Petroleum Holdings biology

LS9, a high-tech fuel company that’s all about imitating nature, has received $5 million in funding, as the search to derive alternatives to fossil fuels through plants and microbes gains momentum.

The company hopes to make what it calls “renewable petroleum,” a synthetic version of petroleum and other oil-based industrial products. (It has trademarked the name.)

Synthetic petroleum can provide more energy, per gallon, than ethanol, advocates say, and it can power the wide mass of cars on the road today. It also will result in less carbon dioxide emissions overall than regular gas dug from the ground.

Some start-ups, such as Solazyme and LiveFuels, have announced plans to produce synthetic petroleum from algae. Fields of algae will absorb carbon dioxide and other compounds and metabolize it into petroleum, the companies said.

By contrast, LS9 said it will brew petroleum through synthetic biology, laboratory and industrial processes that can perform the same function as algae or microbes. As a result, production doesn’t rely on live, single-celled creatures. Ideally, this will make the manufacturing process more amenable to performance enhancement or control. In a sense, LS9 will make imitation petroleum with imitation animals.

The company’s efforts are largely based on research conducted by Chris Somerville, director of the Carnegie Institution and professor of plant biology at Stanford University, and George Church, the director of the MIT-Harvard U.S. Department of Energy GTL (Gas to Liquids) Center and professor of genetics at Harvard University. Khosla Ventures is the principal investor, and Khosla Venture partner Doug Cameron is the acting CEO.

In a relatively short time, the Khosla firm has formed something of a microbe mafia by investing in a wide variety of companies that concentrate on harnessing the power of synthetic or real biology. The firm has invested in Gevo, a company spun out of the California Institute of Technology that hopes to develop ethanol production processes by imitating the metabolic processes of termites. Khosla is also one of the primary investors in Mascoma, which is building a plant in New York state to turn leftover farm products and other vegetable matter into ethanol with microbes.

Additionally, the firm had an investment in Celunol, which was bought by Diversa, a maker of industrial enzymes founded by Caltech professor Mel Simon. Simon has touted the termite ideas being developed at Gevo.

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Petroleum

The UK petroleum industry, also referred to as downstream, consists of over 200 companies involved in the refining, distribution and marketing of petroleum products. They range from large, multinational oil companies, supermarket chains and independent retail groups, through to the independent retailer with a single site.

The main product of the downstream industry is transport fuel. This market is split into commercial and retail. The commercial market includes power generators, industrial, transport and agriculture customers, independent fuel distributors, the government and its agencies, public services and the military. The retail market covers fuels mainly sold from high street filling stations. The downstream petroleum industry employs over 150,000 people directly, and several thousands of contract workers. The workforce is mainly employed in stabilising, refining and manufacturing, and in forecourt retailing activities.

Environmental concerns

Increased public concerns about environmental disasters and the effects of fossil fuels on global warming have sharpened the industry’s focus on environmental and safety issues. As the demand for energy grows so do concerns about the impact on the environment.

The UKOOA Sustainability Strategy Update and Progress Report 2005 details the industry’s progress in developing and implementing a sustainability strategy, and the Offshore Oil and Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations 2005, indicate that protection of the environment is high on the agenda of all oil companies. Environmental management now forms a key part of the decision-making process.

Recent improvements include:

• use of ultrasonic leak detection to reduce gas flare losses;
• introduction of more thermally efficient power plants on platforms;
• installation of simultaneous steam and electricity production facilities in refineries to reduce carbon dioxide emissions;
• work with conservation organisations to preserve habitats that will allow species to flourish;
• investments in new technology to maximise output from existing fields.

The offshore industry produces 80% of the UK’s primary energy. It also generates 3% of the country’s carbon dioxide and methane emissions

US Petroleum Holdings, information about gas, oil and petroleum

The UK now exports quantities of crude oil and is acknowledged for expertise in the area of deep-water technology – using advanced engineering techniques for extracting a higher proportion of oil from each field. This technique was unknown twenty years ago. Consequently, UK specialists are in demand all over the world.

The UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) is facing significant challenges as the province matures. Recovering oil and gas from the North Sea and the Atlantic Margin (the area of water to the west of Shetland and the north of the Hebrides) is a highly technical, complex, dangerous and expensive job. As supplies from larger oil fields run out, smaller, more expensive fields are being exploited. UK oil companies have to be inventive and invest in safe and efficient techniques to remain competitive.

The UK still has substantial recoverable reserves of oil and gas, potentially exceeding the amount already produced. However, many existing, large producing fields are well into decline and discoveries are becoming fewer and smaller or have significant associated technical challenges.

Current trends

As the UK’s oil fields mature, the industry’s focus has shifted from searching for new oil discoveries to continuing the productivity of mature fields, as well as developing smaller fields that were not previously considered commercially viable. This trend has prompted major oil companies to begin selling some of their mature UKCS assets in favour of other regions of the world. Smaller, independent oil companies have been acquiring these UKCS assets.

Natural gas is the UK’s largest source of primary energy, supplying over 40% of the country’s total energy needs. It is used as both a domestic and industrial fuel. It generates electricity to provide heat and power for homes and industries, and is feedstock for chemicals, pharmaceuticals and other products.

