Author: Giovanni Franchi-Chemical Engineer – PhD Student –University UCBM – Rome (Italy)   1. Theme Description The IEA estimated, in the“Medium-Term Oil Market Report 2016”, that oil demand will increase from 94.4Mbbl/day in 2015 up to 101.6 Mbbl/day in 2021 with a mean annual growth of 1.2% dragged by Asia and Middle East.[1]However, in last […]

Authors: Marcello De Falco – Associate Professor – University “Campus Bio-Medico” of Rome. Mauro Capocelli – Researcher – University “Campus Bio-Medico” of Rome.     Theme description In the refinery sector, both the fuel and the feedstock market as well as the more stringent environmental regulations are exacerbating the need of maximizing the residue conversion […]

Author: Marcello De Falco, Associate Professor, University UCBM – Rome (Italy)   1.Theme Description Catalysts are substances used to speed-up chemical reactions or to selectively drive the desired reaction to promote maximum efficiency. They can be homogeneous or heterogeneous, that is they can be in the same aggregation state of one or more reagents or […]

Author: Elvirosa Brancaccio – Serintel Srl – Rome (Italy)   1. Introduction Gas-to-liquids (GTL) is a technology that enables the production of clean-burning diesel fuel, liquid petroleum gas, base oil and naphtha from natural gas. The GTL process transforms natural gas into very clean diesel fuel because products are colorless and odorless hydrocarbons with very […]

  Author: Mauro Capocelli – Chemical Engineer – Researcher –University UCBM – Rome (Italy)     1.Theme Description The presence of sulfur compounds in fuel oils causes concern both during refining processes (due to catalyst deactivation and corrosion) and during the fuel end-use, since the fuel combustion generates the emission of oxides. The main environmental […]

Author: Mauro Capocelli – Chemical Engineer – Researcher –University UCBM – Rome (Italy)   1. Theme Description Polymers are widespread in different sectors, from packaging to construction. As shown in Figure 1, polymer production reached about 400 Mton in 2015[1] and is expected to grow with a CAGR of 3.9% in the period 2015-2020.[2]The production […]

Author: Giovanni Franchi-Chemical Engineer-PhD Student -University UCBM – Rome (Italy)   1.Theme Description World oil demand is growing steadily. Today it reaches about 100 million b/d[1]. Conventional oil reserves are about 1/3 of the non-conventional ones[2] such as: heavy oil, tight oil, shale gas, methane hydrates etc. These resources are deployed on extensive areas and […]

  Author: Giovanni Franchi-Chemical Engineer – PhD Student –University UCBM – Rome (Italy)   1.Theme Description The world production of chemicals in 2020 will increase of 144 Million of metric tons[1] with a market of 4.650 US$ billion.[2] Automation and Process Control have a pivotal role in industrial plants, indeed, they allow to improve products […]

Author: Giovanni Franchi-Chemical Engineer – PhD Student –University UCBM – Rome (Italy)   1.Theme Description Energy use grew up from 4.6 Mtoe[1] in 1973 to 13.4 Mtoe in 2012.Total final energy consumption decreased in Europe while it increased in non-OECD countries, reaching a further 1.3% in 2014 (i.e China 3.1% and 4.3% in India).[2],[3] Figure […]

Author: Mauro Capocelli – Researcher –University UCBM – Rome (Italy)     1.Theme Description Catalysts are compounds use for increasing the velocity of a specific reaction by reducing the activation energy.[1] This brings down temperature/pressure of the processes saving fuel. Catalysts can be homogenous or heterogenous depending on the phase involved in the reactions (i.e. […]