Responding to the instability of fuel markets and increasingly stringent new vehicle emissions standards, the United States Department of Energy (DOE) initiated a research effort last year to develop improved, more economical ways to produce ultra-clean, low-sulfur fuels and better pollution control devices for cars and trucks. This Ultra-Clean Transportation Fuels (UCTF) Initiative is a combined effort of two DOE organizations—the Office of Fossil Energy (which focuses on fuel technologies) and the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (which is responsible for advanced engine development and vehicular emissions controls). The goal of the Initiative is to develop and deploy technologies that will produce ultra-clean-burning transportation fuels from both petroleum and non-petroleum resources. These fuels will be processed alone or in combination with other hydrocarbon materials such as refinery wastes, municipal wastes and biomass. They will enable vehicles to comply with future emissions requirements, to be compatible with the existing liquid fuels infrastructure, and to be cost-competitive with current fuels.
In December 2000 the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced stringent new standards for sulfur levels in gasoline, proposing that the average sulfur content be reduced to 30 parts per million (ppm), down from an average of nearly 300 ppm. Sulfur in gasoline degrades the effectiveness of catalytic converters which control tailpipe emissions. Most refiners will have until 2006 to meet the new sulfur standard, although smaller refiners will have an extra 2 years. Engine manufacturers and refiners also have been challenged with meeting a new set of stringent emission standards for diesel fuels. The EPA published new highway diesel rules in the Federal Register on January 18, 2001, which include a requirement to reduce the maximum sulfur in diesel fuel by 97 percent, from 500 ppm to 15 ppm, by mid-2006.
DOE issued the first solicitation of the UCTF program on February 4, 2000, asking for proposals to develop advanced refining and fuel processing technologies that could help meet or exceed new emissions standards that would cut sulfur levels in transportation fuels by 90 percent. Also included in the solicitation was a request for proposals to design and test new types of pollution control devices for automobiles and trucks. The selection of eight project teams was announced on September 21, 2000. The selected projects have a total value of more than $176 million, with the industrial sponsors proposing that the federal government provide $74 million of the costs.
One team, headed by EnviRes LLC, will study an innovative concept to convert coal and petroleum coke into clean fuels. Negotiations are in progress between EnviRes LLC and DOE on development of the HyMelt Process, a patented technology invented by Marathon Ashland Petroleum LLC and licensed to EnviRes. This project will investigate the development of HyMelt to produce large volumes of high-pressure, high-purity hydrogen from fossil fuels, such as petroleum coke, pitch, and coal, at a cost much lower than conventional production methods used in today’s oil refinery industry. HyMelt also produces a carbon monoxide-rich stream that may be used as a clean fuel substitute for natural gas in the production of electricity via an integrated gasification combined-cycle mode of operation.
Three other teams--headed by Praxair, Conoco, Integrated Concepts and Research Corporation, and Syntroleum--will pursue a natural gas-to-liquids approach. In recent contract negotiations, Conoco outlined how to develop and commercialize innovative solutions for United States and global stranded natural gas reserves. Under the partnership with DOE, Conoco plans to rapidly build on the Fischer-Tropsch liquids, methanol and dimethyl ether databases to integrate liquid phase methanol with its CoPox process.
Another three teams--Phillips Petroleum Company, Petro Star Inc., and Research Triangle Institute--will lead development efforts on new refining processes that remove sulfur pollutants from crude oil. The eighth winning project, proposed by Ford Motor Company, will focus on a new type of emission control system for future automobiles and trucks. The system will employ a chemical process that captures smog-forming nitrogen oxides from the exhausts of internal combustion engines. On January 4, 2001, DOE received additional industry proposals under a second round of the solicitation.
DOE also selected eight new projects from the National Laboratory Partnership, an affiliation of DOE National Laboratories that promotes technical collaborations with industry and academia. Proposals were selected from Sandia, Oak Ridge, Idaho and Argonne National Laboratories for 3-year research efforts to develop a range of new ultra-clean fuels. One Sandia project will develop improved hydroprocessing catalysts for producing ultra-clean transportation fuels. The catalysts will be tested using actual refinery feedstocks. Sandia also will develop and evaluate a new class of hybrid organic-inorganic membranes designed to remove carbon dioxide and other impurities from syngas before it is used in the preparation of low-sulfur fuels. A third Sandia project will develop an on-line monitor that can provide real time information on the concentrations of key sulfur species in fuels. Oak Ridge will determine the effectiveness of inorganic membranes applied to petroleum refinery catalytic cracker recycle gas in the production of hydrogen, and will develop ionic liquids to remove contaminants from natural gas, gasoline and diesel fuels. Removal of sulfur from gasoline and diesel fuel, and separation of CO2 from natural gas will be primary targets of this project. Idaho will conduct another project to develop an economical solid acid alkylation petroleum refinery process using supercritical fluid regeneration. It also will evaluate ion conducting ceramic membrane reactors for syngas production. Argonne will study how blended-diesel fuels (such as diesel with ethanol) compare with petroleum-based diesel fuels in spray combustion characteristics and in pollutant formation.
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