North Haven, CT (July 14th, 2020) - Precision Combustion, Inc. (PCI) announced a Department of Energy (DOE) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II award to continue the development of a catalytic process that selectively converts C2-C4 hydrocarbons to olefins while minimizing factors responsible for reduced product yields. This new process offers environmental and economic benefits while utilizing abundant domestic natural gas resources, including a 35% reduction in energy consumption compared to state-of-the art energy-intensive steam cracking. The process is suited for compact modular gas to fuels projects.
Steam cracking is one of the highest energy consuming processes in the chemical industry, and olefins are a primary building block for both fuels and many other chemicals. Ethylene and similar products are key input materials to the manufacture of multiple products, most notably plastics, and face rapid growth prospects.
PCI’s approach directly converts C2-C4’s to olefins and subsequently to fuels, offering a lower energy pathway while also offering potential for high yields. PCI’s reactor provides a simpler and more cost-effective path from ethane to ethylene, and onward to liquid fuels and chemicals, involving a fundamentally new approach capable of producing significantly higher yields of ethylene as compared to other alternatives to steam reforming. Our process allows for the economic production of a wide range of hydrocarbon products using existing ethylene processing technologies, including the established olefin to gasoline process.
According to Dr. Weissman, PCI’s Principal Investigator for the project, “Phase I of the project demonstrated the successful performance of our novel heterogeneous catalytic reactor, enabling a lower energy pathway to olefins and a corresponding lower cost path to liquid fuels and chemicals. Phase II will build on this success to further develop and optimize the reactor and catalyst for yields and costs needed to reach DOE’s $3/gallon gasoline-equivalent target.”
President Kevin Burns notes, “We potentially have the basis for a more efficient, higher value path for natural gas, including better use and transport from underutilized remote sites. Improvements to ethylene and propylene production offer potentially very large energy savings. This DOE support will help us advance the technology and better show its specific capabilities. I invite chemicals producers who may have an interest to contact us to learn more.”
Precision Combustion, Inc. is a clean energy technology company developing and manufacturing catalytic devices and systems for energy and environmental sector applications. To learn more, visit www.precision-combustion.com.
For more information, contact:
Tony Anderson
Director, Marketing and Business Development
Phone: 203-287-3700 ext. 290
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