Simulation of the integration of a bitumen upgrading facility and an IGCC process with carbon capture
Introduction
The worldwide oil demand is on the rise and is predicted to climb from around 85–105 million barrels per day by 2030 [1]. Unconventional oil resources, i.e. extra heavy oil and bitumen, consist of around 6 trillion barrels which constitutes about 30% of world oil reserves [2], [3]. However, before refining, the unconventional oil requires upgrading via carbon rejection or hydrogen addition technologies due to their high heteroatom content, viscosity, boiling point and density. The simulation of a bitumen upgrading process operating with unit operations including a Canmet slurry hydrocracker and naphtha (b.p. 40–180 °C) hydrotreater, light gas oil (b.p. 180–360 °C) hydrotreater and heavy gas oil (b.p. 360–540 °C) hydrotreater was performed using Aspen HYSYS® in order to determine the hydrogen consumption of the facility, CO2 emitted, utility consumption and quality of synthetic crude oil (SCO) based on various operating parameters. The residue (b.p. 540+ °C) withdrawn from the slurry hydrocracker could be subsequently upgraded in a coker in order to produce more light oils, burned in cement kilns and boilers or charged in a gasification process for hydrogen production [4]. The upgrading simulation estimated a hydrogen requirement of 15,000 kg/h for the production of a high yield high quality SCO from 100,000 BPD of Athabasca bitumen [5]. In order to reduce the net hydrogen requirements, the hydrocracker residue can be integrated with a gasification facility.
Similar upgrading process combinations have been tested or contemplated industrially. The Long Lake integrated upgrading project operated by Nexen Inc. charges deasphalted bottoms (capacity of 72,000 BPD) in four Shell Gasification Process trains in order to ultimately produce the required hydrogen for their hydrocracking operation and for syngas fuel that can be utilized for steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) or cogeneration (Cogen) operations [6], [7]. The North West Upgrading Inc. facility is an ongoing project that plans to combine the LC-Fining ebullating bed hydroprocessing technology and a heavy petroleum residue gasifier [8]. The Shell Pernis Refinery in Rotterdam, Netherlands (capacity of 400,000 BPD) also includes a gasification process in their plant in order to produce synthetic gas from heavy visbreaking residue or straight-run vacuum residue [9]. The bitumen upgrading and gasification process integration have additional potential benefits than solely alleviating the hydrogen demand of the hydrocracker and hydrotreaters and maximizing the SCO volumetric yield. The addition of acid gas removal technologies such as amine, Rectisol or Selexol for CO2 and H2S capture allow the overall process to reduce criteria for air contaminants and CO2 emissions. The inclusion of high hydrogen syngas gas turbines and steam turbines can also allow the plant to potentially achieve power and thermal self-sufficiency. In this study, the effect of 65% and 90% carbon capture cases has been evaluated relative to the integrated process operation without carbon capture and the amount of gasifier feed required to meet the upgrading process hydrogen demand is estimated for various hydrocracker residue conversions.
Section snippets
Process description and simulation
The overall process presented in Fig. 1 consists of the integrated Athabasca bitumen upgrading facility and the gasification process studied here. The upgrading section residue is fed to a gasifier in which carbon monoxide and hydrogen are produced forming a synthetic gas called syngas. The syngas is cleaned and cooled prior to the removal of sulfur species. The sweet syngas is then passed through water–gas shift reactors in which carbon monoxide and water react to produce hydrogen and carbon
Discussion
The entrained flow slagging gasifier is assumed to reach chemical equilibrium at an operating temperature of 1427 °C [14]. Therefore, the important parameters that impact the gasifier operation are its isothermal temperature and the oxygen and steam feed rates. Fig. 5 presents case studies during which the hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, methane and steam generation are monitored in function of various oxygen and steam to carbon ratio. Oxygen-to-carbon ratios should never exceed 0.5
Conclusion
A gasification process with carbon capture is simulated and integrated with a bitumen upgrading facility in order to obtain a hydrogen, power and energy self-sufficient operation. An entrained flow slagging gasifier is chosen for the gasification of the hydrocracker petroleum feed at an oxygen and steam to carbon molar ratio of 0.45 and 0.1. Only 34.8% of the hydrogen demand of the hydrocracker operating at a conversion of 91% and constant hydrodesulfurization and hydrodenitrogenation of 90%
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Mr. David McCalden and Dr. Dennis Lu at CanmetENERGY Ottawa as well as Edward Little, Dr. Jinwen Chen and Dr. Mugurel Munteanu at CanmetENERGY Devon for their valuable technical input. I also want to recognize the thoughts and contributions of Dr. Theo de Bruijn. Finally, I would like express my gratitude for the financial support of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and Natural Resources Canada.
