Cleveland
Cleveland is a major city in the U. S. state of Ohio, the county seat of Cuyahoga County. The city proper has a population of 385,525, making it the 51st-largest city in the United States, the second-largest city in Ohio. Greater Cleveland is ranked as the 32nd-largest metropolitan area in the U. S. with 2,055,612 people in 2016. The city anchors the Cleveland–Akron–Canton Combined Statistical Area, which had a population of 3,515,646 in 2010 and is ranked 15th in the United States; the city is located on the southern shore of Lake Erie 60 miles west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania state border. It was founded in 1796 near the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, it became a manufacturing center due to its location on both the river and the lake shore, as well as being connected to numerous canals and railroad lines. Cleveland's economy relies on diversified sectors such as manufacturing, financial services and biomedicals. Cleveland is home to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Cleveland residents are called "Clevelanders".
The city has many nicknames, the oldest of which in contemporary use being "The Forest City". Cleveland was named on July 22, 1796, when surveyors of the Connecticut Land Company laid out Connecticut's Western Reserve into townships and a capital city, they named it "Cleaveland" after General Moses Cleaveland. Cleaveland oversaw design of the plan for what would become the modern downtown area, centered on Public Square, before returning home, never again to visit Ohio; the first settler in Cleaveland was Lorenzo Carter, who built a cabin on the banks of the Cuyahoga River. The Village of Cleaveland was incorporated on December 23, 1814. In spite of the nearby swampy lowlands and harsh winters, its waterfront location proved to be an advantage, giving access to Great Lakes trade; the area began rapid growth after the 1832 completion of the Erie Canal. This key link between the Ohio River and the Great Lakes connected the city to the Atlantic Ocean via the Erie Canal and Hudson River, via the St. Lawrence Seaway.
Its products could reach markets on the Gulf of Mexico via the Mississippi River. Growth continued with added railroad links. Cleveland incorporated as a city in 1836. In 1836, the city located only on the eastern banks of the Cuyahoga River, nearly erupted into open warfare with neighboring Ohio City over a bridge connecting the two. Ohio City remained an independent municipality until its annexation by Cleveland in 1854; the city's prime geographic location as a transportation hub on the Great Lakes has played an important role in its development as a commercial center. Cleveland serves as a destination for iron ore shipped from Minnesota, along with coal transported by rail. In 1870, John D. Rockefeller founded Standard Oil in Cleveland. In 1885, he moved its headquarters to New York City, which had become a center of finance and business. Cleveland emerged in the early 20th century as an important American manufacturing center, its businesses included automotive companies such as Peerless, People's, Jordan and Winton, maker of the first car driven across the U.
S. Other manufacturers located in Cleveland produced steam-powered cars, which included White and Gaeth, as well as the electric car company Baker; because of its significant growth, Cleveland was known as the "Sixth City" of the US during this period. By 1920, due in large part to the city's economic prosperity, Cleveland became the nation's fifth-largest city; the city counted Progressive Era politicians such as the populist Mayor Tom L. Johnson among its leaders, its industrial jobs had attracted waves of European immigrants from southern and eastern Europe, as well as both black and white migrants from the rural South. In commemoration of the centennial of Cleveland's incorporation as a city, the Great Lakes Exposition debuted in June 1936 along the Lake Erie shore north of downtown. Conceived as a way to energize the city after the Great Depression, it drew four million visitors in its first season, seven million by the end of its second and final season in September 1937; the exposition was housed on grounds that are now used by the Great Lakes Science Center, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Burke Lakefront Airport, among others.
Following World War II, Cleveland continued to enjoy a prosperous economy. In sports, the Indians won the 1948 World Series, the hockey team, the Barons, became champions of the American Hockey League, the Browns dominated professional football in the 1950s; as a result, along with track and boxing champions produced, Cleveland was dubbed "City of Champions" in sports at this time. Businesses proclaimed that Cleveland was the "best location in the nation". In 1940, non-Hispanic whites represented 90.2% of Cleveland's population. Wealthy patrons supported development of the city's cultural institutions, such as the art museum and orchestra; the city's population reached its peak of 914,808, in 1949 Cleveland was named an All-America City for the first time. By the 1960s, the economy slowed, residents sought new housing in the suburbs, reflecting the national trends of suburban growth following the subsidized highways. In the 1950s and 1960s, African Americans worked in numerous cities to gain constitutional rights and relief from racial discrimination.
