Properties of Kerosene

The word Kerosene was registered as a trademark by Abraham Gesner in 1854 and for several years only the North American Gas Light Company and the Downer Company (to which Gesner had granted the right) were allowed to call their lamp oil kerosene. It eventually became a genericized trademark. Kerosene is widely used to power jet-engined aircraft (jet fuel) and some rockets, but is also commonly used as a heating fuel and for fire toys such as poi.

The heat of combustion of Kerosene is similar to that of diesel: its lower heating value is around 18,500 Btu/lb, or 43.1 MJ/kg, and its higher heating value is 46.2MJ/kg.

Kerosene is a thin, clear liquid formed from hydrocarbons, with density of 0.78-0.81g/cm³. Kerosene is obtained from the fractional distillation of petroleum between 150 °C and 275 °C, resulting in a mixture of carbon chains that typically contain between 6 and 16 carbon atoms per molecule. The flash point of kerosene is between 37 and 65 °C (100–150 °F) and its autoignition temperature is 220 °C (428 °F). Kerosene is insoluble in water (cold or hot), but miscible in petroleum solvents.

Special Uses of Kerosene

Kerosene is widely used to power jet-engined aircraft (jet fuel) and some rockets, but is also commonly used as a heating fuel and for fire toys such as poi. The heat of combustion of Kerosene is similar to that of diesel: its lower heating value is around 18,500 Btu/lb, or 43.1 MJ/kg, and its higher heating value is 46.2MJ/kg. Besides its use in heating, lighting and transportation purposes it can also be used in some execptional cases such as pesticides, solvent and lubrication etc. Some of these uses are listed below:

• Liquid pesticides have traditionally used kerosene or some other petroleum distillate as a carrier, though water has recently begun to replace kerosene 
• Kerosene has also been found effective in killing bed bugs upon direct spray.
  
• Kerosene has been used to treat pools of standing water to prevent mosquitoes from breeding, notably in the yellow fever outbreak of 1905 in New Orleans.
  
• It can be used to remove lice from hair, but this practice is painful and potentially very dangerous. Also, this practice removes all natural oils and fats from the scalp.
  
• Since kerosene is chemically stable, it is used to store substances with redox tendencies within to prevent unwanted reactions, such as alkali metals.
  
• It is used in the packaging and storing of white phosphorus to prevent contact with oxygen, which would lead to immediate combustion.
  
• Kerosene can be used to store crystals. When a hydrated crystal is left in air, dehydration may occur slowly. This makes the colour of the crystal become dull. Kerosene can keep air from the crystal.
  
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  It is used as a solvent.
  
  
  • Kerosene can be applied topically to hard-to-remove mucilage or adhesive left by stickers on a glass surface (such as in show windows of stores).
    
  • Kerosene can be used to remove candle wax that has dripped onto a glass surface; it is recommended that the excess wax be scraped off prior to applying kerosene via a soaked cloth or tissue paper.  
  • Kerosene can be used to clean bicycle and motorcycle chains of old lubricant before relubrication.
    
  
  
• It can be used in conjunction with cutting oil as a thread cutting and reaming lubricant. When machining aluminium and its alloys, kerosene on its own is an excellent cutting lubricant.
  
• Military Applications—used to make "napalm-like" incendiary devices—as reported by the San Diego Union-Tribune
  
• Kerosene-based diluent is commonly used as a component of the organic solvent in SX/EW copper refining.
  
• Hydrotreated kerosene can be used as a starting material to produce high purity linear paraffins which are subsequently dehydrogenated to linear olefins, and when the latter are reacted with benzene in the presence of a catalyst result in the production of linear alkyl benzene.
  
• Kerosene is used as a lubricant for the cutting of glass. It prevents chipping of the glass as the cutting tool is drawn along the surface and it prevents the surface of the glass from resealing along the scored line which would cause an even and jagged cut.
  

Application of Kerosene in the Entertainment Industry

Kerosene is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid. It is usually called paraffin (sometimes paraffin oil) in the UK, South East Asia and South Africa. Kerosene is often used in the entertainment industry for fire performances such as poi, fire breathing, and fire dancing, because of its low flame temperature when burnt in free air, reducing the risk, should the performer come in contact with the flame. Kerosene is not usually used as a fuel for indoor fire-dancing as it produces an unpleasant odour which becomes poisonous in sufficient concentration. Methanol is often used instead, but it also produces less impressive flames, and it can be a more dangerous fuel because of its lower flash point.

