Many attempts have been made to control water conformance. It is very costly to produce, treat and dispose of water, and produced water represents the largest waste stream associated with oil and gas production. The production of large amounts of water results in: (a) the need for more complex water?oil separation; (b) corrosion of wellbore and other equipment; (c) a rapid decline in hydrocarbon production rate and ultimate recovery; and (d) consequently, premature abandonment of a well or field, leaving considerable hydrocarbons unproduced. Sometimes water production results from heterogeneities in the horizontal direction, which leads to uneven movement of the flood front and subsequent early breakthrough of water from high permeability layers. This problem is exacerbated if there is (vertical) hydraulic communication between layers so that crossflow can occur. One of the novel technologies in chemical enhanced oil recovery (EOR) is a gel type called deep diverting gel (DDG), which describes material that functions by plugging thief zones deep from the well where they were being injected. To evaluate the performance of this new treatment method, we will (1) model the treatment methods, (2) conduct economic analysis, and (3) compare different EOR methods. We have conducted relevant literature review about the development, design, modeling and economics of the enhanced oil recovery methods. Schlumberger's Eclipse simulator software has been used for modeling purposes. Modeling runs have demonstrated that placement of a DDG in a high permeability zone provided a blockage that diverted water into lower permeability areas, thus increasing the sweep of target zones. Research results demonstrated that, although higher recovery can be achieved with a polymer flood, the combination of delayed production response and large polymer amounts cause such projects to be less economically favorable than deep gel placement treatments. From results of several sensitivity runs, it can be concluded that plug size and oil viscosity are two determining factors in the efficiency of DDG treatments. For the assumed case, economic analysis demonstrated that DDG has the most positive net present value (NPV), with polymer flooding second and simply continuing the waterflood to its economic limit the least positive NPV.

