The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy has awarded Southern Research nearly $800,000 for a project that targets a more cost-efficient and environmentally friendly method of producing some of the most important chemicals used in manufacturing.

Southern Research is developing a novel nano-engineered catalyst-driven process for the production of light olefins, such as ethylene and propylene, using carbon dioxide, or CO_2, from coal-fired flue gas and lower alkanes derived from shale gas as feedstocks.

Olefins are a class of chemicals that serve as building blocks for a sweeping variety of products such as packaging, plastics, textiles, paints and electronics. Industrial demand for olefins such as ethylene and propylene is rising with improving living standards across the world.

Ethylene and propylene are the petrochemicals produced in the greatest volumes today. Current production methods are capital- and energy-intensive, and emit significant amounts of  greenhouse gases.

Southern Research’s new production method, combining CO₂ with readily available shale gas, promises to have meaningful economic and environmental impacts.

In addition to this novel approach of producing olefins, Southern Research’s Durham, North Carolina, facility is exploring new ways to make chemicals such as acrylonitrile and fuels from sources such as non-food renewable feedstock, and coal, waste emissions and natural gas, respectively.

ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS

Production techniques for ethylene, which is manufactured in amounts greater than any other chemical, typically use naphtha or ethane as raw materials, and require a large amount of energy to crack apart molecules.

Amit Goyal, Ph.D., manager, Sustainable Chemistry and Catalysis and principal investigator, said Southern Research’s innovative process concept can use CO₂ captured from coal-fired power plants, or derived from any source, to produce light olefins. The new technique can yield significant environmental benefits, he added.

“Ethylene alone accounts for 1 percent of the world’s energy consumption and 180 to 200 million tons of CO₂ emission,” Goyal said. “Due to the large magnitude of ethylene production, any reduction on the energy requirement will be highly impactful.”

The approach would reduce carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired plants, the top emitters of the colorless, odorless gas in the U.S power sector. In 2015, coal-based power plants in the United States emitted nearly 1.4 billion metric tons of CO_2.

“Coal is abundant and cheap, making it a vital energy source,” said Jadid Samad, Ph.D., advanced chemical engineer and co-principal investigator for Southern Research. “A smart solution to the issue of emissions from coal-fired power plants lies in the prospect of using CO₂ as feedstock to produce valuable chemicals.”

Samad said Southern Research’s approach on the project directly supports the Carbon Use and Reuse research and development portfolio being assembled by the U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Fossil Energy. The portfolio is developing and testing novel approaches that convert captured CO₂ from coal-fired power plants into useable products.

The funding from the Office of Fossil Energy for Southern Research’s project is $799,422. The office has committed $5.9 million to funding projects to support its Carbon Use and Reuse R&D portfolio.

Atlanta-based Southern Co. is teaming with Southern Research on the project and will provide the research team with the composition of various flue gases generated in a utility plant. In addition, a petrochemical consultant will provide guidance on catalyst development, as well as scale-up and commercialization aspects of the project.

NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE and Southern Research’s Energy & Environment (E&E) division today announced a partnership to help with the independent validation of competing technologies in the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE –- a $20 million global competition that incents innovators to transform how the world approaches CO₂ mitigation with the development of groundbreaking technologies that convert carbon dioxide emissions into valuable products.

Southern Research will serve as an independent, unbiased technical evaluator tasked with assessing performance of the competing technologies. In this role, technologists from the organization’s E&E division will visit each of the competing teams and validate each technology’s performance based on the two primary scoring criteria of the competition: how much CO₂ they are able to convert, and the net value of products created with the carbon.

“Southern Research represents the type of rigor, independence and experience we need in order to properly test the broad diversity of new carbon conversion technologies in this competition,” said NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE Director of Technical Operations Marcius Extavour.

“XPRIZE is an innovation engine that tries to catalyze breakthrough technologies that can address our collective grand challenges,” he added. “Climate change and carbon emissions are in that category, and we know that Southern Research has been at the forefront of technology and standards in this field for decades. We’re excited to bring their expertise to bear.”