Wind Energy Systems - The Key to a Greener Future- By Dave Simpson

EEE: Wind Energy Systems - The Key to a Greener Future- By Dave Simpson

How to Build an Under Water Autonomous Vehicle That Never Needs Re-Fueling- By Lance Winslow

EEE: How to Build an Under Water Autonomous Vehicle That Never Needs Re-Fueling- By Lance Winslow

OIL: Key for War

Saddam Hussein, the former president of Iraq, is the chief opponent to U.S. control over the vast oil wealth of the Persian Gulf. Hussein is a ruthless leader, but the U.S. administration supports many dictators. Washington had him in its gunsights in clips of drama of "War on Terrorism" which should be batter named "War for Oils". 

The U.S. Military bases in the nine surrounding countries of Afghanistan, after the settlement of Pro-U.S. government in Afghanistan, has almost cleared the difficulties in the way to lay pipelines to the west and to the growing Asian market- with Afghanistan at the crossroads.

In Africa, the U.S. has recently increased military aid to Nigeria, the continent’s largest supplier of oil to the U.S. Oil is also at the center of recent U.S. actions to export its “war on terrorism” to Latin America and Africa. In Colombia, the U.S. is ready to give $98 million to government forces to guard against rebel disruption of Occidental Petroleum’s oil pipeline. In Venezuela, the U.S.’s third largest supplier of oil, the U.S. met with and helped fund the leaders of a failed coup against the democratically elected president.

U.S. has been building new military bases and training local defense forces in the wake of Sept. 11. The former Soviet Republics of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are bursting with an estimated five trillion dollars worth of unexploited oil and natural gas. After the Persian Gulf, this is the largest reservoir of petroleum in the world.

Fossil Fuels Vs Biomass Fuels

Notwithstanding the above noted study, numerous studies have show that biomass fuels have significantly less impact on the environment than fossil based fuels. Of note is the U.S. Department of Energy Laboratory,Operated by Midwest Research Institute Biomass Power and Conventional Fossil Systems with and without CO2 Sequestration – Comparing the Energy Balance, Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Economics Study. Power generation emits significant amounts of greenhouse gases (GHGs), mainly carbon dioxide (CO2). Sequestering CO2 from the power plant flue gas can significantly reduce the GHGs from the power plant itself, but this is not the total picture. CO2 capture and sequestration consumes additional energy, thus lowering the plant’s fuel-to-electricity efficiency. To compensate for this, more fossil fuel must be procured and consumed to make up for lost capacity. Taking this into consideration, the global warming potential (GWP), which is a combination of CO2, methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, and energy balance of the system need to be examined using a life cycle approach. This takes into account the upstream processes which remain constant after CO2 sequestration as well as the steps required for additional power generation. firing biomass instead of coal led to a 148% reduction in GWP.

Cars Compatible with Vegetable Oil

Usually lower quality vegetable oil are used as fuel. Used vegetable oil is increasingly being processed into biodiesel, or (more rarely) cleaned of water and particulates and used as a fuel. To ensure that the fuel injectors atomize the fuel in the correct pattern for efficient combustion, vegetable oil fuel must be heated to reduce its viscosity to that of diesel, either by electric coils or heat exchangers. This is easier in warm or temperate climates. Big corporations like MAN B&W Diesel, Wartsila and Deutz AG as well as a number of smaller companies such as Elsbett offer engines that are compatible with straight vegetable oil, without the need for after-market modifications. Vegetable oil can also be used in many older diesel engines that do not use common rail or unit injection electronic diesel injection systems. Due to the design of the combustion chambers in indirect injection engines, these are the best engines for use with vegetable oil. This system allows the relatively larger oil molecules more time to burn. Some older engines, especially Mercedes are driven experimentally by enthusiasts without any conversion, a handful of drivers have experienced limited success with earlier pre-"pumped use" VW TDI engines and other similar engines with direct injection. Several companies like Elsbett or Wolf have developed professional conversion kits and successfully installed hundreds of them over the last decades.