As change lagged despite federal laws to enforce rights and racial unrest occurred in Cleveland and numerous other industrial cities. In Cleveland, the Hough Riots erupted from July 18 to 23, 1966; the Glenville Shootout took place from July 23 to 25, 1968. In November 1967, Cleveland became the first major American city to elect a black mayor, Carl Stokes. Industrial restructuring in the railroad and steel industries, resulted in the loss of numerous
Irving, Texas
Irving is a principal city in Dallas County in the U. S. state of Texas and it is an inner ring suburb of the city of Dallas. According to a 2017 estimate from the United States Census Bureau, the city population was 240,373 making it the thirteenth-most populous city in Texas and 93rd most populous city in the U. S; the city of Irving is part of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. Irving includes the Las Colinas community, one of the first master-planned developments in the United States and once the largest mixed-use development in the Southwest with a land area of more than 12,000 acres. Las Colinas is home to the Mustangs at Las Colinas, the largest equine sculpture in the world, as well as many Fortune 500 companies, such as ExxonMobil, Kimberly-Clark and Fluor Corporation. In January 2011 the city completed the Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas and continues to develop the area into a mixed-use complex, including a special entertainment district. Part of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport lies inside the city limits of Irving.
Irving was founded in 1903 by J. O. "Otto" Schulze and Otis Brown. It is believed literary author Washington Irving was a favorite of Netta Barcus Brown, the name of the town site, was chosen. Irving began in 1889 as an area called Gorbit, in 1894 the name changed to Kit. Irving was incorporated April 1914, with Otis Brown as the first mayor. By the late nineteenth century the Irving area was the site of churches, two cotton gins, a blacksmith shop and a general store; the Irving district public school system dates to the 1909 establishment of Lively schools. Population growth was slow and sometimes halting, with only 357 residents in 1925, but a significant increase began in the 1930s. By the early 1960s the city had a population of 45,000. A number of manufacturing plants operated in Irving, along with transportation and financial businesses; the University of Dallas in Irving opened in 1956, Texas Stadium was completed in 1971 as the home field of the Dallas Cowboys. Delta Air Lines Flight 191 crashed in Irving on August 2, 1985.
Irving's population reached 155,037 in 1990 and the United States Census Bureau estimated 236,607 residents in 2016, a 3.5 percent population increase over 2013 census estimates. In 2000, an Oshman's Sporting Goods store was robbed by the "Texas Seven". In 2011, the Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas opened. Four years high-school student Ahmed Mohamed was the subject of a hoax bomb incident which ignited allegations of racial profiling and Islamophobia from many media and commentators. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 67.7 square miles, of which 67.2 square miles of it is land and 0.4 square miles of it is water. The warmest month on average is July, the highest recorded temperature was 112 °F in 1980; the average coolest month is January, the lowest recorded temperature was −8 °F in 1899. Irving is considered to be part of the humid subtropical region. May is the average wettest month; as of the census of 2000, there were 191,615 people, 76,241 households, 46,202 families residing in the city.
The population density was 2,850.2 people per square mile. There were 80,293 housing units at an average density of 1,194.3 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 64.2% White, Hispanic or Latino of any race were 31.2% of the population, 10.2% African American, 0.7% Native American, 8.24% Asian, 0.13% Pacific Islander, 13.4% from other races, 3.20% from two or more races. Non-Hispanic whites were 48.2% of the population, down from 88.9% in 1980. There were 76,241 households out of which 31.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 44.1% were married couples living together, 11.2% had a female householder with no husband present, 39.4% were non-families. 31.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 3.8% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.50 and the average family size was 3.19. In the city, the population was spread out with 25.2% under the age of 18, 11.9% from 18 to 24, 39.4% from 25 to 44, 17.4% from 45 to 64, 6.1% who were 65 years of age or older.
The median age was 30 years. For every 100 females, there were 104.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 102.9 males. The median income for a household in the city was $44,956, the median income for a family was $50,172. Males had a median income of $35,852 versus $30,420 for females; the per capita income for the city was $23,419. About 8.0% of families and 10.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 14.2% of those under age 18 and 6.3% of those age 65 or over. As of the census of 2010, there were 216,290 people, 82,538 households, 51,594 families residing in the city; the population density was 3,218.6 people per square mile. There were 91,128 housing units at an average density of 1,356 per square mile; the racial makeup of the city was 53.1% White, 12.3% African American, 0.9% Native American, 14.0% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 16.2% from other races, 3.5% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 41.1% of the population. There were 82,538 households out of which 33.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 43.1% were married couples living together, 13.6% had a female householder with no husband present, 37.5% were non-families.
