DOE - Fossil Energy Techline - Issued on:  December 14, 1998

DOE Selects Two R&D Projects to Improve Environmental Protection During Oil Processing

Selections are Second in Five Major Petroleum Research
Competitions the Energy Department is Conducting

The Department of Energy has selected two research teams - a private industry R&D firm and a university - to develop advanced technologies that could be used by future oil refineries to protect the environment while continuing to produce high-quality transportation fuels and other petroleum products.

The Institute of Gas Technology, headquartered in Des Plaines, IL, was chosen to develop an innovative technique for using microbial cultures to remove contaminants from a petroleum feedstock without diminishing its fuel value.

The University of Kentucky Research Foundation, a consortium of three universities (the University of Kentucky, West Virginia University, and the University of Utah), was selected to study fine particulate matter - termed "PM 2.5" - in an effort to determine if such particles emitted from petroleum operations have a unique "source signature" that would help identify their origins and provide a more scientifically sound basis for future regulations.

The research teams will share $1.7 million in federal petroleum research funds, while providing $0.4 million in cost-sharing.

Working over the next three years, the teams will address two significant concerns for today's refining industry: (1) the increasing concentrations of contaminants in domestic refinery feedstocks caused primarily by the growing proportion of heavier crude oils being produced in the United States, and (2) new regulatory provisions from the Environmental Protection Agency that will govern the release of PM2.5, microscopic particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter (the diameter of a human hair is about 70 micrometers.)

The selections are the second in five major petroleum-related research competitions being sponsored by DOE's National Petroleum Technology Office in Tulsa, OK. Announced last March, the national competitions are intended to provide the core of DOE's cooperative research program with the nation's oil producers in the coming years.

These selections reflect the Energy Department's efforts to address environmental concerns facing the domestic petroleum industry as the quality of U.S. crude oils decline and air quality and other pollution regulations tighten in the coming years. Crude oils delivered today from domestic oil fields are typically becoming heavier with higher levels of sulfur, nitrogen and heavy metals. These impurities interfere with refinery production processes and can create air and other pollutants.

With the two projects announced today and others in the environmental portion of DOE's fossil energy research program, the department is looking beyond the refining industry's state-of-the-art toward innovative research that could led to significant cost savings while ensuring strong environmental protection.

The results could have a major impact on the U.S. refining industry which is facing a future of rising costs for environmental compliance. By 2010 oil industry environmental compliance costs are projected to exceed $150 billion, including $36 billion for capital equipment, according to a National Petroleum Council study.

While larger refining operations are expected to remain viable, up to 10 percent of U.S. refineries could be at risk of closing, resulting in the loss of over one million barrels per day of capacity. With U.S. refineries already operating at near maximum utilization rates, such a loss could expose U.S. consumers to gasoline price spikes if operations at any one major refinery were to be interrupted.

Details on the two projects announced today are:

• Institute of Gas Technology, Des Plaines, IL
  Lead Researcher: Dr. John J. Kilbane II, (847) 768-0723

  Project: Petroleum Biorefining for Pollution Prevention - The Institute of Gas Technology will receive DOE funding of $780,000 to develop new processes using microbial cultures for selective removal of contaminants from petroleum feedstocks. The contaminants - sulfur, nitrogen and metals - now found in increasing proportion in today's heavy crude oil refinery feedstocks contribute to pollution, interfere with refinery operations and corrode equipment, adding to the cost of refining through increased expenses of regulatory compliance, reduced operating efficiency and diminished product yield.

  Selective removal of contaminants while retaining the fuel value of the oil is a difficult technical challenge. Some existing chemical processes can efficiently remove sulfur from petroleum, but removing sulfur from complex compounds, or removing metals or organically bound nitrogen cannot be efficiently accomplished with currently available technologies.

  Processes for the removal of specific contaminants can be developed much more easily with biochemical formulations than with chemical reactions. Biochemical removal of sulfur has been demonstrated and is now being commercialized for the biorefining of petroleum. Biorefining can also potentially be used to remove organic nitrogen-containing compounds associated with the majority of metals in petroleum, an area of research that has received very little attention

  The objectives of the proposed research are to isolate and characterize microbial cultures that can metabolize such organic compounds to selectively remove nitrogen and metals, chiefly nickel and vanadium, from petroleum. Successful development of biorefining processes that can efficiently remove feedstock contaminants would improve refining efficiency, reduce pollutant production and the cost of regulatory compliance, upgrade the quality of the refinery products, and add to the Nation's energy resources by increasing product yield. The Institute will provide cost-sharing of $192,000.

• University of Kentucky Research Foundation, Lexington, KY
  Lead Researcher: Gerald P. Huffman, (606) 257-4027

  Project: Source Signatures of Fine Particulate Matter From Petroleum and Fuel Use - The University of Kentucky Research Foundation will receive DOE funding of $900,000 to determine the nature and source of PM_2.5 related to petroleum. The physical, chemical, and molecular structures of PM_2.5 constituents from petroleum refineries and fuel use will be analyzed, using samples collected with various types of sampling devices located near refineries, heavy traffic highways, and urban locations. Appropriate samples from vehicle testing laboratories will also be investigated.

  A battery of analytical techniques will be used to characterize PM_2.5 constituents. Organic components will be identified, and the molecular structure of carbon, nitrogen, silicon, chlorine, vanadium, nickel, arsenic, manganese, chromium and other pollutants analyzed. The size of the PM_2.5 particles and their chemical phase - solid, gas, liquid - will be determined using high-powered microscopes, and other analytical techniques will provide additional complementary information.

  The data will be used to establish source signatures for petroleum-derived PM_2.5. The information gained in the investigation will provide the scientific basis for drafting air pollution regulations covering PM_2.5. The University of Kentucky will provide $229,000 in cost-share funding.

- End of TechLine -

For more information, contact:
Hattie Wolfe, U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Fossil Energy Headquarters, (202)586-6503; e-mail address: hattie.wolfe@hq.doe.gov

Technical Contact:
Herb Tiedemann, Technology Transfer Officer, National Petroleum Technology Office, (918) 699-2017; e-mail address: htiedema@npto.doe.gov