Reducing Flammability for Bakken Crude Oil for Train Transport: Year 5
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.
Language
- English
Project
- Status: Completed
- Funding: $155800
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Contract Numbers:
69A3551747107
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Sponsor Organizations:
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology
University Transportation Centers Program
Department of Transportation
Washington, DC United States 20590 -
Managing Organizations:
Mid-America Transportation Center
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
2200 Vine Street, PO Box 830851
Lincoln, NE United States 68583-0851 -
Project Managers:
Stearns, Amy
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Performing Organizations:
IIHR- Hydroscience & Engineering
307 C. Maxwell Stanley Hydraulics Lab
Iowa City, Iowa United States 52242 -
Principal Investigators:
Ratner, Albert
- Start Date: 20220101
- Expected Completion Date: 20221231
- Actual Completion Date: 20221231
- USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers Program
- Source Data: RiP Project 91994-101
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Crude oil; Flammability; Freight transportation; Materials tests; Nanostructured materials; Polymers; Railroad transportation
- Subject Areas: Energy; Freight Transportation; Materials; Railroads; Safety and Human Factors;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01844443
- Record Type: Research project
- Source Agency: Mid-America Transportation Center
- Contract Numbers: 69A3551747107
- Files: UTC, RIP
- Created Date: Apr 30 2022 11:31AM