Surfactant related recovery processes are of increasing interest and importance because of high oil prices and the urge to meet energy demand. High oil prices and the accompanying revival of EOR operations have provided academia and industry with great opportunities to test alkaline surfactant polymer (ASP) methods on a field scale and to develop novel surfactant systems that can improve the performance of such EOR processes. This dissertation intends to discuss both opportunities through two unique projects, the development of novel surfactants for EOR applications and the design for an alkaline/surfactant/polymer (ASP) field pilot. In Section I of this dissertation, a novel series of anionic Gemini surfactants are carefully synthesized and systematically investigated. The remarkable abilities of Gemini surfactants to influence oil-water interfaces and aqueous solution properties are fully demonstrated. These surfactants are shown to have great potential for application in EOR processes. A wide range of Gemini structures (C₁₄ to C₂₄ chain length, -C2- and -C4- spacers, sulfate and carboxylate head groups) was synthesized and shown to have high aqueous solubility, with Krafft points below 20°C. The critical micelle concentrations (CMC) for these new molecules are measured to be orders of magnitude lower than their conventional counterparts. The significantly more negative Gibbs free energy for Gemini surfactant drives the micellization process and results in ultralow CMC. An adsorption study of Gemini surfactants at air-water and solid-water interfaces shows their superior surface activity from tighter molecular packing, and attractive characteristics of low adsorption loss at the solid surface. All anionic Gemini surfactants synthesized have an extraordinary tolerance to salinity and/or hardness. No phase separation or precipitation occurs in the aqueous stability tests, even in the presence of extremely high concentrations of mono- and/or di-valent ions. Moreover, ultra-low IFT values are reached under these conditions for Type I microemulsion systems, at very low surfactant concentrations. The stronger molecular interaction between the Gemini and conventional surfactants offers synergy that promotes aqueous stability and interfacial activity. Gemini molecules with short spacers are capable of giving rise to high viscosities at fairly low concentrations. The rheological behavior can be explained by changes in the micellar structure. A molecular thermodynamic model is developed to study anionic Gemini surfactants aggregation behavior in solution. The model takes into account of the head group-counter-ion binding effect and utilizes two simplified solutions to the Poisson-Boltzmann equation. It properly predicts the CMC of the surfactants synthesized and can be easily expanded to investigate other factors of interest in the micellization process. Section II of this dissertation studies chemical formulation design and implementation for an oilfield where an alkaline/surfactant/polymer (ASP) pilot is being carried out. A four-step systematic design approach, composed of a) process and material selection; b) formulation optimization; c) coreflood validation; 4) lab-scale simulation, was successfully implemented and could be easily transferred to other EOR projects. The optimal chemical formulation recovered over 90% residual oil from Berea coreflood. Lab-scale simulation model accurately history matches the coreflood experiment and sets the foundation for pilot-scale numerical study. Different operating strategies are investigated using a pilot-scale model, as well as the sensitivities of project economics to various design parameters. A field execution plan is proposed based on the results of the simulation study. A surface facility conceptual design is put together based on the practical needs and conditions in the field. Key lessons learned throughout the project are summarized and are invaluable for planning and designing future pilot floods. / text

There is a vast deposit of viscous and heavy oil, especially in Canada and Venezuela. Typically thermal methods are used to recover heavy oil. However, thermal methods are inefficient when the depth of the reservoir is high and pay thickness is low. Non-thermal methods need to be developed for viscous and heavy oils. Alkaline-surfactant-polymer (ASP) floods can be used for improving the displacement efficiency, but its effect on sweep efficiency in viscous oil recovery has not been studied. The objective of this research was to investigate 2D ASP floods in a quarter five-spot pattern. Through careful phase behavior screening, the surfactant formulation was developed that produced ultra-low interfacial tension with reservoir viscous oil (100 cp). After verifying that the design of surfactant formulation was robust and can recover more than 90% of oil in a 1D ASP sandpack flood, it was tested in a 2D geometry. Both stable and unstable tertiary ASP floods were performed in a 2D quarter five-spot sandpack using the surfactant formulation developed in 1D ASP sandpack flood. In a stable ASP quarter five-spot sandpack flood, the oil recovery was excellent (~97% of ROIP). Oil recovery in the stable 2D ASP flood behaved similar to oil recovery in the 1D stable ASP flood. However, pressure drop obtained was high which would be unsustainable in field applications. Interestingly, unstable 2D flood performed well even with an adverse mobility ratio between oil/water bank and ASP slug with a recovery of 80% ROIP. Decreasing the viscosity of ASP slug 6 times decreased the maximum pressure drop 5 times; thus, the maximum pressure drop was almost proportional to the ASP slug viscosity in a 2D pattern. This research showed that unstable ASP flood in a 2D geometry can recover significant amount of oil with a practical pressure gradient. / text