“Our team of scientists and engineers have experience in deploying and testing new renewable energy and environmental management technologies in the field. That real world experience, combined with process modeling and analytical capabilities, gives us the ability to judge which technologies are more likely to succeed when commercialized,” said Bill Grieco, vice president of Southern Research’s E&E division.

HISTORICAL EXPERTISE

For over 40 years, the division has been testing, developing and licensing technologies designed to help energy producers and industry manage their environmental footprint. Southern Research specializes in controlling the environmental footprint of processes for energy generation and distribution, water treatment and reuse, and chemicals and fuel manufacturing.

Of particular relevance to the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE, E&E manages a task force specifically for independent performance validation and demonstration of energy and related sustainable technologies. This team also strives to predict the economic and life cycle impacts of emerging technologies with techno-economic analyses (TEA) and life cycle assessments (LCA).

This team has also been deeply involved in the development of ISO 14034, an international standard to define how the performance of environmental technologies are evaluated.

“The vast majority of energy consumed in the world will continue to be produced from fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas and coal for the foreseeable future,” said Santosh Gangwal, director of business development, Southern Research’s E&E division. “When combusted, fossil fuels expel CO₂ into the atmosphere, which could contribute to changes in the earth’s climate.

“While there can only be one winner for the Carbon XPRIZE competition, this is important work, and we strongly encourage all competing teams to continue developing these transformative technologies,” he said. “The independent validation provided by Southern Research and XPRIZE is a valuable benefit to all teams.”

XPRIZE competitions assess the contestants’ innovations in three stages: a submission round, a laboratory testing round, and a demonstration round where the contestants’ technologies are examined under real world conditions. The 4½-year NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE competition will include all three rounds across two tracks — one focused on testing technologies at a coal plant and another that focuses on testing technologies at a natural gas power plant. Each track will operate as a separate competition on the same timeline.

Southern Research will lend its expertise to working closely with the Carbon XPRIZE and its competing teams to help scale these breakthrough technologies in the second stage of the competition in real and tangible ways.

For almost three years, Southern Research’s Director of Energy & Environment Tim Hansen, P.E., has been working with scientists around the world to formulate an international standard for evaluating new environmental technologies.

Put forth through the International Organization for Standardization in ISO 14034, standard establishes a framework for the verification of testing for innovative, environmentally beneficial products. Every year, global demand for these technologies is growing as companies seek to meet new environmental regulations, achieve sustainability goals, or lower their carbon footprints.

During the development of this standard, Hansen served as the designated U.S. technical expert to the working group for ISO 14034.

In this role, he provided input on the content of the standard, managed input and comments on drafts from the U.S. team, and represented their interests at semiannual international meetings. He also delivered presentations at workshops on the ISO standard that summarized the U.S. perspective on Environmental Technology Verification (ETV).

“ISO 14034 is a new international standard that will establish a framework for how to do high-quality, consistent evaluations and verifications of new, innovative technologies that can impact the environment,” Hansen said.

QUALITY ASSURANCE

By making the evaluations more consistent, manufacturers can prove the reliability of their performance claims, and potential buyers can identify technology that fits their needs and compare it to other products on the market. More consistency in testing allows consumers to have more faith in the results of these tests.

“One of the goals is to make sure that technology evaluations, done under the ISO 14034 standard, are conducted with a certain level of quality,” Hansen said.

Earlier this year, Southern Research participated in a technology evaluation using a draft of the standard in partnership with Environment Canada and Canada’s ETV execution partner, Globe Performance Solutions (GPS). In this test, Southern Research tested an organic Rankine cycle generator provided by Electratherm that uses waste heat from a diesel generator’s exhaust to produce additional electric power.

“GPS used the draft version of the standard to perform the verification of our test results and Electratherm’s energy efficiency performance claim,” Hansen said. “The goal was to utilize the ISO standard and provide feedback to Environment Canada on any issues with the implementation as a case study and learning tool.”

ISO 14034 seeks to ensure rigorous, independent, high-quality evaluations are done by establishing accepted management and testing practices, reporting requirements, and verification principles. Through these evaluations, producers gain independently verified data to use in marketing, and the perceived risk of adopting new technologies is lessened for buyers and investors.

