Energy infrastructure developer Coastal Bend LNG has begun a front-end engineering and design (FEED) study with members of the team behind electrochemically mediated amine regeneration (EMAR) carbon capture technology.

The technology was developed originally by Professor T. Alan Hatton’s research group at the MIT Department of Chemical Engineering and has been in development for more than ten years. Using an electrochemical process to release captured carbon dioxide from amines, the method is more energy-efficient than the high-temperature steam used in traditional systems. It also reduces the capital requirements and enables much greater flexibility across operating conditions and process scales.

Solvanic founders Dr Michael Massen-Hane and Dr Michael Nitzsche have been associated with research breakthroughs resulting in emissions reductions that were previously infeasible. They’ve joined forces as Solvanic to scale the EMAR technology into industry and maximise the climate impacts.

Implementation will take place at Coastal Blend’s 22.5 million ton per annum (mtpa) multi-train natural gas liquefaction facility being developed along the Texas Gulf Coast.

Says Dr Nitzsche, “We have demonstrated our EMAR solution to Technology Readiness Level 4 with low energetics, high stability, and modular scalability across emission sources. This FEED study accelerates our techno-economic analyses for gas processing and post-combustion carbon capture with the full engineering support of Coastal Bend LNG and their contractors.”

Adds Dr Massen-Hane, “We’re leveraging over a decade of electrochemical carbon capture research and development at MIT via this option agreement. We appreciate Coastal Bend LNG’s confidence in the technology to meet their industrial decarbonisation objectives.”

Coastal Bend LNG CEO Nick Flores said that to deliver on its ambitious low-carbon intensity LNG goals, the company will need to capture carbon dioxide emissions from both natural gas pretreatment and cogeneration facilities.

“For post-combustion capture on our onsite cogeneration facilities,” he said, “we need a step change in carbon capture efficiency. We are highly encouraged by Solvanic’s preliminary techno-economics and are keen to accelerate their technology readiness with this FEED study.”

If the FEED study is successful, it will serve as a demonstration of how electrochemical carbon capture can be applied at the scale represented by LNG export facilities. This could pave the way for reducing emissions across energy-intensive sectors.

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