Petroleum Engineering Dissertation Topics

Aims:
It has been observed that in the contemporary era, there is a firmness that is accorded while proposing legislation that is pertaining towards Carbon emission for ecological purposes as well as satisfying the emission quality demands of the corporations. Therefore, ethanol, combined with gasoline is considered as a possible alternative as a fuel which is considered to be more efficient than carbon. Therefore, it is the main aim of the research to conduct a thorough study to evaluate the impact of ethanol-gasoline combination that is levied on the NOx emission in the SI engine to serve the purpose of enhancing the combustion efficiency as well as to satisfy the emission quality demands that were previously obtained from carbon respectively.

Objectives:

Following are the objectives of the research:

• To identify the key factors that makes ethanol-gasoline combination as a probable alternative than carbon.
• To evaluate the impact the ethanol-gasoline combination will have on the populace considering their ecological demands
• To identify the key factors that makes ethanol-gasoline combination a viable candidate to cater the emission quality demands of the corporations.
• To formulate recommendations for the ethanol-gasoline combination in order to replace carbon as a probable alternative as a fuel source.

Aims and Objectives
According to the study of Saxena et al., (2019), the petroleum industry is one of the largest industry helps in fulfilling energy demands. Flow assurance is the critical process which focuses on the entire engineering and production mechanism of hydrocarbon. From the reservoir to refining it provides a systematic approach for ensuring the fluid of hydrocarbons is transmitted economically. Though, wax deposition or paraffin formation is a major problem in the upstream petroleum industry which affects the flow assurance process by reducing the efficiency of transporting crude oil. In the subsea line, the temperature drops to very low which cause the wax deposit to become more acute due to the increase in the crystallisation.

Therefore, addressing these issues of flow assurance has become critical in the petroleum industry. This study aims to understand the process of wax or paraffin formation along with its mitigation technologies to overcome the issue in the petroleum industry. Following are the objectives listed;

• To identify the process of wax formation and deposition in the pipelines.
• To study the fluid flow assurance in hydrocarbon production along with wax deposition.
• To assess various mechanical, biochemical, technical and chemical and other innovative techniques to mitigate the problem in the petroleum industry.

Aims and Objectives
As per the study of Alfarge et al., (2017), the simulation of oil reservoirs refers to the process of utilizing theoretical or numerical model based on geographical and petrophysical properties of the hydrocarbon reservoir to predict fluid flow in the specified time. Generally, the process is broken into three different models i.e. geological model to analyse volumetric grid or given porous rock formation, flow model which describes the process of fluid flow, and well model which describes the fluid flow in and out of the reservoir. Moreover, the main purpose of the early simulation of oil is to optimise the development of new fields and helps in supporting investment and operational decisions in the production process.

Although this simulation technique has been utilized by the engineers for a long time due to more complex and detailed reservoir features, computing technologies have been adopted for providing accurate simulations. Thus, all the processing, calculations and models take a lot of time in optimizing the development due to detailed analysis of the oil reservoirs. Therefore, this study aims to analyse various methods and technologies to reduce the optimisation time in the simulation of oil reservoirs. The objectives are listed below;

• To identify the concept of the oil reservoir in petroleum engineering.
• To describe various traditional models and method utilised in the simulation of oil reservoirs.
• To identify new methods that improve the optimisation time in the simulation of oil reservoirs.

Aims and Objectives
Garzón and Hierro (2018) identified that by summer 2007, the global economic recession was predicted by various financial investors due to the deregulation in the finance industry mainly precipitated in the United States as the financial crisis 2007-2008 and quickly spread globally. This caused a severe decrease in the prime rate which enabled the bank to demand more mortgages loan to issue to millions of customers that were not even eligible for them. This economic recession then affected market economies due to the trade channel or in some cases a sudden downturn recorded in workers’ remittance. In addition, this disruption of supply processes has substantially increased the oil price due to strong demand confronting signalling world production. Although, these prices fall in 2008 due to the United States economy. It has been observed that countries in recession has used less oil and cut their consumption up to 5% in 2008 which result in the rise and fall in the demand causing oil market crashing (MONADJEMI, 2017). However, this study aims to provide an in-depth analysis of factors that linked the world recession and oil market crashing by incorporating the case study of the 2008 global recession. The objectives are;

• To provide an overview of the global oil market.
• To assess the impact of the economic and financial crisis in the world recession based on the case study of the 2008 global recession.
• To determine the factors associated with the economic and financial crisis which resulted in the oil market crashing during the 2008 global recession.