References (49)
Modelling of a pressurised entrained flow coal gasifier: the effect of reaction kinetics and char structure
Fuel
(2000)Gasification of oil sand coke: review
Fuel Process Technol
(1998)Effect of size and density on the thermodynamic predictions of coal particle phase formation during coal gasification
Fuel Process Technol
(2009)Co-production of hydrogen, electricity and CO2 from coal with commercially ready technology. Part A: performance and emissions
Int J Hydrogen Energy
(2005)Equilibrium calculations in coal gasification
Int J Hydrogen Energy
(1990)- et al.
Water gas shift reaction kinetics and reactor modeling for fuel cell grade hydrogen
J Power Sources
(2003) - et al.
Optimum gas turbine cycle for combined cycle power plant
Energy Convers Manage
(2008) Integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) process simulation and optimization
Comput & Amp Chem Eng
(2010)- et al.
CO2 capture study in advanced integrated gasification combined cycle
Appl Therm Eng
(2007) - IEA. World Energy Outlook. International Energy Agency, London;...
Combined process schemes for upgrading of heavy petroleum
Fuel
Integration and simulation of a bitumen upgrading facility and an IGCC process with carbon capture
Cited by (17)
Hydrogen energy storage and transportation challenges: A review of recent advances
2023, Hydrogen Energy Conversion and ManagementThermodynamic feasibility for molybdenum-based gaseous oxides assisted looping coal gasification and its derived power plant
2020, EnergyCitation Excerpt :By adjusting the feed amount and temperature of the inlet air, the excess heat produced in the anode can be removed, thus reducing the temperature difference within the cell stacks. A post anode CO2 capture process is envisaged after the heat recovery steam generator-2 (HRSG-2), which consists of a high- and low-temperature WGS unit with intercoolers [38,39] and a cryogenic separation unit. Approximately 98.28% by mole of the residual CO in the anode off-gas (#37) is converted into CO2 in the two-stage WGS reactors.
Process simulation and integration of IGCC systems for H<inf>2</inf>/syngas/electricity generation with control on CO<inf>2</inf> emissions
2019, International Journal of Hydrogen EnergyCitation Excerpt :Most of the authors have discussed the standalone IGCC and NGCC processes with and without CCS technologies in terms of performance, optimization and economics using multiple raw materials to generate H2/syngas/electricity [8–11] but only few studied about the design routes for process integration and intensification. Some of the recent studies discussed the process integration opportunities for developing the more robust and sustainable designs [12–16]. For instance, Ahmed et al. [13] and Cormos et al. [17] developed the process models for improving the performance of IGCC systems with CCS techniques.
Design and simulation of a petcoke gasification polygeneration plant integrated with a bitumen extraction and upgrading facility and net energy analysis
2017, EnergyCitation Excerpt :Based on a life cycle framework, McKellar et al. [12] indicated that the gasification of coke byproducts will considerably offset recently achieved greenhouse gas emission reductions in the industry. Using Aspen Hysys simulations, El Gemayel et al. [24] investigated the feasibility of incorporating an integrated gasification combined cycle utilizing oil sands petcoke as a feed stock in bitumen upgrading facilities. The aim of the study was to generate a process that is self-sufficient for power, hydrogen and steam requirements while meeting carbon dioxide emission constraints using carbon capture technologies.
Optimal design of bitumen upgrading facility with CO<inf>2</inf> reduction
2017, Computers and Chemical EngineeringCitation Excerpt :El Gemayel et al. investigated the feasibility of slurry hydrocracking, trickle-bed hydrotreating and residue gasification integration (Gemayel et al., 2014). The integrated design was simulated with Aspen HYSYS simulator under different scenarios: (i) 90%, (ii) 65%, and no carbon capture with the MEA solvent (Gemayel et al., 2014). In a more comprehensive study, the forecasted demands for electricity and hydrogen in oil sands operations were optimized under the CO2 emissions constraints (Ordorica-Garcia et al., 2010).