Orlen (Poland)

This study focuses on evaluating microbial activity in Main Dolomite reservoir rocks (Zechstein, Wuchiapingian– Permian) at 100°C. Core samples from two wells, one potentially microbiologically active (C-1 well, 100°C) and the other considered inactive due to high temperature (L-1 well, 155.5°C), were analysed. The core from L-1, treated similarly to C-1, was used to control for contamination. Microbial experiments and molecular analyses were performed on both core samples to ensure accurate results unaffected by laboratory processing contamination. Microbial incubation tests were successfully employed to demonstrate microbial hydrocarbon degradation and methane formation from 13C-labelled acetate. A new method for staining microorganisms from rock samples was introduced to estimate biomass. The results indicated that microorganisms from the C-1 well exhibited both hydrocarbon biodegradation and acetoclastic methanogenesis during a 3-month incubation at 100°C. Fluorescence-stained and countable microorganisms were only observed in the C-1 samples, while no biodegradation or methanogenesis occurred in reference samples from L-1 well. The study provides valuable insights into microbial activities in extreme conditions, emphasizing the importance of proper controls and techniques to ensure accurate interpretation of results.

This paper describes commonly used processes to produce aviation fuel and alternative routes with potential production yields for sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) like HEFA and ATJ. It also presents the possible sources (crude oil, refinery processes), causes (filter clogging, engine failure), and forms of contamination in both conventional and alternatively produced aviation fuels. Special attention is focused on the threats of fuel contamination with solid particles/trace elements, water, microorganisms, and fatty acid methyl esters (FAME). This review also presents the standard and novel advanced methods (ICP-MS, MALDI, ViPA) for identifying contaminations in aviation fuel. It also identifies possible ways to control and eliminate the risk of contamination, such as the fallowing coherent JIG system to ensure the quality of aviation fuel. Another approach that is very interesting and worth considering for future development is the idea of predictive maintenance and machine learning in monitoring and detecting contamination.

This review scrutinizes current research on new methods for enhancing bituminous binder performance through radiation and radical grafting of polymer modifiers of bitumen. It investigates innovative methods, including using waste polymers as modifiers and applying radiation for polymer grafting, to overcome challenges like high costs, low aging resistance, and storage stability issues, of which separation of phases polymer/bitumen is the most significant obstacle. These advanced modification techniques promise sustainability through the decrease of the carbon footprint of transportation systems by improving the properties and durability of binders. Additionally, this review discusses the parameters and mechanistic aspects from a scientific perspective, shedding light on the underlying processes that contribute to the improved performance of modified bituminous binders.

Knowing that the water covers 72% of the globe's surface makes us treat it as an unlimited and universal good. The growth of the human population is related to the needs for food and energy production, and water is essential for this. Water is used in households in agriculture, in water transport, in electricity production and in all industries. The needs of individual economic sectors in terms of the use of water resources may differ and even be contradictory. Therefore, the role of proper management of water resources is very important. It should take into account both the needs of the population and the economy, as well as the requirements for the protection of water and related ecosystems, as well as issues related to protection against floods and drought, and each of us can take action to save the water.

The study evaluates the geothermal energy potential of two depleted oil and gas reservoirs representing two different lithostratigraphic formations—the carbonate formation of the Visean age from the basement of the Carpathian Flysch and the Rotliegend sandstone formation from the Eastern part of the Foresudetic Monocline, Poland. Advanced modeling techniques were employed to analyze the studied formations’ heat, storage, and transport properties. The obtained results were then used to calculate the heat in place (HIP) and evaluate the recoverable heat (Hrec) for both water and CO2 as working fluids, considering a geothermal system lifetime of 50 years. The petrophysical parameters and Hrec were subsequently utilized in the generalized c-means (GFCM) clustering analysis, which helped to identify plays with the greatest geothermal potential within the studied formations. The central block emerged as the most promising area for the studied carbonate formation with Hrec values of ~1.12 and 0.26 MW when H2O and CO2 were used as working fluids, respectively. The central block has three wells that can be easily adapted for geothermal production. The area, however, may require permeability enhancement techniques to increase reservoir permeability. Two prospective zones were determined for the analyzed Rotliegend sandstone formation: one in the NW region and the other in the SE region. In the NW region, the estimated Hrec was 23.16 MW and 4.36 MW, while in the SE region, it was 19.76 MW and 3.51 MW, using H2O and CO2 as working fluids, respectively. Both areas have high porosity and permeability, providing good storage and transport properties for the working fluid, and abundant wells that can be configured for multiple injection-production systems. When comparing the efficiency of geothermal systems, the water-driven system in the Visean carbonate formation turned out to be over four times more efficient than the CO2-driven one. Furthermore, in the case of the Rotliegend sandstone formation, it was possible to access over five times more heat using water-driven system.

