12-07-2018

Additional R&D for petroleum coke to synthetic crude oil gasification continues

MGX Minerals Inc and Highbury Energy Inc, are pleased to report additional work has commenced on gasification of petroleum coke (“petcoke”), an oilsands and refinery by-product, into a synthetic liquid equivalent to refinery crude oil feedstock. The expanded research and development is focused on the re-processing of petcoke waste product to a synthetic crude oil. The target specification is being designed to allow for reuse of petcoke into a primary input equivalent to crude oil that can be upgraded into petro-chemical products in a traditional refinery without any modification to existing equipment. The goal is to produce a fuel which can seamlessly integrate into existing refinery operations. This represents a potential long-term use for the large existing stockpiles of petcoke as well as ongoing output of petcoke and other waste products without significant changes to the existing refinery infrastructure. To date work has been focused on petcoke to hydrogen gas output and the extraction of metals from the gasification of the residual ash, in particular vanadium, nickel, and cobalt.

Petroleum Coke in Alberta
Petcoke is a carbon material by-product of the oil and gas industry that forms during the oil refining process. As refineries have become more efficient at processing extra heavy crude oils (bitumen) over the last two decades, output of Petcoke globally has risen significantly. Because Petcoke originates from heavier petroleum fractions, its denser impurities such as metals and sulphur compounds are concentrated in it.

The majority of Canadian Petcoke output occurs in close proximity to oil sand producing regions, where bitumen is upgraded into synthetic crude oil. Specifically, the Province of Alberta is known to host vast stockpiles of Petcoke. According to the Alberta Energy Regulator, petcoke inventories are estimated to have reached 106 million tonnes in 2016.