Oils and fats can be hydrogenated to give a diesel substitute. The resulting product is a straight chain hydrocarbon, high in cetane, low in aromatics and sulphur and does not contain oxygen. Hydrogenated oils can be blended with diesel in all proportions Hydrogenated oils have several advantages over biodiesel, including good performance at low temperatures, no storage stability problems and no susceptibility to microbial attack.

Contribution of Middle East in Oil Production

 According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), oil reserves will peak in 2030 if world oil production increases at an average annual rate of three percent. While Crude oil production and reserves are concentrated in the Middle East. The political instability in the Middle East will ensure that the risk of oil market disturbances remains high, particularly since the region accounts for most of the world's oil reserves, production and exports.

The Middle East accounted for 30 percent of world crude oil production last year, while its share of global  proved oil reserves was 65 percent. The combined share of OPEC oil producers in world production and reserves stood at 41 and 78 percent, respectively, last year. Oil consumption, on the other hand, is concentrated in the industrialized countries. Japan's oil consumption is met completely by imports, of which the Middle East accounts for 81 percent. Of the industrialized countries, only the United States, Great Britain and Norway produce a significant amount of crude oil. Of these countries, only Norway is a net exporter of crude oil.

On a regional basis, Europe, NAFTA and Asia (excluding China) account for a majority of world crude oil imports. Around 30 percent of Europe's large net crude oil imports come from the Middle East, while a slightly higher share comes from the Former Soviet Union region. Nevertheless, oil production in the North Sea helps reduce Europe's dependency on imports. Japan and other East Asian countries are the most dependent on Middle East oil.

   

Industrialized countries remain highly sensitive to oil price shocks. Disturbances to the supply of oil could easily trigger a new energy crisis, with serious effects on the world economy.

U.S Economic Learning from War

The neoclassical approach, on the other hand, argues that wartime expenditures can affect the economy through intertemporal substitution, but only when the increase in military expenditure is temporary; see, for example, Barro (1981). If expenditures increase permanently, then private consumption and investment would decline, thereby offsetting the positive effect of military expenditure growth on the economy.

Wars are also linked to inflation, mainly by creating excess demand through military spending. Wars can also lead to commodity price shocks, with a direct impact on inflation. Moreover, the mere fact that wars are generally associated with higher inflation tends to raise inflationary expectations and thus also creates indirect inflationary pressures. The initial state of the economy also matters; when output is considerably below potential, war-related expansionary fiscal policy should not generate a major inflationary shock. (Dornbusch, 2001).

With respect to the U.S. historical experience, most of the results listed above hold with some exceptions. During World War II, a war fought on foreign soil, fiscal policy was much more expansionary than during other wars, reflected in the rapid growth of GDP of almost 12 percent per annum during 1941-1945. Government expenditures during this war were financed mainly by issuing debt, with inflation accelerating as a result of excess demand to slightly more than 5 percent.

   

During the Korean War (1950-53), government expenditures were financed by higher capital and labor taxes, and GDP growth and inflation averaged around half their World War II levels.

   

During the Vietnam War (1964-1972), military spending supported economic growth until 1969, but also fueled inflation to an annual average rate of almost 6 percent in 1970. Military expenditures during the Vietnam War were financed by issuing debt, although to a less extent than during World War II. (Ohanian, 1997.)

   

The growth effect of the Persian Gulf War contrasted sharply with previous wars in that, instead of embarking on a war boom, the U.S. economy slipped immediately into recession following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990. One reason for this was that the fiscal stimulus was very small, while, on the other hand, private sector confidence eroded sharply. Oil prices rose sharply over the next two months, with Brent crude oil reaching a monthly average of 36 dollars per barrel in October, which helped contribute to the 1990 recession. Stock prices also fell sharply, as witnessed in the 15-percent decline in industrial share prices between August and October 1990. However, shortly thereafter it became clear that there would not be a significant impact on oil supplies to industrial countries and that a quick victory over Iraq was imminent. As a result, in November, oil prices started to fall and equity prices rise, and by March 1991 the recession had officially ended.

