Book of Abstracts

3
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PLENARY LECTURE ....................................................................................................................... 9

New Catalytic Process Design Strategies: Oxidative Methane Coupling with Soft Oxidants .. 9
CO2 Capture and Utilization: An Overview ............................................................................10
KEYNOTE SPEECH .......................................................................................................................11
Prediction of Refinery Feed Stock Corrosivity Using Sulfur Speciation Technique ................11
Produced water treatment: Unlocking Production from Mature and Marginal Fields ............12
Power Generation Challenges and Answers to an increasing demand for unconventional
fuels and water ......................................................................................................................13
Oil/Gas Economics and Forecast ..........................................................................................14
Process Integration Approaches to Optimal Planning of Unconventional Gas Field
Development .........................................................................................................................15
Produced Water Treatment in the Oil & Gas industry ............................................................16
TRACK: CATALYTIC GAS PROCESSING ...........................................................................................17
Palladia/ceria robust methane oxidation catalyst ..................................................................18
Hierarchical Catalysts for the CO2 Hydrogenation to Methanol, Higher Alcohols,
Hydrocarbons and Olefin ......................................................................................................19
Fabrication and Characterization of Nickel Supported Catalysts for Methane Steam
Reforming..............................................................................................................................20
Effect of the composition on ethanol decomposition catalytic activity of bimetallic Ni-Co
catalysts ................................................................................................................................21
The highly efficient breaking and activation of C-H bond in methane over one-dimensional
La2O3 catalyst ........................................................................................................................22
Photoelectrocatalytic conversion of CO2 on Hydrotalcite-based Catalyst .............................23
TRACK: CORROSION ....................................................................................................................24
Towards a reliable method for the investigation and monitoring of Underdeposit Corrosion 25
Corrosion and Scaling in Wet Gas Pipelines .........................................................................26
Corrosion behavior of API X80 steel material in hydrogen sulphide environment ..................27
Enhanced Process Equipment Mechanical Integrity through Application of Integrity
Operating Windows (IOW's) ..................................................................................................28
TRACK: WASTE MANAGEMENT ......................................................................................................29
5th INTERNATIONAL GAS PROCESSING SYMPOSIUM, DOHA QATAR

4
Effect of polyacrylamide charge type and density on the degree of flocculation of bentonite
dispersions ............................................................................................................................30
Observation and Mitigation of SO2 Gas Emissions from Atmospheric Liquid Sulphur Storage
Tanks. ...................................................................................................................................31
Characterisation of landfill gas from Umm al Afai Landfill, Qatar ...........................................33
TRACK: INDUSTRIAL CASE STUDIES ...............................................................................................34
Steam and Power Optimization within an Onshore Gas Processing Facility .........................35
Amine systems temperature control; the impact and the solution .........................................36
Optimising Operations Approach to identify lowest operating pressure profiles in RasGas
Company Limited manufacturing plants ................................................................................37
Process Wastewater Treatment and Management: An ORYX GTL Experience .....................38
Paradigm Shift to Extract Value from Mega Gas Projects .....................................................39
Effects of LNG storage conditions on Boil-Off in an above ground tank ...............................40
Chromium Catalyst Waste reuse ...........................................................................................41
Waste Water Plants - Avoiding Corrosion .............................................................................42
Captured CO2 treating and transportation: Challenges and lessons learned .........................43
Proposal for CO2 capture in order to eliminate flaring at Oman LNG Company ....................44
A framework for developing real-time dynamic risk assessment algorithms .........................45
Managing Produced Water Using Bioremediation in Heglig Oilfields, Sudan ........................46
Feasibility of Gas Field Produced Water Treatment using Constructed Weltlands ................47
TRACK: CARBON CAPTURE AND UTILIZATION .................................................................................48
Kinetics of the Reaction of Carbon Dioxide in a Promising Aqueous Cyclic Amine Solution
and Two Novel Tertiary Diamines Using the Stopped-Flow Technique .................................49
Competitive Adsorption of Methylene Blue and Methyl orange by activated carbon from oil
fly ash ....................................................................................................................................50
Investigation of Type Y Zeolite for High Pressure CO2 Capture and Separation ...................51
Post combustion CO2 capture using aqueous potassium lysinate solutions: CO2 solubility at
absorber conditions ..............................................................................................................52
Estimating cost of carbon dioxide capture using different available technologies .................53
CO2 Capture through Reactions with Steel-Making Dust in High Salinity Water ...................54
Self-regeneration of Ni-based ferrite with stable performance for thermochemical CO2
conversion into CO................................................................................................................55
Capture of Carbon dioxide from natural gas through polymeric hollow fiber membrane
contactor ...............................................................................................................................56
CO2 capture using non-aqueous organic solvent .................................................................57
CO2 Fixation for Advanced Dry Reformer Process ................................................................58

5
Catalytic CO2 Capture directly from Air: a Molecular Modeling Study ..................................59
Towards zero energy requirement for amine-based CO2 capture processes ........................60
Mixed Metal Oxide Based Solar Thermochemical H2O/CO2 Splitting Cycle ..........................61
TRACK: GAS PROCESSING MATERIALS ..........................................................................................62
Composite ionic liquid and dense polymeric membranes for CO2/N2 and CO2/CH4 gas
separation at elevated pressures...........................................................................................63
Using Activated Carbon from Date Pits for Desulfurization of LPG .......................................64
Water-soluble Polymeric kinetic gas hydrate inhibitors .........................................................65
Application of MOF-5 monoliths for the removal of CO2 from biogas and landfill gas
compositions: breakthrough measurements and simulations................................................66
TRACK: OPTIMIZATION AND SIMULATIONS ......................................................................................67
Experimental solubility and modelling of CO2 absorption into aqueous blends of Amine-
amino acid system ................................................................................................................68
Eco-efficiency assessment for greenhouse gas emissions of olefin production processes
from nature gas .....................................................................................................................69
CO2 adsorption of on CaO monolayer from the rst principles calculations .........................70
Optimizing GTL Diesel Properties Using Biodiesel Additives .................................................71
Solar Light Harvesting - A challenge for Computational Chemistry .......................................72
Hydrogen Enrichment and Carbon Suppression in Ethanol Dry Reforming: A Thermodynamic
Investigation ..........................................................................................................................73
Multi-scale modeling of superctitical Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis Fixed-Bed Reactor ...........74
TRACK: EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES ...............................................................................................75
Chemical characterization and source identification of beached oil from two areas along the
North-western coast of Qatar close to Al Zubahra ................................................................76
High-flux seawater desalination using nanoporous carbon composite membranes ..............78
Graphene oxide framework membranes: Control the 2D interspacing toward water molecular
sieving ...................................................................................................................................79
A Novel Spouted Bed Bioreactor System for the degradation of BTEX .................................80
TRACK: ENERGY EFFICIENCY ........................................................................................................81
Integration of Computational Modeling and Experimental Techniques to Design a Surrogate
Mixture for Gas-to-Liquid (GTL) Derived Diesel .....................................................................82
Simulation based Parametric Analyses and Optimization of Commercial Amine Sweetening
Unit........................................................................................................................................83
Prospectus for lower-carbon routes for conversion of natural gas to energy ........................84
Regeneration of Diethanolamine used in CO2 capture via gas-liquid membrane contactor ..85
RasGas Flare Minimisation Initiatives ....................................................................................86

6
Experimental and Numerical Investigation of a Novel Perforation Technique ........................87

Cryogenic Separation Technology as Practiced in Ethylene Recovery Plants .......................88
TRACK: UPSTREAM CHALLENGES .................................................................................................89
Phase Equilibria of Natural Gas Components in Physical Solvents from Molecular
Simulations............................................................................................................................90
Effect of CO2 adsorption on the Enhanced Gas Recovery by CO2 Sequestration from
Carbonate Reservoirs ............................................................................................................91
Novel Treatment for Produced Water Utilizing Organoclay Adsorption as Post Treatment for
Dissolved Air Flotation...........................................................................................................92
Lithofacies and Geomechanical Stratigraphy of the Khuff Carbonates, Outcrop Analogue
Reservoir Models, Central Saudi Arabia ................................................................................93
TRACK: PRODUCED WATER ..........................................................................................................94
Utilization of Engineered Wetlands to Treat Industrial Wastewater for Re-Use......................95
Application of Osmotic Concentration Process for Volume Reduction of Produced and
Process Water from Gas-field Operations .............................................................................96
High Removal of Emulsified oil from Produce Water using Carbon Nanotubes Adsorbent ...98
Cleaning of ceramic membranes for produced water filtration ..............................................99
Fast capture of methyl-dyes over hierarchical nanofibrous membrane ...............................100
Best Practice of RasGas Water Injection System ................................................................101
Removal of Hydrogen Sulfide from Sour Water using Hydrophobic Membranes ................102
E-POSTER: SESSION 1 ................................................................................................................103
Oil Field Waste Water Treatment with Multi-Stage Polymeric Membrane Filtration System 104
Reverse Osmosis Desalination Using Solar Heat Powered Water Pump .............................105
Hydrate Formation and dissociation in Qatar sea water in the presence imidazolium based
ionic liquids and synergents ................................................................................................106
A CFD study of induced vibration in an offshore pipeline due to hydrate flow.....................107
Sulfide Scaling and Corrosion of Carbon Steel in Oil and Gas Pipelines .............................108
Amino Acids as environmentally friendly low dosage thermodynamic and kinetic hydrate
inhibitors .............................................................................................................................109
Development of green inhibitors to prevent hydrates formation, protect environment and
reduce energy cost in Oil and Gas Industry .........................................................................110
Modelling Analysis of Produced Water Desalination Using Reverse Osmosis .....................111
E-POSTER: SESSION 2 ...............................................................................................................112
A Review on Conversion of carbon dioxide: Fundamental challenges and opportunities ....113
Natural Deep Eutectic Solvents (NADESs) as Gas Absorption Media..................................114

7
Carbon Dioxide Solubility in Phosphonium-, Ammonium-, Sulfonyl- and Pyrrolidinium- Based

Ionic Liquids and Their Mixtures at Moderate Pressures up to 10 bars ...............................115
Synthesis of high performance SAPO-34 zeolite membrane for CO2 capture.....................116
Effect of cation on the solubility of carbon dioxide and ethane in three bis (fluorosulfonyl)
imide low viscosity ([FSI]) ionic liquids .................................................................................117
Reactive Absorption of CO2 Using Aqueous Potassium Carbonate Promoted by
Ethylaminoethanol and N-Methyl-2-Pyrolidone ...................................................................118
Statistical Modeling of Direct Gas-Solid Mineral Carbonation of Steel-making Residues ...119
Evaluation of Electrocoagulation for the treatment of Carbide Slurry ..................................120
E-POSTER: SESSION 3 ...............................................................................................................121
Influence of Heat Treatment and Chlorination on the Corrosion behavior of A178 Carbon
Steel used by an Algerian Oil Company ..............................................................................122
Hydrogen Induced Cracking of an API 5L X52 Sour Gas Pipeline. Causes and lessons
learned ................................................................................................................................123
Effect of temperature on the corrosion behaviors of API X100 pipeline steel in 3.5 % NaCl
aqueous solution containing H2S.........................................................................................124
Corrosion behavior of electrodeposited Ni-P-TiO2-CeO2 nanocomposite coatings ...........125
Corrosion Behavior of Electrodeposited Ni-B Coatings Modified with SiO2 Particles .........126
Gibbs ensemble Monte Carlo simulations of multicomponent natural gas mixtures ...........127
On the Evaluation of Flue Gases Capturing Capacity of Porous Organic Materials .............128
PdM Nanoparticles (M = Ni, Co, Fe, Mn) with High Activity and Stability in Formic Acid
Oxidation Synthesized by Sonochemical Reactions ............................................................129
E-POSTER: SESSION 4 ...............................................................................................................130
Solar Hydrogen Production via Manganese Oxide Manganese Sulfate Water Splitting Cycle
............................................................................................................................................131
Flare Utilization and Sustainable Alternatives for Abnormal Situation Management (ASM)..132
Coreshell Fe@(PtRu) nanoparticle synthesis for the methanol oxidation reaction with
suppression of CO-poisoning..............................................................................................134
Plant Deliverability & Reliability: RasGas Company Limiteds process to identify and
anticipate areas of potential failures ....................................................................................135
Integrating behavioural Safety at ORYX GTL .......................................................................136
Waste Reduction, Reuse, Recycle and Recovery opportunities in GTL industries ..............137
Constrained Optimization of a Multi-Stage Refrigeration Cycle in A Propane Liquefaction
Plant ....................................................................................................................................138
E-POSTER: SESSION 5 ...............................................................................................................139
Syngas to fuel and chemicals via Fischer-Tropsch synthesis ..............................................140
Ionic Liquids as Novel Class of Inhibitors for Methane and Qatar Natural Gas Hydrates ....141

8
Solar Reforming of Natural Gas via Metal Oxide Based Two Step Catalytic Thermochemical
Cycle ...................................................................................................................................143
Effects of Shell Composition on the Catalytic Performances of Pd-Based Core-Shell,
Methane-Oxidation Catalysts ..............................................................................................144
Effects of Variables on the Catalytic Combustion Over Pd@TiO2 based Core-Shell Catalysts
............................................................................................................................................145
Supercritical FTS product separation: A distinctive approach .............................................146
Nanoporous adsorbents for gas processing applications ...................................................147
Exergoeconomic & Exergoenvironmental evaluation of Using Solar Energy & Heat recovery
of Gas exhaust for Turbo-Compressor in Pipeline Gas Station ...........................................148
E-POSTER: SESSION 6 ...............................................................................................................149
Embedded Platform for Gas Applications Using HW/SW Co-Design and RFID ..................150
An interactive Software tool for gas identification ...............................................................151
Numerical study of fouling geometry effect during gas deshydratation process using
membrane technology.........................................................................................................152
Investigating effect of stirring on Natural Gas Hydrates (NGH) formation in high pressure
hydrate cell for Natural gas storage and transportation prospective ...................................153
PolyEthylene Unit Combustible Dust Control Methods in Q-Chem Finishing area ..............154
Investigating the scope of water recovery from gas fired power plant in Qatar ...................155
Recovery of flared gas through crude oil stabilization by a multi-staged separation with
intermediate feeds: A case study ........................................................................................156

9 PLENARY LECTURE
PLENARY LECTURE
New Catalytic Process Design Strategies: Oxidative Methane Coupling

with Soft Oxidants
Dr. Tobin Marks

Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor of Chemistry, Professor of Materials Science and
Engineering, Vladimir N. Ipatieff Professor of Catalytic chemistry, Northwestern University,
USA Northwestern University, USA
Tobin Marks is Vladimir Ipatieff Professor of Catalytic Chemistry, Professor of Materials Science
and Engineering, and Professor of Applied Physics at Northwestern University. His recognitions
include the U.S. National Medal of Science, the Spanish Principe de Asturias Prize, the MRS Von
Hippel Award, the Dreyfus Prize in the Chemical Sciences, and the National Academy of
Sciences Award in Chemical Sciences. He is a member of the U.S., German, and Indian National
Academies of Sciences, the US National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of
Arts and Sciences, and the US National Academy of Inventors. He is a Fellow of the Royal
Society of Chemistry. Marks has published 1210 peer-reviewed articles and holds 234 issued
U.S. patents. Degrees: B.S. from the University of Maryland and Ph.D. from MIT.

10 PLENARY LECTURE
PLENARY LECTURE
CO2 Capture and Utilization: An Overview
Dr. Wei Wei

Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, China
Prof. Wei Wei is Professor and Director of Center for Greenhouse Gas and Environmental
Engineering at Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He
obtained his PhD in Physical Chemistry from the Institute of Coal Chemistry, Chinese Academy
of Sciences in 2000. His main research focus includes CO2 accounting, capture, utilization and
storage, green chemistry and environmental catalysis. He is now the principal investigator of
Key Technologies and Industrial Demonstration of Chemical Utilization of Carbon Dioxide (Key
Projects in the National Science & Technology), Climate Change: Carbon Budget and Relevant
Issues (Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences-A), and Non-
hydraulic Fracturing for Shale Gas Recovery (Strategic Priority Research Program of the
Chinese Academy of Sciences-B). In the past 5 years, he severed as the principal investigator
and completed several projects funded by the National Ministry of Science and Technology,
Chinese Academy of Sciences and industry partners. He has more than 300 papers in
international peer-reviewed journals, and over 70 Chinese and 3 international patents. Prof. Wei
Wei received the Outstanding Young Scientist award in the 13th International Congress on
Catalysis (2004, France) and was nominated as outstanding youth contribution in the 10th
International Congress on Carbon Dioxide Utilization (2009 China).(http://english.sari.cas.cn/).

11 KEYNOTE SPEECH
KEYNOTE SPEECH
Prediction of Refinery Feed Stock Corrosivity Using Sulfur Speciation

Technique
Dr. Mabruk I. Suleiman

Takreer Research Center, UAE
Dr. Mabruk is the Senior Manager of Engineering R&D and Support Services at Takreer Research
Centre, Abu Dhabi, UAE. He has more than 37 years experience both in upstream and
downstream processes, and he is a certified professional leader by the international institute of
leadership. He obtained both his M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the University of Manchester Corrosion
Engineering Research Centre, and he is a professional member of the institute of corrosion
(UK). Dr. Mabruk has produced more than 100 corrosion investigation reports and published
several papers on stainless steel corrosion, high temperature sulphidation, and seawater
corrosivity. He has also given several training courses on the fundamentals of corrosion,
corrosion monitoring, and corrosion control. He has supervised several research projects. Dr.
Mabruk is now leading a major research project at Takreer Research Centre on the sulfur
speciation and corrosivity indexing of refinery feed stocks. He is also very active in the field of
asset integrity management, and presented several papers in this subject.

12 KEYNOTE SPEECH
KEYNOTE SPEECH
Produced water treatment: Unlocking Production from Mature and

Marginal Fields
Dr. Hank Rawlins

eProcess Technologies, USA
Hank Rawlins is the Technical Director of eProcess Technologies with 25 years experience in
the upstream oil & gas industry. Hank is responsible for development programs in facilities sand
management, produced water treatment, and compact separations systems. He received B.S.,
M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Metallurgical Engineering from the University of Missouri-
Rolla/Missouri S&T and is a registered professional engineer. Dr. Rawlins has fifty-one
publications and is an active member of SPE where he served as past chair of the Separations
Technology Technical Section (STTS). Hank also serves as adjunct professor at Montana Tech
of the University of Montana (www.eprocess-tech.com).

13 KEYNOTE SPEECH
KEYNOTE SPEECH
Power Generation Challenges and Answers to an increasing demand for

unconventional fuels and water
Dr. Ralph Joh

Siemens, Germany
Dr. Ralph Joh is currently project lead for Sour Gas Pre Treatment and head of Siemens
process development laboratory for Fuel Flexibility located in Frankfurt, Germany. He obtained
his PhD in chemistry from the university Oldenburg, Germany in 1998.
He is working for Siemens since 19 years, starting as an expert for thermodynamics and physical
properties and took over later the responsibility for the laboratory and pilot plant facilities for
thermal separation. In 2007, he moved to the Power and Gas sector of Siemens and is currently
of Project Lead of the Technology Development Sour Gas Pre Treatment. He filled over 52
patents and is appointed Dechema and VDI Process Net committee member.

14 KEYNOTE SPEECH
KEYNOTE SPEECH
Oil/Gas Economics and Forecast
Dr. Noubi Ben Hamida

TOTAL E&P, Qatar
Mr Noubi Ben Hamida is Vice President Business Development and Assets Operated by Others
with Total E&P Qatar since 2015. He holds an Electrical Engineering degree and has been with
Total for over 15 years, where he has been holding several key positions in the Finance Division.

15 KEYNOTE SPEECH
KEYNOTE SPEECH
Process Integration Approaches to Optimal Planning of Unconventional
Gas Field Development
Dr. Raymond Ooi

Senior Front End Process Engineer, Shell Oil Company, Malaysia
Ir. Dr. Raymond Ooi is a practicing engineer and active researcher in the O&G industry
specifically in the areas of Process Integration, Carbon Capture & Storage and Front End
Development of O&G projects. Graduated with BEng in Chemical Engineering and obtained his
PhD in Chemical Engineering with Nottingham University. Current role as Senior Process
Engineer with a Major International O&G Operator in Malaysia. He has more than twelve (12)
years of working experience in O&G industry and industrial gases production facilities with both
local and overseas working experience in USA. His experience encompasses a wide range of
design and operations experience across various stages of the project development cycle
(includes Frond End, Conceptual, FEED and Detail Design) for oil and gas facilities. He is also a
Chartered Engineer with IChemE, UK and registered Professional Engineer with Board of
Engineers Malaysia (BEM).https://www.linkedin.com/in/ir-dr-raymond-ooi-1527439

16 KEYNOTE SPEECH
KEYNOTE SPEECH
Produced Water Treatment in the Oil & Gas industry
Dr. Samer Adham

ConocoPhillips, Qatar
Dr. Samer Adham is currently the Manger of ConocoPhillips Water Solutions located in Doha,
Qatar. He is responsible for delivery of technical support, innovative solutions and analytical
capability as well as advancing technology and functional development across the whole water
spectrum, from sourcing and/or production to treatment to reuse and/or disposal at
ConocoPhillips. His responsibility also includes establishing and directing of ConocoPhillips
Global Water Sustainability Centre (GWSC) located at Qatar Science & Technology Park (QSTP)
in Doha. Dr. Adham overall experience has been on the development of innovative solutions to
the environmental challenges of municipal & industrial sector worldwide; specifically in the fields
of municipal water and wastewater treatment, water reclamation, seawater & groundwater
desalination, and produced water management from the oil & gas (O&G) industry. Dr. Adham
received several national and international awards of excellence and participated in various
national and international conferences as a worldwide expert on water treatment technologies.
Dr. Adham has more than 50 journal publications, 225 conference papers and 40 invited
presentations/workshops. He also holds 4 US patents and has authored chapters in more than
6 books related to water and environment. Dr. Adham received his Bachelor of Science in Civil
Engineering (1987) and a Master of Science in Environmental Engineering (1989) from King Fahd
University of Petroleum and Minerals in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. He received his Ph.D. in
Environmental Engineering (1993) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the
United States. http://www.conocophillips.qa/Pages/default.aspx

TRACK
CATALYTIC GAS PROCESSING

18 TRACK: CATALYTIC GAS PROCESSING | SESSION: 1
Palladia/ceria robust methane oxidation catalyst
Mahmoud Khader, Mohammed Al-Marri and Sadar Ali

Gas Processing center, College of Engineering, Qatar University
Corresponding Author: [email protected]
We report on the synthesis and testing of an extraordinary active catalyst for methane oxidation.
The catalyst is a solid state solution of pallida/ceria supported on alumina (PCA). It is prepared
via a one-step solution-combustion synthesis (SCS) method in which aqueous solutions of
Pd(NO3)2, Ce(NO3)3, Al(NO3)3 and glycine are heated in air till full combustion. Contrary to the
catalyst prepared by conventional impregnation method, investigation by x-ray photoelectron
spectroscopy (XPS) shows that SCS results in the formation of a solid solution in which the Pd
ions are doped into the ceria lattice, and associated with the reduction of some Ce4+ into Ce3+
ions, and presumably, the formation of oxygen vacancies. The Pallida/ceria segregates on the
surface of the alumina and, its intrinsic Ce3+ and oxygen vacancies, is believed to play a major
role in the catalytic reaction. For higher Pd loading samples, bulk PdO and metallic Pd are
detected by XRD.
The light-off curves show that methane oxidation exhibits three distinctive regions: the high
temperature region (above 400) is characterized by 100% activity. The behavior of the catalyst
above 400 is independent on the Pd content and on whether water vapor is present or not.
This region exhibits the Mar-van Krevlen mechanism. The second region of the light off curves
lies between ~ 400 and ~ 300. In the second region, the catalytic activity gradually decreases
with decreasing the temperature. Increasing the Pd loading as well as reducing the catalyst prior
to reaction greatly enhance the activity in the second region. Methane oxidation in this region is
believed to follow the Langmuir-Hinshelwood mechanism. The third region extends from ~300
down to ~200, it is characterized by exponential decrease in activity with decreasing
temperature. The activity in the third region decreases significantly in the presence of steam.
Catalyst deactivation in the third region is due to surface hydroxylation due to the accumulation
of H2O on the surface.

Hierarchical Catalysts for the CO2 Hydrogenation to Methanol, Higher

Alcohols, Hydrocarbons and Olefin
Peng Gao, Haiyan Yang, Chen Zhang, Hui Wang, Liangshu Zhong, Wei Wei and Yuhan
Sun
Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Science, China
More recently, utilization of CO2 as a carbon source for synthesizing chemical feedstocks and
transportation fuels has attracted great attention, because advancing energy efficient CO2
conversion processes could reduce both the current greenhouse-gas emissions and
dependence on crude oil. Especially, hydrogenation using hydrogen produced with renewable
energy can turn CO2 into useful chemicals, polymers, materials, and liquid fuels. On one hand,
we successfully prepared highly dispersed Cu nanoparticles immobilized on oxide matrix via the
Cu-rich layered double hydroxide (LDH) materials (Fig. 1). It was found that LDH can be
converted to metal oxide-supported Cu-based catalysts by heating under reducing conditions.
The enhanced interactions between Cu nanoparticles and the metal oxide substrates can
prevent aggregation of the nanoparticles during reaction and thus improve the stability of the
active species. Therefore, the hierarchical Cu/ZnO-based catalysts exhibited highly efficient
performance and excellent stability for CO2 hydrogenation to methanol. On the other hand, a
series of microspheres containing a SiO2-coated CuO core and a Co-Mn-Al LDH nanoplatelet
shell were synthesized via an in situ growth method with different core diameters, shell
thicknesses and metal compositions. The use of an in situ growth method allows the LDH
nanoplatelets to become strongly and uniformly anchored onto the surface of core (Fig. 2). Cu
nanoparticles and active Co species can be obtained by heating this material under reducing
conditions, and then examined for CO2 hydroganation to higher alcohols (CO2-based HAS),
hydrocarbons (CO2-based FTS), and olefin (CO2-based FTO). In this process, CO2 hydrogenation
proceeds via two steps water-gas-shift reaction and HAS, FTS or FTO. From a structural point
of view, coreshell materials with Cu nanoparticle cores are desirable to preventing the small Cu
nanoparticles (3.0~4.0 nm) from sintering. In addition, Co-Mn-Al LDH precursors can be reduced
in situ to give active Co species supported on Al2O3 with high dispersion and stability. Under
different reduction and reaction conditions, the Cu/Co-based catalysts were highly active and
selective for higher alcohols, hydrocarbons, or olefin production. In summary, the high
performance for the CO2 hydrogenation to methanol, higher alcohols, hydrocarbons and olefin
can be obtained over the hierarchical catalyst.

Fabrication and Characterization of Nickel Supported Catalysts for

Methane Steam Reforming
Moustafa Zagho, Sardar Ali, Ahmed Mohamed, Mohamed Ismail and Mahmoud Khader
Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt
Gas Processing Centre, College of Engineering, Qatar University, Doha P. O. Box 2713.
Presently, hydrogen is most economically produced from natural gas. The most used technique
to produce hydrogen from natural gas is methane steam reforming, in which methane reacts with
steam to produce a mixture of hydrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. In order to obtain
acceptable reaction rates an active catalyst is required to accelerate this process. In this work,
two nickel based catalysts supported on alumina were fabricated. The first catalyst is nickel
supported on alumina (Ni/A) and prepared via deposition precipitation technique while the other
catalyst is first developed by synthesizing nickel nanoparticles followed by uniform dispersion
over the surface of alumina (NiNPs/A). The catalytic performance was studied using mass
spectrum connected to quartz fixed bed reactor. The morphology of the as-prepared nickel
based catalysts was investigated by using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and nanoscanning electron
microscopy (NSEM). The catalytic performance measurements revealed that NiNPs/A exhibited
better catalytic activity as compared to that of Ni/A. Moreover, NiNPs/A provides high hydrogen
and carbon monoxide production.

