Ramanan Krishnamoorti, chief energy officer at the University of Houston and professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering in the UH Cullen College of Engineering, offered his expertise to the blog FuelFix regarding the Bakken Shale oil flammability and regulator warnings in an article posted Thursday. According to FuelFix, the Bakken Shale oil in North Dakota and Montana may be more flammable than traditional heavy crude, and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration issued a warning of the potential fire danger after three train derailments of crude in 2013 resulted in large explosions.
Krishnamoorti explained to FuelFix how light crude is more gaseous and thus flammable due to higher levels of lighter hydrocarbons and drew comparisons between the Bakken Shale and Eagle Ford Shale plays. Read the full article here.