SBIR Phase I: Integrated Technologies for Addressing Environmental Challenges in the Energy Industries

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是从化石燃料的燃烧中捕获二氧化碳，并将其安全地从大气中隔离出来。该项目独一无二地结合了两项新技术，以消除偏远油田燃烧大量天然气所产生的二氧化碳排放；这两项技术在新型燃烧系统中燃烧，并利用产生的热量来处理油田采出水。然后，通过一种新的工艺将燃烧的冷却烟道气注入油田，以提高石油采收率。这使得整个过程在经济上可行，对环境有利。该燃烧系统采用了“水中火”的新概念，使燃料在流动的水流中直接燃烧，与传统的间接换热系统相比，换热系数提高了几个数量级。间接换热系统采用金属传热面(如管壳式换热器)分离受热和加热介质。该项目提出了这一燃烧系统，以燃烧目前通过偏远油田的火炬浪费的天然气，解决了该行业面临的一大环境问题。第二项创新利用新型燃烧器中燃烧火炬气体产生的热量来处理油田采出水，这是另一个长期关注的环境问题。第三项创新利用燃烧产生的烟道气(火炬气)注入油田生产被困石油。该项目将展示：(1)成功采用(通过应用燃烧、传热学和两相流原理)从蒸汽发生器到烟气发生器的燃烧器设计；(2)燃烧器燃烧不同碳氢化合物含量和组成的火炬气的能力；(3)处理油田采出水的能力；(4)现场规模的可行性；以及(5)用于实施和工艺放大的数学模型和计算机模拟。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to capture carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels and sequester it safely from the atmosphere. This project uniquely combines two new technologies to eliminate the carbon dioxide emissions resulting from flaring of huge volumes of natural gas in remote oil fields; the technologies burn it in a novel combustion system and uses the generated heat to treat the oil-field produced water. The cooled flue gases of combustion are then injected via a novel process into oilfields for enhancing oil recovery. This makes the entire process economically feasible and environmentally beneficial. The proposed combustion system involves a novel concept of “Fire-in-Water” to carry out combustion of a fuel directly within a flowing stream of water, thereby enhancing the heat transfer coefficients by several orders of magnitude compared to conventional indirect heat transfer systems involving metallic heat transfer surfaces (such as shell-and-tube heat exchangers) separating the heated and heating media. This project proposes this combustion system to burn natural gas currently wasted through flares in remote oil fields, resolving a major environmental problem facing the industry. The second innovation utilizes the heat generated by combustion of flare-gas in the novel burner to treat oil-field produced water, another long-standing environmental concern. The third innovation uses the flue gas generated by combustion (of flare-gas) for injection into oil fields to produce trapped oil. The project will demonstrate: (1) Successful adoption (through application of combustion, heat transfer and two-phase flow principles) of the combustor design from steam generator to flue gas generator; (2) The combustor’s ability to burn flare-gas of varying hydrocarbon contents and compositions; (3) The ability to treat oil-field produced water; (4) Field-scale viability; and (5) Mathematical models and computer simulations for implementation and process scale-up.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.