Evaluation of the performance and economic viability of a novel low temperature carbon capture process

A novel Advanced Cryogenic Carbon Capture (A3C) process is being developed using low cost but high intensity heat transfer to achieve high CO2 capture efficiencies with a much reduced energy consumption and process equipment size. These characteristics, along with the purity of CO2 product and absence of process chemicals, offer the potential for application across a range of sectors. This work presents a techno-economic evaluation for applications ranging from 3% to 35%vol. CO2 content. The A3C process is evaluated against an amine-based CO2 capture process for three applications; an oil-fired boiler, a combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) and a biogas upgrading plant. The A3C process has shown a modest life cost advantage over the mature MEA technology for the larger selected applications, and substantially lower costs in the smaller biogas application. Enhanced energy recovery and optimization offer significant opportunities for further reductions in cost

The Uinta Express pipeline: a comprehensive research report conducted by students enrolled in CvEEN 3100 technical communications

reportThe Uinta Express Pipeline is a proposed common carrier pipeline which would transport waxy crude oil extracted from the Uinta Basin in northeastern Utah to area refineries in North Salt Lake City. The proposed project would consist of a 12-inch, buried, insulated, carbon steel pipeline supported by numerous ancillary facilities along its approximately 135-mile long route. Tesoro Refining and Marketing LLC, the principle organization sponsoring research and development of the Uinta Express Pipeline, claims that once operational it will have the capacity to transport up to 60,000 barrels of unrefined waxy crude oil daily, thereby removing an estimated 250 semi tanker trucks from Utah's highways each day. This Report, compiled by University of Utah students enrolled in CvEEN 3100: Technical Communications, thoroughly interrogates the proposed pipeline with current research and specification data. Students enrolled in CvEEN 3100 during the Fall 2014 semester identified various aspects of the proposed project that presented the most significant challenges from a civil and environmental perspective. Students worked in teams to compile feasibility reports, which comprise the individual chapters. Teams coordinated with one another to ensure that research content, images, and technical data discussed in one chapter did not overlap with material in other chapters

The effect of composition and structure of crude-oil models on fouling phenomena using a stirred batch reactor

Fouling of crude oils in the heat exchangers of the refinery preheat train (PHT) is a common problem. The varying composition and complex phase behaviour of crude oils presents significant challenges when processing at high temperatures. Precipitation of asphaltenes from the oil and corrosion fouling at high temperatures results in the build-up of deposits on heat exchanger wall surfaces, reducing heat and momentum transfer. This results in significant economic and environmental impact. Studying this phenomenon from a physicochemical perspective remains challenging as crude oil compositions vary widely. In particular, asphaltenes, the heaviest oil fraction, exhibits phase behaviour which is highly dependent on temperature and blend composition. This work augments existing understanding of fouling behaviour of crude oils at high temperature by focusing on their compositions by blending, fractionation (into asphaltenes and maltenes) and recombination with model solvents. Synthetic asphaltene model-compound solutions were developed to study fouling in a repeatable and controlled manner, and their fouling characteristics were validated against those of naturally occurring crude oils. Fouling experiments for crude oils were conducted in a purpose – built laboratory scale system described in this work. This apparatus simulated the hydrodynamic conditions found in latter stage PHT heat exchangers. These studies formed the basis of comparison for later experiments, testing both fractionated oil solutions and synthetic asphaltene solutions utilising high boiling-point solvents (n-dodecane and 1-methylnaphthalene). Commissioning experiments revealed that fouling behaviour was influenced by several factors. Not only was the production of deposits highly dependent on the process conditions, blend composition and preparation of the test fluids, but also the cleaning procedure of the system. Traces of residual deposits were believed to act as nucleation sites for further deposit production and activity of the heated wall surface was subject to cycling passivation. When fractionated oil solutions were used, solution stability at process conditions was the primary driver of fouling; high concentrations of asphaltenes were relatively stable in 1-methylnaphthalene, but low concentrations were highly unstable in solutions containing large proportions of n-dodecane, an incompatible solvent. Maltene fouling was similarly dependant on its solution stability. Solutions of synthesised model asphaltenes based on alkylpyrene and perylene diimides, exhibited very different behaviour under process conditions. A long alkyl-chain perylene diimide (PDI-C12) alone exhibited strong fouling behaviour at process conditions. It exhibited marginal solubility in 1-methylnaphthalene and high thermal lability, resulting in significant insoluble deposits which also caused corrosion of the steel wall surface.Open Acces

Azeotropic separation: playing with the ionicity of ionic liquids

Dissertation presented to obtain the Ph.D degree in Engineering and Technology SciencesIn modern chemical industry, the separation of solvent mixtures into their pure compounds is mandatory not only to prevent their accumulation, but also for that their reusability may assure a sustainable overall process. However, the presence of azeotropes or close boiling point mixtures constitute one of the most challenging tasks in industrial processes in the separation of solvent mixtures, since their separation by simple distillation is basically impossible. The processes designed for the efficient separation of azeotropic mixtures usually require the use of a separation agent.(..

