NASA’s Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) mission is mapping the prevalence of key minerals in the planet’s dust-producing deserts—information that will advance our understanding of airborne dust’s effects on climate. But EMIT has demonstrated another capability: detecting the presence of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. In the data... Read more →

Oil and gas producers rely on flaring to limit the venting of natural gas from their facilities. New research led by the University of Michigan shows that in the real world, this practice is far less effective than estimated, releasing five times more methane in the US than previously thought.... Read more →

FPT Industrial, the global powertrain brand of Iveco Group, has entered into an agreement to make a minority investment in Blue Energy Commercial Vehicles Private Ltd, a zero-emission truck technology company headquartered in Pune, India, engaged in the manufacturing of clean energy trucks under the brand Blue Energy Motors. The... Read more →

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) expects higher-than-average natural gas prices globally as demand remains high this winter in the United States, Europe, and Asia, and inventories remain low. According to EIA’s September 2022 Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), the US natural gas spot price at the Henry Hub will continue... Read more →

The Department of the Interiorawarded an initial $560 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to 24 states to begin work to plug, cap and reclaim orphaned oil and gas wells. Eligible states have indicated that there are more than 10,000 high-priority well sites across the country ready for immediate remediation... Read more →

PACCAR will work with Cummins to offer the new Cummins X15N natural gas engine (earlier post) in Kenworth and Peterbilt trucks. The X15N is the first natural gas engine to be designed specifically for heavy-duty truck applications with up to 500 horsepower output. The engine will include the integration of... Read more →

HP Taxis, Prins Alternative Fuel Systems and SBL-Automotive revealed https://bi-fuel-taxis-lcvs.com of the plug-in hybrid range-extended electric LEVC TX taxi and VN5 van allowing the range extender engine to run on LPG and CNG and their renewable counterparts of biopropane and biomethane. The LEVC TX and VN5 are manufactured by London... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced up to $32 million in funding (DE-FOA-0002616) toward the research and development of new monitoring, measurement, and mitigation technologies to help detect, quantify, and reduce methane emissions across oil and natural gas producing regions of the United States. The United States has more... Read more →

A team of researchers from CoorsTek Membrane Sciences and SINTEF in Norway, and Universitat Politècnica de València in Spain, has demonstrated a 36-cell well-balanced proton ceramic reactor stack enabled by a new interconnect that achieves complete conversion of methane with more than 99% recovery to pressurized hydrogen, leaving a concentrated... Read more →

The United States became the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter during the first half of 2022, according to data from CEDIGAZ. reported by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). Compared with the second half of 2021, US LNG exports increased by 12% in the first half of 2022,... Read more →

OptiFuel Systems has signed a Collaboration Agreement with the Argentina Ministry of Transportation through Ferrocarriles Argentinos Sociedad del Estado (FASE). The objective of this agreement is to develop a project to repower and put into service 400 switcher and line-haul freight locomotives, all 100% powered by compressed natural gas (CNG)... Read more →

Hyliion and Cummins are partnering to optimize the Cummins natural gas engine as the generator for the Hyliion Hypertruck ERX powertrain (earlier post). The Hyliion Hypertruck ERX is an electric range extender semi-truck powertrain solution using onboard power generation to recharge the batteries. Together the companies plan to obtain key... Read more →

Shell and Dow have started up an experimental unit to heat ethylene steam cracker furnaces electrically at the Energy Transition Campus Amsterdam, The Netherlands. This represents a key milestone in the companies’ joint technology program to electrify steam cracking furnaces, bringing the companies one step closer to decarbonizing one of... Read more →

Chevron USA, a subsidiary of Chevron Corporation, announced definitive agreements to supply fuel linked to renewable natural gas for a Walmart Inc. demonstration of Cummins’s new 15-liter natural gas engine for heavy-duty trucks (earlier post). As part of the agreements, Walmart will provide heavy-duty trucks for Cummins to integrate with... Read more →

As demand for new energy sources grows, the wastewater co-produced alongside oil and gas (produced water) shows no signs of slowing down: The current volume of wastewater—the result of water forced underground to fracture rock and release the deposits—is estimated at 250 million barrels per day, compared to 80 million... Read more →

Net withdrawals of natural gas from US storage totaled 2,264 billion cubic feet (Bcf) this winter (November 2021 through March 2022). This amount is the most natural gas withdrawn from storage since the winter of 2017–18 and 10% more than the previous five-year (2016–17 to 2021–22) average, according to EIA’s... Read more →

The technology group Wärtsilä, and its collaborators WEC Energy Group, (WEC), the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and Burns & McDonnell (B&McD), have been contracted to carry out hydrogen fuel testing at the A.J. Mihm power plant in Michigan. The project supports WEC’s ambition to reduce the CO2 emissions from... Read more →

