Module overview
Hydrocarbon fuels contribute more than 85% of world energy production, but also contribute more than 60% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. As research continues to find alternative and more sustainable energy production technologies hydrocarbon fuels will continue to be the primary energy supplier therefore measures need to be taken to improve their efficiency and minimise anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.
This module addresses thermo-fluid processes underlying technologies which use hydrocarbon fuels in a more sustainable manner, including carbon capture, utilisation and storage, and enhanced oil and gas recovery. To enable students to develop technology for these applications, this module equips students with physical insight and engineering methods for heat and mass transport, chemically-reacting flows, multi-phase flows, and porous media flows.
Linked modules
Pre-requisites: FEEG2003 and SESM2017
Aims and Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Transferable and Generic Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- Communicate in a clear, structured and efficient manner.
- Present technical and economic assessments of investment options, accounting for uncertainty.
Knowledge and Understanding
Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
- The impact of hydrocarbon fuel use on the environment, and the role of low-carbon energy technology in avoiding these impacts
- Physical phenomena associated with real fluid mixtures, heat and mass transfer, chemicallyreactive flows, multi-phase flow, and porous media flow.
- Technical systems for achieving low-carbon energy production.
- Modelling approaches for flows occurring in energy applications.
Subject Specific Practical Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- Perform analytical and numerical analysis in order to identify and optimise prospective energy technologies.
- Design a carbon capture reactor suitable for extracting 90% CO2 from a power plant.
Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- Evaluate fluid properties and flow properties
- Identify suitable models for fluid properties and processes across the applications studied in this module
- Apply engineering analysis to thermo-fluid processes found in real energy technology applications.
Syllabus
Week 1: Introduction to carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS)
1.Introduction: Overview of current energy production and its current economic, environmental and social impact, global markets for fuel, energy and carbon; the role CCUS has to play
2.Overview of CCUS technologies: different components of the CCUS chain; current status of CCUS technologies and challenges for deployment
3.Tutorial 1: Forms of low-carbon technologies: introduction to the different forms of low-carbon technologies and low-carbon technology exercise
Week 2: Introduction to multiphase flows
4.Gas-particle systems: regimes of multi-phase flow, phenomenology, dense and dilute particle flows, phase coupling, minimum fluidisation and bubbling velocity.
5.Gas-liquid systems: introduction to liquid break up and spray formation, PDFs, moments of the PDF
6.Tutorial 2: Exercises relating to multiphase flows
Week 3: Reaction mechanisms
7.Homogeneous and Heterogeneous reactions: enthalpy of formation, chemical reactions and reaction kinetics, intra-particle diffusion, mass and heat transport for single particles
8.Film theory for gas-liquid systems: Types of reactors, Henry’s Law, Two-film model, first-order and second order reactions
9.Tutorial 3: Reaction mechanism exercises
Week 4: CO2 production and separation
10.Post-combustion – absorption technologies: chemical absorption; types of alkanolamines; technological advances and limitations; gas-liquid contactors
11.Post-combustion – sorbents and membranes: solid physical adsorption; pressure swing adsorption (PSA) and temperature swing adsorption (TSA); types of adsorbents including zeolites, MOFs; membrane gas absorption; typical membrane-module configurations
12.Tutorial 4: CO2 Absorber design
Week 5: CO2 production and separation
13.Pre-combustion: integrated gasification combined cycle, synthesis gas production, water-gas-shift reaction; types of separation technologies; advantages and disadvantages
14.Oxy-fuel technologies: cryogenic air separation; reactor configuration; chemical looping technologies; types of oxygen carriers
15.Tutorial 5: Capture technologies exercises
Week 6: CO2 storage in porous reservoirs
16.Structure of porous media: Micro- and macroscopic descriptions. Darcy’s law. Permeability. Fracturing. Non-Darcy behaviour.
17.Flows through porous media: Full set of equation for an isothermal flow through porous media. Initial and boundary conditions. Radial flow.
