Efficient Chemicals Production via Chemical Looping

Executive Summary

This project will develop chemical looping technology (CLT) into a general process intensification (PI) strategy for modular upgrading of natural gas to commodity chemicals. Nonoxidative upgrading of methane, ethane and propane to alkenes and aromatics is often limited by equilbrium. CLT is an effective PI strategy to circumvent such limitations by either reactive separation or selective oxidation of a subset of products from the reaction mixture to restore the thermodynamic driving force. CLT also allows for efficient heat utilization/management among different reaction steps, thus enhancing the overall energy efficiency of the process. The commercial potential of CLT is underexplored primarily because of the high cost in the design and prototyping of automated continuous systems. This project aims to demonstrate the generality of chemical looping technology (CLT) as a process intensification strategy by advancing chemical looping for methane dehydroaromatization (DHA) and alkane (ethane and propane) dehydrogenation (DH) at yields well in excess of one-pass thermodynamic limits. In each of these chemical looping processes, an increase in per pass conversion, a dramatic simplification of separation, and heat integration are all addressed in a single system, which makes them ideal for being deployed in standard reactors modules at remote natural gas extraction sites.

Technical Challenge

Identifying the appropriate redox pair materials
Low cost reactor design and construction

Potential Impact

Chemical looping technology offers a unique and effective approach to overcome thermodynamic limitations in nonoxidative upgrading of natural gas to high value aromatic products, e.g., benzene and toluene. It also has the potential to increase the energy efficiency through more efficient heat management. Since natural gas extraction sites are often located in remote areas, the ability to produce easy-to-transport liquid aromatic products, rather than gaseous products, will drastically reduce the transportation cost. Further, the development of modular reactors, a customizable control mechanism and a predictive computational model for materials screening will accelerate and reduce the cost of the prototyping of chemical looping processes for applications beyond natural gas. The successful implementation of this project could substantially improve the competitiveness of US chemical and energy industries.

Resources

The University of Delaware has extensive experience in catalysts and redox materials. Dow Chemical brings expertise in Techno-economic analysis for continuous chemical looping reactor design.