Date of Award
8-2015
Degree Name
Master of Science
Department
Mechanical Engineering
First Advisor
Wiltowski, Tomasz
Second Advisor
Mathias, James
Third Advisor
Koc, Rasit
Abstract
Gasification of petroleum coke (Petcoke) has emerged in the last decades as one of the attractive options and is gaining more attention to convert petcoke and oil residue to synthesis gas (Syngas). Syngas consists mainly of hydrogen (H2), carbon monoxide (CO), some other gases, and impurities. In this study, a simulation of Tuscaloosa petcoke, typical gulf coast refineries petcoke, gasification was developed using ASPEN PLUS software. Sensitivity analysis of the simulated model was performed to study the variation in operation conditions of the gasifier such as temperature, pressure, oxygen flow rate, and steam flow rate. The approach correlates the behavior of these parameters with the syngas yield (i.e., H2, CO, CO2, H2O, CH4, and H2S). Consequently, the desired syngas yield can be obtained by manipulating the gasifier parameters. Implementing optimization calculation shows that up to (81 %) of the gasifier cold gas efficiency (Based on LHV) can be achieved for the developed model. Therefore, Tuscaloosa petcoke gasification under the aforementioned parameters is feasible and can be commercialized. This leads to more utilization of the bottom of oil barrel by upgrading it to more valuable gases with less environmental impacts.
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