Natural gas flaring reduction initiative: catalytic partial oxidation of syngas over advance material supports at high pressure (FeCrAlloy)

Methane, ethane, and nitrogen and sulphur compounds come out of solution when oil is pumped to the surface from high pressure reservoirs. These gases are flared (or vented), which harms the environment, because it is unecomic to treat the gas. The PhD project will examine technologies to convert this wasted natural gas to value-added fuels or chemicals. The key aspect of the process is to design economic micro-refinery technology that can be implemented in remote regions of the world so that the diesel type hydrocarbons and chemicals will be useful for local populations. It integrates multiple heterogeneous catalytic reactions in a single vessel and seek economies through mass manufacturing-numbering up-rather than scale-up.