In addition to aiding decisions about technology adoption, these standards can also provide clear information to legislators and regulators about how these technologies work.

For this standard to be put into practice in the U.S., it will need to be adopted by the American National Standards Institute. That process is under way, Hansen said, and should be completed by early 2017.

EVALUATING CLEAN TECHNOLOGIES

Hansen’s work on ISO 14034 is far from his first encounter with Environmental Technology Verification (ETV) research. In fact, Southern Research scientists have been working on ETV since the mid-1990s.

“We were one of the original partners on the EPA’s ETV program,” Hansen said. “The original driver for environmental technology verification (ETV) research was that it’s hard to make decisions on which technologies to use and which are beneficial because there are so many coming out with marketing claims.”

For almost two decades, their work was mainly focused on greenhouse gas mitigation technology. The Southern Research center tested and evaluated more than 40 technologies under this program.

“We’ve continued doing those kinds of test and evaluation programs for a variety of government and commercial customers using similar methodology since then.”

At the time, the EPA’s ETV program and the Southern Research Greenhouse Gas Technology Center were the first of their kind in the world. Other countries began to establish similar programs.

“As those other programs got established, we started looking for ways we could share information or share results of verifications,” Hansen said. “We had to make sure we were all doing it the same way, so one of the approaches was to develop an international standard. The idea was first brought up in the 2000s, and we decided to pursue an ISO standard.”

Going forward, Southern Research is in a unique position.

“We can be a verifier of technology, making sure the evaluation process and test data are verified and up to the ISO 14034 requirements, or we can be the testing body that actually does the testing work and partner with other independent groups that verify our work,” Hansen said.

“The ETV process was really put in place to help people get the information and data on how these technologies perform so they can make decisions about what technologies to implement,” he added. “There are a variety of ways these developments could actually impact the population, the environment, and public health.”

ISO has just published a new standard to help companies that are developing innovative environmental technologies reach new markets. ISO 14034:2016, Environmental management – Environmental technology verification (ETV), will provide independent verification of the performance of new environmental technologies by third parties (assessment bodies). This will help manufacturers prove the reliability of performance claims and help technology purchasers identify innovations that suit their needs.

Testing is a key phase for the verification of green technology innovations. With proof of performance credibly assured, innovations can expect an easier market access and/or a larger market share and the technological risk is reduced for technology purchasers.

Benoit Desforges, convener of the working group responsible for the development of ISO 14034, explains why green technologies need to be tested and in what ways the new standard will impact businesses and benefit sustainability. Read the interview below and check out ISO’s announcement here.

Why do green technology innovations need to be tested?

New environmental technologies can make a significant difference in terms of resource and cost savings, but often face serious market obstacles because they are innovations which, by definition, are not yet able to demonstrate a successful track record. ETV aims to change this by providing verified evidence to confirm the performance claim of the environmental technology and differentiate the innovation from other competing technologies.

What does ISO 14034 aim to do?

ISO 14034 reflects an international consensus that standardization of the performance verification process is an effective way of establishing the global credibility of innovative environmentally sound solutions.

The new standard features specific sections on verification principles, accepted testing practices and reporting requirements, to help create parity for technological innovators and encourage greater market acceptance of innovative technologies. This helps build vendor credibility and buyer confidence by providing the marketplace with the assurance that environmental performance claims are valid, credible and supported by high-quality, independent test data.

How can businesses use ETV (ISO 14034) to verify claims?

The global economy requires independent, quality-assured data on the performance of innovative technologies. Business leaders and public organizations must balance the requirements for change and adaptation against the risks of adopting innovative solutions. Equally important, industry and utilities need effective, scalable technologies to improve performance, address emerging regulations and meet stakeholder expectations. Lastly, when going to market, entrepreneurial technology companies need streamlined options to demonstrate and validate their innovative technologies and service offerings.

In what ways will ETV (ISO 14034) be used, and by whom?