Mining in Andes

The Andes mountains extend over seven countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela, some of which are known as Andean States. The range is over 7,000 km (4,300 mi) long, 200 km (120 mi) to 700 km (430 mi) wide (widest between 18° to 20°S latitude), and of an average height of about 4,000 m (13,000 ft). The Andes rose to fame for its mineral wealth during the Spanish conquest of South America. Although Andean Amerindian peoples crafted ceremonial jewelry of gold and other metals the mineralizations of the Andes were first mined in large scale after the Spanish arrival. Potosí in present-day Bolivia was one of the principal mines of the Spanish Empire in the New World. Río de la Plata and Argentina derive their names from the silver of Potosí.

Currently, mining in the Andes of Chile and Peru place these countries as the 1^st and 3^rd major producers of copper in the world. The Bolivian Andes produce principally tin although historically silver mining had a huge impact on the economy of 17th century Europe.

There is a long history of mining in the Andes, from the Spanish silver mines in Potosí in the 16th century to the vast current porphyry copper deposits of Chuquicamata and Escondida in Chile and Toquepala in Peru. Other metals including iron, gold and tin in addition to non-metallic resources are also important.

Analysis of Reservoir

The reservoir is a porous and permeable lithological unit or set of units that holds the hydrocarbon reserves. Analysis of reservoirs at the simplest level requires an assessment of their porosity (to calculate the volume of in situ hydrocarbons) and their permeability (to calculate how easily hydrocarbons will flow out of them). Some of the key disciplines used in reservoir analysis are the fields of stratigraphy, sedimentology, and reservoir engineering.

The existence of a reservoir rock (typically, sandstones and fractured limestones) is determined through a combination of regional studies (i.e. analysis of other wells in the area), stratigraphy and sedimentology (to quantify the pattern and extent of sedimentation) and seismic interpretation. Once a possible hydrocarbon reservoir is identified, the key physical characteristics of a reservoir that are of interest to a hydrocarbon explorationist are its porosity and permeability. Traditionally, these were determined through the study of hand specimens, contiguous parts of the reservoir that outcrop at the surface and by the technique of formation evaluation using wireline tools passed down the well itself. Modern advances in seismic data acquisition and processing have meant that seismic attributes of subsurface rocks are readily available and can be used to infer physical/sedimentary properties of the rocks themselves.

Application of Petrochemicals

The petrochemicals may be olefins or their precursors, or various types of aromatic petrochemicals, which is a special type of petroleum product, derived from crude oil (petroleum) as it is processed in oil refineries.


Petrochemicals have a vast variety of uses. Sometimes it or its feedstocks are often sent to petrochemical plants for further processing in a variety of ways. They are commonly used as monomers or feedstocks for monomer production. Olefins such as alpha-olefins and dienes are often used as monomers, although aromatics can also be used as monomer precursors. The monomers are then polymerized in various ways to form polymers. Polymer materials can be used as plastics, elastomers, or fibers, or possibly some intermediate form of these material types. Some polymers are also used as gels or lubricants. Petrochemicals can also be used as solvents or as feedstock for producing solvents. Petrochemicals can also be used as precursors for a wide variety of chemicals and substances such as vehicle fluids, surfactants for cleaners, etc.

The Biggest Bio-fuel Plants

By 2010 in United Kingdom it is expected that the petrol and diesel used for transport fuel to be at least 5% bio-fuel. The present law is 2.5 percent. By this law UK expects to make transport fuels more environmentally friendly.

The increased demand of bio-fuels from the world's richer nations is being partly blamed for the skyrocketing food prices. Farmland that was once used to grow crops to feed people is now growing fuel for cars.

The world's biggest bio-fuel plants, including those in the pipeline, by production are listed below:

1) Dynoil LLC is developing a new bio-diesel refinery nears Houston, Texas, USA- and it might be the world's largest. Though the development timeline is not clear, once completed, the refinery will process roughly 100,000 barrels of vegetable oil each day. It is estimated it will produce 1.5 billion gallons of biodiesel fuel each year.

2) SE Energy's proposed plant in Chesapake, Virginia, USA. Projected production capacity 320 million gallons per year.

3) Dominion Energy Services, LLC has broken ground for a $ 400 million integrated biodiesel and ethanol refinery in innistail, Alberta, Canada, it will consists of a combined 300 million gallons per year production facility( 100 million gallon ethanol, a 100 million gallon canola crush facility and a 100 million biodiesel) on commencement in the third quarter of 2008, and will use about 1 million tonnes of wheat and 900,000 tonnes of canola a year for raw residue.