Hydrocarbon Streams Research Articles

Characterization of Adsorbed Hydrocarbons in Deposit Sands and Well Fracture in the Burgos Basin

Objective: The objective of this research is to determine the potential adsorption by the solids carried by the hydrocarbon production stream to the surface by characterization to identify its origin. Theoretical framework: In the natural gas producing wells of the Burgos Basin, there is the presence of solids in the production fluids, these can be from the reservoir or from fracture. The reservoir solids are created from the carbonates, sandstones and shales inside the well, the fracture solids are better known as props, they are mixed with the drilling fluid so that inside the well they act as packs in the fractures where the hydrocarbon can flow for extraction. In this Basin, horizontal hydraulic fracturing is used for the extraction of hydrocarbons, the solids present adsorb part of the hydrocarbons and are contaminated with them. Method: Sand samples from 4 wells were used, which were extracted with Soxhlet equipment to separate the organic content of the sand. Using ASTM (2003) and US EPA (1996) methods D5369-93 and 3540C-3541 as a reference. Subsequently, the hydrocarbon concentrate was fractionated using the method reported in the manual of soil analysis techniques of Fernández et al., (2006) who adapted the methods 3600C, 3610B and 3611B of the US EPA (1996). The analytical method consisted of reading the spectra of each fraction in a UV-Visible Shimadzu UV-1800 spectroscopy equipment and by FT-IR spectrophotometry, in a Nicolet iS10 equipment, with a DTGS KBr detector. The physical characterization of the sands was performed by recording the particle size using the API-RP56 standard. Finally, X-ray diffraction is used to determine the phases of the sands by the method 05LA-34080109-DRX-MP-01. Results and discussion: The amount of total hydrocarbon extracted from the sands was in a range of 2,975-0,060 gr. The identification of hydrocarbons extracted by Uv-Visible and FTIR showed functional groups of aliphatic, polycyclic and nitrogen compounds. The particle size of the sands was measured between 45-311 nm. And finally RX identified the type of sand to analyze, being well 1: reservoir sand, well2: fracture sand, well 3: fracture sand and well 4: reservoir sand. Implications of the research: This research presents a study on the classification of the type of sands that are being dragged to the surface with the hydrocarbon stream of well production. These are data that show a fact that occurs and gives the certainty of what happens at the bottom of the well. Originality/value: The analysis of the results allows decisions to be taken to prevent corrosion and plugging problems of surface equipment, which can cause explosions such as the one of September 19, 2012 in the PEMEX gas pipeline at the Km 19 Measuring Center in Reynosa, Tamps. Mexico.

Current frameworks for environmental and health assessment of hydrocarbon streams and products are flexible and ready for alternative non crude oil-based feeds.

Hazard and risk assessment of complex petroleum-derived substances has been in a state of continuous improvement since the 1970s, with the development of approaches that continue to be applied and refined. Alternative feeds are defined here as those coming into a refinery or chemical plant that are not hydrocarbons from oil and gas extraction such as biologically derived oils, pyrolysis oil from biomass or other, and recycled materials. These feeds are increasingly being used for production of liquid hydrocarbon streams, and hence, there is a need to assess these alternatives, subsequent manufacturing and refining processes and end products for potential risk to humans and the environment. Here we propose a tiered, problem formulation-driven framework for assessing the safety of hydrocarbon streams and products derived from alternative feedstocks in use. The scope of this work is only focused on petrochemical safety assessment, though the principles may be applicable to other chemistries. The framework integrates combinations of analytical chemistry, in silico and in vitro tools, and targeted testing together with conservative assumptions/approaches to leverage existing health, environmental, and exposure data, where applicable. The framework enables the identification of scenarios where de novo hazard and/or exposure assessments may be needed and incorporates tiered approaches to do so. It can be applied to enable decisions efficiently and transparently and can encompass a wide range of compositional space in both feedstocks and finished products, with the objective of ensuring safety in manufacturing and use.

