20
Dr.
Jerry L. Martin, Principal Investigator,
Ms.
Christine Martin, Business Official,
DOE
Grant No. DE-G02-ER83872
Amount:
$749,981
Large
amounts of natural gas are located in fields that are too far from markets to be
economically viable. If the natural
gas from these fields could be converted to a liquid, it could be transported to
markets using existing oil pipelines or ships.
This project will demonstrate a compact device for converting methane
into ethane, a critical first step in the gas-to-liquids process.
This new approach, using chemical reactors capable of very fast heating
and cooling rates, will improve the efficiency of the gas-to-liquids process and
reduce the cost of the conversion reactors. Phase
I created a chemical and kinetic model of the methane-to-ethane conversion
reactor, and showed that the new approach increases ethane yield. Experiments
of oxidative methane coupling also demonstrated increased ethane yield and
confirmed theoretical predictions. Practical
methods for building the reactor microchannel structure were developed and
demonstrated. In Phase II, the
reactor technology will be optimized for use with better catalysts under more
favorable conditions. A simple
catalyst screening task will identify those catalysts that work best in the new
reactor approach. Modeling and
design efforts will be conducted in parallel with the optimization effort to
support the building of an integrated bench-scale demonstrator.
A heat exchanger design, which makes the improved ethane yield possible,
will be optimized for a commercially viable assembly process.
Commercial Applications and Other
Benefits
as described by awardee: A
reactor capable of converting natural gas to chemicals that are liquid at room
temperature should enable remote gas wells to economically bring their resource
to market. The reactor also would
have applications in refineries and chemical process plants, where it would
reduce the cost and size of chemical reactors.