed as a chemical feedstock. These
fuels do not result in a net increase in
atmospheric greenhouse gases. With
sufficient research, development and
demonstration, in future, these fuels
can reduce the costs and dependency
issues related to fossil fuels without
requiring either electrification of the
automobiles or conversion to hydrogen
or other fuels. Once available economically these fuels will be able to ensure
affordable automobiles. Furthermore,
they can offer relatively low cost energy storage, reducing the problems of
wind and solar intermittency, and they
can enhance the distribution of wind,
water, and solar power through existing
natural oil and gas pipelines, [28-29].

Nuclear power

The nuclear power is based upon utilizing

the nuclear binding energy and at present deals only with the use of sustained
nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Currently, it provides about 6 %
of the worlds energy and 12-14 % of
the worlds electricity, [30]. There are
around 400 nuclear power reactors in operation in the world, operating in around
35 countries, and more than 175 naval
vessels using nuclear propulsion have
been built. Since its inception the nuclear
power has been a topic of considerable
research, tremendous potential, huge
controversies and intense debates between the proponents and opponents. It
is our sincere belief as researchers that no
design solution for energy is completely
safe, efficient and economic for human
habitats, ecology and environment. Any
source of energy comes with its own
limitations and subsequent impacts on
human habitats, ecology and environment. The process of development is
nothing but utilization and exploitation
of natural resources. Purely on scientific
and technical merits, the nuclear power is
a sustainable energy source that reduces
carbon emissions. However, there exists
a serious fear also primarily because of
previous nuclear power plant accidents,
e.g. the Chernobyl disaster (1986), and
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster
(2011), etc. The serious and long term
losses incurred in accidents have promoted some researchers and environmentalists to view nuclear power plants
as threats to people and the environment.
Development cannot happen if fear is
created, nurtured and propagated without sound scientific and technical analysis because fear in the mind of policy
planners will result into policy paralysis, a typical example being India. The
solution is to improve the safety improvements [31], and explore nuclear
fusion that is safer, in the future. There
have been positive developments on
nuclear power in India, e.g. India has
been making advances in the field of
thorium-based fuels, working to design
and develop a prototype for an atomic
reactor using thorium and low-enriched
uranium; and India is a partner in the fusion power area through the ITER initiative, [32]. The current research into
developing controlled thermonuclear
fusion for power generation is promising and has entered a critical phase

now with two projects (i.e. the National

Ignition Facility and the International
Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor)
expected to be in the process of reaching breakeven in foreseeable future,
[32-33]. India needs to implement its
already existing ambitious plan to reach
a nuclear power capacity of 63,000 MW
in 2032. And, follow plan with action
and implementation with efficient and
economic designs of modern state of art
nuclear power plants.

Unconventional oil and gas

resources
The unconventional oil and gas resources are the petroleum resources
that cannot be produced or extracted
by using techniques of conventional
oil and gas resources. The oil industries in general and governments
across the globe in particular are investing heavily in unconventional oil
and gas sources because of the increasing scarcity of conventional oil
and gas reserves. However, although
the depletion of such reserves is evident, still unconventional oil and gas
resources remain far from economic
utilization because their production is
a less efficient process and has serious environmental impacts. At present research is concentrated upon
heavy oil, oil shale, oil sand, coalbased liquid, biomass-based liquid,
thermal de-polymerization, coal and
gas conversion, shale gas, coal bed
methane, natural gas hydrates, etc.
The shale gas is a natural gas that is
formed from being trapped within
shale formations. Recently, the shale
gas has become an increasingly important source of natural gas in the USA,
and this is being followed by rest of the
world, [34]. The shale gas development
can reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Furthermore, India has significant
shale gas reserves and this needs to be
exploited. Similarly, coal bed methane
and shale oil, extraction and production
need attention from Indian petroleum
industries. The natural gas hydrates
(Methane clathrate) is a solid clathrate
compound (i.e. a clathrate hydrate) in
which a large amount of methane is
trapped within a crystal structure of
water, forming a solid similar to ice,
[35]. Recently, the significant deposits
of methane clathrate have been found

under sediments on the ocean floors of

Earth. The worldwide amount of carbon bound in gas hydrates is estimated
to total twice the amount of carbon to
be found in all known fossil fuels on
Earth, even at a modest estimation,
[36]. Probably, the sedimentary methane hydrate reservoir contains 2 - 12
times the currently known reserves of
conventional natural gas. In theory, this
makes the natural gas hydrates a potentially source of hydrocarbon fuel in the
future. However, there exist serious
limitations in-practice, e.g. the deposits are sparsely dispersed for economic
extraction, difficulty in the exploration
and detection of economically viable
reserves; and high cost towards the
development of the technology for extracting methane gas from the hydrate
deposits. Because of these reasons, not
many fields have produced commercial
gas so far. Still, this can remain a focus
for Indian research and development
projects and in future technically viable options can become reality.

Future sources of energy

The stone-age did not end for lack of
stone, and the oil age will end long before the world runs out of oil. Mr.
Sheikh Zaki Yamani, former Saudi
Arabian oil minister, Saudi Arabia.
Physically, the energy has several
forms, e.g. thermal energy, chemical
energy, electric energy, radiant energy,
nuclear energy, magnetic energy, elastic
energy, sound energy, mechanical energy, luminous energy, and mass (E=mc),
etc. The energy can be classified into the
potential energy and the kinetic energy,
and it can be transformed between these
forms, with even 100% energy conversion efficiency in some cases and less
otherwise. Additionally, any phenomenon that appears to violate the law of
energy conservation is explained by
assuming an addition of a new form of
energy, e.g. dark energy in the universe.
At least in theory, it is possible to transform any form of energy other than the
thermal energy into electricity with very
high efficiency. Conversely, it is always
difficult and inefficient to convert thermal energy into other forms. The future
of energy can only be secured if physics provides the motivation and theory.
E.g. to secure the future of energy the
proper understanding of the physics beJoP, January-March 2013

83

hind some important processes holds

the key: the conversion of mass into
energy; extraction of dark energy from
the universe; improving the efficiency
of conversion of kinetic energy to mechanical energy in the turbine; and improving the process of conversion of:
thermoelectric heat into electric energy,
geothermal power into electric energy,
ocean thermal power into electric energy, hydroelectric energy into electric
energy, kinetic energy or mechanical energy into electric energy, chemical energy into electric energy, sound energy
into electric energy, wind energy into
electric energy, and strain into electric
energy, etc.

Conclusions
To put energy issue in perspective,
the per capita average annual domestic electricity consumption in India in
2009 was 96 kWh in rural areas and
288 kWh in urban areas for those with
access to electricity, in contrast to the
worldwide per capita annual average
of 2600 kWh and 6200 kWh in the European Union. To add its woes, Indias
per capita GDP (PPP) is 3, 693 USD,
in contrast to its SARC neighbour Sri
Lanka whose is 6, 135 USD. Additionally, Indias human development index
is pathetic and abject poverty is the rule
and not the exception. The list of problems go on and on for India. The nation
needs energy to improve its education,
sanitation, irrigation, transportation
and industrialization. India is a developing nation and hence cost becomes
the key behind energy development.
Only the cost efficient options can be
pursued by India. The levelized costs
of new generation resources 2017 is
listed in Table 2. In our opinion India
needs to follow a multi-pronged strategy for energy security: first phase
development of thermal power plants,
hydro-electric power plants and nuclear power plants, and opening up of
the bio-fuels and flexible fuel vehicles;
second phase capacity addition with
renewable energy and unconventional
oil and gas resources and tightening of
regulations regarding energy efficiency
and streamlining the irrigation and
energy sector; third phase capacity
build-up in the energy sector with high
end physics dominated energy options.
The Indian mindset needs to change

84

JoP, January-March 2013

to accept that there is nothing free in

a competitive world. The cost must be
borne by the consumers. The free unregulated consumption will drain the
national resources and nation will have
no financial resources left for investment in the capacity addition. The focus must be on efficiency, payment of
cost and capacity addition.
WILL that happen in India? We believe
that Indias story has always been of
missed chances. It is not that the reasons
behind Indias dismal status were not
known. They were, even the prescriptions were too. But the lack of vision
and leadership left us facing darkness
prevailing in Indias rural landscape and
endless power cuts in the urban areas.
Still hopes die hard in a democracy, and
so WE sincerely hope that one fine day,
soon in near foreseeable future, electricity 24*7*365 will become a norm rather
than exception in our beloved nation, for
all, both urban and rural. Hope continues.