Pervaporative Desulfurization: A Comprehensive Review of Principles, Advances, and Applications

Pervaporative desulfurization is a potential method for removing sulfur compounds from liquid hydrocarbon streams, having many advantages over existing methods. This overview covers the fundamentals, recent breakthroughs, and different applications of pervaporative desulfurization. The paper begins by explaining pervaporative desulfurization's core concepts, focusing on how polymeric membranes selectively separate sulfur molecules from liquid hydrocarbons. It explores membrane properties, operating conditions, and feed composition in pervaporative separation. It highlights how pervaporative desulfurization may reduce sulfur content to ultra-low levels and meet strict environmental and fuel quality standards. Finally, this comprehensive review paper concludes with a discussion on the future prospects and research directions in the field of pervaporative desulfurization. It highlights the need for continued innovation in membrane materials, module design, and process optimization, as well as the importance of addressing challenges related to scale-up and industrial implementation. Overall, this review paper provides valuable insights into the advancements, challenges, and potential applications of pervaporative desulfurization, offering a comprehensive understanding of this technology for researchers, engineers, and all parties involved in the development and implementation of sustainable sulfur removal processes.

Mercury in natural gas: delivering accurate reservoir sampling and analysis

Natural gas is a critical part of the world’s energy supply and plays an important role in the transition to lower-carbon energy sources. The industry’s ability to process natural gas safely and efficiently will continue to rely on an accurate understanding of feed gas composition and contaminants, particularly in enabling future developments via existing infrastructure. Mercury is toxic to organisms, highly volatile and produced from hydrocarbon basins globally. Trace mercury concentrations in the hydrocarbon stream can potentially introduce liquid metal embrittlement hazards to industrial equipment, including cryogenic heat exchangers used to refrigerate liquefied natural gas. Inaccurate measurement of mercury levels can lead to adverse impacts measurable across the areas of health, process safety, environment, operations, waste disposal and decommissioning. Worldwide, significant project cost overruns and processing incidents have resulted from the uncertainty of mercury concentrations in hydrocarbon streams. Successful mercury management ideally begins early in a project’s lifecycle with development decisions informed by accurate measurement of mercury concentrations from reservoirs. Historically, this has been problematic, as mercury contamination and scavenging often result in a large range of uncertainty. The results from a multi-company collaborative study to reduce mercury uncertainty with new downhole sampling techniques will be shared in a case study, including production insights from the Julimar Field, west coast of Australia. The recommendations, procedures and operational best practices discussed will be applicable across the industry and beneficial to any party considering the impact of mercury in the development and processing of natural gas resources.

Development of Highly Efficient Dual-Purpose Gas Hydrate and Corrosion Inhibitors for Flow Assurance Application: An Experimental and Computational Study

Gas hydrate and corrosion inhibitors are widely used to ensure successful and economic hydrocarbon stream flow inside the oil and gas pipelines. However, compatibility problems are observed during their co-injection into the flowlines as they have different molecular chemistry. Modifying effective gas hydrate inhibitors, such as polyvinylcaprolactam (PVCap), with some active functional groups in corrosion inhibition, can overcome compatibility issues. In this study, maleic anhydride was used as a cheap monomer to synthesize ionic N-vinyl caprolactam/maleic-based copolymers (P(VCap-co-MA)) as potential dual-purpose gas hydrate and corrosion inhibitors. The gas hydrate experiments showed that the inhibitors effectively inhibited natural gas hydrate formation and a maximum subcooling temperature of 14.6 °C achieved in a solution containing 2500 ppm P(VCap-co-MA)-3. The molecular dynamics simulation revealed that P(VCap-co-MA)-3 reduced the gas concentration in the liquid phase and occupied its adsorption sites on the hydrate surface to form a steric hindrance effect, inhibiting the gas hydrate formation. Electrochemical measurements indicated that P(VCap-co-MA)s significantly suppressed steel corrosion in oilfield-produced water saturated with H2S and CO2. P(VCap-co-MA)-3 and P(VCap-co-MA)-5 provided the highest protection of 96.9 and 96.1% in H2S and CO2 media, respectively. Moreover, simulation studies demonstrated that the inhibitors are strongly adsorbed on the steel surface to form a barrier layer on the surface, protecting against corrosive electrolytes. These findings suggest that the modification of a gas hydrate inhibitor improves not only its corrosion and gas hydrate inhibition performance but also decreases the operation costs for flow assurance in the oil and gas pipelines.

