SBIR Phase II: A Novel Metal-Organic Framework Material for the Separation and Recovery of Unprocessed Natural Gas During Oil and Gas Production

这个小企业创新研究第二阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是为石油天然气勘探公司提供可用的搁浅和相关气体收集能力。在钻井作业过程中，有价值的天然气通过故意排放和燃烧而损失，导致输送到发电厂或城市大门的天然气损失。随着该行业向更偏远的低容量站点扩展，这些损失正在急剧增加。通过该项目提出的新型金属有机框架（MOF）存储技术，该项目旨在提供可重复使用和运输的多式联运容器，以低压存储气体，无需使用昂贵的气体捕获，净化和多级压缩系统。一种经济上可行的未加工天然气储存技术将为国内油气行业提供一种有用的工具，以捕获将被燃烧或排放的气体，并将其输送到美国经济中。将所提出的新型MOF技术用于实验室和中试规模将显示灵活、可运输、低成本基础设施的可行性，以减少燃烧和排气。该项目的成功开发将有助于开发扩大到大型车辆罐的知识，以允许商业实施。该第二阶段研究项目的目标是开发稳定和低成本的金属有机框架（MOF）为基础的存储技术，用于在钻井作业期间收集可用的滞留伴生气。为了在排放或燃烧之前利用点源排放，该项目将开发一种基于纳米工程的MOF吸附剂，用于低压捕获和储存未加工的天然气。该项目将寻求开发一种稳健且可扩展的方法来合成含有其他高价过渡金属离子（如Al 3+，Fe 3+和Cr 3+）的新MOFs。此外，该项目还将筛选一系列有机配体，以改善MOFs的表面性质和储存能力。最后，通过采用低成本催化剂的替代合成路线，该项目将确定降低吸附剂合成成本的策略。吸附剂材料将在循环压力范围内用模拟排气/火炬气成分进行测试，并通过X射线、光谱学和显微镜方法验证吸附剂的稳定性。在吸附剂开发之后，将建造一个ANG罐，并将在页岩气田进行火炬气滑流测试。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project is to provide a usable stranded and associated gas collection capacity for oil & gas exploration companies. During drilling operations, valuable gas is lost through intentional venting and flaring, causing losses in natural gas delivered to the power plant or city gate. With the sector's expansion into more remote low-volume sites, these losses are increasing dramatically. Through this project's proposed novel Metal-Organic Framework (MOF) based storage technology, this project seeks to deliver a re-usable and transport ready intermodal container, to store gas at low pressure, eliminating the need to use expensive gas capture, purification and multi-stage compression systems. An economically feasible unprocessed natural gas storage technology would provide a useful tool for the domestic oil & gas industry in capturing what would be flared or vented and delivering it to the American economy. Taking the proposed novel MOF technology to the bench and pilot scale will show the feasibility of a flexible, transportable, low-cost infrastructure to abate flaring and venting. Successful developments in this project will help develop the knowledge for scale-up to large-scale vehicular tanks to allow for commercial implementation.The objectives of this Phase II research project are the development of stable and low-cost Metal-Organic framework (MOF) based storage technologies for the collection of usable stranded associated gas during drilling operations. In order to harness point source emissions, before being vented or flared, the project will develop a nano-engineered, MOF based sorbent for low-pressure capture and storage of unprocessed natural gas. The project will seek to develop a robust and scalable method to synthesize new MOFs containing other high-valence transition metal ions such as Al3+, Fe3+ and Cr3+. Furthermore, the project will screen a range of organic ligands for improving MOFs' surface property and storage capacity. Finally, by following alternative synthesis routes with low cost catalysts, the project will identify sorbent synthesis cost reduction strategies. The sorbent material will be tested with simulated vent/flare-gas compositions in a cyclic pressure range and the sorbent stability will be verified by an assortment of X-ray, spectroscopy, and microscopy methods. Following sorbent development, an ANG tank will be built and flare gas slipstream testing will be conducted in shale gas sites.