The UK is currently the world’s fourth largest producer of natural gas and has more than 200 offshore fields in production around Great Britain. The greatest concentrations of gas are found in the southern sector of the North Sea, but significant volumes are also produced from the central and

Uses of Gas Oil

Us Petroleum Holdings Oil has many uses; it heats homes and businesses and fuels trucks, ships and some cars. A small amount of electricity is produced by diesel, but it is more polluting and more expensive than natural gas. It is often used as a backup fuel for peaking power plants in case the supply of natural gas is interrupted or as the main fuel for small electrical generators. In Europe the use of diesel is generally restricted to cars (about 40%), SUVs (about 90%), and trucks (virtually all). The market for home heating using fuel oil, called heating oil, has decreased due to the widespread penetration of natural gas. However, it is very common in some areas, such as the Northeastern United States.

Residual fuel oil is less useful because it is so viscous that it has to be heated with a special heating system before use and it contains relatively high amounts of pollutants, particularly sulfur, which forms sulfur dioxide upon combustion. However, its undesirable properties make it very cheap. In fact, it is the cheapest liquid fuel available. Since it requires heating before use, residual fuel oil cannot be used in road vehicles, boats or small ships, as the heating equipment takes up valuable space and makes the vehicle heavier. Heating the oil is also a delicate procedure, which is inappropriate to do on small, fast moving vehicles. However, power plants and large ships are able to use residual fuel oil.

Residual fuel oil was used more frequently in the past. It powered boilers, railroad locomotives and steamships. Locomotives now use diesel, steamships are still used however are not as common as they were previously due to their higher operating costs, (most LNG carriers use steam plants as boil off gas emitted from the cargo can be used as a fuel source), and most boilers now use heating oil or natural gas. However, some industrial boilers still use it and so do a few old buildings, mostly in New York City. Residual fuel’s use in electricity generation has also decreased. In 1973, residual fuel oil produced 16.8% of the electricity in the United States. By 1983, it had fallen to 6.2%, and as of 2005, electricity production from all forms US Petroleum Holdings of petroleum, including diesel and residual fuel, is only 3% of total production. The decline is the result of price competition with natural gas and environmental restrictions on emissions. For power plants, the costs of heating the oil, extra pollution control and additional maintenance required after burning it often outweigh the low cost of the fuel. Burning fuel oil, particularly residual fuel oil, also produces much darker smoke than natural gas, which affects the perception of the plant by the community.

Heavy fuel oils continue to be used in the boiler “lighting up” facility in every coal-fired power plant, of which there are a small number in the UK and dozens in China. Although on an enormous scale, it is analogous to lighting kindling to start a fire – without performing this simple function it is difficult to begin the large-scale combustion process.

The chief drawback to residual fuel oil is its high initial viscosity, particularly in the case of No. 6 oil, which requires a correctly engineered system for storage, pumping, and burning. Though it is still usually lighter than water (with a specific gravity usually ranging from 0.95 to 1.03) it is much heavier and more viscous than No. 2 oil, kerosene, or gasoline. No. 6 oil must, in fact, be stored at around 100°F (37.8°C) heated to 150°F (65.6°C)–250°F (121.1°C) before it can be easily pumped, and in cooler temperatures it can congeal into a tarry semisolid. The flash point of most blends of No. 6 oil is, incidentally, about 150°F (65.6°C). Attempting to pump high-viscosity oil at low temperatures was a frequent cause of damage to fuel lines, furnaces, and related equipment which were often designed with lighter fuels in mind.

(For comparison, BS2869 Class G Heavy Fuel Oil behaves in similar fashion, requiring storage at 104°F (40°C), pumping at around 122°F (50°C) and finalising for burning at around 194°F (90°C) / 248°F (120°C).)

Most of the facilities which historically burned No. 6 or other residual oils were industrial plants and similar facilities constructed in the early or mid 20th century, or which had switched from coal to oil fuel during the same time period. In either case, residual oil was seen as a good prospect because it was cheap and readily available, even though it provided less energy per litre than lighter fuels. Most of these facilities have subsequently been closed and demolished, or have replaced their fuel supplies with a simpler one such as gas or No. 2 oil. The high sulfur content of No. 6 oil– up to 3% by weight in some extreme cases– had a corrosive effect on many heating systems (which were usually designed without adequate corrosion protection in mind), shortening their lifespans and increasing the polluting effects. This was particularly the case in furnaces that were regularly shut down and allowed to go cold; the internal condensation produced sulfuric acid.

Environmental cleanups at such facilities are frequently complicated by the use of asbestos insulation on the fuel feed lines. No. 6 oil is very persistent, and does not degrade rapidly. Its viscosity and stickiness also make remediation of underground contamination very difficult, since it reduces the effectiveness of methods such as air-stripping.

When released into water, such as a river or ocean, residual oil tends to break up into patches or tarballs– mixtures of oil and particulate matter such as silt and floating organic matter- rather than form a single slick. An average of about 5-10% of the material will evaporate within hours of the release, primarily the lighter hydrocarbon fractions. The remainder will then often sink to the bottom of the water column.