Accurate simulation of chemical flooding requires a detailed understanding of numerous complex mechanisms and model parameters where grid size has a substantial impact upon results. In this research we show the effect of grid size on parameters such as phase behavior, interfacial tension, surfactant dilution and salinity gradient for chemical flooding of a very heterogeneous oil reservoir. The effective propagation of the surfactant slug in the reservoir is of paramount importance and the salinity gradient is a key factor in ensuring the process effectiveness. The larger the grid block size, the greater the surfactant dilution, which in turn erroneously reduces the effectiveness of the process indicated with low simulated oil recoveries. We show that the salinity gradient is not adequately captured by coarse grid simulations of heterogeneous reservoirs and this leads to performance predictions with lower recovery compared to fine grid simulations. Due to the highly coupled, nonlinear interactions of the many chemical and physical processes involved in chemical flooding, it is better to use fine-grid simulations rather than coarse grids with upscaled physical properties whenever feasible. However, the upscaling methodology for chemical flooding presented in this work accounts approximately for some of the more important effects, as demonstrated by comparison of fine grid and coarse grid results and is very different than the way other enhanced oil recovery methods are upscaled. This is a step towards making better performance predictions of chemical flooding for large field projects where it is not currently feasible to perform the large number of simulations required to properly consider different designs, optimization, risk and uncertainty using fine-grid simulations. / text

The ability to select low-cost, high-performance surfactants for a wide range of crude oils under a wide range of reservoir conditions has improved dramatically in recent years. Surfactant formulations (surfactant, co-surfactant, co-solvent, alkali, polymer, and electrolyte) were developed by using a refined phase behavior approach. Such formulations nearly always result in more than 90% oil recovery in core flood when good surfactants with good mobility control are used. The advances that have improved performance, reduced cost, increased robustness, and extended the range of reservoir conditions for these formulations are described in this work. There are thousands of possible combinations of the chemicals that could be tested for each oil and each chemical combination requires many observations over a long time period at reservoir temperature for proper evaluation. It would take too long, cost too much and in many cases not even be feasible to test all combinations. In practice the scientific understanding is used to match up the surfactant/co-surfactant/co-solvent characteristics with the oil characteristics, temperature, salinity, hardness and so forth. Synthesized and new surfactants with much larger hydrophobes and more branching than previously available were tested. New classes of co-solvents and co-surfactants with superior performance were test to improve aqueous solubility. These new developments resulted in improved ASP formulations for both oils that react with alkali to make soap and oils that do not. Many of these developments are synergistic and taken together represent a breakthrough in reducing the cost of chemical flooding and thus its commercial potential. / text

This report represents a comparison between two different tools used to create an online store that was developed by two students at the Technical University in Jönköping. The web shop will be of great benefit to both customers and administrator in a food firm known as Mattias' Livs. The company wanted an online store that facilitates the sale section and gives a full control of their stocks. The aim of this thesis is to create an online store that offers customers the ability to shop online and help the staff to operate the company in a simpler and more efficient way, which reduces the need for human resources and thus leads to less costs for the company. The aim also includes a comparison between the two different tools used to create the online store. At the start of work, the authors discussed the problem with the client and finally came up with a set of requirements, which our work is based on. The report includes an introduction chapter, which is divided into two different sections. The first section describes the background and problem description. While second chapter describes the purpose of the thesis and the subjects that the students will respond at the end of the report. The study compares the two different tools, which is Microsoft Visual Studio and osCommerce. Visual Studio has been the market leader in Internet-based applications since 1997. While osCommerce is a newer tool that has gained significant market share. The two tools are examined through the creation of two websites built into each tool. The results of this study show that Microsoft Visual Studio is a more efficient alternative for creating a stable web applications, but the tool has also some usability problems due to programming complexity. OsCommerce is a simple tool that has some issues with the design customization, at the same time it has a usable interface for the administrator. The web shop was published online by installing the application on a host server which means the customers can order products online.

