Partial Oxidation Noncatalytic of Heavy Residual Oil

The major reaction during POx of sulfurous heavy oil fractions can be presented by the following generic chemical reaction  

Besides this exothermic reaction, a number of other (both exothermic and endothermic) reactions also occur in the POx reactor including the cracking reaction  

Simplified flow diagram of hydrogen production by POx of sulfurous HRO. 

The resulting water is removed by adsorption and the final product is dry hydrogen with the purity of about 98.6 vol% (the balance CH4, N2, and Ar) at 5.0 MPa. The thermal efficiency of the process is 69.5% [4]. Major disadvantages of the POx process are the need for large quantities of pure oxygen (thus, requiring an expensive air separation plant), and the production of large volumes of C02 emissions (0.53-0.63 Nm3 C02 per Nm3 H2 product). 

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