Ultra Low Methane Slip Reciprocating Engine

Default ARPA-E Project Image

Program:
REMEDY
Award:
$2,230,693
Location:
Waukesha, Wisconsin
Status:
ACTIVE
Project Term:
03/15/2022 - 03/14/2025
Website:

Technology Description:

INNIO’s Waukesha Gas Engines will develop a new piston, liner, and head gasket design that dramatically reduces crevice volumes, the largest source of unburned fuel, in engine combustion chambers. The team will optimize a large-bore steel piston to achieve the same reciprocating mass as current aluminum pistons. The new technology will broadly apply to all natural-gas-fueled lean-burn engines and can be used to retrofit a fleet of existing engines with little-to-no increase in budgeted costs. The technology will reduce emissions of regulated pollutants such as carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, and formaldehyde, while nitrogen oxides will stay the same, meaning no emissions re-permitting will be necessary after installation. The new technology will reduce operating costs and is similar to existing components, meaning support technicians will not need to retrain.

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.

Environment:

A key REMEDY process performance metric is to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions > 87% on a life cycle basis. This metric ensures that 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

ARPA-E Program Director:
Dr. Jack Lewnard
Project Contact:
James Zurlo
Press and General Inquiries Email:
ARPA-E-Comms@hq.doe.gov
Project Contact Email:
james.zurlo@innio.com

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