Posts Tagged ‘hydrogen sulfide’

SWAPSOL in Houston’s Sulphur 2011 Nov. 10 on H2S processing breakthrough

Wednesday, November 9th, 2011

Media Alert

SWAPSOL Corporation tomorrow will present its breakthrough sulfur recovery technology that can reduce hydrogen sulfide to below detectable levels and yield valuable products in a low temperature catalytic reaction.

Sulphur 2011 / Intercontinental Houston / Houston, TX
11:50am, Thursday, November 10th, 2011

Session: Stream A: Sulphur and Sulphides
Presenter: Wolf Koch, CEO / SWAPSOL Corp.

The SWAP: A breakthrough in hydrogen sulfide processing
SWAPSOL is developing commercial processes around a recently discovered chemical reaction, which reduces hydrogen sulfide (H2S) below detectable levels while reacting with carbon dioxide (CO2) to form water, sulfur and carsuls, a carbon-sulfur polymer. The SWAP stands to fundamentally simplify sulfur removal technology as it consumes carbon dioxide in an exothermic reaction under relatively mild process conditions. Alternatively, hydrogen sulfide may be reacted to form hydrogen and sulfur. The SWAP will have applications in landfill gas, sour gas, industrial flue gas cleanup, Claus tail gas cleanup and may serve as an alternative to Claus technology. A related process allows for the destruction of waste hydrocarbons by reacting them with sulfur to form hydrogen sulfide and carsuls.

The primary reactions and variants have been independently verified and the chemical kinetics determined by a third party laboratory. Swapsol has filed US and international patent applications covering all aspects of the technology. Laboratory scale development of the various Swapsol processes is nearing completion and the company is exploring opportunities for pilot plant development programs with potential partners.

For more information:

Evan Howell / evan.howell@swapsol.com

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Wolf Koch Named CEO of SWAPSOL

Monday, September 19th, 2011

Former Amoco veteran leads efforts behind industry breakthrough of the SWAP

Wolf Koch before shareholders in NYC, March 2011

Wolf Koch before shareholders in NYC, March 2011

The SWAPSOL Board of Directors has named Amoco Oil veteran Wolf Koch president and chief executive officer of N.J.-based SWAPSOL on the eve of a major expansion of business development activities by the company.

The new appointment surrounds the company’s patented green chemistry breakthrough, the SWAP, designed to mitigateCO2 and turnpollutants into valuable materials for a wide range of industries. Koch is President and Founder of the Sterling-based consulting firm Technology Resources International, Inc.

Board chairman and company co-founder Ray Stenger said Koch will have responsibility for business operations, strategy, and partnership negotiations as the company moves forward; he will divide his time between the Company’s office and labs in Eatontown, N.J. and his Sterling office.

“We couldn’t have a better man at the helm,” Stenger said. “Wolf’s many years of experience in the oil industry and his vast network of industry relationships make him the ideal choice in leading us forward.”

The SWAP is a suite of hydrocarbon refining applications based on a self-sustainable chemical reaction. The reaction instantaneously eliminates noxious pollutants, such as hydrogen sulfide and reduces CO2 levels in natural gas and refinery streams. The SWAP has applications in landfill gas-to-energy projects, hydrogen generation, industrial flue gas cleanup and carbon fiber-like material development. Independent engineering and cost analyses show the SWAP can reduce costs in some hydrogen sulfide removal operations by as much as 70 percent and significantly lower a plant’s carbon footprint. SWAPSOL is currently engaging industry on joint development and joint investment opportunities in the commercialization of the technology.

Koch recently served as Director of Planning and Development for SWAPSOL and is a member of the company’s Board of Directors. He holds a Ph.D. in chemical engineering and worked in the oil and gas sector for more than 30 years, including 20 years at Amoco Oil. He frequently presents on the SWAP to industry both in the United States and abroad, and he will continue these activities as CEO.

“SWAPSOL is armed with an innovative marketing team and a strong cadre of negotiating experts,” Koch said. “Backed by independent commercial analyses showing the economic and environmental benefits of the SWAP, I’m confident industry will embrace our technology’s potential in the marketplace.”

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Gastech 2011 – SWAPSOL PROCESS CUTS GAS REFINING COSTS 70 PERCENT

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011

Low-temp, catalytic process set for Q2 pilot, new partner discussions on horizon
GASTECH /Amsterdam (22 March, 2011) – SWAPSOL announced today its pre-pilot sulphur disposal technology may help refiners eliminate nearly two-thirds of their current gas processing costs. Company director Wolf Koch (Cook), Ph.D., cited data from an independent cost and engineering analysis when he presented the news at Gastech.

SWAPSOL Director, Wolf Koch

SWAPSOL Director, Wolf Koch

“This new data shows how the SWAP can both improve a gas processors bottom line and make a positive contribution to a cleaner environment simultaneously,” Koch said.