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com/2012/12/Renewable-EnergyInstalled-Capacity-in-India.html
18]EPIA (2012), Connecting the Sun:
Solar photovoltaics on the road to
large-scale grid integration, European Photovoltaic Industry Association, Belgium, website address:
www.connectingthesun.eu
19]GTM (2008), Solar Power Services: How PPAs are Changing
the PV Value Chain?, GTM Research, USA, website address:
www.greentechmedia.com/research/report/solar-power-services-how-ppas-are-changing-thepv-value-chain
20]Fthenakis, V. and Kim, H. C.
(2009), Land use and electricity
generation: A life-cycle analysis,
Renewable and Sustainable Energy
Reviews, pp. 1465-1468.
21]ESBNG (2004), Impact of wind
power generation in Ireland on the
operation of conventional plant and
the economic implications, ESB
National Grid, pp. 1-42.
22]Dwivedi, A. K., Raja, A. P. and
Srivastava, M. (2006), Power Plant
Engineering, New Age International, India.
23]AEO (2010), Annual Energy Outlook 2010, US Energy Information
Administration, DOE/EIA - 0383

(2010)), USA.
24]EFRC (2012), Deforestation diesel
the madness of biofuel, EFRC,
website address: www.efrc.com/
manage/authincludes/article_uploads/Deforestation%20diesel1.pdf
25]Kinver, M. (2006), Biofuels look
to the next generation, Science and
Nature Report, BBC, UK, website
address: news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5353118.stm
26]GFI (2012), Geothermal Fields
of India, GSI, India, website address:
www.portal.gsi.gov.in/portal/page?_pageid=127,699645&_
dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL
[27]IEA (2007), Renewables in global
energy supply: An IEA facts sheet,
OECD, International Energy Agency, pp. 3-5.
28]Goeppert, A., Czaun, M., Prakash,
G. K. S and Olah, A. G. (2012),

Air as the renewable carbon source

of the future: an overview of CO2
capture from the atmosphere, Energy and Environmental Science,
pp. 783353.
29]Pearson, R. J., Eisaman, M. D. and
others (2012), Energy Storage via
Carbon-Neutral Fuels Made From
CO2, Water, and Renewable Energy, Proceedings of the IEEE, pp.
440460.
30]IEA (2012a), Key World Energy
Statistics 2012, International Energy Agency, USA, website address:
www.iea.org/publications/freepublications/publication/kwes.pdf
31]Baurac, D. (2002), Passively safe
reactors rely on nature to keep them
cool, Argonne Logos, USA, Winter
2002 (v2n1).
32]EFDA (2012, European Fusion
Development Agreement, website:

http://www.efda.org/
33]NIF (2012), National Ignition Facility, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, USA, website address: lasers.
llnl.gov/about/
34]Brownfield, M. E. et al. (2012), An
Estimate of Undiscovered Conventional Oil and Gas Resources of the
World 2012, World Petroleum Resources Project, US Geological Survey, USA, March 2012.
35]Hoffmann, R. (2006), Old Gas, New
Gas, American Scientist, pp. 1618.
36]USGS (2012), Gas (Methane) Hydrates - A New Frontier, USGS
Fact Sheet, USA.
37]EIA (2012), Annual Energy Outlook 2012, Energy Information Administration, June 2012, Reference
number: DOE/EIA-0383 (2012).

Dr Smita Srivastava
Dr R Sharma

Dr. Smita Srivastava holds a Bachelors

degree in Chemical Engineering from
HBTI Kanpur. She has done her M.S
and Ph.D in Biochemical Engineering
from IIT Delhi. She is currently working
as Assistant Professor in the Department of Biotechnology at IIT Madras.
Her research interest is in Plant cell
Bio-processing and Microbial fermentation for in vitro production
of high-value plant and microbial metabolites.
smita@iitm.ac.in.

Dr. R. Sharma is associated with

IIT Madras, Chennai, India. His research interests are computer aided geometric design, computational
geometry, visualization, and their
applications in design, manufacturing and robotics; dynamic data
driven forecasting systems; and
participatory/democratic economy.
rajivatri@iitm.ac.in.

JoP, January-March 2013

85

TrendScan - R&D

Asia Drives Growth in 2013

Global R&D
Martin Grueber (Research Leader), Battelle and Tim Studt (Editorial Director)
Source: Advantage Business Media

Global R&D spending is forecast to grow

by 3.7%, or $53.7 billion in 2013 to $1.496
trillion, according to
research by analysts
at Battelle, Columbus,
Ohio, and R&D Magazine, Rockaway, N.J.
The largest share of this
increase, $22.9 billion,
is expected to come
from China, which continues its decade-long annual double digit increases in R&D
investments.
Plagued by massive debts and weak overall economies, the
combined government and industrial R&D organizations
of the U.S. and Europe will both fail to even match their
projected inflation rates of 1.9% and 1.5%, respectively,
in 2013. And while Chinas economy is starting to heat up
with a projected inflation of 3.6% in 2013, its expected GDP
growth of 8.2% and R&D growth of 11.6% will continue to
move it toward a leadership role in both areas in the near
future.

cast created by R&D Magazine and the 19th done jointly

with Battelle. Reflecting upon the increasingly global nature of the R&D enterprise, this years forecast includes an
analysis of the top 111 countries investing in R&D, from
the multi-hundred billion dollar investments of the U.S.,
China, and Japan, to the $10 million annual investments of
Bosnia and Trinidad. This deep analysis was done to more
precisely determine the global size of R&D and understand
regional growth patterns. In performing this research, we
found that 97.3% of the R&D performed in the world is
performed in the Top 40 countries listed on page 5. As in
previous years, there was a slight shuffling of countries in
the Top 40 list with four newcomers in 2013 (Iran, Qatar,
Pakistan, and the Ukraine) replacing Saudi Arabia, Romania, New Zealand, and Greece who were listed in the 2012
Top 40.

Global trends
The 2013 Global R&D Funding Forecast contains detailed
summaries of the major R&D spending organizations, regions, and researcher profiles. Its important to note the
long-term effects of R&D investments and their close relationship to economic growth that are considered in this
report. R&D is not an instrument that can be quickly turned
World of R&D 2012

This years report is the 55th annualR&D Funding Fore-

Size of circle reflects the relative amount of annual R&D spending by the country noted.
8000

Share of Total Global R&D Spending

North America
South America
Europe
Africa
Middle East
Asia-Pacific
Russia - CIS

7000

2011

2012

2013

Americas (21)

34.8%

34.3%

33.8%

U.S.

