Book:The Laboratories of Our Lives: Labs, Labs Everywhere!/Labs by industry: Part 4/Petrochemical and hydrocarbon

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6.2 Petrochemical and hydrocarbon

A petrochemical and hydrocarbon laboratory is focused on analyzing the properties and constituents of various petrochemicals and their feedstock (including petroleum, natural gas, and coal) for the purposes of ensuring their safety, quality, development, and improvement. Secondarily, these labs may provide a platform for research and development (R&D) and teaching. Petrochemical and hydrocarbon labs are found in the private and academic sectors, and occasionally in government, providing many different services, including (but not limited to)^[1]:

analysis for purity
analysis for contaminates
corrosion testing
characterization testing
environmental testing
quality control testing

But how do petrochemical and hydrocarbon laboratories intersect the average person's life on a daily basis?

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimated that of the approximately 7.19 billion barrels of petroleum consumed in the U.S. in 2016, 48 percent of it went towards motor gasoline, 20 percent of it went to distillate fuel, and eight percent was used as jet fuel.^[2] The EIA also notes that while petroleum is used as a feedstock for the creation of plastic in the U.S., it's not the main feedstock for plastic, and regardless, the EIA is unable to determine what percentage of petroleum consumed in the U.S. went towards the creation of plastics^[3] (though simple math using the numbers previously provided proves that it must be 24 percent or less). Even so, these facts alone can't but cement the idea that the world as we know it today would not be as it is without petroleum and petrochemical laboratories and their laboratorians. One could argue that laboratories developing renewable source of energy and the equipment to harness it are more important from an environmental standpoint, but the point still stands: we currently depend heavily on petrochemicals as energy and to create thousands of products.^[4]

6.2.1 Client types

Private - These labs provide an array of analytical services as third-party testers and consultants, or they work as company-based or independent research and development laboratories developing new petrochemical-based products.

Examples include:

Government - At least in the United States, government petrochemical labs are typically working to ensure consistent fuel quality, product safety, and fuel transportation methods. Secondarily they may act as environmental response centers, reacting to petroleum spills and natural spills or developing improved remediation methods.

Examples include:

Academic - Academic petrochemical labs are providing education to undergraduate and graduate students, as well as driving new research into petrochemical extraction and infrastructure.

Examples include:

6.2.2 Functions

What are the most common functions? analytical, QA/QC, research/design, and teaching

What materials, technologies, and/or aspects are being analyzed, researched, and quality controlled? aromatics, coal, feedstocks, hydrocarbons, intermediate chemicals, monomers, natural gas, petroleum, polymers, sediment, solvents, sulfur, trace metals, water, wear metals

What sciences are being applied in these labs? chemistry, environmental science, geology, geophysics, mathematics, petroleum engineering, physics, thermodynamics

What are some examples of test types and equipment?

Common test types include:

Acid and base number, Aniline point, API gravity, Basic sediment and water, Biodegradation, Boiling - freezing - melting point, Calorimetry, Carbon-hydrogen ratio, Cargo inspection and sampling, Cetane, Chemical and materials compatibility, Cloud point, Combustion, Compliance/Conformance, Conductivity, Congealing point, Conradson Carbon Residue, Contamination, Corrosion, Damage tolerance, Decomposition, Density, Dissolved gas, Doctor test, Emissions, Evaporation loss, Flash point, Fluid dynamics, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Heating value, Hydraulic, Hydrocarbon group type, Immersion, Impurity, Kauri-butanol value, Leak, Lightning, Lubricity, Macroetch, Mobility, Moisture, Molecular weight, Octane, Oxidation reduction potential, Oxidation stability, Passivation, Permeability, Peroxide value, pH, Plating and coating evaluations, Pour point, Pressure, Process safety, Proficiency, Quality control, Radioactivity, Radiochemical, Ramsbottom Carbon Residue, Refractive index, Salt content, Saponification value, Seismic, Smoke point, Stress corrosion cracking, Surface tension, Thermal, Vapor pressure, Velocity and flow, Viscosity, Weathering

Industry-related lab equipment may include:

amperostat, balance, chromatographic, combustion analyzer, constant temperature bath, density meter, dissolved oxygen meter, evaporation loss analyzer, flashpoint tester, flocculator, fume hood, hot plate, hygrometer, iodine flask, metallic iron analyzer, muffle furnace, oil-in-water analyzer, oxidation stability analyzer, pH meter, pycnometer, refractometer, rheometer, shakers and stirrers, specific gravity flask, spectrometer, spectrophotometer, thermometer, thin film oven, titrator, turbidity meter, vapor pressure analyzer, viscometer, water bath

What else, if anything, is unique about the labs in the petrochemical and hydrocarbon industry?

Because of the environmental consequences of petrochemical and feedstock pollution of the environment, petrochemical labs share some of the same characteristics of environmental labs. Also like environmental labs, petrochemical labs have their fair share of field analyses, both on land and on the water.

6.2.3 Informatics in the petrochemical and hydrocarbon industry

Proper data analysis and management in the petrochemical and hydrocarbon lab is vital to the quality of the final consumer product and to the efficiency of the business itself. Laboratory informatics software like the laboratory information management system (LIMS) is an important tool towards meeting those goals. And the processes are different at each manufacturing and R&D stage, from improving operation efficiencies in drilling and recovery of the upstream phase, the process optimization of midstream hydrocarbon cracking and refining, and the process development and improvement of polymers and plastics downstream.^[5] LIMS and other tools are capable of automatically capturing data from a continuous process flow that involves in-process testing using numerous instruments, processing and storing that data, and making it available for a variety of purposes, including quality testing.^[6] As the need for efficiency and improved quality grows, conferences such as the International Petroleum Data Integration, Information and Data Management Conference^[7] and the Esri Energy Resources GIS Conference^[8] provide further opportunities for the industry to share and innovate new ways for informatics systems to further benefit the industry.