Effect of the composition on ethanol decomposition catalytic activity of

bimetallic Ni-Co catalysts
Anchu Ashok, Anand Kumar, Rahul Bhosale, Ujjal Kumar Ghosh, Fares Almomani, Md.
Abdul Matin and Faris Tarlochan
Qatar University, Doha, Qatar
Bimetallic nanoparticles attained great attention due to its multi functionalities, selectivity and
activity over monometallic particles and its application extended to various fields of research and
industry such as optical, catalytic and magnetic. The monometals in the bimetals shows
difference in the catalytic activity depend on the composition of each.
In our work we choose nickel and cobalt as the primary metals and synthesis the bimetallic NiCo
through a fast, simple and economical method termed as solution combustion synthesis. In this
method Nickel nitrate (Ni(NO3)26H2O) and Cobalt nitrate (Co(NO3)26H2O) were mixed
homogenously in presence of glycine as fuel and resulted with different ratios of Nickel and
cobalt(1:1,0.9:0.1,0.1:0.9) with a constant fuel value for each. The amount of precursors was
calculated based on the synthesis of 1.5g product in the output. These precursors were mixed
in 75ml of water and stir continuously for 1 hr to form a homogenous mixture. The solution was
heated over a hot plate heater until all the water got evaporated. Once it reaches the ignition
temperature, the combustion reaction started locally at one point and then spread inside the
beaker. The resulted powder was grinded using a mortar and pestle to get a uniform powder to
be used for catalytic investigations. The synthesized powers were characterized with XRD to
identify the crystalline phase, XPS for the elemental composition, SEM and TEM to identify the
morphology and particle identification respectively. The result obtained in XPS is in consistent
with the elemental composition identified using EDX. The resulted nanopowder was used for the
ethanol decomposition and identified the effect of monometals in the bimetallic composition.
Ethanol decomposition were conducted using in situ diffuse reflectance infrared fourier
transform spectroscopy (DRIFT) study under N2 flow at different temperatures (50, 100, 200, 300,
400C).

The highly efficient breaking and activation of C-H bond in methane over
one-dimensional La2O3 catalyst
Yan Zhu and Yuhan Sun

The effective conversion of methane, as the major component of natural gas, for more valuable
products under mild conditions is of great challenge. One promising route of direct conversion
of CH4 into hydrocarbons is oxidative coupling of methane (OCM), in which C2 products (C2H4
and C2H6)could be converted to gasoline and employed as feedstocks. The activation of CH
bond in methane is always inefficient, which requires high temperatures and multistep
processes, especially, leads to the undesirable surface reactions and gas-phase combustion
reactions which suppress hydrocarbons formation. Here, to improve the atomic efficiency and
attain the high C2 yield at low temperature, the well-defined active sites for catalytic reactions
could be achieved by controlling the morphologies of La2O3 nanostructure, which presents the
strong correlation with the activity and selectivity of structure-sensitive OCM reaction.
Optimization of surface structure of La2O3 nanocrystals is performed in the sites on the (101)
surface for high CH4 conversion and C2 selectivity. La2O3 catalyst exposed (101) facet, C2 yield
can reach above 16% at 400oC, that is, the conversion of methane is 34% with the selectivity
toward C2 of 50%. In particular, one-dimensional La2O3 catalyst has the ability to resist sintering
as well as there being no coke formed on the surface of the La2O3 catalysts during the high
temperature reaction during long-time test. One-dimensional La2O3 catalyst has a larger surface
area, stronger surface basic sites, a larger amount of electron deficient oxygen species on the
surface, as well as well-defined exposed surface over which C-H bond activation is preferred,
leading to their superior catalysis for OCM to the corresponding spherical catalysts.

Photoelectrocatalytic conversion of CO2 on Hydrotalcite-based Catalyst
Lagnamayee Mohapatra and Syed Javaid Zaidi

The increase of CO2 emissions resulting in global warming is one of the major environmental
concerns facing the society today. Consequently the conversion of CO2 into value added
products is one of the goals of environmental research . Photo-electrocatalytic CO2 conversion
has been considered as one of the renewable technologies to obtain short chain hydrocarbons
from CO2 reduction to solve the problem of clean energy as well as simultaneously protect the
environment, Hunting two birds with one stone in terms of saving the environment and
supplying future energy. CO2 reduction is achieved as the oxidation state of carbon changes
from +IV to +II, 0, -II and then -IV i.e., from CO2 to formaldehyde, formic acid, methanol and
methane respectively.
TiO2 has recently attracted attention as a wide-band-gap semiconductor material and has been
frequently used in the fields of energy conversion because of its low cost, nontoxicity, relatively
higher efficiency and excellent chemical stability. But, it suffers from drawbacks of fast electron-
hole recombination and limited CO2 adsorption.2 Besides appropriate metals and metal oxides,
carbon materials such as graphitic carbon, carbon nanotube and graphene have also been
applied in CO2 conversion.3 Recently, layered materials like Hydrotalcite whose name is derived
from its resemblance with talc and its high water content as one of the attracted material
regarded as a good alternative to the traditional homogenous base catalysts.4
In this work hydrotalcite based heterogeneous catalysts are designed and synthesized for
reduction of CO2 to valuable chemicals. The prepared materials have been characterized for their
structural and morphology and tested for CO2 conversion and show high activity for CO2
conversion.
References
1. F. S. Qin, Y. Xin, X. Liu, W. Ma Yin,J. Colloid Interface Sci., 356 (2011), pp. 257261.
2. X. K. Li, Z. J. Zhuang, W. Li, H. Q. Pan, Appl. Catal., A 2012, 429, 31.
3. W.Tu,Y.Zhou, Z. Zou, Adv Mater. 2014,26,4607.
4. L. Mohapatra, K. Parida, and M.Satpathy, J. Phys. Chem. C 2012, 116, 1306313070

TRACK
CORROSION

25 TRACK: CORROSION | SESSION: 4
Towards a reliable method for the investigation and monitoring of

Underdeposit Corrosion
Ahmed Shamso, Jiahui Qi, Aboubakr Abdullah, Nick Laycock Mary Ryan

Qatar University
Qatar Research Science and Technology Centre

Imperial College London
With the continuous growing need for fossil fuels, the extraction of oil and gas from significantly
sour fields is increasing globally. Sour (H2S containing) gas environments present several
challenges to system integrity, including an accelerated rate of localized corrosion, and potential
catastrophic-premature failures in fluid handling equipment. This creates a risk to asset integrity,
leading to financial losses, and significant risk to both humans and the environment. A major
problem in sour systems is underdeposit corrosion (UDC) which is a type of localized corrosion
observed under deposits (in this case typically iron-sulfide scales). The mechanism of UDC is
still not fully understood and there is no consensus on the methods used to evaluate UDC as
they may vary in nature and design. To date, there has not been any reliable method to predict
or monitor the UDC rate in pipelines. In addition, the efficacy of inhibitors may vary in such a
scenario and so the amounts and efficiencies required cannot be a priori decided. There is,
therefore, an urgent need for a study that addresses the characteristics of deposits
representative to the different conditions present in the real environment, and the use of such a
protocol to provide kinetic and mechanistic information on UDC phenomena.
1-dimensional artificial pit experiments are underway at QU and ICL in order to study localised
corrosion with the use of multi-electrode arrays; this allows high-throughput measurements such
that different variables can be studied simultaneously. The artificial pit acts as an anode in a
three-electrode electrochemical cell, simulating an actively dissolving pit. Using this approach,
once a pit is grown to a known depth, cyclic voltammetry (CV) measurements are used to obtain
directly the dissolution kinetics as a function of system variables such as chloride concentration,
pH and existence of deposit at the pit cavity. Sand (SiO2), iron sulfide (FeS), iron carbonate
(FeCO3) and sulfur (S) deposits are applied with different particle sizes and deposit layer
thicknesses. Data will be presented on the role of deposit chemistry and morphology on the
electrochemical dissolution behaviour, and discussed in terms of a transport controlled model
for pit propagation.

Corrosion and Scaling in Wet Gas Pipelines
Nicholas Laycock, Aboubakr M. Abdullah, Mobbassar Hassan Sk, David Williams,

Jiahui Qi and Mary Ryan
Shell, Qatar
University of Auckland, New Zeeland
Imperial College London, United Kingdome

The presence of acid gases (CO2 and H2S) in wet gas pipelines can create the potential for very
high internal corrosion rates. Internal corrosion control in such pipelines is primarily achieved by
continuous injection of corrosion inhibitor (CI). However, even without CI injection, general
corrosion in H2S dominated conditions is believed to occur at a negligible rate due to the
formation of protective iron sulphide scale. The CI is used to control corrosion at areas of
damage to these scales, but it is also sometimes argued that inhibitors help to ensure the
formation of a good protective scale. There is no theoretical basis for this and indeed one might
expect the opposite effect; that is, rapid early corrosion would generate higher local
concentrations of dissolved iron and hence would better help to establish more compact and
protective surface layers. Ongoing management of pipeline integrity in these conditions often
involves decisions concerning the need or otherwise to implement additional batch CI runs or
increase the continuous CI dose rate in conditions that were not directly addressed by original
inhibitor screening. Consequently, there is both a practical need and a strong academic interest
in better understanding of protective scale formation under such conditions. This paper will
present an overview of work carried out using electrochemistry and advanced surface analytical
techniques to investigate the structure and composition of the surface scales and how they
impact on corrosion in both sweet and sour systems.

Corrosion behavior of API X80 steel material in hydrogen sulphide

environment
Paul Okonkwo, R Shakoor, Ahmed Soliman, A.M.A. Mohamed and Mohammed Al-
Marri
Gas Processing Center, College of Engineering, P.O Box 2713, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar
Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Faculty of Petroleum and Mining

Engineering, Suez University, 43721 Suez, Egypt

Recently, the API-X80 steel has emerged as an important pipe line material for transportation of
crude oil and natural gas. At the same time, the presence of significant amount of hydrogen
sulfide (H2S) in natural gas, crude oil, industrial waste discharge and bacteriological process in
the seawater make pipe line materials make prone to corrode which affects their integrity. In this
study, the corrosion behavior of API X80 in 3.5% wt. NaCl solution containing different
concentrations of hydrogen sulphide is presented. The H2S gas was bubbled into 3.5% wt. NaCl
solution for different time duration and then the corrosion tests were performed using
Potendiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). X-ray
photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Atomic force Microscope (AFM) and scanning electron
microscopy (SEM) techniques were used to characterize the corroded surface. The results
indicate that the corrosion rate of API X 80 steel increases with increasing H2S bubbling time
due to increase in H2S concentration in the 3.5% NaCl solution. It is further observed that
increase in H2S bubbling time leads to cracks and sulphide layer (mackinawite ) formation on
the API X 80 steel surface which may affect t the reliability of pipeline system.

Enhanced Process Equipment Mechanical Integrity through Application of

Integrity Operating Windows (IOW's)
Muhsen Elhaddad and Ibrahim Muzghi

Qatargas Operating Company Limited, Qatar
Safe operation of refining and petrochemical plants is considered one of the most critical and
challenging tasks. Processing, treatment, storage, and transportation of highly corrosive and
hazardous fluids are required on a day to day activity. In order to ensure efficient and continuous
operation, several process safety management systems (PSM) have been developed to ensure
and maintain stationary pressure equipment integrity and reliability. Some of which, complement
the application of a rigorous and detailed inspection program (Risk or Time based) governed and
controlled primarily by industry codes, standards, and recommended practices. Based on either
inspection approach, inspection plans are developed with consultation of corrosion specialist
when needed to warrant the highest degree of confidence in detecting active damage
mechanisms and monitoring their progression rate. This necessitates operating pressure
equipment within a preset safe to operate envelop. However, process upsets and abnormal
operating conditions do occur, which may lead to an increase in damage rates more than
expected or even introduce new damage mechanism.
Therefore, effective establishment, implementation, and knowledge transfer of integrity

operating windows (IOW's) is very important in defining limits that could jeopardize the
mechanical integrity of pressure equipment if breached for a predetermined period of time. This
paper will introduce IOW's benefits for an effective corrosion management program and
sustainable equipment process safety.

TRACK
WASTE MANAGEMENT

30 TRACK: WASTE MANAGEMENT | SESSION: 7
Effect of polyacrylamide charge type and density on the degree of

flocculation of bentonite dispersions
Shifa M.R. Shaikh, Mustafa S. Nasser and Ibnelwaleed A. Hussein

GAS PROCESSING CENTER, QATAR UNIVERSITY
Corresponding author: [email protected]/[email protected]
Optimizing flocculation in wastewater treatment is highly sought-after due to inadequate

knowledge available in the field with respect to fixed methods and parameters. One of the
important parameters to evaluate in the underlying research is the impact of high molecular
weight flocculant characteristics on the process. Therefore, a thorough understanding of
flocculant properties such as the surface charge, molecular weight and optimum concentrations
is required to enhance the treatment of persistent suspensions like that of bentonite colloidal
dispersion. In this study, the effect of high molecular weight polyacrylamides with various surface
charge types and densities has been examined on the flocculation of simulated bentonite
suspensions at different pH. Two types of each cationic, anionic, non-ionic and amphoteric
polyacrylamides were used, one having a low surface charge density and the other having a high
surface charge density. Flocculation for each polyacrylamide was conducted using jar tests and
the optimum flocculant dosage was defined from turbidity measurements. Zeta potential and
adsorption measurements using a UV-VIS spectrophotometer were also performed to reinforce
the optimum dosage results. Very clear solutions were obtained at optimum concentrations of
the polyacrylamides along with significant production of flocs. The effect of variations in the
surface charge type, density and molecular weight of the polyacrylamides was clearly observed
on the floc size and firmness, a significant property desirable for continuous processes in
industrial applications. This work has been highly productive in enhancing the knowledge
regarding the surface charge types and densities of polyacrylamides in relation to enhanced
efficiencies in bentonite flocculation in industrial wastewater samples.

TRACK: WASTE MANAGEMENT | SESSION: 7
Observation and Mitigation of SO2 Gas Emissions from Atmospheric

Liquid Sulphur Storage Tanks.
Imran Aslam
Dolphin Energy Ltd, Qatar
The objective of this paper is to emphasis on the mechanism of sulfur dioxide generation in liquid
sulfur storage tanks. To describe the chemistry involve in producing the sulfur dioxide and
necessary safety measures need to implement for safe operation of tank and personnel
protection. Also, to explain engineering methodology adopted to identify the presence of sulfur
dioxide on the tank roof and ensure the safety measures are adequate to mitigate the safety
concerns.
Process:
Sulfur is produced in Clause catalytic reactors and stored in the storage tanks. Sulfur storage
tank operate at atmospheric pressure allowing atmospheric air to flow in and out of the tank
during thermal expansion and contractions. The liquid sulfur normally contains <10 ppm
dissolved hydrogen sulfide in the form of polysulfides which escape to the liquid surface and
react oxygen from the air and forms sulfur dioxide and escape out of the tank. PHAST dispersion
modeling is carried out to understand the dispersion patterns of sulfur dioxide and process heat
and mass balance calculations are used to estimate the composition of the escaping vapors out
of the tank.
Observations and Conclusion:
Liquid sulfur is produced in Claus catalytic reactor and after degassing process to remove the
dissolved hydrogen sulfide to less than 10 ppm stored in the tanks. The degassed liquid sulfur
still less than 10 ppm of dissolved hydrogen sulfide which is present in the form of polysulfides
escape from the liquid sulfur in the vapor space inside the tank. Sulfur tanks are operated at
atmospheric pressure and contains open vents at the tank roof to allow ambient air to flow in
and out of the tank during thermal breathing of the tank. Polysulfides reacts with oxygen from
the ambient air and oxidized to sulfur dioxide gas and escape out of the tank through open vents.
Tank mass balance calculations is performed to estimate the total volume of escaping vapors
from the tank and amount of sulfur dioxide present in the vapors. It was concluded that
concentration of sulfurdioxide present in the gas was greater than 5 ppm which is an allowable
limit set by OSHA. Then PHAST dispersion simulation model was developed to identify the vapor
dispersion pattern to further ensuring the appropriate locations of the toxic gas detectors. Also,
some site access restrictions with appropriate breathing apparatus put in place for personnel
protection.The present work has been carried out on a new separation and compression unit in
an area where all the associated gas production is being flared despite the new environmental

laws. This treated gas may be valorised as a raw material for the petrochemical industry or
compressed and re-injected into the reservoir in order to maintain the rate of oil production. It
remains that one important way of valorising this associated gas is to transform it into liquid
through a process known as Gas to Liquid (GTL) technology.

Characterisation of landfill gas from Umm al Afai Landfill, Qatar
Mariasilvia Giamberini, Ahmed Soliman, Mohamed Kotb, Balint Alfoeldy and

Jeffrey Philip Obbard
National Council of Research - Institute of Geoscience and Earth Resources, Italy
Gas Processing Centre - Qatar University

Environmental Science Centre - Qatar University
Doha is a quickly expanding city, rapidly increasing its waste production. Despite the opening of
the new waste management centre, disposal of municipal solid waste into landfill is the
prevalent, with only 8% of waste recycled. Landfills containing biodegradable waste generating
environmental impacts through leachate and gas emissions. Landfill gas (LFG) contains mainly
CH4 and CO2 and traces of malodorous and toxic substances (NH3, H2S, mercaptans,
aldehydes, BTEX, other Hydrocarbons) with a strong impact on local air quality. The assessment
of landfill gas emissions and of air quality in the surroundings of a landfill is necessary for
understanding potential human health impacts, and the planning of mitigation options.Moreover,
in an urban environment it is important to distinguish between concurrent sources of air pollution
in order to improve air quality and the wellbeing of residents.In Qatar, the MSW landfill located
at Umm al Afai (200 ha in size), closed in 2014 after 20 years of waste deposition, but continues
to emit LFG from biodegradable waste. LFG is not monitored or flared, but released passively
into the atmosphere. Adjacent to the landfill, many new buildings are under construction, posing
a risk from LFG migration. Here, we present the first results of three air quality monitoring
campaigns in the vicinity of the Umm al Afai landfill that were conducted in 2015 and 2016 by
ESC in Qatar University with the collaboration of GPC. Air quality has been monitored in upwind
and downwind positions of the landfill, as well as in residential and traffic sites. LFG was sampled
from venting pipes, and its composition analysed. LFG, despite the arid, dry climate of Qatar,
was found to have a composition similar to LFG formed in temperate climates, meaning that
moisture present in the deposit itself is sufficient to support methanogenic reactions. CH4 and
CO2 were measured at 35% and 29% respectively, the remaining being N2 , traces of sulphur
compounds (H2S, DMS, mercaptans), and traces of VOCs. Air quality in the surrounding area is
influenced by LFG emissions, but it is also possible to detect emission impacts from traffic and
industrial sources.

TRACK
INDUSTRIAL CASE STUDIES

35 TRACK: INDUSTRIAL CASE STUDIES | SESSION: 2
Steam and Power Optimization within an Onshore Gas Processing Facility
Stephen Oneill
Dolphin Energy Limited, Qatar
The objective of this paper is to present the findings of a steam and power optimization study
intended to contribute towards minimizing CO2 emissions from the Dolphin Energy onshore gas
plant and to maximize electrical generation within the plant.
High high pressure (HHP) steam is generated within the plant and let down to low pressure (LP)
steam to satisfy demand. The HHP steam is let down to LP steam via three steam turbine
generators (STGs) which generate most of the electrical supply to the onshore plant. Demand
for electricity in excess of that generated by the STGs is imported from a third party.
A study was conducted to identify the potential for a reduction in LP Steam demand whilst also
increasing the amount of electricity generated from the STGs. This involved preparation of a
mathematical model of the steam and power system to quantify the effects of various changes
on the overall steam and power balance.
It was identified that some changes could be made to increase the efficiency of electricity
generation whilst reducing the demand for LP steam. However, since these changes were
expected to have an unfavourable effect upon the system dynamics in case of certain upsets,
dynamic studies were conducted to demonstrate the response of the system to various potential
upsets. Accordingly, enhancements were then proposed to improve the system dynamic
response.
As an outcome of these studies and of dedicated optimization efforts made to reduce LP steam
demand within the plant, significant reductions in LP Steam demand have already been made.
Further reductions in LP steam demand as well as a substantial increase in the amount of
electricity generation from the STGs will be made following the implementation of modifications
that have been planned in accordance with the study recommendations.
This paper will be of interest to all those involved in the operation and design of integrated steam
and power generation systems, and to those involved in designing the control systems for these
systems. The contents of this paper will, in particular, add to the existing knowledge base of the
industry regarding how to improve the dynamic response of steam and power generation
systems in case of typical upsets such as the trip of a boiler or an STG.

Amine systems temperature control; the impact and the solution
Hesham El Zeini
Qatar Chemical Company (QChem)
SO2 emissions control has been a growing concern that supersedes production levels in the
Amine treating units. The MDEA Amine system that absorbs the H2S from the Sour Ethane Rich
Gas (ERG) feed is very sensitive to temperature fluctuation with great impact on H2S slippage at
high temperature. In Qatar state, Summer time was always a challenge for Q-Chem to maintain
the SO2 emissions within the MOE allowable limits on the expense of processing rates. The
MDEA system is cooled by the sea water that experience high natural temperature during the
peak summer times.
This paper will present the effort and plant modification through additional cooling source where
the SO2 emissions were on the low side and the plant is on maximum production levels at the
peak summer times.

Optimising Operations Approach to identify lowest operating pressure

profiles in RasGas Company Limited manufacturing plants
Barney Ong, Saad Al-Kaabi, Jamal Al-Anbari, Iwabuchi Kinya, Hakim Nasreddine,
Ziad Yehya and Abdulla Al-Attiyah
RasGas Company Limited, Qatar
Qatar Petroleum
RasGas Company Limited, Qatar
Chiyoda Corporation, Japan
QatarGAS, Qatar
Corresponding Author: [email protected], [email protected]
Decreasing reservoir pressures are natural phenomena expected of any hydrocarbon field. The
ability to operate gas processing facilities at the lowest possible pressure, and maintain product
specification and plant reliability, would allow realization of cost benefits by staging the timing of
pressure boosting investments plant. One example of this effort is the Onshore Minimum
Pressure Study. This study has defined methodology to determine the minimum operating
pressures possible for existing processing units of all RasGas Company Limited manufacturing
plants.
A similar stepwise approach was used for each manufacturing plant. It starts with the estimation
of minimum operating pressure at key units such as the Slug catcher inlet, Acid Gas Removal,
Letdown stations, NGL processing, Dehydration and Liquefaction. These estimations were
conducted on the condition that product specifications and plant reliability are not compromised
and assuming minimal investment. Once these areas are estimated, a minimum pressure profile
for the process is generated. Further analysis was completed to determine capability in-between
these key units to accommodate the lowest pressure profile. Such analysis included hydraulic
analysis and erosional velocities effects.
This study has identified potential savings via pressure reduction in the manufacturing plants.
However at the time of this abstract, this work is still in the conceptual stage.
This paper will describe the approach taken by RasGas Company Limited to complete this
analysis with a focus on delivery of a plan that shall be implementable with high confidence. This
also included validating simulation findings to real life plant situations, and developing mitigating
measures to address any effects such as flow induced vibrational responses and loss of
operating margin.

Process Wastewater Treatment and Management: An ORYX GTL

Experience
Pon Saravanan Neerkathalingam

ORYX GTL, Qatar
Gas to Liquids, or GTL, is a technology breakthrough to convert natural gas into high-performing,
ultra-clean liquid fuels by means of Fischer-Tropsch (FT) reaction. A by-product of the FT
reaction is process wastewater, generated in large volumes, 25% more than hydrocarbon
products, on a weight basis. The process wastewater generated from GTL industries needs to
be treated to comply with the standards set by Regulatory Agencies for effective reuse as well
as for safe discharge into the sea or other water bodies. The treatment and management of
wastewater for reuse and disposal is particularly important for Gulf countries, since they occupy
one of the most arid regions in the world. This paper addresses treatment methodology for GTL
process wastewater and the management of treated wastewater, including approaches to their
reuse and alternate disposal options.
The first part of this paper identifies source of wastewater from the GTL industries and briefly
describes typical contaminants found in process wastewater and extensively illustrates
treatment technology. Process wastewater mainly contains dissolved hydrocarbons and acidic
contaminants, such as, alcohols, acids, ketones, aldehydes, acetates and other oxygenates. The
second part discusses the management of treated water for various applications and how they
are reused or alternatively disposed off. In addition a number of recommendations, emphasizing
in particular that more efforts are needed in GTL industries for the improvement of water reuse
through an integrated, multi-disciplinary water management strategy.

Paradigm Shift to Extract Value from Mega Gas Projects
Jennifer Vines
ExxonMobil, Qatar
Over the past decade, the industry has seen a boom in Mega gas projects around the world.
Bigger has always been seen as Better. Additional facilities, remote locations and advanced
drilling technologies have led to significant investments of Capital from IOCs and NOCs. The fact
that exponential capital costs did not align with equivalent exponential financial returns has
recently caused ExxonMobil to scrutinize the underlying philosophies of investing Capital and
develop a framework for Capital Efficiency. This framework is a departure from the standard
Best Practice, Design Specification or complicated Toolkit, but rather focuses on the most
important aspect in improving profitability of capital investments Behavioral Changes. While
the stages of identifying opportunities, developing and executing major projects are globally
known, applying the three key principles in the Capital Efficiency Framework of Aligned
Objectives, Right Concept and Efficient Execution has yielded ExxonMobil significant
benefits in recent Upstream projects. Aligned Objectives focuses on simple and effective
methods of defining core needs and setting a clear strategy at the front end of projects. Right
Concept captures the most significant portion of efficiency gains by providing a novel approach
to determining Minimum Kit. Efficient Execution lays the groundwork for innovative thinking
during the FEED, detailed design, procurement, installation and start-up stages of Major
projects. This framework, while important in shoring up ExxonMobils focus on strong
foundations, has become essential for economic investments in the current price environment.

Effects of LNG storage conditions on Boil-Off in an above ground tank
Abderrahmane Benbrik and Denis Lemonnier

M'Hamed Bougara University, at Boumerdes, Algeria
ENSMA, University of Poitiers, France

In this study we focus on the phenomenon of generated vapors from liquefied natural gas (LNG)
during its storage in an above ground tank. Heat leaks from the surrounded environment, even
in well-insulated tanks, cause an evaporation of the stored LNG. Generated vapors are called
Boil-Off-Gas (BOG). It is well known that the BOG rate depend essentially on the storage
conditions (composition of the LNG, materials and dimensions of the tank, temperatures of the
stored LNG and the surrounded environment, etc). This paper presents an evaluation of the heat
leakages under real storage conditions relevant to the Skikdas liquefaction plant during an
Algerian summer day. All the three modes (conduction, convection and radiation) of heat transfer
are considered. The heat leakages are calculated from the bottom, side walls and roof of the
storage tank. Three different relative positions of the liquid surface corresponding to three LNG
filling level in the tank were considered. The effect of influencing parameters such as the LNG
level in the tank, the ambient temperature and the solar radiation on the evaporation rate has
been studied. We show that a reduced area in two-dimensional time-varying cylindrical model,
solved by the finite volume method allows obtaining results (temperature profiles) which are in
good agreement with experimental surveys. We consider that in the vapor phase above the liquid
surface the influences of boundary layers along the vertical walls have no effects and we assume
that the fluid is stationary. This assumption allowed us to adopt the same mode of heat transfer
by conduction in the volume of steam than that of the wall. This model allows reliable predictions
of global evaporation rate corresponding to the actual operating condition.

Chromium Catalyst Waste reuse
Meaad Al-Jassim
Qatar Chemical Company Ltd. (Q-Chem) is a Qatari Company producing high-density, medium-
density Polyethylene (HDPE & MDPE), 1-Hexene and other petrochemical products. In the
process of producing different grade of Polyethylene, different types of raw Catalyst are added
to the reactor to activate the reaction. Each grade of Polyethylene needs specific type of catalyst
to be activated and produced. As results of shifting from one grade to another, a significant
amount of Chromium Catalyst Waste (Cr) is generated. In the previous disposal process, this
waste was sent to local hazardous waste treatment centre for landfilling. In order to decrease
the negative impact of the waste on health and environment, Q-Chem has adopted a process of
reuse of catalyst waste at the maximum extent to minimize the waste generation. This process
helped in reducing 56 % of the total Chromium catalyst waste generated from the company.
This paper aims to explain the catalyst waste reuse process which helped to minimize this waste
stream. As well as shares the benefits and the economic value of the process applied.

