Day 1 :
Keynote Forum
Yanhui Yi
Dalian University of Technology, China
Keynote: Conversion of CH4 into Value-added Chemicals by Plasma-Catalysis
Biography:
Yanhui Yi studied chemical engineering and technology at the Dalian University of Technology (B.Eng. 2007) and obtained his PhD from the same university (2014) with Prof. Hongchen Guo. One postdoctoral fellowship followed and then he joined School of Chemical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, where he is now working as a distinguished associate professor, and he is also working as a postdoctor in University of Antwerp (PLASMANT group). His current research interests are directed to conversion of small molecules (CH4, CO2, CO, NH3, H2, O2 and N2 ) into value-added chemicals by using both heterogeneous catalysis and plasma technology.
Abstract:
Methane (CH4), the main component of natural gas and shale gas, has a large reservation and wide distribution in the world, and thus it has been considered as an alternative energy source for oil. However, due to high stability (439 kJ/mol C-H bond energy), negligible electron affinity and low polarizability of CH4 molecule, catalytic conversion of CH4 into value-added chemicals is considered the “holy grail” of catalytic chemistry, and thus effective utilization of CH4 has attracted much attention. Herein, we report a CH4/NH3 plasma reaction promoted by Pt and Cu catalysts for synthesis of hydrocyanic acid (HCN) at low temperature (400 oC). HCN, an important chemical in organic chemistry, is widely used in pesticide, medicine, metallurgy, fuel and polymer, but it is currently produced through Andruddow process (1000-1100 oC, Pt-Rh alloy gauze catalyst), the reaction of CH4, NH3, and O2, or BMA process (1300 oC, Pt mesh catalyst), the reaction of CH4 and NH3 at atmospheric pressure. That is, the plasma catalysis technology has dramatically lowered the reaction temperature for HCN synthesis. We also report a CH4/O2 plasma reaction promoted by Ni/Al2O3 catalysts for production of CH3OH. Under the conditions of 85℃, 2:1 CH4/O2 molar ratio, 0.393 s residence time and 30 W discharge power, 66.6 % methanol selectivity is achieved with 6.4 % methane conversion. The Ni/Al2O3 catalysts were characterized by TPR, XRD, XPS and HRTEM, and the results show that the production of CH3OH is mainly attributed to the highly dispersed NiO phase which has a strong interaction with Al2O3 support. In addition, 0D modelling (ZD-Plaskin) results show that CH3OH is mainly produced through the radical reactions CH4 + O(1D) → CH3O + H，CH3O + H → CH3OH and CH3O + HCO → CH3OH + CO.
Keynote Forum
Li Wang
Dalian Maritime University, China
Keynote: CO2 Conversion into High-Value Chemicals and Fuels by a Hybrid Plasma-Catalysis Technology
Biography:
Li Wang, born in 1981 in Dalian, studied environmental engineering at Dalian Jiao Tong University (B.S. 2003), chemical engineering & technology at Dalian University of Technology (M.S. 2007) and received her PhD on the COx-free H2 generation from NH3 at Dalian University of Technology (2013). From 2013-2015, she worked as a research associate to conduct research on the direct synthesis of H2O2 at Dalian University of Technology. From 2016-2017, she worked as a postdoctor on the biomass upgrading, funded by the EPSRC, at University of Liverpool in UK. From 2018, she has been working as a distinguished associate professor at Dalian Maritime University in the field of H2 energy and C1 chemistry, in which she has developed a hybrid plasma-catalysis technology for CO2 conversion into high-value chemicals and fuels
Abstract:
Direct conversion of CO2 into high-value chemicals (CO, CH3OH, CH3COOH) remains a challenge due to high stability of CO2 molecule. In this study, non-equilibrium plasma is used to strengthen catalytic CO2 conversion, which realizes CO2 decomposition to CO, hydrogenation to CH3OH, reforming with CH4 to CH3COOH at about room temperature and atmospheric pressure, respectively. For CO2 decomposition to CO route, MoOx-based catalyst gives higher CO2 decomposition performance among transitional metal oxides, which was further improved when Bi doped MoOx catalyst. For CO2 hydrogenation to CH3OH route, the methanol production was strongly dependent on the plasma reactor setup, and the maximum methanol yields of 11.3% and methanol selectivity of 53.7% were achieved over Cu/γ-Al2O3 catalyst using a special water-cooling reactor. Besides, O-deficient NiO catalyst was recently found to prefer to methanol production compared to NiO catalyst. For CO2 reforming to CH3COOH route, conversion of CO2 with CH4 into liquid fuels and chemicals in a singlestep catalytic process bypassing the production of syngas is a hot and challenging issue. In our study, one-step synthesis of acetic acid, methanol, and ethanol from CO2 and CH4 has been achieved at room temperature (30 oC) and atmospheric pressure for the first time using a novel plasma reactor with a water electrode. The total selectivity to oxygenates was ca. 50-60%, with acetic acid as the major component at 40.2% selectivity, the highest value reported for acetic acid so far. Interestingly, direct synthesis of acetic acid from CH4 and CO2 is an ideal reaction with a 100% atom economy, but it is almost impossible to occur via thermal catalysis as this reaction suffers double restrictions from dynamics and thermodynamics due to excellent stability of CH4 and CO2 molecules.
