The refining and processing of hydrocarbons into more desirable and usable end products is a major segment of the fossil fuel community. Commonly referred to as “downstream” by the major oil and gas companies, this large infrastructure represents a major capital investment by industry. A number of operational problems and new opportunities shared by this industry have yielded areas where the INL could build major technology niches. Because of the decreasing quality of crude oil being produced worldwide, Fossil Energy Technologies at the INL is exploring novel approaches for treating heavy, high-sulfur petroleum to make refineries more able to process these lower-grade materials, with reduced energy costs and environmental liabilities. The INL has a major research effort to examine the possibility of converting natural gas to a liquid fuel, which could open many doors to the use of natural gas in remote areas where gas pipelines are nonexistent. The INL is developing a revolutionary alkylation process, which would replace hazardous liquid acid catalysts with an energy-saving solid catalyst process and also eliminate a major environmental issue. As a result of skills gained in supporting the nuclear industry, the INL is involved in research aimed at extending the lifetime of aging refinery systems. All of the project areas described above are tightly coupled with industry partners. Most of the funding in this area has come from the DOE Fossil Energy Program, but some direct industry funding has been obtained.
Fossil Energy Technologies projects in this area are supported by strengths in chemistry, chemical engineering, materials and manufacturing processes, sensor systems, and system engineering:
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