30.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 4.5% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.61 and the average family size was 3.31. In the city, 29% of the population was under the age of 19, 8% was between ages 20 to 24, 35.8% fr
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state located in the Appalachian region in the Southern United States, considered to be a part of the Middle Atlantic States. It is bordered by Pennsylvania to the north, Maryland to the east and northeast, Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest. West Virginia is the 41st largest state by area, is ranked 38th in population; the capital and largest city is Charleston. West Virginia became a state following the Wheeling Conventions of 1861, after the American Civil War had begun. Delegates from some Unionist counties of northwestern Virginia decided to break away from Virginia, although they included many secessionist counties in the new state. West Virginia was admitted to the Union on June 20, 1863, was a key border state during the war. West Virginia was the only state to form by separating from a Confederate state, the first to separate from any state since Maine separated from Massachusetts, was one of two states admitted to the Union during the American Civil War.
While a portion of its residents held slaves, most of the residents were yeomen farmers, the delegates provided for gradual abolition of slavery in the new state Constitution. The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States; however the Bureau of Labor Statistics classifies West Virginia as a part of the Mid-Atlantic. The northern panhandle extends adjacent to Pennsylvania and Ohio, with the West Virginia cities of Wheeling and Weirton just across the border from the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, while Bluefield is less than 70 miles from North Carolina. Huntington in the southwest is close to the states of Ohio and Kentucky, while Martinsburg and Harpers Ferry in the Eastern Panhandle region are considered part of the Washington metropolitan area, in between the states of Maryland and Virginia; the unique position of West Virginia means that it is included in several geographical regions, including the Mid-Atlantic, the Upland South, the Southeastern United States.
It is the only state, within the area served by the Appalachian Regional Commission. The state is noted for its mountains and rolling hills, its significant logging and coal mining industries, its political and labor history, it is known for a wide range of outdoor recreational opportunities, including skiing, whitewater rafting, hiking, mountain biking, rock climbing, hunting. Many ancient man-made earthen mounds from various prehistoric mound builder cultures survive in the areas of present-day Moundsville, South Charleston, Romney; the artifacts uncovered in these give evidence of village societies. They had a tribal trade system culture. In the 1670s during the Beaver Wars, the powerful Iroquois, five allied nations based in present-day New York and Pennsylvania, drove out other American Indian tribes from the region in order to reserve the upper Ohio Valley as a hunting ground. Siouan language tribes, such as the Moneton, had been recorded in the area. A century the area now identified as West Virginia was contested territory among Anglo-Americans as well, with the colonies of Pennsylvania and Virginia claiming territorial rights under their colonial charters to this area before the American Revolutionary War.
Some speculative land companies, such as the Vandalia Company, the Ohio Company and Indiana Company, tried to legitimize their claims to land in parts of West Virginia and present day Kentucky, but failed. This rivalry resulted in some settlers petitioning the Continental Congress to create a new territory called Westsylvania. With the federal settlement of the Pennsylvania and Virginia border dispute, creating Kentucky County, Kentuckians "were satisfied, the inhabitants of a large part of West Virginia were grateful."The Crown considered the area of West Virginia to be part of the British Virginia Colony from 1607 to 1776. The United States considered this area to be the western part of the state of Virginia from 1776 to 1863, before the formation of West Virginia, its residents were discontented for years with their position in Virginia, as the government was dominated by the planter elite of the Tidewater and Piedmont areas. The legislature had electoral malapportionment, based on the counting of slaves toward regional populations, the western white residents were underrepresented in the state legislature.
More subsistence and yeoman farmers lived in the west and they were less supportive of slavery, although many counties were divided on their support. The residents of this area became more divided after the planter elite of eastern Virginia voted to secede from the Union during the Civil War. Residents of the western and northern counties set up a separate government under Francis Pierpont in 1861, which they called the Restored Government. Most voted to separate from Virginia, the new state was admitted to the Union in 1863. In 1864 a state constitutional convention drafted a constitution, ratified by the legislature without putting it to popular vote. West Virginia abolished slavery by a gradual process and temporarily disenfranchised men who had held Confederate office or fought for the Confederacy. West Virginia's history has been profoundly affected by its mountainous terrain and vast river valleys, rich natural resources; these were all factors driving its economy and the lifestyles of its residents, who tended to live in many small isolated communities in the mountain valleys.
