Reducing Emission of Methane through Advanced Radical Kinetics and Adaptive Burning in Large Engines (REMARKABLE)

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Program:
REMEDY
Award:
$2,824,815
Location:
College Station, Texas
Status:
ACTIVE
Project Term:
08/15/2022 - 08/14/2025
Website:

Technology Description:

Texas Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) seeks to reduce methane emissions from compressor station natural gas (NG) engines by improving lean-burn operation, thereby reducing exhaust methane and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and maintaining low-criteria pollutant emissions. The project team will develop a nanosecond non-thermal plasma-based ignition system capable of generating radicals, ions, and highly reactive intermediate species that result in rapid self-sustaining combustion, and a cyclic combustion control strategy that predicts and mitigates partial-fire and misfire cycles. The proposed work will demonstrate a field-tested, prototype plasma ignition system and model-based, feed-forward combustion control system that would be transformative for large NG engines with potential for large-scale market adoption. The proposed concept with plasma ignition reduces methane emissions through the use of very lean fuel-air mixtures, hitherto a challenge with spark ignition. Due to improved lean burn operation, CO2 emissions will also be lowered.

Potential Impact:

REMEDY addresses methane emissions from domestic oil, gas, and coal value chains, accounting for 78% of U.S. primary energy.

Security:

REMEDY systems will reduce the environmental footprint from the production and use of domestic resources.

Economy:

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.

Contact

ARPA-E Program Director:
Dr. Jack Lewnard
Project Contact:
Dr. Timothy Jacobs
Press and General Inquiries Email:
ARPA-E-Comms@hq.doe.gov
Project Contact Email:
tjjacobs@tamu.edu

Related Projects

• Advanced Cooling Technologies (ACT) - Swiss-roll Flare Gas Incinerator
• 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

Release Date:
04/08/2021