Development of an electro-spray bioreactor for crude oil processing

Eric N. Kaufman, James B. Harkins, Miguel Rodriguez, Costas Tsouris, Punjai T. Selvaraj, Susan E. Murphy

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

26 Scopus citations

Abstract

Biological removal of organic sulfur from petroleum feedstocks offers an attractive alternative to conventional thermochemical treatment due to the mild operating conditions afforded by the biocatalyst. In order for biodesulfurization to realize commercial success, it will be necessary to design reactors that allow for sufficient liquid/liquid and gas/liquid mass transfer while simultaneously reducing operating costs. In this study, the use of electric field contactors for the biodesulfurization of the model compound dibenzothiophene (DBT) as well as actual crude oil was investigated. The emulsion phase contactor (EPC) creates an emulsion of aqueous biocatalyst in the organic phase by concentrating forces at the liquid/liquid interface rather than by imparting energy to the bulk solution as is done in impeller-based reactors. Characterization of emulsion quality and determination of rates of DBT oxidation to 2-hydroxybiphenyl (2-HBP) were performed for both batch stirred reactors (BSR) and the EPC. The EPC was capable of producing aqueous droplets of about 5 μm in diameter using 3 W/I whereas the impeller-based reactor formed droplets between 100 and 200 μm with comparable power consumption. The presence of electric fields was not found to adversely affect biocatalytic activity. Despite the greater surface area for reaction afforded by the EPC, rates of DBT oxidation in both reactors were similar, demonstrating that the biocatalyst used (Rhodococcus sp. IGTS8) was not active enough to be mass transport limited. The EPC is expected to have tremendous impact on reactor operating costs and biocatalyst utilization once advances in biocatalyst development provide systems that are mass transport limited.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)127-144
Number of pages18
JournalFuel Processing Technology
Volume52
Issue number1-3
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 1997

Funding

This work was supported by the Office of Oil and Gas Processing, U.S. Department of Energy under contract DE-AC05960R22464 with Lockheed Martin Energy Research Corp. The authors acknowledge the material contributions of Energy BioSystems Corp. and Texaco as well as the assistance of Mr. Todd Meyer and Dr. Li-Qun Yu of Energy BioSystems in the batch reactor visualization experiments. ’The submitted manuscript has been authored by a contractor of the U.S. Government under contract DE-AC05960R22464. Accordingly, the U.S. Government retains a nonexclusive, royalty-free license to publish or reproduce the published form of this contribution, or allow others to do so, for U.S. Government purposes. ‘Research supported by the Office of Oil and Gas Processing of the Office of Fossil Energy, U.S. Department of Energy under contract DE-AC05-960R22464 with Lockheed Martin Energy Research Corp.

Keywords

  • Dibenzothiophene
  • Electrostatic spraying
  • Oil desulfurization
  • Rhodococcus

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