Waste Water Plants - Avoiding Corrosion
Abdelkader Attou and Freddy Valera

Qatargas Maintenance Division Manager, Algeria
Operation Technical Support, Proj. Reliability Eng., Venezuela

Waste water plants using combined chemical and biological reactions are complex in term of
controlling corrosion phenomena. In April 2016 Qatargas completed the works of a Waste Water
Treatment Plant at one of its Liquefied Natural Gas plants using Membrane Bio-Reactor (MBR)
Technology. The facility has a capacity to treat nearly 1300 cubic meters of waste water per
day, is a first for the LNG industry in the region. Piping failures occurred in Qatargas WWTP
within 3 months in operation. Inspections revealed severe corrosion/perforation in piping bend
locations. Detailed inspections & failure investigation revealed, failure was due to water quality,
& poor design.This paper describes the root cause of corrosion and present solutions for long
term corrosion control.

Captured CO2 treating and transportation: Challenges and lessons learned
Abdulla Al-Attiyah, Noora Al-Derham and Enderson Garcia

RASGAS COMPANY LIMITED, Qatar
Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Capture, treatment, transportation and storage is becoming more and
more important as continuous regulations related to CO2 emissions and business opportunities
related to its further use are being targeted in the recent decades. This paper summarizes the
challenges and lessons learned during the planning phase of the CO2 export facilities project
developed by RasGas Company Limited on behalf of Qatar Petroleum.
The presented collection of challenges and lessons learned are mainly focused on technical
aspects related to CO2 such as dehydration, transportation devices selection, piping and
pipeline specifications, properties estimation of CO2 in dense phase for engineering calculations,
measurement of CO2 in dense phase, CO2 phase behavior during depressurization, etc.
This paper highlights how early consideration of the challenges and lessons learned presented
could save significant effort in future CO2 related projects.
While there are a good number of papers and other written material individually discussing in
more depth the information presented in this paper, this paper presents the key challenges in
one common place, for easy access and quick reference, the information can be further
expanded as required depending upon the each particular project need.

Proposal for CO2 capture in order to eliminate flaring at Oman LNG

Company
Ahmed Al-Quwaitai and Pradeep Kumar Krishnan

Caledonian College of Engineering, Oman
In this paper we examine the feasibility of eliminating flaring at Oman LNG Company by capturing
the CO2 present in the incoming gas during LNG ship gassing up operation. The gas contains
CO2 is flared to prevent CO2 ice up and blockage at lower temperature. The project proposes a
design of installing two exchangers to cool the CO2 present to de-sublimation temperature of -
132oC at which 99% of CO2 solidified on the heat exchanger fins and then direct the free CO2
gas to fuel gas system. A stream of cold LNG product available at -161oC on loading line was
utilized as cooling medium to achieve the target temperature. The design takes into
consideration energy optimization and efficiency of the system by which a multi-passes stream
exchanger is used to pre-cool the incoming gas before its further cooled to CO2 frosting point
in the main exchanger.

A framework for developing real-time dynamic risk assessment algorithms
Hazem Abdelmoati, Rym Kanes, Clementina Ramirez and Luc Vechot

ExxonMobil, Qatar
Texas A&M University. Qatar

Process Safety in the oil and gas industry is managed through a robust Process Safety
Management (PSM) system that involves the assessment of the risks associated with a facility
in all steps of its life cycle. Risk levels tend to fluctuate throughout the life cycle of many
processes due to several time varying risk factors (performances of the safety barriers,
equipment conditions, staff competence, incidents history, etc.). While current practices for
quantitative risk assessments (e.g. Bow-tie analysis, LOPA, etc.) have brought significant
improvements in the management of major hazards, they are static in nature and do not fully
take into account the dynamic nature of risk and how it improves risk-based decision making.
In an attempt to continually enhance the risk management in process facilities, the oil and gas
industry has put in very significant efforts over the last decade toward the development of
process safety key performance indicators (KPI or parameters to be observed) to continuously
measure or gauge the efficiency of safety management systems and reduce the risks of major
incidents. This has increased the sources of information that are used to assess risks in real-
time. The use of such KPIs has proved to be a major step forward in the improvement of process
safety in major hazards facilities. Looking toward the future, there appears to be an opportunity
to use the multiple KPIs measured at a process plant to assess the quantitative measure of risk
levels at the facility on a time-variant basis.
ExxonMobil Research Qatar (EMRQ) has partnered with the Mary Kay OConnor Process Safety
Center Qatar (MKOPSC-Q) to develop a methodology that establishes a framework for a tool
that monitors in real time the potential increases in risk levels as a result of pre-identified risk
factors that would include the use of KPIs (leading or lagging) as observations or evidence using
Bayesian Belief Networks (BBN).
In this context, the paper presents a case study of quantitative risk assessment of a process unit
using BBN. The different steps of the development of the BBN are detailed, including: translation
of a Bowtie into a skeletal BBN, modification of the skeletal BBN to incorporate KPIs (loss of
primary containment (LOPC), equipment, management and human related), and testing of the
BBN with forward and backward inferences. The outcomes of the dynamic modeling of the BBN
with real time insertion of evidence are discussed and recommendation for the framework for a
dynamic risk assessment tool are made.

Managing Produced Water Using Bioremediation in Heglig Oilfields,

Sudan
Laila Obeadalla
Ministry of Petroleum and Gas Sudan
Produced water management is performed to avoid problems with the environment and for
reuse. In Sudan approximately 50,000 bb/day of crude oil are produced in Heglig oilfields and
about 280,000 bb/day of produced water. For produced water treatment, there is one
bioremediation system at each Field Processing Facilities (FPF), but most of the produced water
goes to the Central Processing Facility (CPF) at Heglig. Bioremediation is a biodiversity-friendly
process that cleans up harmful chemical effluents through the use of natural microbes that live
in soil and groundwater. With the right man-made conditions, these microbes digest harmful
chemicals completely and convert them into water and harmless gases.. Bioremediation Project
in Sudan is currently the largest project of its kind in the world. The project covers a 625-hectare
area surrounding operations within Muglad Basin and manages successfully up to 361,000
barrels of produced water per day. The produced water treatment systems consist of
evaporation ponds for skimming and flow retention, and two bioremediation system lines with
Phragmites Australias, a plant that adds oxygen to the soil-water system. Phragmite Australia
has ability to transmit Oxygen into the soil, via the root system. When the root develops and
spread into the soil. In this system, the produced water is treated down to less than 2 ppm oil
content. This treated water used in plantation of forest trees by Forest National
Corporation(FNC). The species planted in Heglig irrigated site is as follows Acacia nilotica,
Mahogany, Eucalyptus , Damas, Dalbergia sisso, Acacia seyal, Teak and Neem + cordial +
sisso+ Nilotica (in canal site plantation).Then ( face two 900 hectare now operated . The
plantation trees are Mahogany and Teek only.

Feasibility of Gas Field Produced Water Treatment using Constructed

Weltlands
Udeogu Onwusogh, Georg Stockinger, Karan Kathiar and Chishimba Kantu

Shell, Qatar, Netherlands
Long term environmental concerns, technical challenges and high costs associated with
produced water pre-treatment and re-injection (PWRI) into aquifer wells, are some of the key
drivers for assessing the technical feasibility of alternative low cost and more environmentally
friendly treatment options for Produced Water (PW) within the oil and gas industry.
Constructed Wetlands (CW) has been identified as a low cost technology with the potential to
treat PW from oil and gas fields to produce treated effluent water with low COD, thus, presenting
an opportunity for recovery and reuse within the plant. The PW considered for treatment in the
CW was taken from a gas field and consists of two distinct streams, i.e. a winter PW stream
(Stream A) and a summer PW stream (Stream B). Corrosion Inhibitor (CI) is dosed continuously
to both Streams A and B throughout the year, while a hydrate inhibitor is dosed to Stream A only
during the winter season, lasting typically for four months in a year.
This study is focused on the treatment of PW with Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) ranging
from <500-3000 mg/L, total dissolved solids of less than 5000 mg/L, temperature between 25-
400C and pH 6-9. A set of Intermediate Bulk Containers (IBC) placed in series was used to
simulate the CW, with a total surface area of 3m2 per train, with 4 treatment lanes in total.
Dissolved oxygen (DO) is introduced via compressors to simulate a full scale CW, to achieve
minimum COD removal of 250g/m2 and produce treated effluent water with low COD (typically
<100 mg/L) and total suspended solids of less than 50mg/L.
The Pilot CW was commissioned >6 months ago and preliminary results look promising. Testing
is still ongoing to determine maximum organic loading rates per square metre of CW surface
area and fate of various PW components, including heavy metals.

TRACK
CARBON CAPTURE AND UTILIZATION

49 TRACK: CARBON CAPTURE AND UTILIZATION | SESSION: 3
Kinetics of the Reaction of Carbon Dioxide in a Promising Aqueous Cyclic

Amine Solution and Two Novel Tertiary Diamines Using the Stopped-Flow
Technique
Ali Tagiuri and Amr Henni

University of Regina, Canada
This study in the kinetics of absorption of carbon dioxide focuses on aqueous diamines using
the stopped flow technique. 1-(2-Hydroxyethyl)piperazine (HEP) , a promising cyclic promising
was studied in the concentration range of 20 to120 mol/m3. Two novel tertiary diamines [ 2-{[2-
(Dimethylamino)ethyl]methylamino}ethanol (2-DMAEMAE) and N,n,n,n-tetrakis(2-
hydroxypropyl)ethylenediamine (THPEDA)] both across the concentration range of 200 to 1100
mol/m3 , from 98.15 to 323.15 K. The pseudo first order reaction kinetics of the amines were
measured and compared to the best amines available in the literature. The zwitterion and base
catalysis mechanisms were used to correlate the experimentally obtained rate constants. The
reaction rates of CO2 in the aqueous 2-DMAEMAE and also THPEDA were higher than in
methyldiethanolamine (MDEA). On the other hand, even though HEP showed high reaction rates,
they were not higher than those obtained with piperazine (PZ).

Competitive Adsorption of Methylene Blue and Methyl orange by activated

carbon from oil fly ash
Zaheer Aslam1, Ibnelwaleed Hussein2 and Reyad Shawabkeh3

1
University of Engineering & Technology,Pakistan
2
Gas Processing Center, Qatar University
3
King FahdUniversity of Petroleum& Minerals,Saudi Arabia
Corresponding author: [email protected]
Waste oil fly ash is activated through chemical and thermal treatment methods. Different acid
mixtures including sulfuric, nitric and phosphoric acids as well as ammonium hydroxide are used.
The produced activated carbon is characterized for surface area, morphology and crystalline
structure. Results indicated that a mesoporous material with average pore diameter of 50 , pore
volume of 0.2211cm3/g and surface area of 390 m2/g. FTIR analysis showed the existence of
carboxylic and amine functional groups whereas EDX spot analysis demonstrated an increase in
carbon content from 77.4 to 95.7% upon chemical treatment. The produced activated carbon is
used for binary adsorption of methylene blue (MB) and methyl orange (MO) from water. Binary
adsorption of MB and MO from aqueous solution showed single uptake of 30 mg/g MB and 18
mg/g MO obtained at 22oC after 2h equilibration time. Competitive adsorption for both dyes
showed antagonism effect of each dye on the other with a selective adsorption for MB.
Amulticomponent isotherm model is developed and compared with several single and
multicomponent models. Five error analysis functions are employed to determine the goodness
of the fit for the binary adsorption data. The developed model illustrated the best fit to the
experimental data with regression coefficients of 0.898 and 0.947 and minimum error values of
11.6 and 19.1 for MB and MO, respectively.

Investigation of Type Y Zeolite for High Pressure CO2 Capture and

Separation
Ruh Ulah Saleh, Mert Atilhan and Mohammed Ali H Salah Saad
Among the various emission sources of CO2, power generation plants and cement industries
have been identified as the major contributors of environmental pollution, which subsequently
have threatened life on the globe owing to the various diseases associated with the excessive
emission of CO2. Flue gases capture and separation has been therefore emerged as the most
interesting field to reduce the anthropogenic effect of these environmentally toxic gases and
safeguard the global habitats [1]. Three main strategies of CO2 capture including prior to coal
combustion for H2 separation, subsequently after coal burning for energy production and
removal from atmosphere have been in practice since long to effectively mitigate the
environmental effect of excessive CO2 emission and resolve the alarming issue of global
warming [2]. Each CO2 production resource has specific dynamics which demand for special
conditions to be fulfilled to capture/separate and store the redundant CO2 and circumvent its
release to the environment. Separation of CO2 particularly from H2 in integrated gasification
combine cycle system (IGCC) after water shift and capture in pressure swing adsorption (PSA)
require solid sorbent which possess physical and thermal stability, high selectivity, repeatability
in capturing capacity and can be economically regenerated for further applications [3].
Numerous solid sorbents including metal organic frame works (MOFs) which have exceptionally
high surface area and pore volume were assumed to be extremely useful for the capture of CO2
as long as the capturing capacity of solid sorbent is concern. However, MOFs have the issue of
regeneration, oxidation and low capturing capacity particularly at high pressure [4, 5]. Various
other solid materials such as activated carbon, SBA-15, nanoclays, covalent organic frame work
and covalent organic polymers have been extensively tested for post and pre-combustion CO2
capture and separations [6-8]. Nevertheless, exploration of thermo physically stable and high
capturing capacity material is still continuing to replace the commercial mono-ethanol-amine in
the power generation plants. Here in we report investigation of commercially available zeolite Y
for the capture of CO2, N2, and CH4 at very high pressure of 200 bars and different
temperatures. CBV-300 (Zeolite-Y) was found to have very good thermal stability, enough pore
volume and surface area, suggesting better cages for the storage of pollutant gases. Results
reveal that CBV-300 uptakes around 40 mmol/g at 200 bars and 308 K, which is the largest
amount of CO2 captured by the commercial zeolite and reported so far under these conditions.
Selectivity and repeatability of the material are also comparatively better than other solid
sorbents. Based on the thermal stability and better CO2 capture and storage CBV-300 can be
further investigated for the practical purpose on large scale applications.

Post combustion CO2 capture using aqueous potassium lysinate

solutions: CO2 solubility at absorber conditions
Shufeng Shen, Yue Zhao, Yangyang Bian, Ya-Nan Yang and Ujjal Ghosh
Hebei University of Science and Technology, China

Chemical absorption by aqueous solvents is one of the main methods to reduce the carbon
dioxide emission. Compared to alkanolamine solutions, amino acid salt (AAS) solutions are
considered as potential absorbents due to their advantages such as low volatile, fast absorption
rate and high stability. Preliminary study showed that aqueous potassium lysinate has higher
kinetics with CO2 than monoethanolamine (MEA) and the reported AASs. However, vapor-liquid
equilibrium in aqueous potassium salt of lysine has not been reported yet at absorber conditions.
In this work, CO2 solubility in aqueous potassium lysinate solutions has been measured for the
concentrations of 1.0-2.5 molL-1 and temperature (313-343 K). The vapor-liquid equilibrium data
were correlated using a Soft model and a semi-empirical (SE) model. The proposed SE model
can match well with the experimental data with AAD within 20%. The heat of absorption for LysK
was estimated as about 55-65 kJ/mol CO2 absorbed from the solubility data. The lower heat of
absorption, compared with that of 5M MEA, will be beneficial for the reduction of regeneration
energy.

Estimating cost of carbon dioxide capture using different available

technologies
Ujjal Ghosh, Rahul Bhosale, Anand Kumar, Fares Almomani, Abraham

Woldeyohannes and Shufeng Shen
Qatar University
Caledonian College of Engineering, Oman
Hebei University of Science and Technology, China

The present paper discusses a procedure for the estimation of cost of carbon dioxide capture
using different capture technologies. A target cost will be used for the evaluating different
parameters. Pre-combustion, post-combustion and oxy-fuel technology is considered as the
technological option for carbon dioxide capture. The procedure will also highlight the cost
estimation in terms of its practicality. The usefulness of the process is also discussed for solvent
and membrane technologies in post combustion scenario.
Fatty acid methyl and ethyl esters are biodiesels that can provide significant improvements in
lubricity. Previous studies on the effects of these esters on diesel fuel lubricity have shown an
increase in lubricity associated with the addition of these esters. For this study, four biodiesel
ester additives were selected. 28 blends of GTL diesel and biodiesel were prepared and tested
for physical properties including vapor pressure, viscosity, flash point, pour and cloud points,
distillation performance, heat content and lubricity.
Optimization of GTL diesel lubricity and density was achieved without compromising desired
ASTM D975 and D7467 specifications. Ethyl esters showed greater enhancement in flash point,
viscosity and lubricity. However, methyl esters showed better density enhancement than ethyl
esters additives. Unsaturated esters viz. stearates showed better enhancement of density,
viscosity and flash point. Saturated and unsaturated esters had approximately similar effect on
lubricity of GTL diesel. This work is part of our efforts to identify optimum additives for GTL fuels
to boost their market value and Qatars role in production and marketing ultra-clean fuels.

CO2 Capture through Reactions with Steel-Making Dust in High Salinity

Water
Ameera Mohammad, Muftah El-Naas, Mabruk Suleiman, Mohamed Al Musharfy

and Ali Al Marzouqi
Chemical and petroleum Engineering Department, United Arab Emirates University, UAE
Takreer Research Center, UAE
Carbon capture techniques seem to draw growing interest these days, due to the impact of CO2
emissions on global climate change. Post-combustion CO2 capture using solvents is one of the
most mature carbon capture technologies. However, a significant amount of thermal energy is
needed, mainly in the solvent recovery process. Therefore, in this study, a different approach
that promises to be more energy efficient and environmentally friendly has been evaluated. High
alkalinity solid by-product of the steel industry was contacted with simulated flue gas to capture
CO2 and, at the same time, stabilize the solid waste. The simulated gas mixture was formulated
based on real flue gases from a petroleum refinery and bubbled through a mixture of high salinity
water and steel dust in a stainless steel jacketed, column reactor (SSR). The effects of operating
parameters such as temperature, gas flow rate, steel dust concentration and pH on the CO2
capture efficiency were investigated. The system was evaluated in semi-batch and continuous
mode to test the stability of the reactor system as well as validity of the process. The results
show that using steel dust concentration of 5-6 w/w% in desalination reject brine with salinity of
71,700 mg/L can sustain high alkaline pH level of about 11 and CO2 capture efficiency of more
than 97%, indicating the effectiveness of steel dust in CO2 capture. Reactor dynamics as well
as optimization of the operating parameters will be presented.

Self-regeneration of Ni-based ferrite with stable performance for

thermochemical CO2 conversion into CO
Zhang Jun, Yu Fu, Yuhan Sun and Jincheng Huang

Low-Carbon Energy Conversion Center, Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Chinese
Academy of Sciences, China
Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences

The thermochemical two-step CO2-splitting cycle is an attractive route to turn CO2 into fuels
through two distinct successive reaction steps by using metal oxides1: the endothermal step (T-
R step, MOx MOx-y + y/2 O2); the exothermal step (CD-S step, MOx-y + y CO2 MOx + y
CO). Nano-materials ferrites (MFe2O4 M=Ni, Mn, Co, Zn, Cu), or being finely dispersed on a
highly thermostable support, are widely used in CO2 splitting cycle. However, the high
temperature (1400oC) process would cause serious sintering problem with decrease of both
the specific surface area and the reactivity of the metal oxides. Here we report a new idea to
neutralize the negative effects of sintering by making ferrite incorporated with matched matrices,
where high ferrite dispersion was obtained through their phase/structural recycle and
regeneration responding to the fluctuations in gas composition and temperature from 1000oC
to 1400oC during the cycles (Figure 1). SEM and in-situ XRD showed that the ferrites NiFe2O4
components in the sample 9NF, could be dissolved into the matrices of the solid solution during
the T-R step, and then precipitated in the form of a nano-layer NiFe2O4 on the surface of the
matrices during the CD-S step. In this way, 9NF could always display stable performance during
the cycle reaction. Compared with the traditional NiFe2O4 ferrites, 9NF showed a higher CO
production with novel stabilities during dozens of reaction cycles. This new ferrite materials
based on the ideas of phase/structural recycle and regeneration open up a big window for
producing fuels from concentrated sunlight.

Capture of Carbon dioxide from natural gas through polymeric hollow fiber
membrane contactor
Nima Atbaei, Nayef Ghasem and Mohamed Al-Marzouqi

United Arab Emirates University, UAE
Carbon dioxide is the principal greenhouse gas emitted through human activities. While carbon
dioxide releases come from a diversity of natural sources, human-related emissions are
responsible for the increase that has occurred in the atmosphere since the industrial revolution.
The most effective way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions is to reduce fossil fuel consumption
and capture CO2 from natural gas and flue gas. Conventionally, packed columns are used for
the absorption of carbon dioxide from natural gas and flue gas. The gas/liquid contact is
performed within an absorption tower. The tower consists of a packed column over which the
absorption liquid and gas are flowing in counter current mode of operation. The large active area
required for CO2 mass transfer efficiency from the gas into the liquid prompts the use of huge
absorption tower, which extremely increases the cost of the process. In recent years, hollow
fiber membrane contactor technology has been considered a promising alternative to
conventional absorption technologies, since it offers higher absorption efficiency and avoids
common operating problems found in traditional packed columns. Gas-liquid hollow fibers
membrane contactors offer larger gas/liquid contact are per unit volume. The aim of this work is
to develop a transient mathematical model and simulate the behavior of CO2 removal by sodium
hydroxide aqueous solution in hollow fiber membrane contactor module. The simulation results
are compared with the experimental data and found to be in good agreement.

CO2 capture using non-aqueous organic solvent
Roghayeh Dejan and Mohammad Abu Zahra

Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, UAE
Most industrialized processes use Post-Combustion to capture CO2. There are many solvents
used in these processes that bear the property of CO2 high affinity, however most of them pose
an issue when introduced into a real life process. The extensively used solvent in current
processes for CO2 capture mechanism is an amine compound that is usually blended with some
water. Literature review revealed amine systems are effective for capturing CO2, however when
coming to the regeneration step, considerable amount of energy is directed towards the
separation of CO2 from the substance it is associated with due to the high water content
presence. This water bulk introduces the system to high temperature requirement (above 100
o
C) due to the acquainted high specific heat and heat of vaporization of water. To resolve the
complication related to the regeneration step of the CO2 rich-solvent, researchers revealed that
the usage of non-aqueous organic solvents is an effective solution. The processes are devised
to be much more energy efficient in a water free medium where the economics are improved
and less solvent is lost to heat-stable salts. Carbon dioxide Binding Organic Liquids (CO2BOL)
have specific heats that are more than 50% lower than that of aqueous alkanolamine systems
and they mostly compromise of alcohols with organic amidine or guanidine bases. These non-
aqueous liquids have high CO2 binding capacities since in both cases of dilute or concentrated
CO2 space, the selectivity towards CO2 is always higher. Further research also acknowledged
that when joining CO2BOL with promoters or polarity change, the process can be further
enhanced to capture CO2. These enhancers are suggested to be piperazine along with its
derivatives and antisolvents.
The research to be conducted holds the sole object of finding a new non-aqueous organic
solvent that can replace the current used aqueous solvents in industry for Post-combustion
capture. This solvent will be tested for its performance by measuring its CO2 capacity, lifetime
and durability. In addition to this, methods for reducing the viscosity of CO2BOL when contacted
with CO2 will be reported.

CO2 Fixation for Advanced Dry Reformer Process
Shaik Afzal, Debalina Sengupta, Mahmoud El-Halwagi and Nimir Elbashir

Taxes A&M University, USA
Taxes A&M University, Doha, Qatar

Dry Reforming of Methane (DRM) has been widely studied as it uses methane and carbon
dioxide, two greenhouse gases to produce a valuable intermediate, synthesis gas (CO + H2).
The challenges facing DRM such as very high energy requirement, low quality of syngas
produced (1:1 H2/CO molar) and rapid catalyst deactivation have hindered its commercial
application. Our study aims to evaluate the possibility of CO2 fixation through DRM process by
looking at different configurations while quantifying the benefits and limitations of each.
Previous studies reported CO2 fixation on different processes while evaluating the energy
balance for standard DRM processes. However, some of these have gross approximations and
partial comparisons, which make the analysis not so useful for a practical reformer in a typical
gas processing unit. Hence, the objective of this work is to study DRM and its different various
combined forms and to quantify CO2 fixation and GHG emissions at each step that mimic
industry set up. Building on the previous work on CO2 fixation, this study will perform Life-Cycle
Analysis (LCA) and take into account the associated GHG emissions for each reactor
configuration. The study at the macro-scale will evaluate the CO2 fixation for the whole DRM
while focusing on methanol as the main product from the syngas produced from this process.
At the micro-scale, the LCA study will evaluate the CO2 fixation on the catalytic dry reformer
reactor using either thermal activation or solar-assisted thermal activation for the reaction.

Catalytic CO2 Capture directly from Air: a Molecular Modeling Study
Wim Buijs and Stijn de Flart

Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
Combustion of fossil fuels is responsible for the rapid increase of the CO2-level in the
atmosphere. Industry and power generation account for more than 50% of the total CO2
emissions. They are called large point sources, and much attention is paid to CO2 capture from
them. Besides large point sources, there are numerous of distributed smaller sources of CO2
emissions, such as cars for transportation. They are called small point sources. As all small point
sources do account for >40% of all CO2-emissions, they cannot be ignored in developing
sustainable solutions.
Capturing CO2 directly from air is an option to address this issue. Despite the fact that it is a
novel technology, already quite some sorbent materials have been reported. For such materials
several aspects are of utmost importance. Apart from the obvious overall capacity, also the rate,
as a function of atmospheric conditions (T, humidity, presence of other components), ease of
CO2-desorption, and long term stability of the material, are of major importance. Such issues
are experimentally determined mainly by laborious and sensitive techniques as measuring
breakthrough curves as a function of process conditions.
Molecular Modeling was applied successfully to deliver basic thermodynamic data for a
mathematical model describing the sorption of CO2 by an amine containing resin. Validation of
the model was done by reproducing experimental breakthrough curves. The various steps in the
molecular modeling approach, as well its transfer into the mathematical model describing the
sorption of CO2 will be demonstrated. It turned out that the formation of both (ammonium)
bicarbonate and carbamic acid is a catalytic process with two complementary catalysts: amine
and H2O.

Towards zero energy requirement for amine-based CO2 capture processes
Ashleigh Cousins and Paul Feron

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia
The sustainable use of fossil fuels will require large scale deployment of CO2 capture and storage
(CCS) technologies. Such deployment will occur in an increasingly competitive environment
incorporating the whole range of alternatives (renewable energy and nuclear) where there will be
an ongoing need for overall performance improvement of CCS.
Current CO2-capture processes are predominantly based on chemical absorption using

aqueous amine solutions. These absorption processes are capable of selectively removing CO2
down to low levels as required by product gas specifications in LNG or as required for power
plant flue gas applications. Their applicability is well-proven for natural gas treatment and in
recent years also for removal of CO2 in coal and gas fired power plants in a greenhouse gas
mitigation context.
The energy requirement for CO2 separation and compression to the required transportation or
geological reservoir pressure is considered to be one of the major obstacles for commercial
deployment. The following approaches aimed at lowering the energy requirement for amine
based CO2 separation will be discussed including results from laboratory research and pilot
plant validation:
1. Development of new amines and amine-formulations

The overall process performance is determined by the choice and/or molecular design of
suitable amines and their formulation into an absorption liquid. Apart from a good energy
performance, the absorption liquid needs to be robust in service where both oxidative and
reductive environments and significant thermal swings are encountered.
2. Innovative process and equipment designs
Process designs have been shown to provide improved energy performances as demonstrated
by pilot plant trials with real flue gases. Innovative membrane based heat recovery techniques
can be utilised to reduce costs.
3. Use of solar energy
Solar thermal energy is able to provide a significant part of the regeneration energy
requirement of amine based processes and results from a pilot plant trial will be presented as
well as a novel concept using light-swing materials.
4. Energy harvesting from amine-based CO2-separation
A new concept based on the use of an absorption enthalpy converter will be presented
including results from preliminary laboratory. This device has the potential to reduce the energy
requirement for CO2 capture to zero.

