SBIR Phase II: A Novel Metal-Organic Framework Material for the Separation and Recovery of Unprocessed Natural Gas During Oil and Gas Production

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project is to provide a usable stranded and associated gas collection capacity for oil & gas exploration companies. During drilling operations, valuable gas is lost through intentional venting and flaring, causing losses in natural gas delivered to the power plant or city gate. With the sector's expansion into more remote low-volume sites, these losses are increasing dramatically. Through this project's proposed novel Metal-Organic Framework (MOF) based storage technology, this project seeks to deliver a re-usable and transport ready intermodal container, to store gas at low pressure, eliminating the need to use expensive gas capture, purification and multi-stage compression systems. An economically feasible unprocessed natural gas storage technology would provide a useful tool for the domestic oil & gas industry in capturing what would be flared or vented and delivering it to the American economy. Taking the proposed novel MOF technology to the bench and pilot scale will show the feasibility of a flexible, transportable, low-cost infrastructure to abate flaring and venting. Successful developments in this project will help develop the knowledge for scale-up to large-scale vehicular tanks to allow for commercial implementation. The objectives of this Phase II research project are the development of stable and low-cost Metal-Organic framework (MOF) based storage technologies for the collection of usable stranded associated gas during drilling operations. In order to harness point source emissions, before being vented or flared, the project will develop a nano-engineered, MOF based sorbent for low-pressure capture and storage of unprocessed natural gas. The project will seek to develop a robust and scalable method to synthesize new MOFs containing other high-valence transition metal ions such as Al3+, Fe3+ and Cr3+. Furthermore, the project will screen a range of organic ligands for improving MOFs' surface property and storage capacity. Finally, by following alternative synthesis routes with low cost catalysts, the project will identify sorbent synthesis cost reduction strategies. The sorbent material will be tested with simulated vent/flare-gas compositions in a cyclic pressure range and the sorbent stability will be verified by an assortment of X-ray, spectroscopy, and microscopy methods. Following sorbent development, an ANG tank will be built and flare gas slipstream testing will be conducted in shale gas sites.