Low Temperature, Efficient Heat Capture to Reduce Natural Gas Consumption in the Chemical Industry
Novel Sulful based heat capture system for chemcial industry in California
Element 16 Technologies, Inc
Recipient
Glendale, CA
Recipient Location
25th
Senate District
52nd
Assembly District
$1,352,443
Amount Spent
Completed
Project Status
Project Result
This project was completed successfully, and a final report has been submitted for review.
The Issue
The chemical industry is the second largest user of primary energy in the United States, after only the petroleum industry, representing almost a fifth of all manufacturing energy consumption. In California, this sector is the third largest emitter of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Chemical plants that emit more than 25,000 metric tons of CO2e annually will be required to reduce their emissions or purchase allowances. Finding methods to reduce energy consumed, and the associated GHG emissions, in chemical manufacturing will improve the ability of this sector to be competitive in the global market.
Project Innovation
This project demonstrates the first economically viable, low temperature industrial heat capture system with energy storage. The project's goal is to demonstrate a 15% fossil gas usage reduction at a chemical processing plant in Southern California. This project will be the first large-industrial scale demonstration of Element 16's sulfur and pressurized water product. Successful operation of this technology would indicate to the chemical industry that the heat capture systems (HCS) can reliably improve plant economics. One novel feature of the proposed HCS is heat energy storage with quick charging and discharging. By demonstrating how inexpensive and economically advantageous this feature can be, this project would establish a viable use for intermittent low grade waste heat.
Project Goals
Project Benefits
The recipient invented HCS, which uses pressurized superheated water and elemental sulfur to inexpensively store and transport low temperature waste heat. A unique advantage of the HCS is sulfur's solid-liquid phase change at low temperature, reducing the footprint and cost to capture and store megawatt-hours of heat. The HCS uses modular tank heat exchangers with low-cost containment materials to extract heat from an intermittent waste heat stream. The key advantages of this heat capture system are its ability to capture heat from steam, low cost ($15/kWh), small footprint, ability to store an intermittent waste heat source, and ability to deliver a continuous or on-demand heat supply.
Affordability
The heat capture system has the potential to recover useful heat from low-temperature waste heat streams and deliver it for process heating applications to reduce on-site gas demand and cost at industrial facilities. For the project host-site, the project has potential to reduce sodium borate dryer fossil gas use by 15%.
Key Project Members
Hamarz Aryafar
Subrecipients
Exponent Failure Analysis Associates
Brad Alan LLC.
Searles Valley Minerals, Inc.
Intertek AIM
Caraway Construction Inc
Ardent Companies
Matt Bird Engineering LLC
Match Partners
Element 16 Technologies, Inc
Searles Valley Minerals, Inc.