A 2010 analysis of
Fuel
A fuel is any material that can be made to react with other substances so that it releases energy as heat energy or to be used for work. The concept was applied to those materials capable of releasing chemical energy but has since been applied to other sources of heat energy such as nuclear energy; the heat energy released by reactions of fuels is converted into mechanical energy via a heat engine. Other times the heat itself is valued for warmth, cooking, or industrial processes, as well as the illumination that comes with combustion. Fuels are used in the cells of organisms in a process known as cellular respiration, where organic molecules are oxidized to release usable energy. Hydrocarbons and related oxygen-containing molecules are by far the most common source of fuel used by humans, but other substances, including radioactive metals, are utilized. Fuels are contrasted with other substances or devices storing potential energy, such as those that directly release electrical energy or mechanical energy.
The first known use of fuel was the combustion of wood or sticks by Homo erectus nearly two million years ago. Throughout most of human history fuels derived from plants or animal fat were only used by humans. Charcoal, a wood derivative, has been used since at least 6,000 BCE for melting metals, it was only supplanted by coke, derived from coal, as European forests started to become depleted around the 18th century. Charcoal briquettes are now used as a fuel for barbecue cooking. Coal was first used as a fuel around 1000 BCE in China. With the energy in the form of chemical energy that could be released through combustion, but the concept development of the steam engine in the United Kingdom in 1769, coal came into more common use as a power source. Coal was used to drive ships and locomotives. By the 19th century, gas extracted from coal was being used for street lighting in London. In the 20th and 21st centuries, the primary use of coal is to generate electricity, providing 40% of the world's electrical power supply in 2005.
Fossil fuels were adopted during the Industrial Revolution, because they were more concentrated and flexible than traditional energy sources, such as water power. They have become a pivotal part of our contemporary society, with most countries in the world burning fossil fuels in order to produce power; the trend has been towards renewable fuels, such as biofuels like alcohols. Chemical fuels are substances that release energy by reacting with substances around them, most notably by the process of combustion. Most of the chemical energy released in combustion was not stored in the chemical bonds of the fuel, but in the weak double bond of molecular oxygen. Chemical fuels are divided in two ways. First, by their physical properties, as a solid, liquid or gas. Secondly, on the basis of their occurrence: primary and secondary. Thus, a general classification of chemical fuels is: Solid fuel refers to various types of solid material that are used as fuel to produce energy and provide heating released through combustion.
Solid fuels include wood, peat, hexamine fuel tablets, pellets made from wood, wheat and other grains. Solid-fuel rocket technology uses solid fuel. Solid fuels have been used by humanity for many years to create fire. Coal was the fuel source which enabled the industrial revolution, from firing furnaces, to running steam engines. Wood was extensively used to run steam locomotives. Both peat and coal are still used in electricity generation today; the use of some solid fuels is restricted or prohibited in some urban areas, due to unsafe levels of toxic emissions. The use of other solid fuels as wood is decreasing as heating technology and the availability of good quality fuel improves. In some areas, smokeless coal is the only solid fuel used. In Ireland, peat briquettes are used as smokeless fuel, they are used to start a coal fire. Liquid fuels are combustible or energy-generating molecules that can be harnessed to create mechanical energy producing kinetic energy, it is the fumes of liquid fuels.
Most liquid fuels in widespread use are derived from the fossilized remains of dead plants and animals by exposure to heat and pressure inside the Earth's crust. However, there are several types, such as hydrogen fuel, jet fuel and bio-diesel which are all categorized as a liquid fuel. Emulsified fuels of oil-in-water such as orimulsion have been developed a way to make heavy oil fractions usable as liquid fuels. Many liquid fuels play a primary role in the economy; some common properties of liquid fuels are that they are easy to transport, that can be handled easily. They are easy to use for all engineering applications, home use. Fuels like kerosene are rationed in some countries, for example available in government subsidized shops in India for home use. Conventional diesel is similar to gasoline in that it is a mixture of aliphatic hydrocarbons extracted from petroleum. Kerosene is used in kerosene lamps and as a fuel for cooking and small engines. Natural gas, composed chiefly of methane, can only exist as a liquid at low temperatures, which limits its direct use as a liquid fuel in most applications.