Submitted by JULIANO BÖECK SANTOS null (julianobsantos@gmail.com) on 2017-06-30T20:35:23Z No. of bitstreams: 1 MODELAGEM HIDROLÓGICA HEC-HMS DA BACIA HIDROGRÁFICA DO RIBEIRÃO LAVAPÉS, BOTUCATU-SP.pdf: 2020411 bytes, checksum: 793b6ebe446b79be6f17fa06f731e91a (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by LUIZA DE MENEZES ROMANETTO (luizamenezes@reitoria.unesp.br) on 2017-07-03T14:17:17Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 santos_jb_dr_bot.pdf: 2020411 bytes, checksum: 793b6ebe446b79be6f17fa06f731e91a (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-03T14:17:17Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 santos_jb_dr_bot.pdf: 2020411 bytes, checksum: 793b6ebe446b79be6f17fa06f731e91a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-05-02 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / O uso inadequado dos recursos naturais é um dos principais problemas enfrentados pelos países. Considerando a extensão territorial das bacias hidrográficas, a utilização de ferramentas de geoprocessamento baseado no Sistema de Informações Geográficas (SIG) são apropriadas para o monitoramento hidrológico por meio do planejamento, controle, armazenamento e execução de informações. A Bacia Hidrográfica do Ribeirão Lavapés tem suas nascentes principais e seus afluentes dentro da área urbana do município de Botucatu-SP-Brasil, com isso o monitoramento, mapeamento e planejamento ambiental dessa área é de fundamental importância para a sua recomposição e conservação. A bacia de estudo foi dividida em três formações geológicas: Adamantina, Serra Geral e Pirambóia/Botucatu e sua produção de água foi quantificada por meio de um modelo hidrológico associado ao SIG, utilizando o Método de Curva Número (CN). Em relação aos resultados obtidos para os valores de infiltração e escoamento superficial, a Formação Adamantina (CN=97,87) apresentou uma alta impermeabilização do solo, a Formação Serra Geral (CN=73,97) um aumento do escoamento superficial, e a Formação Pirambóia/Botucatu (CN=67,29) altas taxas de infiltração. Quanto à vazão, em todas as simulações realizadas a Formação Adamantina apresentou valores superiores às demais formações e a Formação Pirambóia/Botucatu foi superior a Formação Serra Geral devido sua maior área de captação, embora apresente um valor de CN inferior. Comparando a vazão, em ambos os períodos de retorno, da média das formações geológicas com a da Bacia Hidrográfica do Ribeirão Lavapés como um todo, observou-se que na duração de chuva de 1 hora os valores foram superiores nas formações, enquanto que em 6 e 12 horas, foram superiores na bacia como um todo. Assim, pode-se concluir que os dados de entrada disponíveis e os parâmetros utilizados tornaram o modelo uma boa ferramenta na simulação de eventos na previsão de cenários, assim como, para futuras tomadas de decisões pelos gestores dos recursos hídricos. / Inadequate use of natural resources is one of the main problems faced by the countries. Considering the territorial extent of the Hydrographic Basins, it becomes necessary to use geoprocessing tools based on Geographic Information System (GIS) for the hydrological monitoring by planning, control, storage and execution information. The Ribeirão Lavapés Hydrographic Basin has its main springs and its tributaries within the urban area of the city of Botucatu-SP-Brazil, so the monitoring, mapping and environmental planning of this area is of fundamental importance for its recomposition and conservation. The study basin was divided into three geological formations: Adamantina, Serra Geral and Pirambóia/Botucatu, and its water production was quantified by means of a hydrological model associated with GIS, using the Number Curve Method (CN). Regarding the results obtained for the infiltration and surface runoff values, the Adamantina Formation (CN = 97.87) presented a high waterproofing of the soil, the Serra Geral Formation (CN = 73.97) an increase of the surface runoff, and Pirambóia/Botucatu Formation (CN = 67.29) high rates of infiltration. As for the flow rate, in all simulations, the Adamantina Formation presented higher values than the other formations and the Pirambóia/Botucatu Formation was superior to the Serra Geral Formation due to its higher catchment area, although it presents a lower CN value. Comparing the flow rate, in both return periods, of the mean geological formations with that of the Ribeirão Lavapés Hydrographic Basin as a whole, it was observed that in the 1 hour rainfall the values were higher in the formations, while at 6 and 12 hours, its was higher in the basin as a whole. Therefore, it can be concluded that the available input data and the parameters used have made the model a good tool in simulating events in scenario prediction, as well as for future decision making by water resource managers. / CNPq: 140206/2014-0

Ensuring electricity availability and acquiring access of potable water during emergencies in remote areas are becoming a global challenge around the world. Utilizing solar energy electricity generation by photovoltaics and clean water production by solar distillation have shown its great potential to meet the world’s future energy and water demands. In this work, we fabricated a photovoltaic-membrane distillation-evaporative crystallizer device (PV-MD-EC), in which high electricity generation efficiency (~15%), clean water production rate (~2.66 kg/m2 h) and salt crystallization from seawater can be achieved in such an integrated system under one sun illumination. In addition, the solar cell operates in a much lower temperature at around 48 oC, which is much lower than previous work. The advanced performance is attributed to the utilization of a highly porous and thinner hydrophobic membrane. This design provides a new strategy to address the challenge of water-energy nexus.

