A California startup is harnessing sunlight, water and air to produce synthetic natural gas. This eliminates the need to pump natural gas from the ground and release additional greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
synthetic natural gas: When natural gas is burned, it releases CO2, and its main component, methane, is itself a very potent greenhouse gas.
Synthetic natural gas has the potential to reduce harmful methane emissions.
Methane emissions from the energy sector are often caused by leaks from wells and pipelines, but several groups are exploring ways to prevent methane emissions. create Rather than pulling natural gas out of the ground, it uses renewable energy and elements drawn from air and water.
This synthetic natural gas, or “e-methane,” releases carbon into the atmosphere when burned like standard natural gas, but as the world transitions to truly clean power sources, harmful methane It has the potential to reduce emissions.
what’s new? California-based startup Terraform Industries announces that its system for producing synthetic natural gas, called Terraformer, has officially produced “pipeline-grade” gas for the first time from solar power, water, and air. did.
The terraformer consists of three subsystems.
One is a solar-powered electrolysis machine that splits H2O into oxygen and hydrogen. The second is a direct air capture (DAC) system that extracts CO2 from the surrounding air, and the third is a chemical reactor that combines hydrogen and CO2 to produce synthetic natural gas.
Scaled-up version of Terraformer
As individual systems, none of these systems are groundbreaking. For example, the electrolyzer was invented more than 200 years before him. However, Terraform claims to have improved each system with proprietary technology that reduces costs.
Terraform’s synthetic natural gas is still much more expensive than the conventional variety, but the startup told Techcrunch it has already identified ways to bring costs down even further. But ultimately, to make a difference, it will need to scale up to the point where it produces thousands of terraformers and vast amounts of synthetic natural gas each year.
The big picture: Terraform is not the only company trying to synthesize natural gas and “hydrocarbon” fuels such as gasoline and jet fuel. If it could be done at low cost and at scale, it would provide a way to turn clean electricity into energy-dense fuels that can be burned on demand, without extracting fossil fuels.
Synthetic natural gas projects have already been launched or are underway in Europe, Canada, Japan, the United States, and many other regions. And recently, eight major international companies formed a coalition dedicated to the development of his e-methane projects around the world.
Will synthetic natural gas ever become cheap enough to truly compete with today’s natural gas?
However, it is not clear whether pursuing synthetic natural gas is a worthwhile move in the fight against climate change.
Some question whether it will ever become cheap enough to truly compete with today’s natural gas, but even if it were possible, it would mean pulling CO2 out of the atmosphere, and when burning e-methane, CO2 will be released again. Experts say it needs to be done.Delete it shop Achieving climate goals will require removing large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
“[Synthetic natural gas] It’s a terrible idea, stop it completely,” Rebecca Dell, industry program director at the nonprofit organization ClimateWorks, told the Financial Times.
Conclusion: Whether you end up needing electronic methane or can make do with batteries or biofuels, Terraform appears to be doing the right thing in the engineering department, and the technology it’s developing has potential for more than just natural gas production. It may be helpful.
CEO Casey Handmer told TechCrunch that Terraform’s electrolyser produces hydrogen at a cost of $2.50 per kg of H2, which is a significant improvement compared to the $5 to $11 per kg cost of existing green hydrogen systems. He said it was possible.
The company’s goal is to bring costs down to $1/kg, which would make hydrogen cheap enough to compete with fossil fuels for power generation. And in contrast to hydrocarbons, when hydrogen is burned, the only byproducts are warm air and water.
Terraform also claims that its DAC system extracts CO2 from air at a cost of $250 per ton. While this still falls short of the industry goal of less than $100 per ton, Terraform is significantly better than other systems that typically cost between $600 and $1,000 per ton.
If that cost can also be lowered, the company’s DAC technology could be used independently to capture CO2 and then sequester it underground or sell it to companies that make carbon-intensive products such as concrete. right.
“If you can find a way to make more money than you spend, you are in the tent of capitalism.”
casey hammer
But for now, Terraform’s best bet for making a profit is the Terraformer, and the company says it’s already taking reservations for the system and ramping up production.
“Many of the great technologies to deal with the climate problem are fundamentally not in the realm of capitalism, because they don’t make money; they actually spend more money than they make. ” Handmer told TechCrunch.
“That makes it very difficult to scale,” he continued. “But if you can figure out a way to make more money than you spend, you’re in the tent of capitalism. It’s just a system where money flows naturally. That’s what matters. That’s what it is.”
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