Ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel with less than 15 ppm sulfur allows the use of clean-up devices on diesel engines that dramatically reduce particulate and NOx emissions. Phillips Petroleum Company has demonstrated in the laboratory and small-scale pilot plant tests the reduction of sulfur in diesel fuel to below 15 ppm using an adsorption process. This is accomplished at moderate pressures and moderate space velocities with little or no consumption of hydrogen. In contrast, current technology involves the use of catalytic hydrodesulfurization. Recent studies of diesel hydrodesulfurization have shown that to achieve sulfur levels near 15 ppm, many refineries will require processes that operate at pressures near 1000 psia, space velocities less than 1, and hydrogen consumption greater than 500 standard cubic feet per barrel. These stringent process conditions are reflected in high capital investment as high pressures and low space velocities require large vessels with thick walls. In addition, refiners will have to increase hydrogen production capacity. Hydrogen is generally produced by an energy intensive, high temperature, steam-reforming process, which requires large furnaces that produce large amounts of NOx. The proposed process for removal of sulfur from diesel has the potential for dramatic reductions in both capital and utility costs over conventional hydrotreating processes.Development of adsorbent technology for diesel will require significant large-scale continuous pilot plant testing. The pilot plant will produce a desulfurized diesel fuel that will be engine tested by Southwest Research Lab under a test program supervised and reviewed by Ford Motor Company and by Cummins which means that both large and small diesel engines will be included in the study. Pilot plant data will also be used to compare process designs between fixed-bed and fluid-bed adsorbers. The fixed-bed process requires a minimum number of vessels but is challenged by the heating and cooling requirements necessary for regeneration. The fluidized bed solves the heating and cooling problems but requires additional vessels to regenerate the sorbent under controlled and near isothermal conditions. Phillips has commercialized a fluidized-bed sulfur removal process for gasoline, which operates in the vapor phase while a diesel process will operate under conditions that may involve only partially vaporized feed. Pilot plant results will be used for conceptual and feasibility process design. Process economics will be combined with market analysis to determine if the process is competitive with alternative methods.

If the process is feasible and if it shows the expected economic advantages then a pre-commercial demonstration unit will be engineered, built, and operated at a refinery. If the proposed process operates economically and at the levels of sulfur removal observed in preliminary experiments, Phillips anticipates that most major diesel refiners will license the process. Phillips has a licensing organization, in place that already has licensed processes in over 100 different refineries worldwide. This organization would lead the rapid and widespread adoption of a successful process for desulfurization of diesel fuels.

Large reserves of natural gas on the Alaskan North Slope, as well as many proven reserves worldwide, are currently stranded because the cost of development, transportation or conversion to transportable liquid products is too high to be economic. Therefore, Conoco, a global and integrated energy company, plans to unleash the potential of stranded gas with new innovations in gas-to-syngas conversion (CoPox^TM) being developed in the Conoco laboratories). Thus, this huge natural gas resource base can then be converted into high quality, environmentally fuel that can be produced and transported to fuel markets in the United States and around the world at a cost competitive with conventional fuels.

In addition to the technology development portion of this program, Conoco, with support from the participant Steering Committee, will perform comprehensive life-cycle systems analysis for the techno-economic comparison of the fuels and fuel additives considered within this program. A sensitivity analysis will also be run using coal and heavy oil as the feedstock. The life-cycle results from these new technologies will then be compared to the existing fuels such as gasoline and diesel as well as to emerging fuels, such as biodiesel, ethanol, compressed natural gas, liquefied natural gas, and electric vehicles to determine the advantages and disadvantages in costs, emissions, and performance of each option. Specified fuel performance evaluation and emissions testing will be conducted to establish a common basis of comparison using actual full-scale hardware provided by two of the leading diesel engine manufacturers and the leading fuel cell system developer. Each fuel will be tested within the context of both existing and developmental transportation systems, and the fuels will be evaluated on how well they can enter the existing distribution infrastructure.

Many fossil fuels are currently located in hard to access places: restricted oil, gas, and coal deposits, make these resources uneconomical as feedstocks. Other sources, coal fines, refinery wastes, and landfill gases are currently economic burdens and environmental hazards that are generally unusable as energy resources. The ability to move Syntroleum Small Footprint Plants into these locations so that these resources can be converted to an ultra-clean transportation fuel will result in the production of zero-sulfur, zero-aromatic, high cetane fuels that can use existing delivery infrastructures.These fuels have been shown to reduce harmful emissions in stationary vehicular engine tests by substantial amounts. Longer term tests are needed, including over-the-road tests of fleet vehicles, evaluations of after-treatment systems, use of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), and varied injection timing. More extensive testing is particularly relevant to further emissions reduction, increased drive-train efficiency, evaluation of additive packages and fuel blends.An applied research program will examine the overall performance of these possible adjustments and a well-to-wheels economic analysis will be performed to assess what will be the likely market thresholds needed for an eventual substitution of these fuels for fuels which are increasingly derived from costly and "sour" crude. A majority of this crude is imported and their quantities are projected to rise as a result of increased heavy vehicle use. The use of this crude which is higher in sulfur content and thus more difficult to refine will continue to drive well-to-wheel prices higher.This project will demonstrate the effective production, testing, adaptation and use of ultra-clean, domestically-produced fuels that can be delivered by existing fuel infrastructures. These fuels will substitute for current standard diesel, gasoline and military fuels, either as blends or gallon-for gallon substitutes with appropriate additives for engine and climatic conditions. They pose no disruption to the overall fuel production and distribution system and have pronounced advantages, especially for national emergencies and national security.

