Combining Petcoke Gasification and Natural Gas Reforming for Oil Sands Waste-to-Energy

石油焦是一种富含碳的废物，由加拿大油砂设施的炼油厂和沥青改质厂产生。它可以燃烧以获得热量，但硫和二氧化碳的排放比煤炭燃烧更严重，因此许多炼油厂由于环境法规而避免燃烧。相反，炼油厂通常选择储存石油（在阿尔伯塔省，库存几乎每两年翻一番），或者将其运往允许燃烧石油焦的其他地方。因此，我的研究计划是研究以环保的方式将石油焦转化为有价值的能源产品的新方法。其目标是创造一种几乎不排放硫或二氧化碳的新工艺，但在不需要政府大力鼓励的情况下也能盈利。这将鼓励将石油焦转化为有价值的产品，有可能取代燃料和聚合物等石化产品，并产生净环境效益。

Petcoke is a carbon-rich waste generated by petroleum refineries and bitumen upgraders from Canadian oil sands facilities. It can be combusted for heat, but the sulfur and carbon dioxide emissions are worse than coal combustion, so many refineries avoid combustion due to environmental regulations. Instead, refineries often choose to stockpile it (in Alberta, stockpiles are nearly doubling every two years), or, ship it elsewhere to be used where petcoke combustion is permitted. Therefore, my research program investigates new ways of converting petcoke into valuable energy products in environmentally friendly ways. The goal is to create a new process which would have almost no sulfur or CO2 emissions, but yet is profitable without the need for significant government incentive. This would encourage the conversion of petcoke into valuable products, potentially displacing petrochemical products such as fuels and polymers and resulting in a net environmental benefit. This research program will use computer modeling to work toward a profitable, emissions-free petcoke conversion facility. In Objective 1, we will create detailed computer models to help develop a novel radiant cooler for a petcoke gasifier which will use the high temperature heat created in the gasifier to convert natural gas into hydrogen. The new cooler design is expected to give higher system efficiencies than a traditional cooler because the hydrogen is very useful in making energy products such as synthetic fuels and alcohols. In Objective 2, we will use computer models to create a conceptual design of a hybrid gas turbine / solid oxide fuel cell power generation system, which will be powered by waste gases produced by the petcoke conversion process. In Objective 3, we will use chemical process models to design systems which can capture up to 100% of the CO2 produced from certain kinds of advanced power plants with little energy penalty. In Objective 4, we will incorporate these results and others from our prior work into computer models which we will then use to create a process that converts petcoke to fuels, chemicals, and/or electricity, but with zero carbon dioxide emissions. Overall, the proposed concept is an innovative approach to converting petcoke wastes into value-added products. This could have a significant benefit to the Canadian energy industry since petcoke waste is produced in large quantities from the refining of most conventional crudes and oil sand crudes originating in Canada. The proposed process would increase the profits of Canadian refineries, reduce the growing stockpile of petcoke in Alberta, and prevent up to 500 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year worldwide—equivalent to removing 100 million passenger cars from the road.