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Journal Articles
Nature's Little Helpers
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Article by Mark Venables for Engineering & Technology magazine. Issue 8, 2009.
An extra 600 billion barrels of oil could be extracted from existing oilfields by using microbes according to oil giant BP. E&T investigates.
Proposed since the 1920s, the use of microbes to enhance oil recovery has remained practically unseen. However, the advances of modern biotechnology and the recent discovery and characterisation of indigenous microbes living in the oil reservoirs has bought this technology to the attention of oil companies.
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Under the Sea
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Article by Professor Rafael Kandiyoti for Engineering & Technology magazine. Issue 14, 2009.
Underwater cables and pipelines have been used for almost two centuries to carry power, raw materials and to enhance communications, as E&T explains.
At the western edge of Alexandria's famous 'corniche', few of the guests sipping a lazy pre-lunch drink on the terraces of the Greek Club would have any notion of what lies under the shimmering sea spreading out before them. Imagine their surprise, therefore, when on a sunny winter's day in January 2008, a ship's anchor sliced through a couple of underwater cables near the ancient port, severing electronic communications between Europe and Asia. Around 85 million users from Egypt to India were cut off for days.
Click here for the complete article.
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Good Vibrations
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Article by Sean Davies for Engineering & Technology magazine. Issue 14, 2009.
Attempts to mine the rich energy sources from the ocean through wave or tidal devices are limited to areas that have fast flowing water. But E&T discovers there are plans to use water vibrations to generate electricity from even the slowest running source.
Many modern inventions have been attributed to the genius of Leonardo da Vinci, but until now he had not been credited with extracting energy from the ocean.
Click here for the complete article.
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The Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry
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Article by R, L Grice
Nigeria is Africa's most populous country with a population exceeding 130 million (2005) and an area four times the size of the United Kingdom. A visitor to Nigeria is quickly made aware of the vagaries and unreliability of the Nigerian national electricity industry, which, despite employing 33,000 workers (2005 figures) is clearly in need of assistance. The Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry requires massive modernisation and restructuring as is evidenced by the very frequent power cuts and the chronic capacity of the system at present.
Click here for the complete article.
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A Leading Light
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Article by Siân Crampsie for Engineering & Technology magazine. Issue 11, 2009.
Fuel cells offer a great deal of promise in a variety of applications. E&T visits Finland where a key demonstration project hopes to prove this 'disruptive' technology is on the verge of commercial reality.
In 2006, a Finnish town saw an opportunity to demonstrate the use of fuel cell technology to generate heat and power for some homes being built to showcase new architectural styles. Now, as engineers prepare to start operating the plant, the seemingly small scale project has become a symbol of progress in the fuel cell field, and of the efforts being made by the commercial and public sectors alike to bring the technology to commercialisation.
Click here for the complete article.
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Glorious Mud
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Article by Christine Evans-Pughe for Engineering & Technology magazine. Issue 6, 2009.
Techniques borrowed from the latest wireless networking standards are helping oil and gas engineers reach new deposits.
"Mud, mud, glorious mud, nothing quite like it for real-time bore-hole communications".
Drilling for oil and gas these days is complicated: the easily accessible wells were drilled many years ago. A modern well will often have a vertical section, a curved part and then a horizontal path into the reservoir of oil and gas. Many reservoirs are made up of multiple small pockets, so part of the drilling process is to connect these into one well.
Click here for complete article.
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Deep-Sea Technology
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Article by Jeff Crook for Engineering & Technology magazine. Issue 1, 2010.
New technologies are required to cope with the cold and pressure as oil companies head out into deeper waters in their quest for oil.
As oil companies venture deeper into the oceans, they are having to install production equipment in dark, freezing conditions and under crushing pressures on the seabed. Commercial divers cannot operate in such a hostile environment, so expensive remotely controlled underwater vehicles - operated via an umbilical cable that stretches perhaps a couple of kilometres from a support vessel to the sea floor - must be used to maintain ever more complex equipment.
Click here for complete article.
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