Adsorption of heavy hydrocarbons for the purpose of hydrogen production

To date, the most common process for hydrogen generation used in upgrading of heavy hydrocarbons is Steam Reforming of natural gas and/or naphtha. Nevertheless, natural gas and naphtha have much better alternative uses. Moreover, bitumen upgrading using hydrogen generated from Steam Reforming of natural gas and/or naphtha increases upgrading cost significantly. An alternative and cost effective process for hydrogen production can be gasification of the heaviest hydrocarbon molecules, preferably the ones closest to instability, at low temperature after selectively removing them from the heavy oil stream.;The objective of this thesis was to design inexpensive, thermally stable macro porous selective adsorbents with catalytic active phases capable of steam reforming adsorbed heavy hydrocarbons by attacking them from multiple surface sites with the oxygen coming from water splitting. Ideally, the oxidation product would preferably be CO2 in order to ensure maximum H 2 production. The macroporous adsorbent should be prepared at low cost, tolerant to steam and to the severity of gasification conditions as well as capable of accumulating metals present in the feedstock with minor negative impact on the performance. Another objective of this thesis was to accelerate the development of the process by using commercially available model molecules with similar defining asphaltenes characteristics to test their adsorption on the designed solid. This thesis demonstrated, at a conceptual level and laboratory scale, the viability of the proposed upgrading scheme comprising the integrated converted asphaltenes retention and hydrogen production processes at temperatures as low as 600°C.