Annual Report 1966-1967

It contains the statement of R&D works undertaken, achivement made and the expenditure by the laboratory during the financial year 1966-1967

Understanding wastewater from hydraulic fracturing to minimise environmental risk

Hydraulic fracturing to extract shale gas is widely regarded to be socially, environmentally, and politically controversial due to the perceived negative impacts of the process. One issue of environmental contention is the management and fate of the wastewater generated by the fracturing process when fluids used to generate fractures in the rocks underground are returned to the surface. These waste fluids require appropriate storage, transportation, treatment, and discharge to ensure that overall fluid requirements are minimised, process efficiency is maximised, and risks to the environment are reduced. Prior understanding of the chemistry and volumes of waste that will require management are beneficial to operators, waste treatment professionals, and environmental regulators. The effects of temperature, pressure, shale mineralogy, and injected fluid composition on the chemistry of waste fluids were investigated through a series of experiments. Experiments were designed to replicate the hydraulic, thermal, and chemical interaction between shale rocks and injected fluids in the subsurface to provide insight into the source of contaminants of concern in wastewaters. This work also modelled the economic and energetic cost of treating wastewater with varied composition under current regulatory conditions in the UK. The limited UK waste fluid composition data was compared with a wealth of waste fluid data from the USA to ascertain what lessons could be learned from legacy operations and their environmental impacts. Experiments with injection fluids containing no chemical additives yielded waste fluids with few contaminants of concern. The greatest concentrations of contaminants of concern such as heavy metals, sulphates, and salts occurred during reaction with an injection fluid containing 10 % HCl additive to the base injection fluid. Key factors affecting the release of contaminants into solution include solution pH, mineralogical composition (particularly carbonates and sulphates), and oxidising conditions. Modelling of the volumes and chemistry of wastewater expected from operations in the UK concluded that the economic viability of any shale gas well is impeded by the cost of treatment. The cost of treating the salinity varied from 2 to 26 % of well revenue, with a predicted median of ~ $495,472 per well. Additional costs of up to £163,450 per well will be incurred for disposal of NORM concentrated sludge in permitted landfill sites in line with UK regulations. Based on the findings from this research, it is strongly recommend that this area receives further attention from the emergent unconventional gas industry, the established waste water management industry, and regulatory bodies in the UK, in order to produce a coherent strategy for the future management of wastewaters from hydraulic fracturing. This work has found that no such co-ordinated strategy currently exists, and limited management capacity in the UK will present a significant hurdle to future expansion of the industry unless it is urgently addressed

Gas Hydrate Analysis and Modelling of Monoethylene Glycol Regeneration and the Impact of Additives

Monoethylene glycol (MEG) is injected to inhibit gas hydrate formation. In this study, significant experimental and computational effort has been applied to investigate MEG degradation, the regeneration and reclamation process during water breakthrough, and to produce empirical models. Hydrate phase equilibria of numerous corrosion inhibitors, oxygen scavengers, amines and scale inhibitors were produced suggesting an inhibitory effect on gas hydrates predominantly. Furthermore, the impact of methyldiethanolamine (MDEA) was modelled empirically and thermodynamically

En route to the industrial applications of ionic liquids for metal oxide production and biomass fractionation: A sustainable avenue to advanced materials

In the context of climate change, it is essential to use renewable materials and to reduce the environmental footprint of industrial processes. This work focuses on the feasibility of implementing a low-cost Ionic Liquid (IL) in a large-scale biorefinery for bioethanol production (the ionoSolv process). The selected feedstock was Eucalyptus red grandis, a fast-growing hardwood. The lignocellulosic biomass was fractionated at laboratory scale, using aqueous N,N,N-trimethylammonium hydrogen sulfate (20 wt% water), at different temperatures and reaction times, to maximize glucose recovery (86%). Experiments under CO2 atmospheres (sub and supercritical) revealed that the ionoSolv process is pressure insensitive. A detailed Techno-Economic Analysis (TEA) for a biorefinery using the ionoSolv pretreatment was performed and compared to one using the acid-catalysed steam explosion pretreatment. With the ionoSolv pretreatment, the composition of the cellulose-rich pulps can be tailored and high-purity lignins can be recovered. The economic performance of both pretreatments are similar. From a sustainability perspective there are trade-offs: the ionoSolv process consumes 25% more energy (with potential for optimization) but consumes less chemicals and produces less waste. These results indicate that this process can be a competitive alternative. During the development of this process, and other IL-based processes, the interaction of ILs (neat and aqueous) with metals was investigated to establish suitable materials of construction. It was observed that the corrosion behaviour of metals exposed to ILs is system dependent. Surprisingly, water can act either as a corrosion inhibitor or promoter. A semi-quantitative classification method for the different corrosion behaviours observed was developed. Some metals exposed to aqueous ILs formed particles, resulting in the inadvertent development of a novel process for metal-based materials at large-scale: Oxidative Ionothermal Synthesis (OIS). A high-level TEA suggests that OIS offers economic and environmentally advantageous production of bulk and advanced metal-based materials, such as zinc oxide.Open Acces