SoCalGas and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Announce U.S. Department of Energy Funding of Carbon Capture Project

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.

Source: SoCalGas, press release, 2019-11-25.