This Small Grant for Exploratory Research (SGER) project is aimed at developing a catalytic reactor to remove toxic components of landfill gas (LFG) so that it can be used as an alternate source of energy.
Intellectual Merit: Nationwide about ~1 MM ftP3P/min of LFG is generated. LFG is potentially an important renewable fuel, as it typically contains more than 50% CHB4B. At the present time a large fraction of LFG is flared. The rest is utilized for electric power generation, and for medium BTU gas-type (e.g., use in boilers) applications. One of the major roadblocks to the utilization of LFG is its miscellaneous corrosive contaminants, e.g., halogen and sulfur containing compounds, which necessitate frequent energy producing equipment servicing, and may lead to eventual failure. Worst of all, halogen and sulfur containing contaminants are emitted to the atmosphere, during flaring or energy production, contributing significantly to air pollution, particularly to acid rain. The removal of these contaminants from LFG prior to combustion is a difficult problem, because of their wide concentration range, and their presence at trace amounts. These factors present difficulties for conventional clean-up technologies, which have proven ineffective for LFG clean-up. The PIs plan to evaluate a catalytic oxidation technology appropriate for LFG clean-up, based on the concept of a "pore-flow reactor" (PoFR) endowed with an oxidation nanocatalyst. This is an important goal as economical, environmental, and energy advantages can be realized, if a process is developed that cost-effectively removes the LFG toxic contaminants. The emphasis in this project is on fundamental investigations of the complex reaction and transport processes that occur in such a reactor; a major fundamental scientific advance will be understanding and modeling the catalytic combustion of the complex heteroatom compounds encountered in LFG. It is such better fundamental understanding that will lead to the main technological advances needed for the further technical development of the PoFR concept. The project will be developed with collaboration with industrial partners M&P and GCE. M&P is an inorganic membrane manufacturer dedicated to the development and application of these novel materials. GCE is an Engineering Company specializing in LFG collection and utilization.
Broader Impact: This research project will provide students with the opportunity to prepare and characterize novel new materials, and to learn a host of state-of-the-art computational and experimental techniques. The project will also provide the students involved with the opportunity to interact with industrial researchers. The urban setting of USC affords the opportunity to work with a variety of 2-4 year colleges in the area, several of which are predominantly minority Institutions. The PIs plan to recruit qualified undergraduates as summer interns, and potentially as incoming graduate students. They will also take advantage of the ever-evolving undergraduate curriculum program at USC, which emphasizes vertically- and horizontally-integrated "degree projects" consisting of emphasis-specific experimental/laboratory modules associated with each core Chemical Engineering course. The PIs envision integrating research findings and aspects of their work as the "degree projects? in the Reactor Analysis, Transport Phenomena, and Separation courses. This catalytic reactor technology will cost-effectively remove the toxic contaminants from LFG, offer significant economical, environmental, and energy advantages, and will allow LFG (and biogas in general) to gain its full potential as a valuable renewable fuel.