29.6%

29.0%

28.3%

Asia (20)

34.9%

36.0%

37.1%

Japan

11.2%

11.1%

10.8%

Scientists & Engineers/Million People

6000

Finland
Singapore

Denmark

Norway

5000

United States
Australia

12.7%

13.7%

14.7%

India

2.8%

2.8%

3.0%

Europe (34)

24.6%

24.0%

23.4%

5.7%

Source: Battelle, R&D Magazine

5.7%

5.7%

Germany

France

Switzerland

3000

Spain

Netherlands
United Kingdom

Hungary

2000

Poland

1000

Mexico

0.5

Italy
China

Turkey

Iran

Malaysia
Pakistan

Unite
China
Japan
Germ
South
Franc
India
Unite
Russi
Brazil

11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20

Cana
Italy
Austr
Taiwa
Spain
Swed
Nethe
Turke
Switz
Israel

21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30

Austr
Singa
Belgiu
Iran
Finlan
Mexic
Denm
Polan
Qatar
South

31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40

Norw
Argen
Czech
Portu
Pakis
Malay
Irelan
Indon
Ukrai
Hung

Israel
Ukraine

Argentina

Indonesia

Rest of World (36)

Sweden

Austria

Belgium
Portugal
Ireland
Russia

Czech Republic

China

South
Korea

Taiwan

Canada

4000

Japan

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Brazil
Qatar
India

1.0

South Africa

1.5

2.0

2.5

R&D as % GDP
Source: Battelle, R&D Magazine, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, CIA World Factbook, OECD

3.0

3.5

4.0

4.5

Global R&D Spending Forecast

2011 GERD
PPP Billion
U.S. $

2011 R&D 2012 GERD

as % of
PPP Billions
GDP
U.S. $

2012 R&D
as % of
GDP

2013 GERD
PPP Billions
U.S. $

2013 R&D
as % of
GDP

Americas (21)

485.4

2.05%

494.9

2.04%

507.6

2.04%

U.S.

412.4

2.70%

418.6

2.68%

423.7

2.66%

Asia (20)

487.1

1.75%

518.6

1.77%

554.6

1.79%

Japan

156.0

3.4%

159.9

3.48%

161.8

3.48%

China

177.3

1.55%

197.3

1.60%

220.2

1.65%

India

38.4

0.85%

40.3

0.85%

45.2

0.90%

Europe (34)

342.9

1.87%

346.7

1.88%

349.5

1.88%

Rest of World
(36)

77.8

0.86%

82.3

0.87%

86.4

0.87%

Global Total

1,394.3

1.76%

1,469.0

1.77%

1,496.1

1.77%

now face challenges driving growth

from their product pipelines. In the
aerospace-defense area, expensive supersonic stealth fighter jets are being
replaced with much less expensive remotely piloted armed aerial vehicles.
In the materials industry, nanotechnology breakthroughs routinely occur that
cause whole new categories of materials to be developed. And in the energy
industry, new technologies can change
a nations long-term economic future.
Ten years ago, fracking technologies
for recovering shale gas deposits were
relatively unknown. Today they promise to change the future of the U.S.
economy, complemented by technologies being developed to mitigate the
environmental effects of this process.

GERD, Gross Expenditures on R&D, PPP, Purchasing Power Parity

Source: Battelle, R&D Magazine

on and off to trigger economic growth.

Many countries and regions have set
long-term R&D goals that have not
been realized. Ten years ago, the European Union (EU) set a goal of having 3.0% of its GDP invested in R&D
by 2010. Due to weak policies, that
ratio stagnated and is now less than
1.9%. The EUs new 8th Framework
Programme, which begins a year from
now, has reset the 3.0% goal for 2020.
On the other side, China established
a consistent pattern of double-digit
R&D funding increases in the 1990s
and over the past 20 years has risen
from R&D obscurity to challenging

the U.S. (and likely succeeding) for

global R&D leadership.
In our increasingly technology-dependent world, strong continued support
of R&D investments is essential to
maintain and grow a nations economic
strength. It is well-established that
technological change is accelerating
and without the tools, knowledge, and
expertise to build upon those changes,
a nation will quickly fall behind those
that do invest in innovation.
In the industrial R&D arena, the once
indomitable pharmaceutical giants

At the core of this R&D is the basic

research performed in academic institutions around the world. For more
than 65 years, the bastion of basic
research has been the 127 U.S. research universities (classified by the
Carnegie Foundation) that account for
more than 80% of the federally funded
research. But even this cornerstone of
R&D is under attack by the economic
uncertainties of federal and industrial
funding, the rapid growth and funding
of foreign universities, and staffing
challenges. U.S. academias share of
published scientific papers continues
to slip, while the foreign share continues to risewith Chinas share doubling to more than 11% over the past
five years.

Forecast Gross Domestic Expenditures on R&D (GERD) Billion of U.S. Dollars

Global Country
Rank

2011 GDP
PPP Bil.
U.S. $

2011 R&D
as % GDP

20101
GERD PPP
Bil, U.S. $

2012 GDP
PPP Bil,
U.S. $

2012 R&D
as % GDP

2012 GERD 2013 GDP

PPP Bil,
PPP Bil,
U.S. $
U.S. $

2013 R&D
as % GDP

2013 GERD
PPP Bil,
U.S. $

United States

15,290

2.70%

412.4

15,626

2.68%

418.6

15,955

2.66%

423.7

China

11,440

1.55%

177.3

12,332

1.60%

197.3

13,344

1.65%

220.2

Japan

4,497

1.55%

177.3

4,596

3.48%

159.9

4,651

3.48%

161.8

Germany

3,139

2.85%

89.5

3,167

2.87%

90.9

3,196

2.85%

91.1

South Korea

1,574

3.40%

53.5

1,616

3.45%

55.8

1,675

3.45%

57.8

France

2,246

2.21%

49.6

2,248

2.24%

50.4

2,257

2.24%

50.6

India

4,515

0.85%

38.4

4,736

0.85%

40.3

5,020

0.90%

45.2

United Kingdom

2,290

1.81%

41.4

2,281

1.84%

42.0

2,306

1.84%

42.4

Russia

2,414

1.48%

35.7

2,503

1.48%

37.0

2,598

1.48%

38.5

10

Brazil

2,324

1.20%

27.9

2,359

1.25%

29.5

2,453

1.30%

38.5

11

Canada

1,414

1.95%

27.6

1,441

2.00%

28.8

1,470

2.10%

30.9

12

Italy

1,871

1.30%

24.3

JoP, January-March 2013

87

TechScan

New Technologies and Innovation

High sensitivity detection methodfound for
mercury in water
A research group of WPI-MANA, including Dr. Chung Vu Hoang (Doctoral

trol, following multinational negotiations that began on January 13. Because mercury contamination generally accumulates in living organisms
and gradually progresses over time, early detection of low concentrations
of mercury in environmental water is an important issue.
In this research, the NIMS group developed a method of detecting ionic mercury from water selectively and with high sensitivity by fabricating a gold
nanogap structure coated with molecules which shows strong specific adsorption of ionic mercury. Although infrared spectroscopy had been believed
to be unsuitable for the measurement of trace amounts of analytes in water,
the unnecessary spectrum of water was reduced by using plasmons formed
in the nanogaps of the gold, making it possible to apply this method. The
NIMS researchers also found that the detection limit of ionic mercury with a
standard Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectrometer can be decreased
to the ppt (part per trillion) level as a result of the improved sensitivity obtained by plasmon field enhancement in the nanogaps.
Ionic mercury dissolved in water cannot be measured as-is by infrared
spectroscopy. However, by selective adsorption by the surface coating
material in this work, it was possible to selectively detect ionic mercury and other components when mercury was intentionally dissolved
at a concentration on the order of 30 ppt in natural water from Lake
Kasumigaura. From this research, it was found that mercury contamination of lakes and rivers can be assessed from trace levels using infrared
spectroscopy. In the future, this detection method is expected to be developed into simple, precise monitoring techniques. Such techniques are
expected for contributing to the detection of other types of environmental
pollutions as well as to the industrial waste water treatment.
These research results will be published in the online bulletin of Scientific
Reports on February 6, 2013

(a) Schematic of the surface coating material (DNA aptamer).

