faculty pics
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Eric Croiset
Professor
Associate Chair, Undergraduate Studies
Office: E6 3020
Phone: 519-888-4567 ext. 36472
Email: ecroiset@uwaterloo.ca
Degrees: Dip.
Eng., MASc (DEA), PhD, University of Orleans, France |
Research Interests
CO2 Abatement Technologies in the Power Industry:
- I am involved in the simulation and economical evaluation of processes
aimed at capturing CO2 from power plant flue gas, essentially coal-fired
power plants. The processes studied are chemical and physical absorption,
and low temperature techniques coupled with O2/CO2 recycle combustion.
The entire power plant is simulated using AspenPlus and Hysys, and the
integration of the CO2 separation processes are optimized in order to
minimize the cost of CO2 capture. The power plants considered are pulverized
coal-fired power plant, natural gas combined cycle, and integrated gasification
combined cycle (IGCC). I also recently started to look at fuel cells
(essentially solid oxide fuel cells) as a mean to effectively producing
electricity and capturing CO2. For all this research I am collaborating
with Professor Douglas and with the CANMET Energy Technology Centre.
We have recently started to work with Ontario Power Generation and the Canadian
Clean Power Coalition to identify potential reservoirs and their capacity
for CO2 sequestration in Ontario. We are also involved with the IEA Greenhouse
Gas R&D as partners in the IEA International Test Network for CO2
Capture.
Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC):
- I have recently started to work on solid oxide fuel cell (September
2001) as a logical continuation of my work on CO2 reduction from fossil
fuels-based power plants. SOFC is particularly interesting for the power
sector because it can produce electricity very efficiently and because
it operates at high temperature, which allows the possibility of co-generation
or bottoming cycle. In addition, SOFC has the potential to produce a
nearly pure stream of CO2 without expensive separation units. At present,
my work on SOFC focuses only on computer simulations. One goal is to
simulate in detail the solid oxide fuel cell using FEMLAB and Matlab.
The objective is the to predict the performance of the fuel cell and
the composition of the resulting exhaust gas when varying the composition
of the fuel entering the fuel cell (pre-reformed natural gas, syngas
from coal, etc.). Another aspect of my research on SOFC modeling is the
development of an entire SOFC-based power plant that produces a pure
stream of CO2 at minimum cost. This CO2 stream can subsequently be used
for enhance oil recovery or simply stored underground or in the deep
ocean. This modeling involves heat integration between the various components
of such a system (fuel preparation, fuel cell, gas turbine, etc.) and
is done using AspenPlus. We are, therefore, currently developing a model
for SOFC within AspenPlus. In the future, my goal is to expand this simulation
and modeling work to experimental studies aimed at validating and refining
the mathematical models. This work is done in collaboration with Drs
Douglas and Fowler at Waterloo and with the CANMET Energy Technology
Centre.
Hydrogen Production:
- In addition to the modeling and simulation work described previously,
I am also involved in experimental work in hydrogen production. Most
of this research is performed within the Chemical Reaction Engineering
group. As such I am collaborating with Professor Hudgins and Silveston,
as well as with Professor Lohi from Ryerson. I have one project where
I am investigating the thermal cracking of methane for hydrogen and carbon
black production. The goal is to produce hydrogen with limited emission
of CO2. Another project involves hydrogen production from ethanol, either
by partial oxidation or by catalytic cracking. In the near future, I
plan to investigate the kinetics of coal gasification, as well as reforming
of natural gas in exotic conditions, such as supercritical water conditions.
Others:
- From time to time, I am involved in various projects that don’t
have a direct link with the three previous categories. These projects
are related to the Chemical Reaction Engineering group activities. However,
those projects are usually related to air pollution control technologies.
I am currently involved in SO2 scrubbing and its conversion to sulphuric
acid from lean flue gas. I am also investigating temperature excursion
in catalytic converter in collaboration with Professor Menzinger from
the University of Toronto. Finally, I was involved in the study of wire
mesh structure packing, where our test reaction was the absorption of
CO2 by MEA.
Selected References
- Croiset, E. and Thambimuthu, K. V., NOx and SO2 Emissions From O2/CO2
Recycle Coal Combustion, Fuel (80)14 pp. 2117-2121, 2001.
- Rice, S.F.; Croiset, E. and Hanush, G., Oxidation of Simple Alcohols
in Supercritical Water III. Formation of Intermediates from Ethanol, Ind.
Eng. Chem. Res., 40 (1), pp. 86-93, 2001.
- Croiset, E. and Thambimuthu, K.V., Coal Combustion O2/CO2 mixtures, The
Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering, 78(2), pp. 402-407,
2000.
- de Soete, G. G.; Croiset, E. and Richard, J. R., Heterogeneous Formation
of Nitrous Oxide from Char-Bound Nitrogen, Combustion and Flame, 117,
pp. 140-154, 1999.
- Croiset, E. and Rice, S.F., Direct Observation of H2O2 During Alcohol
Oxidation by O2 in Supercritical Water, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res.,
37, pp. 1755-1760, 1998.
- Croiset, E.; Heurtebise, C.; Rouan, J.P. and Richard, J.R., Influence
of Pressure on the Heterogeneous Formation and Destruction of Nitrogen
Oxides During Char Combustion, Combustion and Flame, 112(1),
pp. 33-44, 1998.
- Croiset, E.; Rice, S. F. and Hanush, R. G., Hydrogen Peroxide Thermal
Decomposition in Supercritical Water Oxidation, AIChE J., 43(9),
pp. 2343-2352, 1997.
- Antal, M.J.; Croiset, E.; Dai, X.; DeAlmeda, C.;
Mok, W.; Norberg, N.; Richard, J.R. and Al Majthoub, M., High Yield
Biomass Charcoal, Energy & Fuels,
10, pp. 652-658, 1996.
