Reducing Emissions of Methane Every Day of the Year
Program Description:
REMEDY (Reducing Emissions of Methane Every Day of the Year) is a three-year, $35 million research program to reduce methane emissions from three sources in the oil, gas, and coal value chains:
1) Exhaust from 50,000 natural gas-fired lean-burn engines. These engines are used to drive compressors, generate electricity, and increasingly repower ships.
2) The estimated 300,000 flares required for safe operation of oil and gas facilities.
3) Coal mine ventilation air methane (VAM) exhausted from 250 operating underground mines.
These sources are responsible for at least 10% of U.S. anthropogenic methane emissions. Reducing emissions of methane, which has a high greenhouse gas warming potential, will ameliorate climate change.
Innovation Need:
REMEDY seeks system-level technical solutions that achieve 99.5% methane conversion. Proposed systems must be replicable, given the large number of point sources, and avoid bespoke solutions. Economies of fabrication/numbers, which drive down unit costs, will help to promote rapid commercialization. Systems must incorporate technologies that can operate at lean- and ultra-lean methane concentrations and be integrated with sensors and/or control algorithms to quantify emission reduction and ensure consistent operation. Phase 1 of the program will be used to confirm system components at the lab scale. Projects selected to continue in Phase 2 will confirm metrics in a limited field test or larger, extended lab-scale test. The intent is to de-risk the proposed systems so the private sector or other government agencies can advance them to commercialization.
Potential Impact:
REMEDY addresses methane emissions from domestic oil, gas, and coal value chains. Today these fossil fuels account for 78% of U.S. primary energy. Successful technologies will provide domestic energy producers and U.S. energy consumers economic and environmental benefits.
Security:
REMEDY systems will reduce the environmental footprint from the production and use of domestic resources.
Environment:
A key REMEDY process performance metric is to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions > 87% on a life cycle basis. This metric ensures proposed solutions provide a holistic environmental benefit. If successful, REMEDY processes have the potential to reduce U.S. methane emissions by at least 60 million tons of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalents) per year.
Economy:
REMEDY goals call for 99.5% methane reduction while meeting a levelized cost less than $40/ton of CO2e.
Contact
Project Listing
• Cimarron Energy - Flare and Control for Ultra High Destruction and Removal Efficiency
• Colorado State University (CSU) - Lean-burn Natural Gas Engine System to Achieve Near-zero Crankcase Methane Emissions from Existing and Future Engine Fleet
• INNIO Waukesha Gas Engines - Ultra Low Methane Slip Reciprocating Engine
• Johnson Matthey - Catalytic Oxidation of Ventilation Air Methane
• MAHLE Powertrain - Methane Oxidation Catalysts for Lean-burn Natural Gas Engines
• Marquette University - Prechamber Enabled Mixing Controlled Combustion of Natural Gas for Ultra-Low Methane Emissions from Lean-Burn Engines
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Ventilation Air Methane Abatement via Catalytic Oxidation (VAMCO) with Machine-Learning Enhanced Sensing and Feedback Controls
• Precision Combustion (PCI) - Destruction of VAM Using a Modular Catalytic Element System
• Texas A&M University - Reducing Emission of Methane through Advanced Radical Kinetics and Adaptive Burning in Large Engines (REMARKABLE)
• University of Michigan - REMEDY using SABRE (Reducing Emissions of Methane Every Day of the Year using Systems of Advanced Burners for Reduction of Emissions)
• University of Minnesota (UMN) - Plasma-assisted In-situ Reforming of Flare Gases to Achieve Near-Zero Methane Emissions