News
MTR Carbon Capture Technology Development for $15 Million DOE Project Enters Second Phase (January 2012)
MTR is managing one of ten projects chosen by The US Department of Energy (DOE) to develop advanced technologies for capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from coal combustion flue gas. In 2012, MTR and partners will construct a membrane skid capable of 90% CO2 capture from a 20 TPD slipstream of coal-fired flue gas (equivalent to the CO2 generated by 1 MWe of power generation). The skid will be operated during a 6-month field test at the DOE National Carbon Capture Center and will utilize MTR’s Polaris membranes. Test data from the skid will be used to clarify the process design and economics of membrane-based CO2 capture from power plant flue gas. Other collaborators on the 3-year project include the Electric Power Research Institute, Southern Company and Babcock & Wilcox.
Distillation Revisited: MTR to Develop Integrated Distillation-Membrane Process with Potential to Halve Energy Requirements of Acetic Acid/Water Separations (January 2012)
The use of membranes as a low-energy alternative to distillation has been proposed for more than 30 years. Critical limitations have included development of membrane and module components able to operate continuously at temperatures well above 100°C in corrosive environments. Recent work at MTR on membranes, modules and process integration of ethanol/water separations for bioethanol production has successfully addressed these prior limitations, and has resulted in renewed interest in using integrated distillation-membrane approaches to economically separate a range of compounds.
Funded by a current award from DOE, MTR is developing two new processes for separation of acetic acid/water separations. If successfully developed, the new technologies will lower energy costs of acetic acid recovery from acetic acid/water streams by 50% or more, making acetic acid recovery far more economic than existing technologies allow. Longer term, successful distillation-membrane technologies could be applied to commercial separations of other similar dilute aqueous streams.
New Project Explores Membrane Process to Convert Landfill Gas Into Useful Fuel; Multiple Test Sites Sought (January 2012)
EPA recently awarded MTR with a contract to develop a simple and low cost membrane process to convert landfill gas and other dilute methane waste gas streams into useful fuel. Such streams, containing 10-40% methane, are often vented without capturing the fuel value (estimated at $US200-300 million per year), and contribute up to 1 Tg of methane to U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Methane is the second largest contributor to global warming, after carbon dioxide.
In a Phase I project, MTR developed new membranes and modules that successfully concentrate methane to fuel grade product for dilute methane-carbon dioxide streams. The membranes can remove CO2, H2S, water and potentially siloxanes in the landfill gas. In the current Phase II work, MTR will build a pilot-scale membrane unit and operate it at a landfill gas plant. The process skid unit will be run for three months to prove the technical and economic viability of the process. If possible, MTR would like to run tests at multiple sites, to reflect the range of feed compositions and operating conditions that exist at various landfill locations. Please contact Dr. Haiqing Lin or Dr. Tim Merkel if your company would be interested in serving as a test site for this new membrane-based technology.
Phase III DOE Project Will Demonstrate Technology to Recover Hydrogen and Carbon Dioxide from Syngas Streams (January 2012)
MTR is beginning the second year of a pilot-scale project to demonstrate simultaneous recovery of hydrogen and carbon dioxide from syngas streams. A complete pilot-scale membrane system will be constructed and operated using a real syngas stream, to demonstrate the production of hydrogen ready for delivery to a turbine and high-pressure liquid CO2 ready for sequestration. Successful operation will confirm process reliability and efficiency. The process allows CO2 to be sequestered without radically increasing energy costs.
The long-term driver for development of this technology is separation and sequestration of CO2 in future IGCC power plants. However, because these plants are so large, the immediate target application is separation of CO2/H2 streams produced in petrochemical/refinery hydrogen reformer and gasifier operations. Smaller specialized applications may develop that involve treatment of process or vent streams containing CO2 and hydrogen, where separation of CO2 from the gas allows the hydrogen to be recycled or used for fuel.