Imperial Consultants are to coordinate an Industry Engagement Programme as part of a newly approved £9.3 million project to make oil refining in Russia more efficient and environmentally sustainable.
Adapted from an Imperial College London news story by Colin Smith.
The Skolkovo Foundation has given official approval for the establishment of a Center of Applied Research on Heat Exchange and Catalysis, involving Imperial College London, theBoreskov Institute of Catalysis and BP. Researchers at the Center will run the UNIHEAT project, which will focus on increasing energy efficiency and reducing heat loss in oil refining by up to 15% by improving refining operations, enhancing oil production processes, and reducing CO2 emissions. The £9.3m Center will be funded by the Skolkovo Foundation and BP Russia.
The three-year project will see Imperial Consultants, the College’s knowledge transfer and consultancy company, setting up an office in Moscow to engage with industry in the country and to coordinate Imperial researchers who will be carrying out workshops and seminars with refiners about how to optimise their refining processes.
Mr Paul Docx, CEO of Imperial Consultants and Coordinator of the UNIHEAT Industry Engagement Programme, said: “From the very outset of the project, Imperial Consultants will be facilitating interactions between Russian businesses and researchers. This unique industrial engagement programme, whereby knowledge transfer activities are run in parallel with research, will ensure that advances in oil refining processes have immediate impact.”
The College will play a key role in the consortium, carrying out research to find ways of reducing heat loss by improving the design of heat exchange equipment and energy recovery networks within refineries.
One of the major problems that consortium partners will focus on is crude oil fouling - the largest cause of heat loss in the refining process. This happens when oil impurities are deposited in piping, causing corrosion and wear. The build up of deposits can lead to oil production losses and additional fuel being burnt in the refining process. The fouling also causes increases in CO2 emissions and significant operational and safety problems, with large economic impact.
Imperial’s academics will build on research they are already carrying out, using technology that they have developed, and computer modelling and simulations to investigate in more detail how fouling occurs, so that they can determine the best ways of reducing it.
Professor Sandro Macchietto, Chair of the UNIHEAT Steering Committee and Joint Project Director, from the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London, said: “Imperial has a strong track record of working with industry around the world to find innovative solutions to make the refining process more efficient and sustainable. This is one of the first projects of this kind in Russia to kick off. We hope it will lead to real efficiencies in the sector and help us to make the refining process as environmentally friendly as possible.”
Tatiana Schofield, Business Development Manager for Imperial Consultants, said: “Imperial Consultants has been instrumental in establishing links with the Skolkovo Foundation, promoting available research opportunities internally and leading technical proposal preparation, negotiation and proposal submission processes.”
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Source: Imperial-Consultants.Co.Uk