Accelergy awarded $1.3M Grant to Build Pilot Facility - - Intertek provides technical support.

HOUSTON & PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Accelergy Corporation, a global leader in the production of high-grade, domestically sourced liquid fuels, today announced it has received a $1.3 million grant from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to move forward on the construction of a facility to demonstrate its integrated coal-biomass-to-liquids (CBTL) technology platform at Intertek PARC, located at the U-PARC facility in Pittsburgh.

Previously, Accelergy was awarded a $175,000 grant to conduct a feasibility study and determine the facility’s location. The new grant will allow Accelergy and its partners to showcase their fully integrated process for converting coal to liquids, and inform plans to develop commercial-scale facilities in the state.
“This grant is a strong endorsement of Accelergy and its partners’ technology, and shows the commitment of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to the development of advanced technologies that leverage the state’s abundant natural resources and will bring jobs to the state,” said Tim Vail, CEO of Accelergy. “We are laying the foundation for the commercialization of the domestically sourced fuels that will power U.S. fleets and help the United States achieve its energy security goals.”

“Intertek is proud to provide technical and scientific pilot plant and laboratory support for Accelergy for this exciting coal-biomass-to-liquids fuel project,” said Dr. Robert Absil, the General Manager of the Intertek PARC facility.

The facility will produce and test several types of non-petroleum fuel, including gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, and feature a carbon dioxide capture and recycle process utilizing algae to convert the carbon dioxide into additional liquid fuels and a bio-fertilizer.

Energy Strategy Environment LLC (ESE), a systems integration provider, will be responsible for bringing together the technologies and business partners for the algae based carbon capture and recycle components of the project.

“Recycling industrial CO2 emission into valuable carbon feedstocks for production of additional liquid fuels creates a sustainable pathway for CBTL,” said ESE founder Mark Allen, P.E. “Algal biomass from the project will be adapted for use as a natural bio-fertilizer with the potential to reduce the use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer and to sequester carbon in agricultural soils and reclaimed mine site soils, further benefitting the environment.”

The grant was approved with a unanimous vote from the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Financing Authority. Accelergy has been in talks with various state politicians since early 2010, when former State Rep. Dave Kessler first brought the company to Pennsylvania. Kessler has since formed Advanced Energy Initiatives LLC and now represents the company in Pennsylvania.

“The grant represents a strong level of bipartisan support from both sides of the aisle, and we are grateful to state legislators and Gov. Corbett for their endorsement of this project,” Dave Kessler said. “Accelergy’s process and the resulting fuels would be much cleaner than refining imported oil or drilling for oil off America's shores, and the potential for this technology in Pennsylvania is enormous.”

Accelergy’s technology addresses the simultaneous challenges of increasing the supply of secure fuels while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The integration of CBTL technology and carbon capture and recycling processes using algae photobioreactors to recycle CO2 makes it possible to produce abundant cleaner fuels from domestic resources.

The company currently has agreements in place with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory and the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering (TARDEC) Center to test and certify the resulting fuels for various applications.

About Accelergy Corp.:
Accelergy is a global leader in producing ultra-clean synthetic fuels, promoting energy security by using domestic resources. Our proprietary catalytic technology significantly increases the efficiency of the Coal-Biomass-to-liquid process (CBTL) while significantly reducing greenhouse emissions. Based in Houston, Texas, Accelergy has established an international presence in partnerships with some of the world's leading energy companies. For more information, please visit www.accelergy.com.

About Energy Strategy Environment LLC:
Energy Strategy Environment is a Colorado based systems integration provider bringing together the technologies, processes, and business partners to deliver scalable-engineered carbon capture and recycle solutions that monetize industrial CO2 emissions into profitable revenue streams. Founder and CEO, Mark P. Allen, P.E., is an industry expert in assessing technologies and processes that utilize CO2 from industrial sources to grow algal biomass and produce fuels and terrestrial carbon sequestration solutions. For more information please contact Mark Allen at markallen87@mac.com.

