Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

Bitumen produced from Canadian oil sand resources contains significant amounts of asphaltenes and heteroatoms. This refractory material must be first upgraded to synthetic crude in order to be processed in conventional refineries. One approach to bitumen upgrading involves ""hydrocracking"" of bitumen residues through simultaneous catalytic hydrogenation and cracking in an ebullated-bed reactor. This unit operation involves complex coupled multiphase (gas, liquid, solid) hydrodynamics, chemical kinetics, and transport phenomena making it difficult to design and optimize using traditional experimental analysis. Simulation-assisted engineering of a hydrocracking unit under realistic operating conditions is a safe and cost-effective approach to supplement direct experimentation. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations enable resolution of the internal dynamics of the reactor and, ultimately, enable simulation-based design and optimization. This collaborative project involves the use of both cutting-edge CFD and Shell Canada's pilot-scale hydrocracking plant (Shell Research Centre, Calgary) to develop optimized designs, ""clean-sheet"" designs, and optimal process conditions for Shell Canada's bitumen upgrading operations. Increases in hydrocracking operations efficiency resulting from this research project will translate into more efficient usage of Canada's natural resources and reduced impact on the environment.