Canada-based Nutrien Ltd. is evaluating Geismar, LA as the site to build the world’s largest clean ammonia facility. Building on the company’s expertise in low-carbon ammonia production, clean ammonia will be manufactured using innovative technology to achieve at least a 90% reduction in CO2 emissions. Source: Nutrien The project will... Read more →

A development team from CoorsTek Membrane Sciences, in collaboration with international research partners, have successfully used ceramic membrane technology to develop a scalable hydrogen generator that makes hydrogen from electricity and fuels including natural gas, biogas and ammonia with near zero energy loss. A paper on the work is published... Read more →

Austria-based OMV, an international, integrated oil, gas and chemicals company, announced its intention to become a net-zero (Scope 1, 2 and 3) company by no later than 2050. In keeping with this strategic shift of business, OMV will reduce its oil and gas production by around 20% by 2030 and... Read more →

The US Energy Information Administration’s (EIA’s) Annual Energy Outlook 2022 (AEO2022) Reference case forecasts that US energy consumption will grow through 2050, primarily driven by population and economic growth. In this case—which reflects only current laws and regulations—renewable energy is the fastest-growing energy source through 2050, while petroleum remains the... Read more →

Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) will collaborate with the University of Michigan (UM) to use additive manufacturing and machine learning to create an advanced burner that will eliminate 99.5% of the methane encountered during oil production. SwRI’s Metering Research Facility (MRF) will serve as a test bed for a new ARPA-E... Read more →

ExxonMobil is discontinuing operations at Sakhalin-1, and will make no new investments in Russia. ExxonMobil operates the Sakhalin-1 project on behalf of an international consortium of Japanese, Indian and Russian companies. (Earlier post.) In response to the situation in Ukraine, the company is beginning the process to discontinue operations and... Read more →

Ekona Power Inc., a Vancouver-based company that is developing a novel methane pyrolysis technology platform which produces clean and low-cost hydrogen, closed a CAD $79-million (US$62-million) Series A round. Led by Baker Hughes, the funding round also received participation from partners including Mitsui, Severstal, ConocoPhillips, TransAlta, Continental Resources, NGIF Cleantech... Read more →

Werner Enterprises, a premier transportation and logistics provider, and Cummins Inc. announced that Werner will begin validation and integration of Cummins’ recently announced 15-liter natural gas and 15-liter hydrogen internal combustion engines in its vehicles (earlier post). Cummins will begin integrating these new powertrains in Werner trucks in the second... Read more →

After declining in 2020, the combined production of US fossil fuels (including natural gas, crude oil, and coal) increased by 2% in 2021 to 77.14 quadrillion British thermal units. Based on forecasts in its latest Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) expects US fossil fuel production... Read more →

Cummins Inc. and Rush Enterprises, Inc. have closed on Cummins’ acquisition of 50% equity interest in Momentum Fuel Technologies from Rush Enterprises. (Earlier post.) The joint venture between Rush Enterprises and Cummins will seek to enhance production of near-zero emissions natural gas powertrains by manufacturing Cummins-branded natural gas fuel delivery... Read more →

Dry reforming of methane (DRM) is one promising approach to converting methane and carbon dioxide into chemical feedstock or syngas. However, DRM needs a stable and highly active catalyst for its commercialization. Metal-supported zeolites are widely used for this purpose, due to their microporous structure and chemical stability. In particular,... Read more →

BASF has signed a joint development agreement with China BlueChemical Limited Company, a leading natural gas producer, and the chemical engineering company Wuhuan Engineering Co., Ltd. to promote low-carbon development and utilization of marine gas resources. In the Dongfang Industrial Park of Hainan Province, China BlueChemical extracts large quantities of... Read more →

INNIO Waukesha Gas Engines has been selected to receive more than $2.2 million in funding from the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). The funding is part of ARPA-E’s “Reducing Emissions of Methane Every Day of the Year” (REMEDY) program that was unveiled earlier this year (earlier... Read more →

Monolith, a leader in clean carbon black production, signed a collaboration agreement and letter of intent (LOI) with The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, one of the world's largest tire companies. As part of the agreements, Monolith expects to collaborate with Goodyear on the development and potential use of clean... Read more →

In late November, the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Aramco) announced the start of development of the vast Jafurah unconventional gas field, the largest non-associated gas field in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Company has awarded subsurface and Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contracts worth $10 billion, with capital expenditure... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced $35 million in funding for twelve projects focused on developing technologies to reduce methane emissions in the oil, gas, and coal industries. DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) Reducing Emissions of Methane Every Day of the Year (REMEDY) program (earlier post) was unveiled... Read more →

Texas-based fuel company Nacero (earlier post) will build its second low- and zero-carbon fuels plant in Newport Township, Pennsylvania. The $6-billion investment will bring approximately 4,000 construction jobs to the area. The completed facility will employ approximately 450 workers. The new manufacturing facility will produce low- and zero-lifecycle carbon footprint... Read more →

