Reference number : GC-2017-Q3-00402, amendment number : , agreement type : G, recipient legal name : Song, Hua (University of Calgary), recipient country : CA, recipient province : nan, recipient city : Alberta, recipient postal code : nan, program name english : Collaborative Research and Development Grants - Project, program name french : Subventions de recherche et développement coopérative - projet, program purpose english : Traditionally hydrotreating processes can be used to decrease the viscosity of oil, improve the API gravity, and reduce the sulfur content of the oil. Using hydrogen in bitumen upgrading is well known and can enhance the properties of the oil, but the costs of hydrotreating are relatively high due to the consumption of high pressure H2 (>8 MPa). An alternative approach to obtain the benefits of hydrogen addition is to add a cheap and abundant H-donor to the bitumen, such as methane, the main component of natural gas. The proposed research aims to develop a cost-effective partial upgrading technology to increase the mobility of the bitumen extracted from surface minable oil sands. Reducing the viscosity will satisfy the pipeline transportation specification_x000D_
while enhancing the quality of the upgraded oil beneficial for its further refining at the other end of the pipeline. This will be done using a technology based on the directly catalytic incorporation of natural gas (i.e. methane - methanotreating) into bitumen at mild temperature and atmospheric pressure under the facilitation of in situ generated plasma in a nonthermal way. The in situ activated and ionized methane then interacts with the broken molecular pieces formed from bitumen thermal cracking, leading to the production of the partially upgraded oil with enhanced oil yield and quality for pipeline transportation under the facilitation of co-existing catalyst. Compared to hydrotreating, such proposed plasma assisted methanotreating is more environmentally friendly and economically profitable. Besides, the proposed research aligns well with the core business of the industrial partner and will help the partner keeping the technical leadership in oil sands and natural gas utilization in the foreseeable future if successfully delivered. In addition, the outcomes obtained from this study will create a novel way of methane activation and liquefaction, leading to the breakthrough in the field of catalysis and its application in clean energy conversion. Moreover, the achievement made from this project will further ascertain the leading position of Canada in the world's energy market through more efficient and cleaner_x000D_
utilization of heavy crude oil and natural gas which are abundant natural resources in Canada., program purpose french : Traditionally hydrotreating processes can be used to decrease the viscosity of oil, improve the API gravity, and reduce the sulfur content of the oil. Using hydrogen in bitumen upgrading is well known and can enhance the properties of the oil, but the costs of hydrotreating are relatively high due to the consumption of high pressure H2 (>8 MPa). An alternative approach to obtain the benefits of hydrogen addition is to add a cheap and abundant H-donor to the bitumen, such as methane, the main component of natural gas. The proposed research aims to develop a cost-effective partial upgrading technology to increase the mobility of the bitumen extracted from surface minable oil sands. Reducing the viscosity will satisfy the pipeline transportation specification_x000D_
while enhancing the quality of the upgraded oil beneficial for its further refining at the other end of the pipeline. This will be done using a technology based on the directly catalytic incorporation of natural gas (i.e. methane - methanotreating) into bitumen at mild temperature and atmospheric pressure under the facilitation of in situ generated plasma in a nonthermal way. The in situ activated and ionized methane then interacts with the broken molecular pieces formed from bitumen thermal cracking, leading to the production of the partially upgraded oil with enhanced oil yield and quality for pipeline transportation under the facilitation of co-existing catalyst. Compared to hydrotreating, such proposed plasma assisted methanotreating is more environmentally friendly and economically profitable. Besides, the proposed research aligns well with the core business of the industrial partner and will help the partner keeping the technical leadership in oil sands and natural gas utilization in the foreseeable future if successfully delivered. In addition, the outcomes obtained from this study will create a novel way of methane activation and liquefaction, leading to the breakthrough in the field of catalysis and its application in clean energy conversion. Moreover, the achievement made from this project will further ascertain the leading position of Canada in the world's energy market through more efficient and cleaner_x000D_
utilization of heavy crude oil and natural gas which are abundant natural resources in Canada., agreement title english : Non-thermal plasma assisted catalytic bitumen partial upgrading under methane environment, agreement title french : Non-thermal plasma assisted catalytic bitumen partial upgrading under methane environment, agreement number : CRDPJ, agreement value : 120000.0, agreement start date : 2017-11-08, agreement end date : nan, description english : nan, description french : nan, expected results english : nan, expected results french : nan, additional information english : Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year (2017-2018 to 2019-2020)., additional information french : Subvention ou bourse octroyée s'appliquant à plus d'un exercice financier (2017-2018 à 2019-2020)., owner organization : nserc-crsng, owner organization title : Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada | Conseil de recherches en sciences naturelles et en génie du Canada