LOS ANGELES, Nov. 25, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Southern
California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) and the Pacific Northwest National
Laboratory (PNNL) today announced the U.S. Department of Energy
(DOE) has awarded $300,000 in funding
to a project that would advance the development of a process called
Integrated CO2 Capture and Conversion to Methanol
(ICCCM). Carbon capture and utilization (CCU) projects are an
important component in helping California achieve its climate goal of having
a "net zero" economy by 2045. CCU projects harnesses carbon
before it can be emitted into the atmosphere. The carbon is
then typically used to make chemicals that become resins and
plastic materials.
The DOE funding for this project will be used to design,
fabricate and demonstrate a modular ICCCM prototype for the
combined capture and conversion of CO2 into
methanol. As part of the research, the commercial viability
of the prototype will also be assessed. The unit will be
designed for installation at an industrial CO2 source,
such as an electric generation or anaerobic digestion
facility.
SoCalGas is committed to helping California achieve its ambitious climate
goals. The utility has spent more than $10 million on the research and development of
low or zero carbon technologies in the last three years.
"As we look for ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in
support of the state's climate goals, we will need to develop
cost-effective technologies that can capture and use CO2
to prevent it from reaching the atmosphere," said Yuri Freedman, senior director of business
development for SoCalGas. "The goal of this project is to
determine whether ICCCM technology can be a cost-effective way to
reduce emissions and it is our hope the results will show that it
is."
"At PNNL, we specialize in carbon capture and catalysis research
and are thrilled to be collaborating with SoCalGas on developing a
new and innovative capture and conversion technology and deploying
this technology into the field," said Dr. David Heldebrant, who is co-leading this project
and is PNNL chief scientist for separations materials. "Our
role in this project is to design a continuous catalytic process
that can take waste CO2 and repurpose it as a low carbon
fuel or chemical feedstock with a large market size, such as a
methanol."
What is ICCCM
ICCM uses flue gas from a power
generation or heating source, cools the gas and then runs it
through a CO2 absorber. In this absorber,
CO2 is efficiently captured by PNNL's proprietary
"Carbon Dioxide Binding Organic Liquids" solvent. The solvent
is then pressurized, heated and passed through to the main reactor,
along with hydrogen, for methanol production. The reactor
produces a methanol and water mixture which is then pumped into a
distillation column designed to produce methanol at a purity of
99.6 percent. The excess hydrogen and solvent from the
reactor are recycled back to the CO2 absorber.
The ICCCM technology is unique because hydrogen is used as an
indirect energy source to drive the carbon capture process rather
than steam or electricity. Also, by using the ICCCM solvent
to directly convert CO2 to methanol, no mechanical
compression of the CO2 is required. Typically,
compressing CO2 is energy-intensive, so reducing the
need for additional energy inputs makes the ICCCM technology a
potentially viable solution to capture and convert CO2
from landfill gases, wastewater treatment gases and manure
off-gas.
California has set an ambitious
goal of having a net zero economy by 2045, meaning the amount of
carbon emitted into the atmosphere is no more than the amount of
carbon taken out. While carbon neutrality is a good first
step, research continues into finding ways to be carbon negative,
i.e. remove more carbon from the atmosphere than is produced.
One potential way to do this is to use green hydrogen created from
renewable energy such as wind or solar is used in carbon capture
and utilization.
Why methanol?
Methanol is used in a number of ways,
from a feedstock in the chemical industry to a component in fuel
blends like marine fuel and bio-diesel. For example, methanol
is used to produce acetic acid and formaldehyde, which in turn are
used in products like adhesives, foams, plywood subfloors, solvents
and windshield washer fluid. Today, methanol is primarily
made from syngas created from natural gas and other fossil fuels
and current methanol production leads to greenhouse gas
emissions. Using CO2 capture technology to create
methanol can serve two purposes – first, it prevents carbon
emissions which are produced from conventional syngas-to-methanol
technologies from reaching the atmosphere, and second,
COs utilization helps offset some of the costs incurred
with carbon capture.
Over the next two years, this project will evaluate the
compatibility of certain catalysts and solvents, design and build
the reactor and test the unit. The later stages of this
research will also assess the viability of producing
polycarbonates.
About SoCalGas
Headquartered in Los Angeles, SoCalGas® is
the largest natural gas distribution utility in the
United States. SoCalGas delivers
affordable, reliable, clean and increasingly renewable natural gas
service to 21.8 million customers across 24,000 square
miles of Central and Southern California, where more than
90 percent of residents use natural gas for heating, hot water,
cooking, drying clothes or other uses. Natural gas delivered
through the company's pipelines also plays a key role in providing
electricity to Californians— about 45 percent of electric
power generated in the state comes from gas-fired power
plants.
SoCalGas' vision is to be the cleanest natural gas utility in
North America, delivering
affordable and increasingly renewable energy to its customers. In
support of that vision, SoCalGas is committed to replacing 20
percent of its traditional natural gas supply with renewable
natural gas (RNG) by 2030. Renewable natural gas is made from
waste created by dairy farms, landfills and wastewater treatment
plants. SoCalGas is also committed to investing in its natural gas
system infrastructure while keeping bills affordable for our
customers. From 2014 through 2018, the company invested
nearly $6.5 billion to upgrade and modernize its natural
gas system to enhance safety and reliability. SoCalGas is a
subsidiary of Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE), an energy
services holding company based in San Diego. For more
information visit socalgas.com/newsroom or connect with
SoCalGas on Twitter (@SoCalGas), Instagram (@SoCalGas)
and Facebook.
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SOURCE Southern California Gas Company