Unconventional Methods for the Demetalation of Bitumen Garima Chauhan*, Arno de Klerk Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2V4, Canada
Scope of the work Crude Oil
Vanadium: 180-250ppm Nickel: 80-124 ppm Feed Preparation
Residue
Distillation
(Dewatering/ Desalting)
Thermal/hydro cracking
Demetalation
Unconventional Methods for Metal Recovery
Ionic Liquids
Photo-irradiation Electro-chemical Reaction
Ionic Liquid Assisted Metal Extraction Hypothesis-1: Equilibrium Assisted Extraction !!!
Ionic Liquid
Demetallized crude oil Dilbit Sample
Further Downstream Processing Metal Loaded Ionic Liquid
Extractor Separator
Displacement Equilibria
Ionic Liquid Recovery
+
A-X
+
X
A-M
Electrochemical Separation
Hypothesis-2: Size of the anions in ionic liquids affect the extraction efficiency !!!
Nomenclature - M : Metal ion, A-X : ionic liquid, X : Ion responsible for the displacement of metal ion from porphyrin ring
Hypothesis-3: Acid Saturated Ionic Liquid Increases Metal Recovery !!! 35
Size of the anion (%) Metal Extraction from Bitumen
8 6 4
Solvent Recovery Demetallized crude oil
Further Downstream Processing
25 20 15 10 5
0
0 2 4 6 8 Molar concentration of HCl
10
[HC1im]Cl+10%H2O EMIM-DEP
30
2 0
Photo-irradiation Assisted Metal Recovery Solvent (2-Propanol)
[HC1im]Cl+10%H2O EMIM-DEP
10
% Ni Recovery
a) 1-Ethyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride (b) 1-Ethyl-3-methylimidazolium thiocyanate (c) 1-Ethyl-3methylimidazolium hydrogen sulfate (d)1-Ethyl-3-methylimidazolium diethyl phosphate
% V Recovery
12
0
2 4 6 8 Molar concentration of HCl (M)
10
Hypothesis: Photo-dissociation in presence of hydrogen donating solvent convert the ‘bound’ type metalloporphyrins into ‘free’ type porphyrins which consequently results into significant extraction of metals.
Photoreactor
hν HCl Solution
Extractor
Electrochemical Recovery of Metals
Separator Metal loaded HCl solution
Metal in Residue Form
Hydrogenation in presence of hydrogen donor solvent
Hypothesis: Electrochemical treatment in presence of a protonating solvent results into the release of free prophyrins. It can be employed in conjunction with solvent extraction to develop a novel effective demetalation process.
VO3-
hν, O2
Acknowledgement: *Presence of Soret band after the electrochemical treatment validates that porphyrins are not destroyed during the electrolysis process.
The authors would like to thank Alberta Economic Development & Trade (Project No: AB EconD&T 2510-20161207) for the financial support. Research Work is being carried out at : Department of Chemical & Materials Engineering, Laboratory : 5-112, 9211 - 116th Street University of Alberta Edmonton, AB, T6G 1H9 CANADA
Team Members: Dr. Garima Chauhan (
[email protected]) Dr. Arno de Klerk (
[email protected])