- Chemical Engineering and Catalysis | Chemical Reaction Engineering | Polymer Science And Engineering | Modelling Simulation And Optimization | Mass Transfer | Nano-Chemistry and Nano-Technology
Session Introduction
Isaac Monroy
Universidad Anahuac Queretaro, Mexico
Title: Paracetamol degradation model in water by the photo-Fenton process with artificial neural networks
Biography:
Isaac Monroy has completed his PhD at the age of 28 years from Polytechnical University of Catalonia and postdoctoral studies from UNAM (Mexico). He is research professor at Universidad Anáhuac Querétaro in Mexico. He has published in indexed journals and and has participated in some projects and congresses.
Abstract:
Data-based models are an alternative to first-principle kinetic models to simulate chemical and biochemical processes that have been barely exploited in the modelling field. These models are constructed with the aid of Machine learning methods such as Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), which have been applied in different research areas. In this work, ANN have been used for modelling the Photo-Fenton process and monitoring both the paracetamol (PCT) photodegradation and the organic matter mineralization in water. PCT has been identified as an emerging and recalcitrant contaminant in wastewaters, found in European Sewage Treatment plants (Ternes, 1998) and reported as detrimental to animal and human health. In order to degrade it, Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs), among them Photo-Fenton, have been successfully applied. However, process models have not been produced aimed at practical monitoring and soft-sensing of contaminant concentrations from unexpensive on-line data. Thus, experimental data were collected from a 15L pilot plant, where assays under different initial conditions (Fe(II) and H2O2 concentrations) were performed. Eight on-line measured process variables plus Fe(II) and H2O2 initial concentrations were the input to the ANN. Model outputs were compared to the experimental off-line measured variables such as Total organic carbon (TOC), H2O2 and PCT concentrations, obtaining good but not satisfactory correlation coefficients between both of them. Nevertheless, the application of PCA statistical method to the original data and previous to ANN improved the correlation results to 0.95 in average, which evidenced the construction of a reliable data-based model for the PCT degradation in water by Photo-Fenton.
Maciej Baradyn
University of Bialystok, Poland
Title: Kinetic study of reactions between Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons and OH radical
Biography:
Maciej Baradyn is a PhD student in the Institute of Theoretical Chemistry at University of Bialystok. His area of research is focused on chemical kinetics, theoretical chemistry and computational methods for determination of the kinetic and thermodynamic parameters and simulations of the combustion systems
Abstract:
This work applies the Reaction-Class Transition State Theory (RC-TST) method for evaluation of the thermal rate constants of reactions between OH radical and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs), in the temperature range of 300-3000K. Reactions between hydroxyl radical and PAHs are of great importance, since OH is one of the main oxidizing agents of unsaturated hydrocarbons in the troposphere as well as one of the main initiating species in PAHs combustion.
The RC-TST method used in this study, proved to be a cost-effective and accurate method for estimating reaction rate constants. It is taking advantage of the common structure denominator of all reactions in a given family to obtain rate expression of any reaction within a reaction class. The most important reaction in RC-TST framework is the reference reaction, since it is used to extrapolate all other reaction rate constants.
Parameters for the RC-TST were derived from theoretical calculations at M06‑2X/cc‑pVTZ level of theory, using a set of 34 representative reactions. The energetic parameters for the reference reaction have been calculated at several higher-level methods such as CBS-APNO and G3B3, whereas the rate constant has been calculated using the Canonical Variational Transition State Theory with the Small Curvature Tunneling approximation. To take into account the quantum tunneling effect in the training set, the Eckart’s method was employed. The explicit treatment of hindered rotors was carried for low-frequency internal rotations. The results show, that RC-TST method can predict the thermal rate constants within reaction class with a very good accuracy.
Niels Michiel Moed
National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan
Title: Adsorption study of isopropyl alcohol aqueous solution on activated carbon in both batch and fixed-bed systems
Biography:
Nikolai holds a bachelor degree in biotechnology with a major in process engineering and wastewater treatment from Van Hall Larenstein in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands. After a job as a water engineer, he completed a master degree in Chemical Engineering at the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology in Taipei, Taiwan, where he grew algae using the waste material struvite. He is now pursuing a PhD at the same university, working on activated carbon and chemical looping.
