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Natural Gas "Cleaning" Extracts Valuable Waste Carbon

Posted by timothy on from the i'll-take-it-black dept.

Al writes "There's been a lot of focus on "clean coal" lately, but a Canadian start-up called Atlantic Hydrogen is developing a way to make natural gas more environmentally friendly. The process involves using a plasma reactor to separate hydrogen and methane in the gas. The procedure also turns carbon emissions into high-purity carbon black, a substance that is used to make inks, plastics and reinforced rubber products. Utility companies could potentially sell the carbon black, making the process more financially attractive."

4 of 73 comments (clear)

  1. Better for the environment, but by GreenTech11 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You are still going to run out of gas eventually, this just means that we don't hurt the environment as much in the process.

    --
    Laughter is the best medicine, except if you have a broken rib.
    1. Re:Better for the environment, but by Scrameustache · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You are still going to run out of gas eventually, this just means that we don't hurt the environment as much in the process.

      Well, it's methane, which is produced naturally by decomposing organic matter (as a waste product of the microorganism doing the biodegradation), so the technology could be applied to renewable sources of methane even though that's probably not economically sound when competing with currently mined deposits of gas.

      --

      You can't take the sky from me...

    2. Re:Better for the environment, but by icebrain · · Score: 3, Insightful

      We have had answers in front of us for at least one, if not two decades.

      Feel free to enlighten us any time, then...

      I do agree that the expenditure of combustible fuels to run electric power generation is stupid. Hydrodynamic dams, tidal generators, and nuclear reactors are the way to go.

      But you still need some form of combustible fuel for transportation, particularly in aviation, because the power output and energy density of hydrocarbons are unmatched for that application. They are also consumable during flight (lowering weight and extending range). I expect that aircraft will be the last to convert to emissionless power, as demand is relatively small and practical electric drive will take a long time to develop beyond light airplanes. Some form of biodiesel, however, could suffice in the near to medium term, particularly if it can be feasibly produced from waste products and if the corn lobby is kept quiet.

      --
      The meek may inherit the earth, but the strong shall take the stars.
  2. Re:Energy arithmetic by evanbd · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm not really buying the idea that hydrogen-enriched natural gas will burn more cleanly. It will produce less CO2, true, but at the price of less energy per unit volume. And natural gas can already be burned less completely.

    Combustion chemistry is best described as really weird. Different fuels have a large impact on how much nitrogen burns to nitrogen oxides, as well as how completely the fuel burns. Details of the combustion environment (mixing, combustion time, combustion temp, pressure, etc) also have a huge impact. There is plenty of evidence that adding H2 to normal hydrocarbon fuels makes them burn both more completely and with less NOx production. Oxygen-bearing fuels (eg ethanol added to gasoline) can also have similar effects. Normally adding H2 has a large enough energy cost that it isn't viable, but if this process can do it easily and efficiently, that's interesting.