abstract: Action language C+ is a formalism for describing properties of actions, which is based on nonmonotonic causal logic. The definite fragment of C+ is implemented in the Causal Calculator (CCalc), which is based on the reduction of nonmonotonic causal logic to propositional logic. This thesis describes the language of CCalc in terms of answer set programming (ASP), based on the translation of nonmonotonic causal logic to formulas under the stable model semantics. I designed a standard library which describes the constructs of the input language of CCalc in terms of ASP, allowing a simple modular method to represent CCalc input programs in the language of ASP. Using the combination of system F2LP and answer set solvers, this method achieves functionality close to that of CCalc while taking advantage of answer set solvers to yield efficient computation that is orders of magnitude faster than CCalc for many benchmark examples. In support of this, I created an automated translation system Cplus2ASP that implements the translation and encoding method and automatically invokes the necessary software to solve the translated input programs. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Computer Science 2011

This thesis focuses on design and implementation of an ERP system, dedicated to support small farmers and their enterprises in crops production in the Czech republic. ERP system is divided into three bases. First of them aims on working with land blocks, the other one focuses on stock operations and the third one focuses on economical operations of small farmers. Based on the processed data, ERP system provides control of costs and yields of single land blocks. Furthermore, the ERP is dedicated for creation of crop rotation plans and a compliance of which it helps to keep track of. The system also provides desired data for management of farming control. The ERP system was being developed in cooperation with an entrepreneur Karel Procházka, further refered to as an authority, who was testing the final application. The ERP system was developed as an web application.

abstract: Modeling dynamic systems is an interesting problem in Knowledge Representation (KR) due to their usefulness in reasoning about real-world environments. In order to effectively do this, a number of different formalisms have been considered ranging from low-level languages, such as Answer Set Programming (ASP), to high-level action languages, such as C+ and BC. These languages show a lot of promise over many traditional approaches as they allow a developer to automate many tasks which require reasoning within dynamic environments in a succinct and elaboration tolerant manner. However, despite their strengths, they are still insufficient for modeling many systems, especially those of non-trivial scale or that require the ability to cope with exceptions which occur during execution, such as unexpected events or unintended consequences to actions which have been performed. In order to address these challenges, a theoretical framework is created which focuses on improving the feasibility of applying KR techniques to such problems. The framework is centered on the action language BC+, which integrates many of the strengths of existing KR formalisms, and provides the ability to perform efficient reasoning in an incremental fashion while handling exceptions which occur during execution. The result is a developer friendly formalism suitable for performing reasoning in an online environment. Finally, the newly enhanced Cplus2ASP 2 is introduced, which provides a number of improvements over the original version. These improvements include implementing BC+ among several additional languages, providing enhanced developer support, and exhibiting a significant performance increase over its predecessors and similar systems. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Computer Science 2014

Vår uppgift är att sammansätta en produkt som skall sänka de så kallade ”Roaming” avgifterna som uppkommer då ett telefonsamtal måste resa eller ”roama” genom flera olika operatörers mobilnät. För att sänka denna kostnad har ett företag vid namn ”CallKey Group Ltd” tagit fram en produkt, ”CallKeyOne” som är en lösning baserat på GSM SIM-kort. CallKeyOne kommer att reducera kostnaden för utgående samtal radikalt och att motta samtal blir gratis i de flesta länder. Detta leder ofta till en reducerad kostnad med upp till 70 %. Uppgiften för författarna av denna rapport var att integrera CallKey: s API med en webbaserad betalsida vid namn PayNova. Den färdiga produkten ska bli en fullt fungerande produkt som tillåter kunderna att fylla på sitt SIM-kort med förbetald kredit för internationella samtal. Till uppgiften hör även att skapa en databas där information om överföringar och kunder skall lagras. Kunden ska kunna betala via kreditkort och pengarna ska sedan överföras till uppdragsgivarna. Uppgiften har utförts med hjälp av ByAir AB som är ett svenskt företag med kontor i Göteborg som har licensen för CallKeyOne i Sverige.

