Fuels & Energy Development
Heavy fuel upgrading
Process simulation
Using practical and dynamic approaches to advance fuels technology, the staff at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) works with clients on every step of process development - from lab-scale to commercial design. With diverse backgrounds in biofuels, gas-to-fuels, petroleum upgrading, and electrochemical processes, our engineers and scientists strive to improve the use of fossil fuels through supporting petroleum and chemical process development for improving costs, efficiency, environmental impacts, and technology advancement.
The Fuels and Energy Development section has expertise in the operation of pilot plant-scale fluidized bed reactors, characterization of alternative fuel products, process simulations, scale-up cost estimates, mass, material, and energy balances, optimization of fuel processes, equipment sizing, and reduction of environmental impacts from fuel extraction and energy production.
Projects in this field have included practical process simulations, novel electrochemistry process development, bitumen/residuum upgrading, product refinement and filtration, operation standardization, and carbon capture and sequestration.
Eloy Flores III, Assistant Manager
Fuels & Energy Development Technical Strengths
- Demonstration Plant Operations
- Chemical Process Investigations
- Process Simulation
- Process Design
- Plant and Pilot Plant Capital Cost Estimates
- Product Refinement
- Process Integration
- Blending and Blending Simulation
- Distillation
- Carbon Capture and Sequestration
- Heavy Oil Upgrading
