Cláudia do Rosário Vaz Morgado

Technical, Economic and Environmental Viability of Offshore CO2 Reuse from Natural Gas by Dry Reforming

The recent discoveries of Pre-Salt layers in Brazil require process developments for enhanced sustainability as these reservoirs have oil with associated natural gas exhibiting an expressive amount of CO2 [1,2]. The challenge is thus to expand the supply of this fossil raw material to produce energy and chemicals in a carbon-constrained economy. In this scenario, CO2 capture and reuse techniques are important routes for a moderate transition from the present fossil-based economy to a long-term sustainable future. This work evaluates two process alternatives for a floating unit consisting of physical absorption of CO2 from natural gas, with propylene carbonate, producing a natural gas stream poor in CO2 and a stream consisting of a mixture of CO2 and hydrocarbons. Two alternatives are evaluated for processing the CO2 rich stream to yield methanol. Technical, economic and environmental analyses of the process flowsheets are performed for comparison purposes. Alternative 1 combines dry and steam reforming in one reactor (one pot reactor, Bi-Reforming), while Alternative 2 segregates the two reactions: dry reforming (Dry-Reforming) occurs in one reactor and water gas-shift reaction takes place in a subsequent reactor. The two Alternatives are evaluated with ASPEN HYSYS® (ASPENTECH Inc) simulator for calculation of energy and mass balances necessary to assess economic and environment performances. The economic evaluation employed the software Capital Cost Estimation (CAPCOST) for calculations of CAPEX and OPEX. The software Waste Reduction Algorithm (WAR, EPA) was used to evaluate the potential environmental impacts, by PEI (Potential Environmental Impact). Results indicate that the performance of Alternative 1 was better than Alternative 2: (a) methanol production (17905 kg/h) 4 times higher, (b) CAPEX (U

Carbon Capture and Geological Storage (CCS) in Brazil as a Project under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)

75.497.127), 21,7% lower, (c) Sales Revenue (U

Audit Methodology for Environmental Safety in Offshore Systems: An Integrated Approach of Brazilian Regulatory Systems

144,890,686) 181% greater, and (d) the index for environment impact (868 PEI/hr) 47,7% lower.

Offshore Oil Spill Incidents in Brazil

GHGs can be subdivided into two groups: those present in the atmosphere since before the industrial revolution and those that are chemical compounds created and produced by humans. The first group includes carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O), whose concentrations in the atmosphere have been rising as a consequence of intensification of human activity. The second group includes perfluorocarbons (PFCs), chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), hydrofluorcarbons (HFCs), hydrofluorchlorocarbons (HCFCs) and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6). Each of these gases has a different potential to absorb infrared radiation.

Environmental Risk Assessment for Offshore E&P Activities in Brazil

The carbon capture and geological storage technology (CCGS) is an efficient way of reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. With the inclusion of CCGS as Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project activity, companies will invest more on CCGS projects due to the possibility of generating Certificated Emission Reduction (CER). This paper study the economic feasibility of a CCGS project as a CDM activity, applied to the Campos Basin in Brazil, considering all annual costs related to capture, transport and storage and the revenue originated from the sale of CERs and the extra oil that only could be produced through enhanced oil recovery (EOR).

Metrics for sustainability analysis of post-combustion abatement of CO2 emissions: microalgae mediated routes and CCS (carbon capture and storage).

ABSTRACT Brazil has performed an important role in the oil and gas industry mainly because its offshore E&P activities. The volume of oil produced in offshore fields had increased 88% in the last d...

Land use change (LUC) analysis and life cycle assessment (LCA) of Brazilian soybean biodiesel

This paper presents a methodology that will provide subsidies for offshore companies to perform an audit of their facilities optimized because it contemplates the current legislation requirements on environmental issues, risk management, quality, process safety, occupational safety and health worker. Along the auditing process, organizations are forced to deal with other concerns, such as man-hours used only for monitoring of audits, infrastructure for carrying out various audits, difficulty in developing, implementing and monitoring of action plans of nonconformities generated from several audits which are submitted throughout the year. A systematic audit optimized integrated will be a fundamental tool for internal management of companies in the offshore segment as to its legal and managerial aspects, which will greatly influence the foundation for decision making, as well as enable the identification of opportunities for improvement in the management of health, safety and environmental (HSE), development and implementation of processes and procedures, allowing a prior diagnosis of their facilities before the existing government audits which occur in facility life .

Assessment of greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions from the tallow biodiesel production chain including land use change (LUC)

Brazil has performed an important role in the oil and gas industry mainly because its offshore E&P activities. The volume of oil produced in offshore fields had increased 88% in the last decade. Although the offshore exploration had begun in the 70’s of the last year, only in the year 2000 was promulgated a law enforcing the companies to notify any accidental release to the environment. Besides the Brazilian Navy and the National Petroleum Agency, the Brazilian Federal Environmental Agency - IBAMA is entitled to receive these notifications. Although IBAMA receives the oil spill communications since 2001, only in 2010 the Agency began to include this information in a database. This paper discusses the offshore oil spill data received between 2010 and 2011.