Novel Biosurfactants for Effective Inhibition of Gas Hydrate Agglomeration and Corrosion in Offshore Oil and Gas Pipelines

Gas hydrate and corrosion inhibitors are widely used to ensure a successful and economic hydrocarbon stream flow inside oil and gas pipelines. However, compatibility problems are observed during their co-injection into the flowlines as they have different molecular chemistry. Using anti-agglomerant hydrate inhibitors is an effective method to control the gas hydrate plugging risk in deep-water hydrocarbon flow lines or throughout drilling operations. Here, oleic acid was used to develop the first class of biosurfactants as anti-agglomerant and corrosion inhibitors using click chemistry for flow assurance applications. The results of high-pressure autoclave showed that both bio-based anti-agglomerants (BAAs) significantly inhibited gas hydrate agglomeration, and the value of torque remained constant during the hydrate formation process. The hydrate particles were effectively dispersed in liquid paraffin in the presence of 1 wt % of BAA1 or BAA2. In addition, molecular dynamic simulation revealed that the headgroup of BAA1 was adsorbed on the hydrate surface, and its alkyl chain dispersed the hydrate formed in the hydrocarbon phase as a slurry. According to electrochemical measurements, both BAAs were highly efficient inhibitors for the prevention of mild steel corrosion in saturated H2S and CO2-simulated oilfield water. BAA1 and BAA2 completely protected the steel in the corrosive medium by 99 and 98.8%, respectively, at 0.1 wt %. Moreover, the adsorption of BAA1 molecules on the steel surface was both physically and chemically in a direction that was almost parallel to the surface. Such adsorption provides the maximum surface coverage against corrosion. These findings suggest that oleic acid can be used as a potential starting material to develop eco-friendly inhibitors for flow assurance in oil and gas pipelines.

Cellulose-based carbon membranes for gas separations - Unraveling structural parameters and surface chemistry for superior separation performance

Carbon molecular sieve membranes were prepared from the carbonization of a cellulose-based polymeric precursor doped with urea. The addition of urea to the cellulose precursor induces an increase in structural disorder and an increase in pore volume inside the structure of prepared membranes. This unique preparation procedure proved to be an extremely effective method for tuning the pore size of carbon membranes to the desired separations. Urea acts as a pore-forming agent that allows the fabrication of carbon membranes with high porosity. The addition of 2.8 wt% of urea doubled the permeability of the prepared carbon membrane to hydrogen. In addition, a permeability to oxygen of 333 barrer was obtained, without impairing the selectivity. The proposed preparation procedure is compatible with industrial production and scaling, hopefully making carbon membranes a viable solution to produce oxygen-enriched air, recovering of hydrogen from hydrocarbon streams and carbon dioxide removal from natural gas/biogas.

Fuel oxygenation as a novel method to reduce sooting propensity of fuels: An investigation with gasoline surrogate fuels