Successful field waterflood is a crucial prerequisite for improving the performance before EOR methods, such as ASP, SP, and P flooding, are applied in the field. Excess water production is a major problem in mature waterflooded oil fields that leads to early well abandonment and unrecoverable hydrocarbon. Gel treatments at the injection and production wells to preferentially plug the thief zones are cost-effective methods to improve sweep efficiency in reservoirs and reduce excess water production during hydrocarbon recovery. There are extensive experimental studies performed by some researchers in the past to investigate the performance of gels in conformance control and decreasing water production in mature waterflooded reservoirs, but no substantial modeling work has been done to simulate these experiments and predict the results for large field cases. We developed a novel, 3-dimensional chemical compositional and robust general reservoir simulator (UTGEL) to model gel treatment processes. The simulator has the capability to model different types of microgels, such as preformed particle gels (PPG), thermally active polymers (TAP), pH-sensitive microgels, and colloidal dispersion gels (CDG). The simulator has been validated for gel flooding using laboratory and field scale data. The simulator helps to design and optimize the flowing gel injection for conformance control processes in larger field cases. The gel rheology, adsorption, resistance factor and residual resistance factor with salinity effect, gel viscosity, gel kinetics, and swelling ratio were implemented in UTGEL. Several simulation case studies in fractured and heterogeneous reservoirs were performed to illustrate the effect of gel on production behavior and water control. Laboratory results of homogeneous and heterogeneous sandpacks, and Berea sandstone corefloods were used to validate the PPG transport models. Simulations of different heterogeneous field cases were performed and the results showed that PPG can improve the oil recovery by 5-10% OOIP compared to waterflood. For recovery from fractured reservoirs by waterflooding, injected water will flow easily through fractures and most part of reservoir oil will remain in matrix blocks unrecovered. Recovery from these reservoirs depends on matrix permeability, wettability, fracture intensity, temperature, pressure, and fluid properties. Chemical processes such as polymer flooding (P), surfactant/polymer (SP) flooding and alkali/surfactant/polymer (ASP) flooding are being used to enhance reservoir energy and increase the recovery. Chemical flooding has much broader range of applicability than in the past. These include high temperature reservoirs, formations with extreme salinity and hardness, naturally fractured carbonates, and sandstone reservoirs with heavy and viscous crude oils. The recovery from fractured carbonate reservoirs is frequently considered to be dominated by spontaneous imbibition. Therefore, any chemical process which can enhance the rate of imbibition has to be studied carefully. Wettability alteration using chemicals such as surfactant and alkali has been studied by many researchers in the past years and is recognized as one of the most effective recovery methods in fractured carbonate reservoirs. Injected surfactant will alter the wettability of matrix blocks from oil-wet to water-wet and also reduce the interfacial tension to ultra-low values and consequently more oil will be recovered by spontaneous co-current or counter-current imbibition depending on the dominant recovery mechanism. Accurate and reliable up-scaling of chemical enhanced oil recovery processes (CEOR) are among the most important issues in reservoir simulation. The important challenges in up-scaling CEOR processes are predictability of developed dimensionless numbers and also considering all the required mechanisms including wettability alteration and interfacial tension reduction. Thus, developing new dimensionless numbers with improved predictability at larger scales is of utmost importance in CEOR processes. There are some scaling groups developed in the past for either imbibition or coreflood experiments but none of them were predictive because all the physics related to chemical EOR processes (interfacial tension reduction and wettability alteration) were not included. Furthermore, most of commercial reservoir simulators do not have the capability to model imbibition tests due to lack of some physics, such as surfactant molecular diffusion. The modeling of imbibition cell tests can aid to understand the mechanisms behind wettability alteration and consequently aid in up-scaling the process. Also, modeling coreflood experiments for fractured vuggy carbonates is challenging. Different approaches of random permeability distribution and explicit fractures were used to model the experiments which demonstrate the validity and ranges of applicability of upscaled procedures, and also indicate the importance of viscous and capillary forces in larger scales. The simulation models were then used to predict the recovery response times for larger cores.