Only the ionic mercury is selectively adsorbed; organic molecules are not trapped. (b) Lake Kasumigaura, where the natural water was sampled. (c) Schematic of a nanogap on the gold
surface, which was coated with the surface coating material.
Research Fellow) at MANA (International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics), NIMS (National Institute for Materials Science, President:
Sukekatsu Ushioda), Dr. Tadaaki Nagao, Group Leader of the NIMS Nano-System Photonics Group, Dr. Masakazu Aono, Director-General of
MANA, and others discovered that it is possible to detect of ionic mercury,
with more than 10 times higher sensitivity than with the conventional
spectroscopy method. Ionic mercury is a harmful substance when dissolved in rivers, lakes, marshes, etc. in even trace amounts. In contrast
to the conventional spectroscopic detection method, the infrared spectroscopy detection method was used in detection.
Mercury is a serious environmental pollutant which is hard to control and
decontaminate. Its sources range from small scale gold mines, metal
refining plants, to combustion of fossil fuels, volcanic activity, and crematoriums. In everyday products, it is emitted from dry cell batteries,
fluorescent tubes, thermometers, blood pressure gauges, and so on. As
mercury is easily vaporized at room temperature and diffuses rapidly in
the atmosphere, it is a ubiquitous pollutant on a global scale. On January
19, 2013, the United Nations ratified a new Convention on Mercury Con-

Carbon-graphite Material for Food

Applications
Metallized Carbon Corporation, a manufacturer of oil-free, self-lubricating, carbon-graphite materials for severe service lubrication applications, announces that its Metcar Grade M-58 has received approval
from the FDA so that it can be used in food contact applications. This will
permit the use of Metcar Grade M-58 in dry running, food mixer seals to
provide lower seal friction and longer seal wear life. For pharmaceutical

TechScan
applications, there are several Metcar Grades that have passed the tests
required for U.S. Pharmacopeia Class VI approved materials.
Dry running mechanical seals are used on large, vertical mixers to seal
the clearance between the agitator shaft and the mixer housing at the
location where the shaft enters the top of the mixer. Primary seal ring
wear life has been a problem with these mechanical seals because they
must run dry with high shaft run-out.
Metcar grade M-58 is an electro graphite base material that contains a
special additive to reduce friction and improve the dry running wear rate.
Available fully machined to the customers drawing specifications, Metcar
Grade M-58 primary seal rings can be used in temperatures between -30
and 800 F. It is anticipated that Metcar Grade M-58 will also be useful
in many other machine part applications where an FDA approved, selflubricating material, with low friction and long wear life is required. For FDA
approved bearings, seal rings, vanes, rotors, end plates, piston rings, valve
seats and other machine parts that must run submerged in beverages or
liquefied foods, Metcar carbon-graphite grades that are impregnated with
thermal setting resin, copper, tin bronze or nickel chrome are used.

Biologists produce rainbow-colored algae c

What can green algae do for science if they werent, well, green?
Thats the question biologists at UC San Diego sought to answer when
they engineered a green alga used commonly in laboratories, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, into a rainbow of different colors by producing six
different colored fluorescent proteins in the algae cells.
While fluorescent green, red, blue and yellow may be all the rage this year
for running shoes and other kinds of sporting gear, fluorescent algae hasnt
been a style trend yet in scientific laboratories. But in announcing their
achievement in the current issue of The Plant Journal, the UC San Diego
biologists said tagging algae with different kinds of fluorescent proteins
would provide an important laboratory tool for algae researchers. It could
be used to sort different kinds of cells, allow scientists to view cellular
structures like the cytoskeleton and flagella, or even to create fusion proteins, allowing scientists to follow a protein around the cell.
Although rainbow colored algae are not likely to end up in a store near
you any time soon, the scientists say they are powerful tools that will
allow biologists working on algae to make biotechnology developments
more rapidly, ultimately leading to the production of lower-cost biofuels
and cheaper human and animal therapeutics.
Several months ago, biologists in the same UC San Diego laboratory
reported genetically engineering Chlamydomonas algae to produce a
complex and expensive human therapeutic drug used to treat cancer.
The rainbow-colored algae were developed by a collaboration that
included scientists from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Beth
Rasala, a postdoctoral fellow in Mayfields laboratory, is the lead author of The Plant Journal paper. The research was funded by the
U.S. Department of Energy and the California Energy Commission.
Source: University of California, San Diego

Simulating Pipeline Rupture with Finite

Element Analysis
FEA predicts the initiation and evolution of damage in metals, providing
an alternative to laboratory structural testing.

Although metal pipelines are manufactured to be durable, they are still

susceptible to damage. A common example is a gouge from a backhoe
bucket or other heavy equipment. The resulting deformation needs to
be comprehensively evaluated to determine whether the pipeline is still
functional, or requires repair or replacement.
A body of assessment guidelines for determining the fitness-for-purpose
of a damaged pipeline has been developed. Many of these methods rely on
experimental results and semi-empirical procedures; as such, their validity may be limited when considering loadings, materials, or specific damage configurations that are outside the scope of their assumptions.
Computer modeling of pipeline damage with finite element analysis (FEA)
can complement the existing methodologies by predicting the effects of such
outside variables. Simulation can provide important information about the
performance of different materials and pipe geometries being considered.
To study how FEA could predict damage initiation in an internally pressurized pipe of API X65 steel with a gouge defect, a team from Simulia
reproduced an experiment published by Oh in the International Journal of
Pressure Vessels and Piping in 2007 using Abaqus FEA software, which
provides two types of damage initiation criterion: ductile, based on the
nucleation, growth, and coalescence of voids; and shear, based on shear
band localization. The team focused on the use of the ductile criterion.
The geometry of the model under consideration is shown in Figure 1. A
simulated gouge, 100 mm long, was introduced into the pipeline.
A quarter-symmetric mesh of second order hex elements was generated, and internal pressure loading was applied. End forces were applied
to simulate experimental closed-end conditions, and the loads were increased linearly with time. In general, the specification of damage initiation is included in the material definition and must be used in conjunction
with a plasticity model. In this analysis the Mises plasticity formulation
was used. The mesh is shown in Figure 2.
The ductile damage initiation criterion is a phenomenological model. This
criterion was included in the analysis by specifying the equivalent plastic
strain at damage initiation as a function of stress triaxiality and strain
rate. Stress triaxiality is known to play a role in damage growth.
To calibrate the FEA models, test data from the Oh study was compared
to a corresponding FEA model. The test specimens were round, notched
bars, loaded in tension until complete fracture was achieved. Each test
was compared against a corresponding FEA model. It was noted that as
notch radius decreased, yield and tensile strengths increased, but strain
to failure decreased. This behavior is consistent with the increasing triaxiality of the stress state as the notch radius decreased.
An FEA contour plot of the damage initiation output variable is shown in
Figure 3. Damage has initiated when this variable is greater than 1.0.
From the contour, it can be seen that the critical element in the mesh is in
the root of the notch at the intersection of the symmetry planes. Further
x-y plotting of the initiation criterion in the critical element provided a
more precise determination of the failure pressure: The simulation demonstrated that the threshold of 1.0 was crossed at a pressure of 24.97
MPa. The experimentally determined burst pressure was 24.68 MPa.
Simulias FEA results compare favorably with the full-scale experimental
burst test data collected by Oh. While laboratory results remain valuable

JoP, January-March 2013

89

TechScan
for validating computer models, simulation can provide a lower-cost alternative to extensive structural testing.