To perform this project, Integrated Concepts and research Corporation (ICRC) has assembled a team composed of Syntroleum Corporation, a Tulsa, OK petroleum company; Daimler-Chrysler Corporation, a major vehicle and engine manufacturer; West Virginia University; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan Automotive Laboratory; the University of Alaska's Cold Weather Test Facilities, and A.D. Little, a technology market research firm. The team will test fleet vehicles from Denali National Park and Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.

Petro Star, Inc. has assembled a project team to desulfurization (CED) process to remove sulfur from diesel. Alaska Science and Technology Foundation developed a laboratory-based CED process over the past four years. Petro Star is striving to make the CED process cost effective for small and medium sized refineries to compete with standard hydrodesulfurization (HDS) technologies.This project will demonstrate the feasibility of the CED process, engine-test the processed diesel, and design a pilot plant along with an estimate of capital and operating costs for a commercial demonstration plant. Further development of the CED process is needed because environmental regulations are forcing petroleum refineries to meet ultra-low emissions and to comply with the Ultra Clean Transportation Fuels Initiative. Compliance requires the removal of sulfur compounds from fuels used in internal combustion engines and turbines, HDS processes consume large amounts of hydrogen, require exotic catalysts that are easily poisoned and operate under severe temperature and pressure conditions. These conditions result in expensive capital and operating costs along with disposal problems associated with spent catalysts and the by-product formation of elemental sulfur. In addition, HDS cannot remove sulfur from the more complex thiophenic compounds without severe and costly treatment. These increased costs may force small and medium size refineries out of the low-sulfur fuel market.The CED process does not require costly hydrogen processing, high pressures, or high temperatures. The process mildly oxidizes sulfur compounds and removes the compounds by solvent extraction at near-ambient conditions. In addition to removing sulfur, the CED process removes nitrogen- containing compounds and aromatics that adversely affect diesel fuel quality and develop a conversion extraction Petro Star, with the support of the engine emissions.Early cost evaluations indicate that the CED process can be cost-effective for medium and small size refineries manufacturing low-sulfur diesel. Thus, the development of this process will advance the Ultra Clean Fuels Initiative and increase the supply of low-sulfur diesel. The development and commercialization of the CED process will have many benefits. The CED process requires less energy than HDS processing because it does not require the manufacturing of hydrogen or high pressures and temperatures. This results in less air emissions during processing. Refineries can cost effectively incorporate the CED process into their plant to produce low-sulfur diesel. In addition to the positive environmental and economic aspects of the CED process, its development will also support U.S. leadership in the development and licensing of new, environmentally benign, petroleum refining processes.

This proposal will collect laboratory-scale process data, use that data to perform chemical engineering process design and economic evaluations, and design a pilot plant. The project is expected to be completed within 18 months. The final product to the Department of Energy will be a report that documents the success of a bench-scale, continuous-flow CED unit, provide engineering plans for a 50 barrels per standard day (BPSD) pilot plant, and cost estimates for a 5,000 BPSD commercial demonstration plant.

This proposal addresses the challenge of producing an ultra-clean, fossil fuel-based transportation fuel--low-sulfur gasoline -- primarily using existing refinery infrastructure. Most of the sulfur content of currently-manufactured gasoline is contained in only one of the blend streams -- naphtha from the fluid-bed catalytic cracker ("FCC naphtha"). The proposal partners of Research Triangle Institute (RTl) and Kellogg Brown & Root, Inc. (KBR) are focusing their efforts on developing a cost-effective, efficient process to desulfurize this stream. The current driving force for the commercialization of this naphtha desulfurization technology is the enactment of EPA's Tier 2 regulations, which limit the sulfur content of gasoline to a maximum of 30 ppm by 2006.There are existing technologies for FCC naphtha desulfurization that refiners can use to reach the regulatory gasoline sulfur target, but there are a number of problems. High capital and operating cost, as well as yield loss due to the production of low-value byproducts, may result in an unacceptable increase in gasoline price (as much as 5 to 8 C/gal according to some estimates). RTl and KBR have partnered to develop a new process, based on a different process chemistry, to remove the sulfur from FCC naphtha, at substantially lower capital and operating cost.The proposed RTI-KBR process, the Transport Reactor Naphtha Desulfurization (TREND) Process reacts the organic sulfur compounds with a solid sorbent material to remove them from the naphtha. The sulfur is removed from the process, concentrated, and prepared for ultimate disposal by reacting the sulfur-loaded sorbent material with air. By using high-throughput transport reactors instead of fixed- or fluidized-bed reactors, reactor vessel size is minimized and capital cost is reduced. Side reactions that result in yield loss are minimized. Based on the preliminary development to date, the research team believes the technology can be extended for deep desulfunzation, and an ultra-clean transportation fuel with a sulfur content much below the Tier 2 standard can be obtained.

