UN Sustainable Development Goals Addressed
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Goal 13: Climate Action
2020 Global Design Challenge Finalist
This design concept was developed by participants in the Institute’s Global Design Challenge. The descriptions below are from the team’s competition entry materials.
Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Team members: Naureen Othi, Agam Aulakh, Anjali Patadia, Cheshta Sharma
Innovation Details
Anthropogenic contributions to methane emissions have been repeatedly observed to overwhelm natural methane sinks, and in the atmosphere, contribute to the greenhouse gas (GHG) effect and expedite climate change. This team from the University of Calgary is working to tackle this problem head-on, by emulating the way certain bacteria (methanotrophs) metabolize methane. Methanolite is a system that converts methane to methanol through the use of a zeolite without the emission of carbon dioxide.
What is the problem you are trying to solve and how is it related to the united nations sustainable development goals?
The problem we are trying to solve is methane emissions in Canada from the oil and gas industry, in accordance with sustainable development goal 13 of climate action. Natural methane sinks are known to be overwhelmed by human activity, with a significant source of anthropogenic emissions being fossil fuel production. This greenhouse gas is specifically problematic because its effect is 34 times greater compared to carbon dioxide. With global greenhouse gas emission levels reaching an all-time high, current emission mitigation strategies have the scope to be improved and require the implementation of sustainable designs that incorporate renewable energy to tackle this problem head-on.
What organisms/natural systems did you learn from and how did what you learned inform your design?
The primary biomimetic inspiration of this design was the methanotroph, a bacterium that uses methane as its only energy source. Looking closer at the metabolism of methane in methanotrophs, nature has evolved the MMO that can perform the reaction of converting methane to methanol in diverse conditions. Striving to make methanol production more sustainable, we looked at methanotrophs for inspiration in optimizing this reaction. Although the complete metabolism of methane in this bacteria results in the production of carbon dioxide, we bypassed the emission of this potent greenhouse gas by focussing on the first part of this reaction that converts methane to methanol. This chemical process is conducted through the catalytic reactor portion of our system through the use of the copper-zeolite catalyst in mimicking the metabolism of methanotrophs. Using nature’s method of breaking down methane, we can bypass the production of harmful substances and conduct the reaction at relatively lower temperatures. In addition to this, inspiration was also drawn from how s are stacked inside a of a plant cell. This stacking is utilized by plants to maximize reaction area, relative to light absorption in the process of . By mimicking this, the catalyst in the catalytic reactor is packed in pellets, as opposed to remaining in the original conformation of fine grain, to maximize the surface area of reaction by allowing more catalysts to be utilized in a packed conformation.
What does your design solution do? How does it address the problem or opportunity you selected?
Methanolite is a system that converts methane to methanol through the use of a copper zeolite catalyst. There are two primary components: the converter bed and the distillation unit. Each step of the conversion process requires a unique set of environmental conditions to ensure the best yield and selectivity of methanol. For the conversion process, there are four primary steps: oxygen activation, purging, methane conversion, and methanol extraction. Oxygen activation essentially “turns on the catalyst” to ready it for the conversion then an inert gas (such as N2) can be used to purge the system, this process occurs at around 450°c. The catalytic conversion of methane to methanol can then occur around temperatures of around 210 – 225°c. Lastly, methanol can be extracted using a solvent such as H2O under temperatures of approximately 150-210°c. The methanol/solvent solution can then be run through a distillation system to further isolate the methanol product. This design helps mitigate climate change by reducing the amount of methane released into the atmosphere. Methanolite can do this by providing an alternative mechanism to other methane reduction processes that still result in the emission of GHG into the atmosphere, such as flaring. Current methane conversion systems utilize synthesis gas for the conversion to methanol, Methanolite uses an innovative direct oxidation method based on the mechanism of methanotrophs to circumvent the complexities and waste products from current systems.
