Proteum Energy ($500k to convert flare gas into hydrogen and methane)

Proteum Energy, an American cleantech company founded in 2020, develops an innovative process that converts non-methane hydrocarbons, such as ethane, which are often considered low-value byproducts or waste streams, into more valuable hydrogen or methane products, potentially improving resource utilization and reducing emissions.

Challenges: flare gas

Oil and gas extraction processes produce flare gas as a byproduct. It consists primarily of methane, along with other heavy hydrocarbons like ethane, propane, butane, etc. Since the gas volumes are too low to make capture economical, these unwanted glasses are burned off. This process is referred to as flaring. Flaring reduces pressure buildup and prevents the uncontrolled release of flammable gasses during oil or gas production, processing, transportation, and so on.

Flaring converts the methane in the associated gas into carbon dioxide (CO₂). According to the World Bank, around 144 billion cubic meters of gas were flared globally in 2021, resulting in over 400 million metric tons of CO₂ equivalent emissions. Flaring is still better than venting the gasses directly because methane has a much higher global warming potential than CO₂ over a 20-year period.

Moreover, flaring can produce black carbon or soot particles, which are a potent climate force because they absorb solar radiation and reduce albedo when deposited on snow and ice surfaces. Flaring also emits other pollutants like nitrogen oxides (NOₓ), sulfur dioxide (SO₂), volatile organic compounds, and particulate matter (PM), which can contribute to air pollution, acid rain, and adverse health effects.

Proteum Energy Technology

Proteum Energy has developed a modular system for converting non-methane hydrocarbons (or heavy hydrocarbons), such as ethane, propane, butane, and their mixtures, into hydrogen (H₂) gas and/or methane (CH₄) gas. The non-methane hydrocarbons are first reacted with steam in a heavy hydrocarbon reactor (HHR) with the presence of a catalyst at a high temperature to produce a product stream containing hydrogen (H₂) gas and CO₂. Pure H₂ and CO₂ can be separated from the product stream of HHR. The remaining H₂ and CO₂ can be further reacted in a synthetic natural gas (SNG) reactor to form a methane (CH₄)-rich gas product.

Proteum Energy's system has several benefits over other industrial methods. It is more efficient at converting fuels, more selective toward hydrogen or methane, uses heavy hydrocarbon resources that aren't being used enough, and has a smaller, more integrated process design.

How Proteum Energy converts heavy hydrocarbon into hydrogen and methane

The diagram depicts the modular system of Proteum Energy, which converts heavy hydrocarbons into hydrogen and/or methane.