Aims and Objectives
As per the study of Sorkhabi (2020), the global oil market has faced a precipitous crash in 2020 which have emerged as a shock for the financers and investors to face energy and demand crisis in the start of the year. It has been observed that oil prices had fallen two thirds since the beginning of 2020 and are continuing to fall. Moreover, the decline observed has been predicted seven times bigger than the greatest decline in the 2007-2008 financial crisis. In the United States (US) a significant drop in the crude oil prices has been noted which is below $0 barrel, a record low in the history. One of the major reason for the disruption of oil demand is the current COVID-19 pandemic situation. Furthermore, this uncertainty of oil and gas demand seems to continue until financial conditions do not get stable. Therefore, this study aims to analyse the factors that influence and led to this server global market crash which has disrupted the oil and energy demand due to travel and other restrictions around the world. This study incorporates a case study of oil market crash of 2020. The objectives of this study are;

• To analyse the situation of the global economic and financial market due to the current pandemic situation.
• To identify and evaluate the factors that led to global oil and energy market crash based on the case study of oil market crash 2020.
• To assess the impact and challenges in stabilising the oil market conditions of the current pandemic situation.

Aims and Objectives
As per the study of Zuo et al., (2019), one of the major flow assurance issues is the asphaltene deposition and plugging of pipelines in the process of producing and transporting oil. In addition, other traditional methods are used to improve the oil quality such that blending crude oil with short paraffin where additional paraffin that causes precipitation of asphaltene by filtering or sedimenting process. Thus these processes are considered slow and inefficient in reducing the content of asphaltene in oil. Generally, it has been identified that 50% of reduction in asphaltene helps in decreasing the oil viscosity to 30%. Though, Fakher (2019) evaluated that due to asphaltene possess behave as net charged molecules, therefore, electro-deposition is considered a significant process for precipitating asphaltene in direct proportion to the charge, strength and results in motion. However, this study aims to further analyse the effect of molecular composition on the electro-deposition of asphaltene. The objectives are listed below;

• To compare traditional methods and techniques for separating asphaltene in the flow assurance process.
• To identify the importance of electro-decomposition method in minimising asphaltene deposition.
• To assess the impact of molecular composition on electro-decomposition of asphaltene.

ms and Objectives
According to the study of Kaminskaite et al., (2019), petrophysical process refers to the integration of physical and chemical rock properties and their interaction with fluids. These are mostly related to determining porosity, permeability and saturation of the rock. These petrophysical properties usually require intermediate property i.e. volume or shale to analyse the reservoir. Moreover, the unconventional reservoirs demand additional properties for an adequate description along with the described three major petrophysical properties as a key input for evaluation. The porosity property defines the ratio of the volume of space to the total volume of rocks. The saturation refers to the per cent or fraction that defined the pore volume of the occupied. Whereas, permeability focuses on measuring the flowing capacity of the fluid in the rocks. Different techniques are used to classify reservoirs based on the hydrocarbon accumulation by utilising the main properties.  However, this study aims to evaluate petrophysical properties by integrating novel imaging techniques for the desired outcome. The objectives are;

• To identify the concept of petrophysical properties in the rock formation.
• To understand novel imaging techniques for fluid study.
• To critically evaluate the petrophysical properties using novel imaging techniques

Aims and Objectives
As per the study of STYLIDIS (2019), perceived quality is one of the most successful factors for car manufacturers in today’s world. From the engineers’ perspectives, perceived quality is evaluated based on the certain functions used in the design of the products. In addition, automotive companies mainly focus on manufacturing cars that meet their consumers’ expectations. This helps in creating the greatest advantage of achieving consumers’ perception of the quality of the car. Many researchers have examined factors that influence consumer perception of the product. Proposed visual decomposition strategy for the vehicle images help the consumer to evaluate the product in a better way. Moreover, there are various methods and factors that help in enhancing the visual appearance of the car that attracts the buyer. These factors can be predicted through different methods based on the brand, model, appearance and much more related to the quality of the car. Therefore this study undertakes different methods and framework to predict the perceived quality of cars. The following objectives are;

• To identify the concept of perceived quality in the automotive industry
• To critically evaluate the factors related to achieving the perceived quality of cars.
• To assess the framework and methods for predicting the perceived quality of cars in the automotive industry.

