Bookmark this site: Mighty MITEI

"Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm" -- Winston Churchill

According to its Web (http://web.mit.edu/mitei/) , “The MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI), established in September 2006, is an Institute-wide initiative designed to help transform the global energy system to meet the needs of the future and to help build a bridge to that future by improving today's energy systems.”

MITEI founding members include …

BP Technology Ventures Inc.
Eni SpA
Masdar Institute of Science and Technology
ABB Research Ltd.
Robert Bosch GmbH
Chevron USA Inc.
Enel Produzione SpA
Fundacio Barcelona Tecnologia (b_TEC)
Lockheed Martin
Saudi Aramco
Schlumberger
Siemens
Total

Two of MITEI’s research projects are …

Whole Crude Oil Desulfurization by Supercritical Water
Bioprocess Engineering on Microbial Desulfurization

source: http://www.gulfinthemedia.com/index.php?m=gcc_press&id=2172321&cnt=171&lang=en&PHPSESSID=8

Worth a bookmark, wouldn’t you agree?

"I had a mother who taught me there is no such thing as failure. It is just a temporary postponement of success" -- Buddy Ebsen

Take a step on the road to success by bookmarking the Desulfurization Blog … http://www.desulf.blogspot.com/

Conference Alert: 2nd Annual World Refining Technology Summit & Exhibition 2010

"The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time" -- Bertrand Russell, philosopher

A recent post to the LinkedIn® Heavy Oil Discussion Group describes an upcoming conference that is worth exploring, especially if you work in the Middle East. The conference Web (http://standardboard.com/wrts2010) includes a list of speakers at the previous conference, with a brief bio of each presenter.

Here is the text of the LinkedIn post …

“2nd Annual World Refining Technology Summit & Exhibition 2010
Standard Board is pleased to announce the 2nd Annual World Refining Technology Summit & Exhibition which will take place in Abu Dhabi, UAE on 1-2 November 2010.

“We are also taking our first twenty registered delegates for the site visit to TAKREER Refinery on 3 November 2009

“2nd Annual World Refining Technology Summit 2010 will be one of the few meeting fully committed to the latest in refining technology. Unlike at other events, our speakers will represent the Operating & Technology companies and discuss a gamut of technology-related topics that will cover a number of burning issues the refining industry is currently facing. Service providers and technology companies will hold a small exhibition in the coffee area during the Summit and held one-to-one meetings with delegates.

“We wish to invite your organisation to be a part of this conference by way of speaking & sponsoring /exhibiting and participating at this event. Conference will be attended by senior refinery professionals and decision makers from across the Globe. Please let us know if you will be interested in participating at this event.

“For Speaking / Sponsoring / Exhibit Enquiries please contact Chander Kant Verma (0091 9811022265) at ck.verma@standardboard.com

“For Participation and Group Discounts please contact Meghana Shah (0091 9811026635) at m.shah@standardboard.com

“Please visit http://standardboard.com/wrts2010 for more details.

“Look forward to welcome you at this prestigious event “

Add a feed to this Desulfurization Blog … http://www.desulf.blogspot.com/ … on your Google Web page

Simple Sulfur Search: The Oil Majors

“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” -- Albert Einstein

Sometimes the simplest way to follow the desulfurization research juggernaut is to follow the companies that have the biggest stake in its results. For example, Google® for Saudi Aramco desulfurization and here are a few of the nuggets that turn up in the results list …

