详情

Reducing Flammability for Bakken Crude Oil for Train Transport: Year 5

项目名称：	Reducing Flammability for Bakken Crude Oil for Train Transport: Year 5
摘要：	Crude oil shipping by rail is a critical component of our energy security and has grown steadily with the Bakken oil boom. However, existing rail infrastructures are in a state of disrepair, which has been evidenced in recent years by several high-profile derailments of trains carrying crude oil, resulting in large oil spills. This is an especially dangerous situation in the case of Bakken crude, which is a light variety and contains significant amounts of easy-to-evaporate, easy-to-ignite light ends, and usually results is an intense fireball in the case of accidents. This research proposal considers a solution to improve fire safety during transportation: adding long-chain polymers to crude oil before shipping. Previous research done by Professor Albert Ratner’s research group under MATC-DOT sponsorship has concluded that polymeric additives improve fire safety in diesel fuels and its blends by delaying ignition, promoting flame extinction, and suppressing splashing. In Years 1-4 of the project, surrogates for the Bakken crude were identified and tested for their ability to suspend polymers and nanoparticles that will serve as fire-limiting agents. In addition, combustion behaviors such as ignition delay, combustion rate, and flame characteristics were experimentally investigated. To provide a broader understanding, testing included crudes sourced from the Bakken formation, Colorado, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Combustion characteristics were established for surrogate fuels with various polymeric additives and carbon-based nano-additives at various concentrations. Also, the stability/settling characteristics were investigated with different surrogate fuels containing nano-additives. In Year 5, the primary effort will be to study how to achieve prolonged stability for fuels with nano-additives (carbon-based nanomaterial/nanoparticles, polymers, and their mixture) because long stability periods are a prerequisite for practical application. In addition, combustion characteristics will be investigated for mixed additives (mixture of carbon-based nanomaterial/nanoparticles and polymers) for different surrogate fuels and crudes to exploit their individual, fire-safety-enhancing characteristics. These results will allow for this information to be linked with surrogate and crude properties. This information is critical for enabling adoption of this technology.
状态：	Active
资金：	155800
资助组织：	Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology
管理组织：	Mid-America Transportation Center
项目负责人：	Stearns, Amy
执行机构：	University of Iowa, Iowa City
主要研究人员：	Ratner, Albert
开始时间：	20220101
预计完成日期：	20221231
主题领域：	Energy；Freight Transportation；Materials；Railroads；Safety and Human Factors