About Intertek:
Intertek (ITRK.L) is a leading provider of quality and safety solutions serving a wide range of industries around the world. From auditing and inspection, to testing, quality assurance and certification, Intertek people add value to customers' products and processes, supporting their success in the global marketplace. Intertek has the expertise, resources and global reach to support customers through its network of more than 1,000 laboratories and offices and over 27,000 people in more than 100 countries. Intertek PARC has provided pilot plant testing services to the global oil, refining and biofuels industries since 1986.

Question regarding metals causing high conductivity in crude oil.

Question:

I would like to know besides Na, Ca and Mg which major metals or materials can cause high conductivity in crudes consequently affecting the desalter operation efficiency. Is it wise to know and monitor the metals distribution?

Comments:

Water in crude oil increases conductivity³. Metals in crude oil can be present as inorganic or organic compounds and include vanadium, nickel and iron. The vanadium and nickel are mostly present as porphyrins. The crude oil also contains asphaltenes with polyaromatic cores containing nitrogen, sulfur, oxygen, vanadium and nickel.  The polyaromatic cores are believed to interact strongly with electrical fields^1,2 and thus negatively impact desalter operation.

Dilution of low conductivity crudes with toluene or DOBA crude resulted in substantial increases in electrical conductivity (cf. Reference 3). This increase in conductivity may be due to dissociation of the asphaltene aggregates, thereby exposing “the active sites” that interact strongly with the electric fields and that are otherwise shielded by the asphaltene aggregate structure or are complexed with resins¹. This shows that electrical conductivity numbers are not necessarily additive when blending different crudes at the refinery to meet total acid number specs.

References:

1. Hasnaoui, N., Achard, C., Rogalski, M., and Behar, Revue de L’Institute Francais Du Petrole. 1998, 53(1), Jan-Feb.
2. Kendall, E. J.M., Journal of Canadian Petroleum, 1978, July-Sept, p. 37-38
3. Potter, A.C., Crude Oil Conductivity Presentation, February 2007, retrieved from Internet.

Using "Green Chemistry" for Renewable Fuel Feedstocks

Catalysis and "Green Chemistry" technologies play a key role when producing biofuels processed from renewable feedstocks.

By Rob Absil, Director of Intertek PARC

When thinking of “green chemistry”, well-known concepts that come immediately to mind are waste prevention, energy efficient design and product degradation. An example of product degradation is biodegradable plastics. Another well-publicized concept is sustainability. The use of renewable feedstocks is at the forefront of R&D today to develop sustainable bio-fuels. 

Catalysis research plays a key role by developing homogeneous or, even more preferable, heterogeneous catalysts for these applications. The advantages of heterogeneous catalysts are that they are usually high surface-area solids that can be readily separated from the products, resulting in energy savings. However, they must be sufficiently active and selective to be economically viable. 

A “green chemistry” concept probably less familiar to the chemical engineer is that of “atom economy.” Consider the following reaction with product C as the desired product ^[1]:

aA + bB à cC + dD

Then, the following performance criteria are:

% Yield                = 100 *        Actual Quantity of Product C Produced      .         

                   Theoretical Quantity of Product C Achievable

% Selectivity        = 100 *        Yield of Product C            .       

                                              Amount of A Converted

% Atom economy = 100 *                        c * Molecular weight of C                       

                                          (a * Molecular weight of A + b * Molecular weight of B)

Thus atom economy maximizes the incorporation of materials used in the process into the desired product ^[1].

Intertek PARC offers a portfolio of pilot plant capabilities that include fixed bed reactors as well as autoclaves of various capacities. Rapid, initial screening can be provided to identify leads that can then be explored for further development. 

For more information, please visit: http://www.intertek.com/testing/pilot-plant/new-technologies/

Reference:

1. Lancaster, M., Green Chemistry: An Introductory Text, Royal Society of Chemistry, Great Britain, 2002 and references cited therein.

Pilot Plant White Paper: Mitigation of Technical Risks

Risk Mitigation when Implementing New Process Technologies in Refineries and Chemical Plants.

