Africa is estimated to possess somewhere around 7 percent of the world’s proven crude oil reserves, according to the Energy Information Agency. It may have up to 24 billion barrels in total proven and unproven reserves. West Africa is generally viewed by the oil industry as one of the world’s leading deepwater offshore oil zones, with 633 fixed platforms, 13 floaters and 20 storage and offloadi...

The fixed oil of L. usitatissimum (flaxseed/linseed) inhibited PGE2-, leukotriene-, histamine- and bradykinin-induced inflammation. The oil also inhibited arachidonic acid-induced inflammation, suggesting its capacity to inhibit both cyclooxygenase and lipoxygenase pathways of arachidonate metabolism. In tail immersion model, the oil raised the pain threshold to a lesser extent than morphine bu...

Using both living and glutaraldehyde-fixed red cells, we have examined adhesion to both oil/saline and glass/saline interfaces by interference reflection microscopy. At low ionic strength, 0.4 mM NaCl, fixed cells adherent to the oil/saline interface show first order whitish yellow zones of closest approach which indicate a separation of similar to or approximately 100 nm. Quantitative interfer...

Using oil-wet polyethylene core models, we present the development of robust throat finding techniques for the extraction, from X-ray microtomographic images, of a pore network description of porous media having porosity up to 50%. Measurements of volume, surface area, shape factor, and principal diameters are extracted for pores and area, shape factor and principal diameters for throats. We al...

The direct catalytic cracking of biomass pyrolysis vapor into aromatics derived from Douglas fir sawdust pellets was tested using an upfront microwave pyrolysis process coupled with a packed-bed catalysis process using a ZSM-5 Zeolite catalyst. A central composite experimental design (CCD) was used to optimize the bio-oil and syngas yields. The effects of temperature and inverse weight hourly s...

Gasification of pyrolysis oil was studied in a fluidized bed over a wide temperature range (523-914 °C) with and without the use of nickel-based catalysts. Noncatalytically, a typical fuel gas was produced. Both a special designed fluid bed catalyst and a crushed commercial fixed bed catalyst showed an initial activity for syngas (H2 and CO) production at T >700 °C. However, these catalysts los...

models the water flooding of an oil reservoir [6]. Water flooding involves the injection of water, which is immiscible with oil, into certain wells of the reservoir to force oil out at others. In this case, s = s(x, t) is the saturation of water (i.e., the volume fraction of water in the total fluid, 0 < s d 1 ), and g= g(s) is the particle velocity of the water. Consequently, since the total v...