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:
- Exhaust from 50,000 natural gas-fired lean-burn engines. These engines are used to drive compressors, generate electricity, and increasingly repower ships.
- The estimated 300,000 flares required for safe operation of oil and gas facilities.
- 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