• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.31-35
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• 2017

Recently, international attention has been focused on the development of non-traditional energy resources such as shale gas and oil sands, due to the steep increase in the demand for natural resources. The materials incorporated in an oil gas plant module experience extreme environments, and are prone to various problem such as fracture, corrosion and abrasion due to low-temperature brittleness. In order to improve the plant life, it is necessary to perform characteristics study and performance evaluation of the materials. In particular, this paper explains the main set of materials which are most frequently used in oil sands plant project. In order to investigate wear characteristics, the authors carried out abrasive wear tests of TP 316, stainless steel and SS 400, structural rolled steel. For the analysis of the abrasive wear resistance of an oil sands plant, the authors carried out the test according to ASTM G 105 "Standard Test Method for Conducting Wet Sand/Rubber Wheel Abrasion Test" standard guidelines. The authors have derived the results from the data associated with the loss of mass with respect to wear rate. During the test, for a given wear length for 10,000 revolutions, the rotational speed and applied force of the rubber wheel were varied.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.213-224
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• 2016

Non-conventional resource and alternative energy were researched for predicting oil peak. In this study, one of many non-conventional resources, specifically oil-sands, was investigated due to the increasing interest of oil-sands plant modularization in permaforst areas for reducing the construction periods through modular transportation while limiting local construction workers. Hence, tehcnological trends were analyzed for oil-sand plant modularization. Data used were between 1994 and 2015 for patent analysis while targets included Korea, US, Japan, Europe and Canada. Technology classification system consisted of mining, steam assisted gravity drainage(SAGD), separation/upgrading/tailors ponds, module design/packaging, module transportation and material/maintenance. Result of patent analysis, patent application accounts 89% in US and Canada. The main competitive companies were Shell, Suncor and Exxon-mobil. Unlike other oil developments, oil-sands have a long-term stable production characteristic, hence, it is important to ensure the competitiveness of oil-sands for obtaining a patent in the long run.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.5-9
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• 2016

The purpose of this paper is to define criteria to be used as part of the engineering design for an oil sands plant equipped with the steam assisted gravity drainage process. In this effort, the oil treatment process of an oil sands plant on a pilot scale was focused for detailed investigation. The thermodynamic properties of the process fluid, which is mainly composed of bitumen and water, were estimated with the CPA model. The commercial tool aspen HYSYS was used for the analysis throughout this work along with the provided input data and some necessary assumptions. From the simulation results, the heat and mass balances for a 300 BPD plant were established in order to define standard data for its modular design. In particular, the basis of design for equipment size, heat transfer areas, capital cost and operation cost was extensively discussed.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.211-217
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• 2019

Oil extraction from oil sands, a non-traditional crude oil resource, is attracting attention as the oil price fluctuates due to recent economical and political issues. Many oil sands sites are mainly located in the polar regions. For plant construction to extract crude oil from oil sands in harsh environment of the polar regions, fast and simple installation of plant foundation is necessary. However, typically-used conventional foundations such as drilled shafts and driven piles are not suitable to construct under cold temperature and organic surface layers. In this study, helical piles enabling rapid and simple constructions using small rotary equipment without driving or excavation was considered. The helical pile consists of steel shaft and several helices attached to the steel shaft; therefore, the behavior of the helical pile depends on the number and shape of the helices. The effect of the helices' configuration (number and diameter of helices) on helical pile behavior was analyzed based on the numerical analysis results.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.19-24
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• 2016

Oil sands are a mixture of sand, clay, and a high-viscosity petroleum called bitumen. Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) is the most viable and environmentally safe recovery technology for extracting bitumen. It extracts the viscosity-lowered bitumen by high pressure, high temperature steam injected into the bitumen reservoir. The steam is produced at the Central Processing Facility (CPF). Typically, more than 90% of the energy consumed in producing bitumen are used to generate the steam. Fuels are employed in the process, which cause economic and environmental problems. This paper explores the retrofit of heat exchanger network to reduce the usage of hot and cold utilities. The hot and cold utilities are reduced respectively 6% and 37.3% which in turn resulted in 5.3% saving of total annual cost by improving the existing heat exchanger network of the CPF.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Geothermal and Hydrothermal Energy
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.12-21
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• 2022

Steam assisted gravity drainage(SAGD) is a process that drills well in the underground oil sands layer, injects hightemperature steam, lowers the viscosity of buried bitumen, and recovers it to the ground. Recently, direct contact steam generator(DCSG) is being developed to maximize steam efficiency for SAGD process. The DCSG requires high technology to achieve pressurized combustion and steam generation in accordance with underground pressurized conditions. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a combustion technology that can control the heat load and exhaust gas composition. In this study, process analysis of high-pressurized DCSG was conducted to apply oxygen enrichment technology in which nitrogen of the air was partially removed for increasing steam production and reducing fuel consumption. As the process analysis conditions, methane as the fuel and normal air or oxygen enriched air as the oxidizing agent were applied to high-pressurized DCSG process model. A simple combustion reaction program was used to calculate the property variations for combustion temperature, steam ratio and residual heat in exhaust gas. As a major results, the steam production efficiency of DCSG using the pure oxygen was about 6% higher than that of the normal air due to the reducing nitrogen in the air. The results of this study will be used as operating data to test the demonstration device.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.29-40
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• 2018

Oil sands, which are largely distributed in Canada and Venezuela, are a mixture of crude oil and sandy soils. In order to extract crude oil from oil sands, construction of massive oil sand plants is required. Generally, the typically-used foundation types of the oil sand plant are driven piles and cast-in-place piles. Most of the oil sand plants are located in cold and remote regions. Installation of driven piles in frozen or organic surface soils is difficult due to high resistance and installation equipment accessability, while the cast-in-place pile has concrete curing problem due to cold temperature. Helical pile can be installed quickly and easily using rotation with a little help of vertical load. As the installation of helical pile is available using a small and light-weight installation equipment, accessibility of installation equipment is improved. The helical pile has an advantage of easy removal by rotation in reverse direction compared with that of installation. Furthermore, reuse of removed helical piles is possible when the piles are structurally safe. In this study, the behavior of helical piles varying helix pitch was analyzed based on the numerical analysis results. Numerical model was calibrated based on the results of model helical pile tests in laboratory. The ultimate helical pile loads, the displacement of each helix attached to the shaft of the helical pile, and the load sharing ratio of each helix were analyzed.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.48-52
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• 2016

Microstructure and tensile strength of the vacuum brazed stainless steel(STS304) and WC-8 %Co were investigated. For brazing, the BNi-2, 3(A.W.S standard) were used as filler metals. It was found that metallic compounds of W-Ni were observed at the between WC metrix and brazed layer. Among these filler metals, the BNi-2 showed excellent wettability, but tensile strength was lower than BNi-3. The fracture of the brazed specimens with BNi-2 was occurred at the between WC metrix and brazed layer. The fracture of the brazed specimens with BNi-3 was occurred at the between WC metrix and brazed layer, and between brazed layer and stainless steel.