18.Tutorial 6: Porous flow exercises
Week 7: CO2 storage in porous reservoirs
19.Anisotropy of permeability: Averaging permeabilities. Layered reservoir without crossflow, composite reservoir
20.Capillary pressure: Pore-level modelling. Meniscus rise in a capillary.
21.Tutorial 7: Extraction exercises
Week 8: CO2 storage in porous reservoirs
22.Multiphase flow through porous media: Diffusion in porous media. Multiphase flows. Extension of Darcy’s law. Relative permeabilities. Capillary curve. Mass balance equation and complete model.
23.CO2 sequestration in geological reservoirs: Properties of CO2 in supercritical state. Combination of CO2 sequestration with EOR.
24.Tutorial 8: EOR mock exam questions
Week 9: CO2 utilisation
25.CO2-based fuels: Current and future uses of CO2; Fischer-Tropsch synthesis; fundamentals of catalysis; methane and methanol production
26.CO2-based chemicals: overview of mineral carbonation; CO2-based formic acid formation, ethylene and ethanol production; polymer production; challenges surrounding the commercialisation of CO2-based products; life-cycle analysis of the end-use of CO2-based products
27.Tutorial 9: Utilisation exercises
Week 10: Risks and Economics
28.Economics of CCUS: importance of cost estimates; building cost estimates; defining plant and cost assumptions; sources of cost estimates; example cost estimates; levelised cost of electricity; cost of CO2 avoided
29.Wider awareness of CCUS: CCUS policy indicators, public perception of CCUS
30.Tutorial 10: Economics exercises
Week 11: Revision and coursework review
31.Revision session: Thermofluids for CO2 capture and utilisation mock exam
32.Revision session: Thermofluids for CO2 capture and utilisation mock exam - solutions
33.Revision session: CO2 storage - mock exam
Week 12: Revision and coursework review
34.Coursework review: Individual feedback on coursework
35.Coursework review: Individual feedback on coursework
36.Revision session: CO2 storage - mock exam solutions
Learning and Teaching
Teaching and learning methods
Teaching methods include
- Lectures including examples, with lecture hand-outs provided.
- Set example questions are supported by group problem solving sessions.
- Mock exam test run at one of the revision sessions.
Learning activities include
- Directed reading.
- Group and individual work on examples.
- Coursework project: to produce a short report.
Type | Hours |
---|---|
Wider reading or practice | 88 |
Tutorial | 9 |
Completion of assessment task | 12 |
Revision | 14 |
Lecture | 27 |
Total study time | 150 |
Resources & Reading list
Textbooks
J.S. Archer and C.G. Wall (1986). Petroleum engineering: principles and practice. Graham and Trotam.
J. Bear. Theory and Applications of Transport in Porous Media. Springer.
D.Gidaspow (1994). Multiphase Flow and Fluidization. Elsevier Inc, Academic Press.
S. K. Friedlander, Smoke, Dust and Haze (2000). Fundamentals of Aerosol Dynamics. Oxford University Press.
R.F. Probstein (1989). Physicochemical Hydrodynamics. Butterworths.
W.F. Hughes, J.A. Brighton (1999). Schaum's outline of theory and problems of fluid dynamics. New York: McGraw Hill.
Cengel Y.A., Boles M.A. Thermodynamics. An engineering approach. McGraw Hil.
Assessment
Assessment strategy
2 Hour written exam - 65%
Carbon capture and storage project - 35%
Feedback method : Feedback document on exam performance made available on module blackboard; this document will also be available to subsequent years to help with learning and revision.
Individual consultations take place with both lecturers during a double lecture slot to go through the report and assess.
Summative
This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.
Method | Percentage contribution |
---|---|
Examination | 65% |
Project | 35% |
Referral
This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.
Method | Percentage contribution |
---|---|
Examination | 65% |
Project | 35% |
Repeat
An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.
Method | Percentage contribution |
---|---|
Examination | 65% |
Project | 35% |
Repeat Information
Repeat type: External