| Abstract | The relatively high sulfur content of coke produced during the upgrading of Athabasca bitumen, makes it environmentally unsuitable as a fuel. We have attempted to coagglomerate these cokes with sulphur dioxide capture agents such as: lime, hydrated lime and limestone in an attempt to reduce emissions during combustion. By providing an environment where there is intimate contact between fuel and sorbent it was hoped that greater utilisation of the sorbent could be achieved, compared to fluid bed combustion, where the sorbent is added separately to the bed. Cokes from both Suncor and Syncrude operations were used in this investigation. The effect of conditioning agents such as sodium hydroxide, sodium oleate, and a petroleum sulfonate on the formation of coke oil agglomerates as well as on the efficiency of sulfur dioxide capture was also investigated. Sulfur dioxide capture was found to depend mainly on the calcium to sufur mole ratio in the agglomerates, the combustion temperature, partial pressure of oxygen, and the type of coke and sorbent. The efficiency of the three capture agents in the reduction of sulfur dioxide emissions, has been compared. |
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