Low-temperature chemical looping reforming catalysts for small-footprint GTL

Methane from U.S. shale deposits has significantly increased the usable amount of this domestic energy resource. Meanwhile, flaring of natural gas, which is commonly practiced in shale-oil production, exceeded 6 billion cubic meters in the United State annually. This leads to a waste of valuable energy resources and significant emissions of greenhouse gas. As such, small-footprint technologies that can effectively convert cheap, stranded natural gas into transportation fuels are of great value to US shale-oil producers operating in geographically-isolated fields, where transportation of gas is prohibitively expensive. Unfortunately, the only demonstrated commercial technologies for converting natural-gas to liquids (i.e. GTL) are indirect routs utilizing complex, high temperate methane reforming systems that are difficult to economically implement at small scales. This project aims to make modular scale reforming for GTL commercially viable through the use of a chemical looping reforming (CLR) redox catalyst for low temperature conversion of shale gas to Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) ready syngas. This is enabled by low-temperature, multi- functional redox catalysts for partial oxidation of natural gas with in-situ air separation. This novel technology developed by Dr. Fanxing Li at NC State University, and licensed by Catalytic and Redox Solutions LLC, will enable distributed, modular scale GTL systems with significantly smaller footprint, increased efficiency, and reduced cost. Phase I will focus on testing and optimizing the system for high conversion/selectivity of methane to syngas. Fixed-bed experiments using an automated gas-switching and product analysis system will be used to monitor conversion and selectivity of the redox catalysts with focus on maximizing single-pass syngas yield. If successful, this will spur Phase II and follow up activities.If successful, we will demonstrate the viability of CLR in a pallet sized system. This will help commercialize a breakthrough technology that can effectively convert rejected C1/C2 to create significant value ($5 billion/year in liquid fuels) and to reduce emissions (compared to flaring).