72
Sorbents
for Removing Sulfur-Bearing Odorants from Natural Gas and LPG--TDA
Research, Inc., 12345 West 52nd Avenue, Wheat Ridge, CO
80033-1916; 303-940-2300, www.tda.com
Dr.
Gokhan O. Alptekin, Principal Investigator,
Mr.
John D. Wright, Business Official,
DOE
Grant No. DE-FG02-03ER83795
Amount:
$750,000
Chemical odorants made with
sulfur-containing compounds are added to propane and natural gas supplies to
facilitate leak detection. However,
in the fuel processing systems of fuel cells, these compounds can contaminate
the anode catalysts of the fuel cell itself, thereby degrading power generation
performance. This project will
develop a low-cost, high-capacity, sorbent that can
reduce the concentration of organic sulfur species to less than parts per
billion levels in natural gas and LPG. Phase
I developed a low cost, high capacity sorbent that can remove sulfur-bearing
odorants from natural gas and LPG. The
technical and economic feasibility of using this sorbent, which dramatically
reduces the cost of odorant removal, was demonstrated.
A preliminary engineering analysis showed that the size of the
desulfurization system, designed to last the entire 10-year life of a 5 kW fuel
cell, could be reduced to 19 L. In
Phase II, the sorbent will be scaled-up for production using commercial
manufacturing techniques. The
desulfurization sorbent will be integrated with a fuel cell system (with fuel
cell stacks, fuel processor and all auxiliary items) in a full-scale field test.
A detailed engineering analysis will be conducted to assess the impact of
the sorbent on the efficiency, size, and cost of the overall fuel cell system.
Commercial
Applications and Other Benefits as
described by awardee: Fuel
cells have great potential as decentralized energy power systems. A
cost-effective sorbent that removes sulfur impurities should find immediate use
in the fuel cell market; the residential
U.S.
market alone could be as much as 1,093,000 MW.
The highly
selective, low-cost sorbents with a high sulfur removal capacity also should
benefit catalytic chemical manufacturing processes (e.g., hydrogen production,
methanol and ammonia synthesis) that use natural gas as a feedstock.