Blending transportation fuels like gasoline with biofuels reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and pollutant emission due to the presence of fuel-bound oxygen. However, biofuel availability is limited to regions with an abundance of biomass and land for energy crops. To gain the advantage of fuel-bound oxygen on emission reduction, this work explores the effect of replacing a fraction of soot-producing aromatics present in gasoline with oxygenated aromatics to check if a fuel formulation strategy, where a fraction of aromatics-rich stream in a refinery is catalytically oxygenated to form oxygenated aromatics before blending with other hydrocarbon streams to produce gasoline, could be advantageous in producing clean fuels. A gasoline surrogate containing 17% n-heptane, 47% isooctane, and 36% toluene, which closely predicted gasoline properties such as density, molecular weight, threshold sooting index, and octane number, is used for the experiments. To mimic the above fuel formulation strategy, a fraction of toluene in gasoline surrogate is replaced with oxygenated aromatics, benzyl alcohol and anisole that are structurally similar to toluene. The oxygenated blends showcased lower sooting tendency than the surrogate fuel. Soot particles, collected from the three fuel blends, are analyzed using TGA, XRD, HRTEM, and elemental analyzer, where soots from oxygenated blends are found to have higher reactivity with lower particle diameter and crystallite size. The results indicate that such fuel formulation can not only reduce soot emission, but also improve soot physicochemical properties to reduce its lifetime in the environment.

Role of chemical reaction engineering for sustainable growth: One industrial perspective from India

AbstractChemical reaction engineering (CRE) is vital to solve many of the pressing societal challenges—energy and energy transition, materials, food, mobility, and so forth, to meet the aspirational goals of developing country population in the face of climate change, changing demographics, and geopolitical challenges. Application of the core principles of CRE to the emerging societal challenges is creating new technologies and cost‐effective solutions by integrating the widely varied CRE activities into broad, powerful, systems descriptions with the help of interdisciplinary teams with broad expertise including chemistry, catalysis, chemical kinetics, transport phenomena, biology, applied mathematics and modeling, emerging data science technologies to design and optimize chemical/biochemical reactors. Such developments will be critical for CRE to play an important role in the emerging fourth industrial revolution—amalgamation of physical, digital, and biological worlds, where the velocity of disruption and acceleration of innovation are hard to comprehend or anticipate and such broadening of CRE discipline will be critical for the field to remain agile and relevant. This article describes some latest technical advances in Reliance Industries Ltd. using this philosophy to help achieve sustainable growth and Net Zero business targets. We will broadly discuss renewable hydrogen from novel biomass catalytic gasification, multizone catalytic cracking process to convert crude oil and low value hydrocarbon streams to petrochemical building blocks, an adsorption/desorption process for CO2 concentration and monetization from industrial flue gases. Furthermore, biotechnology advances in leveraging photosynthesis kinetics, synthetic biology, and genetic modifications for converting solar energy and carbon dioxide through algae production will be discussed to produce proteins, biomaterials, renewable biocrude, and so forth. We will also discuss new catalytic technologies to convert mixed plastic waste to stable oil and organic waste such as agri and municipal solid waste, and so forth, to biocrude for circular economy, and biodegradable plastics production to manage plastics pollution.

Flexible Co-Processing Of Refinery Middle Distillate In FCC To Maximize Gasoline And LPG

Catalytic cracking of middle distillate fractions is a viable option to cope with the decreasing automotive diesel requirement, optimize throughput of catalytic crackers in case of shortage of feed and maximize gasoline and LPG production. Cracking performance of diesel range hydrocarbon streams from atmospheric and vacuum distillation towers, hydrocracker, delayed cooker and catalytic cracker was tested with respect to maximizing gasoline production. Subsequently an optimum blending ratio with vacuum gas oil was deduced followed by simulated cracking of said blend to calculate the potential yield benefit. A Refinery trial was conducted on basis of laboratory studies and a sustainable net value addition has been observed.

Hazard and Operability (HAZOP) Study at Separation System in the Offshore Platform

Energy is needed to maintain the cycle of life. It could come from natural oil and gas. Energy sources (oil and gas) are obtained by mining activities on land or sea. At sea, the offshore platform plays very important function in the exploration of natural oil and gas. It consists of several systems; one of these systems is a separation system, which is useful for separating oil, gas and water from the hydrocarbon stream. The separation system consists of several types of equipment such as separators, filters, pumps, pig launchers, and others. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out periodic maintenance activities for equipment on the offshore platform. Maintenance activities could be carried out by knowing the risk level of each equipment on the offshore platform. This research uses the hazard and operability study in order to determine the level of risk in each equipment in the offshore platform as a case study. After the risk level is obtained, the intensive maintenance activities can be carried out on the equipment that has the highest risk level. In this research, it is known that the two types of separators have the highest risk level. Therefore, intensive maintenance activities should be carried out on the two equipments.

