Engineering Commons^™

Modeling Of Rotary Packed Beds For Reactive And Non-Reactive Systems, Chinyere Evangeline Ezeobinwune

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Rotary packed beds (RPBs) are used in a wide range of reactive and non-reactive applications. In this research, a 2-d, first-principles, dynamic model of a non-reactive RPB that is used for heat exchange between the outgoing flue gas from a power plant and the incoming air to the boiler/pulverizer of the power plant is developed. A 2-d, first-principles model of a reactive RPB is developed where a functionalized metal-organic framework (MOF) is used for CO₂ capture.

For the non-reactive system, a Ljungstrom-type air preheater (APH) is considered. Existing models for these rotating heat exchangers are typically 1-d. There are …

Review Of Established And Emergent Methods For The Production Of C4 Olefins, James Matthew Koval

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Current production of C₄ olefins is dominated by naphtha cracking and butane dehydrogenation, but significant research interest is developing in alternate feedstocks due to an abundance of inexpensive natural gas and bioethanol. The current C₄ olefin production methods are costly, make use of already-depleted petroleum resources, and are often hazardous to workers, which forms the impetus for investigation into alternative methods and assessment of their viability as a future means of olefin production. Methods of natural gas conversion to higher order hydrocarbons are discussed, including Fischer-Tropsch synthesis and oxidative methane coupling, each of which could form the first …

Process Development Of Shale Gas Assisted Lignin And Biomass Reforming Through Novel Reaction Pathway And Catalyst Design To Produce Hydrogen Rich Syngas For Fuels And Value Added Chemicals, Amoolya D. Lalsare

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Novel biomass reforming strategy through synergistic co-processing with flare gas (methane and carbon dioxide) was developed at West Virginia University. Hardwood biomass comprised of lignin, hemicellulose, and cellulose is abundant in the US and potentially a sustainable source of hydrogen through extensive reforming and gasification. Ever-increasing shale gas production in the US occasionally leads to flaring owing to stranded production across the US. Achieving biomass co-processing with natural gas about to be flared in such stranded shale plays is the underlying motivation here. A novel reaction pathway was discovered wherein methane and carbon dioxide assisted reforming of biomass could be …

Process Modeling And Techno-Economic Analysis Of Thermo-Catalytic Dimethyl Ether Synthesis And Microwave-Based Aromatics Production Technologies From Shale Gas, Chirag Mevawala

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Production of dimethyl ether (DME) and direct non-oxidative methane dehydroaromatization (DHA) to aromatics via conventional and microwave (MW)-assisted processes are investigated in this research. Plant-wide models of the shale gas to DME process with integrated CO₂ capture via direct and indirect synthesis routes have been developed. Optimal parameter estimation, and model validation are undertaken for various sections of the process including the pre-reforming reactor, auto-thermal reforming reactor, DME synthesis reactors, CO₂ capture units and separation sections. A novel DME separation process has been developed for efficient separation of DME, syngas, and CO₂. Plant-wide techno-economic optimization is …

Development Of A Sustainability Evaluation And Control Framework For Chemical Processes, Shuyun Li

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Industry, government, and society have begun to shift from economic stand-alone focus to the inclusion of sustainability in the decision-making process. This shift can be attributed to the growing environmental and social awareness that makes consumers and stakeholders not only care about product quality and cost, but also products and processes that minimize the environmental impact and conserve natural resources. As a result, some progress has been made in recognizing and understanding the challenges of sustainable development, which helps evaluating the sustainability performance of a specific process/product. In particular, sustainability assessment tools and methodologies have been developed to help the …

Impact Of Natural Fracture Induced Elastic Anisotropy On Completion And Hydraulic Fracturing Designs, Emre Can Dundar

