Radio Havana Cuba's Science, Technology and Environment Program:
BREAKTHROUGHFor broadcast Sunday, September 17, 2000
Written and narrated by Arnaldo "Arnie" Coro, RHC's Science Editor
Hello, and once again welcome to Breakthrough our Science, Technology and the Environment update. I am Arnaldo, Arnie, Coro, RHC's Science editor and it's my pleasure to introduce today's topic: How Cuba is using emulsified fuel oil as the feedstock for electric power stations.
Cuban researchers have worked hard at the Center for Chemical Research in order to develope a proprietary technology that will make possible using the very heavy, high-viscosity crude oil that is extracted from the Jaruco and Varadero oil fields. Those two areas, located not far from Havana, also provide important quantities of natural gas that is now used, both for electricity generation and as domestic city gas for cooking purposes. But the heavy crude is very difficult to move around, its high viscosity requires heating it to a certain above-ambient temperature to make it flow, and so that it can be pumped from the storage tanks to the end users. Heating the heavy crude is a big technological problem, but it is still done in order to help the nation's energy balance by reducing the need for imported oil.
Now the new emulsion technology promises to be a long-term, practical and not-so-costly solution. Engineers at the Center for Chemical Research of the Ministry of Basic Industry have developed a low-cost continuos process that adds water to the heavy crude oil, turning it into an much lighter, less viscous emulsion that can be treated as regular high-grade fuel oil. As a matter of fact, the emulsified oil burns much better and produces a lot less atmospheric pollution than the heavy crude. The only limiting factor for the application of this procedure is that it uses a tensoactive agent to reduce the oil's surface tension, and that is a chemical that has to be imported, although now the researchers are working on the development of a natural tensoactive agent derived from a plant that is easy to cultivate here in Cuba.
The nation's national electrical system, providing service to around 97 percent of the population, is now generating more than 50 percent of the electricity using domestic oil and gas, and plans call for reaching 70 percent domestic fuel use real soon.
And this was Breakthrough for today, how Cuban scientists are developing a proprietary oil-emulsifying technology to provide power plants with lower-cost domestic crude oil. From Havana, I am Arnaldo, Arnie Coro, RHC's Science Editor, now wishing you excellent reception of our short wave signals.
prepared 09-17-2000; transmitted 09-20-2000 21:45
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