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

小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是捕获化石燃料燃烧产生的二氧化碳，并将其安全地从大气中隔离。该项目独特地结合了两项新技术，以消除偏远油田大量天然气燃烧产生的二氧化碳排放;这些技术在一个新颖的燃烧系统中燃烧天然气，并利用产生的热量处理油田采出水。然后，冷却的燃烧烟气通过一种新的工艺注入油田，以提高石油采收率。这使得整个过程在经济上是可行的，并且对环境有益。所提出的燃烧系统涉及“水中火”的新颖概念，以在流动的水流内直接进行燃料的燃烧，从而与涉及将加热介质和加热介质分开的金属传热表面（例如壳管式热交换器）的常规间接传热系统相比，将传热系数提高了几个数量级。该项目提出了这种燃烧系统，以燃烧目前在偏远油田通过火炬浪费的天然气，解决该行业面临的主要环境问题。第二项创新利用新型燃烧器中火炬气燃烧产生的热量来处理油田采出水，这是另一个长期存在的环境问题。第三项创新利用燃烧（火炬气）产生的烟道气注入油田生产圈闭石油。该项目将展示：（1）成功通过（通过应用燃烧、传热和两相流原理）从蒸汽发生器到烟气发生器的燃烧器设计;（2）燃烧器燃烧不同烃含量和成分的火炬气的能力;（3）处理油田采出水的能力;（4）现场规模的可行性;以及（5）用于实施和过程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知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.