Fossil Fuel Still Fastest Growing Energy

Source
Some 87 percent of total world primary energy demand is met by oil, coal
and natural gas, and more than 92 percent with nuclear energy, according to a new report by the World Economic Forum.
Energy Vision 2013 Energy Transitions: Past and Future says the biggest energy challenge facing the world today is meeting the rapidly
growing energy needs of emerging market nations, including the 1.3 billion people that have little or no access to modern energy.
In response to this challenge, policy makers are looking toward lowcarbon and renewable sources of energy but fossil fuels remain the
fastest growing energy source. Wind, solar, geothermal and other nonhydro renewable resources provide just 1.6 percent of total world energy.
The report, written in collaboration with IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates, says there is a renewed and much more intense focus on what kind
of energy transition might be ahead and what the timing might be. Trade,
globalization, energy storage and transmission, as well as policies and pricing of carbon, will be among main factors influencing the changing mix.
Price and value delivered will be key determinants in shaping the energy
mix of the future. That price may be set in the competitive marketplace
or may result from a price on carbon and/or government incentives and
subsidies. New technology will likely have a major impact on the energy
mix, but probably not until the 2030s, owing to lead times.
Looking ahead, the report forecasts renewable electricity sources to grow,
but says challenges remain. It says hydroelectric capacity will expand from
a 16 percent share of global electricity production as of 2011 to 30 percent
by 2020. Wind generation the fastest growing renewable energy source
will account for one quarter of renewable electricity by 2035.
However, for renewables to gain market share over fossil fuel sources,
cost competitiveness is key, especially for wind and solar.
And while the transportation sector will continue to increase demand for
oil over the next 15 to 20 years, new fuels with lower GHG emissions will
become more cost competitive and effective. In addition to biofuels made
from food products, advances in cellulosic ethanol, biocrude, genetic
modification to improve yields of energy crops and synthetic genomics
could produce lower-cost, more sustainable biofuels.
Additionally, LNG looks promising for long-haul trucking because its high
annual mileage (more than 190,000 km per year) can translate into fuel
cost savings. Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are another option, but will require infrastructure investments.

Scientists discover new materials to capture

methane
Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the
University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) have discovered new
materials to capture methane, the second highest concentration greenhouse gas emitted into the atmosphere.

Methane capture in zeolite SBN. Blue represents adsorption sites,

which are optimal for methane (CH4) uptake. Each site is connected to three other sites (yellow arrow) at optimal interaction
distance.
Methane is a substantial driver of global climate change, contributing 30% of current net climate warming. Concern over methane is
mounting, due to leaks associated with rapidly expanding unconventional oil and gas extraction, and the potential for large-scale
release of methane from the Arctic as ice cover continues to melt and
decayed material releases methane to the atmosphere. At the same
time, methane is a growing source of energy, and aggressive methane mitigation is key to avoiding dangerous levels of global warming.
The research team, made up of Amitesh Maiti, Roger Aines, and Josh
Stolaroff of LLNL and Berend Smit at UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley
National Lab, performed systematic computer simulation studies on the
effectiveness of methane capture using two different materialsliquid
solvents and nanoporous zeolites (porous materials commonly used as
commercial adsorbents).
While the liquid solvents were not effective for methane capture, a
handful of zeolites had sufficient methane sorption to be technologically
promising. The research appears in Nature Communications.
Unlike carbon dioxide, the largest emitted greenhouse gas, which can be
captured both physically and chemically in a variety of solvents and porous solids, methane is completely non-polar and interacts very weakly
with most materials.
Methane capture poses a challenge that can only be addressed through
extensive material screening and ingenious molecular-level designs,
Maiti says.
Methane is far more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
Researchers have found that the release of as little as 1% of methane
from the Arctic alone could have a warming effect approaching that being produced by all of the carbon dioxide that has been pumped into the
atmosphere by human activity since the start of the Industrial Revolution.
Methane is emitted at a wide range of concentrations from a variety of

TechScan
sources, including natural gas systems, livestock, landfills, coal mining,
manure management, wastewater treatment, rice cultivation, and a few
combustion processes.
The teams research focused on two different applicationsconcentrating a medium-purity methane stream to a high-purity range
(greater than 90%), as involved in purifying a low-quality natural

High temperature alloy may be perfect solder

for well electronics
Technology used in downhole applicationssuch as geothermal or oil-well
monitoringmust endure punishing conditions, from very high temperatures to tremendous pressures. In developing such technology, researchers
have run into various materials snags, not the least of which is finding a
solder material that can perform under these harsh environments. But researchers at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico have repurposed a
solder alloy once intended for defense applications to meet these challenges.
Originally developed for neutron tube components, a gold-silver-germanium
alloy has all the right properties for downhole applications, says Paul Vianco,
an electronics manufacturing and reliability researcher at Sandia Labs, who
specializes in soldering technologies. The components for high temperatures
electronics, such as microprocessors and capacitors, are ready for testing, he
says. Unfortunately, electronic packaging, including soldering technology, has
lagged behind, because of the unique service conditions.
Having a higher strength material, starting with the solder, was a driving
force to begin looking at alternative materials, says Vianco.
When he began to investigate high temperature solder options, the goldsilver-germanium alloy looked like a perfect fit. When he and fellow researchers were first investigating the material 15 years ago, they created
a full profile of the alloys properties, including its ability to hold up to
vibrations based on initial strength performance.

Sandia National Laboratories researcher Tom Crenshaw, coauthor on the paper, sets up a specimen in a test frame that will
pull a solder joint apart to determine its tensile strength. Credit:
Sandia National Laboratories
gas; and concentrating a dilute stream (about 1% or lower) to the
medium-purity range (greater than 5%), above methanes flammability limit in air.
Through an extensive study, the team found that none of the common
solvents (including ionic liquids) appears to possess enough affinity toward methane to be of practical use. However, a systematic screening of
around 100,000 zeolite structures uncovered a few nanoporous candidates that appear technologically promising.
Zeolites are unique structures that can be used for many different types
of gas separations and storage applications because of their diverse topology from various networks of the framework atoms. In the teams
simulations, one specific zeolite, dubbed SBN, captured enough medium
source methane to turn it to high purity methane, which in turn could be
used to generate efficient electricity.

The alloy was also able to clear the biggest solder hurdle: melting temperature. Most solders melt around 350 C, which is problematic for
downhole applications that can easily reach much higher temperatures.
The other option is to use a brazing material, a technique that is not ideal
for most electronics. Most brazing materials melt around 700 C, temperatures that would damage even electronics designed for downhole use.
Though there are solders available that are usable around 450 C, they are
almost universally lead-based, says Vianco. Though functional, leadbased products work counter to the current environmental movement to
use materials that are as nontoxic as possible.
A lot of the high temperature, lead-based solders were usable, so people were making high temperature electronics with them, but such leadcontaining solders were obviously not the best choice, says Vianco. It
became a hunt, then, for other, less toxic materials that would enable
electronics to be used in high temperature applications.

