Methane Fuel Carrier Project September 2020

The process entails the capture of CO2 from air using a dedicated amine-solution based process which is integrated with the exothermic methanation process for optimum energy conversion efficiency.

Given the distributed nature of the methane production process the concept has the potential to incrementally replace the production of coal seam gas by renewable gas, using the existing gas collection and transportation infrastructure.

The project addresses the following aspects which are considered critical for further development:

1. Development of a cost-effective process for energy efficient recovery of carbon dioxide from ambient air with a focus on process and equipment design supported by laboratory-based experiments.
2. Optimisation of the integration of the carbon dioxide recovery process with the methanation process and the electrolytic hydrogen production process supported by process modelling.

The anticipated project outcome is a conceptual design of a modular unit that can produce synthetic methane from entirely renewable sources.