Mixed Metal Oxide Based Solar Thermochemical H2O/CO2 Splitting Cycle
Rahul Bhosale, Parag Sutar, Gorakshnath Takalkar, Anand Kumar, Fares

Almomani, Ujjal Ghosh and Jonathan Scheffe
University of Florida, USA

Currently, fossil fuels are the major energy source utilized for the fulfillment of the energy
requirement. The continuous and excessive utilization of fossil fuels leads to increase in the
greenhouse gas emissions and oil prices. The usage of fossil fuel affects the world both
environmentally and economically. To solve this issue, production of carbon free renewable and
sustainable fuels which can replace fossil fuels is essential. Therefore, we are currently
investigating a metal oxide (MO) based two-step thermochemical H2O/CO2 splitting cycle
powered by concentrated solar energy for the production of solar H2 (which can be used directly
as a fuel) and solar syngas (which can be used to produce liquid transportation fuels via catalytic
Fischer Tropsch process). In these cycles, the first step consists of the endothermic reduction
of a metal oxide at elevated temperatures releasing O2. The second step corresponds to the
slightly exothermic re-oxidation of the reduced metal oxide at lower temperatures by H2O, CO2,
or a mixture of the two producing H2, CO or syngas. Among many metal oxides investigated for
solar fuel production, in recent years, research has been focused towards non-volatile mixed
metal oxides such as ferrites and doped ceria. In our laboratory, various doped ferrites and
doped ceria materials (which are not yet investigated for H2O or CO2 splitting cycles) were
synthesized via various synthesis approaches such as sol-gel method, combustion synthesis,
co-precipitation method, and others. These materials were characterized by powder XRD, BET
surface area analysis, SEM, TEM, XPS, ICP, EDX, and others. Furthermore, the solar fuels
production ability of these derived materials was further examined by performing multiple
thermochemical cycles using a thermogravimetric analyzer and a packed bed reactor set-up.
Obtained results indicate that the mixed metal oxides derived in our laboratory are capable of
producing constant and high amounts of solar fuel in multiple thermochemical cycles. The redox
reactivity of the derived materials was observed to be unchanged during multiple cycles. Results
associated with the synthesis, characterization, and thermochemical experiments will be
presented in detail.

TRACK
GAS PROCESSING MATERIALS

63 TRACK: GAS PROCESSING MATERIALS | SESSION: 10
Composite ionic liquid and dense polymeric membranes for CO2/N2 and
CO2/CH4 gas separation at elevated pressures
Abedalkhader Al-Khouzaam, Majeda Khraisheh, Mert Atilhan and Shaheen Al-

Muhtaseb
Qatar University, Qatar
Different types of ionic liquids (ILs) were blended with polysulfone (PSF) to produce functional
dense polymer-supported IL membranes (DPSILMs). The main aim was to investigate the
applicability of the DPSILMs in high-pressure CO2 separation from N2 and CH4 streams with
less or no IL loss. The DPSILMs showed a clear chemical and physical change in the PSF
structure and a good IL distribution in PSF. CO2/N2 and CO2/CH4 binary mixtures (5 mol%
CO2) were used.
CO2/N2 separation results obtained from both systems showed that the addition of
[C4mim][NTf2], [DIP-C4mim][NTf2], and [N4441][formate] to PSF increased the separation
efficiency of CO2. However, CO2/N2 selectivity decreased with the addition of [P4441][formate].
The optimum IL concentrations for CO2/N2 separation are 0.5 wt% [C4mim][NTf2] and [DIP-
C4mim][NTf2], 50 wt% for [P4441][formate], and 25 wt% for [N4441][formate].
On the other hand, all of the used ILs showed increased CO2/CH4 selectivity compared to that
of pure PSF. The highest CO2/CH4 selectivities were obtained with DPSILMs having low IL
concentrations hence the optimum IL concentrations are 2.5 wt% for [C4mim][NTf2] and [DIP-
C4mim][NTf2], 5 wt% for [P4441][formate], and 0.5 wt% for [N4441][formate].
Stability measurements on DPSILMs were conducted with regards to IL loss. DPSILMs

incorporated [N4441][formate] and [P4441][formate] exhibited small loss of IL compared to that
reported in literature. Conversely, no loss of [C4mim][NTf2] and [DIP- C4mim][NTf2] was
observed. Thus, the synthesized DPSILMs are stable at high pressures for long durations.

Using Activated Carbon from Date Pits for Desulfurization of LPG
Sulaiman Al-Zuhair and Abbas Khalil

UAE University, United Arab Emirates
Steam reforming of hydrocarbons, such as LPG, is the most broadly used technology to produce
bulk quantities of H2. For safety reasons, sulfur compounds are added to LPG, as odorants,
before distribution of. Therefore, LPG cannot be directly used in steam reforming, since these
sulfur compounds instantly poison the steam reforming catalysts. For efficient steam reforming
process, the concentration of the sulfur compounds in LPG needs to be reduced to 20 ppb.
Date-pits are considered the largest agricultural by-product of palm date industry. Producing
valuable products from this waste is a better alternative for its current use as heat source by
direct burning or as animal feed. In this study, date pits have been utilized to produce activated
carbon, which is used as an adsorbent for continuous sulfur removal from commercial LPG. The
surface characteristics of the adsorbent was also determined, which showed typical features of
microporous materials. In addition, the kinetics of adsorption in a bed packed with date pits
activated carbon have been studied. The effects of adsorbent weight and LPG flow rate on the
adsorbent capacity has been determined. The capacity was found to around 6 mg g-1 and did
not change with the flow or the amount of adsorbate used. Two kinetics models, namely Adam's-
Bohart and Yoon-Nelson, were used to fit the experimental data and compared to the first order
kinetics model. The first order and Adams-Bohart models did not present the experimental data
fairly well, and only the Yoon-Nelson model was able to mimic the sigmoidal trend of the
breakthrough curves.

Water-soluble Polymeric kinetic gas hydrate inhibitors
Muhammad Shahzad Kamal, Ibnelwaleed A Hussein and Abdullah S Sultan

King Fahd Univeristy of Petroleum & and Minerals
Gas hydrates are solid crystalline ice-like compounds in which gas molecules are trapped in
polyhedral water cavities at low temperatures and moderate pressures. Formation of hydrates in
gas transmission lines causes many problems such as clogging of gas pipeline, plugging
blowout preventers, and jeopardizing the foundation of deep-water plate forms. In the worst-
case scenario, pipelines can explode that causes severe economic and environmental damages
in addition to posing a threat to human safety. Oil and gas industries are using a range of method
to prevent the formation of hydrates in gas transmission lines. These methods include insulation
of pipelines, removal of water from gas streams and controlling the operational parameter away
from hydrate formation conditions. Addition of chemicals to control the formation of hydrates is
most promising and economical method that have been used in industry. Kinetic hydrate
inhibitors are class of hydrate inhibitors that do not affect the thermodynamic conditions of
hydrate formation, however, they tend to delay or prevent the nucleation and/or crystal growth.
The review will discuss various types of polymeric kinetic hydrate inhibitors that have been
deployed in the industry. These polymers are mainly vinyl lactam, amide, dendrimeric, fluorinated
and natural biodegradable polymers. Techniques used to evaluate the performance of the
inhibitors are also part of the review.

Application of MOF-5 monoliths for the removal of CO2 from biogas and
landfill gas compositions: breakthrough measurements and simulations
Renju Zacharia, Luis Fernando Gomez, Daniel Cossement, Richard Chahine and
Pierre Benard
Institut de recherche sur lhydrogne, Universit du Qubec Trois-Rivires
The adsorption breakthrough is an important characteristics required for understanding the

performance of new adsorbents for gas separation processes. In this work, we study the
breakthrough performance of MOF-5 monoliths for the removal of CO2 from landfill and biogas
compositions with the methane. A fixed bed adsorbent column filled with 65 g of MOF-5 is used
to measure the breakthrough dynamics of CO2 and the temperature evolution of the
breakthrough front. A 1-D model of column is subsequently developed in COMSOL multiphysics
and is validated by the experiments. These complementary studies helped to confirm the
coefficients of self-diffusion of binary gas mixtures in MOF-5.
The mixture self-diffusivities of CO2 and CH4 indicate that both gases experience similar
resistance to diffuse through the pores of the adsorbent, which is attributed to their almost similar
but significantly smaller kinetic diameters compared to the adsorbents pore aperture. Likewise,
the kinetic diffusivities of CO2 and CH4 are not greatly affected by each others presence.
Although at the equilibrium limits MOF-5 exhibits high thermodynamic CO2 selectivity, its low
kinetic selectivity would cause poor overall separation productivity.

TRACK
OPTIMIZATION AND SIMULATIONS

TRACK: OPTIMIZATION AND SIMULATIONS | SESSION: 13
Experimental solubility and modelling of CO2 absorption into aqueous

blends of Amine-amino acid system
Abdelbaki Benamor, Ahmed Gomaa Talkhan and Mohammed Jaber Al-Marri

Conventional amine-based solvents used for post-combustion CO2 capture suffer from a number
of drawbacks such as high-energy consumption for solvent regeneration, solvent volatility, and
thermal and oxidative degradation. Salts of amino acids have been used since the early 1930s
for acid gas removal, especially in Germany. These early solvents used the potassium salts of N,
N-dimethylaminoacetic acid and N-methylalanine, in the so-called ALKAZID solvents
developed by I. G. Farben industrie. Recently, interest has developed in using a number of
amino-acid salts systems; however, no system combining conventional amines with amino acids
have been published in the public domain. In this work, vapor-liquid equilibrium (VLE)
measurements of CO2 absorption into aqueous system of amine-amino acid system were carried
out for solutions of monoethanolamine and arginine (MEA+ARG). Vapor-liquid equilibrium for
unloaded solutions;0.5-2 M total solution with different ARG/MEA proportions was measured
using a stirred cell reactor for temperatures 20, 30, 40 and 50 C and for total pressures 4.45-
98.84 kPa. A thermodynamic model representing the amine-amino acid (AAA) solvent system
was developed using the extended UNIQUAC model. The developed model is able to predict
the equilibrium speciation in loaded solutions and gives a very good representation of the
solubility of CO2 in the amine-amino-acid solution at all measured temperatures, loadings and
pressures.

69 TRACK: OPTIMIZATION AND SIMULATIONS | SESSION: 13
Eco-efficiency assessment for greenhouse gas emissions of olefin

production processes from nature gas
Zhiyong Tang, Qianqian Chen, Min Lv and Yuhan Sun

CAS Key Laboratory of Low-carbon Conversion Science and Engineering, Shanghai
Advanced Research Institute, China

As stated in the fifth IPCC assessment report, recent anthropogenic emission of greenhouse
gases approached to the highest level in history, and the human influence is the main contributor
(95%) to the climate change. Fossil fuel, as a rich carbon containing resource, contributes
greatly to greenhouse gas emission. Oil, coal and natural gas still dominate global primary energy
consumption and contribute to 86.3% of the total in 2014. Compared with coal and oil, natural
gas has higher content of hydrogen contributing to lower CO2 emission in the conversion and
utilization processes, and is regarded as a clean and low-carbon energy. Olefin is an important
chemical raw material and its downstream products account for more than 70% of the total
petrochemical products. Currently, the production of olefin is mainly relied on petroleum
resources, the major ingredient is naphtha accounting for 55% of the global ethylene production
and emits large amount of GHG. However, the low-carbon processes of methane based olefin
production have drawn greater attentions due to the North America shale gas revolution. Our
present research analyses the eco-efficiency of various olefin production routes based on natural
gas from the perspective of sustainable development. The net value added of olefin product is
used as the economic indicator and life cycle green house gas emission is used as environmental
indicator. Three olefin production routes are set as follows: 1) NG-MTO route using natural gas
to produce methanolmethanol to olefin; 2) NG-FTO route using natural gas reforming to
produce syngassyngas to olefin. Eco-efficiency of conventional and typical olefin production
routes (oil-to-olefin and coal-to-olefin) is also analyzed for competitiveness comparison.
Scenarios analysis is conducted based on the main GHG emission countries including China,
America and Russia to find the suitable olefin production routes to their respective national
conditions.

CO2 adsorption of on CaO monolayer from the rst principles calculations
Golibjon Berdiyorov, Mehdi Neek-Amal, Ibnwaleed Ali Hussein and Francois

Peeters
Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute,Hamad bin Khalifa University
Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University, Iran

University of Antwerp, Belgium
Capturing, storing and converting greenhouse gasses, especially CO2, has become a major
problem due to recent climate changes [1]. Together with metal-organic framework based
adsorbents, low dimensional materials, such as graphene, carbon nanotubes and boron nitride
nanomaterials have attracted a lot of interest in recent years as promising materials for the
capture of greenhouse gases [2]. Surface functionalization has already been shown to be an
eective tool to enhance the carbon-uptake capacities of such low dimensional materials. For
example, decoration with Calcium (Ca) atoms can enhance the CO2 uptake capacity of graphene
by more than 3 times due to stronger interactions between the molecule and Ca dopants [3].
In this work, we use first-principles density functional theory (DFT) calculations to study CO2
adsorption on the surface of recently sensitized two-dimensional (2D) material CaO [4]. The
results show that this material possesses a great CO2 uptake capacity due to its 2D topology
and strong interaction with the CO2 molecules. In addition, the system is remarkably selective
towards CO2 as compared to the other common gas molecules, including the major greenhouse
gases (such as methane and nitrous oxide) and hazardous gas molecules of the chemical
industry (such as NH3). 10 ps long DFT molecular dynamics simulations show the stability of the
CaO+CO2 system up to 1000 K. These ndings indicate a great potential of this novel material
for CO 2 capture and storage applications.

Optimizing GTL Diesel Properties Using Biodiesel Additives
Wajdi Ahmed, Ahmad Alrchid, Hanif Choudhury, Nasr Mohammad, Mohamed Omer,
Muhammad Yoosufani and Nimir Elbashir
Texas A&M, Qatar
Gas-to-liquid (GTL) technology has had a great impact on the formation of synthetic fuels and
chemicals since its discovery. The synthetic fuels derived from the GTL technology are mainly
paraffinic in composition and they are referred to as ultra-clean fuels because they lack
aromatics and sulfur compounds. Additionally, they have lower emissions upon combustion.
Nevertheless, the lack of sulfur and aromatics negatively impacts certain critical physical
properties such as lubricity and density. The lubricity issue is significant for GTL diesel, as it does
not match the specification required for automotive and aviation engines. The goal of this
research was to design new generation of GTL derived diesel fuels with optimized physical
properties, practicability and compliance with global standards. The focus was to develop
comprehensive knowledge and data to observe the possibility of optimizing and tailoring the
GTL diesel properties to meet standards for existing engines. The enhancement of lubricity was
carried out while maintaining all other physical properties within the range needed for existing
engines according to American Society for Testing Materials (ASTM) standards, ASTM D975 and
D7467.
Fatty acid methyl and ethyl esters are biodiesels that can provide significant improvements in
lubricity. Previous studies on the effects of these esters on diesel fuel lubricity have shown an
increase in lubricity associated with the addition of these esters. For this study, four biodiesel
ester additives were selected. 28 blends of GTL diesel and biodiesel were prepared and tested
for physical properties including vapor pressure, viscosity, flash point, pour and cloud points,
distillation performance, heat content and lubricity.
Optimization of GTL diesel lubricity and density was achieved without compromising desired
ASTM D975 and D7467 specifications. Ethyl esters showed greater enhancement in flash point,
viscosity and lubricity. However, methyl esters showed better density enhancement than ethyl
esters additives. Unsaturated esters viz. stearates showed better enhancement of density,
viscosity and flash point. Saturated and unsaturated esters had approximately similar effect on
lubricity of GTL diesel. This work is part of our efforts to identify optimum additives for GTL fuels
to boost their market value and Qatars role in production and marketing ultra-clean fuels.

Solar Light Harvesting - A challenge for Computational Chemistry
Oliver Khn
University of Rostock, Germany
Learning from Nature is a common theme in the natural sciences. The ingenious machinery of
photosynthesis is particularly attractive as it has evolved to efficiently convert the sun light into
chemically usable energy. Can we mimic natural photosynthesis to open the door to an unlimited
energy source? Do we need to copy just structural elements into man made supramolecular
architectures? How important is the interplay between structure and dynamics for the realization
of function? Finally, did Nature restrict itself to the classical laws of Physics or did Quantum
Mechanics provide some advantage?
In this presentation I will give an overview on our recent work focusing on the theoretical
description of elementary charge and excitation energy transfer processes in natural and man-
made systems, which serve the purpose of transforming solar energy into usable chemical
energy. Central to our approach is the combination of first principles quantum chemical
approaches with advanced quantum dynamics simulation methods. Applications include (i)
photocatalytic water splitting employing iridium-based photosensitizers and iron catalysts [1-4],
(ii) electronic spectroscopy of supramolecular perylene-based architectures [5,6], (iii) and
excitation energy transfer in the photosynthetic Fenna-Matthews-Olsen complex [7].
References:
[1] A. Neubauer, G. Grell, A. Friedrich, S. I. Bokarev, P. Schwarzbach, F. Grtner, A.-E. Surkus,

H. Junge, M. Beller, O. Khn, S. Lochbrunner, J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 5, 1355 (2014)
[2] S. Fischer, O. S. Bokareva, E. Barsch, S. I. Bokarev, O. Khn, R. Ludwig, ChemCatChem 8,

404 (2016)
[3] O. S. Bokareva, G. Grell, S. I. Bokarev, O. Khn, J. Chem. Theory Comp. 11, 1700 (2015)
[4] S. I. Bokarev, O. S. Bokareva, O. Khn, Coord. Chem. Rev. 304-305, 133 (2015)
[5] M. Schrter, S. D. Ivanov, J. Schulze, S. P. Polyutov, Y. Yan, T. Pullerits, O. Khn, Phys. Rep.
567, 1 (2015)
[6] P.-A. Pltz, S. P. Polyutov, S. D. Ivanov, F. Fennel, S. Wolter, T. Niehaus, Z. Xie, S.

Lochbrunner, F. Wrthner, O. Khn, PhysChemChemPhys 18, 25110 (2016)
[7] J. Schulze, M. Shibl, M. Al-Marri, O. Khn, J. Chem. Phys. 144, 185101 (2016)

Hydrogen Enrichment and Carbon Suppression in Ethanol Dry Reforming:

A Thermodynamic Investigation
Sarah S. Malik, Aya E. Abusrafa, Anand Kumar and Rahul Bhosale

Corresponding author: [email protected]/[email protected]
Catalyst deactivation is one of the most important challenges in catalytic hydrogen production
from ethanol and many other hydrocarbon reforming reactions. The deactivation is normally
attributed to carbonaceous species deposition on catalyst surface leading to the blockage of
active sites. Common strategies to limit carbon formation include catalyst modification with
support and doping with rare earth metals, adding oxygen in the feed or operating at reaction
conditions (e.g. higher temperature) where carbon formation is thermodynamically restrained. All
these methods are experimentally known to help in reducing carbon formation; nonetheless
catalyst activity and product selectivity is also compromised. In this study we investigate the
effect of adding some of the commonly used reducing agents (e.g. glycine, hydrazine, urea and
ammonia) in the feed on carbon suppression during ethanol dry reforming reaction. Based on
thermodynamic equilibrium analysis, adding these reducing agents not only help in removing
carbon formation, but also enriching hydrogen production.

Multi-scale modeling of superctitical Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis Fixed-Bed

Reactor
Ifeanyi Kizito Madu, Minhaj Ghouri, Benjamin Wilhite and Nimir Elbashir
Texas A&M University at Qatar, Qatar
Texas A&M University, USA
Synthetic fuels obtained as the product of Fischer-Tropsch synthesis are becoming increasingly
attractive due to their ultra-clean nature, and the recent clamor about global warming shifting
the worlds focus from conventional to synthetic fuel. Commercial reactors available for Fischer-
Tropsch Synthesis are the fixed-bed tubular reactor (Shell-Pearl GTL) and the slurry-bubble
column reactor (Sasol-ORYX GTL). The fixed-bed reactor is the more common reactor type used
due to its high reactant diffusivity, and therefore higher rate of reaction than its counter-part, the
slurry-bubble column reactor. Supercritical solvents utilized as reaction media in a fixed-bed
Fischer-Tropsch reactor setup has a combined advantage of both the gas-phase and the liquid
phase media simultaneously overcoming their limitations. A Micro-scale model of the spherical
pellet was developed to determine the temperature and concentration profiles simultaneously
accounting for the heterogeneity of the pellet (catalyst wettability) as a result of the presence of
a liquid phase. The existing one-dimensional macro-scale model of the reactor bed was
extended to include radial as well as axial gradients in a two-dimensional model. This is key to
obtaining the key-properties profile both axially and radially so as to gain an almost complete
understanding of the in-situ process. The reaction kinetic scheme used in this study was adapted
from literature. An experimental campaign has been conducted in special high pressure bench
scale fixed bed reactor setup to confirm the model results over a wide range of operating
conditions; the kinetic model parameters were determined by fitting the experimental data on
the kinetic model. Complex differential equations in the model were solved using the finite
element software COMSOL Multiphysics. These micro- to meso-scale simulations enable
prediction of volume-averaged heat and mass transport rates which are incorporated into the
macro-scale reactor bed model. Finally, owing to the non-ideal nature of the supercritical fluid,
the models were expressed in terms of fugacity rather than the conventional partial pressures,
and the Redlich-Kwong-Soave equation of state was used to obtain the thermodynamic
properties.

TRACK
EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES

76 TRACK: EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES | SESSION: 11
Chemical characterization and source identification of beached oil from

two areas along the North-western coast of Qatar close to Al Zubahra
Nasser S. Al-Kaabi1,2, Nabil Zouari1,Mohammad AlGhouti1, Theis I. Solling,3 Steffen

S. Bach,2 Jan H. Christensen3
1 Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, Qatar
University, 2Maersk Oil Research and Technology Centre, QSTP Tech 2 rm 107, Al Gharaffa st,
Al Rayyan, Doha, Qatar, 3Analytical Chemistry group, Department of Plant and Environmental
Science, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Over the years there have been several reports of oil spills affecting particularly the northern
coast of Qatar. In most cases, the source of oil spills is not identified. The spilled oils are very
resistant to degradation and can affect the coastal ecosystem over many years. Even today,
after 24 years, some of the oil that was spilled during the 1991 Gulf War can be found in sand,
close to the Al Zubahra UNESCO site.
The Maersk Oil Research and Technology Centre in Doha (MO-RTC) has established the Oil
Fingerprint project in collaboration with the University of Qatar and the University of
Copenhagen. One of the objectives of the collaboration is to identify the potential source and
origin of oil spills based on their chemical composition.
A total of 38 samples were collected. During the sampling campaign it was discovered that the
coast was contaminated with highly weathered oil that could originate from the Gulf War era but
also with more fresh oil that most likely originates from recent oil spills in the Arabian Gulf. We
therefore collected polluted soil samples and contaminated sediments from two main areas
along the beach in North-western Qatar. The samples were analysed using gas chromatography
mass spectrometry in selected ion monitoring mode (GC-MS/SIM) and the oil composition was
characterized. The likely source of the beached oil was identified by a comparison of diagnostic
source ratios by comparing petroleum hydrocarbon fingerprints of steranes and hopanes of the
spills against an oil database. The initial chemical fingerprinting based on selected ion
chromatograms (SICs) of steranes (m/z 217) and hopanes (m/z 191), were remarkable similar as
were the C29- /C30-Hopane ratios between sampling sites. However, a more detailed pixel-
based analysis showed significant differences between samples.
The process also included an assessment of the physical and biological weathering effects on
the oil spills. Petroleum biomarker patterns (steranes and hopanes) are identical for all 14
samples included in this pilot study. The only differences observed were in the relative
concentration of LMW and HMW steranes. This could be due to real source oil differences,
however, the general weathering patterns indicate that these differences are more likely due to
extensive weathering of especially two samples (9-02, 3-02) but also 8-01 and 10-01 shows
severe weathering effects. Analysis of alkyl-PAHs provided an overall evaporative weathering
degree for the samples. Distinct differences in the isomer patterns were observed for 3- to 4-
ring alkyl-PAHs and this cannot be immediately explained as biodegradation. The largest fraction
of the samples seems to originate from the same source but other sources are clearly present.
A more detailed analysis with normalization to Euclidean norms within six selected SICs revealed

more source specific information. In conclusion, the results indicate at least 2-3 different sources
on the basis of differences in PAH isomer patterns. This was confirmed by visual inspection of
SICs of C1-C3 alkyl-substituted phenanthrene, dibenzothophene, chrysene and pyrene isomers.
Apart from the finding that the spills originate from several sources, the evaporation profiles
indicated that not all of the spills are crude oils but that some are also heavy fuels. This suggests
ongoing bunker flush off the coast of Qatar.
These findings are of importance in further bioremediation processes in which, different
approaches should be investigated to achieve high efficiency strategies if removal of oil
pollutants from AlZubaraa area.

High-flux seawater desalination using nanoporous carbon composite

membranes
Ruipeng Ge, Wei Chen, Wei Wei and Yuhan Sun

Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
With the dwindling of surface and underground freshwater resources, seawater desalination has
been thrust into an increasingly important role as a means of supplying freshwater to a thirsty
world.1,2 Traditional desalination approaches involve either the process of distillation which
needs large amount of energy, or the filtration approach using polymeric membranes which need
to achieve both high salt rejection rate and high freshwater flux. In all the filtration approaches,
membrane flux constitutes a common challenge. High flux membrane is highly desirable not only
for reducing the membrane area, but also for increasing the productivity. We report a novel
desalination process involving the use of nanoporous carbon composite membranes that exhibit
high freshwater flux. A layer of porous carbonaceous structures with an average channel width
of 40 nm was grown on a porous ceramic substrate forming a nanocarbon composite membrane
in virtue of the chemical vapor deposition. Notably, no metal or metal oxides as catalysts were
used in the membrane fabrication, indicating promising potentials to produce high-quality
freshwater by such carbon membrane. The membrane was applied for seawater desalination in
membrane processes of vacuum membrane distillation. The results showed over 99.9% salt
rejection with an order of magnitude higher freshwater flux compared to existing polymeric
membranes. Based on our previous studies, surface diffusion was proposed for the salt rejection
mechanism. That is when seawater is adsorbed on a carbon surface, the first atomic layer
contains no salt ions. Furthermore, at the vacuum-seawater interface the freshwater layer is even
thicker, with a small interfacial tension separating the seawater and the freshwater water that
can block the transport of salt but allow freshwater to fast-transport via surface diffusion.

Graphene oxide framework membranes: Control the 2D interspacing

toward water molecular sieving
Gaofeng Zeng, Benyu Qi, Xiaofan He and Yuhan Sun

Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences , China
Corresponding authoe:[email protected]
Graphene oxide (GO) has generated a significant interest for water separation due to its
hydrophilicity and regular interspacing. However, the poor mechanical strength of GO
membranes poses a critical challenge for any practical application. Graphene oxide frameworks
(GOFs), prepared by expanding the GO sheets with various linear pillaring units, are well meeting
the requirements of stocking GO in short-range order because the interlamellar spacing of GO
is well defined by the linking units. The chemical bonding between the GOF offers great
mechanical stability compared with GO.
In this work, we prepared ceramic supported 1, 4-phenyldiboronic acid (14PDBA) linked GOF/
polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) hybrid membranes by simple dip-coating method for the first time.
Excellent separation performance of selectivity and lifetime were achieved in the pervaporation
of C3-C4 alcohols dehydration.
The XRD determined interspace of GOF was 4.9 (=8.4 -3.5 ), which is well agree with the
carbon layers gap in GOF i.e ca. 5.1 measured by TEM. The surface of GOF /PVA membrane
exhibited dense coverage and no visible defects were observed. The cross-section of the GOF
membrane shows a uniform thickness i.e. 590 nm with highly ordered and well-packed 2D
lamellar structure.
The separation of the C1-C4 alcohols - 10 wt.% H2O mixtures over GOF/PVA membrane was
conducted at 70oC. The GOF/PVA membrane showed great performance for the dehydration of
organic solvents. It exhibited a sharp molecular sieving effect with the cut-off diameter ca. 0.47
nm. The molecules larger than the cut-off point were sieved out e.g. C3 and C4 alcohols in this
work, from which 11,300 - 89,000 separation factors were achieved. The separation factor of the
GOF/PVA membrane for IPA and butanol isomers were much higher than that of literature results
including polymeric membranes, inorganic membranes as well as GO based membranes. It
demonstrates that GOF/PVA membrane has extraordinary separation properties even
comparable with inorganic membranes, like zeolite membranes and silica membranes. On the
other hand, choosing polymers with high capacity of water permeability as the blend phase is
promising to improve the total flux of GOF based membranes.