We used free-energy profiling and geometric analysis in these candidate

zeolites to understand how the distribution and connectivity of pore structures and binding sites can lead to enhanced sorption of methane while
being competitive with carbon dioxide sorption at the same time, Maiti
says. Other zeolites, named ZON and FER, were able to concentrate dilute
methane streams into moderate concentrations that could be used to treat
coal-mine ventilation air.

The gold-silver-germanium alloy fits the bill perfectly, says Vianco. It

has a melting range of 420440C and is lead-free. And since it was
nearly fully characterized during the previous study over a decade
ago, the alloy is ready for prototyping, says Vianco. The research,
which was presented at Surface Mount Technology Association International where it won best of proceedings category, has generated
some buzz in the industry. All thats missing now is a substrate to
solder the circuits onto, says Vianco. Once that piece of the puzzle is
in place, a new wave of high temperature electronics can be developed for the downhole oil, gas, and geothermal industries.

Source: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Source: University of Cambridge, Materials 360 Online

Petrotech Activities

Petrotech Activities Report

R&D Conclave VII
Petrotech in association with IOCL (R&D) organized the 7th R&D
Conclave from 6th-8th January 2013 at Kochi on the theme Challenges for inculcating culture of innovation in Hydrocarbon sector. 110 Sr. Executives from Oil & Gas Industry participated in the
Conclave. In order to have CEOs perspective & their expectation
from R&D, CEOs session was introduced for the 1st time in R&D
Conclave. Mr R K Singh, CMD BPCL & Mr A K Purwaha CMD EIL
participated alongwith Mr Vipul Tuli Director McKinsey who moderated the session and set the tone of the Conclave.
Mr. A.K. Purwaha, CMD, EIL in his address mentioned that R&D function has to be a part of the core philosophy of the company. R&D
professionals need to be given proper recognition. He also mentioned
that there are frontier areas, which need immediate R&D attention
i.e. Shale gas, CBM, decreasing capex, increasing productivity & decreasing operational cost.

Mr Ashok Anand, Director General Petrotech welcomed the august

gathering. He expressed his special thanks to CMD BPCL for acceding to the request of Petrotech and IOCL (R&D) for inaugurating
the Conclave and sponsoring the welcome dinner. In his address he
high lighted that lot has been done by the industry but lot more is
yet to be done. He hoped that this conclave will provide the direction to future R&D activities. He thanked Mr A K Purwaha CMD EIL
for attending the Conclave and Dr R K Malhotra, Director (R&D) IOCL
for his patronage to Petrotech for organizing the R&D Conclave in
series.
Mr. R.K. Singh, CMD, BPCL mentioned that presently Indian Oil and Gas
companies are Technology Users rather than Technology Developers.
Mr. R.K. Singh also emphasized that Indian hydrocarbon industry need
to compete globally and it is high time that we reduce our dependence
on multi-national companies with regard to technology import. He also
emphasized the need for quantum research instead of incremental
research. It transpired that we have not yet perhaps learnt to deliver
quantum shift in technology although many opportunities exist.

Dr. Malhotra expressed that in todays competitive world, R&D should

drive the organization and decide on technology selection, product introduction etc. besides supporting core business. He also mentioned that
R&D certainly cannot be isolated or insulated from day to day business
but there should be a systematic mechanism for aligning business and
R&D? For an industry to compete and succeed on long term business,
there is a need for development of game changer and disruptive technologies through strong R&D. There is a need to incentivize innovations
at every stage of development. Momentum for real commitment to R&D

growth is essential from Managements and Government.

Mr Anand Kumar proposed Vote of Thanks on the occasion and expressed his happiness for over success of six previous R&D Conclaves, and ever increasing response to this event. Mr Kumar chaired
the special session on Intellectual property Management and Human
Resource Development including policy intervention and also presented a presentation on Challenges of HRD in India R&D.
The following topics covered during 3 days conclave:

Challenges and Opportunities for Innovations in Upstream

& Midstream Sectors
Challenges and Opportunities for Innovations in Refining
Sector
Challenges and Opportunities for Innovations in Alterna-

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Petrotech Activities
tive Energy Sources
Challenges and Opportunities for Innovations in Petrochemicals and Polymers
Interactive Discussions for Developing Future Strategies
Research Priorities in Refining Technologies
Research Priorities in Upstream & Midstream
Research Priorities in Alternative Energy Areas
Intellectual Property Management and Human Resource
Development
including policy interventions

5th Seminar on Hydrocarbon Industry Growth:

Prospects and challenges in North East
Petrotech in collaboration with IOCL Guwahati Refinery organized
the 5th Seminar on Hydrocarbon Industry Growth: Prospects &
Challenges in North East on 21st-22nd January 2013. 89 participants from Technical Institutes of north eastern region viz Assam
Engineering College, Cotton College, CSIR-NEIST, Dibrugarh University, Gauhati University, GIMT, IIT Guwahati, JEC, Manipur University, NERIST, NIT Agartala, NIT Silchar and Tezpur University and
from oil & gas industry in North East viz. IOCL, NRL, ONGC, OIL
attended the 2 days seminar. The seminar was inaugurated by
Prof Gautam Barua, Director IIT Guwahati and Director on IOCL &
OIL Board.

Mr Ashok Anand, Director General Petrotech welcomed the august

gathering. Mr B P Das, Executive Director, IOCL Guwahati Refinery
apprised about the topics being covered in two days seminar. He
also appreciated Petrotech for taking a step forward by organizing
a seminar especially in North East which is Vth in series to bring
Academia and Industry closer. In his address he also expressed that
Academia can mobilize public opinion much better and can understand the problems and requirement of the industry and wished the

participants all the best.

Prof Gautam Barua, Director IIT Guwahati and Director on IOCL & OIL
Board in his inaugural address brought out the current oil scenario in
North Eastern parts of the country and expressed his concern about
the oil crisis situation in the North East and its Economy facing problems in the region due to geopolitical and Geographical issues. He
also brought out the important topics like: Gas Crackers, Drilling Water Dynamics, Waste Water Treatment.
In his address he said major problem is lack of education of
manpower in the region but expessed satisfaction that NITs and
private Institutes have come up to develop research potential in
the state. Looking back is important but looking forward is more
important so as to overcome the problems of the state economy,
infrastructure, research to exploit oil to be developed and wished
the seminar a grand success.
Mr Anand Kumar, Director, Petrotech proposed Vote of Thanks on
the occasion while thanking to Prof Barua, Mr Kumar Said Chief
Guest Prof Gautam Barua, represents both the academia and the
industry by virtue of his being Director on the boards of Indianoil
and Oil India Ltd. With this he can certainly catalyze progress of
R&D in upstream in Assam. Assam-Arakan region is rich in shale
oil and gas deposits and its right time going for big push to R&D in
this area, in which IIT Guwahati can take the lead with support from
ONGC and OIL.
The topics covered were:
World Oil Scenario & Future Outlook: Challenges Ahead
Hydrocarbon Exploration in the Assam and Arakan fold belt
Tectonic Evolution of Assam & Arakan fold belt
Acquisition, Processing and Interpretation of Seismic Data for
various
kinds of Seismic Surveys
Emerging Trends in Drilling Technology
Reservoir Characterization & Management
National Natural Gas Scenario: Future Outlook in NE
Hydroprocessing & Catalyst Selection
Issues and Challenges for Northeast Refineries.
Hydrogen Production Technologies
Future of Renewable Fuels
Petroleum Product Pricing, Supply Chain of
Optimization & Economics
Shale Gas/Gas Hydrates Exploration & Exploitation
Growth and Prospects of Petrochemicals