LP gas is a mixture of propane and butane, both of which are compressible gases under standard atmospheric conditions. It offers many of the advantages of compressed natural gas (CN
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and called Porto Rico, is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the northeast Caribbean Sea 1,000 miles southeast of Miami, Florida. An archipelago among the Greater Antilles, Puerto Rico includes the eponymous main island and several smaller islands, such as Mona and Vieques; the capital and most populous city is San Juan. The territory's total population is 3.4 million. Spanish and English are the official languages. Populated by the indigenous Taíno people, Puerto Rico was colonized by Spain following the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1493, it was contested by French and British, but remained a Spanish possession for the next four centuries. The island's cultural and demographic landscapes were shaped by the displacement and assimilation of the native population, the forced migration of African slaves, settlement from the Canary Islands and Andalusia. In the Spanish Empire, Puerto Rico played a secondary but strategic role compared to wealthier colonies like Peru and New Spain.
Spain's distant administrative control continued up to the end of the 19th century, producing a distinctive creole Hispanic culture and language that combined indigenous and European elements. In 1898, following the Spanish–American War, the United States acquired Puerto Rico under the terms of the Treaty of Paris. Puerto Ricans have been citizens of the United States since 1917, enjoy freedom of movement between the island and the mainland; as it is not a state, Puerto Rico does not have a vote in the United States Congress, which governs the territory with full jurisdiction under the Puerto Rico Federal Relations Act of 1950. However, Puerto Rico does have one non-voting member of the House called a Resident Commissioner; as residents of a U. S. territory, American citizens in Puerto Rico are disenfranchised at the national level and do not vote for president and vice president of the United States, nor pay federal income tax on Puerto Rican income. Like other territories and the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico does not have U.
S. senators. Congress approved a local constitution in 1952, allowing U. S. citizens on the territory to elect a governor. Puerto Rico's future political status has been a matter of significant debate. In early 2017, the Puerto Rican government-debt crisis posed serious problems for the government; the outstanding bond debt had climbed to $70 billion at a time with 12.4% unemployment. The debt had been increasing during a decade long recession; this was the second major financial crisis to affect the island after the Great Depression when the U. S. government, in 1935, provided relief efforts through the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration. On May 3, 2017, Puerto Rico's financial oversight board in the U. S. District Court for Puerto Rico filed the debt restructuring petition, made under Title III of PROMESA. By early August 2017, the debt was $72 billion with a 45% poverty rate. In late September 2017, Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico; the island's electrical grid was destroyed, with repairs expected to take months to complete, provoking the largest power outage in American history.
Recovery efforts were somewhat slow in the first few months, over 200,000 residents had moved to the mainland State of Florida alone by late November 2017. Puerto Rico is Spanish for "rich port". Puerto Ricans call the island Borinquén – a derivation of Borikén, its indigenous Taíno name, which means "Land of the Valiant Lord"; the terms boricua and borincano derive from Borikén and Borinquen and are used to identify someone of Puerto Rican heritage. The island is popularly known in Spanish as la isla del encanto, meaning "the island of enchantment". Columbus named the island San Juan Bautista, in honor of Saint John the Baptist, while the capital city was named Ciudad de Puerto Rico. Traders and other maritime visitors came to refer to the entire island as Puerto Rico, while San Juan became the name used for the main trading/shipping port and the capital city; the island's name was changed to "Porto Rico" by the United States after the Treaty of Paris of 1898. The anglicized name was used by the U.
S. government and private enterprises. The name was changed back to Puerto Rico by a joint resolution in Congress introduced by Félix Córdova Dávila in 1931; the official name of the entity in Spanish is Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, while its official English name is Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The ancient history of the archipelago, now Puerto Rico is not well known. Unlike other indigenous cultures in the New World which left behind abundant archeological and physical evidence of their societies, scant artifacts and evidence remain of the Puerto Rico's indigenous population. Scarce archaeological findings and early Spanish accounts from the colonial era constitute all, known about them; the first comprehensive book on the history of Puerto Rico was written by Fray Íñigo Abbad y Lasierra in 1786, nearly three centuries after the first Spaniards landed on the island. The first known settlers were the Ortoiroid people, an Archaic Period culture of Amerindian hunters and fishermen who migrated from the South American mainland.
