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 →

Hyliion, a developer of electrified powertrain solutions for Class 8 semi-trucks, has formed the Hypertruck Innovation Council, a group of fleet, logistics, and transportation industry leaders that will actively support the development of Hyliion’s Hypertruck powertrain solution. Representing more than 100,000 Class 8 commercial trucks globally, the Council will collaborate... Read more →

ARPA-E announced up to $35 million for a new program focused on developing technologies to reduce methane emissions in the oil, gas, and coal industries: “Reducing Emissions of Methane Every Day of the Year” (REMEDY) (DE-FOA-0002504). The REMEDY program seeks highly replicable system-level technical solutions that achieve an overall methane... Read more →

Researchers at the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft have developed a membrane technology for the energy-efficient and economic separation of hydrogen from natural gas. This technology makes it possible for the two substances to be routed through the national natural gas grid together and then isolated from one another at their final destination. This... Read more →

The flagship project MethanQuest was launched in September 2018, and on it a total of 29 partners from research, industry and the energy sector have come together to work on processes for producing hydrogen and methane from renewables and for using them to achieve climate-neutral mobility and power generation. The... Read more →

Researchers from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and West Virginia University (WVU), in collaboration with industry partners Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas) and C4-MCP, have developed a novel bi-metallic catalyst for the thermocatalytic decomposition of methane (TCD)—a promising approach for producing hydrogen without CO2 emissions along with a solid carbon... Read more →

Omnitek Engineering Corp. has received EURO VI-E certification for its OT13 heavy-duty natural gas engine. The 13-liter natural gas engine, which will be marketed worldwide in countries where this emissions requirement is mandated, can be utilized for truck and bus applications, and provides 420 hp and 1,960 N·m of torque—essentially... Read more →

C-Zero Inc., a pioneer in natural gas decarbonization, recently raised $11.5 million in a Series A funding round co-led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Eni Next, with participation from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) and AP Ventures. The funding will accelerate the first commercial-scale deployment of C-Zero’s drop-in decarbonization technology, which... Read more →

The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy (FE) plans to make $160 million in federal funding (DE-FOA-0002400) available to help recalibrate the US’ vast fossil-fuel and power infrastructure for decarbonized energy and commodity production. The funding, for cost-shared cooperative agreements, is aimed to develop technologies for the... Read more →

Norway-based energy company Equinor Energy and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for a low-carbon technology collaboration. The non-exclusive cooperation agreement will see both companies develop and use technology to reduce the carbon footprint of oil & gas operations. In particular, the companies will look at... Read more →

Noble Gas Systems, a startup founded to create safe, conformable, lightweight compressed gas storage and delivery systems, has demonstrated its latest generation of conformable gas tanks, which can be configured into existing vehicle architectures. The new tanks, with working pressures of 350 bar (5,000 psi), are lightweight and less than... Read more →

Monolith Materials, Inc. has received an investment from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America, Inc. to support its commercial-scale, emissions-free hydrogen manufacturing technology. The announcement is the latest in a series of recent strategic investments made by MHI in support of achieving a decarbonized world. Monolith Materials is the first US manufacturer... Read more →

Landi Renzo, the American subsidiary of Landi Renzo Group, the global leader in eco-fuel advanced systems for the automotive industry, received California Air Resources Board (CARB) Certification for the Heavy Duty Ford CNG/RNG 7.3L engine, which covers Class 4-7 vehicles. Supported vehicles include the F-450/550, F-650/750, F-53/59 and E-450. The... Read more →

A new hydrocarbon study led by researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory contradicts conventional wisdom about how methane is trapped in rock, revealing a new strategy to access the valuable energy resource more easily. Their open-access study is published in Nature’s new Communications Earth & Environment journal. Partners include the... Read more →

Yet-to-find (YTF) resources will contribute to around 30% of the total production of natural gas worldwide by 2050, according to Yury Sentyurin, the Secretary General of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF). According to Sentyurin, around 80% of the natural gas production by mid-century will stem from new projects, highlighting... Read more →

