Feasibility study: Application of the geopressured-geothermal resource to pyrolytic conversion or decomposition/detoxification processes

This study presents a preliminary evaluation of the technical and economic feasibility of selected conceptual processes for pyrolytic conversion of organic feedstocks or the decomposition/detoxification of hazardous wastes by coupling the process to the geopressured-geothermal resource. The report presents a detailed discussion of the resource and of each process selected for evaluation including the technical evaluation of each. A separate section presents the economic methodology used and the evaluation of the technically viable process. A final section presents conclusions and recommendations. Three separate processes were selected for evaluation. These are pyrolytic conversion of biomass to petroleum like fluids, wet air oxidation (WAO) at subcritical conditions for destruction of hazardous waste, and supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) also for the destruction of hazardous waste. The scientific feasibility of all three processes has been previously established by various bench-scale and pilot-scale studies. For a variety of reasons detailed in the report the SCWO process is the only one deemed to be technically feasible, although the effects of the high solids content of the geothermal brine need further study. This technology shows tremendous promise for contributing to solving the nation's energy and hazardous waste problems. However, the current economic analysis suggests that it is uneconomical at this time. 50 refs., 5 figs., 7 tabs.