Search Documents

By F. Julius Fohs

As an industry approaches stabilization, greater and greater stress must be laid on its technologic progress, which becomes a prime aid in improving its condition. The oil industry is tending toward this stage and hence its engineers must be pressed into greater service to prevent stabilization and stagnation from becoming synonymous, and to supply, either by improvements in processes or by new machinery, a means of obtaining savings in raw and finished products. Thus profits can be assured warranting continued investment. It may be repeated, technology must apply a slight improvement here, a change there, or a complete renovation, to eliminate inefficiencies and make each dollar invested yield greater results. The profits of ycstcrday were made of rich strikes, of monopolized patents or processes, of control of prices and of markets. Sixty-five years of growth, of large investment, of healthful competition, and of expanding markets, have put the oil industry in the foremost rank of world industries. .Just as the railroads passed a similar period of expansion and growth, and arc being stabilized with reasonable profits, so the oil industry must take advantage of the efforts of its engineers and experts to promote its healthful growth and a better service to the people. Herein is attempted a review of recent progress in which is presented the advances in exploration, production engineering, transportation, refining and greater efficiency in uses of petroleum, with a view not only to stressing important new processes and methods, but also the problems that press for solution. This review can only touch outstanding developments of recent years, but the several Petroleum Division symposiums of our program will present details worthy of attention. Exploration Geology offers directly little new in the technique of oil-finding— major stress being laid on improvement in subsurface correlation by means of foraminifera1 studies, additions to the knowledge of which are being made, slowly but surely, and by means of mineral, and especially heavy mineral, determinations in well samples. The general application

Jan 1, 1927

[ ]

Jan 1, 1938

By J. H. Wright

Longhole sublevel stopes excavate ore with which the production geologist has only remote contact; therefore, predicting grade and tonnage from such a stope can be a problem. However, the longholes themselves yield data that can be used to improve those predictions. Here, a radial distribution method of weighting sample data is discussed, which is useful in forecasting grade and tonnage from certain longhole sublevel stopes.

Jan 1, 1985

[ ]

Jan 1, 1938

By E. Ryba, D. J. Michel

SAMPLES of REZn2 (RE = rare earth) intermetallic compounds prepared by a variety of techniques have been shown to exhibit an extensively twinned micro-structure.1-4 We have recently conducted compression tests at room temperature on specimens of HoZn2 prepared by a powder metallurgy technique.' The microstructures of specimens before and after testing are shown in Fig. 1. The "before" specimen, Fig. l(a), shows the basic twin structure of this material. Fig. l(b) shows the microstructure of the "after" specimen just below the fracture surface and reveals considerable cross-twinning as well as additional

Jan 1, 1970

By Victor Phillips, J. P. Blair

Jan 1, 1952

By J. H. Wernick

IN a study of the rate of decomposition of ½ -in. cubes of limestone, dolomitic limestone, and dolomite in a sweeping nitrogen atmosphere, Joseph, Beatty, and Bitsianesl found that the zone of calcination advanced at substantially a constant rate at a given temperature. The purpose of this paper is to show that their data indicate at least two processes occurring when the above carbonates decompose. It is suggested that there are two processes occurring temperature range and the other the limiting process over another temperature range. The data of Joseph and co-workers have been extended by use of the Arrhenius equation, Eq. 1, a relation beween the velocity constant k of a reaction and the absolute temperature T.

Jan 7, 1954

By C. L. Baker

The total production of petroleum in the Gulf Coast in 1927 was 54.541.180 bbl., .5.655.665 bbl. more than in 1926. The Texas total was 49.129.910 bbl. (Table 1) and the Louisiana tota1 5.411.270 bbl. (Table 2). Louisiana production decreased 278.028 bbl., compared with that of 1926. Spindletop produced nearly 44 per cent. of the Texas total. Initial production in Louisiana amounted to 62.865 bbl. and in Texas to 352.955 bbl.' The Oil and Gas Journal gives a total of 1145 wells

Jan 1, 1928

By F. G. Robb, D. N. Madge

This paper details some of the specifications and problems associated with implementing on-line control of a potash concentrator. The computer system described has the capability of three levels of control, including DDC with a single central processor. The system is also capable of on-line program compilation and modification through an extension of vendor utilities. The system is now in operation.

Jan 1, 1969

By George Schore

Radiation grafting of ion exchange structures contains ion exchange groups but may consist of neutral groups. High energy grafting of monomers on to polymers has-been known since 1950 (1.2); manufacture on an industrial level was-begun in 1970.(3) Proper choice of substrate and monomer will produce various ion exchange membranes with differing physico and chemical properties. Grafting a selected monomer to the proper polymer will provide selective ion exchange with assured chemical protection of the substrate. Ion exchange systems utilizing radiation grafted structures to polymers have been fabricated to "capture" gold from drag-out and rinse water and silver from cyanide rinse water. Other ion exchange systems can feasibly be produced to remove other precious metals. Rotating Cathode Technology is used to recover the metals from their concentrated eluating solutions as pure metal foil.

