Intensified reactor for lean methane emissions treatment

Abstract

The Global Methane Pledge declared at the 2021 United Nations climate change conference (COP26) marked the world's commitment to eradicate methane emissions. Regardless of the source, methane emissions are typically generated in a lean composition (e.g., <1% vol), remote and scattered. This work explores the use of an intensified reactor that implements the chemical looping principle to handle lean methane emissions. A model-based framework is used to showcase the baseline performance of the proposed reactor in converting methane emissions using nickelbased oxygen carriers. Sensitivity analysis of the reactor showed that the Ni percentage in the oxygen carrier, the feed air temperature, feed air to flared gas ratio, and oxidation to reduction duration ratio are the most deciding variables for reactor performance. The reactor is subsequently optimized to minimize the methane emitted, using a dynamic program with safety and operability constraints for the alternating redox process. With the optimal cycle strategy, we demonstrate that near-complete methane conversion (>98% methane conversion) can be achieved by the reactor without external heating.