7^th World Congress on Petrochemistry and Chemical Engineering November 13-14, 2017 Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Russell R. Chianelli is a professor of Chemistry and Director of the Materials Research and Technology Institute at the University of Texas at El Paso. Formerly at member of Exxon Research and Engineering’s Corporate Research Laboratory, Dr. Chianelli is a world authority on Transition Metal Sulfide Catalytic Materials with over 200 peer reviewed publications and over 60 issued U. S. Patents. His work is highly interdisciplinary and covers theory, experiment and application with commercialization’s based on his work. In 1990 he was the President of the Materials Research Society and scientific leader of the Exxon Valdez oil spill successful bioremediation effort. He has received several recognitions for his work and continues to lead in the understanding of Transition Metal Sulfide catalytic materials and their application to petroleum refining and coal gas catalysis.

The United States, Canada and Mexico are now being called the “New Middle East” because of their huge production of oil and gas from both conventional and shale sources. This new hydrocarbon production produces two waste materials in large quantities: natural gas and tars1. The gas is typically burned away in flares because it is cheaper to burn than to liquefy and sell. A recent NASA study revealed that space stations flying over Siberia reported thousands of flaring oil wells from conventional oil wells, burning as much energy as the East Coast of the United States uses for travel every day2. The same phenomenon has been reported in the western states of the United States (figure 1). Flare gas is typically comprised of approximately 50% methane and 50% CO₂. Catalytic reforming of methane with CO₂ is possible using catalytic materials producing valuable hydrocarbons that are liquid at room temperature. However, his reaction occurs at temperatures near 700^oC. Thus, the cost of implementing this process in petroleum fields is too high. We have developed “Flare quenching” methods using novel catalytic materials for the reforming using solar power to convert the waste to useful products3. The Infrared Spectrum of the liquid products (hydrocarbons and alcohols) is shown in figure2. In the early 1980’s the periodic trends of TMS catalysts on unsupported catalysts were discovered and these results formed the foundation for further basic understanding of the key properties that led to catalytic activity4. Progress has been made by combining synthetic, experimental and theoretical techniques. Theoretical studies support the fact that the d-electrons in the frontier orbitals of the catalysts were key in determining catalysis at the surface. The triumph of this approach was that it unified the promoted TMS systems with the binary TMS and provided a common rational for the activity of both. Novel preparations that enhance activity and selectivity have been developed5. These catalysts have been applied to the solar catalytic reforming project.

Davis L. Ford is an Adjunct Professor in the College of Engineering, the University of Texas at Austin and a Visiting Professor of Petroleum Engineering at Texas Tech University, Lubbock. He is practicing environmental engineer with over forty-five years of experience in the field. In addition, he serves on the faculty at The University of Texas at Austin as an adjunct professor, has published more than one hundred technical papers, has co-authored or contributed to ten textbooks and written two biographies and co-authored one children’s book. He has lectured extensively throughout the United States and in countries of Europe, South America and Asia. Ford received his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering at Texas A&M University and his master and doctorate degrees in environmental engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. He is a Distinguished Engineering Graduate of both Texas A&M University and The University of Texas at Austin as well as a Distinguished Alumnus of Texas A&M. Ford was elected into the prestigious National Academy of Engineering (NAE). He has served as president of the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and chairman of the Academy Ethics Committee. His honorary affiliations include Tau Beta Pi, Sigma Xi and Chi Epsilon. Ford serves on the Board of a publicly-owned oil and exploration company (CWEI, NASDAQ) and the Board of the Texas A&M University Press.

The world is going through a major energy transformation with fossil oil and gas being the primary source. Tight oil and gas is now being extracted at all time highs in the United States, specifically the Texas Delaware formation. Pipelines, recently restricted are now opening up for full development and conveyance to export terminals, refineries and storage for domestic use, import or export. This will have a most significant effect on the united states gdp, providing the crude oil prices stay in the fifty dollar range per bbl. Or higher in 2017 and into the following year. There is a profound interest in this technology in south america, the european demands and other parts of the world. For example, noble energy (nbl, nyse) just completed a purchase of clayton williams energy (nyse, cwei) to now control the drilling leases in over 120,000 acres within the texas delawar basin, all proven and yet to be drilled. This case history and others will be discussed at the aforementioned conference in Atlanta.