CoordenaÃÃo de AperfeiÃoamento de Pessoal de NÃvel Superior / This dissertation presents the experimental result of a system to absorb solar energy to heat up a desalination tower with heat recovery mechanism and a change made in the heated water distribution at the heat storage tank. The system to absorb solar energy consists of solar thermal flat plate collectors for high temperatures and it responsible for the conversion of solar radiation in thermal energy to heat up the water to be desalinated. The change made in the storage tank consists of the installation of a stainless steel pipe with holes equally spaced and arrangement to allow a better distribution of the hot water from the solar collectors in the heat storage tank. The desalination unit has two components: two high temperatures solar collectors and a desalination tower with six stages. In its operation, water is heated in the solar collectors and moves by natural convection to the storage tank, to the bottom of the tower. In the tank, the water transfers heat to the salty water in the first stage of the tower. This heated water transfer heat by evaporation, convection and radiation to the second stage and part of its energy is lost to the ambient. The condensed vapor on the walls of the stages flows down by gravity to be collected in a reservoir installed under the desalination tower. The heat received by the second stage is used to heat up the ater in this stage and the process is repeated in all stages. The performance of the desalination unit was satisfactory. The temperature in the storage tank reached values near 85ÂC and the water temperatures at the outlet of the solar collector were near 100ÂC. The daily production was 31 liters of desalinated water and the GOR-value (gain output ratio) was 1,54

The thesis is focused on the design of the new heat source of the existing building. The first part deals with the heat sources and fuels used in the Czech Republic. The second part includes design of three variants of heat sources: gas boilers, cogeneration unit with the electric boilers and cogeneration unit with gas boilers. The individual variations are also evaluated in terms of user comfort, space requirements or economy of operation. The third part includes measurement and evaluation of internal environment of the dining hall.

Groundwater is an important source of fresh water on earth. A source that is also affected by climate change. Climate change is expected to influence both the groundwater quality and the groundwater level, where elevated levels of iron and manganese in the groundwater are to be expected. In Sweden guideline values are set for iron and manganese in drinking water, which means that waterworks that use groundwater as raw water must treat the water when the guidline values are exceeded. A common treatment step to remove iron and manganese is abiotic oxidation with a chemical oxidant. A relatively new method is biological oxidation where microorganisms oxidize the metals. Biological oxidation has proven to be a faster process than chemical oxidation and better adapted to variations in raw water quality. In this work the possibility of biological oxidation of iron and manganese at smaller groundwater plants with day-to-day production breaks has been studied. The study also concern how seasonal variations in raw water quality might affect the oxidation ability of the microorganisms. During the study a pilot filter for biological oxidation was constructed where the efficiency of the filter and the raw water quality was measured during a one-year test. After a short start-up time for iron oxidation the pilot filter reduced iron in the raw water up to 92 % and after a longer start-up time for manganese oxidation the pilot filter reduced manganese from the raw water up to 97 % during the rest of the test period. The results show that biological oxidation is possible at smaller groundwater plants despite production breaks. The results also show that biological oxidation is not affected by the vaiations i raw water quality that was measured during the test period. Furthermore, the results show that biological oxidation is equally efficient as the chemical oxidation, at the investigated groundwater plant, in terms of removing iron and even more efficient in terms of removing manganese. In addition the biological oxidation do not require pH adjustment or addition of any chemicals. The results indicate that biological oxidation of iron and manganese is a more favorable alternative to chemical oxidation in smaller groundwater plants on the impact of climate change on raw water quality.

Yes / Solar energy, amongst all renewable energies, has attracted inexhaustible attention all over the world as a supplier of sustainable energy. The energy requirement of major seawater desalination processes such as multistage flash (MSF), multi-effect distillation (MED) and reverse osmosis (RO) are fulfilled by burning fossil fuels, which impact the environment significantly due to the emission of greenhouse gases. The integration of solar energy systems into seawater desalination processes is an attractive and alternative solution to fossil fuels. This study aims to (i) assess the progress of solar energy systems including concentrated solar power (CSP) and photovoltaic (PV) to power both thermal and membrane seawater desalination processes including MSF, MED, and RO and (ii) evaluate the economic considerations and associated challenges with recommendations for further improvements. Thus, several studies on a different combination of seawater desalination processes of solar energy systems are reviewed and analysed concerning specific energy consumption and freshwater production cost. It is observed that although solar energy systems have the potential of reducing carbon footprint significantly, the cost of water production still favours the use of fossil fuels. Further research and development on solar energy systems are required to make their use in desalination economically viable. Alternatively, the carbon tax on the use of fossil fuels may persuade desalination industries to adopt renewable energy such as solar.