The report shows the SWAP disposal costs estimate to be $0.46 ($/1,000cf), compared to $1.40 ($/1,000cf) with current Claus technology. The cost comparison is based against published U.S. Department of Energy data on competing processes adjusted from 2004 to 2008 – the reference time frame for the present study.

Read story ==>

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Swapsol supports Worldwatch natural gas play at Copenhagen

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

Could natural gas be a player in the new world climate order?  It looks like three organizations will be pushing for just that in Copenhagen next week.   The American Clean Skies Foundation (ACSF), the UN Foundation and the Worldwatch Institute say they will jointly “explore the potential for natural gas to accelerate the world’s transition to a low-carbon economy,” according to Worldwatch.

Sour gas pipeline, courtesy CBC.CA

Sour gas pipeline, courtesy CBC.CA

They will announce that new sources of unconventional gas could (and would) more quickly help the world turn away from oil and coal as a primary source of energy and spur new energy policy.  That’s correct if certain truths are taken into account.  There are considerable reserves of natural gas that remain capped due to high concentrations of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) that make them “sour.”  Many of these reserves are in remote areas where the cost of production makes it economically unattractive.  In fact, nearly 40 percent of the world’s natural gas reserves is sour, according to French oil and gas giant Total, s.a.

Many experts say more attention needs to be paid to renewable sources like wind and solar.  That’s true, but where are we now?  Wind and solar are growing sources of energy, but they currently aren’t developed enough to make an overnight change.  Will natural gas be the answer?

H2S, sometimes known as “sewer gas,” is the oil and gas industry’s enemy No. 1.  A chief part of the refining process is removing sulfur and H2S from raw streams to be able to bring refined natural gas to market. So yes, natural gas should play a fundamental role in any low-carbon policy proposed.  But this is possible only if more attention is paid to technological advances in refining it.

As we look toward Copenhagen, SWAPSOL agrees with the Worldwatch Institute that greater investment is needed in natural gas to play a pivotal role in a low-carbon environment.  Wind and solar technologies are exciting and are quickly gaining ground in the fight against climate change, but today we have an opportunity to both lower carbon emissions using natural gas, as well. Incorporating natural gas into the mix of solutions will also create needed jobs through additional investment in refining technologies. These technologies hold the key to preventing H2S from holding a tremendous volume of natural gas hostage.

With the SWAP, we can eliminate two “bad actors” in a single chemical process, protect the environment and improve bottom lines by reducing costs and creating jobs simultaneously.  We can look at CO2 not as an enemy, but as a friend and use it to profit in a new energy economy.

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Swapsol ushers in solution to clean up landfill gas?

Friday, November 13th, 2009

Laboratory studies show the SWAP drives a Sulfur Cycle which enables the user to generate H2S from most hydrocarbon wastes.  This of course is important because the SWAP uses H2S to convert CO2 into harmless compounds.

Landfill Methane flare

Landfill Methane flare

Landfills in particular, may benefit from the SWAP as they emit Methane.  These landfills can also become a source for raw materials.

The SWAP, which converts CO2 by rearranging its atomic components, may be used to create carbon-sulfur molecules called Carsuls, which may find application as carbon fiber-like materials in construction, aerospace, manufacturing and electronics.

It could very well be that as the SWAP is more widely adopted in areas such as waste management, sour gas and crude oil refining, among others, that we may begin to see the dawn of a new energy economy as we usher in a new era of literally profiting through environmental stewardship.

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DISCOVERY TO REDUCE HUMAN IMPACT ON GLOBAL WARMING

Monday, October 26th, 2009

CO2 conversion eliminates industry liability opens door to new energy economy

HOUSTON (Oct. 28, 2009) – Two New Jersey scientists have discovered a simple chemical process to break down carbon dioxide (CO2) and eliminate nuisance pollutants, such as hydrogen sulfide (H2S) in refining operations. Their discovery could redefine how science looks at energy. SWAPSOL Corp. will present to industry on Oct. 28, “Carbon Focus Day,” at the Global Refining Strategies Summit in Houston.

The invention changes preconceived notions about energy and chemistry. Raymond Stenger, environmental engineer, and James Wasas, an entrepreneurial chemist, developed the Stenger-Wasas Process (SWAP) based on a previously unknown exothermic interaction between H2S and CO2 that eliminates both. The SWAP is independently verified by standard analytical instruments to convert CO2 by more than 99 percent into carbon-sulfur polymers (Carsuls), water and sulfur in the presence of H2S over an abundant and inexpensive catalyst. The SWAP can also recycle waste hydrocarbons (compounds containing carbon and hydrogen) and break down CO2 in a self-sustaining cycle.

“We are building our company around the chemistry,” said Wolf Koch, Ph.D., Director of SWAPSOL Corp. “We are now detailing processes under which we will review potential business relationships with interested parties with intent to launch initial steps next year.”

