SIMULATION OF CO-PROCESSING BIO-OIL AND VGO IN FLUID CATALYTIC CRACKING UNITS

Biofuel is a promising substitute for fossil fuels to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to provide highly sustainable fuels. Several technical challenges are indeed present during upgrading bio-oil to transportation fuel on a large scale. Co-processing bio-oil with some petroleum fractions in existing refineries serves as an alternative method to minimise processing costs. This paper aims to evaluate the co-processing by exploring the effects of temperature, bio-oil ratios and types of bio-oil to the product yields and quality in a Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) unit within a refinery complex. The considered bio-oil are produced from pyrolysis of Palm Kernel Shell (PKS) and Empty Fruit bunch (EFB). The results show that bio-oil from PKS is better suited to produce gasoline due to its aromatic nature and its carbon range similarities compared to that from EFB. A mixture of 20% of hydrodeoxygenated (HDO) PKS in vacuum gas oil (VGO) shows a 5% improvement of naphtha yield while 20% raw bio-oil from PKS produces 4% increase in light cycle oil (LCO) yield

Inclined forward osmosis module system for fouling control in sustainable produced water treatment using seawater as draw solution

Produced water (PW) generated from oil and gas production is a threat to the environment if not treated properly. Conventional methods for PW treatment are often accompanied by a series of treatments to fulfill the discharge standard. Forward osmosis (FO) is a promising option due to its high solute retention, less irreversible fouling, low energy footprint and potentially used as a standalone unit. However, FO still suffers from the low flux and fouling when treating highly contaminated feeds. This study investigated fouling control in the FO system for concentrating PW by using seawater as a draw solution (DS). A multi-stage filtration system (via via replenishments of the DS) with an aeration and module inclination for fouling mitigation was proposed to improve concentration factor (CF) and flux. Results showed that the multi-stage concentration offered higher fluxes range of 1.72–15.48−1.72 L/(m2h) (LMH) and four times of CF than the single-stage one with fluxes range of 0.39–9.49 LMH corresponding to CF of 1.75. The aeration was effective to enhance the water flux and suppress the fouling, and showed a significant impact at the rate of 0.4 L/min, reaching flux increment by 11 times at a rate of 1 L/min. The impact of aeration was enhanced by inclining the filtration cell up to 5 times at the inclination angle (θ) of 90° due to the improved contacts of air bubbles with the membrane surface. The contribution of the aeration and cell inclination on the water flux can be explained through the forces acting on moving air bubbles

Porous polyether sulfone for direct methanol fuel cell applications: structural analysis

Porous poly ether sulfone (PES) membranes were prepared using two different solvents which were N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone and dimethylacetamide (DMAc) via dry/wet non-solvent phase inversion (NIPS) techniques. PES with the compositions of 18 wt% is prepared for each dope solution. During the membrane casting process, 0 to 5 minutes delay prior to immersion in coagulant bath is set in order to allow solvent evaporation to take place. Water is used as the non-solvent for solvent exchange process. The prepared membranes are characterised based on their morphological aspect using scanning electron microscopy towards the effect of solvent evaporation time and solution viscosity. The changes in proton conductivity, methanol permeability, water uptake and hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity behaviours are also studied. Conclusively, the 18 wt% PES membranes prepared with DMAc as solvent at 3 minutes solvent evaporation time exhibited desirable pore size for proton conduction (0.04 × 10−3 Scm−1) and methanol resistant effect that consequently contribute to considerably low methanol permeability rate at 0.06 × 10−7 cm2 s−1 which could elevate the direct methanol fuel cell performance