This new White Paper by Rob Absil, Intertek PARC, focuses on steps refiners and chemical plant operators can take to reduce technical risks from new or novel feed-stocks by using appropriate pilot plant technologies.
http://www.intertek.com/white-papers/risk-mitigation-in-refining-chemical-plants/        (.pdf download)

Petroleum Pilot Plants and Technology Risk Mitigation for Refiners and Chemical Plants

By Rob Absil, Intertek PARC.

Intertek held its “Trends in the Energy Conference 2010” on July 21 in Houston, Texas. At this conference I gave a presentation discussing how refiners have to maximize profits by manufacturing marketable products while dealing with crude oil quality changes and abiding by quality, safety, and environmental regulations set by the industry, state, and federal governments. 


While the refiner has a portfolio of processes available to accomplish these goals, technical risks exist that the outcomes will not be as desired when implementing new process technologies. Independent protection layers have to be implemented to reduce these risks. An overview of technical risks in the biodiesel and refining industries and a discussion of the independent protection layer (IPL) concept used in process plant safety field have been provided in a separate paper. 


The industry has been using independent pilot plant testing as an IPL to reduce risks of implementing new process technologies. Intertek PARC serves as that IPL and continues to provide independent pilot plant testing services to the global oil & refining and biofuels industries, especially to mitigate risks associated with new feedstocks, such as bitumen, shale oil and biomass-sourced materials.


Intertek PARC offers confidential screening of new process technologies. Fixed bed reactors and batch reactors are available for catalyst evaluations; feedstock analyses are provided by Intertek PARC and its sister laboratories. Furthermore, bulk and surface science techniques provided by Intertek ASA in the Americas and Intertek MSG in Europe can be used to characterize catalyst formulations. These combined services allow for rapid generation of new research leads.


Links in paper:


Presentation links to the Energy Conference webpage


White Paper:  
"Risk Mitigation When Implementing New Process Technologies in Refineries and Chemical Plants"
http://www.intertek.com/white-papers/risk-mitigation-in-refining-chemical-plants/


Fixed bed reactors:
http://www.intertek.com/testing/catalyst/heterogeneous-catalyst/


Batch reactors:
http://www.intertek.com/testing/pilot-plant/batch-reactor/


Feedstock analysis:
http://www.intertek.com/petroleum/testing/crude-oil-and-feedstocks/


Intertek ASA links:
http://www.intertek.com/testing/catalyst/heterogeneous-catalyst/


Intertek MSG links:
http://www.intertek.com/testing/catalyst/

Corrosion Assessment of a Process

A corrosion assessment of a process typically focuses on the feed and products. However, the impact of reaction intermediates must also be considered. Let’s consider a plug flow reactor in which the series reaction A -> B -> C takes place. Assuming the reactions are first order and irreversible, then the following set of equations models the reaction system [1]:


Ca/Cao = exp (-k1 * η)
Cb/Cao = k1/(k2-k1) * [exp (-k1 * η) - exp (-k2 * η)]
Cc = Cao – Ca – Cb


η is defined as V/νo. According to this scheme, Ca decreases along the length of the reactor, while Cb reaches a maximum and then decreases and Cc increases along the length of the reactor. The maximum concentration of “b” in the plug flow reactor is determined as:


Cbmax = (k1/k2) k2/(k2-k1)


The maximum concentration of “b” depends on the k2/k1 ratio. In assessing the corrositivity of a catalytic system, the focus is typically on the feed and the products. However, depending on the reaction system the impact of the intermediate product(s), in this case product “b,” must also be considered, especially if the process is operated at 100% conversion and intermediates are not detected in the product stream.


In the conversion of triacylglycerides in vegetable oils several investigators [2, 3, 4] have concluded that the triacylglycerides first undergo hydrogenolysis over a variety of catalysts to form the corresponding fatty acids and propane. The fatty acids then undergo decarboxylation, decarbonylation or hydrodeoxygenation further down the reactor to form paraffins, carbon oxides, and/or water. Fatty acid free triacylglycerides and these products have total acid numbers (TAN) of 0 mg KOH/gr. The fatty acid intermediates are carboxylic acids that have TANs of ~200 mg KOH/gr (C18 fatty acid) and could be potentially corrosive. While these reactions are conducted in trickle bed reactors, the plug flow analysis is still applicable. These results emphasize that in the selection of the metal used to build the reactor, the reaction kinetics and the corrosion properties of intermediates must be taking into account.


