Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
6/6/2014
Researchers at Rice University have developed a new material that has the potential to remove carbon from natural gas at wellheads. The material has the potential to drastically decrease the cost of carbon capture, Rice Professor James Tour said in a Rice University press release. The material, a nanoporous solid of carbon with nitrogen or sulfur, pulls carbon dioxide molecules out of natural gas at well heads and “polymerizes them while under pressure naturally provided by the well. When the pressure is released, the carbon dioxide spontaneously depolymerizes and frees the sorbent material to collect more,” the release said.
The material shows several advantages over existing carbon capture technologies, according to the release. Because the process is used directly at the source, gas doesn’t need to be transported to a collection station to undergo separation. “This will be especially effective offshore, where the footprint of traditional methods that involve scrubbing towers or membranes are too cumbersome,” Tour said in the release. Further, it allows the carbon to be pumped directly back into wells, eliminating the need for transportation back to the well or to other storage sites from the collection stations. Options are not limited by the technology however. “They can package and sell [carbon] for other industrial applications,” Tour said in the release. Yet another benefit of the new material over currently available carbon capture materials is that it is effective at ambient temperatures, according to the release. “Amines are corrosive and hard on equipment,” Tour said in the release. “They do capture carbon dioxide, but they need to be heated to about 140 degrees Celsius to release it for permanent storage. That’s a terrible waste of energy.”
Houston-based oil and gas company Apache Corp. funded the research and has licensed the technology. According to the release, it will take some time to commercialize the material and further work is needed in the areas of manufacturing and engineering.