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Petrotech Activities
Talk on Merger & Acquisitions and the
Investment Canada Act: Effect of Recent
Changes for Bidding by State Owned Enterprises

Petrotech organized a Talk on Merger & Acquisitions and the Investment Canada Act: Effect of Recent Changes for Bidding by State
Owned Enterprises on 4th February 2013 at Aftab-Mehtab Hall,
Hotel Taj Mansingh, New Delhi. The presentation was delivered by
Dr Vikas Mehrotra the AF (Chip) Collins professor of finance at University of Alberta Business School on the topic Foreign Acquisitions
in Canada: Is the Door Still Open for SOEs?

quarter at Indian Oil R&D Centre, Faridabad, organized National

Conference on Advances in Chemical Sciences (ACS-2013)
jointly with Chemistry Department, MD University on March 1-2,
2013 at MD University, Rohtak. The conference was also supported by Petrotech, In which More than 250 delegates from different parts of the country participated.
The valedictory address was delivered by ISAS Lifetime Achievement Awardees Mr Anand Kumar, Director, Petrotech and former
Director (R&D) IndianOil, In which he emphazised greater need
for incresing interface between industry and academia and also
hilighted the initiatives of Petrotech in this direction.

Inauguration of the Petrotech Students chapter at

Amrita University, Coimbatore
Petrotech opened its 9th Chapter at Amrita University, Coimbatore on
6th March 2013. The Chapter was inaugurated by Mr. Ashok Anand,
Director General, Petrotech & Former Director (HR & BD) Oil India Ltd.
Professor R. Subba Rao, Chairman, Department of Chemical Engi-

The talk was attended by more than 50 senior executives from oil and gas
industry. Mr Ashok Anand, Director General Petrotech delivered the welcome address and introduced Dr Vivek Mehrotra to the participants. Dr C
R Prasad, CMD, Everest Presideded over the function. Mr Anand Kumar,
Director, Petrotech delivered the Vote of Thanks during the above talk.

National Conference at MDU, Rohtak

Indian Society of Analytical Scientists-Delhi Chapter, with head
neering and Materials Science, welcomed the audience Professor C.
Parameswaran, Director, Corporate and Industrial Relations, delivered
felicitation address. During his address, Prof. Parameswaran highlighted the importance of fossil fuels in the Indian economy energy
basket for the next few decades and urged the students to take up
careers in the petroleum sector.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Ashok Anand advised the students to
dedicate themselves to their studies and for the service of the nation. He underlined some of the important objectives of the society
and asked the students to take full advantages of the benefits being
offered by the society:

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Petrotech Activities
Professor Sriram Devanathan, Faculty Coordinator, Petrotech Society
Students Chapter highlighted the salient points raised by the Chief
Guest Mr. Ashok Anand and urged the students to make the Students
Chapter to be very active and compete well with other chapters in
India and win laurels for Amrita.
Mr. P.T.R. Gupta, the Student Coordinator and a third year chemical
engineering student delivered the Vote of Thanks.
Earlier, the program commenced with an invocation followed by the
welcome address, lighting of the lamp, felicitation address, inaugural
address by the Chief Guest, and the presentation of the Petrotech Flag.
Petrotech has been organizing programs relevant to the hydrocarbon
sector of the economy and to keep up to date with the latest developments in the field. It has also been exploring areas of growth in petroleum technology exploration, drilling, production and processing,
refining, pipeline, transportation, petrochemicals, natural gas, LNG,
petroleum trade, economics, human resource development, marketing, research and development, information technology, safety, health
and environment management in the oil and gas sector.

The program ended with presentation of memento to the Chief Guest

followed by the Vote of Thanks.

1st Subir Raha Leadership Award

This maiden event on Management Quiz, was organised by Organisation Dynamics, with support from Petrotech ; at Indian Habitat
Center, on 7th March, 2013.
In total 23 teams of young executives from various public sector

Mr. Ashok Anand advised the students that you are the leaders of the
future generation and therefore, you have more responsibility to lead
the industry and to meet the challenges facing the oil and gas industry.
Mr. Anand invited the students from Amrita chapter to the annual
convention of Petrotech Chapter being held at PDPU Gandhi Nagar.
Further, he provided a brief introduction about Journal of Petrotech
and requested the students and faculty to contribute good articles
in the field of research. He further added that the commencement
of Petrotech Chapter is special honor that is bestowed up on Amrita
University and that the students must work hard to make the this
chapter as one of the best chapters.

companies participated in this event of Management Quiz, which exhibited great enthusiasm of young leaders from PSUs.
The teams from IndianOil Corporation swept first three prizes, and the
fouth position went to the Team of GAIL.
Ms Chandrima Biswas and MS Saloni Nagpal of Indianoil were the
winners of the 1st Subir Raha Leadership Award . Two Special Audience Prizes went to the teams form NSPCL and SAIL (Bokaro) Prizes
to the six winning teams were given away by Mr Anand Kumar, Director, Petrotech. Organisation Dynamics plans it to make it an Annual event to promote young leadership in the PSUs.

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Petrotech Activities
Womens Day Lecture on Work-life Balance
Strategies for Personal and Professional
Development

We have all struggled with work-life balance issues, especially

working women because of the multiple roles performed by them.
Gurgaon office of Convergys invited Mrs J Peters, Secretary Petrotech
to deliver a talk on 7th March in the evening , on this subject for their
Womens Day celebrations.

year of transformation of safety culture in ONGC especially for contract workers. He emphasized that we have miles to go to achieve
our goal of zero accident as each life is precious and we have to keep
launching such workshop to improve our safety culture and share the
best industry practices.
Mr. K Satyanarayana, OSD Onshore ONGC and Guest of Honor
delivered the theme address. In his address he complimented
Petrotech and ED-HSE on organizing this workshop. He remarked
that accidents are unwarranted and need to be avoided at all cost.
For achieving zero accident objective, we need to have the best of
safety standard coupled with strong commitment and will power.
He also emphasized the need for better supervision. He appreciated that the rate of accidents is coming down in recent years
through various initiatives taken by E&P industry.
Dr Prajapati Trivedi, Secretary Performance Management, Cabinet
Secretariat and Chiarman National Authority for Chemical Weapon
Convention, Govt of India was the Chief Guest on the occasion. Dr

Mrs Peters gave a presentation on importance of work-life balance

and strategies for achieving the same which would help women professionals in achieving their personal and professional development.
Women at Convergys were very forthcoming and discussed their
problems and shared their personal experiences.

NIPM- Delhi Chapter Regional conference 7-8

March, 2013
Mrs J Peters, Secretary Petrotech chaired one of the sessions
Emerging Dimensions of Employee Relations: Stakeholders Perceptions-Government and Academia.

Prajapati in his inaugural address emphasized on system based

approach on Performance Monitoring and evaluation in safety
and security because what gets merger gets done. He made a
very lucid power point presentation on five general principal
which are so relevant and important to ensure safety of workers
and systems in our country. He brought home an important point
that determinants of performance is 80% based upon systems
and remaining 20% based upon people. He further elaborated
that 80% of the people based determinants of performance are
dependent upon leadership.