A Novel Spouted Bed Bioreactor System for the degradation of BTEX
Muftah El-Naas1 and Ayat El Telib2

1
2
United Arab emirates University, UAE
1
[email protected]
2
[email protected]
Volatile organic compounds such as benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene and xylenes (BTEX) are
often emitted through various oil and gas processing activities, such as flaring, venting as well
as the dehydration and sweetening of natural gas. They are considered major contributors to
the deterioration of water and air quality and tend to pose significant threat to human health due
to their toxic and carcinogenic properties. In this study, a novel Spouted Bed Bioreactor System
has been developed and optimized for the biodegradation of BTEX utilizing a consortium of
organics-degrading bacteria, composed mainly of Pseudomonas putida. The culture was
immobilized in PVA matrices and used to degrade the BTEX compounds at different operating
conditions. The immobilization was carried by mixing bacterial cells in a homogenous solution
containing 10% PVA in distilled water, which was then cross-linked by repetitive cycles of
freezing-thawing.
A mixture of 60 mg/l of BTEX compounds in air was contacted with the immobilized bacteria in
three spouted bed bioreactors in series. The parameters investigated include the contaminated
air flow rate, operating temperature, PVA volume, and water pH. Response Surface Methodology
(RSM) was used to optimize the biodegradation of BTEX and evaluate the interactions of different
operating variables. Maximum biodegradation efficiency was obtained at gas flow rate of 500
ml/min, operating temperature of 33C, PVA volume of 30% and a pH of 8.3. The bioreactor
systems showed excellent efficiency in the biodegradation of BTEX with the maximum removal
of 95%, 97%, 97%, 96% for benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and m,p,o-Xylene, respectively.

TRACK
ENERGY EFFICIENCY

TRACK: ENERGY EFFICIENCY | SESSION: 14
Integration of Computational Modeling and Experimental Techniques to

Design a Surrogate Mixture for Gas-to-Liquid (GTL) Derived Diesel
Saad Intikhab, Sawitree Kalakul, Hanif Choudhury, Rafiqul Gani and Nimir
Elbashir
Technical University of Denmark, Denmark
A significant effort is being made by researchers to understand the combustion process of fuels
derived from the GTL technology due to their environmental benefits and large supply coming
on-stream in the near future (i.e., the Pearl GTL plant in Qatar). As is the case with other fuels, a
surrogate mixture (having fewer chemical compounds compared to actual fuel) emulating the
properties of GTL derived fuel can certainly help in simplifying the modeling and combustion
efforts that are being made. Moreover, using surrogates to understand the fundamentals of fuel
i.e. how the composition affects the different properties, will also enable advancement of GTL
fuel as an alternative to fuel sourced from crude oil. This study aims at formulating and analyzing
surrogate mixtures for GTL derived diesel.
Five diesel fuel surrogate compositions are computationally designed using Mixed Integer Non-
Linear Programming (MINLP) that leads to a property driven product. Density, kinematic
viscosity, flash point, vapor pressure and high heating value are used as target properties in the
computational model. The compositions determined by the model are prepared and
experimentally evaluated according to American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM) for not
only the targeted properties (in computer model) but also other critical properties like cloud point,
pour point, calculated cetane index and distillation profile.
The variation between experimental and model simulated results is expressed in terms of
Relative Standard Deviation (RSD) which remains less than 11.8% for all the fitted properties of
the surrogate fuels. Other important observations are also made such as how an average chain
length in range of C14-C15 of the surrogate mixture helps in better matching of distillation profile
with GTL diesel and how induction of iso and cyclo paraffinic compounds improve the cold flow
properties.
The approach used in this study can aid in designing of future generation of fuels. The integrated
approach of utilizing both computation and experiments makes it possible to quickly identify a
small set of promising alternatives reliably, and then through experiments, fine-tune and validate
the final optimal product.

83 TRACK: ENERGY EFFICIENCY | SESSION: 14
Simulation based Parametric Analyses and Optimization of Commercial

Amine Sweetening Unit
Abdallah Sofiane Berrouk

Petroleum Institute, United Arab Emirates
Corresponding authors: [email protected]
This paper discusses the prominence of optimum operating conditions in amine sweetening
units to improve the plants efficiency without additional capital expenditure. Effect of process
parameters such as amine circulation rate, amine concentration, lean amine temperature and
rich amine temperature on the plant performance in several aspects is explained through
sensitivity analysis. To this end, a kinetics based process simulation model using ProMax
process simulator is developed for a middle-east based commercial gas sweetening unit. Trends
of various process variables such as sweet gas composition, steam consumption rate, pumping
and cooling duties as function of the abovementioned parameters are explained in detail and
respective optimum conditions are proposed. Also, further comprehensive analysis is performed
to assess the overall benefit of implementing these proposed changes for the system under this
study. This investigation reveals potential annual savings of 1.8 MM USD owing to the
operational changes recommended for the commercial amine sweetening unit.

Prospectus for lower-carbon routes for conversion of natural gas to

energy
Mike Scurrell
University of South Africa, South Africa
The direct carbon fuel cell (DCFC) represents a very interesting way of combusting carbon with
high efficiency and the exit carbon dioxide lends itself to sequestration methods. Methane is a
relatively abundant and easily extracted source of both carbon and hydrogen and would be much
better converted to energy in carbon and hydrogen fuel cells than burning in conventional gas-
fired power stations. Ultimate efficiencies of over double are expected.
The conversion of methane to carbon and hydrogen thus becomes interesting for feeding such
fuel cells. Direct simple pyrolysis is one option, but requires high temperature and the reactivity
of carbon is known to be higher if lower temperatures are used. For the DCFC we need carbon,
produced at relatively low temperatures and so catalytic decomposition of methane becomes
necessary. This ostensibly simple reaction present many challenges in fact. The carbon is
deposited on the surface and so deactivation is inevitable unless some method is developed for
removing in from the surface. The use of nickel-based catalysts has been well studied. Two
aspects that have received almost no attention are (1) the nature of the carbon and ways of
affecting its reactivity and (2) ways of continuous removal of carbon. The reactivity of the carbon
is closely related to the nanostructure. At least 2 ways of influencing the nanostructure have
been examined by us: (1) the addition of copper which appears to operate by forming alloys
giving highly disordered nanotubes and (2), less obvious, the incorporation of seemingly indirect
components such as zeolites, where zeolite morphology plays a dramatic role in influencing
carbon structure in ways not yet fully understood. Strategies for carbon removal are less
obvious, apart from combustion, which in the present fuel cell approach is not a viable option.
The use of a molten medium may hold some attraction but experimental investigations have
hardly begun. Nevertheless this an area which will also be discussed.

Regeneration of Diethanolamine used in CO2 capture via gas-liquid

membrane contactor
Nima Atbaei, Nayef Ghasem and Mohamed Al-Marzouqi

United Arab Emirates, UAE University
The conventional process used to capture carbon dioxide using a chemical absorbent consists
of an absorber and a stripper. The solubility of carbon dioxide in aqueous amine solutions; and
the heat of regeneration are one of the most important parameters for the design of the CO2
removal and solvent regeneration process. CO2 capture process is based on the reversible
reaction between CO2 and amine. The equilibrium of the reaction is affected by the change in
temperature. Heat of regeneration is one of the most important parameters, affecting the
performance of regeneration process. The resulting rich amine of the absorption tower is usually
directed into the conventional regenerator consists of stripper and reboiler to yield lean amine
that is recycled for reuse in the absorber. In the present work Diethanolamine is used to absorb
CO2 from flue gas and the rich solvent is regenerated using gas-liquid hollow fiber membrane
contacting process. The performances of various sweeping means on the CO2 stripping capacity
and membrane performance were investigate. Nitrogen gas, steam, water and vacuum were
used for sweeping of stripped CO2 from rich solvents. The effect of regeneration temperature
on membrane performance was also investigated and its impact on membrane wetting were
experimental studied. Results reveal that at certain operation temperature membranes are
wetted and hence stripping efficiency declined.

RasGas Flare Minimisation Initiatives
Abdelrahman Alahmad
Ras Gas, Qatar
The major contributors of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from integrated liquefied
natural gas (LNG) operations include annual gas flaring from normal operation, unplanned
outages, and planned shutdowns. Typically, flaring of associated and non-associated gases
results in the equivalent of 5 per cent of the worlds annual natural gas production and
emits roughly 400 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, equal to the
emissions from 77 million automobiles. This problem is compounded by the fact that no single
solution exists at this time. RasGas, as one of the premier energy companies in the Gulf
Cooperation Council (GCC), has developed an initiative to reduce its GHG footprint from flaring
through the implementation of a comprehensive Flare Minimisation Plan (FMP). RasGas
approach is to continue employing industry best practices and innovative efforts which
include but are not limited to improving facility designs, enhancing operating procedures,
and using waste gas for power generation. In 2015, flaring emission intensity was 0.55% (volume
of flared gas per unit of sweet gas intake), which was 87.2 per cent lower in comparison to 2005
flare intensity. This was attributable to having fewer unplanned incidents as a result of
reliability improvements, fuel gas balancing through production trains interconnection, flare
gas controllability improvement, passing valve monitoring programme , startup flare
minimisation, Jetty boil off gas (JBOG) recovery, LNG tanks boil of gas controls
improvements and optimising LNG temperature . This paper describes RasGas initiatives in
flare minimisation from concept selection to execution stage including the challenges and
successes achieved so far. Reducing flared gas volumes continues to be a challenging
task, one that necessitates a collaborative effort by policymakers and industries to put in
place the necessary infrastructure and market designs to enable these solutions. This paper
describes details of ORYX GTL challenges faced to manage our wastes and investigation of
various technologies which could fulfill precise criteria - providing a one-stop disposal solution
for all process wastes, minimizsing landfill space required for disposal, and reducing greenhouse
gas emissions resulting in a cleaner, safer environment. In addition this paper also describe our
achievements in identifying advanced and emerging technological solutions to reuse, recycle
and recovery, for example, metal recovery from spent catalyst and hydrocarbon recovery from
oily wastes through pyrolysis technology.

Experimental and Numerical Investigation of a Novel Perforation

Technique
Jalal Ahammad, Jahrul Alam and Aziz Rahman

Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada
Formation damage in petroleum reservoirs reduces the productivity significantly. The

damage mechanisms may occur from drilling process to perforation process. This study
investigates the formation damage of petroleum wells due to shooting during well completion.
The study is conducted with numerical and experimental investigations. Single phase and two-
phase flow in porous media have been taken into consideration to explore the productivity index,
which is affected by formation damage. ANSYS CFX platform is used for the simulations of fluid
flow through perforation tunnel. Key outcomes from this study are as follows:
1. The perforation by drilling (PD) is proposed as an alternative perforation technique.
2. Formation damage reduces in the case of PD technique compared to the shooting technique.
3. Higher fluid flow rate and less pressure drop is possible in the PD technique compare to the
shooting technique. This behavior is favorable for the increased hydrocarbon production from a
reservoir well. All the numerical simulations are conducted with PD technique in this study will
be compared with the experimental results for multiphase flow in our future study. This study
will also be extended to non-Newtonian fluid flow through perforation tunnel. Better
understanding of damage mechanisms for various reservoir conditions can be optimized for the
economic benefits and managerial decision.

Cryogenic Separation Technology as Practiced in Ethylene Recovery

Plants
Mostafa Mafi1, Nazi Rahimi2 and Behnam Karamloo1

1
Imam Khoemeini International University,Iran
2
National Petrochemical Co. Research & Technology Co.,Iran
Ethylene is the largest volume industrially produced organic material and its majority is used in
the production of polymers and derivatives. Between a variety of processes, the thermal cracking
of hydrocarbons in the presence of steam (steam cracker) is mostly used. The recovery of
ethylene from crude light hydrocarbon cracked gas is an economically important but highly
energy intensive process. Cryogenic separation is the predominant method for cracked gas
separation which requires large amounts of refrigeration at low temperatures. Usually, a sub-
ambient process such as ethylene plant cold-end gas separation system comprises of three
major parts, namely: the process, the heat exchanger network and the refrigeration system and
the continuing development of the methods to reduce net power required by cold-end gas
separation system is important. There are five major licensors of ethylene plants including KBR,
Technip, Linde, Shaw, Stone & Webster and ABB Lummus. The overall process in cold-end
ethylene recovery plants differs slightly by licensor. In this paper, the major components and
their interactions in a cold-end of typical ethylene recovery plants is described first. Then, two
typical ethylene recovery plants, based on different licensors, have been selected and the
differences in the cold-end of these plants have been highlighted. This study provides an
overview and update on sub-ambient processes in ethylene plant. A conceptual thermodynamic
model is developed which makes it possible to investigate the steady state behaviour of cold-
end ethylene recovery processes. The novelty of this paper includes the suggestions for
increasing efficiencies in cold section of ethylene plants, along with discussion about the reasons
for deviation from reversible processes.

TRACK
UPSTREAM CHALLENGES

90 TRACK: UPSTREAM CHALLENGES | SESSION: 12
Phase Equilibria of Natural Gas Components in Physical Solvents from

Molecular Simulations
Mahinder Ramdin, Seyed Hossein Jamali, Tim Becker and Thijs Vlugt
Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
Natural gas typically contains a large number of impurities which should be removed to meet
pipeline and customer specifications. The removal of the acid gases is achieved in an absorber-
stripper configuration using physical, chemical, or hybrid solvents. A proper solvent is selected
based on the feed pressure, temperature, type and amount of impurity, and the product
specifications. However, the design and operation of absorption and desorption columns
requires vapor-liquid equilibrium (VLE) data of all the solutes and the solvent. Unfortunately, it is
very time consuming to experimentally obtain VLE data of a large number of natural gas
components. Here, we used Monte Carlo (MC) simulations to compute the VLE of unary, binary
and ternary gas systems, and the solubility of natural gas components in physical solvents. The
gases considered in this study are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), ethane (C2H6), carbon
monoxide (CO), hydrogen (H2), nitrogen (N2), carbonyl sulfide (COS), carbon disulfide (CS2),
sulfur dioxide (SO2), hydrogen sulfide (H2S), and methyl mercaptan (CH3SH). The solubility of
these gases has been computed in some selected commercial solvents, ionic liquids, and deep
eutectic solvents. The MC data are compared with available experiments and equation of state
modeling. The results show that molecular simulations can be used to accurately compute the
VLE of natural gas components and physical solvents, but it is crucial to apply the correct force
field specifications to obtain good agreement with experiments.

Effect of CO2 adsorption on the Enhanced Gas Recovery by CO2

Sequestration from Carbonate Reservoirs
Mohammed Eliebid, Mohamed Mahmoud, Reyad Shwabkeh, Salaheldin Elkatatny and

Ibnelwaleed Hussein
King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals
Qatar University
Implementation of carbon capture and sequestration in Enhanced Gas Recovery (EGR) has
recently gained great interest in terms of recovery cost, feasibility, and environmental
remediation. This emerging technology has dual advantages of reducing the emission of CO2
into atmosphere and recovering the residual gas that left in the reservoir after primary recovery.
The efficiency of gas recovery depends on many factors such as the type of rock formation,
competitive adsorption-desorption of CO2 with the natural gas on this formation, and the
reservoir pressure. There are many published work that focused on interaction of CO2 with
different adsorbent, however, little efforts have been made to study the adsorption-desorption
of CO2 in upstream at different loading.
In this research we will investigate the effect of CO2 concentration (0 to 20 vol%) on the natural
gas sorption from the carbonate rocks. Accurate desorption isotherm will be developed based
on the rock type and gas composition. Adsorption/desorption experiments will be carried out at
high pressure and high temperature to develop a robust model for the natural gas desorption
from the rock. Also the effect of carbonate rock mineralogy will be investigated on the
adsorption/desorption of the natural gas.
The results of the experimental studies showed that the CO2 content in the natural gas has a big
effect on the desorption of the natural gas from the carbonate rocks. The CO2 content also
affected the desorption isotherm model for the natural gas. The carbonate mineralogy also
affected the desorption behavior of the natural gas.
The output from this study is a robust model that explain the contribution of the desorption of
the natural gas to the total gas production. Also, it will enhance the simulation and flow models
that describe the flow of natural gas in porous media in carbonate reservoirs.

Novel Treatment for Produced Water Utilizing Organoclay Adsorption as

Post Treatment for Dissolved Air Flotation
Muhammad Rizwan Faisal and Amr Henni

Corresponding email:[email protected]
Oil and gas companies are pushing the limits of exploration and extraction in order to keep pace
with an ever increasing demand for energy. However, production processes generate a large
quantity of produced water (PW) which needs to be treated because of environmental hazards
and discharge regulation limits. In this research, a novel treatment train has been assessed using
organoclay (OC) adsorption as a post treatment for dissolved air Flotation (DAF) in a stirred tank.
Results were compared with pre-treatment experiments. The impact of operating parameters
such as OC dose and recycle ratio were also assessed. The oil contents were below discharge
limits in all the optimization experiments ranging from 25.3 3.2 to 1.8 0.3 mg/l with OC
adsorption as pre-treatment for DAF, and 16.2 2.0 to 0.2 0.1 mg/l with OC adsorption as
post-treatment for DAF. Therefore, results for the optimization experiments with OC adsorption
as post-treatment to DAF were better than those for the pre-treatment experiments. The new
treatment process was found to be very effective in terms of oil removal. Removal percentages
were 91.7, 96.8 and 83.6 % for oil, turbidity and COD, respectively, at an organoclay dose of
100 mg/l and a recycle ratio of 10 %.

Lithofacies and Geomechanical Stratigraphy of the Khuff Carbonates,

Outcrop Analogue Reservoir Models, Central Saudi Arabia
Osman Abdullatif, Ammar Abdlmutalib and Jarrah Ahmed

King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Saudi Arabia
The Permo-Triassic Khuff carbonate Formation (and equivalents) in the Middle East are
estimated to contain about 15-20 % of the world's gas reserves. Several carbonate rocks
heterogeneity challenges, however, pose difficulties on reservoir exploration, development and
production. Excellently exposed Permian-Triassic outcropping strata in central Saudi Arabia
provide good outcrop analogue to the subsurface Khuff reservoir. The study investigates the
relationship between lithostratigraphy, and geomechanical properties of the Khuff carbonates
using outcrop analogue in Central Saudi Arabia. The methods used in this study included field
work, lithofacies and stratigraphic analysis based on vertical profiles, Gamma-Ray survey, rock
sampling, petrographic studies, field and laboratory data integration, geological analysis and
finally the reconstruction of geomechanical outcrop analogue models. Rock samples were
collected for experimental laboratory tests which included geomechanical measurements; such
as point load index, Schmidt hammer rebound hardness, ultrasonic wave velocity, Poisson's
ratio, Young's modulus, uniaxial compressive strength, tensile strength, and dry density;
petrophysical measurements such as porosity, and permeability. The lithofacies analysis and
description of the Khuff Formation five members revealed different lithofacies and depositional
environments. The depositional environments vary from terrestrial, channel, lacustrine, shoreline
to open marine carbonate environments. The Khuff carbonates show changes in
geomechanical properties with the vertical changes in lithofacies, their staking pattern,
depositional and stratigraphic variations. The Khuff carbonates show variations in their physical
and geomechanical properties. This variability in the geomechanical properties are shown within
and between Khuff members. The geomechanical property vertical profiles show a sharp change
(increase or decrease) at member boundaries. The study revealed several geomechanical
zones or units that can be assigned to different Khuff carbonates members. These variations in
the geomechanical properties might be attributed to changes in lithofacies and their textural
and compositional and petrophysical characteristics. The results of this study might help to
understand and classify the high-resolution stratigraphic characteristics of the Khuff reservoir
that unavailable from subsurface reservoir. This eventually might help to provide guides and
leads to assess and predict the lithofacies and their geomachanical properties and reservoir
behaviour in the subsurface. Consequently, this also might be of significance and applications
that might help in exploration and development of Khuff reservoir and equivalent reservoirs in
the Gulf region.

TRACK
PRODUCED WATER

95 TRACK: PRODUCED WATER | SESSION: 15
Utilization of Engineered Wetlands to Treat Industrial Wastewater for Re-

Use
Christopher Warren and Mohamad Al-Sulaiti

ExxonMobil Research, Qatar
Management of wastewater associated with gas production and processing is a key challenge
faced by the industry that encompasses many facets such as operations, economics,
environmental and regulatory. Disposal of industrial wastewater either to the land or to the marine
environment has the potential for environmental impact and thus is governed by extensive
requirements that often require treatment. Alternatively, deep subsurface injection and disposal
can be highly energy intensive and costly, and may come into question regarding potential
subsurface effects. Moreover, in a water stressed environment such as Qatar, it is prudent to
strive toward taking full advantage of a potentially valuable resource that can be treated and
beneficially re-used.
ExxonMobil Research Qatar (EMRQ) has undertaken extensive investigation for the option of
utilizing natural biological systems such as engineered wetlands (EWL) for the treatment of
industrial wastewater. An ultimate end goal of this research is to maximize on some form of
beneficial water re-use. It is envisioned that the treatment of industrial wastewater utilizing low
energy input natural systems provides the benefit of minimizing environmental impact (and
adding environmental value), reducing costs associated with gas operations and ultimately
converting a perceived nuisance or liability to an overall benefit to the water budget of Qatar.
In this paper, EMRQs efforts to date to develop a scientific-based solution for the treatment of
industrial wastewater using natural systems will be discussed. This will include characterization
of wastewater streams to understand necessary treatment requirements, the aspects associated
with finding viable flora in Qatar to help treat these wastewaters, and the development of an
engineered system to effectively and efficiently achieve treated water that meets Qatar standards
for re-use application. Other considerations related to the operation of such natural systems
and re-use opportunities will also be discussed.

Application of Osmotic Concentration Process for Volume Reduction of

Produced and Process Water from Gas-field Operations
Altaf Hussain1, Joel Minier Matar1, Arnie Janson1, Ana Santos1, Rong Wang2, Tony
Fane1 and Samer Adham3
1
ConocoPhillips Global Water Sustainability, Qatar
2
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
3
University of New South Wales, Australia
Corresponding author:[email protected]
Produced water is generated during gas extraction from offshore reservoirs. During gas
conditioning, additional process water is generated at onshore facilities. Produced & process
waters (PPW) associated with Qatari North Field gas operations are often characterized by low
total dissolved solids (TDS) and high organic content. The O&G industry in Qatar currently
practices disposal of PPW via deep well injection. To ensure long term sustainability of the
disposal well formation, the O&G industry in Qatar aims to reduce the PPW disposal volume by
50%. Through a grant from Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF), the authors investigated and
advanced the Osmotic Concentration (OC) process to achieve the PPW volume reduction goal.
The OC process uses readily available seawater or brine from thermal desalination plants as the
draw solutions. Due to the salinity difference between the draw solution and the PPW (3.5 or
7% vs. 0.5%), natural osmosis is created across a semi-permeable membrane, by which fresh
water permeates from the PPW into the draw solution, resulting in PPW concentration and thus,
reducing its volume. The diluted draw solution can be directly discharged into the sea, bringing
an additional environmental benefit by discharging lower salinity brine. Both desalination plant
and onshore gas processing facility are co-located at close proximity at Ras Laffan industrial
city.
Commercial flat-sheet membranes and novel hollow-fiber (HF) membranes provided by

Singapore Membrane Technology Centre were tested in state-of-art bench-scale experimental
set-up. The results indicated that OC can successfully treat the PPW to achieve 50% volume
reduction. The average flux for the HF membranes with pretreated feed was 17 L/m2-h using a
draw solution of 1M NaCl; no fouling was observed during the 5-hours experiment. Organics
passage from the feed to the draw solution was below detection limit.
Appropriate pretreatment of the PPW is necessary to minimize membrane fouling. Results

showed a flux decline of approximately 10% over 5 hours when the PPW was used without
pretreatment. The fouling has been attributed to the organics present in the PPW. Different
pretreatment options were evaluated, including ultrafiltration and carbon adsorption. Long term
experiments were conducted to confirm the stability of the process. Overall, the results indicate

that FO is an efficient and potentially cost-effective technology that can be applied to reduce
PPW injection volumes in gas field operations.

High Removal of Emulsified oil from Produce Water using Carbon

Nanotubes Adsorbent
Ahmad Kayvani Fard and Muataz Hussien

Qatar environment and energy research institute (QEERI), Qatar
Coressponding author: [email protected]
The global production rate of produced water from oil and gas fields is estimated to be more
than 250 million barrels per day. As a result, 3 barrels of contaminated produced water are
produced per each barrel of oil extracted. Due to large-scale extraction of oil that generates large
amounts of produced water, oil pollution from this source has become one of the major threats
to the environment and has become a global concern due to its toxicity and economic value.
Different techniques are reported in the literature for treating oil-contaminated water but
adsorption/sorption is believed to be one of the most efficient processes for the removal of oil
from water due to its low operational cost as well as its high removal efficiency. Carbon
nanotubes (CNTs) since their discovery in 1991, have attracted a lot of interest due to their
chemical, mechanical, and thermal stability in many fields including water treatment. In this study
we reported the application of three different carbon nanotubes including commercial CNT,
produced CNT using vertical chemical vapor deposition reactor (IV-CVD), and doped CNT with
different loading of metallic iron-oxide nanoparticles. The all three CNTs were characterized
using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), high transmission electron
microscopy (HR-TEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray diffractometer (XRD), the
Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET) nitrogen adsorption technique, and Zeta potential. The effect
of different parameters such as adsorbent dosage, contact time, and oil concentration were
investigated and the optimum adsorption parameters were obtained. It has been found that; the
CNTs are a promising nanomaterial with ability to fully remove the emulsified oil from produced
water up to 8000 mg/L. The tested CNTs were capable of removing 100% of emulsified oil from
produce water with resident time of less than 20 minutes, providing one of the fastest minimum
contact times reported of all oil sorbent materials in the literature. The CNTs showed that they
can absorb oil up to 8 times of their weight and both oil and CNTs can be recovered using various
techniques.

Cleaning of ceramic membranes for produced water filtration
Tamas Zsirai, Hazim Qiblawey and Simon Judd

A pilot-scale study of PW filtration using crossflow multi-channel ceramic membrane technology

has been conducted to identify the appropriate membrane characteristics for sustaining the flux
whilst maintaining the required treated water quality. Membranes based on two materials (silicon
carbide, SiC, and titanium dioxide, TiO2) and two different pore sizes (micro filtration, MF and
ultrafiltration, UF) were challenged with real PW samples taken from oil platforms operating on
the Arabian Gulf.
Results fron initial trials suggesedt that SiC membranes outperform TiO2 ones with respect to
sustainable permeability under the same operating and maintenance conditions, with the SiC
MF membrane providing anomalously high permeabilities but also the highest fouling propensity.
Results suggest that the high net fluxes of more than 500 LMH attainable are contingent upon
the application of an effective chemical clean.
Results are presented from the study of the impact of two and three-stage cleaning on the
recovery of the membrane permeability. These measurements are supported by an examination
of the membrane surface to assess the impact of the fouling by the suspended materials, i.e.
solids and oil.

Fast capture of methyl-dyes over hierarchical nanofibrous membrane
Gaofeng Zeng, Guojuan Liu, Benyu Qi and Yuhan Sun

Corresponding authors: [email protected], [email protected]
The large amount of colored wastewater generated during industrial process caused serious
pollution/damage to the environment, which requires appropriate treatment technologies for
efficient removal of dyestuffs from water. Among the numerous techniques of dye removal,
adsorption is the procedure of choice to balance the water pollution pressure by capturing the
contaminants from wastewater because it offers advantages of high efficiency, simple
processing, and zero secondary pollution.
In this work, we designed and fabricated flexible polydopamine-Co0.3Ni0.7Fe2O4@SiO2

nanofiber membranes (NFMs) with hierarchical structure and high magnetism by decorating
magnetic NPs and ultrathin amino coating layer on electrospun SiO2 nanofiber membrane in
sequence, and successfully applied them for efficient capture of methylene blue (MB) and
methylene orange (MO). The prepared PDA-Co0.3Ni0.7Fe2O4@SiO2 NFMs have fast response
time (10 min/80%), high adsorption capacity and affinity (>97%) towards MO. The electrospun
SiO2 NFM provides mechanical strength and easy accessible surface area required for
adsorbent. The positively charged metal oxide nanoparticles (NPs) provide affinity towards
anionic dyes as well as extra surface area for high adsorption capacity. The polydopamine
coating not only protects the NPs from leaching, but also provides adsorption selectivity towards
organic dyes due to its hydrophobic nature. The magnetism from the metal oxides NPs allows
the easy recovery of the adsorbent, which prevents sorbent loss and secondary pollution. This
hybrid adsorbent has multiple advantages of high and accessible surface area, high affinity
towards anionic dyes, great stability and flexibility as well as easy recovery. Therefore, the PDA-
Co0.3Ni0.7Fe2O4@SiO2 NFMs are expected to be a promising adsorbent for dye wastewater
treatment and potential applications in catalysis, filtration, and other water remediation.

