SBIR-STTR Award

This SBIR Phase I project will develop a unique packed bed (no catalyst) reactor that can internally maintain temperatures for converting H2S to hydrogen and sulfur. This reactor helps to defeat the equilibrium limitation of the standard Claus Reaction and in addition allows one to capture hydrogen which is otherwise expended as a waste. The broader/commercial impact of the project will be to focus attention on the production of sulfur from petroleum refinery waste streams of H2S instead of treating the hydrogen as a waste exhaust gas (as the Claus process does). This process allows for the use of hydrogen both as a fuel and also to drive turbines and thereby save energy. Furthermore, hydrogen is a carbonless fuel

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project proposes to commercialize a new process to recycle petroleum toxic wastes to clean and inexpensive energy. This Phase II project will scale the improved process by modifying the company's pilot unit to incorporate the enhancements realized with the bench scale unit in Phase I. The basic SuperATR is a non;catalytic process that employs a cyclic flow reactor filled with an inert packed bed. In the cyclic flow reactor, the direction of oxidizer/fuel mixture is periodically reversed producing a high temperature volume. The modifications in the Phase I project effectively raised the temperature even higher to make the reactor even more efficient. The broader impacts of this research are that deteriorating qualities of oils and gases is forcing the petroleum sector to incur very high cost for energy and waste disposal. For example, the benign disposal of hydrogen sulfide costs oil refineries and natural gas processing plants $5 billion a year. Present technologies only permit extracting the sulfur content while wasting the much more valuable hydrogen portion. In commercializing this technology, the value propositions are but not limited to: ; Obtain 9 billion kilowatt hours of carbon;free electricity and steam inexpensively. ; Lowering gasoline and diesel prices, even by 1 cent per gallon, would leave $2 billion in the hands of Americans. ; Eliminate 5 million tons of greenhouse gas along with 1.5 million tons of acid rain pollutants by helping refineries and natural gas plants exceed environmental standards