{"id":219799,"date":"2016-06-29T16:20:05","date_gmt":"2016-06-29T19:20:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/?p=219799"},"modified":"2016-06-29T16:20:05","modified_gmt":"2016-06-29T19:20:05","slug":"towards-the-development-of-natural-gas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/towards-the-development-of-natural-gas\/","title":{"rendered":"Towards the development of natural gas"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"One

BG Group<\/span>One of the objectives of the new center will be to promote research into more efficient methods of maritime transportation of natural gasBG Group<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Researchers at the Polytechnic School of the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (Poli-USP) are investigating new gas-storage methods in order to develop more efficient and compact tanks for natural gas vehicles.\u00a0 Their objective is to perfect a seldom used technology known as adsorbed natural gas, or ANG, in which the density of gas molecules increases as they attach themselves to solid, porous substances like activated carbon. \u201cThe method allows us to place smaller tanks in vehicle baggage compartments and to build vessels in other, non-cylindrical shapes,\u201d explains Em\u00edlio Carlos Nelli Silva, author of the study together with his student, doctoral candidate Ricardo Cesare Rom\u00e1n Amigo. \u201cPreliminary results also show that specific distributions of porosity reduce the filling and release time on ANG tanks,\u201d adds Silva.<\/p>\n

The study is one of 28 projects underway at the Gas Innovation Research Center, founded in S\u00e3o Paulo on December 1, 2015. With headquarters at USP, the center was created through a partnership between FAPESP and BG Brasil, a subsidiary of Britain\u2019s BG Group. Over the next five years, the Foundation and BG Brasil will invest R$28 million and R30 million, respectively.\u00a0 USP, for its part, will offer the researchers institutional and administrative support.\u00a0 A total of 170 researchers from Poli and other institutions\u2014such as Energy and Environment (IEE) and Energy and Nuclear Researches (Ipen)\u2014will participate, along with researchers from international institutions such as the Imperial College and the University of Leeds in the UK and universities in the United States, France and Germany.<\/p>\n

As BG Group Technology Director Adam Hiller explained at the center\u2019s inaugural ceremony, \u201cThe partnership has the potential for practical industrial applications, like pre-salt and other very specific challenges, including the need to increase efficiency and develop new ideas in hybrid methane propulsion for maritime fleets.\u201d To FAPESP President Jos\u00e9 Goldemberg, the Center is an example of Brazil\u2019s role in the \u201cglobal energy revolution.\u201d According to Goldberg, \u201cthe world is undergoing a revolution that could culminate in the widespread development of renewable energy sources, but we\u2019re not there yet.\u201d Goldberg goes on to say that in this scenario of transition, natural gas will stand out as the cleanest of the fossil fuels. \u201cAlongside BG Brasil, FAPESP is financing an initiative on a scale that meets the challenges and potential of S\u00e3o Paulo\u2019s clean energy output. The Foundation believes in the role scientific knowledge will play in this revolution,\u201d Goldberg concludes.<\/p>\n

According to Julio Meneghini, Poli-USP professor and the center\u2019s general coordinator, the researchers will face a great variety of challenges, from finding better ways to extract and transport natural gas from the Santos pre-salt basin, to increasing the efficiency of combustion processes and promoting biogas production. \u201cIn the case of biogas, it can be obtained from compost or waste from agriculture and ethanol production,\u201d says Meneghini. \u201cThis gas,\u201d he continues, \u201ccan be used to generate energy, and even replace diesel fuel someday.\u201d For purposes of organization, the projects now underway were divided into three programs: Engineering, Physics\/Chemistry, and Energy Policy and Economics.<\/p>\n

The engineering program, coordinated by Em\u00edlio Carlos, investigates problems that arise from burning natural gas as fuel as well as the optimization and use of its new transport technologies. The Physics\/Chemistry program, for example, is focusing on the challenge of converting natural gas to other products. \u201cIt\u2019s a way of seeing natural gas as input processes of the chemical industry,\u201d explains Poli-USP professor and program coordinator Reinaldo Giudici. According to this line of research, some projects set out to convert methane to synthetic gas\u2014a combination of carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen\u2014that serves as a solvent and raw material for both methanol production and obtaining other chemical products in the petrochemical industry. Another project focuses on the development of fuel cells, in which hydrogen is used to generate electricity with no greenhouse gas emission, and still another looks at a hybrid method of power generation using natural gas and solar energy.<\/p>\n

As far as the Energy Policy and Economics program coordinated by Edmilson Moutinho Santos of the USP Institute of Energy and Environment (IEE), the goal is to promote the infrastructure and policies that encourage natural gas consumption. \u201cPromoting these programs is of fundamental importance,\u201d says Meneghini. \u201cWe will have to develop technologies and methods and, at the same time, integrate natural gas into the energy networks of an emerging Brazil,\u201d he concludes.<\/p>\n

Project<\/strong>
\nBrazil Research Center for Gas Innovation (n\u00ba 2014\/50279-4<\/a>); Grant Mechanism<\/strong> Center for Engineering Research; Principal Investigator<\/strong> Julio Romano Meneghini (Poli-USP); Investment<\/strong> R$28 million (FAPESP) and R$30 million (BG Group)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FAPESP and the BG Group open a research center in S\u00e3o Paulo","protected":false},"author":421,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[166],"tags":[207,227,228],"coauthors":[740],"class_list":["post-219799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-policies-st-en","tag-bioenergy","tag-energy","tag-engineering"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/421"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219799\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219799"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=219799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}