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Shale has been usually recognized as a transverse isotropic (TI) medium in conventional geomechanical log interpretation due to its laminated nature. However, when natural fractures (NFs) exist in the rock body, additional elastic anisotropy can be introduced, converting Shale to an orthorhombic (OB) medium. Previous study illustrates that treating the naturally fractured shale rock as a TI medium by ignoring the NF-induced anisotropy can cause the erroneous estimation of the geomechanical properties (i.e. Young’s modulus, Poisson’s ratio, brittleness index, and etc.) and in-situ stress. In this paper, the study is extended to quantify the impact of NF-induced elastic anisotropy on …

Development Of A Dynamic Model And Control System For Load-Following Operation Of Supercritical Pulverized Coal Power Plants, Parikshit S. Sarda

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Thermal power plants that have been designed to operate at their rated capacity are being forced to cycle their load and operate under low-load condition to meet changing load demands due to the increased penetration of renewables into the electric grid. The rapid load-following operation is leading to challenging control problems. The goal of this research is to develop dynamic model and control system for efficient load-following operation. The focus of this work is on supercritical pulverized coal (SCPC) power plants. The steady-state model is developed using Aspen Plus and Aspen Custom Modeler and then converted to a pressure-driven Aspen …

Confirmation Of Data-Driven Reservoir Modeling Using Numerical Reservoir Simulation, Al Hasan Mohamed Al Haifi

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Data driven reservoir modeling, also known as Top-Down Model (TDM), is an alternative to the traditional numerical reservoir simulation technique. Data driven reservoir modeling is a new technology that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to build full-field reservoir models using field measurements (data - facts) instead of mathematical formulations that represent our current understanding of the physics of the fluid flow through porous media. TDM combines all field measurements into a comprehensive reservoir model to predict the production from each well in a field with multiple wells.

There are many opinions, speculations and criticism about not using the physics-based …

Design And Implementation Of Model Predictive Control Strategies For Improved Power Plant Cycling, Xin He

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Design and Implementation of Model Predictive Control Strategies for Improved Power Plant Cycling

Xin He

With the increasing focus on renewable energy sources, traditional power plants such as coal-fired power plants will have to cycle their load to accommodate the penetration of renewables into the power grid. Significant overshooting and oscillatory performance may occur during cycling operations if classical feedback control strategies are employed for plantwide control. To minimize the impact when power plants are operating away from their designed conditions, model-based optimal control strategies would need to be developed for improved power plant performance during cycling.

In this thesis, …

Design Of Geothermal District Heating And Cooling System For The West Virginia University, Oluwasogo Bolaji Alonge

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Recent Appalachian Basin Geothermal Play Fairway Analysis estimated elevated heat flows in north-central West Virginia. This region provides an optimal and unique combination of elevated temperatures and flow necessary for geothermal development along with year-round surface demand for heating and cooling on the campus. Therefore, West Virginia University’s (WVU’s) Morgantown campus has been identified as a prime location in the eastern United States for the development of a geothermal direct-use heating and cooling application. The objective of this study was to perform a feasibility analysis for the development of a geothermal district heating and cooling (GDHC) system for WVU campus …

Online Model Predictive Control Of A Nonisothermal And Nonisobaric Membrane Reactor For Water-Gas Shift Reaction Applications, Jacob Martin Douglas

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Online Model Predictive Control of a Nonisothermal and Nonisobaric Membrane Reactor for Water-Gas Shift Reaction Applications Jacob M. Douglas Modern hydrogen production units are tasked with producing the most hydrogen possible while dealing with flow variations caused by changing power demands. Classical methods for hydrogen production employing the water-gas shift reaction are governed by equilibrium limitations that take effect at high temperatures and high concentrations of H2 (Georgis, et al., 2014). The implementation of a membrane reactor with temperature control enables the hydrogen concentration and temperature to reach an equilibrium at a higher concentration of H2. Another challenge that is …

Mechanism Study Of Shale Gas Conversion Via Chemical Looping And Heterocatalytic Processes, Lei Bai

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The shale gas revolution has significantly changed the energy landscape in US. The technical-feasible, energy-effective schemes for shale gas combustion and utilization, especially from remote resources, have attracted increasing interest due to expensive transportation/distribution cost. In this research, for the first time, chemical looping combustion (CLC) of methane with inherent CO₂ capture, oxidative coupling of methane (OCM) and dehydro-aromatization (DHA) of ethane are systematically studied as promising alternatives at O₂-rich, O₂-lean and non-oxidative conditions, respectively.

