Difference between revisions of "Team:SCUT-China A/HP/Gold"

On the problem concerning economic benefit, we compared the cost among traditional hydrodesulfurization, biodesulfurization by B4 strain, and biodesulfurization by engineered E.coli, which is our project.

In traditional hydrodesulfurization, the cost of the devices of hydrodesulfurization which need to sustain more than 300 centigrade degree temperature and 2000 kpa pressure is averagely 50 million yuan, in some cases even up to 300 million yuan. Regardless of other expense, HDS still costs a lot more than biodusulfurization.

As for biodesulfurization using Rhodococcus erythropolis IGTS8 strain which is cultivated only in lab, the price of the culture medium is 66.7 yuan per liter, while the culture medium for E.coli strain cultivation in industry costs averagely 0.0308 yuan per liter. It is obvious that using E.coli strain for biodesulfurization is much more cheaper than using Rhodococcus erythropolis IGTS8 strain.

In summary, our product has remarkable advantage on the aspect of economic efficiency.

For the problem of the calorific value of oil, during the experiment we find that E.coli can remove the toxic HBP to a certain extent with its own efflux system.

To combine our product with the practical oil production, we think it is appropriate to put the biodusulfurizing procedure upstream of oil deusulfurization.

In the BDS pathway, we first add IPTG-induced engineered bacteria, which is our product, into the mixure of oil and water, and the bacteria would stay in the oil and water interface. Keep stirring for about three hours. During the mixing the HBP will enter the oil phase, while bacteria come back into the water phase. Then by using centrifugation the oil and water are layered. The upper layer is oil, and the water and bacteria are retained in the lower layer. Finally the oil will be dehydrated and then enter the fractionating device for distillation. Finally the oil will be dehydrated and then enter the fractionating device for distillation, and the bacteria in the water will be treated in postprocessing.

For the biological safety, our application design of setting the BDS before hydrodesulfurization (Please turn to apply design to learn more about it.) could help reduce the risk of biological pollution. Even if there will be germs survived and remaining in the oil phase,they will be killed during the process of hydrodesulfurization. If a suicidal system is thought to be safer, we will also consider importing one into our engineered bacteria..

We did some researches on laws of environment in China, learning the standard of oil sulfur and the regulations of refining petroleum. Then, based on the data measured in the lab, we put forward some policies about the standard of oil sulfur, regulations of industrial applications, and ensurance of biological safety.

For the concerns about biological safety, not only will we import suicidal mechanism into our engineered bacteria, but also we’ve put forward specific regulations and policies shown as below:

        A.Detect the content of thiophene compound in refined oil products.

        B.Monitor the cycle and processing of waste water produced by desulfurization.

        C.Detect the amount of waste water germs.

        D.Refineries that discharge untreated waste water without permission will be ordered to suspend operations for rectification.

We want to discuss our proposed policy with officers of Guangzhou environmental protection administration to obtain some expert advice that could help with our project. We’ve been contacting them, and we are waiting for their response, hoping to arrange a formal meeting and discuss about our project.

The standard is possible to be changed after industrial test.

We think the policies we proposed can also be used by others as a good example.

We hope that through our project, we could raise people’s awareness of some current policy and system defects. Therefore, to promote the coordinated development of eco-environmental protection and enterprise, we appeal to the government and relevant departments to take the following measures mainly on three aspects.

①The government should improve the legal system of environmental protection for oil development，and implement permit system in the market of oil development，cut down the consumption of oil resources as much as possible, introduce certain economic instruments such as enforcing environmental performance bonds payment and practicing compulsory insurance system in environmental duty, to regulate the development of oil companies.

②Enhance public awareness of environmental protection by strengthening environmental education. People safeguard their own rights and interests of the environment and express their wishes to government and enterprises in view of the environmental information disclosure, taking part in environmental protection organizations and using legal means.

③During production process, oil companies should take into account the requirements of the public, develop programs of environmental-friendly production in accordance with the Government's environmental laws and regulations. Promote cleaner production and pollution control technique in the production process, in order to improve oil energy efficiency.