Online product quality estimator based on true dew point curve for control of crude distillation units

AbstractOperational excellence for Distillation Units and particularly for Crude Distillation Units is achieved by tight control of product quality which is usually estimated by inferential models. This article is focused on a novel approach leading to calculate an appropriate input to the inferential model strictly related to the characteristics of real feed to the column rectifying section where the separation of products occurs. The calculation simplicity based on usually available plant measurements is an additional feature of the proposed approach. This article introduces the definition of a novel curve characterizing hydrocarbon streams: the True Dew Point curve (TDP), whose name recalls the strong relationship with True Boiling Point curve (TBP). Inferential results obtained with the TDP curve have been performed adopting an approximation of the rectifying feed TDP curve with the assumption that any more accurate TDP curve description would give better results. Inferential validation has been carried out comparing the estimations with two different approaches: one based on model input derived from the crude feed TBP curve, assuming that is known and considering these results as benchmark, the other based on a pilot tray temperature (assuming available) as model input for each product. A general database has been built running rigorous simulation models of an atmospheric fractionator, with variations of most operating parameters affecting the distillation ASTM 95% quality chosen as product specification. This article suggests the way to solve problems deriving from high nonlinearity of feed TBP curves, showing the application of TDP methodology to a vacuum fractionator. An application to real laboratory and plant data of atmospheric fractionator is also shown.

Sorption of HCl from an Aromatic Hydrocarbon Mixture Using Modified Molecular Sieve Zeolite 13X.

In this study, the removal of chlorides, especially HCl, from an aromatic hydrocarbon mixture composed of benzene, toluene, xylenes, and ethylbenzene has been studied. Molecular sieve zeolite 13X as such and exchanged with different amounts of alkali and alkaline earth metal ions has been used as an adsorbent. Different techniques like inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy, X-ray powder diffraction, N2 adsorption–desorption for Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface area and pore volume, and scanning electron microscopy were utilized to analyze all of the adsorbents. The effect of varying concentrations of alkali and alkaline earth metal cations and process parameters like temperature and flow rate on the removal of HCl has been studied by performing the adsorption breakthrough experiment. The main objective of this study is to determine the precise concentration of exchangeable ions and the optimum temperature, pressure, and feed flow rate at which the adsorbent exhibits the highest capacity toward the sorption of chloride species from an aromatic hydrocarbon stream. The maximum chloride sorption capacity was observed at T = 100 °C, P = 35 kg/cm2, and a liquid hourly space velocity (flow rate) of 2 h–1 when the molecular sieve zeolite 13X (NaX) exchanged with 0.6 wt % Ca2+ and 1 wt % Mg2+ cations was used as an adsorbent.

On-Line Composition Analysis of Complex Hydrocarbon Streams by Time-Resolved Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy and Ion-Molecule Reaction Mass Spectrometry.

On-line composition analysis of complex hydrocarbon mixtures is highly desirable to determine the composition of process streams and to study chemical reactions in heterogeneous catalysis. Here, we show how the combination of time-resolved Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and ion–molecule-reaction mass spectrometry (IMR-MS) can be used for compositional analysis of processed plant biomass streams. The method is based on the biomass-derived model compound 2,5-dimethylfuran and its potential catalytic conversion to valuable green aromatics, for example, benzene, toluene, and xylenes (BTX) over zeolite β. Numerous conversion products can be determined and quantified simultaneously in a temporal resolution of 4 min–1 without separation of individual compounds. The realization of this method enables us to study activity, selectivity, and changes in composition under transient reaction conditions. For example, increasing isomerization of 2,5-dimethylfuran to 2,4-dimethylfuran, 2-methyl-2-cyclopenten-1-one, and 2-methyl-2-cyclopenten-1-one is observed as the catalyst is exposed to the reactant, while BTX and olefin formation is decreasing.

