Characterization of fresh and weathered petroleum for potential impacts to soil fertility

In many petroleum-producing regions, there are not adequate controls to prevent pipeline breaks and spills, and thus soil is frequently contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons. Different petroleum oil compounds may produce negative impacts on soil fertility. In this study, four fresh crudes, a weathered petroleum, and oils from bioremediated and burned sites were investigated (specific gravities 0.83–1.27). Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy revealed three predominant polar functional groups to be more plentiful in the heavier crudes. The relative abundance of these groups was used to calculate an index that was directly correlated with specific gravity (R ² = 0.9960) and the percent of asphaltene plus (polars + resins) fractions in the oil (R ² = 0.9643). This index correlated exponentially to the water repellency caused by petroleum in an alluvial soil (R ² = 0.9928). Furthermore, extra-heavy oil at a concentration of 10,000 ppm, the maximum allowable oil concentration in the soil that is within regulatory norms in many US states and other countries, and with a specific gravity >1.002, showed severe water repellency. This study presents an alternative for determining soil remediation criteria based on the API gravity of the oil rather than the C-range of the hydrocarbon mixtures, simplifying analytical methods and systematically studying the interaction between the kinds of petroleum mixtures and potential impacts to soil fertility.     

柴达木盆地北缘富氦天然气的发现——兼议成藏地质条件

在柴达木盆地北缘全吉山、团鱼山地区的煤炭钻孔和泥页岩解吸气中发现了体积分数较高的氦气显示。对2个地区的6件样品进行甲烷C同位素和He同位素分析,其中2个样品的δ13C1值分别为-38.4‰和-39.9‰,属于有机成因。4个样品的3He/4He同位素测试结果在0.03×10-6~1.3×10-6之间,表明氦气来源以壳源氦为主,个别样品有少量幔源氦加入。通过区域背景资料和物探资料分析认为,柴北缘壳源成因的氦可能主要来源于基底富U、Th花岗岩体的放射性衰变,而柴北缘的山前深大断裂则可为氦的运移提供良好通道。氦气产生后,在垂向运移过程中结合其他烃类或非烃类气体,在侏罗系、古近系—新近系良好的储盖条件下,有可能形成独特的富氦天然气富集。     

北京密云放马峪基性岩墙群LA-MC-ICP-MS锆石U-Pb年龄及其意义

太古宙基性岩墙群在北京密云地区广泛分布,其年代学研究一直备受关注,多年来取得了一些数据,但对太古宙变质片麻岩控制作用未做论述。利用LA-MC-ICP-MS U-Pb同位素测定技术,测得放马峪石榴辉石岩中锆石的年龄为2497±15Ma,此年龄被解释为区内变质片麻岩成岩年龄应早于基性岩墙群成岩年龄,其为研究区内太古宙片麻岩成岩年龄提供了重要的参考数据。     

Appraisal of changes in sewage sludge management

A positive energy balance caused by accelerated production of CH₄ and additional financial benefits associated with shorter retention times, reduction in volumes, easier dewatering, enhanced hygiene, etc., are the reasons why most modern wastewater treatment plants are newly equipped with hydrothermal pretreatment units. This study examined how the changes in composition of the pretreated sewage sludge fermentation residues manifested themselves in subsequent processing by pyrolysis, both in terms of technology and financial impacts. It has been found that concentrations of heavy metals and other hazardous inhibitors might increase; however, the overall biotoxicity is lower due to their immobilization in the charred mass. Moreover, charring of the fermentation residues results in significant financial as well as technological benefits.     

Enhancement of a hypoplastic model for granular soil–structure interface behaviour

Modelling of interfaces in geotechnical engineering is an important issue. Interfaces between structural elements (e.g., anchors, piles, tunnel linings) and soils are widely used in geotechnical engineering. The objective of this article is to propose an enhanced hypoplastic interface model that incorporates the in-plane stresses at the interface. To this aim, we develop a general approach to convert the existing hypoplastic model with a predefined limit state surface for sands into an interface model. This is achieved by adopting reduced stress and stretching vectors and redefining tensorial operations which can be used in the existing continuum model with few modifications. The enhanced interface model and the previous model are compared under constant-load, stiffness and volume conditions. The comparison is followed by a verification of two the approaches for modelling the different surface roughness. Subsequently, a validation between available experimental data from the literature versus simulations is presented. The new enhanced model gives improved predictions by the incorporation of in-plane stresses into the model formulation.