Directly, the utilization of petroleum-based fuels for energy supply in numerous applications has led to their depletion accompanied by an increase of global warming to the atmosphere. Hence, the paramount need for exploring new renewable energy sources has become in demand. Believing in the concepts of sustainable development to overcome these issues, the immense waste biomass has been recognized as a promising, clean and viable solution for future energy and fuels. In this regard, this review concisely presents the latest cutting-edge of different integrated refining strategies for the conversion of biomass to valuable liquid fuels (BTL) to reduce the dependency on conventional fuels. Economic insights for the production of biofuels have been distinctively assessed. From the economic point of view, thermochemical conversion methods of biomass to fuel are considered as promising integrated approaches because of their flexibility towards various types of biomasses and their efficiency to produce valuable products such as viable fuels, heat, and electricity. Bibliometric mapping has been thoroughly conducted to identify the latest literature studies within (bioenergy/biofuel) field. Dynamically, future efforts in the biomass management sector are also advised for producing green liquid fuels to meet the global energy demand through large commercial scales.

Thermochemical conversion strategies of biomass to biofuels, techno-economic and bibliometric analysis: A conceptual review

Shale gas reservoirs are contributing a major role in overall hydrocarbon production, especially in the United States, and due to the intense development of such reservoirs, it is a must thing to learn the productive methods for modeling production and performance evaluation. Consequently, one of the most adopted techniques these days for the sake of production performance analysis is the utilization of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). Hydrocarbon exploration and production is a continuous process that brings a lot of data from sub-surface as well as from the surface facilities. Availability of such a huge data set that keeps on increasing over time enhances the computational capabilities and performance accuracy through AI and ML applications using a data-driven approach. The ML approach can be utilized through supervised and unsupervised methods in addition to artificial neural networks (ANN). Other ML approaches include random forest (RF), support vector machine (SVM), boosting technique, clustering methods, and artificial network-based architecture, etc. In this paper, a systematic literature review is presented focused on the AI and ML applications for the shale gas production performance evaluation and their modeling.

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AI/ML assisted shale gas production performance evaluation

Machine learning-assisted production data analysis in liquid-rich Duvernay Formation

A review on application of data-driven models in hydrocarbon production forecast

Integrated marine microalgae biorefineries for improved bioactive compounds: A review.

Production Forecasting in Shale Reservoirs through Conventional DCA and Machine/Deep Learning Methods

While the demand for energy globally increases everyday due to economic growth, unconventional hydrocarbon resources like shale, oil sands, heavy oil and extra heavy oil play a major role in energy crisis mitigation. Heavy oil reservoirs are characterized by thick and highly viscous crude. To recover heavy oil, conventional thermal Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) methods are generally employed. These methods include in-situ combustion, cyclic steam injection, Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD), etc. However, they are, at times, uneconomical and technically challenging. The growing concerns about the environment and its sustainability necessitate the use of alternative eco-friendly technologies. One of the extensively employed techniques, the conventional thermal heating technique implemented by the injection of steam into reservoirs has limited use due to various factors that ristricts its usability. These factors include reservoirs with low injectivity and those that are deep and heterogeneous with small pay zone thickness. In such cases, electromagnetic (EM) heating can enhance the recovery of heavy oil by enabling uniform heating of the reservoir. Up to 92% of the applied EM energy can be passed on to the reservoir formations. This ecologically sound and benign method has its basis in the conversion of EM energy into heat energy. As a result of this process, the temperature of the reservoir increases while the viscosity of oil reduces. In this paper, a hybrid approach by combining EM and SAGD has been suggested. The hybrid method is more convenient than the conventional SAGD method and facilitates better recovery of heavy crudes.

Electromagnetic heating, an eco-friendly method to enhance heavy oil production: A review of recent advancements

Impact of reservoir, fracturing fluid and proppant characteristics on proppant crushing and embedment in sandstone formations

In present times, non-renewable energy resources are dwindling at a faster rate. It has, therefore, become very essential to develop new alternative sources of energy to overcome this problem. The use of microalgae and its biomass as a starting material has received much interest in recent years because of its eco-friendly nature, biodegradability and lower net carbon cycle and these features are in sharp contrast with those of conventional petroleum fuels. Microalgae are photosynthetic organisms which accumulate chemical energy during their vegetative propagation. Utilizing these microalgae as a feedstock to produce renewable fuel is an emerging trend. The present work starts with a discussion on the different culturing techniques followed by an in-depth evaluation of the various processes that use microalgae and its biomass for biofuel production. This review also gives a glance of the current scenario and the merits and demerits of every process. The entire process of developing biofuel from algal mass is being carried out at research level. More works are yet to be conducted to overcome the difficulties in implementing the process of full-fledged exploitation of micro-algae for biofuel production at industry level.

A review of different technologies to produce fuel from microalgal feedstock

Transportation of heavy crude oil through pipelines poses a great challenge in oil and gas industry. Crude oil chokes the pipelines when the temperature drops below the pour-point temperature. In the present study, a bio-based additive, i.e., Cashew Nut Shell Liquid (CNSL) has been tested as a flow improver for heavy crude. CNSL was obtained from waste cashew nut shell by means of mechanical extraction, and it was completely characterized. Similarly, the crude oil used in the study was characterized for its physio-chemical properties. Also, the crude oil was subjected to Saturates, Aromatics, Resins and Asphaltene analysis and Fourier Transform Infra-Red analysis. The raw and additive-treated crude oil with different CNSL dosages were subjected to pour-point and rheology measurements and optical micro-imaging analysis which indicated a remarkable improvement in flow whereby an optimum dose of 2000 ppm was observed. Furthermore, the effects of different parameters like shear rate, concentration of the flow improver and the effect of temperature on the crude oil flowability were studied. The process variables were optimized by means of Taguchi method, and the percentage contribution of each parameter was identified with the help of ANOVA table. The results indicate that a remarkable improvement in flow was observed at an optimum dose of 2000 ppm. The contribution of the concentration was found to be around 53%, whereas the contributions of the shear rate and the temperature were only 18.08 and 28.91%, respectively. Therefore, it has been observed that CNSL flow improvers extracted from cheap reasonable resources are more effective as they are cost-effective and eco-friendly when compared to conventional additives.

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Shanker Krishna

Papers

Production Forecasting in Shale Reservoirs through Conventional DCA and Machine/Deep Learning Methods

Electromagnetic heating, an eco-friendly method to enhance heavy oil production: A review of recent advancements

Impact of reservoir, fracturing fluid and proppant characteristics on proppant crushing and embedment in sandstone formations

A review of different technologies to produce fuel from microalgal feedstock

A study on cashew nut shell liquid as a bio-based flow improver for heavy crude oil