Learn more about biofuel processing and pilot plant research at:
http://www.intertek.com/testing/catalysts/pilot-plant/biofuels/


References:


1. Levenspiel. O., Chemical Reaction Engineering, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1972.
2. Morgan, et al., Topics in Catalysis, Vol. 53, No. 11-12, July 2010 (abstract retrieved from Internet on 7/18/2010)
3. Boda, et al., Applied Catalysts A: General, Vol. 374, No. 1-2, Feb., 2010, pp. 158-169.
4. Guzman, et al., Catal. Today, In press (2010).

Chemical Exposure Index (CEI) and Pilot Plants

To offer Intertek PARC’s pilot plant services to the (petro) chemical industry, PARC has started to use the Chemical Exposure Index (CEI) as calculated in Dow’s Chemical Exposure Index Guide [1]. The CEI is calculated from the estimated airborne release rate of the chemical compound of interest and its ERPG-2 value. The three Emergency Response Planning Guidelines (ERPG) are defined as [1]:

“ERPG-1 is the maximum airborne concentration below which it is believed that nearly all individuals could be exposed for one hour without experiencing other than mild transient adverse health effects or perceiving a clearly objectionable odor.”

“ERPG-2 is the maximum airborne concentration below which it is believed that nearly all individuals could be exposed for one hour without experiencing or developing irreversible or other serious health effects or symptoms that could impair their abilities to take protective actions.”

“ERPG-3 is the maximum airborne concentration below which it is believed that nearly all individuals could be exposed for one hour without experiencing or developing life-threatening health effects.”

CEIs were calculated for a series of chemicals at a set of conservative conditions. The ERPG values of the chemicals were obtained from their Material Safety Data Sheets and were calculated as detailed in the guide. The chemicals were then grouped into four categories (A through D) according to their hazard level or CEI. As pointed out, “[a]bsolute measures of risk are very difficult to determine, but the CEI system will provide a method of ranking one hazard relative to another. It is NOT intended to define a particular design as safe or unsafe[1].” While Intertek PARC’s facility is substantially smaller than refineries or petrochemical plants, this index can still provide guidance in comparing new processes to current existing processes. Current operation has been mainly restricted to “Group A” chemicals. PARC does have extensive experience with hydrogen sulfide, a “Group B” chemical, since it is formed when hydrotreating crude oil. Hydrotreating operations producing hydrogen sulfide are typically at low effective hydrogen sulfide flow rates, reducing the hydrogen sulfide to a “Group A” chemical when considering emissions to the atmosphere.

It is important to realize that the CEI is defined for a vapor release to the atmosphere at a wind speed of 11.2 mph and at neutral weather conditions [1]. Intertek PARC’s P-84 pilot plant bank is located inside Building C4 at its Pittsburgh facility. Due to the pilot plants being located indoors, two releases exist. The first one is into the well-ventilated process area and the second one, as characterized by the CEI, is into the atmosphere via the Building C4 exhaust fans and blow down systems.

Independent layers of protection are required to safeguard the operator against potential hydrogen sulfide releases inside Building C4. An independent protection layer is defined “…as a device, system, or action that is a capable of preventing a scenario from proceeding to its undesired consequence independent of the initiating event or the action of any other layer of protection associated with the scenario [2].” Protection layers include a combination of process area hydrogen sulfide alarms, operator hydrogen sulfide monitors, airline respirators, cartridge respirators (for escape only), and alarms on the air handlers/ exhaust fans.

Learn more about Intertek PARC at: www.intertek.com/automotive/parc/

References:

1. AIChE, Dow’s Chemical Exposure Index Guide, 1st Edition, 1994.
2. AIChE, Layer of Protection Analysis, 2001.