The new VW Golf is now also available in certain markets with natural gas drive: the Golf TGI is equipped with a 1.5-liter four-cylinder engine with 96 kW / 130 PS and three natural gas fuel tanks. The tanks are integrated into the underbody and permit a range of around... Read more →

Transform Materials has developed a novel and sustainable microwave plasma reactor process to convert natural gas into high-value hydrogen and acetylene, thereby opening up a new pathway for green chemical manufacturing. Transform Materials offers compact, modular and multiplexed plasma reactors producing high-purity hydrogen and acetylene that customers can integrate into... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced $24 million in funding for 2 projects as part of the first stage of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy’s (ARPA-E) Seeding Critical Advances for Leading Energy technologies with Untapped Potential (SCALEUP) program. These SCALEUP “Fast-Track” teams, Natron Energy and Bridger Photonics, will receive... Read more →

Audi is adding a new member to its A3 family: the A3 Sportback 30 g-tron natural gas vehicle. Operation with natural gas or biomethane makes the compact model economical and more climate-friendly with low emissions. Sales in Germany and other European countries begin in fall 2020 at a base price... Read more →

Verkehr und Wasser GmbH (VWG) in Oldenburg, Germany has acquired 15 new MAN Lion’s City 12 G EfficientHybrid natural gas buses. The new buses have a crankshaft starter generator on board that converts braking recuperation energy into electrical energy. When the new MAN buses brake, then that is a real... Read more →

Fortistar and Paloma Dairy have begun construction on a dairy digester renewable natural gas (RNG) facility, the Sunoma Renewable Biofuel Project. The new facility will produce 1.6 million gasoline gallon equivalents (GGE) of vehicle fuel annually for the Class 8 trucking sector—enough fuel to move 10 million miles of freight.... Read more →

Diakont is part of a team that was awarded $5 million in funding from the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA-E) Rapid Encapsulation of Pipelines Avoiding Intensive Replacement (REPAIR) program (earlier post) to develop new technologies for rehabilitating legacy cast iron and bare steel natural gas distribution... Read more →

Anheuser-Busch is transitioning more than 180 trucks—representing approximately 30% of its dedicated fleet—to Renewable Natural Gas (RNG). In 2014 and 2015, Anheuser-Busch converted 160 diesel-fueled trucks in Houston and St. Louis to fleets powered by Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) engines. As the next step to achieve its 2025 sustainability goal... Read more →

The US Department of Energy announced $33 million in funding for 10 projects as part of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy’s (ARPA-E) Rapid Encapsulation of Pipelines Avoiding Intensive Replacement (REPAIR) program. REPAIR teams will develop natural gas transmission pipeline retrofitting technology to rehabilitate existing cast iron and bare steel pipes... Read more →

After growing by more than 2% in 2019, global gas use is set to fall by around 4% in 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic reduces energy consumption across the global economies. However, the resulting low gas prices, as well as clean air and climate policies, will promote further switching to... Read more →

Agility Fuel Solution, a leading global provider of clean fuel solutions for medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles, introduced its new third-generation roof-mount compressed natural gas (CNG) fuel system for Automated Side Loader, Rear End Loader and Front End Loader refuse collection vehicles. Agility introduced its roof-mount CNG fuel systems for... Read more →

The representatives of the management board of public transport operator Miejskie Zakłady Autobusowe (MZA) in Warsaw and Solaris signed a contract for the delivery of 70 low-floor city buses. The vehicles will run on CNG. The total value of the contract is more than PLN 116 million (US$31 million). MZA... Read more →

Researchers from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research Kiel have found that considerable quantities of the greenhouse gas methane escape uncontrolled into the water from abandoned oil and gas wells in the North Sea. The work, published in the International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, confirms earlier studies based... Read more →

The Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI) will receive $2.7 million from the US Department of Energy (DOE) to develop and validate technology that will reduce the cost of manufacturing high-performance carbon fiber by 25% to make composite natural gas or hydrogen fuel tanks to power cars and trucks.... Read more →