Chemical Engineering November 2010 - 14

ChementatoR
An oil shale process will be commercialized in China
C
onstruction has started in Qinzhou,
China, on the first commercial plant to
use a new process for producing fuels from
oil shale, to be imported from Indonesia. The
process was developed by China Chemical
Economical Cooperation Center (CCECC)
and AuraSource, Inc. (Chandler, Ariz.; www.
aurasourceinc.com), which is building the
plant in a joint venture with two Hong Kong
partners. When the plant starts up, toward
the end of 2011, it will convert 1 million metric
tons per year (m.t./yr) of shale to three
products: syncrude (C5-C25 oil), which will
be upgraded to 250,000 m.t./yr of gasoline
and diesel fuels by local refineries; 120,000
m.t./yr of dry gas (90%+ methane), and 600
m.t./yr of " semi-coke. "
AuraSource's process (flowsheet) is a
relatively low temperature operation in
which shale is indirectly heated in a retort
to less than 480°C, using a proprietary catalyst
and additives that are mixed with the
shale. Spent shale, containing unburned
carbon, will be used to produce a " coal-water
slurry " via another AuraSource technology,
called AuraCoal. The spent shale
will be ground up, then ash and non-carbon
material will be separated from the carbon
by a proprietary gravity-separation process,
says Philip Liu, the company chairman.
The powdered carbon will be slurried
in water to obtain a heavy-oil equivalent
that will be used to heat the retort and by
local power plants.
Liu says the venture promises to be " very
profitable, " with a product cost of $20/bbl of
crude oil equivalent. He adds that the process
is environmentally-friendly, with no
waste and relatively low water consumption
and carbon dioxide emissions. So far,
the process has been tested in a 20-m.t. pilot
plant. Liu says that AuraSource has applied
to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management
(Washington, D.C.) for an oil shale lease.
Petroleum dry gas
(C1-C4)
Oil shale /
low ranking coal
Catalyst
Low-temperature
catalytic
rotary retort
Lightweight fuel oil
(C5-C25)
Semi-Coke
Wastewater
Distillation
Gasoline
Diesel
Residual oil
PVC-free wire coating
Dow wire and Cable (houston,
Tex.; www.dow.com/
wire) recently launched the
world's first halogen-free
compounds able to meet key
global standards for coating
flexible electric cords. marketed
as Sustain halogenfree
compounds, they are
available in both insulation
and jacketing grades, and
are designed as alternatives
to polyvinyl chloride (PvC)
for manufacturers of wires for
appliances and electronics.
" The electronics industry
has been seeking alternatives
to PvC for making
wires, " explains Thorne bartlett,
director of new business
development at Dow wire
and Cable. responding to the
trend, Dow introduced the
proprietary materials, which
are based on thermoplastic
polyolefin and thermoplastic
elastomer compounds
and have favorable flame
retardant properties. The
materials can yield product
with a similar look and feel
to PvC-based cords. with a
well-designed extrusion line,
the Dow product can achieve
production rates equivalent to
those of PvC. The price of the
new product is substantially
higher than conventional
compounds, but adds only a
minimal amount to the end
cost of electronic devices.
Making syngas from coal in one step
A
combined coal-gasification and methane-reforming
process using coal char as
catalyst has been developed by a team from
the Chinese Academy of Sciences [Qingdao
Institute of Bioenergy & Bioprocess Technology
(english.qibebt.cas.cn), and the Institute
of Coal Chemistry (english.sxicc.
cas.cn)] and from the Center for Energy,
University of Western Australia (UWA;
Perth; www.uwa.edu.au).
Team leader professor Dongke Zhang, of
UWA, says conventional steam-methane
reforming entails some drawbacks, such
as production of a high H2-to-CO ratio in
synthesis gas (syngas). In the CO2 catalytic
reforming of methane, the deactivation of
the catalyst due to carbon deposition is a
serious problem, he says. The new process
has the advantages that the H2-to-CO ratio
in the syngas is adjustable, there is no need
for an expensive metal catalyst or tubular
reactors, and the process has a high enControlled
nucleation
ergy efficiency compared with conventional
steam reforming.
Various aspects of the new process have
been studied in the laboratory, including
CH4 cracking over coal char, CO2 and steam
reforming of CH4 over coal char, and the effect
of chars made from different types of
parent coals, including lignite, a bituminous
coal, and anthracite. Coal chars were prepared
by devolatizing coal in nitrogen in an
electrically heated, fixed-bed reactor made
of quartz, at 1,173K for 30 min.
Experiments were performed in a fluidized-bed
reactor operating at atmospheric
pressure and a temperature of 1,070-1,223K.
Under these conditions, the bed of char undergoes
gasification while catalyzing the
methane-reforming reactions. Experiments
demonstrated that the coal char greatly
promotes the reforming reaction, and the
highest initial methane conversion reaches
nearly 90% at 1,223K.
14 ChemiCal engineering www.Che.Com november 2010
SP Scientific (warminster, Pa.;
www.spscientific.com) has
signed a license agreement
to utilize Praxair's (Danbury,
Conn.; www.praxair.com) Controlyo
nucleation on-demand
technology, which provides
pharmaceutical and biotechnology
companies with precise
control over the freeze-drying
process for drug development.
Praxair developed Controlyo
for the control of the freezing
step of lyophilization. Up to
now, this freezing step was
uncontrolled due to the random
nature of the nucleation or
crystal-forming process. Controlyo
controls the nucleation
temperature to within 1°C of its
freezing point, thereby improving
product quality and yield,
and reducing cycle times by as
much as 40%, says Praxair.
http://www.dow.com/ http://www.aurasourceinc.com http://www.spscientific.com http://www.praxair.com http://english.qibebt.cas.cn http://www.cas.cn http://www.uwa.edu.au http://www.Che.Com
Chemical Engineering November 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering November 2010