Best Practice of RasGas Water Injection System
Tachta Hidayat
RasGas, Qatar
RasGas operates two modules of the water injection system of treated sour water, i.e. RGX
system for Train 1,2,3,4,5,AKG1 and RGX2 system for Train-6,7,AKG2. Two types of sour water
having different properties are: produced water from the feed gas pipelines, and process water
from the process trains.
Historically the Company faced some operational issues in RGX system during normal operation
and RGX2 system during commissioning stage. Some improvements were carried out to solve
those.
The best practice of the water injection system was developed to mitigate the issues such as:
calcium carbonate scaling in the pipes, frequent chocking of multi-media filters (MMF) and fine
filters and instability in controlling total suspended solids. Following are improvements
implemented on the RasGas water injection system: Installing Bag Filters to reduce the load of
MMF and bag filters. Installing bucket strainers of the booster pumps. Diversion of boiler blow
down to chemical water to be treated as irrigation water to reduce the water injection volume.
Segregation of incompatibility streams, produced and process water. Change pH limit refer to
laboratory simulation result There is an ongoing project to modify existing degassers in RGX2 so
they could be operated either using steam re-boiler to treat process water or fuel gas as stripping
media to treat produced water during pigging operation. It will also improve the operational
flexibility. Off gas from these degassers will be diverted to the Sulfur Recovery Units for flare
minimization.

Removal of Hydrogen Sulfide from Sour Water using Hydrophobic

Membranes
Joel Minier-Matar, Arnold Janson, Aida Rafat and Samer Adham

ConocoPhillips Global Water Sustainability Center, Qatar
Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is a chemical contaminant frequently encountered in wastewater from oil
& gas operations. When H2S is present, the water is referred to as sour water and it must be
removed to comply with HSE regulations and to reduce corrosion downstream. This paper
describes a novel method for removing H2S from sour water and presents experimental results
on both synthetic solutions and sour water from onshore Qatari gas processing facilities.
In this method, the hydrophobic character of a PTFE membrane allows H2S, present in the sour
water, to permeate through the membrane while preventing the passage of water. On the
downstream side of the membrane, H2S dissolves into a receiving solution, which contains
chemicals (e.g. amines) that immediately remove the H2S, maximizing the H2S concentration
gradient and hence H2S flux. To evaluate the effectiveness of this method in removing H2S from
sour water, a bench scale unit was built capable of measuring the H2S removal rate as a function
of various operating parameters.
With synthetic solutions, the impact of feed H2S concentration on H2S flux was evaluated. NaOH
served as the receiving solution converting the H2S into Na2S and downstream, sodium
hypochlorite oxidized the Na2S to Na2SO4. The results, as expected, indicated that flux
increased at higher feed H2S concentrations. An H2S flux of 22.6 g/m2-h was obtained with 60
mg/L feed H2S at a pH of 4. When sour water containing 100 mg/L H2S from Qatari gas
processing facilities was used as feed, H2S fluxes of 21 and 11.3 g/m2-h were obtained at pH 4
and 7 respectively. In other tests with sour water, instead of a receiving solution, air served as a
sweep gas carrying away the H2S passing through the membrane. Experimental results showed
a flux of 19 g/m2-h at an operating pressure of 350 mbar at pH 4.
Overall, the experimental results are encouraging and the process shows excellent potential,
especially when amine serves as receiving solution because it can be regenerated in existing
equipment.

E-POSTER SESSION 1

104 E-POSTER | SESSION: 1
Oil Field Waste Water Treatment with Multi-Stage Polymeric Membrane

Filtration System
Rangarajan T. Duraisamy and Amr Henni

Oil and gas operations produce a large amount of waste water that contains organic and
inorganic contaminants. Formation water and chemicals are mixed together during production
and brought to surface along with oil and gas. The two major challenges needs to be addressed
are availability of fresh water and treatment of contaminated water. Even though there are various
treatment methods available, polymeric membrane filtration was chosen based on several
advantages the technology has over other methods. Produced water was synthesized in the
laboratory to maintain uniformity of input parameters in all experiments. A multi-stage membrane
filtration process was utilized to sequentially treat the produced water with microfiltration (MF),
ultrafiltration (UF), nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis. A total of ten membranes, distributed
in all four categories, were chosen for treating synthesized produced water. Transmembrane
pressure (TMP) and cross-flow velocity (CFV) were optimized for the best membrane in each
category. The final oil content, chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total dissolved solids
rejection percentages were 100, 99.15 and 97.44, respectively. The quality of permeate water
obtained from last stage was close to that of laboratory tap water. The fouling mechanism was
analysed with Hermia's empirical model.

Reverse Osmosis Desalination Using Solar Heat Powered Water Pump
Rahul Bhosale1, Gorakshnath Takalkar1, Parag Sutar1, Anand Kumar1, Fares

Almomani1, Maxim Glushenkov2 and Alexander Kronberg2
1Qatar university, Qatar
2Encontech B.V., Netherlands

Reverse osmosis (RO) is one of the most widely employed technologies for water desalination.
A drawback of this technology is high consumption of electricity by electric motors used for high-
pressure water pumping. Energy consumption can account for up to 70% of the desalination
costs. Due to the high energy intensity, the carbon footprint of desalination processes is
substantial. Most of pumps and compressors including those used in RO desalination plants are
driven by electric motors or internal combustion engines. Pumping systems account for nearly
20% of the worlds electrical energy demand and range from 25-50% of the energy usage in
certain industrial plant operations. To improve economics of water desalination plants we
propose innovative energy efficient, inexpensive, robust water pump powered by heat. The basic
principle of the pump is the same as that of regenerative type external combustion engines.
Regeneration of heat makes pumps of this type very energy efficient. The novelty of the pump
comprises a new working cycle in combination with the use of a dense working fluid which is
liquid in the cold space of the pump and gas or supercritical fluid in the hot space of the pump.
Carbon dioxide, water-alcohols mixtures or mixtures hydrocarbons can be used as the working
fluids. This pump does not have any high precision parts and even does not require super alloys
and any other expensive materials. The pump can generate very high pressures (hundreds bars)
and therefore can be used instead of modern plunger pumps driven by electric motors, thus
eliminating completely the consumption of electricity for pumping in RO processes. Another
important feature of the pumps is that no high temperature heat sources are needed. Heat
sources with temperature of 200 300oC could be sufficient to create pressure drops typical of
RO processes. Therefore, renewable energy sources such as solar radiation can be used to
power the pump. Replacement of fossil fuels with renewable energy sources in desalination
processes will minimize greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, a substantial improvement of
the economics of the RO processes is expected due to the use of solar power.

Hydrate Formation and dissociation in Qatar sea water in the presence

imidazolium based ionic liquids and synergents
M. Fahed Qureshi, Mert Atilhan and Tausif Altamash

Qatar University
[email protected]
Qatar has third large natural gas reservoir, transportation of gas from subsea region where the
low temperature and high pressure provide favorable conditions for gas hydrates formation. The
gas hydrates are crystalline solid compounds that are formed in high pressure and low
temperature condition. These crystals have tendency to completely block the transmission lines
of oil and gas.
A research work has been conducted to understand the hydrate formation / dissociation
condition in Qatars sea water using pure methane gas at different pressures 40-120 bars using
a PSL system tecknik Gmbh rocking cell assembly. The hydrate formation and dissociation
behavior in Qatar sea water has also been studied within the presence of ionic liquids. The ionic
liquids 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium disulphonate and 1-ethyl-3-methyl imidazolium
dicyanamide have been used to study the hydrate inhibition behavior in the Qatar sea water. The
selected ionic liquids have shown dual function behavior and have shown tendency to shift both
hydrate dissociation temperature and hydrate formation time. In addition to that, the effect of
synergents on hydrate formation and dissociation in Qatar sea water has also been tested. The
synergent PEO acts well as a kinetic inhibitor and has shown tendency to delay hydrate formation
in Qatar sea water by almost 24 hrs. This study can be useful for modeling and designing
simulation packages.
Acknowledgement:
This work was made possible by NPRP grant # 6-330-2-140 and GSRA # 2-1-0603-14012 from
the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of Qatar Foundation). The statements made herein
are solely the responsibility of the authors.

A CFD study of induced vibration in an offshore pipeline due to hydrate

flow
Aziz Rahman
Texas A&M University of Newfoundland, Canada
Gas hydrate plugging is considered a very challenging issue in Qatars offshore petroleum
production and transportation. The phenomenon of hydrate plug formation involves low
temperature and high pressure condition. Hydrates can damage equipment of petroleum
transport system. In this study a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model is proposed to
analyze the effect of hydrate flow in pipelines using ANSYS FLUENT multiphase modeling
techniques. This study has been carried out with a joint industrial collaboration with GRi
simulations, Canada. Two case studies have been investigated. The first one is with a pipeline
with a dimension specified by an existing literature (Balakin et al., 2010) for validating the
simulation results. The other one is with a more complex geometry of M-shaped jumper including
six elbows. Eulerian-Eulerian method was used to model the multiphase hydrate flow. Moreover,
the population balance method (PBM) was used to model the hydrate agglomeration and
breaking up mechanism. A parametric study of stress analysis due to the flow induced vibration
on pipelines was also investigated. This study helps to identify the regions where the maximum
stress and deformation due to various flow conditions. The overall objective is to integrate the
ANSYS FLUENT model with GRi simulations IDEA-FDK platform. Petroleum industry can
effectively use the proposed tool to prevent the risky operating conditions in offshore structures.
The results from the analysis will help to identify the cause of the pipeline failure, regions of the
maximum stress occurred in the pipeline and the plastic deformation of the pipeline due to the
hydrate formation.

Sulfide Scaling and Corrosion of Carbon Steel in Oil and Gas Pipelines
Noora Alqahtani, Jiahui Qi, Nick Laycock, Aboubakr M. Abdullah and Mary Ryan
Qatar Shell Research and Technology Centre
Qatar University
Imperial College London
The damage caused by the building up of scale inside wellbores and pipelines costs millions of
pounds each year. A better understanding of scale formation and the kinetic nature of the
process is essential, for asset management in general and the development of new protection
approaches. Surface scale formation is one of the important factors related to the corrosion
rate. The internal corrosion of carbon steel in the presence of hydrogen sulfide represents a
significant problem for both oil refineries and gas treatment facilities/pipelines. Many studies
have revealed that the system is complex since more than one iron sulfide compound may form.
However, the kinetics of scale formation, such as the nucleation and growth processes of the
scale are not at all well-understood and how corrosion inhibitors interact with scales. The kinetics
of the scale formation will be investigated by using a variety of methods, some more successful
than others. The methods employed include SEM, TEM, EDX, and Raman analysis, and this was
done with the aim of obtaining the physical structure, the chemical composition and the crystal
structure of the iron sulfide.

Amino Acids as environmentally friendly low dosage thermodynamic and

kinetic hydrate inhibitors
Tausif Altamash, Mert Atilhan and M. Fahed Qureshi

Qatar University
[email protected]
Gas hydrates are metastable crystalline compounds that are formed when small gas molecules
like ethane and methane gets trapped within the water molecules, at higher pressure and lower
temperature conditions. These gas hydrates tend to accumulate in the offshore subsea lines and
over the period tend to completely block the pipeline, halting the gas and oil supply to the
onshore stations. Therefore, annually the industry spends over 100 million dollars on hydrate
prevention procedures. These procedures include mainly the use of chemical thermodynamic
hydrate inhibitors (THI) and Kinetic hydrate inhibitors (KHI). The THI like Mono-ethylene glycol
(MEG) and Methanol are mainly used in industry. However, these THI are required in bulk
quantities, which causes a major disposal issue and also post a major safety threat to nearby
operators due to high flammability of Methanol. These commercial THI are also not suitable for
environmental, so there is a strong research interest in finding a new class of low dosage KHI
and THI inhibitors that are environmentally friendly and effective as commercial THI and KHI.
Amino acids are biological organic compounds containing amine (-NH2) and carboxylic acid
functional groups (-COOH) that have been previously reported to be an environmentally friendly
corrosion inhibitors. So the feasibility of using amino acids as a potential KHI and THI have been
tested using pure methane gas on a rocking cell assembly within the pressure range of 40-120
bars. The types of amino acids tested include: L-Alanine, L-Phenylalanine, Glycine, Histadine
and L-Asparagine.
The experimental results obtained show that the amino acids with lower solubility provided
significant KHI effect, but no THI effect. However, the amino acids with higher solubility provided
both THI and KHI effect simultaneously. The amino acids with higher solubility were able to shift
hydrate vapour liquid equilibrium curve (HLVE) by 0.7 o C at both lower (~40 bars) and higher
(~100 bars) pressures. These amino acids were also able to delay methane hydrate crystal
formation by up to 1 hour at both lower (~40 bars) and higher (~100 bars) pressures. However,
the addition of synergents with amino acids delayed the hydrate inhibition by almost 24 hrs at
lower (~40 bars) and by 6 hrs at higher (~100 bars) pressures. Thus, the selected amino acids
with higher solubility were found to have a have a potential to act as a KHI and THI both
simultaneously.
Acknowledgement

Development of green inhibitors to prevent hydrates formation, protect

environment and reduce energy cost in Oil and Gas Industry
M. Fahed Qureshi, Mert Atilhan and Tausif Altamash

Qatar University
[email protected]
Gas hydrates are identified as ice-liked solid, crystalline compounds having polyhedral water
cavities, where gas molecule trapped during operation under high pressure and low temperature
condition. These hydrates have a tendency to completely block the pipelines and can cause
major operations shutdown, leading to large economic losses and high safety risk in transmission
pipelines. In order to avoid or delay in hydrate formation, chemical inhibitors like Methanol and
Methylene ethylene glycol (MEG) using in transportation networks. However, these inhibitors are
not suitable for current environmental scenario. Therefore, there is demand of environmentally
beneficial and recycled process to decrease the overall energy cost, major safety and disposal
issue. Ionic liquids (ILs) are salt like compounds received great attention in green energy
researches due to environmentally friendly, recyclable and non-flammable in nature. These ILs
are having potential to prevent hydrate formation. Pyrrolidinium based ILs have been tested as
gas hydrate inhibitors and synergistic compounds (Syn) are added with ILs to improve the
effectiveness. For the first time kinetic and thermodynamic studied have done using a mixture of
high dosage of ILs + Syn on methane rich gas mixture to check their effectiveness in preventing
hydrates formation. All the experiments are performed using a high pressure rocking cell
assembly supplied by PSL Systemtechnikk GmBH, at different pressures ranging from (40 to
120) bars. According to the tests results, we have evaluated that the mixtures were able to
prevent hydrates formation by providing a temperature shift of up to 2.2 C at low pressures and
by delaying hydrates formation time by (6 to 14) hours. These results confirm the dual inhibition
behaviour of these mixtures, as they were able to shift hydrates formation temperature and delay
hydrates formation time simultaneously. The results were also compared with widely known
industrial inhibitor methanol and only a difference of 0.5 C was observed. Thus, this research
provides an innovative approach towards development of environmentally friendly inhibitors and
to reduce energy cost in the oil and gas industry.
Acknowledgement

Modelling Analysis of Produced Water Desalination Using Reverse

Osmosis
Nacim Zemour1, Abdelwahid Azzi1, Omar Rahli1 and Abdelbaki Benamor2

1University of Sciences and Technology Houari Boumedien, Algeria
2Qatar University, Qatar

Petroleum is a naturally occurring complex mixture made up predominantly of carbon and

hydrogen compounds, frequently containing significant amounts of water called produced water
characterized by its salinity and high levels of total dissolved solids. The oil-gas-water mixtures
are usually sent to a central processing and treatment facility where the different compounds/
phases are separated (oil, gas and water) using three phase separators. Separated water from
the oil-gas mixture has to go through a complex treatment process to remove all other unneeded
matters to meet the specified criteria for water discharge regulations or human and animal use
regulations. In the Algerian oil and gas wells, a number of operational problems are known in
salty wells that require additional cleaning operations to eliminate crystallized salt deposits on
the walls. To avoid snubbing, expensive corrective operations such as installing water injection
strings on the walls of the wells to dissolve salt and avoiding its accumulation and crystallization
are usually done. The injected water comes generally from the non-renewable albian reservoir,
which is a patrimony for future generations. In the present study, the concept of using treated
produced water is considered instead of the underground water, which can make a great saving
in the Albian water. Treatment of saline water can be achieved, among others, by reverse
osmosis (RO) process, which is the mostly used process to remove water salinity. For this
purpose, a mathematical model of reverse osmosis desalination process is developed and
simulated using Simple Algorithm of Patankar based on finite volume method. The model was
validated using available data from the literature. The model was applied to real case study with
an annual average water salinity of 41.669(g/l) and water flow of 2.99(m^3h). Simulation results
of the in-house CFD code reveal an important interaction between salt distribution and the
process hydrodynamics affected mainly by the pressure difference across the membrane.

E-POSTER SESSION 2

A Review on Conversion of carbon dioxide: Fundamental challenges and

opportunities
Sajeda Alsaydeh, Lagnamayee Mohapatra and Syed Javaid Zaidi

[email protected]
The depletion of fossil fuels and rising atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide is one of the great
challenge facing today society. There is also great potential in energy carriers and other
materials from CO2, with many challenges to overcome. The way to reduce CO2 emission should
be carbon free source without generating carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. This article reviews
the recent development, remaining challenges, and novel approaches to CO2 reduction for the
efficient and sustainable production of fuels and valuable chemicals. It has been proposed that
the CO2 may provide promising solutions including energy resource scarcity as well as reduction
of greenhouse gas emissions. In this context, we discuss the novel technologies is using to
reduce the carbon dioxide for the production of energy and chemicals through heterogeneous
catalysis, electrocatalysis, and photocatalysis. A state-of-the-art of different technologies for
CO2 reduction was made aiming to demonstrate the advances in this area and provide an
overview of the research trend for future development of new ideas for the CO2 reduction in a
large scale.

Natural Deep Eutectic Solvents (NADESs) as Gas Absorption Media
Tausif Altamash, Mert Atilhan, Ruh Ullah and M. Fahed Qureshi

[email protected]
Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) are made up by hydrogen bond between hydrogen bond acceptor
and donor compounds. In this reaction synthesis, higher melting compounds forms eutectic
solvent of lower melting point of their individuals even some of them obtained liquid at room
temperature on mixing. Such eutectic solvents are growing attention very rapidly in various
applications. The recent advancement has been made in this research direction to explore
natural deep eutectic solvents (NADES) by section of naturally occurring compounds. Surely,
such eutectic mixture would help to protect environment harm and keep ecological balance of
earth though we know number of chemicals have been used in industries in a large quantity. We
have prepared a series NADESs using Choline Chloride with Lactic acid / Malic acid / Citric
acid / Fructose, Betaine with Lactic acid / Malic acid / Citric acid, and -Alanine with Lactic
acid / Malic acid. All the prepared NADESs are categorized as liquid or solid at room
temperature. FT-IR experiment have been done for characterization purpose, took
thermogravometric analysis from temperature from 30 to 700 C of 5 C per minute heating rate
to scan the stability and decomposition temperature point. Our main intention was to prepare
this NADESs to test gas (CO2 / N2) absorption capacity of each material to replace traditional
solvents or ionic liquids possibly at different temperature and pressure.
Acknowledgement
This work was made possible by NPRP grant # 6-330-2-140 from the Qatar National Research
Fund (a member of Qatar Foundation). The statements made herein are solely the responsibility
of the authors.

Carbon Dioxide Solubility in Phosphonium-, Ammonium-, Sulfonyl- and

Pyrrolidinium- Based Ionic Liquids and Their Mixtures at Moderate
Pressures up to 10 bars
Mert Atilhan, Tamara Haimour, Moustafa Hussein, Tausif Altamash, Mahsa Tarsad,
Baraa Anaya and Santiago Aparicio
[email protected]
Carbon dioxide solubility in four ionic liquids of different families with different cationicanionic
groups (tributylmethylphosphonium formate, butyltrimethylammonium bis(trifluoromethyl
sulfonyl) imide, 1-methyl-1-propylpyrrolidinium dicyanamide and 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium
acetate) at temperature 298 K and pressure range from vacuum to 10 bar were studied in this
work using state of the art gravimetric sorption experiments. On extending our research thought
to provide better insight information regarding CO2 solubility IL-IL mixing effect have done at
pressure up to 10.0 bar, at temperature 298 K as well as densities were measured to calculated
molar volume of ionic liquids to compare the solubility. Noticeably higher CO2 solubility with IL-
IL hybridized system of different family opening a new window for research on molecular level
by simulations and intellectually designed ILs.

Synthesis of high performance SAPO-34 zeolite membrane for CO2

capture
Yanfeng Zhang, Gaofeng Zeng and Yuhan Sun

High performance SAPO-34 zeolite membranes were prepared by a novel two-step method,
hydrothermal synthesis+ dry gel conversion method. A short hydrothermal synthesis was used
to coat a thin gel layer on the porous ceramic support and the gel layer was converted into zeolite
membrane in the following dry gel conversion treatment. The final membrane thickness was
determined by the hydrothermal synthesis time (or gel layer thickness), and no further growth
occurred in the dry gel conversion treatment, since no mother liquor provided nutrients for
membrane growth. Membrane thickness was reduced from 7 m (hydrothermal synthesis) to
2m (two-step method). A 50m3/h demo membrane separation system was built and applied for
CO2 capture from tale gas in a coal-to-liquid plant. The membrane system exhibited stable
performance during a 1000h test, with CO2 permeances > 1010-7 mol/(m2sPa) and CO2-H2
selectivity >50.

Effect of cation on the solubility of carbon dioxide and ethane in three bis
(fluorosulfonyl) imide low viscosity ([FSI]) ionic liquids
Ali Tagiuri, Devjyoti Nath, Amr Henni and Kazi Sumon

University of Calgary, Canada

The solubility of carbon dioxide and ethane in three bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide based ionic liquids;
n-propyl-n-methyl-piperidinium bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide ([mp(3)pip][FSI]), n-propyl-n-methyl-
pyrrolidiniumbis (fluorosulfonyl) imide ([mp(3)pyrr][FSI]) and n-propyl-n-methyl-n,n-dimethyl-
ammoniumbis (fluorosulfonyl)imide ([N4441][FSI]) were measured at 303.15, 323.15, and 343.15
K, and pressures up to about 20 bar. The solubility data were correlated with the Peng Robinson
(PR) model with three different mixing rules: van der waals mixing rules with single (vdW1) and
two (vdW2) binary interaction parameters and Wong Sandler (WS) mixing rules with NRTL model
for estimating of excess Gibbs energy and Activation energy. The Henrys law constants for
carbon dioxide and ethane in these ILs, their enthalpy and entropy of sorption were also
estimated. Solubility of CO2 in the present ILs with [FSI] anion were comparable with those in
the ILs containing a more fluorinated common anion, [Tf2N]. The solubilities of ethane in these
three ILs were very similar which indicate a negligible effect on solubility of the three structurally
different cations.

Reactive Absorption of CO2 Using Aqueous Potassium Carbonate

Promoted by Ethylaminoethanol and N-Methyl-2-Pyrolidone
Rahul Bhosale, Parag Sutar, Gorakshnath Takalkar, Anand Kumar, Fares Almomani,
Ujjal Ghosh and Ram Gupta
Virginia Commonwealth University, USA

Reactive absorption of CO2 from the industrial off gases by using chemical solvents is
considered as one of the most common, efficient, and cost effective technologies utilized by the
industry for CO2 capture. In past, a variety of chemical solvents (mostly aqueous amines and
there derivatives) have been used for CO2 capture. Though the amines are attractive for the CO2
capture application, there are several disadvantages such as very strong corrosion to equipment
and piping, high energy requirement during the stripping of CO2 and they are prone to oxidative
and thermal degradation. Recently, use of aqueous potassium carbonate (K2CO3) as a solvent
for the absorption of CO2 has gained widespread attention. Due to its high chemical solubility of
CO2, low toxicity and solvent loss, no thermal and oxidative degradation, low heat of absorption,
and absence of formation of heat stable salts, K2CO3 seems to be more attractive compared to
the conventional amines towards CO2 capture. However, K2CO3 solvent shows slow rate of
reaction with CO2 and, consequently, low mass transfer in the liquid phase as compared to the
amine solvents. Hence, several investigators are focused towards improving the rate of reaction
of CO2 in K2CO3 solvent with the help of different types of promoters. In 1969, Shrier and
Danckwerts examined the CO2 absorption capacity of various amine-promoted K2CO3
solutions using a stirred cell reactor and reported that the ethylaminoethanol (EAE) seems to be
the most effective promoter. However, to the best of our knowledge, there is no published data
available towards a detailed investigation of kinetics of absorption of CO2 using aqueous K2CO3
promoted by EAE. Similarly, in our recent studies, we have found out that the CO2 absorption
capacity of aqueous EAE can be increased by mixing it with N-Methyl-2-Pyrolidone. In this study,
the kinetics of absorption of CO2 into an aqueous K2CO3 promoted by EAE and NMP (APCEN
solvent) was examined in a glass stirred cell reactor using a fall in pressure method. The results
associated with the physico-chemical properties of APCEN and kinetics of reactive absorption
of CO2 using APCEN will be presented in detail.

Statistical Modeling of Direct Gas-Solid Mineral Carbonation of Steel-

making Residues
Suhaib Hameedi, Muftah El-Naas, Maisa El-Gamal, Ali Al Marzouqi and Abdel-
Mohsen Mohamed
UAE University, United Arab Emirates
Qatar University
Zayed University, United Arab Emirates

Emissions of greenhouse gases, mainly CO2 gas, have been increasing into the atmosphere due
to human activities such power plants and energy generation, causing the global warming
phenomenon. Several approaches have been applied to minimize these emissions through
carbon capture and storage. Mineral carbonation provides the advantage of safe and permanent
storage where carbon is converted to its most chemically stable form, a solid carbonate. In this
study, the source of minerals was selected from solid by-products of Steel Industry.: Ladle
Furnace (LF) slag, Bag House Dust (BH) and Cyclone Silo Dust CSD). Direct gas-solid
carbonation reaction was carried out in a fluidized bed reactor, which allows effective mixing for
the gas-solid reactions. Four process parameters were studied: the bed mass, moisture content,
average particle size and the ratio of superficial gas velocity to the minimum fluidization one. A
statistical model was developed to describe the effect of different factors. The maximum capture
percentage was observed when using Bag house dust of 0.2 kg-CO2/ kg residue, based on the
Ca-content, at a gas velocity ratio to the minimum fluidization velocity (Us/Umf) of 1.5, a bed
mass of 1.5 kg, an average particle size of 150 m, and a bed moisture content of 3%.

Evaluation of Electrocoagulation for the treatment of Carbide Slurry
Shereen Hasan1 and Muftah El-Naas2

1 United Arab emirates University, UAE
2Qatar University, Qatar

Corresponding author: [email protected]/ [email protected]
This study evaluates the performance of an electrochemical reactor system in treating carbide
slurry, a wastewater generated during the production acetylene, to reduce the Total Dissolved
Solids (TDS), Electrical Conductivity (EC), pH, and Salinity using pure air mixing (EA system) or
air-CO2 mixing (CA system). The aim is to compare the performance of the electrochemical
reactor using the two mixing systems at different operating conditions such as current density,
temperature and initial pH. The performance is evaluated in terms of improving the filterability
and settleability of the slurry wastewater and reducing its TDS, EC, pH and salinity. The study
also involved conducting statistical analysis on the experimental results to determine the
significant operating parameters affecting the treatment of the carbide slurry wastewater. The
study was carried out in an electrochemical batch reactor using current densities, ranging
between 140-290 A/m2, temperatures of 20 to 35, and initial pH of 7 to 12. For the pure air
system, the overall optimum conditions were found to be 12, 27.5 and 284 A/m2 as pH,
temperature and current density, respectively. The percent reduction efficiencies were 70, 36,
71 and 53% for EC, pH, TDS and Salinity, respectively. For the air-CO2 system, the overall
optimum conditions were 12, 35 and 213.5 A/m2 for pH, temperature and current density,
respectively; the reduction efficiencies were 73%, 46, 73 and 74% for EC, pH, TDS and Salinity,
respectively. The filterability rate was better for CA system (17 ml/min) than for the EA system
(7.5 ml/min). Overall, the study results indicated that the quality of the treated wastewater could
be enhanced through controlling the operating conditions in the electrochemical reactor and that
both mixing systems worked well. However, the CA system was more effective in improving the
efficiency of the electrocoagulation process.

