Implementing Power‐to‐Gas to provide green hydrogen to a bitumen upgrader. (13th June 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Walker, Sean; Mukherjee, Ushnik; Fowler, Michael; Arbiv, Itai; Lazzaroni, Edoardo
• Is Part Of: International journal of energy research. Volume 40:Number 14(2016)
• Page Start: 1925
• Page End: 1934
• Publication Date: 2016-06-13
• Subjects: Power‐to‐Gas -- Sustainable Fuels -- Hydrogen Production -- Bitumen Upgrading; Power resources -- Periodicals; Power (Mechanics) -- Periodicals; Power resources -- Research -- Periodicals; 621.042
• DOI: 10.1002/er.3557
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0363-907X

Abstract

Summary: Hydrogen is an important commodity in the processing of intermediate bitumen products into a finished petroleum product and for upgrading bitumen into synthetic crude. With the continued extraction of bitumen‐rich material from Alberta's oil sands project, there is an opportunity to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of upgrading and refining operations by using electrolytically produced hydrogen in place of hydrogen produced by steam methane reformation. Recently, a bitumen upgrading facility had been proposed for the city of Sarnia, Ontario because of its pre‐existing petroleum processing infrastructure. Using the Ontario electrical system, which has a lower emissions factor than Alberta, the use of electrolytic hydrogen could result in a significant reduction of greenhouse gasses. In this paper, the objective is to determine an optimal system configuration for reducing greenhouse gas emissions while maintaining a low system cost. The analysis is performed with General Algebraic Modelling System tool, a mixed‐integer linear optimization in addition to a simple model in Visual Basic. For each case, an economic and environmental analysis is performed including the use of cap‐and‐trade values for the price of carbon emissions, which are applied to determine the overall economic impact of the emissions reductions. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Abstract : To reduce CO2 emissions from upgrading bitumen to synthetic crude, the use of electrolytic hydrogen in place of steam methane reforming is examined. Overall, electrolysis costs between $1.3bn and $3.1bn, while steam methane reforming costs $2.2bn over 20 years. Using electrolytic, hydrogen reduces the net lifecycle CO2 emissions by 100 000 to 145 000 tonnes annually.