Catalytic Conversion of Kerogen

This project belongs to VISTA's previous research area Oil and gas.

The access to more energy is the major challenge of our time. This led to an increasing focus, but still a key challenge on conversion of alternative hydrocarbon resources (e.g., kerogen) to transportation fuels that could easily be fit into existing infrastructure. Addressing this challenge is the purpose of this proposal, where catalysis, the core of the activity, is a key technology.

From lab: Pyrolysis box

The main objectives include (1) characterization of kerogen, (2) kerogen conversion in hot water at high pressure, (3) establishment of reaction network and (4) hydrogenolysis of kerogen to fuels. This aims for a better understanding of the chemistry of biomass depolymerization in hot water and further conversion to hydrocarbon on metal surfaces in the presence of hydrogen.

In addition, this project will fully support Statoil's new strategy on unconventional hydrocarbon resources, and the knowledge generated in the objective (2) to (4) will be directly applicable to the conversion lignin in biomass conversion, which is another new focus in Statoil.