6th National Workshop on HSE

Petrotech in collaboration with ONGC organize the 6th National
Workshop on HSE on the theme Safe lafonk dehZon 12th-13th
March 2013 at Hotel Ashok New Delhi. It was attended by 168 senior executives from major oil and gas companies viz. ONGC BPCL,
HPCL, IOCL, OIL, Essar, EIL, GAIL,MRPL, RIL, ENQUEST and Aban
Offishore.
Mr M L Jain, ED-Chief HSE ONGE welcomed the august gathering
on the occasion. Prior to his welcome address a video film on safety
promotional was shown by ONGC HSE Department.
During his welcome address Mr. Jain said that CMD ONGC has declared the year 2013 as a year for transformation of work culture in
ONGC. Taking a clue from this Chief HSE has adopted this year as the

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He called for a moratorium be put on new ideas, instead focus more on

implementation of so many ideas already generated. He elaborated how
the work culture and mind set in GOI is changing for the better through

Petrotech Activities
To deliberate on these issues People in Energy East Summit,
was organized from 19th 21st, March 2013 at Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia. Mrs Jatinder Peters, Secretary Petrotech was invited
to speak at the summit in the session on Bridging the Gender
Gap Attracting and Engaging Women Professionals. Only other
professional invited from India was Mr Sanjay Singh, Director HR
of Cairn Energy.

Result Frame Work Document (RFD); and MOU between the Secretary
and the Minister. He complimented ONGC and Petrotech Society for Organizing a workshop dedicated to safety of contract workers.
Mr Anand Kumar, Director Petrotech proposed Vote of Thanks on the
occasion and appreciated large number of participation from the major
Oil & Gas Industry which indicated the appreciation of the companies,
the importance of such workshop and outcome of its deliberation.
The following Topics were covered during the workshop:

Safe Working Environment for Contractual Employees

Health Risk Assessment and Air Quality Monitoring
Developing Risk Acceptance Criteria in Process Facilities
Green Belt and Ecology Development in Hydrocarbon Industry
Impact of Oil Transporation (Pipeline/Tankers) and Offshore E&P
Operations on Maine Pollution
Knowing Applicable Marine Regulations
Safety of Contractual Employees-Experiences and Way Forward
Prevention of Emission and Environment Management
Occupational Hazards at Workplace in Petroleum Industry
Pipeline Integrity Management
Safety of Contractual Employees-Experiences and Way Forward
Emergency Response and Preparedness for Process Disasters

The Valedictory Session was held on 13th March 2013 having eminent panelists viz: Mr R K Bhan, ED (HSE), IOCL, Mr. M.L. Jain, EDChief HSE, ONGC, Mr P Tyagi, EIL, Mr. Hari Kumar, Head (HSE), Cairn
India and Mr. A.K. Gupta, GM (HSE), BPCL.

Petrotech Goes To Kualalumpur

Energy being one of the
most powerful as well as
one of the fastest growing sectors in the worlds,
huge global demand for
talented knowledge workers with high levels of
technical expertise and
knowledge of industry nuances is inevitable for the
industry. Therefore the real
challenge for the industry
will be in preparing for the
future, ensuring the continued flow of adequately skilled professionals.

To meet the increasing need for talent energy companies must

attract, retain, and promote a more gender diverse workforce
than they have in the past. Oil Industry has not been very attractive for women professionals in the past and the numbers are not
very encouraging. With more and more women passing out from
professional streams as well as many entering the industry, it is
imperative that strategies are worked out to attract and engage
this 50% of the available human resource
Mrs Peters emphasized that to make energy jobs more appealing
to women, an internal cultural change is required. It would also
require senior management support in the promotion of diversity
and inclusion strategies, besides understanding and respect for
specific gender needs and broadening of policies on career flexibility, maternity, travel and relocation especially for dual career
couples. There is paucity of women in the Leadership positions
which can only be rectified by propagating special development
practices for the advancement of women into senior level technical and managerial positions. She personally does not favour
reservation as a vehicle to improve the numbers but advocates
supportive policies and developmental opportunities that would
go a long way in rectifying the situation.
The presentation made by Mrs Peters was very well received and
generated lively interactions.

Petrotech Youth Forum-5th Annual Convention of

Petrotech Chapters
The 5th Annual Convention of Petrotech Chapters was held at PDPU
Gandhi Nagar on 22nd March 2013 on the theme: Vision 2030:Emerging Energy Basket-Challenges & Opportunities which is also the theme
of PETROTECH-2014, the 11th International oil & Gas Conference &
Exhibition being organized by ONGC on behalf of Petrotech.
10 students & 2 faculty members from 9 Chapters participated in the
Convention. Prof P K Banik, DG PDPU welcomed the august gathering & appreciated the initiative of Petrotech by way of opening the
Chapters in various Universities & Institutes to create a platform for

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Petrotech Activities
On the basis of activities, performed by various chapters during the previous year, Mr Anand Kumar, Director Petrotech evaluated the Best Chapter RGIPT & two Runner ups ISM Dhanbad &
UPES Dehradun. Ms Jatinder Perters, Secretary Petrotech announced the awards. Trophy & Award money was given by Director Petrotech.

academia for networking/interaction. He stated that hosting the 5th

Annual Convention of Petrotech Chapters in their premises was a
proud privilege for him and the PDPU.
Ms Suman Gupta, Manager Petrotech and Co-ordinator student
chapters highlighted about the convention and apprised about the
progress of various chapters.
Mr Anand Kumar, Director Petrotech & Chief Guest on the occasion
inaugurated the Convention. In his address, he highlighted the objectives of the Petrotech chapters. He added these chapters provide
platform for all the academicians, students, technologists and management experts for regular exchange of ideas to explore areas of

Mr G Sarpal, Secretary, Petrotech made certain important announcements and gave away mementos to faculty co-ordinators of
Petrotech champions.
Prof G P Karmakar from PDPU proposed Vote of Thanks on the occasion. The Conventions was a grand success!

Petrotech Partners with Aon Hewitt for Best

Employer Study for energy companies
Aon Hewitt, a leading HR Consulting firm in India, on January
15th has launched Best Employers India 2013 Study. Hindustan
Times is the media partner for the study. Aon Hewitt, which has
been conducting this study globally since 2001, is the authority on measuring and improving employee engagement to drive
performance.

growth in the field of Petroleum Technology and all related areas viz.
exploration, drilling, production and processing, refining, pipelines,
transportation, petrochemicals, natural gas, LNG, petroleum, trade
economics, marketing, research and development, IT and safety,
health and environment. He also brought out importance and relevance of theme of the Convention i.e. Vision 2030:Emerging Energy
Basket-Challenges & Opportunities.
Mr A Sircar, Director, School of Petroleum Technology, PDPU proposed Vote of Thanks. It was followed by Presentations on the
theme by each chapter for 15 minutes followed by questions and
answers. Two eminent judges viz Dr D M Kale former Chief ONGC
Energy Centre and Mr Sidharatha Sen, GGM IRS judged the presentation and declared RGIPT as the winner and ISM Dhanbad as
Runner Up.

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10 years of Best Employers studies in Asia, backed with engagement research of over 6,400 global organizations (including 2,300
in the region), brings out that high level of Employee Engagement, a
compelling Employer Brand, Effective Leadership and a High Performance culture directly relates to productive workforce and stronger
business results.
Therefore Petrotech, has partnered with Aon Hewitt with a special
proposition for its member companies. Together with Aon Hewitt, we
plan to develop an ecosystem for energy companies in India to create
benchmarks for talent development, performance management and
showcasing the industry as compelling and rewarding industry for
individual growth.
Seven major companies from energy sector- ONGC, IOC, HPCL,
BPCL, OIL, NTPC, NHPC, are participating in the study.