Diesel Desulfurization For High Temperature Fuel Cells
Sai P. Katikaneni1,2*, and J. Hunt1
1FuelCell Energy, 3 Great Pasture Road, Danbury, CT, 0681, USA
2Present Address: Saudi Aramco, PO Box 12814, Dhahran, 31311 Saudi Arabia
*sai.katikaneni@aramco.com
source: http://www.nacatsoc.org/20nam/abstracts/P-S12-07A.pdf
///////
Saudi Aramco Joins MIT Energy Initiative
by Saudi Aramco, January 13, 2010
Saudi Aramco recently joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Energy Initiative (MITEI) as a sustaining member. The five-year alliance will support MITEI's research and development of new energy technologies and improve processing techniques for cleaner fuels.
Isam A. Al-Bayat, Saudi Aramco's vice president of Engineering Services, and Rafael Reif, MIT provost, signed a letter of acknowledgement at MIT's offices in Cambridge, Mass. to formalize the relationship.
source: http://www.downstreamtoday.com/news/article.aspx?a_id=20470&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1
///////
Chemical desulfurization of petroleum fractions for ultra-low sulfur fuels
MOHAMMAD FARHAT ALI (1) ; AL-MALKI Abdullah (2) ; AHMED Shakil (1) ;
Author(s) Affiliation(s)
(1) H.E.J. Research Institute of Chemistry, International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences, University of Karachi, Karachi 75270, PAKISTAN
(2) Research and Development Center, Saudi ARAMCO, Dhahran 31311, ARABIE SAOUDITE
source: http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=21374773
///////
Applied Catalysis B: Environmental
Volume 73, Issues 3-4, 11 May 2007, Pages 311-316
Desulfurization of diesel via the H2O2 oxidation of aromatic sulfides to sulfones using a tungstate catalyst
Farhan Al-Shahrania, b, Tiancun Xiaoa, Simon A.Llewellyna, Sami Barric, Zheng Jianga, Huahong Shia, Gary Martinieb and Malcolm L.H. Greena, ,
aInorganic Chemistry Laboratory, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QR, UK
bR&DC, Dhahran 31311, Saudi Arabian Oil Company, Saudi Arabia
cChemical Engineering Department, Imperial College, London, UK
source: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6TF6-4MS3J8D-1&_user=10&_coverDate=05%2F11%2F2007&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1198897293&_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=d4c9226d7704e50f1fc90be7e3cccfe0

The Great Thing About the Web Is … It’s Free!

“I know but one freedom and that is the freedom of the mind.” -- Antoine de Saint-Exupery quotes (French Pilot, Writer and Author of 'The Little Prince', 1900-1944)

The Great Thing About the Web Is … It’s Free! Of course, freedom comes at a price. And when it comes to actually finding something on the Web, that price is measured in time. That said, sometimes good things just fall into your lap, as did the item below. I was searching for something else when I found it, but I recognized its value when I saw it. Maybe it will be useful to you, as well.

Beyond Ultra Low Sulphur Diesel (ULSD): Technology Enhancements to Improve Distillate Product Quality
Salvatore Torrisi
Criterion Catalysts & Technologies Business Manager – Distillate Catalysts Houston, USA Tel: +1 281 874 2605 Fax: +1 281-874-2641
Sal.Torrisi@CRI-Criterion.com
Okke de Boks#
Shell Global Solutions International BV Licensing Technology Manager Amsterdam, Netherlands Tel: +31 20 630 3241 Fax: +31 20 630 2056
Okke.deBoks@shell.com
Ujjwal Manna
Shell Technology India Pvt Limited (Shell Global Solutions Division), HydroProcessing Lead, Bangalore ,
Ujjwal.Manna@shell.com

Highly technical, but worth the effort because of its explanation of already commercialized desulfurization approaches. One technology described is …

Selective Ring Opening (SRO)
“The objective of SRO is to provide three things: an upgraded diesel product quality (density, aromatics, cetane), a distillate selective reaction pathway and a minimum hydrogen consumption alternative. By delivering on all three of these benefits, SRO provides a very economically attractive upgrading route. Similar to aromatic saturation discussed previously, the SRO chemistry is enhanced by the clean nature of the ULSD product. Catalyst acidity is carefully controlled to avoid full hydrocracking that would result in yield shift to naphtha. Like EAS, the SRO catalysis can occur in a single stage reactor system since base metal reaction promoters are typically used. The multi-functional catalysts used in the SRO system permit some naphthenic molecules to “exit” the reversible aromatic saturation loop (Figure 2), increasing the overall conversion, particularly in operating regimes that can be limited by thermodynamic equilibrium. Thus, the SRO catalyst systems can deliver comparable cetane at reduced hydrogen consumption (Figure 5), and are less sensitive to EOR conditions where hydrogenation conditions deteriorate.”