CoordenaÃÃo de AperfeiÃoamento de Pessoal de NÃvel Superior / Bothropoides erythromelas à responsÃvel por muitos acidentes no Nordeste do Brasil. O veneno desta serpente induz insuficiÃncia renal aguda. Rins isolados de ratos Wistar, pesando 250 a 300g, foram perfundidos durante 120 min com soluÃÃo Krebs-Henseleit contendo 6g% de albumina bovina. O veneno total de Bothropoides erythromelas foi estudado anteriormente (SOUSA, 2004) e utilizado neste estudo para posterior comparaÃÃo com os grupos tratados com as fraÃÃes PLA2 Lys 49 e Asp 49 do veneno. O veneno total (10mg/mL) e as fraÃÃes PLA2 Lys 49 e Asp 49 (5mg/mL) de B. erythromelas foram adicionados ao sistema 30 min apÃs o inÃcio de cada experimento. Os parÃmetros estudados incluÃram pressÃo de perfusÃo (PP), resistÃncia vascular renal (RVR), ritmo de filtraÃÃo glomerular (RFG), fluxo urinÃrio (FU), percentual de transporte tubular de sÃdio, potÃssio e cloreto (%TNa+, %TK+ e %TCl-), percentual de transporte proximal de sÃdio, potÃssio e cloreto (%pTNa+, %pTK+ e %pTCl-), excreÃÃo de sÃdio, potÃssio e cloreto (ENa+, EK+ e ECl-) e clearance osmÃtico (Cosm) (p< 0,05*). O grupo controle perfundido com albumina foi funcionalmente estÃvel por todos os 120 min. A infusÃo do veneno causou um aumento significante no FU, ENa+, ECl- e Cosm e uma diminuiÃÃo na PP, RVR, %TNa+, %TK+, %TCl-, %pTNa+, %pTK+ e %pTCl-. O RFG e a EK+ diminuÃram aos 60 min e aumentaram aos 90 e 120 min quando comparado com o grupo controle. A infusÃo de Lys 49 causou um aumento significante na PP, FU, ENa+, EK+ e Cosm e diminuiu o RFG e o %TNa+ quando comparada com o grupo controle. Lys 49 nÃo modificou os outros parÃmetros funcionais renais. A infusÃo de Asp 49 modificou apenas os parÃmetros funcionais renais %pTK+ (diminuiÃÃo) e EK+ (aumento) quando comparada ao grupo controle. Lys 49 apresentou um efeito similar ao veneno total nos parÃmetros FU, %TNa+, ENa+, EK+ e Cosm e Asp 49 nos parÃmetros %pTK+ e EK+. A anÃlise histolÃgica mostrou uma quantidade moderada de material proteinÃceo nos glomÃrulos e tÃbulos de rins perfundidos com o veneno, Lys 49 e Asp 49, bem como regiÃes focais de apoptose/necrose em rins perfundidos com Lys 49 e Asp 49. CÃlulas MDCK foram cultivadas em meio de cultura RPMI 1640 suplementado com 10% vv de soro bovino fetal e entÃo avaliadas na presenÃa do veneno total, Lys 49 e Asp 49 de B. erythromelas nas concentraÃÃes (100; 50; 25; 12,5; 6,25 e 3,125mg/mL). A anÃlise dos efeitos citotÃxicos em cÃlulas MDCK foi executada pelo mÃtodo MTT. O veneno promoveu efeito citotÃxico nas concentraÃÃes de 50 e 100mg/mL (IC50 =93,31mg/mL). Lys 49 promoveu efeito citotÃxico nas concentraÃÃes de 6,25; 12,5; 25; 50 e 100mg/mL (IC50 = 38,29mg/mL). Asp 49 promoveu efeito citotÃxico nas concentraÃÃes de 50 e 100mg/mL (IC50 = 158mg/mL). TambÃm foram mensurados os nÃveis de lactato desidrogenase (LDH) e nenhum aumento significante foi observado com veneno total e Asp 49. Lys 49 promoveu um aumento significante nos nÃveis de lactato desidrogenase apenas na concentraÃÃo de 100mg/mL. ApÃs o cultivo de cÃlulas MDCK com o veneno total, nas concentraÃÃes de 46,65 e 23,32mg/mL, foi realizada a reaÃÃo de polimerase em cadeia em tempo real para a avaliaÃÃo da expressÃo de genes prà (Caspase-3, Caspase-8 e Bax) e antiapoptÃticos (Bcl-XL e Mcl-1). NÃo foi realizada avaliaÃÃo da expressÃo de genes prà e antiapoptÃticos com Lys 49 e Asp 49. Na expressÃo de genes prÃ-apoptÃticos o veneno total promoveu um aumento da expressÃo de caspase-3 na concentraÃÃo de 23,32Âg/mL e de caspase-8 nas concentraÃÃes de 46,65 e 23,32Âg/mL, quando comparado com os controles positivo (DOXO) e negativo (PBS) e diminuiu a expressÃo de Bax em ambas as concentraÃÃes. Na expressÃo de genes antiapoptÃticos o veneno total promoveu induÃÃo significativa de Mcl-1 somente na concentraÃÃo de 46,65mg/mL e nÃo modificou a expressÃo de Bcl-XL, quando comparado com o controle negativo. O veneno e as fraÃÃes PLA2 Lys 49 e Asp 49 da serpente Bothropoides erythromelas à capaz de promover significativos efeitos sobre os parÃmetros de funÃÃo renal e sobre cÃlulas MDCK, com indicativo de morte celular por apoptose atravÃs da via