BETTERGY CORP. — Department of Energy SBIR Phase II: 18d

Description

Pre-combustion CO2 removal is an attractive carbon capture process due to the higher CO2 concentration in the process stream and higher system pressure after the water-gas-shift (WGS) reaction.These characteristics permit CO2 capture in an energy-efficient and costeffective way because the throughput is hundreds of times higher and the equipment footprint much is smaller than that in current post-combustion CO2 capture scenarios.Current CO2 removal technologies for gasification or future integrated coal gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plants mainly include solvent-based CO2 capture and sorbent-based process, which are complicated and energy intensive.In the Phase I program, Bettergy proposed and demonstrated a catalytic membrane reactor (CMR) system that will simultaneously capture compressed CO2 while producing high purity H2.The core of the system is a robust modularized membrane supported on catalytic substrates, which is based on Bettergy’s patented nanopore engineering membrane platform technology.This pre-combustion carbon capture technology will lead to a significant reduction of the overall cost of carbon capture systems.In the Phase II program, we will continue to develop and commercialize this transformational CMR technology, which is well-positioned to accomplish carbon capture and H2 production with minimum extra cost when used in current gasification plants or future IGCC plants. This novel pre-combustion CO2 capture technology can be used in current gasification plants or future IGCC plants for industrial hydrogen production while capturing CO2 with little or no additional cost.It can also be used to treat flue gas from various chemical processes, such as ammonia synthesis, to recapture the hydrogen.Once fully developed, this CMR system can be cost-effectively employed in new coal-fired power plants with a CO2 capture cost of between $30-$40/ton of CO2 captured, thus become a key component in current gasification and future IGCC processes, producing hydrogen and other high-value chemicals with low carbon capture cost.Bettergy’s CMR system may thus lead to substantial simplification of the CO2 capture process and increased energy efficiency.This novel and robust, CMR technology will provide tremendous economic and environmental benefits for the general public.