Here is the abstract of the paper …

ABSTRACT
“With the initial wave of ULSD production well established in many areas of the world, attention has turned toward maximizing the use of these new assets as well as looking forward to anticipate future requirements. The ULSD platform is ideal for providing the opportunity to further upgrade diesel quality, since the chemistry/catalysis for cetane improvement, aromatics reduction, cold flow improvement, density reduction, biodiesel processing and conversion can be achieved by applying the right catalyst and process system. Criterion and Shell Global Solutions will discuss a range of commercially proven options for customers to achieve one or more of these additional diesel-upgrading objectives via simple catalyst changes all the way to new unit designs. These solutions can significantly improve overall refinery economics by leveraging this critical ULSD asset, providing flexibility to upgrade heavier feeds to make more diesel, maximize Light Cycle Oil (LCO) into the on-road diesel pool, provide capability to process more difficult crude, and make products to export into higher values markets.”

You can read the full text of the article at …
http://www-static.shell.com/static/criterion-gb/downloads/pdf/ww_newsletter/cct_augsept_09.pdf

Speaking of freedom, let freedom ring with a feed from this Desulfurization Blog. It costs you nothing, and will be worth the time you spend perusing it.

Search tip: Refining the refining literature

"The complete is more than the sum of its pieces." -- Aristotle

When you happen upon an article that focuses on your area of interest, remember to extract every bit of useful information from the article.

Let’s use the following article to illustrate what I mean …

Desulfurization of FCC Gasoline: Novel Catalytic Processes with Zeolites
International Journal of Chemical Reactor Engineering: Vol. 6: R1.
Available at: http://www.bepress.com/ijcre/vol6/R1
Lisette Jaimes, University of Western Ontario
Gabriela M. Tonetto, Universidad Nacional del Sur
María Lujan Ferreira, Universidad Nacional del Sur
Hugo de Lasa, University of Western Ontario

Reading the article, we note the useful information about the application of zeolites to the desulfurization of FCC gasoline. We also note the reference to the CREC / University of Western Ontario. We search the Web for the CREC url and bookmark the site for future reference.

While we’re at it, we note the names of the authors of the article, and do a quick search for other articles authored by them. Where appropriate, we add the names to our personal database of experts, along with contact information where available.

Here is the abstract of the article …

Abstract
“New regulations aim to achieve a drastic sulfur emission reduction in fuels and impose very low sulfur concentration caps (30 ppm in gasoline and 15 ppm in diesel) that will be in full force in 2009. FCC gasoline represents almost 40% of the total gasoline pool and it is the major sulfur contributor, with up to 85–95%. To deal with this situation, most refiners have adopted post-treating FCC gasoline processes given they are more viable and less costly for meeting sulfur environmental regulation limits. In this respect, one should notice that conventional hydro-treating of FCC gasoline removes sulfur decreasing gasoline quality with octane number losses. The use of hydrogen also adds important costs to the desulfurization. As a result, new promising catalytic desulfurization processes are being proposed using zeolites as adsorbents/catalysts. These new approaches may lead to novel technologies, for example, with the case of gasoline de-hydrosulfidation with no hydrogen addition and alternatively to adsorption processes with co-feeding of an H-donor being pioneered at CREC University of Western Ontario. In both approaches sulfur is efficiently removed leaving the gasoline octane number index intact. The zeolite structure, the framework composition and the properties of the charge compensating cations are all parameters with major impact on catalytic desulfurization. In particular, shape selectivity is expected to play an important role in determining product selectivity when condensation reactions are significant. In this respect, the H-ZSM5 zeolite appears to have the adequate balance of Brönsted acidity and Lewis basicity to efficiently convert thiophene to H2S, with minimal transformation of benzothiophene and oligomers into coke. From a chemical reactor engineering point of view, novel gasoline desulfurization can be implemented using both fixed and fluidized bed reactors. Fluidized circulating bed reactors display high sulfur removal ability allowing frequent catalyst removal from the catalytic bed and coke combustion in a twin fluidized regeneration unit. Fixed bed units with adsorption/desorption cycles, used in conjunction with and without H donor co-reactants, lead to selective adsorption and efficient removal of sulfur species.”