Some scholars suggest their settlement dates back about 4,000 years. An archeological dig in 1990 on the island of Vieques found the remains of a man, designated as the "Puerto Ferro Man", dated to around 2000 BC; the Ortoiroid were displaced
BP
BP plc is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is one of the world's seven oil and gas "supermajors", whose performance in 2012 made it the world's sixth-largest oil and gas company, the sixth-largest energy company by market capitalization and the company with the world's 12th-largest revenue, it is a vertically integrated company operating in all areas of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining and marketing, power generation and trading. It has renewable energy interests in biofuels and wind power; as of 31 December 2017, BP had operations in 70 countries worldwide, produced around 3.6 million barrels per day of oil equivalent, had total proved reserves of 18.441 billion barrels of oil equivalent. The company has around 18,300 service stations worldwide, its largest division is BP America in the United States. In Russia, BP owns a 19.75% stake in Rosneft, the world's largest publicly traded oil and gas company by hydrocarbon reserves and production.
BP is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It has secondary listings on the New York Stock Exchange. BP's origins date back to the founding of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in 1908, established as a subsidiary of Burmah Oil Company to exploit oil discoveries in Iran. In 1935, it in 1954 British Petroleum. In 1959, the company expanded beyond the Middle East to Alaska and it was one of the first companies to strike oil in the North Sea. British Petroleum acquired majority control of Standard Oil of Ohio in 1978. Majority state-owned, the British government privatised the company in stages between 1979 and 1987. British Petroleum merged with Amoco in 1998, becoming BP Amoco plc, acquired ARCO and Burmah Castrol in 2000, becoming BP plc in 2001. From 2003 to 2013, BP was a partner in the TNK-BP joint venture in Russia. BP has been directly involved in several major environmental and safety incidents. Among them were the 2005 Texas City Refinery explosion, which caused the death of 15 workers and resulted in a record-setting OSHA fine.
The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the largest accidental release of oil into marine waters in history, resulted in severe environmental and economic consequences, serious legal and public relations repercussions for BP. 1.8 million US gallons of Corexit oil dispersant were used in the cleanup response, becoming the largest application of such chemicals in US history. The company pleaded guilty to 11 counts of felony manslaughter, two misdemeanors, one felony count of lying to Congress, agreed to pay more than $4.5 billion in fines and penalties, the largest criminal resolution in US history. On 2 July 2015, BP and five states announced an $18.7 billion settlement to be used for Clean Water Act penalties and various claims. In May 1908 a group of British geologists discovered a large amount of oil at Masjid-i-Suleiman in Mohammerah, today located in the province of Khuzestan, it was the first commercially significant. William Knox D'Arcy, by contract with the Emir of Mohammerah, Sheikh Khaz'al Khan al-Kaabi, obtained permission to explore for oil for the first time in the Middle East, an event which changed the history of the entire region.
The oil discovery led to petrochemical industry development and the establishment of industries that depended on oil. On 14 April 1909, the Anglo-Persian Oil Company was incorporated as a subsidiary of Burmah Oil Company; some of the shares were sold to the public. The first chairman and minority shareholder of the company became Lord Strathcona. After establishing the company, the British government asked Percy Cox, British resident to Bushehr, to negotiate an agreement with Khaz'al for APOC to obtain a site on Abadan Island for a refinery, storage tanks, other operations; the refinery was built and began operating in 1912. In 1913, the British government acquired a controlling interest in the company and at the suggestion of Winston Churchill, the British navy switched from coal to oil. In 1914, APOC signed a 30-year contract with the British Admiralty for supplying oil for the Royal Navy at the fixed price. In 1915, APOC established its shipping subsidiary the British Tanker Company and in 1916 it acquired the British Petroleum Company, a marketing arm of the German Europäische Petroleum Union in Britain.
