Coastal Bend LNG, a privately held energy infrastructure development company, has launched a front-end engineering and design (FEED) study with Solvanic for electrochemically mediated amine regeneration (EMAR) carbon capture at its planned liquefied natural gas (LNG) project along the Texas Gulf Coast.
While disclosing the start-up of a carbon capture FEED study at its Coastal Bend LNG facility, the developer of the multi-train natural gas liquefaction and export project on the Texas Gulf Coast explained that Solvanic signed an option agreement for use of the EMAR technology, originally developed by Professor T. Alan Hatton ’s research group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Department of Chemical Engineering.
Nick Flores , Chief Executive Officer of Coastal Bend LNG, commented: “To deliver on our ambitious low carbon intensity LNG goals, we need to capture carbon dioxide emissions from both our natural gas pretreatment and cogeneration facilities. For post-combustion capture on our onsite cogeneration facilities, we need a step change in carbon capture efficiency. We’re highly encouraged by Solvanic’s preliminary techno-economics and are keen to accelerate their technology readiness with this FEED study.”
The company highlights that this technology uses an electrochemical process to release carbon dioxide (CO2) captured by amines with electricity, rather than high-temperature steam traditionally used in thermal amine systems, reducing energy requirements and capital costs for carbon capture and enabling greater flexibility across operating conditions and process scales.
According to Coastal Bend LNG, the EMAR technology has been in development at MIT for over a decade, with recent breakthroughs by Dr. Michael Massen-Hane and Dr. Michael Nitzsche , paving the way for emissions reductions that were previously infeasible. Both have since become co-founders of Solvanic to scale up the technology and maximize climate impact.
Dr. Nitzsche underlined: “We have demonstrated our EMAR solution to Technology Readiness Level 4 with low energetics, high stability, and modular scalability across emission sources. This FEED study accelerates our techno-economic analyses for gas processing and post-combustion carbon capture with the full engineering support of Coastal Bend LNG and their contractors.”
Coastal Bend LNG recently picked ConocoPhillips’ Optimized Cascade process technology for the planned 22.5 million tons per annum (mtpa) LNG development in Texas, which is envisioned to entail up to five 4.5 mtpa liquefaction trains, cogeneration, LNG storage tanks, and export facilities for shipping, bunkering, and ISO containers.