Reinventing the Crude Oil Refinery for Global Leadership in CleanTech

  • Technical Session Two: Building a Carbon Economy (Venetian Room B)
  • September 25, 2019
  • 9:00 am - 9:30 am

How collaboration between alternative and traditional energy can better prepare global oil for change ahead

a. Reinventing oil refinery using Quantum Electronics Technologies

Crude oil refineries produces valuable products essential to our everyday life, such as fuels and polymers. However, the material conversion from input crude into output fuel has large inefficiencies, translating into energy losses and greenhouse gases emission.

Engineering design of current oil refinery processes are based on Thermodynamic science derived during mid-1800 and early 1900, with maximum (theoretical) efficiency limited at 50% (Carnot). Fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit, typically used in oil refineries, consumes large amount of energy for thermal processes.

Our new reactor design is based on modern sciences of Quantum Electronics and Chemical Physics that was developed between 1905 and 1995. A core technology of our design is called Laser Crude Cracking (LCC).

Based on Quantum Physics sciences, LCC has a >90% (theoretical) energy conversion efficiency for refinery. Employing newer Quantum technologies significantly reduce the amount of heat energy produced in the conversion of crude material into valuable fuels and other petrochemical products.

b. Description of the technologies and their distinctive advantages

Our presentation introduces a more precise oil refinery method re-invented with Quantum sciences and redesigned with electrically-powered laser-driven computer-controlled automated-photocatalytic process. These features enable: (i) large reduction of thermal energy used in refinery, (ii) better control of product branching ratio, and (iii) increased conversion efficiency from input crude into valuable output product.

Our approach uses three electrically driven sub-processes: Conformal Electrical Heating (CEH), High- Precision Vacuum Distillation (HPVD), Laser Crude Cracking (LCC). I will briefly introduce the LCC reactor design, and how it offers breakthrough precision for cracking crude. Combining micro-processor controlled chemical reactor, novel low-temperature performance properties of the LCC, with the virtue of real-time AI, translates into minimization of process heat and greenhouse gas emission.

LCC reactor can be tuned digitally into producing more gasoline, or diesel or jet fuel by rapid control of process variables, e.g. flow rate of crude, flow rate of reducing material, and catalytic excitation energy. The higher density medium supports faster reactivity, and requires reduced residence time which translates into better control of the output products from the catalytic cracking unit.

c. Global Leadership in CleanTech Benefits FinTech and Canada technology (CanTech)

Our new design offers tremendous benefits for performance improvements in new refinery operation:

(i) >25% in material conversion efficiency, while (ii) enabling a breakthrough >75% reduction of CO2 emission, and (iii) increase X3 processing efficiency of energy material.

Our technology is disruptive for oil refinery market because the reduction of capital cost by a factor of >5X for building a new refinery plant. On account of the compact modular unit design, processing crude into sellable product could start within 6 month of project breaking ground.

By replacing oil BTU with renewable electric BTU to power the conversion process of crude material into gasoline, our new LCC process is a Cleantech: it enables storing electrical energy into greener gasoline. The more compact reactor of our Quantum refinery process also translates into a faster time response capable to adapt to frequent variations in electrical production inherent to alternative renewable sources

The transition from oil to electrical transportation represents formidable challenges and opportunities. In Canada, it will require doubling electrical capacity for total transition to electrical transportation. Our green refinery technology can leverages support for increase electrical production capacity, by virtue of its dual- purpose: producing greener fuel, and building readiness for conversion to electrical transportation.

Extended to hydroelectric and nuclear power generation, our LCC is a Canadian Technology (Cantech) that can support the definition of a global energy currency to facilitate financial energy trading (Fintech).

As such, our Quantum Refinery is a CleanTech technology that can solve the CO2 emission problem based on market forces competing for efficient technology that can offer high-quality refinery performance.