In 1919, the company became a shale-oil producer by establishing a subsidiary named Scottish Oils which merged remaining Scottish oil-shale industries. After World War I, APOC started marketing its products in Continental Europe and acquired stakes in the local marketing companies in several European countries. Refineries were built in Llandarcy in Grangemouth in Scotland, it acquired the controlling stake in the Courchelettes refinery in France and formed with the Government of Australia a partnership named Commonwealth Oil Refineries, which built the Australian's first refinery in Laverton, Victoria. In 1923, Burmah employed Winston Churchill as a paid consultant to lobby the British government to allow APOC have exclusive rights to Persian oil resources, which were subsequently granted by the Iranian monarchy. APOC and the Armenian busines
Diesel fuel
Diesel fuel in general is any liquid fuel used in diesel engines, whose fuel ignition takes place, without any spark, as a result of compression of the inlet air mixture and injection of fuel. Diesel engines have found broad use as a result of higher thermodynamic efficiency and thus fuel efficiency; this is noted where diesel engines are run at part-load. The most common type of diesel fuel is a specific fractional distillate of petroleum fuel oil, but alternatives that are not derived from petroleum, such as biodiesel, biomass to liquid or gas to liquid diesel, are being developed and adopted. To distinguish these types, petroleum-derived diesel is called petrodiesel. Ultra-low-sulfur diesel is a standard for defining diesel fuel with lowered sulfur contents; as of 2016 all of the petroleum-based diesel fuel available in the UK, mainland Europe, North America is of a ULSD type. In the UK, diesel fuel for on-road use is abbreviated DERV, standing for diesel-engined road vehicle, which carries a tax premium over equivalent fuel for non-road use.
In Australia, diesel fuel is known as distillate, in Indonesia, it is known as Solar, a trademarked name by the local oil company Pertamina. Diesel fuel originated from experiments conducted by German scientist and inventor Rudolf Diesel for his compression-ignition engine he invented in 1892. Diesel designed his engine to use coal dust as fuel, experimented with other fuels including vegetable oils, such as peanut oil, used to power the engines which he exhibited at the 1900 Paris Exposition and the 1911 World's Fair in Paris. Diesel fuel is produced from the most common being petroleum. Other sources include biomass, animal fat, natural gas, coal liquefaction. Petroleum diesel called petrodiesel, or fossil diesel is the most common type of diesel fuel, it is produced from the fractional distillation of crude oil between 200 °C and 350 °C at atmospheric pressure, resulting in a mixture of carbon chains that contain between 9 and 25 carbon atoms per molecule. Synthetic diesel can be produced from any carbonaceous material, including biomass, natural gas and many others.
The raw material is gasified into synthesis gas, which after purification is converted by the Fischer–Tropsch process to a synthetic diesel. The process is referred to as biomass-to-liquid, gas-to-liquid or coal-to-liquid, depending on the raw material used. Paraffinic synthetic diesel has a near-zero content of sulfur and low aromatics content, reducing unregulated emissions of toxic hydrocarbons, nitrous oxides and particulate matter. Fatty-acid methyl ester, more known as biodiesel, is obtained from vegetable oil or animal fats which have been transesterified with methanol, it can be produced from many types of oils, the most common being rapeseed oil in Europe and soybean oil in the US. Methanol can be replaced with ethanol for the transesterification process, which results in the production of ethyl esters; the transesterification processes use catalysts, such as sodium or potassium hydroxide, to convert vegetable oil and methanol into FAME and the undesirable byproducts glycerine and water, which will need to be removed from the fuel along with methanol traces.
FAME can be used pure in engines where the manufacturer approves such use, but it is more used as a mix with diesel, BXX where XX is the biodiesel content in percent. FAME as a fuel is specified in DIN EN 14214 and ASTM D6751. Fuel equipment manufacturers have raised several concerns regarding FAME fuels, identifying FAME as being the cause of the following problems: corrosion of fuel injection components, low-pressure fuel system blockage, increased dilution and polymerization of engine sump oil, pump seizures due to high fuel viscosity at low temperature, increased injection pressure, elastomeric seal failures and fuel injector spray blockage. Pure biodiesel has an energy content about 5–10% lower than petroleum diesel; the loss in power when using pure biodiesel is 5–7%. Unsaturated fatty acids are the source for the lower oxidation stability; as FAME contains low levels of sulfur, the emissions of sulfur oxides and sulfates, major components of acid rain, are low. Use of biodiesel results in reductions of unburned hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, particulate matter.
CO emissions using biodiesel are reduced, on the order of 50% compared to most petrodiesel fuels. The exhaust emissions of particulate matter from biodiesel have been found to be 30% lower than overall particulate matter emissions from petrodiesel; the exhaust emissions of total hydrocarbons are up to 93% lower for biodiesel than diesel fuel. Biodiesel may reduce health risks associated with petroleum diesel. Biodiesel emissions showed decreased levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon and nitrited PAH compounds, which have been identified as potential cancer-causing compounds. In recent testing, PAH compounds were reduced by 75–85%, except for benzanthracene, reduced by 50%. Targeted nPAH compounds were reduced with biodiesel fuel, with 2-nitrofluorene and 1-nitropyrene reduced by 90%, the rest
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