The proposed naphtha desulfurization technology represents a spinoff application of the sorbent-based desulfurization technology developed by DOE's National Energy Technology Laboratory under the Clean Coal Technology Program. The proposed research effort focuses on adapting and optimizing this technology for naphtha desulfurization, and conducting sufficient pilot plant testing to convince gasoline producers of its merits and value. Based on the proposed time schedule for this research effort, commercial deployment of this technology should be ready to aid in achieving compliance with the sulfur restrictions mandated by EPA's Tier 2 regulations.

The oil refining industry today is able to produce ultra-clean transportation fuels using available hydrotreating processes. Unfortunately, it is very expensive for refiners to modify current operations to meet the tighter gasoline and diesel specifications, especially for a proposed limit of 10 ppm sulfur. One of the reasons for the high price is the cost and availability of the large volumes of hydrogen required for hydrotreating. This proposal will describe an innovative new process called HyMelt® which offers the potential to produce large volumes of high-pressure, high-purity hydrogen from fossil fuels, such as petroleum coke, pitch and coal, at a cost much lower than conventional production methods. HyMelt is a patented technology that was invented by Marathon Ashland Petroleum LLC (MAP) and has been licensed to EnviRes LLC. It combines elements of hydrocarbon gasification with steelmaking technology to gasify fossil fuels into separate hydrogen and carbon monoxide product streams.HyMelt has the potential to dramatically improve the conversion efficiency of fossil energy sources to ultra-clean transportation fuels. When processing fossil fuels such as vacuum resid, petroleum coke, and blends of methane and petroleum coke, HyMelt's estimated cold gas efficiencies range from 83 to nearly 88 percent. In contrast, similar analyses of conventional partial oxidation gasification of vacuum resid and steam reforming of methane generate cold gas efficiencies in the range of 70 to 72 percent. Furthermore, HyMelt provides separate high-pressure streams providing sufficient hydrogen for deep hydrotreating. The project intends to demonstrate that hydrotreating both feed to the catalytic cracker and the crackate will yield gasoline and diesel fuels satisfying the most stringent requirements of automobile manufacturers.

Meanwhile, the carbon monoxide-rich stream may be used as a clean fuel substitute for natural gas in the production of electricity. It is projected that a coal-fed HyMelt plant producing hydrogen and electric power from its carbon monoxide stream via an integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) would have sulfur dioxide emissions of only about 0.02 pounds per MWh of power generated, whereas a conventional present day coal-fired boiler (producing the same quantity of hydrogen and power) would generate an estimated 4.24 pounds per MWh. Ina similar comparison, estimated NOx emissions would be 0.17 and 4.09 pounds per MWh for HyMelt and conventional processes, respectively.

The goal of Ford Motor Company's (Ford) participation in the Ultra-Clean Transportation Fuels Program is to explore Topic 3 of the solicitation: the development of innovative emission control systems for advanced compression-ignition direct-injection (ClDI) transportation engines. To support this goal, Ford plans to demonstrate an exhaust emission control system that provides high efficiency particulate matter (PM) and NOx reduction. The high efficiency will be obtained through the use of a particulate filter and the most advanced NOx control available. Very low sulfur diesel fuel will be used to enable low PM emissions, reduce the fuel economy penalty associated with the emission control system, and increase the long-term durability of the system.A prototype vehicle will be built with a mid-size CIDI (diesel) engine that is aimed at the light-duty truck / SUV market. The engine will have the advantages of a potential 40% fuel economy improvement and 20% less CO2 emissions than the current gasoline counterpart, with additional low engine speed torque and increased towing capacity to satisfy the consumers' needs. During the course of this program, the emission control system will be optimized for the highest efficiency possible and its durability will be tested for more than 5000 hours.

With Ford as the prime contractor, the project team will include an emission control technology developer and CIDI engine manufacturer (Ford), a fuel and catalyst technology developer (ExxonMobil), catalyst suppliers, and an outside research facility (FEV). The emission control system developed will address federal NOx and PM emission standards for 2007. The end result will allow vehicles with CIDI engines to be Tier II emissions certified with a minimum fuel economy penalty at a minimum cost to the consumer.