We refine petroleum to extract useful products for a wide range of end uses. Likewise, we can extract useful information from the refining literature for a number of purposes beyond the obvious.

Search tip: British Library Direct

“When I give a lecture, I accept that people look at their watches, but what I do not tolerate is when they look at it and raise it to their ear to find out if it stopped.” -- Marcel Achard
The British Library is the national library of the UK. Its collection of books and journals is vast in scope. British Library Direct (http://direct.bl.uk/bld/SearchResults.do) gives you access to this rich repository. If you have a credit card, you can obtain just about any English language article that has ever been published. Articles in other languages are also usually available.

Searching is free. Try it out. Go to the British Library Direct site (http://direct.bl.uk/bld/SearchResults.do) and type in a search string … For example: dibenzothiophene 2009

Browse the results. If you find one you want to read, get out your credit card and order it online. Isn’t the Web amazing?

Do your friends a favor … let them know about the Desulfurization Blog. It’s not just about desulfurization. It’s about making you a more effective online searcher.

News you can use: The Catalyst Review Newsletter

“You Don't Have To Be a Rocket Scientist ... To Think Like One” -- George (Pinky) Nelson, research astronomer and director of project 2061, a nationwide science, mathematics and technology initiative of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He flew three space shuttle missions from 1978 to 1989 while a NASA astronaut

The Catalyst Review Newsletter (http://www.catalystgrp.com/catalystreview.html) contains both news about companies producing catalysts and full length articles on catalyst applications. Although desulfurization is not its focus, since catalysis lies at the heart of desulfurization technology, it is worth browsing for useful nuggets.

And occasionally it contains information targeting desulfurization specifically. For example, the May 2008 issue featured an article titled "Catalysts for Heavy Oil Conversion.”

Here are a couple of excerpts from the article …

“The choice of a catalyst-based process and the properties of the catalyst are determined to a great extent by the product distribution required. A particular feature of the hydroprocessing heavy oil, as compared with its alternatives, is its flexibility with respect to product production and the relatively high quality of the products. On the whole, hydroprocessing can handle a wider range of feedstock than catalytic cracking, although the latter process has seen some recent catalyst developments that narrowed the gap.

“However, proper selection of the types of catalysts to be employed in hydroprocessing heavy oil is essential if the process is to function efficiently. In this respect, mild hydrotreating (which is essentially hydrogen addition prior to conversion and which might be the first stage of the two-stage hydrocracking process, Figure 1) rather than immediate conversion of the heavy feedstock is often selected as a preliminary step prior to fluid catalytic cracking as a means of ultimately increasing conversion of heavy oil into lower boiling higher value products (Figure 2) (Speight, 2000, 2004)."
…
“It appears necessary to develop better analytical methods for the characterization of heavy feeds to be able to better predict the behavior of catalysts and catalytic reactors when processing such feeds.”
Source: The Catalyst Review Newsletter
Published by The Catalyst Group Resources (www.catalystgrp.com)


Desulfurization is the focus of this blog, but the same approach to assembling a system of sources and techniques applies to any field of technology. So the Desulfurization Blog may be of interest to you, even if desulfurization itself is not. Let your colleagues know about it.