Abstract:
Adsorption of isopropyl alcohol (IPA) on activated carbon was tested in both batch and fixed bed adsorption. In the batch systems the influence of solution pH, IPA concentration and stirring speed were tested. A solution pH of 7.27 was optimal for IPA adsorption on activated carbon, which was close to the pHpzc of the activated carbon. The adsorption capacity of activated carbon was higher and the removal efficiency was lower for experiments conducted with higher IPA concentrations. Adsorption kinetics using the pseudo-first order, pseudo-second order and double exponential models showed the pseudo-first order model was most accurate, closely followed by the double exponential model. The intra-particle model showed that IPA adsorption consisted of into three stages; the film diffusion stage, the intra-particle diffusion stage, and finally the equilibrium stage. The intra-particle diffusion stage was the rate-limiting step. In modeling of the steady-state data, the Langmuir isotherm model showed a better fit than the Freundlich isotherm model. Fixed-bed adsorption experiments revealed the influence of IPA concentration and volumetric flow rate. Again adsorption capacity was higher and saturation (both the breakthrough point and saturation point) happened faster for experiments conducted with higher concentrations. Higher volumetric flow rates led to both lower adsorption capacity and faster saturation, likely due to a shorter contact time. In modeling for fixed-bed adsorption the Thomas model and Yoon-Nelson model successfully described the whole process, the Adams-Bohart model was only accurate in describing the initial adsorption part.
- Chemical and Biochemical Engineering | Pollution Control and Sustainable Environment Geology and Exploration| Nano-Chemistry and Nano-Technology
Session Introduction
Kabiru Jega Hasan
University of Salford, UK
Title: Hydrolysed polyacrylamide polymer solutions for residual oil desaturation
Biography:
He is a Research Scholar at University of Salford. He had published more than 30 Articles in International Journals and attended many international Conferences.
Abstract:
Hydrolysed polyacrylamide (HPAM) polymer solution is injected into the reservoir to increase both microscopic and macroscopic sweep efficiency for favourable mobility ratio between oil and water. This experimental study investigates the potentials of hydrolysed polyacrylamide polymer solution to deplete residual oil saturation. The rheological properties of HPAM polymer solutions of 22-24 million Dalton molecular weight in 400ppm, 800ppm and 1200ppm concentrations were determined at 70oC (±2) with Model 110 pressurised viscometer with ORCADA data acquisition software. The fluid flow properties and behavioural indices obtained indicated characteristics of a pseudoplastic fluid. Through coreflooding at pump pressures of 1500 to 2000psi, oil was recovered from 1 x 3-inch saturated Berea upper sandstone reservoir core samples with injection of high molecular weight hydrolysed polyacrylamide of 22-24 million Daltons. The mobility ratio at 40oC for 400ppm, 800ppm and 1200ppm were determined as 0.874, 0.688 and 0.478 respectively. During coreflooding to displace 9.7cp oil, the incremental oil recovery from saturated core of Berea sandstone, after initial primary recovery was highest for 1200ppm followed by 800ppm then 400ppm and least was waterflooding. The residual oil saturations after 5PV injections were 18.99%, .35.56%, 41.85% and 63.34% for 1200ppm, 800ppm, 400ppm and waterflooding respectively. From the results obtained, the higher the concentration of high molecular weight polyacrylamide in injection solution the greater the residual oil desaturation.
Nana Akosua Nyarko-Baafi
University of Ghana, Ghana
Title: The Impact of Market Orientation Strategy on Oil Marketing Company's Performance: A Case Study of Ghana
Biography:
She has worked in the petroleum industry for the past 7 years in the areas of petroleum marketing and sales. She is currently the Regional sales coordinator for three regions namely central, western and western east regions of the republic of Ghana.
Abstract:
Over five decades, corporate market oriented strategy has been recognized as a pillar of superior company performance by both academics and practitioners. Market orientation has attracted significant amount of academic and practitioner’s interest in the current literature in both manufacturing and services industry.
OMC’s (oil marketing companies) engage in the sales and marketing of petroleum products through established retail outlets and industrial or commercial network.
Market share trends of the oil marketing companies in Ghana indicate that, the competition in the industry is very keen. The intensity of in the industry is influenced by an increase in the number of competitors.
These prevailing conditions have led to competitive advantage .Customers have more power than ever before. I therefore sought to assess the impact of market orientation on GOIL’S performance and competitiveness in Ghana. The study was a descriptive cross sectional study. Both primary and secondary data were collected during the study through written questionnaires, review of manuals and oral interviews.
The empirical investigation concludes that, there are close correlation between market orientation and companies’ performance and effectiveness, making the former significant basis for building a competitive advantage.