Grand Forks' UND EERC WIth Three-Year, $3.5 Million Methanol Research Project; The North Dakota Two-Step -- October 21, 2015

Wow, wow, and wow. The things one finds in the most unexpected places. Over at Rigzone, I almost skipped this article, and probably would have except for the fact I'm all caught up and had some time to look around. This was the headline that I almost ignored: lowering the bar to methanol production.

I went to the link because I vaguely recall reading about methanol a long time ago but had completely forgotten all about it, but I thought maybe it would help me understand the Bakken better.

Wow, was I surprised. The story had a North Dakota connection, right there in the third paragraph:

Methanol is a key chemical ingredient for the production of liquid fuels, solvents, resins and polymers. A common method for producing the compound, steam methane reforming (SMR), entails applying high-temperature (approximately 1,500 to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit) steam to natural gas or another methane-rich feedstock to produce "syngas." Next, impurities are removed from the syngas and a catalyst is applied to yield liquid methanol.

SMR is not without its drawbacks, however, according to a Connecticut-based manufacturer of stationary fuel cell power plants, FuelCell Energy (FCE).

"Steam reforming to generate methanol is highly energy-intensive, with a substantial carbon footprint," noted Kurt Goddard, vice president of investor relations with FuelCell Energy, Inc. (FCE). It "generates criteria pollutants such as smog-producing nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter that can cause public health issues."

SMR's complexity, which stems from its reliance on high temperatures through multiple steps, limits its practical application to large plants that can achieve a commercially viable economy of scale, added Ted Aulich, principal process chemist for fuels and chemicals with the University of North Dakota Energy and Environmental Research Center (EERC).

Aulich and his team at EERC recently embarked on a three-year project led by FCE to develop a simpler, less cost-prohibitive alternative to the two-step SMR process. Their goal is to develop a fuel cell capable of converting natural gas and other methane-rich gas into methanol.

Through the course of the $3.5 million project, which received funding from the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA-E) and the North Dakota Department of Commerce, EERC will work to improve the performance and economics of an "anode catalyst," which Aulich explained is a critical component of EC-GTL.

Much more at the link. I thnk the whole AGW scam is a scam, but, hey, if the "they" want to shower money on North Dakota, to lower CO2 emissions, I'm all for it. It looks like Grand Forks and Fargo are on a roll.

What is methanol used for? A lot of stuff. 

Mony, Mony, Billy Idol