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

Petcoke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进剂产生。它可以燃烧取暖，但硫和二氧化碳的排放比煤炭燃烧更糟糕，因此许多炼油厂因环保法规而避免燃烧。取而代之的是，炼油厂经常选择储存石油(在艾伯塔省，库存几乎每两年翻一番)，或者将其运往其他允许石油焦燃烧的地方使用。因此，我的研究项目探索以环境友好的方式将石油焦转化为有价值的能源产品的新方法。其目标是创造一种新的工艺，几乎没有硫磺或二氧化碳排放，但在不需要政府重大激励的情况下仍能盈利。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。 这项研究计划将使用计算机建模，致力于建立一个有利可图的、零排放的石油焦转化设施。在目标1中，我们将创建详细的计算机模型，以帮助开发一种用于石油焦气化炉的新型辐射冷却器，该冷却器将利用气化炉中产生的高温热量将天然气转化为氢气。新的冷却器设计预计将比传统的冷却器提供更高的系统效率，因为氢在制造合成燃料和酒精等能源产品方面非常有用。在目标2中，我们将使用计算机模型来创建混合燃气轮机/固体氧化物燃料电池发电系统的概念设计，该系统将以石油焦转化过程产生的废气为动力。在目标3中，我们将使用化学过程模型来设计系统，这些系统可以100%地捕获某些类型的先进发电厂产生的二氧化碳，而几乎不会造成能源损失。在目标4中，我们将把这些结果和我们以前工作中的其他结果合并到计算机模型中，然后我们将使用这些模型来创建一个将石油焦转化为燃料、化学品和/或电力的过程，但二氧化碳排放量为零。 总体而言，拟议的概念是将石油焦废物转化为增值产品的创新方法。这可能会给加拿大能源行业带来巨大的好处，因为石油焦废物是从来自加拿大的大多数常规原油和油砂原油的精炼中大量产生的。拟议的流程将增加加拿大炼油厂的利润，减少艾伯塔省不断增长的石油焦库存，并在全球范围内每年防止高达5亿吨的二氧化碳排放，相当于从道路上移走1亿辆乘用车。

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 worldwideequivalent to removing 100 million passenger cars from the road.