A Coupled Hydrate and Compositional Wellbore Simulator: Understanding Hydrate Inhibition from Associated Brines in Oil and Gas Production

Summary Hydrates are ice-like solids composed of a water-based lattice “encaging” gas molecules. They form under conditions of high pressure and low temperature. In the oil and gas industry, where these conditions are easily met, hydrate formation may cause pipe blockages and severe financial implications, making its prevention (and remediation) one of the main flow-assurance concerns. Desired hydrate inhibition may come from electrolytes naturally dissolved in the water that is produced in conjunction with the hydrocarbon stream, or alcohols can be deliberately injected for such a purpose. When trying to predict hydrate conditions in real-world production systems, computer simulation should ideally integrate hydrate and multiphase-flow calculations. Failing to do so [by performing a decoupled analysis with a flow simulator and a separate pressure/volume/temperature (PVT) package for example] may generate misleading results under certain flow conditions. This paper presents an integrated wellbore simulator to deal with this issue. A hydrate model is added to verify hydrate formation for specific pressure, temperature, and composition of each gridblock. Integration with a geochemical package allows consideration of electrolyte inhibition coming from the associated brine. After successfully comparing results with the available simulators and the experimental data, it is demonstrated that when flowing gas/water ratios (GWRs) exceed 105 scf/STB, water condensation throughout the flow may dilute the beneficial effect arising from the brine composition, thus reducing electrolyte inhibition. Conversely, mineral precipitation along the flow path has shown a nearly negligible impact on this effect.

SMART PRODUCT BLENDING SYSTEM TO MAXIMISE QUALITY

PETRONAS developed a uniquely fast and exact automated fuel blending system that has accelerated the release of quality certification and achieved the perfect gasoline product blend for a Malaysian Refinery. Blending is a critical production process. Up to 13 different hydrocarbon streams from various feedstocks must be precisely blended to produce petroleum products such as Unleaded Gasoline RON 95. The ratio between flow velocities of different blending component streams is of great importance to ultimately achieve the target quality of the product. The ratio is determined based on the individual quality of the blending component. The underlying concept of this innovation is based on the strategy of an online blending with intelligent and fast chemometrics multivariate data analytics to make the necessary adjustment in the ratio of the blending components to meet the product quality. One of the integral parts of chemometrics multivariate data analytics is a spectroscopic analyser equipped with calibration models which enable multivariate prediction. The integration of the spectroscopic analyser and customised blend property control is an authoritarian system whereby it provides real-time data on fuel quality and enables online blending monitoring and control to happen seamlessly. PETRONAS has crafted an automated and integrated online blending system. This innovation has resulted in a more innovative product blending with zero re-blend and minimal quality giveaway in line with Industry 4.0 Best Practice.
 Keywords: Chemometrics multivariate modelling, online blending, spectroscopy

Fuzzy optimization design of multicomponent refinery hydrogen network

Hydrogen and light hydrocarbon components are essential resources of the refinery. The optimization of the refinery hydrogen system and recovery of the light hydrocarbon components contained in the gas streams are key strategies to reduce the operating costs for sustainable development. Many research efforts have been focused on the optimization of single impurity hydrogen network, and the flowrates of the hydrogen sources and sinks are assumed to be constant. However, their flowrates vary along with the quality of crude oil and refinery processing plans. A general superstructure of multicomponent refinery hydrogen network is proposed, which considers four components, namely H 2 , H 2 S, CH 4 and C 2 + , as well as the flowrate variations of hydrogen source and hydrogen sink. The mathematical model based on the superstructure is developed with objective functions, including the minimization of total annualized cost and the maximization of overall satisfaction of the hydrogen network. Moreover, the model considers the removal of hydrogen sulfide and the recovery of light hydrocarbon components ( i . e ., C 2 + ) in the optimization. To verify the applicability of the proposed mathematical model, a simplified industrial case study with four scenarios is solved. The optimization results show that the economic benefit can be maximized by considering both the direct reuse of gas streams from high-pressure separator (HP gas stream) and from low-pressure separator (LP gas stream) and the recovery of the light hydrocarbon streams. The fuzzy optimization method can be used to guide the optimal design of the refinery hydrogen system with multi-period variable flowrates.