Jan 1, 1984

By David A. Summers, John Corwine, Li-King Chen

The results from fracturing plexiglas beams are combined in eight existing equations to determine the surface energy of the material. The reliability of each equation is tested, and the equation in use to determine fracture toughness is found to be the most exact. This equation is then used in determination of the surface energy of Barre Granite.

Jan 1, 1971

By C. F. Chung

This paper will discuss an application of multivariate discriminant analysis to aid in predicting mineral potential from regional geological data and information on mineral deposits, with particular emphasis on the use of the logistic discriminant function. Logistic discriminant analysis is a generalization of standard discriminant analysis in that the discriminant analysis becomes applicable under a much wider class of distributions. As a practical example, the standard multiple discriminant analysis and the logistic discriminant analysis are applied to data from the Bathurst area in the Appalachian region of Canada and the results are compared with one another.

Jan 1, 1977

By Clemens Catesby Jones

One of the achievements of the present century has been the development of brick-making from the crude and humble handicraft of the individual to a potential industry employing machinery, requiring immense capital, and now demanding that scientific direction which will finally raise it to the importance and dignity of a modern industrial process. It is as yet in the first stages of progress in this direction. The constant obstacle to a fully developed process has been the treat-

Jan 1, 1901

Jan 1, 1925

By S. S. Hedge, J. C. Ferm, J. T. Berger

The coal procedures described in this paper address the problems building a body of coal data that is accurate, precise, readily available, and easy to manipulate. The system is a set of interactive computer procedures consisting of a) data gathering (core hole and geophysical logs, their location, elevation, etc.) and standardized computer printouts, b) the graphic outputs of coded logs (log strips-scale variable) wing on-line electrostatic plotter, c) determination of seam continuity via relative movements of the log strips on an interactive graphic display terminal, d) calculation of the seam parameters (minable seam thickness, volume of non-coal material in the seam, ash and sulfur content of the raw or prepared product, roof and floor characteristics and other attributes relevant to mining), e) posting of seam parameters wing on-line drum plotter controlled by a microprocessor on-line to the minicomputer (PDP- 11).

Jan 1, 1983

By Robert D. Gunn, John E. Boysen, Dennis D. Fischer

The second underground coal gasification experiment conducted by ERDA's Laramie Energy Research Center at a site near Hanna, Wyo., was completed on Jul. 30, 1976. During the experiment production reached 0.32 blm3/d (12 M cu ft/d) of 6.9 w/m3 gas (175 Btu per cu ft). Approximately 6100 tonnes (6700 tons) of coal were gasified during the experiment. Energy return ratios of 4.5 to 5.3, coal gas thermal efficiencies of 76 to 89%, and overall process efficiencies of 65 to 74% were achieved during the second Hanna experiment. This paper describes the experiment and the results obtained with emphasis given to the determination of the energy recovered relative to energy consumed in conducting the test. Data from this determination are compared with previously published data from the first test conducted at Hanna during 1973-74.

Jan 1, 1978

By Charles B. Dudley

In view of various papers and discussion.;, at recent meetings of the Institute, upon testing, methods of testing, inspectors, inspection and specifications, it has occurred to me that my experience of some fifteen years, in the making and enforcement of specifications, in connection with the Motive Power Department of the Pennsylvania Railroad, might give some value to the few suggestions offered in this paper. There is friction, not to say antagonism, between the producers and the consumers of structural materials. On the one hand, the producers complain of the severity of inspection, or the lack of knowledge and want of good judgment on the part of inspectors, and, indeed, have gone so far as to suggest the abolition of the whole scheme of inspecting and testing materials. On the other hand, the consumers are, apparently, more and more relying on specifications

Jan 1, 1893

Jan 1, 1931

By Fred H. Lippold, Wm. H. Wolf

Methods of fair payment for excavating, supporting, and concrete lining tunnels have been sought by various owners for years. Tunneling techniques have changed with the development of equipment-from the hand-mucking operation to the machine mucker and, most recently, to machine-boring; from tunnel supports using timber sets to steel sets to rock bolts and, most recently, to shotcrete support; and from hand-placing the concrete lining using wooden forms to pumping or pneumatic placing using steel forms. As tunnel construction techniques advanced, so did methods for payment for the work performed. The recent development of tunnel-boring machines, or "moles," is precipitating another change. These changes have led to some difficulty in providing proper payment for the various items of work for different types of tunnels. As a major construction agency engaged in water-resources development in the western states, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has long been aware of the need for clarification of payment provisions in tunnel construction. The Bureau has some 150 miles of tunnels completed on its projects and about 50 miles of tunnels under construction. In this construction, the Bureau has benefited by the advance made by contractors in improving the techniques of tunnel excavation. To assure that the Bureau has an up-to-date approach to payment provisions, the Chief Engineer recently established a "standard" method of payment for all types of tunnels. It is believed that this new method of payment will be equitable for all contractors bidding on various types of tunnels using the diversity of methods of excavation now available to them. These payment provisions provide for different quantities for excavated tunnels using the blasting technique or using machine-boring techniques. In this way, the contractors have a choice in excavation methods and an equal opportunity to be low in their bids. We believe this will be an incentive to all contractors to be as progressive as the development of new equipment economically allows.

Jan 1, 1970