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Page added on August 11, 2018
Using Microbes to Convert CO2 to Natural Gas
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), in collaboration with Southern California Gas Co. and Stanford University, are using microbes to convert carbon dioxide directly to renewable natural gas.
The U.S. Department of Energy recently awarded the power-to-gas project $800,000. SoCalGas will provide co-funding of $400,000 in addition to $125,000 of seed funding it provided in 2017.
Using microbes to convert carbon dioxide directly to methane using renewable electricity is known as microbial electromethanogenesis (ME). ME more easily stores excess renewable electricity, significantly reducing the cost of producing renewable natural gas, increasing renewable natural gas availability and reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
The research will leverage past research by Stanford’s Spormann Laboratory on microbes that create methane, as well as advances in 3Dprinted carbon aerogel electrode materials made by LLNL, which will be assessed for their viability as reactor materials. Biogas will be supplied by Delta Diablo, an Antioch, California wastewater treatment plant. Raw biogas is mostly methane, but also contains about 30 to 40 percent carbon dioxide, which is typically vented to the atmosphere in a biogas production facility.
“Through this project we intend to devise scalable, efficient prototype reactors that enable both economical upgrading of biogas and storage of renewable electricity as methane,” said LLNL chemist Sarah Baker. “To do this, we will leverage recent advances in materials synthesis and manufacturing to fabricate reactors tailored to the requirements of the microbes and the overall process.”
The research is part of SoCalGas’ development of technologies known as power-to-gas (P2G), which stores excess renewable electricity in gas form rather than in batteries. Power-to-gas has two distinct advantages over storing renewable energy in batteries: nearly unlimited amounts of electricity can be easily stored for very long periods of time, and it can be stored and used with existing infrastructure.
“This technology has the potential to cut the cost of processing biogas to make pipeline-quality renewable natural gas while producing nearly twice the amount of this easily stored renewable energy and reducing carbon dioxide emissions,” said Yuri Freedman, SoCalGas senior director of business development. “It could make a big difference for small-scale biogas producers like dairy farms and feedlots, which collectively make up the majority of California’s renewable natural gas potential.”
Between 3,300 and 7,800 gigawatt-hours of excess solar and wind energy will be curtailed in California by 2025 due to time-of-day supply/demand mismatch, according to a recent Lawrence Berkley National Lab study. If that excess solar and wind energy were converted to methane and stored as renewable natural gas, it would provide enough renewable energy to heat 158,000 to 370,000 homes or provide renewable electricity to 80,000 to 187,000 homes.
Capturing methane and carbon dioxide from farms, wastewater treatment plants and landfills and then delivering it through existing pipelines is a cost-effective option to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. A recent analysis found that California could achieve the same greenhouse gas reductions as electrifying buildings at a much lower cost by replacing just a fraction of the natural gas delivered through pipelines with renewable natural gas.
The University of California, Davis estimates that the natural gas needs of around 2.4 million California homes could be fueled with renewable natural gas derived from the state’s existing organic waste. Already, 60 percent of the fuel used in natural gas vehicles in California is renewable, and SoCalGas expects that to increase to 90 percent by 2019.
Technological advances like power-to-gas and renewable natural gas can reduce greenhouse gas emissions while providing energy resiliency and meeting consumers’ fuel preferences. Across Southern California, people prefer natural gas 4 to 1 over electricity because it is more affordable and reliable, and more than 90 percent of residents use natural gas for space and water heating.
The research will be conducted at both LLNL and Stanford University beginning around Aug. 15 and is expected to be complete by late 2020.
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14 Comments on "Using Microbes to Convert CO2 to Natural Gas"
George Straight on Sat, 11th Aug 2018 9:05 am
Ended reading it with, “using renewable electricity”. Another hopium MSM message to the people to make them believe solutions are in the pipeline….yes, and I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.
dissident on Sat, 11th Aug 2018 9:21 am
The science underlying this scheme is highly dubious. Aerobic bacterial metabolic action releases CO2 (and H2O and can also leave humic compounds) from the consumption of more complex organic molecules. Anaerobic metabolic action releases CH4. But the energy in either case is obtained from the more complex molecules. Bacteria do not consume CO2 and release CH4.
So a scheme is needed to convert CO2 into more complex organic compounds which bacteria can consume. This becomes an utterly pointless exercise. May as well break CO2 into C and O2 and form CH4 directly. There are no magical free energy catalytic chemical pathways that bacteria have to offer.
