SYNTHETIC

CHEMICAL FUEL

Anamika Banerjee

MSc – IInd Semester

CHM- 805

115217

SYNTHETIC FUEL DEFINITONS

Synthetic Feed stocks

Any feedstock NOT produced from conventional crude petroleum.

Resource can be any burnable material:

Coal Biomass Natural gas

Synthetic Fuels A generic name given to hydrocarbon fuels produced from natural gas, coal or biomass

A number of synthetic fuel's definitions include fuels produced from biomass, industrial and municipal waste. The definition of synthetic fuel may also consist of oil sands and oil shale as synthetic fuel's sources and in addition to liquid fuels also gaseous fuels are covered.

James G. Speight included liquid and gaseous fuels as well as clean solid fuels produced by conversion of coal, oil shale or tar sands, and various forms of biomass.

WHY ARE SYNTHETIC FUELS NEEDED?

5 Reasons for continued production and improvement of synthetic fuels

• World has a finite supply of conventional crude oil.

• India’s demand for crude oil is steadily increasing

• The world jet fuel market is decreasing

• National Security and energy independence

• Synthetic Fuels help India to reduce dependency on foreign oil.

CRUDE OIL CONSUMPTION

Source: EIA (2005)

SYNTHETIC FEEDSTOCK PROCESSES

Synthetic Feedstock sources include:

Natural Gas to Liquids Coal Gasification: Producing synthetic natural gas

from Coal

Coal Liquefaction: Conversion of coal to liquid for use as a synthetic fuel.

Alternate crude sources include

Shale Oil: Extracted hydrocarbon known as Kerogen from shale (large shale formations Exist in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming)

Tar Sands: Extraction of very heavy, asphalt “like” crude oil called Bitumen from grains of sand, or, in some cases, porous carbonate rocks. The U.S. has some tar sands mainly in Utah. The largest deposits are in Canada.

PRODUCTION OF SYNTHETIC FUELS

Synthetic fuels are produced by the chemical process of CONVERSION. Conversion methods could be Direct Conversion into liquid transportation fuels, or Indirect Conversion, in which the source substance is converted initially into syngas which then goes through additional conversion process to become liquid fuels. Basic conversion methods include carbonization & pyrolysis along with hydrogenation & thermal dissolution.

DIRECT CONVERSION

Direct conversion refers to processes in which coal or biomass feedstocks are converted directly into intermediate or final products, without going through the intermediate step of conversion to syngas via gasification.

Direct conversion processes can be broadly broken up into two different methods:

Pyrolysis or Carbonization

Hydrogenation

HYDROGENATION PROCESSES

One of the main methods of direct conversion of coal to liquids is by hydrogenation process or the Bergius process. In this process, coal is liquefied by mixing it with hydrogen gas and heating the system (hydrogenation). Dry coal is mixed with heavy oil recycled from the process.

The reaction can be summarized as follows

2222 HHCHC nnnn

PYROLYSIS OR CARBONIZATION PROCESSES

The carbonization conversion occurs through pyrolysis or destructive distillation, and it produces condensable coal tar, oil and water vapour, non-condensable synthetic gas, and a solid residue-charcoal. The condensed coal tar and oil are then further processed by hydrogenation to remove sulphur and nitrogen species, after which they are processed into fuels.

The process was invented by Lewis Cass Karrick in the 1920s. Its a low temperature carbonization where coal is heated at 680 °F (360 °C) to

1,380 °F (750 °C) in the absence of air.

INDIRECT CONVERSION

Indirect conversion broadly refers to a process in which biomass, coal, or natural gas is converted to a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide also known as syngas either, through gasification or steam methane reforming, and that syngas is processed into a liquid transportation fuel using one of a number of different conversion techniques depending on the desired end product

1) FISHER-TROPSCH PROCESS • Fisher-Tropsch (FT) is an emerging technology for

Converting synthetic crude to synthetic fuels.

Brief History

Developed by Germany during World War II to make gasoline from coal.

Developed out of necessity from a lack of available crude oil.

Modernized in South Africa by SASOL Corporation.

• Converts coal, natural gas, and low-value refinery products into high value, clean burning fuel.

• FT offers important emissions benefits compared to conventional fuel.

Natural Gas

Coal

Pet Coke

Biomass

Wastes

Synthesis Gas

Production

Oxygen

PlantAir

O2

FT

Liquid

Synthesis

Product

Recovery

Liquid

Fuels

Transportation

Fuels

Tail

GasPower

Generation

H2

Hydrogen

Recovery

Wax

Hydrocracking

Wax

Hydrogen

Separation

Hydrogen

Liquid

Fuels

An

Option

CO

H2

Reference: Review of Responses to RFI on Synthetic Fuel, 31 August 2006 (DESC internal presentation)

2) SYNTHETIC FUEL FROM BIOMASS

Biomass can be any plant derived organic matter, available on a renewable basis including:

• Dedicated energy crops and trees

• Agricultural food and feed crops

• Agricultural crop wastes

• Wood wastes and residues

• Aquatic Plants

• Animal wastes

• Municipal wastes and other waste

materials.

BIOMASS USAGE

Leading source of renewable energy in U.S. since 1999 .

Provides fuel, heat, electricity, chemicals and other products.

Agricultural and forestry residues most common resource for generating electricity and process steam.

Increases use of crops for biodiesel and ethanol .

Source: www.eere.energy.gov/biomass

BIOMASS PLATFORMS FOR PRODUCING FUELS

Source: Office of the Biomass Program-Multiyear Plan 2004 and Beyond, Nov. 2003

Biomass

Feed

Pretreatment

Sugar

platform

Hydrolysis/

Separation

Thermochemical

Platform

Gasification/

Pyrolysis

Sugar

Feedstocks

Syngas/

Pyrolysis

Oils

CONVERSION

Catalytic

Chemical

Biological

Thermal

Biobased Fuels

Ethanol, alcohol blends,

Fischer-Tropsch

Liquids, bio-oils,

Biodiesel, fuel additives

Oxygenates, hydrogen

Biobased Products

Replacements for

existing commodity

chemicals, new

commodity chemicals

with improved

performance and

functionality, building

blocks for secondary

chemicals

Electricity and Heat

For utilities, from

distributed systems using

biomass or as a part

of a grid-connected

biorefinary

Residues

SUSTAINABILITY

One concern commonly raised about the development of synthetic fuels plants is sustainability. Fundamentally, transitioning from oil to coal or natural gas for transportation fuels production is a transition from one inherently depleteable geologically limited resource to another. One of the positive defining characteristics of synthetic fuels production is the ability to use multiple feedstocks (coal, gas, or biomass) to produce the same product from the same plant.

This provides a path forwards to a renewable fuel source and possibly more sustainable, even if the plant originally produced fuels solely from coal, making the infrastructure forwards-compatible even if the original fossil feedstock runs out.