Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Degree

Master of Engineering Science

Program

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

Supervisor

Dr. Franco Berruti

2nd Supervisor

Dr. Cedric Briens

Joint Supervisor

Abstract

Atmospheric Reduced crude (ARC) was co-pyrolyzed with 23-44 dry wt. % birchwood bio-oil at 480-530°C in a mechanically fluidized reactor (MFR) to investigate the feasibility of integrating bio-oil with heavy petroleum feedstocks into a Fluid CokerTM. The liquid products of the bio-oil and ARC were predominately segregated into two separate phases. The product yields of valuable petroleum liquid products were significantly reduced during co-pyrolysis when compared to the pyrolysis of ARC.

The effects of removing the aqueous phase of bio-oil before co-pyrolysis were investigated by separating the aqueous phase from birchwood bio-oil utilizing a novel co-distillation technique with ARC. The resulting 19-29 wt. % bio-oil distillation residues were pyrolyzed in a MFR at 480-500°C. The pyrolyzed distillation residues resulted in higher valuable liquid yields with significantly lower water contents when compared to the co-pyrolysis bio-oil and ARC. Valuable liquid yields were lower when compared to the pyrolysis of ARC.

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