In the Department of Chemical Engineering at SINTEF Applied Chemistry a group of six research scientists are involved in the strong point center PROST. The group, which from 1996 is lead by Thor Mejdell, consists of the following persons:
| Name | Telephone | |
| Dr. ing. Thor Megdell | +47 735 94128 | Thor.Mejdell@kjemi.sintef.no |
| Dr. ing. Magne Lysberg | +47 735 94123 | Magne.Lysberg@kjemi.sintef.no |
| Siv ing. Trude Sundset | +47 735 92811 | Trude.Sundset@kjemi.sintef.no |
| Siv ing. Terje Strøm | +47 735 92812 | Terje.Strom@kjemi.sintef.no |
| Siv ing. Jostein Sogge | +47 735 92834 | Jostein.Sogge@kjemi.sintef.no |
| Dr. ing. Torbjørn Pettersen | +47 735 94492 | Torbjorn.Pettersen@kjemi.sintef.no |
Torbjørn Pettersen has held a post.doc. position the fall 1995 but will be permanently appointed at the department from January 1996. Trude Sundset has a maternity leave from October 1995 to July 1996. Jostein Sogge will leave the group for a position in Reinertsen Engineering in March 1996.
Sundset, Sogge, Strøm and Pettersen have been integrated with the group of Prof. Kristian Lien, Lysberg and Mejdell with the group of Prof. Terje Hertzberg, and Mejdell also with the group of Prof. Sigurd Skogestad.
Below are the project activities in the group listed. Some of the projects involved researchers from two other groups in the department, - the reactor technology group and the separation technology group.
Process evaluation of synthesis gas production: (Strøm, Sogge).
This project, which was founded by the Norwegian Research Council, was a technical/economic comparison between membrane reactor technology and conventional technology. The study was divided into 3 parts:
One important conclusion was that membrane reactors make it possible to operate the reactor at 2 -300 degrees lower temperature compared to conventional reformers. The economy is promising for hydrogen production, but less so for methanol plants.
Design and optimization of membrane permeator processes.(Pettersen, Strøm)
The work is related to design of membrane processes for off-shore applications, and is performed together with a Norwegian membrane system supplier.
Comparison of various processes for removing impurities from coal. (Sogge)
This project was in particular concerned with determining the suitability of the Gravimelt process.
Evaluation of current natural gas projects in STATOIL (Sundset,Sogge) Evaluation and comparison of different concepts for natural gas conversion and transportation.
Reactor Toolbox (Lysberg, Mejdell, Grislingås)
The objective of this project is to build a flexible and user-friendly software-package for reactor simulation. The project is performed in co-operation with Statoil.
Kinmod (Mejdell, Herzberg)
This project has two objectives:
It is supported by NRC and is performed in co-operation with Hydro, Statoil, and the Department of Catalysis and Reaction Kinetics at SINTEF Applied Chemistry.
Fluidized bed reactors (Lysberg., Mejdell)
This is a joint project with Hydro, Statoil and Tel-Tek, and it is supported by NRC. The activities consist of
Modeling of turbulent fluidized reactor(Lysberg)
The work was performed for Hydro. The model consist of a one dimensional dispersion model with heat exchange and was implemented in Matlab. Extruding ruminant feed.(Mejdell, Lysberg)
The objective in this project is to control and improve the quality of ruminant feed in an expander process. The expander treatment, increases the bypass of protein in the rumen. A mathematical model of the expander was developed in Matlab.
Project initialization and industrial contacts:
Design of membrane reactor processes for steam reforming.(Pettersen, Strøm)
This is a part of an EU project proposal on testing membrane reactors for synthesis gas production by steam reforming. The project, which is coordinated by Rune Bredesen, SINTEF Materials Technology, was submitted and approved within the Framework Program IV.
Norsk Hydro is one of the industrial partners in the project. Our task will be to perform design and technical/economic evaluations on the membrane reactor processes.
Integrating industrial plants
We think there is a potential for better utilization of mass and energy-streams in many process plants and especially between plants located close to each other. A project outline with three examples was worked out and discussed with people from industry (PIL, LO, Statoil, Odda). The proposal was met with great interest, but it has so far not been possible to get any financial support.
Energy recovery in Aluminia-industry
The project is proposed in co-operation with Hydro in Årdal and will start in 1996.
Reactor technology in the petrochemistry and polymer industry.
This is a new project (4.2 MNOK yearly from 1996 to 2002) with support from the PROSMAT program in NRC. The proposal was worked out in cooperation with other departments at SINTEF and NTNU, and with Hydro PVC, Borealis, Jotun, Dyno and Statoil. Reactor modelling and model based control is among the activities in the project.