SBIR Phase I: Synergistic Combinations of New Materials & Systems for Scalable Desulfurization of Distributed Biogas Resources

SBIR 第一阶段：新材料的协同组合

• 批准号: 1215457
• 负责人: Hongyun Yang
• 金额: $ 15万
• 依托单位: IntraMicron Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-07-01 至 2013-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1215457&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Synergistic; Combinations; New

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project proposes a fundamentally new means for biogas (landfill gas) desulfurization that produces less waste, allows recycle of recovered sulfur, and provides annualized operating costs a fraction of current practice. Inexpensive biogas cleanup is required for subsequent combustion, fuel cell usage, or conversion to liquid fuels. The costs of gas clean up and spent sorbent disposal currently dictate the cost of biogas conversion to clean energy. The proposed two-stage process is a synergistic combination of: a novel Oxidative Sulfur Removal (OSR) catalyst formulation producing elemental sulfur; a wide temperature range regenerable downstream polishing sorbent; and a unique in situ sensor permitting optimal adsorbent bed operation and cycling. Current technology produces 125 tons of spent adsorbent for a 500kWe biogas combustor. Ironically, this adsorbent must be landfilled. The proposed process could reduce adsorbent waste 7-20 times and yields elemental sulfur that can be recycled into the fertilizer industry. The OSR catalyst is anticipated to be contaminant-tolerant in practice. Major innovations of the proposed approach include: long-life OSR catalyst, high selectivity to elemental sulfur, high activity and low-cost catalyst, real-time in situ adsorbent capacity monitoring to maximize material utilization and further reduce costs.The broader impact/commercial potential of this project includes the greatly enhanced ability to utilize biogas for alternative and renewable energy production facilities with significantly reduced carbon and waste footprints and process costs. The proposed process is thermodynamically efficient and readily scalable to a variety of locations and capacities. The proposed process has the ability to remove sulfur contaminants to very low levels thereby enabling catalytic conversion of biogas to higher value liquid fuels and chemicals. Recovered elemental sulfur can be utilized directly as a fertilizer additive. In short, the proposed innovation permits biogas desulfurization and subsequent usage in a more economic and environmentally friendly manner than current approaches. The proposed process is also capable of cleaning biogas and other gas sources with high sulfur contents (ca. 1-3%) without a significant increase in process costs. Besides biogas, other gas streams including natural gas, frac gas, petroleum gas, and syngas from a variety of sources can be desulfurized. Therefore, BTL, CTL, GTL, and renewable electric power generation can be impacted by the success of this innovation.

这个小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目提出了一种全新的沼气（垃圾填埋气）脱硫方法，该方法产生的废物更少，允许回收回收的硫，并且年化运营成本仅为当前实践的一小部分。随后的燃烧、燃料电池的使用或转化为液体燃料需要廉价的沼气净化。目前，气体净化和废吸附剂处理的成本决定了沼气转化为清洁能源的成本。所提出的两阶段工艺是以下各项的协同组合：一种新型氧化脱硫（OSR）催化剂配方，产生元素硫；宽温度范围的可再生下游精加工吸附剂；独特的原位传感器可实现最佳吸附床操作和循环。目前的技术可为 500kWe 沼气燃烧器生产 125 吨废吸附剂。讽刺的是，这种吸附剂必须被填埋。该工艺可将吸附剂废物减少 7-20 倍，并产生可回收到化肥行业的元素硫。 OSR 催化剂预计在实践中具有耐污染物能力。所提出方法的主要创新包括：长寿命OSR催化剂、对元素硫的高选择性、高活性和低成本催化剂、实时原位吸附剂容量监测，以最大限度地提高材料利用率并进一步降低成本。更广泛的影响/商业该项目的潜力包括大大提高利用沼气用于替代和可再生能源生产设施的能力，并显着减少碳和废物足迹以及加工成本。所提出的工艺在热力学上是高效的，并且易于扩展到各种地点和容量。所提出的工艺能够将硫污染物去除到非常低的水平，从而使沼气催化转化为更高价值的液体燃料和化学品。回收的元素硫可直接用作肥料添加剂。简而言之，所提出的创新允许沼气脱硫和随后以比现有方法更经济、更环保的方式使用。所提出的工艺还能够清洁沼气和其他高硫含量（约 1-3%）的气源，而不会显着增加工艺成本。除沼气外，其他气流包括各种来源的天然气、压裂气、石油气和合成气也可以脱硫。 因此，BTL、CTL、GTL 和可再生能源发电可能会受到这一创新成功的影响。