Combustion Resources, Inc. was a consulting company based in
Provo, Utah, United States. It provided consulting services in the fields of
fuel and
combustion
Combustion, or burning, is a high-temperature exothermic redox chemical reaction between a fuel (the reductant) and an oxidant, usually atmospheric oxygen, that produces oxidized, often gaseous products, in a mixture termed as smoke. Combus ...
, such as testing of flow and mixing systems, reactor design, gas and particle sampling, gasification modeling, and
shale oil extraction
Shale oil extraction is an industrial process for unconventional oil production. This process converts kerogen in oil shale into shale oil by pyrolysis, hydrogenation, or thermal dissolution. The resultant shale oil is used as fuel oil or up ...
design and testing. The company was incorporated in 1995 as a spin-off from the Center for Advanced Combustion Engineering Research, joint collaboration between
Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-d ...
and the
University of Utah
The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...
.
Shale oil extraction
Combustion Resources worked under a grant from the
US Department of Energy
The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and manages the research and development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the United States. ...
to research and optimize current designs of
shale oil
Shale oil is an unconventional oil produced from oil shale rock fragments by pyrolysis, hydrogenation, or thermal dissolution. These processes convert the organic matter within the rock (kerogen) into synthetic oil and gas. The resulting oil c ...
extraction. It sought to eliminate
carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is trans ...
emissions from the shale oil production process. Pyrolysis occurs in a rotating kiln heated by hot gas flowing through an outer annulus. The hot gas is created by burning hydrogen generated in a separate unit by
coal gasification followed by carbon dioxide separation. The geometry of the annulus enables the transfer of heat to the moving shale through a wall.
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Clean coke processing
Combustion Resources developed an alternative
coke making process. As part of this process, waste coals and other materials are blended and then bound together and briquetted. The
green coke Green coke (raw coke) is the primary solid carbonization product from high boiling hydrocarbon fractions obtained at temperatures below 900 K. It contains a fraction of matter that can be released as volatiles during subsequent heat treatment at tem ...
briquettes are then calcined in a furnace yielding metallurgical quality coke.
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References
External links
Company website
{{Provo, Utah
Defunct energy companies of the United States
Oil shale companies of the United States
Companies based in Provo, Utah