E-POSTER SESSION 3

Influence of Heat Treatment and Chlorination on the Corrosion behavior of

A178 Carbon Steel used by an Algerian Oil Company
Nadia Hammouda
Universit du 20 Aout 1955, Skikda, Algeria
The shortage of water seems to be a prospective that is increasingly worrying for humanity. The
number of countries in situations of hydrological stress is increasing while at the same time the
needs are also growing.
There are even today many systems, many of which have reached the industrial stage, which is
the case of the Algerian complex CP1K, because the production of steam for the smooth running
of the complex requires a very large amount of water. The treatment of sea water for steam
production in the complex is formed by a pre-treatment for eliminating the organic matter, a
reduction of the salinity of sea water by distillation, a total elimination of salinity by
demineralization and end chemical and thermal degassing of feed water to eliminate dissolved
oxygen and the free CO2
The seawater desalination plants offer a multitude of corrosion problems due to their operation
in relatively aggressive environments consisting of seawater, seawater-air and corrosive gases.
Corrosion rate data of metals in aerated seawater at different velocities and temperatures
indicate highest metal loss in carbon steel.
The aim of this work is based on the study of sea water treatment process at the CP1K complex
for boiler feed by chemical and electrochemical analysis, to see the impact of this treated water
on our boiler.

Hydrogen Induced Cracking of an API 5L X52 Sour Gas Pipeline. Causes

and lessons learned
Muhsen Elhaddad
Master of Material Science, P.O Box 2713, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar
Petroleum Pipelines traverse long distances to safely transport corrosive and hazardous fluids
for shipping or further processing. Depending on the nature of the contained fluid internal
corrosion is considered amongst the greatest threats to pipeline overall mechanical failure. The
failure of a seamless API 5L X52 sour gas line pipe of a 48 Kms in length and 12'' in size, was
investigated.
Failure analysis was conducted on several samples collected from different locations along the
pipeline. Visual, NDTs, macrofractographic, metallographic, chemical, and hardness testing
analyses were performed on the selected samples. The examinations revealed intergranular
hydrogen induced cracking centered in between segregated inclusions. On the basis of the tests
and observations, it was concluded that the failure was the result of improper material selection
(High sulfur and impurity levels). Furthermore, based on Intelligent Pig results the failure features
extend over length of the pipe, leads to the conclusion that such pipeline is no longer fit for
service.
Therefore, use of cleaner steel with a controlled chemical composition and treatment conditions
were recommended as primary measures to minimize failure recurrence. Certified test results
from the steel mill, test procedure as per NACE TM0177-2005 for the HIC/SWC resistant steels
were also recommended.

Effect of temperature on the corrosion behaviors of API X100 pipeline

steel in 3.5 % NaCl aqueous solution containing H2S
Paul Okonkwo, R.A Shakoor, A.M.A. Mohamed and Mohammed Al-Marri

Effect of temperature on the corrosion behaviors of API X100 pipeline steel in 3.5% NaCl bubbled
with hydrogen sulphide (H2S) is presented. API X100 steel was exposed to 3.5% wt. of NaCl
solution, bubbled with H2S at temperatures in the range of 20C to 60C and its corrosion
behavior was investigated using potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance
spectroscopy (EIS) techniques. The corrosion layer products formed were studied by X-ray
diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results show that the corrosion
rate of
API X 100 steel increases with increasing temperature. It is further noticed that corrosion layers
formed at low temperature are free of cracks, while cracking of the layers is dominant at higher
temperature. The cracks formation tendency with increasing temperature mainly contributes to
enhance the corrosion rate of API X100 steel.

Corrosion behavior of electrodeposited Ni-P-TiO2-CeO2 nanocomposite

coatings
Khadija Zadeh, R.A. Shakoor and Ahmad Bahgat

Electrodeposited NiP coatings are attractive for many industries due to their superior properties
such as high hardness and decent anticorrosion properties. The properties of Ni-P coatings are
significantly influenced by the amount of phosphorus, its microstructure, nature of alloying
element, type of reinforcement and post deposit treatments. Although binary Ni-P coatings have
decent mechanical and anticorrosion properties, further improvement in their properties is vital
to address the more challenging requirements and demanding applications. In order to achieve
desired properties, a careful selection of alloying additions and reinforcing agent is required.
In the present research work the effect of addition of mixed oxide ceramic particles (TiO2 /CeO2)
on structural, surface and anti-corrosion properties of Ni-P coating is presented. The Ni-P and
Ni-P-TiO2-CeO2 were deposited on mild steel substrate using conventional electrodeposition
process. The Ni-P-TiO2-CeO2 composite coatings were synthesized by adding mixed ceramic
particles (5.0 g/l ) into Ni-P coating bath solution. The compositional analysis confirms that
mixed CeO2 and TiO2 ceramic particles can be co-deposited into Ni-P matrix. The structural
analysis (XRD) of the synthesized coatings in their as deposited state confirms the amorphous
nature of the coatings.
A comparison of SEM images of Ni-P and Ni-P- TiO2-CeO2 coatings indicates that the coatings
are uniform, dense having nodular morphology. Moreover, CeO2 and TiO2 particles are
distributed into Ni-P matrix. However, AFM surface analysis indicates that addition of mixed
oxide particles enhances the roughness of the Ni-P matrix. Potentiodynamic polarization tests
carried out in aqueous 3.5% NaCl solution at room temperature confirm that incorporation of
mixed oxide ceramic particles into Ni-P matrix increases its anticorrosion properties. This
improvement in corrosion behavior of Ni-P coatings presumably regraded as the effect of
reduction in active area of Ni-P matrix by the presence of mixed oxide particles.

Corrosion Behavior of Electrodeposited Ni-B Coatings Modified with SiO2

Particles
Umesh Waware, Abdul Shakoor and Ramazan Kahraman

Center for Advanced Materials, Qatar University, P. O. Box 2713, Doha, Qatar
Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, Qatar University, P. O. Box 2713,

Doha, Qatar
Corresponding Author: [email protected] , [email protected]
The demand for coatings with improved performance is critical to ensure safety and high
production of industrial plants. Electrodeposition is a valuable surface modification technology
that can be used to develop composite coatings. This technique can facilitate co-deposition of
inorganic and organic particles into different matrices (Ni, Ni-B, Ni-P etc) to improve their surface
properties. Several studies have indicated that electrochemical incorporation of hard and
insoluble second phase particles into soft matrices impart unique properties enabling them to
meet the industrial requirements such as high wear resistance, self-lubrication, and high
corrosion resistance.
The development of Ni-B composite coatings by incorporating metal oxides such as SiO2, Al2O3,
TiO2 through electrodeposition process has generated a great interest in the research community
due to their attractive properties such as high hardness, high wear resistance and decent
anticorrosion properties. These properties make them suitable for industrial applications. The
main purpose of this research work was to incorporate SiO2 particles into the Ni-B matrix and to
study their effect on its structural, surface and electrochemical properties.
The Ni-B and Ni-B-SiO2 composite coatings were electrodeposited on mild steel substrates. The
structural analyses (XRD) indicate that Ni-B coatings are amorphous in as deposited condition.
However, the incorporation of SiO2 to Ni-B matrix results in improvement in its crystallinity. The
microstructural (SEM) analysis indicate the formation of uniform, nodular, dense and fine-
grained Ni-B and Ni-B-SiO2 coatings. The surface analysis (AFM) reveals that the addition of SiO2
increases the roughness of the Ni-B matrix. Electrochemical characterization of the synthesized
coatings indicates that Ni-B-SiO2 composites has better anticorrosion properties as compared
to Ni-B coatings. This improvement in corrosion behavior can be attributed to the reduction in
surface area of Ni-B matrix.

Gibbs ensemble Monte Carlo simulations of multicomponent natural gas

mixtures
Mahinder Ramdin, Seyed Hossein Jamali and Thijs Vlugt

Delft University of Technology
Vapor-liquid equilibrium (VLE) and volumetric (PVT) data of multicomponent mixtures are
extremely important for natural gas production and processing, but it is time consuming and
challenging to experimentally obtain these properties. An alternative tool is provided by means
of molecular simulation. Here, Monte Carlo (MC) simulations in the Gibbs ensemble are used to
compute the VLE of multicomponent natural gas mixtures. A mixture containing N2 , CH4 , CO2
, H2S, C2H6 , and C3H8 is simulated as a working example. The computed VLE from the MC
simulations is in good agreement with available experimental data. The results show that
molecular simulation can be used to predict properties of multicomponent systems relevant for
the natural gas industry. Some guidelines are provided to set-up a Gibbs ensemble simulation
for multicomponent systems, which is a challenging task due to the increased number of degrees
of freedom.

On the Evaluation of Flue Gases Capturing Capacity of Porous Organic

Materials
Ruh Ulah Saleh, Mert Atilhan and Cafer T Yavuz

Qatar University
EEWS Graduate School, Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) has been emerged as an efficient alternative to
post and oxy-combustion systems for power generation with controllable CO2 capture and
separation. However, this system operates and requires separation of gases at high pressure
prior to combustion which subsequently demands highly stable material for CO2 capture and
separation. Pre-combustion flue gas capture has been instigated as an alternative to circumvent
the costly procedures of materials regeneration utilized by the energy industry for CO2 capture
and separation [1]. Stability of the porous structure and repeated use at high pressure and high
temperature are among the essential requirements for the efficient materials to be used for
industrial level CO2 separation [2, 3]. Herein we report the CO2 adsorption-desorption
performance of nanoporous covalent organic polymers (COPs), which can operate efficiently and
repeatedly at elevated pressure of 200 bars and above. Since, pre-combustion capture also
requires removal of hydrogen along with CO2; therefore, nanoporous COP was also tested for
hydrogen removal at high pressure. COP material prepared with simple technique from building
block monomers of cyanuric chloride and linked with various linkers were found to have enough
surface area and pore volume which make these materials capable to store large quantity of
syngas at high temperature and pressure. Results indicated that the newly synthesized COPs
materials (COP-9 and COP-10) can adsorbed large quantity of CO2 and very little hydrogen at
200 bars and 308 K. Additionally, the adsorption isotherm was exactly matched with the
desorption isotherm, suggesting the materials have excellent adsorption-desorption
characteristics. Similarly, both COPs materials have shown very stable performance when used
repeatedly and alternatively for CO2 and hydrogen after regeneration at different temperatures.
COPs materials were also tested for other gases like methane and nitrogen at various pressures
and temperatures. Experimental results revealed that COPs material possess better CO2
adsorption efficiency, very good selectivity, and strong stability. Upon comparing with other
materials like hyper cross-linked polymers, amine modified SBA-15[4], poly-benzimidazole
activated carbon, and organic networks[5], it was found that covalent organic polymers
presented here have high CO2 uptake capacity, release very low heat of adsorption and possess
very good mass transfer coefficient[6]. Lastly, materials were economically viable when
compared with the commercially available materials and have better performance contrary to
monoethanole amine.

PdM Nanoparticles (M = Ni, Co, Fe, Mn) with High Activity and Stability in
Formic Acid Oxidation Synthesized by Sonochemical Reactions
Md. Abdul Matin, Anand Kumar, Anchu Ashok, Rahul Bhosale, Ujjal Ghosh and Fares
Almomani
Bimetallic alloy PdnM (n = 1 for M = Mn, Fe, and Co; n = 1, 2, and 3 for M = Ni) nanoparticles
(NPs) are synthesized on carbon supports by sonochemical reactions of Pd(acac)2 (acac =
acetylacetonate) with M(acac)2 (M = Ni, Co, Mn) or Fe(acac)3 in ethylene glycol. The NPs are
characterized by powder X-ray diffractometry, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and
inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy to determine their crystal structures,
particle sizes, morphology, and elemental compositions. Alloy formation of the NPs is proven by
energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy line profiles using scanning TEM. The electronic structures
and the surface compositions of NPs are analyzed using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and
Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, respectively. PdnM NPs are applied as electrocatalysts
for formic acid oxidation. The incorporation of M in Pd reduces the poisoning by surface hydroxyl
groups. Activities based on the current densities are in the order of PdNi > PdFe > PdCo > PdMn.
Within the PdnNi series, the activity is in the order of PdNi > Pd2Ni > Pd3Ni. The PdnM NP
electrocatalysts show higher activity by a factor of 2-3.5 and improved durability than similarly
prepared Pd NP electrocatalyst

E-POSTER SESSION 4

Solar Hydrogen Production via Manganese Oxide Manganese Sulfate

Water Splitting Cycle
Rahul Bhosale, Dareen Dardor, Parag Sutar, Gorakshnath Takalkar, Anand

Kumar, Fares Almomani, Majeda Khraisheh, Marc Rosen and Ram B Gupta
University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Canada
virginia commonwealth university, USA
H2 produced via solar water splitting reaction is considered as one of the most promising options
for the future renewable/alternative fuels. The energy density of hydrogen (143 MJ/kg) is relatively
higher than that of the fossil fuels such as oil (46.4 MJ/kg), gas (53.6 MJ/kg) and coal (32.5
MJ/kg), which makes it attractive and potential energy carrier. Among the several solar
thermochemical cycles investigated previously, the sulfur-iodine cycle (SI Cycle) and its variation
the hybrid sulfur cycle are more appealing as the required operating temperatures are lower as
compared to other thermochemical cycles. For both cycles, the most energy consuming step is
the dissociation of SO3 into SO2 and O2, which is possible only under catalytic conditions. As
sulfation poisoning is a major concern related to such reactions, simply the noble metal catalysts
were observed to be active towards the endothermic dissociation of SO3. Although, the noble
metal catalysts are attractive for such reactions, they are less preferable due to the limited
availability and high cost.
In this study, a two-step hybrid manganese oxide manganese sulphate (MnOMnS) water
splitting cycle was thermodynamically investigated towards solar H2 production. It is a two-step
process in which the first solar step belongs to the endothermic thermal reduction of MnSO4
into MnO, SO2, and O2. The exothermic step two corresponds to the non-solar oxidation of MnO
by SO2 and H2O producing MnSO4 and H2. The equilibrium thermodynamic compositions
associated with both steps were determined by using HSC Chemistry thermodynamic software
and databases. The variation of the reaction enthalpy, entropy and Gibbs free energy for the
thermal reduction and water splitting steps with respect to the operating conditions were
studied. Furthermore, solar absorption efficiency of the solar reactor, net energy required to
operate the MnOMnS cycle, solar energy input to the solar reactor, radiation heat losses from
the solar reactor, rate of heat rejected to the surrounding from the water splitting reactor, and
maximum theoretical solar energy conversion efficiency of the MnOMnS cycle was determined
by performing the exergy analysis by following the principles of second law of thermodynamic
over different solar reactor temperatures and with/without considering the heat recuperation.
Also, effect of inert carrier gas on solar to fuel conversion efficiency was examined. Findings of
this investigation will be presented in detail.

Flare Utilization and Sustainable Alternatives for Abnormal Situation

Management (ASM)
Fadwa Eljack and Monzure-Khoda Kazi

Flared gases from an existing process can be used as valuable energy source when properly
harnessed. With the growing environmental concerns and policies, industry has developed
methods to enhance process efficiency and ways to reduce continuous flare; yet the global
flaring rates have been at an average of 150 billion cubic meters per year for the past 15 years.
The challenge is reducing rates while production capacity continues to increase.
We understand that industrial flaring is common practice in process plants to reduce the risk
during abnormal situations, to maintain the product quality or to operate safely during process
start up and shut down. Nonetheless, it is a contentious economic, environmental and social
issue because it does not only waste potentially valuable source of energy, it also adds
significant carbon emissions and other toxic materials to the atmosphere. Emissions from
industrial flaring additionally contribute to the heating of the earth and enhance the natural
greenhouse effect of the atmosphere which is one of the reasons for global warming. Therefore,
numerous protocol, international agreement and steps i.e., Kyoto protocol, the United Nations
Environment Program (UNEP), World bank global gas flaring reduction (GGFR) program have
been initiated to mitigate the impact of industrial flaring. This is essential to avoid dangerous
anthropogenic interference with the climate system. Moreover, the growing global population
and expansion of economies continue to have direct effect on the demand for energy and water
resources. Therefore, it is necessary to explore different sustainable approaches to cope with
the existing process during abnormal situation.
The objective of the proposed framework is to reduce the environmental footprint of abnormal
flares by enumerating and assessing possible process configurations in order to manage flares
from uncertain sources and to utilize unused energy resources for waste water treatment.
Integration of cogeneration (COGEN) systems and thermal membrane distillation (TMD) unit with
industrial processes can offer potential savings in energy and water usage. It can offer the
enhanced energy utilization of flared gas streams and can minimize the amount of fresh water
need for the process. COGEN is an improve process integration where dual industrial process
requirement of power and heating can be satisfied using same fuel (Kamravah et al., 2015).
Furthermore, TMD is an emerging technology in the area of high-purity separation especially in
water treatment (Elsayed et al., 2013). It can use the low-level heat produced in the process or
COGEN to yield water, which can be recycled in the process or exported to neighboring facilities.
Our work explores these two approaches as means of managing abnormal situation

Hence, it is essential to develop a robust methodology to integrate flare and water management
tools with process industries considering the risk factor form uncertain flaring incidents.
Following the concept of multi- period optimization approach, an optimization framework is
developed using genetic algorithm and Monte Carlo simulation results. Its objective function is
aimed at minimizing the total annualized cost which accounts the fixed and operating costs of
the system, the value of produced by co- products (i.e., power, waste water treatment savings,
income from permeate), and taxes/credits associated with GHGs. An ethylene process plant is
used to demonstrate the applicability of the developed framework. The results of different
alternative configurations demonstrate the economic, energetic and/or environmental trade-offs
of integrating thermal membrane distillation (TMD) and cogeneration (COGEN) unit with the
process plant both for flare mitigation and during normal operation (Kazi et al., 2016).

Coreshell Fe@(PtRu) nanoparticle synthesis for the methanol oxidation

reaction with suppression of CO-poisoning
Md. Abdul Matin, Anchu Ashok, Anand Kumar, Rahul Bhosale, Ujjal Ghosh and Fares
Almomani
Ternary nanoparticles (NPs) of Fex@(PtRu)(1-x)/2 (x = 0.0, 0.30, 0.34, 0.38, and 0.44) with Fe
cores and PtRu alloy shells were synthesized for the methanol oxidation reaction (MOR). The
NPs are characterized by X-ray diffractometry, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and
inductively coupled plasma-adsorption emission spectroscopy for the particle size, morphology,
and composition, respectively. The formation of coreshell NPs has been proven by scanning
TEM-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and the electronic structures of the elements have
been investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and X-ray adsorption near edge
spectroscopy. The ternary NPs show enhanced MOR electrocatalytic activity compared to a
commercial PtRu-alloy (PtRu) by a factor of up to 2.5 based on the forward current density data.
More importantly, the ternary NPs show complete suppression of CO-poisoning.
Chronoamperometry data for MOR on the ternary NPs show improved stability over Pt/C and
PtRu references.

Plant Deliverability & Reliability: RasGas Company Limiteds process to

identify and anticipate areas of potential failures
Abdulla Al-Attiyah, Barney Ong, Tachta Hidayat, Jamal Al-Anbari, Ali Al-Khalidi,
Hakim Nasreddine and Iwabuchi Kinya
RASGAS COMPANY LIMITED, Qatar
RasGas Company Limited, Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Algeria
Chiyoda Corporation, Japan

RasGas Company Limited, located in the State of Qatar, understands that deliverability and
reliability of its facilities are directly linked to its reputation as a premier world class supplier of
energy. Understanding the challenges of managing a large integrated portfolio requires intimate
understanding of the state of the facilities including the plants constraints and tolerances, what
they have been subjected to, and being able to anticipate where the next failure areas would be,
as a result. One example of this effort is the Onshore Facilities assessment for future conditions
which has two objectives. The first is associated with ensuring continued deliverability of the
Manufacturing plants, given anticipated changes in dynamic reservoir conditions. The second is
to ensure reliability given that some areas of the plant may have been subjected to operating
conditions that may affect their original design life span.
Deliverability: Key processing units are identified and current tolerance limits are established by
accounting for all changes since startup. Coupling the re-established tolerance limits with the
dynamic nature of affected gas components produces a tool for decision makers for the near
and long term.
Reliability: In addition to traditional reliability programs, RasGas Company Limited subject matter
experts and plant designers leverage lessons learned, industry wide trends, and present a
methodology to take a step back to evaluate the whole effect that a change or modification may
have in other areas of the facility.
This study has been successful in highlighting potential areas of vulnerability in the facilities,
where appropriate mitigating measures, such as changes to operating procedures, maintenance
methodology or even physical modifications, can be applied. It has allowed the stakeholders to
prepare for mitigation as opposed to waiting for a failure which would result in financial loss. The
results of this study has identified areas for potential concern in deliverability/reliability by
providing current sets of data that can be analyzed.
This study has established a screening methodology which limits potential study redundancy
and serves as a go-by that can be used in other studies. In addition, the study outlines a
methodology for efficiently organizing thousands of changes that have occurred since startup
allowing for limited scope.

Integrating behavioural Safety at ORYX GTL
Martin Murray and Katia Abboud

ORYX GTL, Qatar
ORYX GTL, a joint venture between shareholders Qatar Petroleum and Sasol Synfuels
International, is a pioneering gas-to-liquids (GTL) facility that produces premium diesel fuel,
naphtha and LPG.
Located in Ras Laffan Industrial City, the ORYX GTL plant is Qatars first commercial producer
to process natural gas into low sulphur and environmentally friendly diesel, naphtha, and LPG.
32,000 barrels of diesel and 8,000 barrels of naphtha are produced every day at the site. The
site has a population of xxx employees.
Oryx GTL has number of key safety management systems in place geared to protect our
employees, contractors and visitors from harm whilst at work the successful implementation for
these systems has ensured zero TRIR for 5 years. One particular element focusses on
behavioural safety, we call this program OASIS (Observations At Site Improves Safety)
A simple way to view OASIS is to think about three aspects: the job, the individual and the
organisation and how they impact on peoples health and safety-related behaviour.

Waste Reduction, Reuse, Recycle and Recovery opportunities in GTL

industries
Pon Saravanan Neerkathalingam

ORYX GTL, Qatar
In recent years there is a continuous increase in energy demand and the need for eco-friendly
fuels in the global markets. Gas to Liquids, or GTL, is a technology breakthrough for converting
natural gas into high-performing, ultra-clean liquid fuels by means of Fischer-Tropsch (FT)
process. The case study described in this paper is based on the ORYX GTL plant which produces
nominally 34,000 barrels of liquid fuels per day. The objective of this paper is a) To identify
various sources of wastes from the GTL industries and briefly describes its characteristics b) To
describe the challenges in management options to deal with various wastes c) To implement the
4Rs (Reduce, Recover, Reuse, Recycle) approach to waste management d) To recommend to
improve the waste management through integrated waste management strategy.
The approach to solid waste management in GTL industries includes waste source reduction,
optimal waste minimization in general, by recycling, reusing, composting, incineration with or
without energy recovery, fuel production via pyrolysis and finally land filling disposal. GTL
facilities generate significant amounts of non-hazardous and hazardous wastes. Non-hazardous
industrial wastes consist mainly of exhausted molecular sieves from air separation unit, catalyst
support materials, as well as packaging materials, construction rubble, and scrap metal.
Hazardous waste can be determined according to the characteristics and source of the waste
and applicable regulatory classification. Hazardous wastes consist mainly of waste oils, oily rags
and sludge, hydraulic fluids, waste chemicals, contaminated wax wastes, spent catalysts and
used filters.
This paper describes details of ORYX GTL challenges faced to manage our wastes and
investigation of various technologies which could fulfill precise criteria - providing a one-stop
disposal solution for all process wastes, minimizsing landfill space required for disposal, and
reducing greenhouse gas emissions resulting in a cleaner, safer environment. In addition this
paper also describe our achievements in identifying advanced and emerging technological
solutions to reuse, recycle and recovery, for example, metal recovery from spent catalyst and
hydrocarbon recovery from oily wastes through pyrolysis technology.

Constrained Optimization of a Multi-Stage Refrigeration Cycle in A

Propane Liquefaction Plant
Hossein Kalantar-Neyestanaki, Ali Ashrafizadeh and Mostafa Mafi

K. N. Toosi University of Technology
Imam Khomeini International University
The lack of enough fossil fuel resources and the increasingly alarming negative impacts of
environmental pollution, have led engineers to the development of energy saving methods,
particularly in the oil and gas industries and refrigeration processes. Low temperature processes,
needed in gas liquefaction, require cooling at a wide range of temperatures below the ambient
and this is usually achieved through multi-stage refrigeration with several evaporators and
compressors in the cycle. A lot of research has been carried out in order to reduce the energy
consumption of the refrigeration cycles. Commonly, combined pinch and exergy analysis and
exergy grand composite curve (EGCC) are used to carry out the optimization. Considering the
fact that the enclosed area in the EGCC is proportional to the energy consumption, the
evaporation temperatures at various stages are changed iteratively to find a set of temperature
levels that minimizes the enclosed area in the EGCC. Unfortunately, operational constraints of
the system components, most notably compressors and heat exchangers, have not been
considered in the reported optimization attempts. Therefore, the solutions to such refrigeration
cycle optimization problems might not be actually achievable.
In this paper, a novel method for the operational optimization of a multi-stage refrigeration cycle
is proposed, which not only considers compressor constraints such as surge and choke limits
and equal rotational speeds of the stages, but also considers heat exchanger constraints such
as temperature crossovers in the evaporators and condensers. The computed optimum
operating points are located along the compressor performance curves and no temperature
crossover is allowed in the heat exchangers. Up to 5% reduction in the energy consumption is
achieved when the aforementioned constraints are imposed in the optimization loop of a typical
three-stage refrigeration cycle, used in a propane liquefaction process.

E-POSTER SESSION 5

Syngas to fuel and chemicals via Fischer-Tropsch synthesis
Liangshu Zhong, Fei Yu, Yanzhang Yang, Hui Wang and Yuhan Sun
Shanghai Advanced Reasearch Institute, Chinese Academy of Science, China
Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS) is a heterogeneous catalytic process for sustainable production

of fuel and value-added chemicals via syngas. It is a very complicated catalytic reaction process
with co-production of paraffin, olefin, alcohol and other products. The product selectivity is
controlled by many factors, such as catalyst systems, reactors and operation conditions. For the
purpose of high selectivity to the objective product, it is very desirable to regulate the reaction
network for certain reactions to take place preferentially. Obviously, one of the great challenges
in FTS research is to control CO activation and then both carbon chain growth and termination
for high selectivity to target product with high activity and high stability.
In the past decades, syngas to fuel and chemicals via FTS are investigated at our group from
fundamental research to industrial deployment. The research directions include typical FT
synthesis using Co or Fe-based catalysts, higher alcohol synthesis via bifunctional catalysis,
olefins production with novel active sites. Herein, some progress about the reaction network,
structure evolution of active site and the design concept of new catalysts are discussed to shed
a light for development of next generation catalyst. A CuFe-based HAS model catalyst was firstly
investigated to illustrate the complicated reaction network. Various kinds of reactions occurred
in parallel and there existed various second reactions in the reaction network. In order to further
reveal the reaction network, probe molecules techniques were carried out by in-situ introduction
several types of probe molecules (including alcohol, aldehyde, olefin) into the reaction system.
The existence of surface acyl species indicated that the insertion of CO rather than hydroxyl was
the underlying mechanism for higher alcohols synthesis over modified FT catalysts along with
the support from surface simulation.The evolution of Cu/FexC as dual active sites for higher
alcohol synthesis was investigated by study the structural evolution of CuFe bimetallic
nanoparticles. It was found that phase separation between Cu and Fe components took place
and then alcohol selectivity decreased with time on stream. In addition, the evolution of Cu/Co
as dual active sites was investigated by study the deactivation process of CuCo model catalyst.
Ethane hydrogenolysis test as probe reaction and in-situ EXAFT were also adopted to reveal the
detail surface structure evolution. Based on the fundamental research concerning the nature of
active site, reaction network and structure-performance relationship, new generation catalysts
with mesostructure are developed for typical FT synthesis, higher alcohol synthesis and olefins
production. In addition, the research progress in industrial single tube and demonstration in our
group are introduced.