Yes / Reducing the cost of fresh water has always been a major concern in the desalination industry. A solar powered hybrid multi-effect distillation and reverse osmosis desalination plant (MED+RO) has been designed and optimised from an economical point of view in a previous work by the same authors. In the present study, the possibility of coupling the desalination plant with a photovoltaic (PV) solar farm is investigated, with the aim of generating electricity at low cost and in a sustainable way. A detailed mathematical model for the PV system has been implemented from the literature. Interestingly, the model can predict the cost of the PV system in terms of capital cost and electricity cost per kWh considering the input data of solar irradiation, duration of daylight and technical specification of a real solar module. Consequently, the solar PV model has been combined with the desalination model, which enables to estimate the cost of fresh water per cubic meter. Data about four locations, namely Isola di Pantelleria (IT), Las Palmas (ES), Abu Dhabi (UAE), and Perth (AUS), have been used to economically test the feasibility of installing the proposed plant, and especially of the PV solar farm.

The fast growth in the demand of freshwater due to the scarcity of natural water and increase in the world population puts more stress on the desalination sectors, which requires the installation of high-efficient thermal desalination plants. Among these desalination plants, multi effect desalination (MED) and RO processes are considered as the most reliable techniques of producing freshwater from saline water. Recently, the MED and RO process have been introduced in hybrid systems. However, this includes the development of simple superstructures of the hybrid system in spite of the improvement made beyond the individual process. To overcome this challenge, this dissertation comes to fill this gap and investigates appropriate methods of optimising the operational parameters of the hybrid system. In this regard, several innovative ideas are demonstrated for the first time to enhance the MED process, which are specifically include the improvement of key performance indicators including water production cost via a repetitive simulation based model. In line of this, the investigation of the lowest water production cost for different numbers of effects of MED system is carried out via optimisation based model. To deploy a sustainable source of energy, this research illustrates the combined system of MED-TVC and wind turbine with attaining a considerable reduction of specific energy consumption. Also, this research presents two novel designs of hybrid system of MED and single and double RO processes of different configurations that contain permeate reprocessing design and retentate reprocessing design of RO process. These layouts demonstrate a considerable reduction of total energy consumption within an accepted product salinity compared to the ones presented in the open literature. To apply the energy-water concept for a smart city, this research emphasises on the design moderation and process optimisation of the MED-TVC and double RO processes to generate different grades of water. Moreover, the structure of this dissertation introduces a revision of the steady state MED and RO modelling. This in turn provides an efficient hybrid system for seawater desalination by refining the reliability and efficiency of the associated process. The results stated the following findings; It can be stated that 17 effects of MED-TVC system is suitable to achieve the lowest fresh water production cost of 0.614 $/m3. However, the implication of particle swarm optimisation method has further introduced the freshwater production cost from 0.614 $/m3 to 0.432 $/m3 by investigating the optimal operating conditions for the 17 effects. Also, this research introduces that Dhahran is more potential compared to Jeddah in the KSA to construct an integration system of MED-TVC and a renewable energy source of wind turbine that presents the lowest specific energy consumption. This research also shows that the new proposed design of MED-TVC and single permeate reprocessing RO processes has a lower energy consumption of around 2.2% if compared to other configurations suggested in the open literature. Further reduction of this energy consumption has been conducted after optimising the inlet conditions of the hybrid system of MED-TVC and permeate reprocessing RO processes. The novel design of double RO and MED-TVC introduces an improvement of water productivity of 9%, corresponding to a reduction of brine flowrate within 5% compared to the base case of permeate reprocessing RO (PRRO) and MED-TVC. Finally, this research presents the improvement of different scenarios of MED-TVC and double RO processes to quantify the production of different types of water with fulfilling the environmental concepts.