P. Ogunlude, O. Abunumah, F. Muhammad-Sukki, E. Gobina
Robert Gordon University,
United Kingdom
Keywords: emissions, climate change, permeation, biogas, net-zero, nano-structured membranes
Summary:
The Net-Zero Emissions by 2050 Scenario does require that all non-emergency flaring be eliminated globally by 2030, implying roughly a 90% reduction in flared volumes by 2030). New projects must incorporate strategies to utilize associated gas or to safely reinject it underground. For existing fields, an optimal solution would involve directing associated gas to a localised gas market. From October 31 to November 12, 2021 the 26th UN Climate Conference (COP26) was held in Glasgow in which 197 countries took part to define a road map aimed at achieving the goal of containing global warming by 1.5 degrees Celsius and reaching climate neutrality (zero emissions). The, EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and US President Joe Biden announced a global pledge to cut methane emissions 30% by 2030. Methane pollution from fossil fuels, agriculture, and waste account for over one-quarter of today's warming. Heightened awareness over the need for climate actions that target the pollutants affecting both the scale and the speed at which the planet is warming has brought acute focus on methane. In the absence of the local markets, however, or where fields are very remote, several technologies can offer the productive uses for the associated gas while working towards the longer-term reduction objective in fossil fuel use modelled in the Net Zero carbon Emissions by 2050 Scenario. Despite global oil demand dropping nearly 7% in 2020 (precipitated by the Covid-19 pandemic), flaring fell by only 5%. Globally, 142 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas was flared in 2020 which is roughly equivalent to the natural gas demand of Central and South America. This resulted in around 265 Mt CO2, nearly 8 Mt of methane (240 Mt CO2-eq) and black soot and other GHGs being directly emitted into the atmosphere A suitable means of capturing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions has now become a matter of global urgency and this has been proven in recent times by the unfortunate documented events of disasters directly linked to climate change. Nano-structured Membrane technology has been identified as a suitable technique to meet the net-zero emissions target which has been set and develop a technique that converts the “would have been emitted” GHGs to a sustainable energy form reducing the reliance on less sustainable forms of energy such as fossil fuels. This paper provides data derived from experimental studies to determine the factors that increase selectivity of the membranes having different physical properties. This was achieved by gas permeation studies of sample biogas mixture under various operating conditions and data evaluation.