extrÃnseca. / Bothropoides erythromelas is responsible for a great deal of snakebites in Northeastern from Brazil. The venom of this snake induces acute renal failure. Isolated kidneys from Wistar rats, weighting 250 to 300g, were perfused with Krebs-Henseleit solution containing 6g% of bovine serum albumin for 120 min. The whole venom of Bothropoides erythromelas been previously studied (SOUSA, 2004) and used in this study for comparison with the treated groups with the PLA2 fractions Lys 49 and Asp 49 of the venom. The whole venom (10mg/mL) and the fractions PLA2 Lys 49 and Asp 49 of B. erythromelas (5mg/mL) were added into the system 30 min after the beginning of each experiment. The parameters studied included perfusion pressure (PP), renal vascular resistance (RVR), glomerular filtration rate (GFR), urinary flow (UF), percent sodium, potassium and chloride tubular transport (%TNa+, %TK+ and %TCl-), percent sodium, potassium and chloride proximal transport (%pTNa+, %pTK+ and %pTCl-), sodium, potassium and chloride excretion (ENa+, EK+ e ECl-) and osmotic clearance (Cosm) (p< 0.05*). The control group perfused with albumin was functionally stable for over 120 min. The infusion of venom caused a significant increase in UF, ENa+, ECl- and Cosm and a decreased in PP, RVR, %TNa+, %TK+, %TCl-, %pTNa+, %pTK+ and %pTCl-. The GFR and the EK+ decreased at 60 min and increased at 90 and 120 min when compared with control group. The infusion of Lys 49 caused a significant increase in PP, UF, ENa+, EK+ and Cosm and decreased the GFR and the %TNa+ when compared with control group. Lys49 did not modify the others functional kidney parameters. The infusion of Asp 49 only modify the functional kidney parameters %pTK+ (decreased) and EK+ (increase) when compared with control group. Lys 49 showed a similar effect at whole venom in parameters UF, %TNa+, ENa+, EK+ and Cosm and Asp 49 in parameters %pTK+ and EK+. The histological analysis showed a mild amount of a proteinaceous substance in the renal tubules and glomeruli of kidneys perfused with the venom, Lys 49 and Asp 49, as well as focal areas of apoptosis/necrosis in perfused kidneys with Lys 49 e Asp 49. MDCK cells were cultured in RPMI 1640 medium supplemented with 10% vv fetal bovine serum and then assessed in the presence of the whole venom, Lys 49 and Asp 49 of B. erythromelas in the concentrations (100; 50; 25; 12.5; 6.25 and 3.125mg/mL). The analysis of cytotoxic effects on MDCK cells was performed by MTT method. The venom promoted cytotoxic effect in the concentrations of 50 and 100mg/mL (IC50 =93.31mg/mL). Lys 49 promoted cytotoxic effect in the concentrations of 6.25; 12.5; 25; 50 and 100 mg/mL (IC50 = 38.29mg/mL). Asp 49 promoted cytotoxic effect in the concentrations of 50 and 100 mg/mL (IC50 = 158mg/mL). Also the levels of lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) were measured and no significant increase was observed with whole venom and Asp 49. Lys 49 promoted a significant increase in the levels of LDH only in the concentration of 100mg/mL. After culture of MDCK cells with the whole venom, at concentrations of 46.65 and 23.32Âg/mL, was performed the real time polymerase chain reaction for evaluation of pro (Caspase-3, Caspase-8 and Bax) and antiapoptotic (Bcl-XL and Mcl-1) genes expression. The evaluation of pro and antiapoptotic genes expression with Lys 49 e Asp 49 did not realized. In the expression of pro-apoptotic genes the whole venom caused increase of caspase-3 at concentration of 23.32Âg/mL and of caspase-8 at concentrations of 46.65 and 23.32Âg/mL, when compared with negative (PBS) and positive (DOXO) controls and decreased the expression of Bax in both concentrations. In the expression of anti-apoptotic genes the whole venom caused significant induction of Mcl-1 only at a concentration of 46.65Âg/mL and did not modify the expression of Bcl-XL, when compared with the negative control. The venom and the fractions PLA2 Lys 49 e Asp 49 of Bothropoides erythromelas is able to promote significant effects on renal function parameters and on MDCK cells, with indications of cell death by apoptosis through the extrinsic pathway.