Ionic Liquids as Novel Class of Inhibitors for Methane and Qatar Natural
Gas Hydrates
Mohammad Tariq, Eihmear Connor, Letian Qi, Jillian Thompson, Majeda Khraisheh,
Mert Atilhan and David Rooney
Queen's University Belfast, United Kingdom

Gas hydrate formation and blockage of subsea pipelines is a challenging issue during gas
processing for the oil and gas industries. To get rid of this issue industries spent a substantial
amount in applying various methodologies which increase the production cost considerably [1].
Injecting carefully selected chemical inhibitors in the pipelines depending on the gravity of the
situation is the most viable option to avoid the hydrate problem. Generally methanol, ethylene
glycol and common salts know as thermodynamic inhibitors (THIs) are added in large quantities
(~50 wt%) which makes them expensive and environmentally hazardous. Recently, new class of
inhibitors known as low dosage hydrate inhibitors (LDHIs) which generally are polymers and
surfactants; getting much attention. LDHIs can be used in much less amount (1-3 wt% or less)
compared to THIs thus making them environmental friendly and cost-effective [2]. However,
industries are always looking for novel chemical inhibitors which are economic, environmental
benign and have peculiar set of properties to be used for specific situation. Currently, ILs have
attracted the attention due to their potential for fulfilling the industrial demand of task
specific/designer materials [3]. In this presentation we will summarize results of our investigation
on the gas hydrate formation and inhibition of methane and Qatari type natural gas (QNG) mixture
in presence of novel ionic liquid (IL) based inhibitors [4-6]. We have shown that how a slight
variation in the structure of ILs results in peculiar behavior towards methane/QNG gas hydrates.
ILs belonging to the tetra alkyl ammonium and (2-hydroxyethyl) trimethyl ammonium cation
(a.k.a. Choline) family attached to different anions namely: chloride, acetate, butyrate, iso-
butyrate, hexanoate and octanoate were tested for their hydrate inhibition ability at a
concentration of 1 and 5 wt% using a meso-scale rocking-rig apparatus. The results were also
compared to the same concentrations of conventional THI methanol. It has been shown in this
work that any slight structural variation in the compound used for hydrate inhibition resulted in a
unique behavior. The working concentration and pressure range are also some important factors.
Hydrate suppression temperatures were determined and the performance of individual IL has
been discussed quantitatively. Molar hydrate dissociation enthalpies were calculated and their
values were interpreted in the light of the thermodynamic inhibition results which indicate that
the ILs do not participate in the hydrate cages. Induction time analysis shows that some ILs has
the ability to act as kinetic inhibitor which delays the hydrate formation time. Thus, it must be
emphasized that a structure-property relation exist where ILs reveal their peculiar nature for gas
hydrates system viz., thermodynamic inhibition, hydrate promoter, kinetic inhibition and

surfactant character. Since, some of the used ILs are also biocompatible, non-toxic, non-
corrosive and biodegradable it make them an excellent alternative class of inhibitors compared
to their conventional counterparts.
References
[1] E. D. Sloan Jr., Nature 2003, 426, 353 - 359.
[2] M. A. Kelland, Energy Fuels 2006, 20, 825 847.
[3] M. Tariq, D. Rooney, E. Othman, S. Aparicio, M. Atilhan, M. Khraisheh, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res.
2014, 53, 17855 17868.
[4] M. Tariq, E. Connor, J. Thompson, M. Khraisheh, M. Atilhan, D. Rooney, RSC Adv. 6 (2016)
2382723836.
[5] M. Tariq, M. Atilhan, M. Khraisheh, E. Othman, M. Castier, G. Garcia, S. Aparicio, B. Tohidi,

Energy Fuels (2016) In Press.
[6] N. A. Mohamed, M. Tariq, M. Atilhan, M. Khraisheh, G. Garcia, S. Aparicio, J. Chem.

Thermodyn. (2016) submitted.
Acknowledgement
This work was made possible by NPRP grant #5-590-2-238 from the Qatar National Research
Fund (a member of Qatar Foundation).

Solar Reforming of Natural Gas via Metal Oxide Based Two Step Catalytic
Thermochemical Cycle
Rahul Bhosale, Gorakshnath Takalkar, Parag Sutar, Anand Kumar, Fares Almomani,
Majeda Khraisheh, Marc Rosen and Jonathan Scheffe
University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Canada
University of Florida, USA

CH4 is the predominant component of natural gas that forms a major part of the energy market
today. The combustion of CH4 and other fossil fuels to meet domestic, industrial, and automotive
energy demands causes emission of CO2. CH4 and CO2 are the two most significant greenhouse
gases contributing to global warming. Solar reforming of CH4 yields into syngas (a mixture of H2
and CO) which has a wide range usage in synthetic chemistry. Solar reforming of CH4 results in
an energetic upgrade by storing solar energy in the products. Thus, it contributes not only to
mitigation of the global environmental problem but also to the supply of a valuable chemical
feedstock. H2 can be directly used as a transportation fuel and syngas can be used as a
precursor for the production of liquid fuels via the Fischer-Tropsch process. This investigation
reports the solar thermochemical reforming of CH4 for the production of H2 and syngas using
catalytic metal oxide materials (MOs). In this two-step process, the first step consists of the
thermochemical reforming of CH4 under concentrated solar radiation into syngas using MO. In
the second step the reduced MO are reoxidized by H2O simultaneously producing H2. Thus, the
MO is not consumed but is cycled between a high valent and a low valent state. A variety of MOs
were examined both experimentally and theoretically (thermodynamic analysis). The MOs
examined were synthesized via different solid state and wet-chemical synthesis approaches.
These materials were further characterized using powder XRD, BET, XPS, SEM, TEM, ICP, EDX,
and etc. The redox reactivity of the derived MOs was examined by performing multiple
thermochemical cycles using a high temperature TGA and packed bed reactor set-up. Also, the
computational thermodynamic analysis of the MO based solar thermochemical reforming of CH4
was carried out using commercially available HSC Chemistry and FactSage thermodynamic
softwares. The obtained results associated with the synthesis and characterization of MOs,
thermochemical cycles, and computational thermodynamic analysis will be presented in detail.

Effects of Shell Composition on the Catalytic Performances of Pd-Based

Core-Shell, Methane-Oxidation Catalysts
Sardar Ali, Ahmed Gamal, Mohamed Jaber Al-Marri and Mahmoud Mohamad Khader
The development of a highly active catalyst for methane oxidation would have a significant
impact on a number of energy-based technologies. In this work, a comparative investigation of
the catalytic performances of Pd@TiO2 and Pd@CeO2, core-shells nanocatalysts supported on
functionalized alumina, for application to methane oxidation have been presented. These results
indicated that nature and composition of shell in the core-shell units play a significant role in
catalytic performance. Under identical reaction conditions, Pd@CeO2 catalyst was more active
and exhibited higher reaction rates than that of Pd@TiO2, where complete conversion of methane
was achieved at about 400C. During heating and cooling cycles of light-off curves, Pd@CeO2
showed nearly identical reaction rates. By contrast Pd@TiO2 experienced deactivation and
transient dip in methane conversion was observed in the temperature region between 500 to
6500C.
X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis revealed that the stronger interaction of Pd and
TiO2 at Pd-TiO2 interface might weaken the Pd-O bonds and result in accumulation of more Pd0
species which are catalytically less active than PdOx phases. Moreover the XPS analysis also
revealed a clear decrease in the surface palladium species (Pd/Ti) which suggested a possible
sintering of the Pd species or strong metal support interaction (SMSI) effect. In case of Pd@CeO2
catalyst, Pd was predominantly present in the chemical state of PdO which suggested a close
contact between Pd and CeO2 interface. The resulting synergic effects of the Pd-CeO2 interface
in the core-shell structures could favor the reoxidation of Pd0 to PdOx.

Effects of Variables on the Catalytic Combustion Over Pd@TiO2 based

Core-Shell Catalysts
Sardar Ali, Mohamed Jaber F. Al-Marri, Ahmed Gamal and M.M. Khader
Qatar is a world leader in many gas-based petrochemical industries. However, the release of
traces of unconverted methane in the exhaust from various petrochemical industries and motor
vehicles is a serious problem, given that methane is a potential greenhouse gas with an effect
that is 20 times higher than that of carbon dioxide. One of the potential ways to reduce emissions
of traces of methane (CH4) is through heterogeneous methane-oxidation catalysts. The
development of a highly active catalyst for methane oxidation would have a significant impact
on a number of energy-based technologies.
In this work, the influence of various factors such as presence of water vapor, shell thickness
and calcination temperatures on the catalytic combustion were studied over Pd@TiO2/SiO2-Al2O3
based catalysts. Under identical reaction conditions Pd@CeO2 core-shell catalysts were more
active than Pd@TiO2 based catalysts. Contrary to Pd@CeO2, Pd@TiO2 based catalysts
experienced a severe deactivation in the temperature range of 650-7000C. Increase in
calcination temperature (from 8500C to 10000C) resulted in higher catalytic activities below
4000C but an increase in the deactivation hump during light-off curves was also observed. In
addition to this, increase in TiO2 shell thickness increased the catalytic performances in low as
well as high temperature regions of the light-off curves, however the deactivation hump was also
more pronounced. Catalytic results and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic (XPS) analysis
indicated that this deactivation process in principal is due to stronger metal-support interactions
(SMSI) between and PdOx and TiO2 which resulted in phase transformation from catalytically
active PdOx phase to less active Pd0 phase.

Supercritical FTS product separation: A distinctive approach
Mohamed Noureldin1, Tala Katbeh2, Mohamedsufiyan Challiwala2, Mohammed Minhaj

Ghouri2, Mahmoud El-Halwagi2 and Nimir Elbashir2
1Texas A&M University, USA
2Texas A&M University , Qatar

Fischer-Tropsch (FT) synthesis, a catalytic process which converts synthesis gas (mixture of CO
and H2) into value added chemicals and Gas to Liquid (GTL) fuel products, has been studied for
nearly a century. Conventional FT processes like the slurry phase reactor technology licensed
by Sasol-Oryx GTL, and the fixed bed reactor by Shell-Pearl GTL differ widely in their mode of
operation, structure of catalyst and have their own set of distinctive pros and cons. However,
the recent shift of interest towards the production of ultra clean fuels in a more efficient way has
led to an increased attention towards the use of supercritical FTS process (SCF-FT). This
process, however, faces certain critical process limitations as both the mode of operation and
downstream separation sequence needs modification to reduce the net energy demands (due
to high compression costs) and the makeup/recycle of the used solvent. The scope of the current
work focuses on addressing such challenges and optimizing the overall refining process while
meeting a reasonable recycle of the supercritical solvent. For SCF-FT to be adopted on large-
scale, the economic benefit from operation under high pressure supercritical conditions must
exceed the additional cost associated with such an operation. Since the major additional cost in
SCF-FT is in the product separation and solvent recovery, a systematic approach was used in
this study to address this issue by generating various case scenarios. The initial step was to
identify the optimal separation sequence of flash columns to replace the conventional distillation
column, which was achieved by using the concept of parametric optimization and heuristics.
Process simulator, Aspen Plus, was used to understand the sensitivity of the various
parameters on the product yield, recovery, solvent purity, solvent recoverability, energy cost,
and operation feasibility while keeping the products comparable to the conventional FT process.
As a result, the fixed cost of SCF-FT was evaluated to be higher than the conventional process
(due to additional compressors and separation units). However, the operational costs of the SCF-
FT was seen to be lower, which made the process competitive to the commercial process in
terms of overall return on investments.

Nanoporous adsorbents for gas processing applications
Renju Zacharia, Mohammed J Al-Marri

[email protected]
Considerable progress has been made recently in the use of nanoporous materials for hydrogen
storage. In this article, the current status of the field and future challenges are discussed, ranging
from important open fundamental questions, such as the density and volume of the adsorbed
phase and its relationship to overall storage capacity, to the development of new functional
materials and complete storage system design. With regard to fundamentals, the use of neutron
scattering to study adsorbed H2, suitable adsorption isotherm equations, and the accurate
computational modelling and simulation of H2 adsorption are discussed. The new materials
covered include flexible metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), core-shell materials and porous
organic cage compounds. The article concludes with a discussion of the experimental
investigation of real adsorptive hydrogen storage tanks, the improvement of the thermal
conductivity of storage beds, and new storage system concepts and designs.

Exergoeconomic & Exergoenvironmental evaluation of Using Solar Energy

& Heat recovery of Gas exhaust for Turbo-Compressor in Pipeline Gas
Station
Mohammad Hasan Khoshgoftar Manesh, Hamed Cheragh and ala Ameryan

Division of Thermal Science & Energy Systems, Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Faculty of Technology & Engineering, University of Qom, Qom, Iran
Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

(FUM), Mashhad, Iran
Pipelines transporting gas often are thousands of kilometers long, a number of compressor
stations are needed, which consume a significant amount of energy. To improve the efficiency
of the compressor stations, the high temperature exhaust gases from the gas turbines which
drive the compressors are used for producing steam in a heat recovery steam generator (HRSG).
In this regard, the fuel heating and also pre heating of HRSG have been evaluated by solar
energy.
In this paper exergoenvironmental and exergoenvironmental analysis of using solar energy and
heat recovery of gas exhaust have been evaluated for Turbo-compressor Station. Modifications
are applied to a MAPNA 25 MW gas turbine using in compressor station through integration of
solar energy. The configuration of gas turbines in compressor station is based on (3+1)
arrangement. In this regards, a heat recovery steam generator and a steam turbine have been
added for three gas turbines in the Kashan pipeline station to recovery of hot gas in the outlet of
gas turbine.

E-POSTER SESSION 6

Embedded Platform for Gas Applications Using HW/SW Co-Design and

RFID
Amine Ait Si Ali1, Hamza Djelouat1, Abbes Amira1, Faycal Bensaali1, Mohieddine
Benammar1 and Amine Bermak2
1
KINDI Center for Computing Research, Qatar University, Qatar
2
Hamad bin Khalifa University,Qatar
Corresponding author :[email protected]
This paper presents an electronic nose (EN) system to monitor gas temperatures, concentrations
and mixtures. This work is part of an ongoing research project that consists in the development
of a low power reconfigurable self-calibrated multi-sensing platform for gas applications. The EN
takes the form of a set of gas and temperature sensors as well as multiple pattern recognition
algorithms implemented on the Zynq system on chip (SoC) platform. Furthermore, the gas and
temperature sensors are integrated within a radio-frequency identification (RFID) Tag. Various
gas sensors are tested including an in-house fabricated 4x4 Sno2 based sensor and 7
commercial Figaro sensors. In addition, data is transmitted wirelessly to the Zynq based
processing unit via an RFID reader. Data is processed using multiple pattern recognition
algorithms for dimensionality reduction and classification. Multiple algorithms are explored for
optimum performances. Principal component analysis (PCA) and linear discriminant analysis
(LDA) are evaluated for dimensionality reduction while decision tree (DT), k-nearest neighbors
(KNN) and extended nearest neighbors (ENN) are assessed for classification purpose. Different
gases are targeted at diverse concentration, the gases include carbon monoxide (CO), ethanol
(C2H6O), carbon dioxide (CO2), propane (C3H8), ammonia (NH3) and Hydrogen (H2). An
accuracy of 100% is achieved in many cases with an overall accuracy above 90% in most
scenarios. Finally, the HW/SW co-design approach for the implementation of PCA, LDA, DT and
KNN on the Zynq SoC shows promising results in terms of resources usage, power conception
and processing time.

An interactive Software tool for gas identification
Hamza Djelouat, Amine Ait Si Ali, Abbes Amira and Faycal Bensaali
KINDI Center for Computing Research, Qatar University, Qatar
Corresponding email: [email protected]
Graphical user interfaces (GUI) play a key role in human-computer interaction, as they link the
system with its end-users to improve communication and permit data and information exchange.
Moreover, users increasingly demand applications with adaptive interfaces that dynamically
evolve in response to their specic needs. Thus, providing graphical user interfaces is becoming
more and more an important issue. This paper presents a developed GUI for an electronic nose
(EN) system for gas monitoring and identification. The presented EN system consists of multi-
sensing embedded platform including gas sensors, RFID module and signal processing unit. The
developed GUI permits to visualize the performance of the EN from different parts of the system.
First, for data acquisition part, the gas data are collected using two types of gas sensors which
are seven commercial Figaro sensors and in-house fabricated 4x4 tin-oxide gas array sensor
each with two sets of gases forming a database that consists of seventeen different gas
responses, the GUI allows to visualize the sensors responses for any selected gas at any point
of the acquisition process. From the signal processing unit part, different feature reduction
techniques are applied to the data, such as linear discrimination analysis (LDA) and principle
component analysis (PCA) as well as different classification approaches such as decision tree
(DT), K-nearest neighbour (KNN), extended nearest neighbour (ENN) and committee machine
(CM) that combines the previous classifiers using two approaches, with and without feedback
validation. The GUI is used to evaluate the performance of the EN system in terms of data
identification by computing the classification accuracy using a K-fold cross validation technique.
The data identification is quantified for several combinations of the above mentioned feature
reduction techniques and classification algorithms along with the possibility to select the
appropriate parameter for each classifier. Moreover, The developed GUI can be easily adapted
to include other gas data sets as well as additional identification techniques. Furthermore, the
developed GUI is used to emulate the response of the sensors by connecting the output of the
GUI to an RFID module to transmit the data to the Zinq SoC platform where the signal processing
unit of the EN is efficiently implemented.

Numerical study of fouling geometry effect during gas deshydratation

process using membrane technology
Ahmed Hadjadj and Noureddine Abdelbaki

Hydrocarbons and chemistry faculty, Algeria
Bouira university, Algeria

Corresponding author : [email protected]
Taking in charge a gas deshydratation process using the membrane method a fouling sinusoidal
geometry is studied by a numerical method. In fact, the present paper presents a numerical work
in which the effect of sinusoidal protuberances were investigated. It shows the consequences of
the fouling geometric location and amplitude on membrane separation efficiency.
Precisely, the numerical study is presented for laminar flow and heat transfer in a horizontal
concentric annulus with two sinusoidal protuberances on the external and internal surfaces of
the internal and external cylinders, respectively. The basic of the used method is an algebraic
nonorthogonal coordinate transformation that maps the complete fluid domain onto a rectangle.
The transformed equations and the entire discretization procedures were solved by the finite
volume methodology.
Representative results were found for laminar flow, uniform temperature, uniform heat flux, range
of Rayleigh numbers, Prandl numbers and the height of sinusoidal protuberances.
As seen from the streamlines, the flow patterns are highly perturbed by the presence of
sinusoidal protuberances including recirculation zones which mean the deshydratation
membrane process is relatively down in the presence of the deposit growth. Thus, the flow
section decreases and the velocity and temperature increase. It is also, noted that the presence
of the protuberance leads to an increase in heat transfer rates in the location of the obstruction
along the membrane. The pressure drops and the thermal correlation results are higher than the
corresponding values for the membrane without protuberances.

Investigating effect of stirring on Natural Gas Hydrates (NGH) formation in

high pressure hydrate cell for Natural gas storage and transportation
prospective
M. Fahed Qureshi and Mert Atilhan

Qatar University
The liquefaction of natural gas (LNG) is one of the major modes of natural gas transportation
between different regions. The liquefaction of natural gas requires cooling up to -161oC and the
cost of liquefaction can range from 3 $ to 10 $ per MMBtu (millions of British thermal units). So
unless there is a demand for higher LNG prices, the liquefaction cost could negatively affect LNG
business and make liquefaction projects unprofitable.
In order to cut down liquefaction cost, the researchers are trying to study gas hydrates as a
potential mode of natural gas transportation and storage in future. Gas hydrates are crystalline
meta-stable compounds, made up of water and gas molecules. One volume of hydrate can store
up to 180 volumes of natural gas at STP (standard temperature and pressure). Therefore, the
development of hydrate production plants holds particular importance in future.
In this work, the formation rate of gas hydrates in a high pressure autoclave flow reactor system
has been studied at different stirring rates using a magnetic stirrer. In the first phase, the system
was first cooled from 20 o C to 2 o C at constant pressure for 18 hours. Then immediately in
second phase, the system was left stable at 2 o C for another 18 hours at constant stirring rate.
The stirring rates were varied between 100-1400 Rpm (Rotations per minute) for each experiment
and the gas hydrate crystal formation was observed by measuring pressure drop across the
system during the second phase. The experimental results show that for a chosen system, the
stirring rate does have an effect on the rate of gas hydrate crystal formation. The maximum gas
hydrate crystal formation was observed within the stirring range of 550-750 RPM. It was found
that for a chosen system there exists a threshold stirring limit, above or below which little or no
hydrate crystal formation takes place. This fundamental study can be useful for modeling
purposes and designing of a pilot scale hydrate production plant to study the economical and
safety factor associated with natural gas hydrate storage and transportation.
Acknowledgement

PolyEthylene Unit Combustible Dust Control Methods in Q-Chem

Finishing area
Hesham El Zeini
Explosion has become a serious safety and hazard concern topic over the last 20 years in the
industry. Over 281 major combustible dust explosion/fire took place in the last 25 years causing
considerable fatalities and injuries among the workers in these sites. Q-Chem plant in Mesaieed
Qatar has three Polyethylene trains and each has a Finishing unit that could be a potential dust
explosion source. The hazard is due to the polyethylene process fluff fines and additives nature
that are part of the final process in the PE pellets production.
This paper will highlight all the efforts, established procedures and the engineering controls that
were put forward to control and eliminate the dust explosion in the PE finishing buildings. Q-
Chem developed a safe working environment that will not spare any effort to protect its
employees as well as its assets in the latest and best industrial practices manner.

Investigating the scope of water recovery from gas fired power plant in
Qatar
Ahmad Yaser, Mohammad Amanullah and Fadwa Eljack

Qatar University
Apart from desalination plants, Qatar does not have an alternative source of fresh water. In 2013,
310 Million cubic meters of fresh water was used by industrial and residential purpose. With a
booming economy, the need for fresh water is increasing every day in Qatar. The primary aim of
this project is to investigate the possibility of an alternative source of water to meet the increasing
water demand. Effluent gas from power plants appears to be a viable and attractive alternative
since it contains around 15% of water. Gas fired combined cycle power plants in Qatar uses
natural gas to produce electricity. Primary byproducts of combustion reaction are CO2 and
H2O. Although CO2 capture and utilization has duly received great attention, water capture from
power plant seemed to receive limited attention. For each moles of natural gas burnt, 2.2 moles
of water is produced. This work aims to rigorously study the available water capture technologies
and develop a detailed model of a hybrid superstructure with optimum operating conditions
including its techno-economic evaluation Initial simulations results using ASPEN HYSYS shows
that almost 70% of this available water in power plant effluent gas can be captured using
absorption. Once developed, naturally this technology can also be utilized outside Qatar,
especially in GCC and gas rich countries, catering to the growing need of water.

Recovery of flared gas through crude oil stabilization by a multi-staged

separation with intermediate feeds: A case study
Ghazi Otmanine, Mourad Djebri and Noureddine Bentahar

University of Boumerdes (UMBB), Algeria
Sonatrach division Production Ain Amenas, Algeria
Since the birth of the oil industry, flaring has been used to burn excess gas or to get rid of refined
products that do not meet required specifications. Unfortunately flaring produces a great number
of harmful by-products such as dangerous particles, volatile organic compounds, polycyclic
aromatic and many other compounds just as harmful. The gas associated with oil is a quality
source of energy. The separation of gas and oil phases remains the most important stage in the
so-called surface production. Given the high GOR of Algerian crude oil, the separation of this
gas is carried out in three or four stages. However, the choice of the optimal number of stages
of separation and intermediate values of pressure requires a rigorous computation wherein the
use of a simulator is more than necessary to make possible the optimisation of the separation
process.
The present work has been carried out on a new separation and compression unit in an area
where all the associated gas production is being flared despite the new environmental laws. This
treated gas may be valorised as a raw material for the petrochemical industry or compressed
and re-injected into the reservoir in order to maintain the rate of oil production. It remains that
one important way of valorising this associated gas is to transform it into liquid through a process
known as Gas to Liquid (GTL) technology.

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What are some of the topics covered in the symposium?

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What are some techniques discussed for gas processing and waste management?

What are some techniques discussed for gas processing and waste management?

3

PLENARY LECTURE ....................................................................................................................... 9

5th INTERNATIONAL GAS PROCESSING SYMPOSIUM, DOHA QATAR

5th INTERNATIONAL GAS PROCESSING SYMPOSIUM, DOHA QATAR

5th INTERNATIONAL GAS PROCESSING SYMPOSIUM, DOHA QATAR

Experimental and Numerical Investigation of a Novel Perforation Technique ........................87

5th INTERNATIONAL GAS PROCESSING SYMPOSIUM, DOHA QATAR

Carbon Dioxide Solubility in Phosphonium-, Ammonium-, Sulfonyl- and Pyrrolidinium- Based

5th INTERNATIONAL GAS PROCESSING SYMPOSIUM, DOHA QATAR

5th INTERNATIONAL GAS PROCESSING SYMPOSIUM, DOHA QATAR

New Catalytic Process Design Strategies: Oxidative Methane Coupling

Dr. Tobin Marks

5th INTERNATIONAL GAS PROCESSING SYMPOSIUM, DOHA QATAR

CO2 Capture and Utilization: An Overview

Dr. Wei Wei

5th INTERNATIONAL GAS PROCESSING SYMPOSIUM, DOHA QATAR

Prediction of Refinery Feed Stock Corrosivity Using Sulfur Speciation

Dr. Mabruk I. Suleiman

5th INTERNATIONAL GAS PROCESSING SYMPOSIUM, DOHA QATAR

Produced water treatment: Unlocking Production from Mature and

Dr. Hank Rawlins

5th INTERNATIONAL GAS PROCESSING SYMPOSIUM, DOHA QATAR

Power Generation Challenges and Answers to an increasing demand for

Dr. Ralph Joh

5th INTERNATIONAL GAS PROCESSING SYMPOSIUM, DOHA QATAR

Oil/Gas Economics and Forecast

Dr. Noubi Ben Hamida

5th INTERNATIONAL GAS PROCESSING SYMPOSIUM, DOHA QATAR

Dr. Raymond Ooi

5th INTERNATIONAL GAS PROCESSING SYMPOSIUM, DOHA QATAR

Dr. Samer Adham

5th INTERNATIONAL GAS PROCESSING SYMPOSIUM, DOHA QATAR

5th INTERNATIONAL GAS PROCESSING SYMPOSIUM, DOHA QATAR

Palladia/ceria robust methane oxidation catalyst

Mahmoud Khader, Mohammed Al-Marri and Sadar Ali

5th INTERNATIONAL GAS PROCESSING SYMPOSIUM, DOHA QATAR

Hierarchical Catalysts for the CO2 Hydrogenation to Methanol, Higher

5th INTERNATIONAL GAS PROCESSING SYMPOSIUM, DOHA QATAR

Fabrication and Characterization of Nickel Supported Catalysts for

5th INTERNATIONAL GAS PROCESSING SYMPOSIUM, DOHA QATAR

Effect of the composition on ethanol decomposition catalytic activity of

5th INTERNATIONAL GAS PROCESSING SYMPOSIUM, DOHA QATAR

Yan Zhu and Yuhan Sun

5th INTERNATIONAL GAS PROCESSING SYMPOSIUM, DOHA QATAR

Photoelectrocatalytic conversion of CO2 on Hydrotalcite-based Catalyst

Lagnamayee Mohapatra and Syed Javaid Zaidi

5th INTERNATIONAL GAS PROCESSING SYMPOSIUM, DOHA QATAR

5th INTERNATIONAL GAS PROCESSING SYMPOSIUM, DOHA QATAR

Towards a reliable method for the investigation and monitoring of

5th INTERNATIONAL GAS PROCESSING SYMPOSIUM, DOHA QATAR

Corrosion and Scaling in Wet Gas Pipelines

Nicholas Laycock, Aboubakr M. Abdullah, Mobbassar Hassan Sk, David Williams,

Qatar University, Doha, Qatar

University of Auckland, New Zeeland

Imperial College London, United Kingdome