Demonstration of a New Economical Process to Monetize High-CO2 Natural Gas

The anticipated results of the Demo2000 project are the design, fabrication and deployment of a fully functional VERDIS CO2 stripping & conversion unit, able to process some 5 MMSCFD of natural gas. While significantly smaller than fully commercial-sized units will be, it will nevertheless be sufficient to fully and compellingly demonstrate the potential value that larger-scale units will offer to gas recovery producers both in Norway, and around the world. There will be a number of verifiable secondary objectives, which are: 1. A completed design for the size of CO2 stripping and conversion unit to be built as part of the project. 2. To show how the Verdis process dramatically reduces the operating costs and energy demand of CO2 removal, and how the Process integrates effectively either with pipelining, or else deep well disposal of the CO2, while producing market-ready natural gas. 3. To demonstrate how the energy-efficient solid state CO2 absorbent can be stripped with dry gas at 90-130 ºC and at pressures higher than those of the feed gas. 4. To further show how, by using warm CO2 at over 1100 psi as the stripping gas, the stripped CO2 can be returned to the liquid state just by cooling to below 30 ºC ready for disposal either downhole, or through pipelining. 5. To also show how, even for lower-pressure natural gas, while a liquid CO2 is not produced directly, the CO2 compression costs for liquifying are substantially reduced, thereby offering enhanced process economics. 6. While we intend to deploy the demonstration unit onshore, at the Aker Solutions CO2 research facility, we will also demonstrate how the package will offer industry-leading advantages for use on offshore platforms, thanks to is much smaller footprint, lower weight, and greater operational simplicity, compared to competing, conventional processes. The completed CO2 stripping and conversion unit will then be used to drive sales with Norwegian and international gas producers.