A coupled CFD simulation approach for investigating the pyrolysis process in industrial naphtha thermal cracking furnaces

In the steam thermal cracking of naphtha, the hydrocarbon stream flows inside tubular reactors and is exposed to flames of a series of burners in the firebox. In this paper, a full three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was developed to investigate the process variables in the firebox and reactor coil of an industrial naphtha furnace. This comprehensive CFD model consists of a standard k-ε turbulence model accompanied by a molecular kinetic reaction for cracking, detailed combustion model, and radiative properties. In order to improve the steam cracking performance, the model is solved using a proposed iterative algorithm. With respect to temperature, product yield and specially propylene-to-ethylene ratio (P/E), the simulation results agreed well with industrial data obtained from a mega olefin plant of a petrochemical complex. The deviation of P/E results from industrial data was less than 2%. The obtained velocity, temperature, and concentration profiles were used to investigate the residence time, coking rate, coke concentration, and some other findings. The coke concentration at coil exit was 1.9 × 10 −3 %(mass) and the residence time is calculated to be 0.29 s. The results can be used as a scientific guide for process engineers.

Analysis of Heat and Mass Transfer and Parametric Sensitivity in an Experimental Fixed-Bed Reactor for the Catalytic Cracking of Heavy Hydrocarbons Based on Modeling and Experiments

A heterogeneous model for a fixed-bed catalytic cracking reactor of a heavy hydrocarbon stream based on a six-lump kinetic model has been developed for analyzing the operating parameters and descri...

Method development and evaluation of pyrolysis oils from mixed waste plastic by GC-VUV

The conversion of waste streams into a useable material through a recycling process is a hot topic. Waste streams can originate from domestic and industrial sources and range from plastic waste to medical waste to various industrial waste streams, both solid and liquid. In addition to waste circularity, circularity for bio-based waste streams and renewable sources are also being investigated. To simplify this complexity, this article presents a case study evaluating the output from the feedstock recycling of plastic waste originating from municipal solid waste.Plastic waste entering the environment is undesired, and many initiatives are working towards a plastics circular economy. Once disposed of, ideally, plastic waste should be either re-used or recycled in order to avoid incineration or disposal in landfills. Recycling waste plastic can occur either via mechanical recycling or feedstock (chemical) recycling, where feedstock recycling can occur for example, through gasification or pyrolysis technologies. This article will focus only on the oils obtained from the pyrolysis of mixed waste plastic.The output from pyrolysis has a different composition than traditional fossil-based hydrocarbon streams, and therefore, must be evaluated to correctly process as feedstock. The authors have previously shown that gas chromatography coupled to vacuum ultraviolet detection (GC-VUV) provides accurate identification and quantification of the hydrocarbon composition (paraffins, isoparaffins, olefins, naphthenes, and aromatics – PIONA) of fossil-based liquid hydrocarbon streams.11M.N. Dunkle, P. Pijcke, B. Winniford, G. Bellos, Quantification of the composition of liquid hydrocarbon streams: Comparing the GC-VUV to DHA and GCxGC, Journal of Chromatography A, 1587 (2019) 239-246. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chroma.2018.12.026. Therefore, GC-VUV was evaluated for analysis of the pyrolysis oils from plastic waste. Using an in-house modified spectral library in combination with the PIONA+ software, accurate identification and quantification of the hydrocarbon composition of pyrolysis oils from C4 through C30+ was possible with a limit of detection of 0.1 wt.%. To the best of our knowledge, this article is the first example of accurate PIONA-type quantification of pyrolysis oils by GC-VUV.