Chemical looping combustion is bridging clean fuel combustion in energy production with inherent CO₂ capture. CLC utilized an oxygen …

New Method Of Manufacturing Carbon Foam, Matthew D. Artimez

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Carbon foam is a product that has some unique features. Carbon foam is a light weight material that has a high crush strength. It is electrically conductive, but because it is composed of air space between the tendrils, it is not a thermal conductor. Since it contains no volatile content, it is noncombustible. All these features allow carbon foam to have many modern applications. Currently, there are only three methods of producing carbon foam, and all three are not cost- efficient enough to meet the demand of potential new markets.

In this thesis, a new procedure of producing carbon foam …

Using Artificial Intelligence And Machine Learning To Develop Synthetic Well Logs, Marwan Mohammed Alnuaimi

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

There has been an increase in the need for energy in the recent past. Oil and gas stand as the source of energy that are widely used. The oil and gas reservoirs are targeted for the purposes of field development. The conventional methods of reservoir characteristics require computing techniques that are unique and complex, some of which are labor and time intensive. Mohaghegh argues that all efforts must be tried and made possible to apply Petroleum Data analytics in production and management of reservoir so as to earn a maximum return (Mohaghegh, Shale Analytics, 2017). Different methodologies have been applied …

Investigation Of Combustion Characteristics Of A Heavy-Duty Diesel Engine Retrofitted To Natural Gas Spark Ignition Operation, Jinlong Liu

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The conversion of existing diesel engines to natural-gas spark ignition operation by adding a gas injector in the intake manifold for fuel delivery and replacing the diesel fuel injector with a spark plug to initiate and control the combustion process can reduce U.S. dependence on petroleum imports and curtail engine-out emissions. As the conventional diesel combustion chamber (i.e., flat head and bowl-in-piston) creates high turbulence, the engine can operate leaner, which would increase its efficiency and reduce emissions. However, natural gas combustion in such retrofitted engines presents differences compared to that in conventional spark ignited engines. Subsequently, the main goal …

Applications Of Cellular Components In Engineered Environments, Xiao Hu

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Manipulation of cellular components in synthetic environment has attracted interest for applications ranging from sensors to nanelectronics and from catalysis to biomedical devices. In such applications, biological-based processes such as specific recognition and self-assembly direct the formation of hierarchical structures, all at minimum energetic costs, with high efficiency and reliability.

Among such cellular machines, microtubules and kinesins have attracted special interest. Inside the cells, microtubules are giving structural integrity while serving as regular and uniform tracks for transport of vesicles or organelles. Kinesin uses a microtubule track in vivo to progress to specific locations with processive and coordinated steps, all …

Analysis Of The Production Data From Marcellus Shale Wells, Amanda Parrish

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The increasingly prevalent practice of unconventional technologies has called for the need for the critical analysis of production decline rates to meet economic targets. The high early time production returns and transient flow make matching a production curve to known methods of decline curve analysis problematic.

This research focuses on finding a technique that best fits a known production curve and then applying that technique to another well to check its accuracy. The goal is to find the earliest time of production data necessary to predict an accurate production curve over the lifespan of the well. This is essential to …

Dynamic Model And Estimator Development For A Smart Refractory Brick With Embedded Wireless Sensors For Gasifier Applications, Qiao Huang

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The operating temperature is one of the most important variables for gasifier operation. A higher temperature can shorten the service life of the refractory lining. A lower temperature can reduce the extent of carbon conversion and disrupt the flow of molten slag in a slagging gasifier. Therefore temperature is one of the most important variable in a gasifier. In slagging gasifiers, molten slag can penetrate into the refractory lining leading to refractory spallation, undesired downtime, and costly replacement. Even though the temperature and extent of slag penetration are extremely important for the gasifier operation, they cannot be measured reliably by …