Turn2X, a German cleantech company founded in 2022, has developed an advanced reactor that converts carbon dioxide and hydrogen to methane with high efficiency. Trun2X uses recycled carbon dioxide from the air and green hydrogen through the water electrolysis using renewable energy. The modular design of Turn2X's methanation reactor makes it simple to scale up and maintain.
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Challenges: carbon-neutral fuel
Since the early 1900s, carbon dioxide (CO₂) levels in the atmosphere have increased by 50% due to human activities. When fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas are burned for energy production, transportation, and industrial processes, they release CO₂ into the air. This excess CO₂ is a greenhouse gas that traps heat and raises the temperature of the oceans and air. CO₂ emissions play a crucial role in driving climate change.
Emerging technologies, such as Direct Air Capture (DAC) and Direct Ocean Capture, can remove excessive atmospheric CO₂. However, storing captured CO₂ underground has long-term ecological risks and a lack of economic viability. Instead, when captured CO₂ reacts with clean hydrogen to produce hydrocarbon fuels, then burning these fuels in industrial processes, airplanes, and ships doesn’t add to carbon emissions. This means that these hydrocarbon fuels are carbon-neutral.
Green hydrogen can be produced on-site through water electrolysis using renewable energy sources like wind and solar. In the past two decades, the levelized cost of renewable electricity has reduced a lot. This makes it possible to make green hydrogen at a low levelized cost by electrolyzing water. Carbon capture and green hydrogen are now less expensive, which means that cheap carbon-neutral hydrocarbon fuels can be made.
Turn2X Technology
Turn2X has developed an advanced reactor that converts carbon dioxide and hydrogen to methane. The reactor contains stacks of multi-tube reactors that are stacked atop one another. The reactor is modular, scalable, and simple to maintain with this design. Each multi-tube reactor has inner and outer jackets which are connected to one another by reaction tubes. Catalyst bed is located in the reaction tubes for efficient methanation reaction. Significantly, this design allows an efficient heat exchange between the reaction tubes and coolant flow, resulting in an efficient methanation process.
How Turn2X produces renewable natural gas
Carbon dioxide (CO₂) and hydrogen (H₂) react to produce methane (CH₄) via an exothermic reaction:
CO₂ + 4H₂ ⇆ CH₄ + 2H₂O ∆H = -165 kJ/mol
Therefore, an efficient removal of the reaction heat is necessary for an efficient and controllable methanation process.
To fulfill this requirement effectively, Turn2X has developed an advanced reactor consisting of stacks of multi-tube reactors, as depicted in the diagram below.
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