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Commercialisation of Bioreactor Process Technology

生物反应器工艺技术的商业化

基本信息

批准号：
NE/M005712/1
负责人：
Corinne Whitby
金额：
$ 1.35万
依托单位：
University of Essex
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2015
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2015 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FM005712%2F1
关键词：
Commercialisation Bioreactor Process Technology

项目摘要

With worldwide production of light crude oil reserves expected to last ~50 yrs, there is a need to exploit alternative fuel resources e.g. the heavy oil sands resources in North America. However, extraction and processing from oil sands, results in the production of large volumes of wastewaters (tailings) that have to be stored in vast settling ponds. There are several environmental concerns with tailings ponds. Firstly, they produce vast amounts of biogenic greenhouse gases. Secondly, they have very slow consolidation (settling) of the fine tailings solids, which may take decades. Thirdly, the storage of tailings poses huge environmental and economic risks from pollution incidents due to the presence of high concentrations of toxic compounds in the wastewaters known as naphthenic acids (NAs). NAs are complex mixtures of carboxylic acids that are highly toxic to many organisms including humans. NAs also block/ corrode pipes/ processing equipment causing further pollution and billion-dollar losses to the industry. Thus, removing NA contamination is important to the global economy, environment and human health. Microbial treatment of NAs has clear cost-environmental advantages. However, the transformation of NAs is complex and influenced by a combination of microbial interactions, biogeochemical factors and the physical-chemical properties of the NAs. Our research has contributed a significant advance to current technologies for treating oil sands process wastewaters. At UoE, we have developed a novel microbial bioreactor process technology that has proved successful with intermediate and large-scale trials. We have shown that our technology rapidly increases sedimentation rates thus increasing the proportion of clarified wastewater that could potentially be recycled back into the process. Our technology can also be applied on a large-scale to rapidly bioremediate and detoxify naphthenic acids (NAs) from at least two different process feeds within days of treatment. However, since each operator uses a different NA extraction method, the resulting wastewaters will have different physicochemical characteristics and will contain different NA compositions/ concentrations. It is therefore, crucial to further test our bioreactor technology (on an industrial-scale) in relation to the different oil sands wastewater streams from all oil sands companies. Our proposed project involves setting up a 2-day workshop with invited delegates from across the sector, including representatives from all the oil sands companies currently in operation in Alberta, the Regulator (Alberta Environment) and also members of the Canadian Oil Sands innovation Alliance (COSIA). The overall aim of the workshop would be to foster international collaboration and allow our technology to gain support from the oil sands industry as a cost-effective solution to a number of the industry's key priorities. The workshop will be used as a focus to demonstrate to the industry the cost-benefits and widespread ease of implementation of our technology. We will commission consultants to conduct an evaluation of the technical and economic feasibility of scaling-up our technology to an industrial scale for deployment across the oil sands companies. It is anticipated that, if successful, the project will enable inclusion and adoption of our technology by COSIA and the sector in conjunction with validation of the technology by the Regulator (Alberta Environment). This will provide a platform for a joint industry project (JIP) in collaboration with the sector to further test the technology and facilitate further commercialisation development. In conclusion, our novel technology will allow operators to recycle wastewater, reduce the amount of freshwater abstraction required for processing; increase sedimentation rates, thus reducing the amount of stored tailings with a concomitant reduction in capital/ storage costs and associated environmental/economic risks.

由于全球轻质原油储量的生产预计可持续约 50 年，因此需要开发替代燃料资源，例如石油。北美重油砂资源。然而，油砂的提取和加工会产生大量废水（尾矿），这些废水必须储存在巨大的沉淀池中。尾矿库存在一些环境问题。首先，它们产生大量的生物温室气体。其次，细尾矿固体的固结（沉降）非常缓慢，可能需要几十年的时间。第三，由于废水中存在高浓度的环烷酸（NA）有毒化合物，尾矿的储存会因污染事件而带来巨大的环境和经济风险。 NA 是复杂的羧酸混合物，对包括人类在内的许多生物体具有剧毒。 NA 还会堵塞/腐蚀管道/加工设备，造成进一步的污染和行业数十亿美元的损失。因此，消除NA污染对全球经济、环境和人类健康具有重要意义。 Microbial treatment of NAs has clear cost-environmental advantages.然而，NAs 的转化是复杂的，并受到微生物相互作用、生物地球化学因素和 NAs 物理化学性质的综合影响。我们的研究为当前处理油砂工艺废水的技术做出了重大贡献。在曼彻斯特大学，我们开发了一种新型微生物生物反应器工艺技术，该技术已通过中期和大规模试验证明是成功的。我们已经证明，我们的技术可以快速提高沉降率，从而增加可回收到工艺中的澄清废水的比例。我们的技术还可以大规模应用，在处理后的几天内对至少两种不同工艺进料中的环烷酸 (NA) 进行快速生物修复和解毒。然而，由于每个操作者使用不同的 NA 提取方法，因此产生的废水将具有不同的物理化学特性，并且包含不同的 NA 成分/浓度。因此，针对所有油砂公司的不同油砂废水流进一步测试我们的生物反应器技术（工业规模）至关重要。我们提议的项目包括设立一个为期 2 天的研讨会，邀请来自整个行业的代表参加，其中包括目前在艾伯塔省运营的所有油砂公司的代表、监管机构（艾伯塔省环境局）以及加拿大油砂创新联盟 (COSIA) 的成员。研讨会的总体目标是促进国际合作，并使我们的技术获得油砂行业的支持，作为解决该行业许多关键优先事项的具有成本效益的解决方案。该研讨会将重点向业界展示我们技术的成本效益和广泛实施的便利性。我们将委托顾问对将我们的技术扩大到工业规模以在油砂公司中部署的技术和经济可行性进行评估。预计，如果成功，该项目将使 COSIA 和该行业纳入并采用我们的技术，同时由监管机构（艾伯塔省环境局）对该技术进行验证。这将为与该部门合作的联合行业项目（JIP）提供一个平台，以进一步测试该技术并促进进一步的商业化发展。总之，我们的新技术将允许运营商回收废水，减少处理所需的淡水抽取量；提高沉降率，从而减少尾矿储存量，同时降低资本/储存成本和相关的环境/经济风险。