Saudi Arabian Oil Company

Christos M Kalamaras

Esam Zaki Hamad

Remi Mahfouz

Tamour Javed

Fethi Khaled

Guanghui Zhu

Maryam M Al-Taher

Fakhar Mehmood

The present disclosure is directed to systems and methods for reforming a hydrocarbon fuel to increase the cetane value of the hydrocarbon fuel. The system includes a microstatic mixer and a microchannel reactor downstream of the microstatic mixer. The microchannel reactor includes a microchannel with an NHPI catalyst coated onto the walls of the microchannel. A hydrocarbon fuel and an oxygen-containing gas are combined and mixed in the microstatic mixer to produce a combined stream and the combined stream is passed through the microchannel. The microchannel reactor includes a heat transfer system. The hydrocarbon fuel and oxygen-containing gas are contacted in the microchannel in the presence of the catalyst at a reaction temperature sufficient to produce a reformed hydrocarbon fuel having a cetane value greater than a cetane value of the starting hydrocarbon fuel.

Microchannel reactors for catalytic oxidation of hydrocarbon fuels

A method for operating an internal combustion engine includes combusting fuel and air within a combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine, thereby forming an exhaust gas, passing the exhaust gas out of the combustion chamber, and performing a startup procedure, the startup procedure including passing the exhaust gas from the combustion chamber through a first aftertreatment system to a pollutant capture unit, capturing criteria pollutants of the exhaust gas with the pollutant capture unit, and heating the first aftertreatment system to a first activation temperature. Subsequent to heating the first aftertreatment system to the first activation temperature a secondary procedure is performed including passing the exhaust gas from the combustion chamber directly to a second aftertreatment system bypassing the pollutant capture unit to heat the second aftertreatment system to a second activation temperature. Subsequently, exhaust gas is passed through the pollutant capture unit to desorb captured criteria pollutants.

Internal combustion engine systems including intermittent sorbent usage for emission reduction

A thermal diffusion unit is fluidly connected to a combustion engine via a flue line. The thermal diffusion unit has a plurality of plates assembled in a parallel configuration, including a pair of heating plates having a heating fluid gap extending therebetween and a pair of cooling plates having a cooling fluid gap extending therebetween. A diffusion sheet is positioned between the pair of heating plates and the pair of cooling plates, such that the diffusion sheet interfaces on a first side with one of the heating plates and interfaces on an opposite side with one of the cooling plates. The diffusion sheet includes a plurality of interconnected thermal diffusion cells arranged in a repeating pattern, at least one heated passage fluidly connecting adjacent thermal diffusion cells, and at least one cooled passage fluidly connecting adjacent thermal diffusion cells.

Exhaust gas treatment by thermal diffusion

Systems and methods for treating automotive vehicle emissions on board an automotive vehicle include the use of waste heat recovery, electrochemical water splitting, phototcatalytic water splitting, and selective catalytic reduction. Waste heat recovery is used to power electrochemical water splitting, or photocatalytic water splitting. Photons collected from a solar panel are used in photocatalytic water splitting, or in photo-assisted selective catalytic reduction. Hydrogen gas generated by water splitting is used in conjunction with catalytic reduction units to catalytically reduce NOx in an engine exhaust gas.

Thermal- and photo-assisted aftertreatment of nitrogen oxides

Marine engine exhaust includes pollutants such as CO, NOand SO. An onboard system and method for the simultaneous removal of these pollutants includes obtaining seawater from the water on which the marine vessel travels, purifying the seawater to remove a portion of hard ions, concentrating the seawater to yield a concentrated brine solution, treating the concentrated brine solution with a chemical softener to yield a treated brine solution, acidifying the treated brine solution, and utilizing the acidified brine solution in a chlor-alkali process to yield sodium hydroxide. The sodium hydroxide can be used in an acid gas scrubber to remove CO, NO, and SOfrom the marine engine exhaust gas.

Multi-pollutant exhaust treatment using seawater for marine applications

The present disclosure relates to a vehicle, system, and method for on-board catalytic upgrading of hydrocarbon fuels. In accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure, a vehicle may include, amongst other things, an internal combustion engine configured to provide motive force to the vehicle, an unreformed fuel subsystem, a reformed fuel subsystem, and a fuel system control architecture. The unreformed fuel subsystem may be structurally configured to transfer unreformed hydrocarbon fuel from the on-board point-of-sale fuel tank to the internal combustion engine. The reformed fuel subsystem may be structurally configured to reform hydrocarbon fuel from the on-board point-of-sale fuel tank and transfer reformed fuel to the internal combustion engine along a reformed fuel supply pathway separated from the unreformed fuel supply pathway. The fuel system control architecture may include a reformate flow control device and a cetane rating controller. The cetane rating controller and the reformate flow control device may cooperate to deliver an upgraded hydrocarbon fuel to a combustion zone of the internal combustion engine.

System and method for on-board catalytic upgrading of hydrocarbon fuels

Marine engine exhaust includes pollutants such as CO, NOand SO. An on-board system and method for the simultaneous removal of these pollutants includes obtaining seawater from the water on which the marine vessel travels, purifying the seawater to remove a portion of hard ions, concentrating the seawater to yield a concentrated brine solution, treating the concentrated brine solution with a chemical softener to yield a treated brine solution, acidifying the treated brine solution, and utilizing the acidified brine solution in a chlor-alkali process to yield sodium hydroxide. The sodium hydroxide can be used in an acid gas scrubber to remove CO, NO, and SOfrom the marine engine exhaust gas.

An on-board fuel separation system includes a supply fuel tank configured to store an input fuel stream; a fuel separator fluidly coupled to the supply fuel tank and configured to separate the input fuel stream into a first fractional fuel stream and a second fractional fuel stream. The fuel separator includes a membrane that includes a plurality of pores sized based on a molecular size of one or more components of the first fractional fuel stream. The system includes a first fractional fuel tank fluidly coupled to the fuel separator to receive the first fractional fuel stream passed through the membrane and defined by a first auto-ignition characteristic value. The system includes a second fractional fuel stream coupled to the fuel separator to receive the second fractional fuel stream from the fuel separator that is defined by a second auto-ignition characteristic value that is different than the first auto-ignition characteristic value.

Growing community of inventors

Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia

Christos M Kalamaras