Antius on Sat, 11th Aug 2018 10:05 am
Converting CO2 into more complex molecules. I can remember reading about it at school. It is called photosynthesis. It even uses completely free renewable energy as a power source. The stored energy can be released by burning, and can be used for all sorts of useful stuff, like cooking mammoth meat, hardening spear points, keeping away predators, producing light after the sun god has retreated.
Tree Frog on Sat, 11th Aug 2018 10:12 am
Even if they do manage to get this scheme to scale affordably – a big if – so what? It does nothing to address all the CO2 already in the atmosphere AND it ends up using precious future renewable electricity that might otherwise be used for something more worthwhile. They should be planting trees instead.
Cloggie on Sat, 11th Aug 2018 11:03 am
The CO2-problem can be easily solved. What we need are mountains of piled up tree logs. Lots of km3. You may even use the wood to build houses, but you can’t burn it.
Keep Go Speed Racer away and you’re good.
Anonymouse1 on Sat, 11th Aug 2018 2:36 pm
When ‘they’ announce a way to convert bullshit directly into clean, burning, renewable, dolphin-friendly natural gas and hook it up to your ass cloggraham, we’ll be to finally declare the energy crisis solved once and for all.
Bulltchit on Sat, 11th Aug 2018 7:16 pm
That’s like training a cow to shit out steaks.
Go Speed Racer on Sat, 11th Aug 2018 7:42 pm
This happens in human digestion also.
Let’s say I drink a whole case of Dr Pepper,
and half a dozen burritos from Taco Bell.
Well, the soda pop is filled with CO2.
But instead of farting CO2 I fart methane gas.
The lab data is irrefutable. The CO2 in the
soda pop was converted to methane in
my digestive tract. However, the Burrito’s
might form a catalyst to cause the reaction.
This is something scientists should study.
There should be a $5 Million government
grant funded to pay the researchers.
Go Speed Racer on Sat, 11th Aug 2018 7:44 pm
Clogster i never set a house on fire.
Only the old furniture.
With tires on top.
Yeah, you could sequester CO2 as solid
log houses. But I think it’s not really
gonna make much difference.
Looks like we’re gonna turn Earth into Venus.
Oops.
Go Speed Racer on Sat, 11th Aug 2018 7:45 pm
A photon checked into a hotel.
The clerk asked “do you have suitcases”.
The photon replied
“no, I am travelling light”.
dissident on Sat, 11th Aug 2018 9:16 pm
@Antius,
The article make precisely zero reference to phytoplankton. Don’t move goal posts around.
Still waiting for a prototype photosynthetic scrubbing planet for CO2.
deadly on Sun, 12th Aug 2018 3:48 am
The Gulf of Mexico is always leaking natural gas from its floor. It never stops. Capture that and you’ll be doing something.
Think of a ton of coal as a battery that stores energy. For that is exactly what it is. The coal was formed because the energy from the sun made it happen, just happened to be during the Carboniferous Period.
Energy is its simplest form, available just by lighting it afire and heat some water to turn a turbine to generate electricity.
Guess what? It works.
Of course, nuclear energy is derived from coal energy. Coal contains uranium, you just have to extract it and then process the residues to make some U238. You burn the coal, then do the chemistry, then make some uranium to fuel a power plant to generate electricity.
Power from the sun three hundred million years old used three hundred million years later.
When a cow farts, it is from the sun, the sun allows for photosynthesis to take place, the grass grows because there is a sun to provide the energy, the fuel, light and heat, so the cow can eat the grass, chew its cud, then expel some natural gas through the natural process of cow digestion.
It is all from the sun.
Not just green energy, nascent nuclear energy in the form of a living organism. funny.
The sun is the source of all energy, the universe provides the petri dish to form a sun. All energy is from the sun, all other attempts to generate more of it from the resources that were deposited when the solar system formed the earth can only happen if the sun continues to shine.
No sunshine, no life. It’s been there for quite a while now, no sense in ignoring what it does do.
Get over it.
makati1 on Mon, 13th Aug 2018 7:22 pm
“Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), in collaboration with Southern California Gas Co. and Stanford University, are using microbes to convert carbon dioxide directly to renewable natural gas.
The U.S. Department of Energy recently awarded the power-to-gas project $800,000. SoCalGas will provide co-funding of $400,000 in addition to $125,000 of seed funding it provided in 2017.”
Cows have been doing this for eons. This is how your tax money is used, America. LOL
twocats on Mon, 13th Aug 2018 8:08 pm
makes as much sense as smashing atoms to boil water to produce steam to spin a turbine to make electricity and in the process creating enough radioactive waste to destroy the planet dozens of times over.