As a third-party assessment process, ETV helps technology vendors provide objective and trustful data on the performance of an innovative environmental technology. For technology buyers and investors, ETV is a reliable source of information on which to base purchasing decisions and better manage technology and investment risks. Finally, ETV provides policy makers, regulators and other stakeholders with clear information on the performance achievable by new environmental technologies.

What are some of the benefits of the standard to industry?

ISO 14034 is designed to deliver multiple benefits that enhance confidence in the selection of technologies that demonstrate an environmental added value. Among the benefits are:

• Parity for technology providers in international markets
• Harmonization of the ETV process across international boundaries
• Credible, independent assessment of innovative environmental technologies
• Informed decisions when identifying and selecting suitable technologies
• Achievement of sustainable environmental targets that benefit citizens around the world by promoting technologies that demonstrate environmental added value

ETV paves the way towards technology performance assessments where sustainability and innovation are inextricably linked. Benefits are expected from the international recognition of verifications and the progressive emergence of an eco-innovation marketplace that promotes performance-based competition and the greening of public procurement.

Amit Goyal, Ph.D., is leading a team of scientists at Southern Research that has developed a cheaper and cleaner process for making acrylonitrile, a precursor for carbon-fiber production.

Goyal’s team has devised a multi-step catalytic process that converts sugars from non-food biomass to acrylonitrile through a pathway that could be around 20 percent cheaper than the typical production method. Their process also involves a substantial reduction in greenhouse gases.

The carbon fibers produced from this raw biomass process could interest automakers, which are looking at composite materials to reduce the weight of vehicles.

Goyal, manager of Southern Research’s sustainable chemistry and catalysis group, Energy & Environment, North Carolina, acts as principal investigator on the $6 million Department of Energy study.

Goyal and Tim Hansen, a Southern Research Energy & Environment director in North Carolina, discussed the project with Susan Neylon of ITECS, a management consulting firm that specializes in technology development. The interview was featured on the ITECS blog.

Susan Neylon – Tell our readers about the DOE-EERE program that you are working on.

Amit Goyal – We developed a process that is a multi-step catalytic process for conversion of sugars from non-food biomass to acrylonitrile at mild conditions.  In the first reaction step, sugars are converted to oxygenates.  These oxygenates are than converted to an intermediate which eventually is converted to acrylonitrile.

 Susan Neylon – What is the advantage of this pathway?

Tim Hansen – It is anticipated that the cost of the acrylonitrile produced this way will be potentially ~15-22% lower than the average price of traditional acrylonitrile with a 37% reduction in green house gases.

 Susan Neylon – What are your commercialization targets?

Tim Hansen – The end use of the carbon fibers produced from this method will be applications to light-weight automobiles.  It is anticipated that the need for carbon fiber in this market will cause an annual increase of 11-18%.  However, the traditional production of carbon fiber is highly dependent on petroleum-based propylene production, which is reduced due to the growth of natural gas.

 Susan Neylon – How far are you away from getting a carbon fiber made with this precursor on a vehicle?

Amit Goyal – We are approaching Phase 2 of the technology development expected start date is early 2017.  We would like to have a pilot plant for the technology up and running within the next 30 months.

Tim Hansen – Southern Research would not commercialize this technology by itself.  They either would license the technology, do a joint venture or spin it out as a separate entity.  Right now they are working with Cytec- Solvay group which will take the precursor and validate its quality to produce carbon fibers.  This product will then be compared with the petroleum-based acrylonitrile.

 Susan Neylon – How will the project be funded?

Amit Goyal – We have a $6MM program with the department of energy.  We also have cost share from Southern Research, Cytec and the NJ Institute of Technology.

 Susan Neylon – What is the NJ Institute of Technology role?

Amit Goyal – They are doing the material characterization.

 Susan Neylon – What keeps you up at night?

Amit Goyal – We believe and hope this will be the one of the first thermocatalytic process to be commercialized for selective production of a chemical from raw biomass.

Tim Hansen – The front-end economics of the feedstock.  What will they be?  Will it be stable? Will we have the same problems as propylene with price volatility?

 Susan Neylon – I wish you luck. I know that it has been a long term dream of the DOE to make low cost carbon fiber.  Hopefully this technology will be one of the answers to that dream.