Aims and Objectives
As per the study of Zuo et al., (2019), one of the major flow assurance issues is the asphaltene deposition and plugging of pipelines in the process of producing and transporting oil. In addition, other traditional methods are used to improve the oil quality such that blending crude oil with short paraffin where additional paraffin that causes precipitation of asphaltene by filtering or sedimenting process. Thus these processes are considered slow and inefficient in reducing the content of asphaltene in oil. Generally, it has been identified that 50% of reduction in asphaltene helps in decreasing the oil viscosity to 30%. Though, Fakher (2019) evaluated that due to asphaltene possess behave as net charged molecules, therefore, electro-deposition is considered a significant process for precipitating asphaltene in direct proportion to the charge, strength and results in motion. However, this study aims to further analyse the effect of molecular composition on the electro-deposition of asphaltene. The objectives are listed below;

• To compare traditional methods and techniques for separating asphaltene in the flow assurance process.
• To identify the importance of electro-decomposition method in minimising asphaltene deposition.
• To assess the impact of molecular composition on electro-decomposition of asphaltene.

Aims and Objectives
Biank et al., (2019) identified that the introduction of advanced automotive systems plays a vital role in the emerging shift of the automotive sector to include cars based on electronic systems. The advanced cars and emerging technologies increased the demand for engineers specialising in signal processing, automatic control, hardware control and much more. The major reason underpinning is the rapid development of safety systems. As the vehicles are increasing on the road which has indirectly increased the demand for automotive safety. In addition, due to this emerging trend, tremendous progress has been observed in the reduction of accident statistics.

Traditionally, the automotive systems worked by separating driving safety systems that help in preventing accidents and passive safety systems that protect human during an accident. In this modern era, computation tools and technologies have rapidly enhanced the processing of automotive safety systems by integrating advanced intelligence in the cars for the protection. However, this study aims to integrate computational verification methods for automotive safety systems for both the vehicle and driver based on the case study of freight.  The objectives are;

• To identify the importance of safety systems in electrical cars.
• To critically evaluate the use of various computational technologies and technologies in developing advanced automotive safety systems for the vehicle and driver.
• To assess the impact of computational verification tools on automotive safety systems by including the case study of freight.

Aims and Objectives
Biank et al., (2019) identified that the introduction of advanced automotive systems plays a vital role in the emerging shift of the automotive sector to include cars based on electronic systems. The advanced cars and emerging technologies increased the demand for engineers specialising in signal processing, automatic control, hardware control and much more. The major reason underpinning is the rapid development of safety systems. As the vehicles are increasing on the road which has indirectly increased the demand for automotive safety. In addition, due to this emerging trend, tremendous progress has been observed in the reduction of accident statistics.

Traditionally, the automotive systems worked by separating driving safety systems that help in preventing accidents and passive safety systems that protect human during an accident. In this modern era, computation tools and technologies have rapidly enhanced the processing of automotive safety systems by integrating advanced intelligence in the cars for the protection. However, this study aims to integrate computational verification methods for automotive safety systems for both the vehicle and driver based on the case study of freight.  The objectives are;

• To identify the importance of safety systems in electrical cars.
• To critically evaluate the use of various computational technologies and technologies in developing advanced automotive safety systems for the vehicle and driver.
• To assess the impact of computational verification tools on automotive safety systems by including the case study of freight.

Aims and Objectives
Farag and Saleh (2019) defined that during past year improved sensor and hardware technologies along with different algorithms have contributed to the development of self-driving cars. Due to increased technology, many automotive companies have shifted towards the production of advance driver assistance system (ADAS) and self-driving vehicles. In addition to this, autonomous vehicles have produced a significant impact on closed areas i.e. harbours, mines and offloading sites which has helped in managing legal requirements due to a more controlled environment than urban areas. Furthermore, within these areas, truck drivers and trailer systems are commonly used to transport goods and materials. These systems are more complex due to interconnectedness between modules and are unstable while reversing. For this purpose, on motion planning and control is required to deal with the giant vehicles. However, this study aims to analyse different on motion planning and feedback control frameworks for truck and trailer systems by incorporating a case study on ADAS and self-driving vehicles. The objectives are;

• To understand the significance of autonomous vehicles.
• To identify the factors that contribute to the development of ADAS and self-driving vehicles.
• To assess the efficiency of on-motion planning and control for truck and trailer systems based on the functionality of ADAS and self-driving vehicles.