SBIR Phase II: Internal Combustion Engines as Small Scale Chemical Plants for Compact, Low Cost Gas-to-Liquids Systems to Reduce Methane Flaring

SBIR 第二阶段：内燃机作为小型化工厂，用于紧凑、低成本的气转液系统，以减少甲烷火炬

• 批准号: 2136751
• 负责人: Emmanouil Kasseris
• 金额: $ 100万
• 依托单位: EMVOLON, INC.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Cooperative Agreement
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-08-15 至 2024-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2136751&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; II; Internal; Combustion

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is to eliminate the wasteful and polluting practice of natural gas flaring using low-cost, distributed, mini chemical plants utilizing modified automotive engines as small compressors and chemical reactors. More than 140 billion cubic meters of natural gas produced in remote regions is flared (burned). This quantity of gas is valued $1.9 billion in the US and $18.4 billion globally and generates more than 400 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent emissions, as well as significant air pollution (i.e., particulate matter, carbon monoxide, sulfur oxides, and nitrogen oxides). Currently, there are no economically-viable solutions to address the flaring problem. Compressing or liquefying the natural gas leads to prohibitively high operating costs, while conventional gas-to-liquid chemical conversion systems are not cost effective for the small scale required for remote flaring sites. Converting the flared gas in the US to liquid chemicals would result in more than $6 billion/year of added value for the economy. The impact of the project may extend beyond this specific application as it may be a stepping stone to the low cost, distributed synthesis of fuels or chemicals or to avoiding waste from other stranded resources like waste biomass and curtailed renewable power. This SBIR Phase II project proposes to convert mass-produced automotive engines into chemical reactors and compressors that replace large, custom-made chemical process equipment, thus enabling cost reductions in the flaring of natural gas. The engine-based reactor system seeks to process associated gas into methanol near the wellhead. Methane is a high value chemical that can be transported to market, eliminating the associated greenhouse gas and pollutant emissions. The objectives of this project are to expand the single-cycle demonstration in Phase I by testing the engine-based synthesis technology in a multiple-cycle engine, providing the information required by commercial partners for a field pilot. The goal of this work is to rigorously test an engine-based reactor that provides robust operation with high throughput and high conversion per pass, which are required to achieve promising economics.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

这项小型企业创新研究（SBIR）II期项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是，使用低成本的，分布式的，迷你化学工厂利用改良的汽车发动机作为小型压缩机和化学反应器来消除天然气爆炸的浪费和污染实践。在偏远地区生产的1400亿立方米的天然气被爆发（燃烧）。 这一数量的天然气在美国的价值为19亿美元，在全球范围内为184亿美元，并产生超过4亿吨二氧化碳（CO2）等效排放，以及严重的空气污染（即颗粒物，一氧化碳，硫氧化物，硫氧化物和硝酸氧化物）。 当前，没有经济上可行的解决方案来解决爆发问题。压缩或液化天然气会导致高昂的运营成本，而常规的气体到液体化学转换系统对于远程燃烧地点所需的小规模并不具有成本效益。将美国的喇叭气转换为液体化学物质，将为经济带来超过60亿美元/年的附加值。该项目的影响可能会超出此特定应用，因为它可能是低成本，燃料或化学品的分布综合，或者避免从废物生物量和减少可再生能源等其他搁浅资源中的废物的垫脚石。 该SBIR II期项目提议将批量生产的汽车发动机转换为化学反应器和压缩机，这些反应器和压缩机取代了大型定制化学工艺设备，从而可以降低天然气的成本。基于发动机的反应堆系统试图将相关的气体处理到井口附近的甲醇中。甲烷是一种高价值的化学物质，可以运输到市场，消除了相关的温室气体和污染物的排放。 该项目的目标是通过测试多周期发动机中的基于发动机的合成技术来扩展I阶段的单周演示，从而为商业合作伙伴提供了现场飞行员所需的信息。 这项工作的目的是严格测试一个基于发动机的反应堆，该反应堆可提供可靠的操作，每次通过，这是实现有希望的经济学所必需的。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的审查标准来评估的。