The geomechanical modeling turned out to be an essential component of the hydrocarbon exploration assisting reduction of risk of drilling issues and optimization of hydraulic fracturing treatment. This study provides a workflow of critically stressed fracture (CSF) analysis dedicated for coal layers. The main focus of the paper is applying the 1D mechanical models and following modelling of hydraulic fracturing treatment to describe the fracture behavior under the impact of the stresses at the wellbore scale. Another objective of the presented study is demonstration of benefits of 1D and 3D CSF analysis to understand fracture contribution to gained volume of hydrocarbon after fracturing of coal seam. Interpretation of fracture orientation and their behavior is vital to effective development of coal bed methane (CBM) resources as the CSF can be responsible for considerable part of CBM production. Natural fractures and faults contribute to fluid flow through rock. It is often noted that natural fractures may not be critically stressed at ambient stress state. However, during stimulation, the optimally oriented natural fracture sets have the inclination to become critically stressed. Hence, understanding of the recent stress state and fracture orientations is significant for well planning and fracturing design. The outcome of this study are comprehensive 1D mechanical Earth models (MEMs) for analyzed wells and explanation of behavior of identified CSF under variable stress state as well as understanding of the connectivity of natural fractures within zone subjected to fracturing treatment.

Wet organic wastes are especially troublesome in valorization. Therefore, innovative solutions are still in demand to make valorization feasible. In this study, we tested a new transformation route of a blackcurrant pomace as a high-moisture industrial waste through a series of high-temperature and pressure solvothermal liquefaction experiments. The feedstock was directly converted under near-critical conditions of the binary solvent system (water/2-propanol). The goal was to examine the effect of conversion parameters (temperature, biomass-to-solvent ratio) on the change in the yield of resultant bioproducts, as well as the quality thereof. The experiments were conducted in a batch autoclave at a temperature between 250 and 300 °C. The main product of the transformation was liquid biocrude, which was obtained with the highest yield (ca. 52 wt.%) at 275 °C. The quality of biocrude was examined by ATR-FTIR, GC-MS, and elemental analysis. The ultimate biocrude was a viscous heterogeneous mixture containing various groups of components and exhibiting evident energy densification (ca. 145–153%) compared to the value of the feedstock. The proposed processing method is suitable for further development toward efficient valorization technology. More specifically, the co-solvent additive for liquefaction is beneficial not only for the enhancement of the yield of the desired product, i.e., biocrude, but also in terms of technological aspects (reduction of operational pressure and temperature).

An attempt was made to describe the quality of the stacked seismic data semi-quantitatively with respect to the spacing of shot and receiver lines. The methods used included: signal-to-noise ratio calculation, seismic-to-well tie accuracy, wavelet extraction effectiveness and reliability of semi-automated interpretation of seismic attributes. This study was focused on the Ordovician-Silurian interval of the Lublin Basin, Poland, as it was considered as a main target for the exploration of unconventional hydrocarbon deposits. Our results reconfirm the obvious dependency between the density of the acquisition parameters and data quality. However, we also discovered that the seismic data quality is less affected by the shot line spacing than by comparable receiver line spacing. We attributed this issue to the fact of the higher irregularity of the shot points than receiver points, imposed by the terrain accessibility. We have also proven that the regularity of receiver and shot point distributionis crucial for the reliable interpretation of structural seismic attributes, since these were found to be highly sensitive to the acquisition geometry.

The paper presents the influence of low alloy steel degradation on the acoustic emission (AE) generated during static tension of notched specimen. The material was cut from a technological pipeline long-term operated in the oil refinery industry. Comparative analysis of AE activity generated by damage process of degraded and new material has been carried out. The different AE parameters were used to detect different stages of fracture process of low alloy steel under quasi-static tensile test. Neural networks with three layers were created with Broyden–Fletcher–Goldfarb–Shanno learning algorithm for a database analysis. The different AE parameters were included in the input layer. Classification neural networks were created in order to determine the stages of material degradation. The results obtained from the carried out studies will be used as the basis for new methodology development of the assessment of the structural condition of in-service equipment.

Fatigue cracking is one of the most important phenomena connected to durability of asphalt pavements. The fatigue resistance of asphalt pavements depends on many factors such as asphalt mixture composition and binder properties. Also temperature of asphalt pavement is important, what is directly related to viscoelastic nature of the bituminous binder. The fatigue cracks may occur within the bitumen (cohesive cracking) or at the bitumen-aggregate interface (adhesion cracking). The cohesive cracking resistance can be evaluated by bitumen testing. The Linear Amplitude Sweep (LAS) test has recently been proposed for fatigue characterization of bituminous binders. The LAS test is performed acc. to AASHTO TP 101 standard. This procedure is based on viscoelastic continuum damage approach to predict binder fatigue life as a function of strain level in the pavement. In the research fatigue performance of three types of binders: paving grade, typically polymer modified and highly polymer modified were evaluated. Tests were performed using the LAS method at temperatures: 5 °C, 10 °C, 20 °C, on samples after RTFOT+PAV aging. Obtained results have shown that each group of binders behave in different way which is connected to its internal network or lack of it. Finally, the best fatigue properties have been presented by highly modified bitumen (HiMA). The paper presents description of the LAS method, test results containing comparison of fatigue characteristics of used binders and conclusions.