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing comprehensive new regulations to reduce methane emissions from the oil and natural gas industry—including, for the first time, reductions from existing sources nationwide. Source: EPA Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that traps about 30 times as much heat as carbon dioxide... Read more →

New hydrogen production technology developed at the University of British Columbia (UBC) will be tested in a $7-million project between UBC, the government of Alberta and Alberta utility company ATCO. The technology developed by the UBC researchers—thermal methane cracking (TMC)—can produce up to 200 kilograms of hydrogen a day using... Read more →

Cummins Inc. will bring to market a 15-liter natural gas engine for heavy-duty trucks. The 15-liter natural gas engine is an important part of Cummins strategy for its path to zero emissions. The strategy focuses on new powertrains including advanced diesel, natural gas, hydrogen engines, hybrids, battery electric, and fuel... Read more →

Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have developed a new method to convert captured CO2 into methane, the primary component of natural gas. By using a water-lean post-combustion capture solvent, (N-(2-ethoxyethyl)-3-morpholinopropan-1-amine) (2-EEMPA), they achieved a greater than 90% conversion of captured CO2 to hydrocarbons—mostly methane—in the... Read more →

Sinopec (China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation) has proved another 34.029 billion cubic meters of natural gas at the Zhongjiang Gas Field, bringing the total known natural gas reserves in the Sichuan Basin to 106.1 billion cubic meters. The Zhongjiang Gas Field (Zhongjiang County of Deyang City) main gas reservoir has... Read more →

Researchers in China have developed a novel nickel-molybdenum (NiMo)-yttira-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) catalyst-layer supported tubular single cell for solid oxide fuel cells running on methane. The NiMo-YSZ layer provides dual functionality of mechanical support and reforming of methane. A paper on the work is published in the Journal of Power Sources... Read more →

FEV recently entered a long-term agreement with electrified powertrain systems provider Hyliion, to support design, development, integration and production validation of Hyliion’s Electric Range Extender (ERX) for Class 8 tractor-trailer applications. The Hyliion Hypertruck ERX powertrain utilizes a propulsion system combining a renewable natural gas (RNG)-fueled on-board generator paired with... Read more →

Aker Solutions has been awarded a major contract from Chevron Australia Pty Ltd to provide a subsea gas compression system for the Jansz-Io field, offshore Western Australia. (Earlier post.) The company has booked around NOK 7 billion (US$812 million) as order intake in the second quarter of 2021 related to... Read more →

Chevron announced that its wholly owned subsidiary Chevron Australia Pty Ltd. (Chevron Australia) as operator and the Gorgon joint venture participants will proceed with the approximately $4-billion (AU$6 billion) Jansz-Io Compression (J-IC) project. Jansz-Io will be the first gas field outside Norway where the subsea compression technology comes to use.... Read more →

Cummins Inc. and Rush Enterprises, Inc. signed a Letter of Intent for Cummins to acquire a 50% equity interest in Momentum Fuel Technologies from Rush Enterprises. Momentum Fuel Technologies delivers the industry’s first complete compressed natural gas (CNG) fuel system solution for Class 6-8 vehicles. A division of Rush Enterprises,... Read more →

Swiss research intsitute Empa’s future mobility demonstrator, “move”, is investigating three paths for CO2 reduction in road traffic—electric mobility, hydrogen mobility and synthetic fuels—against the background of a rapidly changing energy system. All these concepts have advantages and drawbacks in terms of energy, operation and economics. In order to use... Read more →

SK Corp, the holding company of SK Group, has made a strategic investment in Monolith, a US company that has developed a plasma-based process to produce “cyan” hydrogen—between green (via electrolysis using renewable energy) and blue (conversion of methane accompanied by CO2 capture and storage). As a strategic partner and... Read more →

The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners earlier this month approved changes centered around incorporating the international Environmental Ship Index (ESI) into the Port’s Green Ship Incentive Program, which began in 2012. A voluntary system, the ESI identifies seagoing ships exceeding the current emission standards of the International Maritime Organization.... Read more →

Plus (formerly Plus.ai), a leading company in self-driving truck technology, announced a new initiative with global engine manufacturer Cummins to develop the industry’s first driver-in, supervised autonomous trucks powered by natural gas. The compressed natural gas engines provided by Cummins have been certified to near-zero emissions, reducing smog-forming emissions by... Read more →

Empresa Municipal de Transportes de Madrid (EMT), the largest public transport operator in Spain and the second largest in Europe, recently awarded the tender for the acquisition of 520 new Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses for the years 2021, 2022 and 2023, as well for the purchase of 50 new... Read more →

Nacero has licensed Topsoe TIGAS (Topsoe Improved Gasoline Synthesis) technology for its multi-billion USD natural-gas-to-gasoline facility in Penwell, Texas to produce 100,000 barrels per day of gasoline component ready for blending into US commercial grades. The plant will produce cleaner gasoline from low-cost natural gas, captured bio-methane from farms and... Read more →