Thermodynamic and chemical kinetics studies indicate that the SWAP is exothermic, and the heat liberated can be managed and controlled. Independently conducted gas chromatography studies (GC) verified H2S reduction to below 4 ppb.

Eliminating carbon liabilities for industry

By eliminating greenhouse gases, refiners and other carbon-emitters may profit by not polluting and by avoiding carbon penalties. Wasas, SWAPSOL’s chief science officer, predicts the SWAP could also earn carbon credits for those who implement the technology.

“Hydrogen sulfide is the oil and gas industry’s enemy No. 1,” Wasas said. “Tremendous money and energy is required to get rid of H2S, and traditional methods create more hazardous waste, increasing costs and further polluting the environment.”

Hydrogen production, landfill waste potential

The SWAP can be used to purify gas inside landfills prior to combustion, thereby eliminating the harmful release of pollutants into the air. The SWAP-driven sulfur cycle also allows for related reactions that can produce hydrogen from hydrogen sulfide. For refiners this may be a cost-effective solution to recover hydrogen while it may find other applications for fuel cells.

“I can’t tell you how proud we are of the work Jim and I have been able to accomplish,” said Stenger, SWAPSOL’s president. “To be able to make a contribution like this to the world is something I’ve dreamed about for years.”

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SWAPSOL TO ANNOUNCE BREAKTHROUGH DURING NATIONAL CHEMISTRY WEEK

Monday, October 5th, 2009

Chemical reaction verified to convert carbon dioxide (CO2) and hydrogen sulfide (H2S) to form harmless compounds, contribute to climate change fight

MONMOUTH JUNCTION, N.J. (October 5, 2009) – Two New Jersey scientists at SWAPSOL Corp. (www.swapsol.com ) have discovered a chemical process that reacts hydrogen sulfide (H2S) with carbon dioxide (CO2), eliminating both. SWAPSOL will hold a seminar on the science and potential industrial applications during National Chemistry Week on Oct. 21, 2009, on the Rutgers University Cook Campus in New Brunswick, N.J. http://www.swapsol.com/events

The discovery may shatter preconceived notions about energy and chemistry and play a role in the fight against climate change and global warming.  Unlike a carbon capture process, the Stenger-Wasas Process or SWAP is a carbon conversion process, verified in the laboratory to break down CO2 into its inert compounds.

Ray Stenger and Jim Wasas discovered the SWAP, a suite of hydrocarbon reactions based on the previously unknown reaction between CO2 and H2S. The SWAP was verified in the laboratory to reduce H2S below detectable levels (below 4 ppb) by gas chromatography while converting proportionate amounts of CO2 into innocuous compounds such as water.  Sour gas processors and high-sulfur crude oil refiners may be the first to benefit from the SWAP which could substantially reduce operating costs and mitigate CO2 emissions.  The SWAP may also have potential applications in other sectors where H2S is present, such as landfills, tanneries and coke ovens.

Thermodynamic and chemical kinetics studies indicate that the SWAP is exothermic and the heat liberated can be easily managed and controlled.

The quantitative thermodynamic and kinetic information was verified by an independent firm, which also determined the kinetic and thermodynamic parameters of the process.

Gas chromatography (GC) was independently conducted by Gene Hall, Ph.D., professor of analytical chemistry at Rutgers University.  He found the SWAP reaction reduced H2S to below 4 ppb.

“My GC studies demonstrated the SWAP has strong potential for dramatic H2S reduction,” said Hall, adding the SWAP discovery was extremely important. “It appears they may have something very special indeed.”

To learn more about the seminar and the SWAP, visit www.swapsol.com/events

r2ske4b3tm

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National Chemistry Week Seminar : Can a chemical reaction help fight global warming?

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Could a Sour Natural Gas Process Convert Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) into harmless compounds?

Attend discussion on if an exothermic chemical reaction could contribute in the fight against global warming and climate change.

WHAT:

The Stenger Wasas Process (SWAP): A suite of hydrocarbon refining solutions that, in the laboratory, has been verified to rapidly reduce H2S to below detectable limits by gas chromatography (under 4ppb) and may be able to convert CO2 into carbon, water and sulfur industrially.  Discoverers of the SWAP invite academicians and experts to discuss the science and its potential contributions to the global warming solution.

WHERE:

Philip Alampi Auditorium, Rutgers University Cook Campus
School of Environmental and Biological Sciences
71 Dudley Road (corner of College Farm and Dudley Rd.)
New Brunswick, NJ

WHEN: Wed., Oct. 21

2:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.

RSVP:             www.swapsol.com/events.php

Open Admission      Q & A Following

WHO:

Raymond Stenger and James Wasas invite members of the academic and professional communities on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2009, to learn about the Stenger-Wasas Process (SWAP), proposing that a reaction between carbon dioxide (CO2) and hydrogen sulfide (H2S) eliminates both (2H2S + CO2 => 2H2O + 2S + C) in a mildly exothermic reaction and could alter the course of global warming and impact escalating energy costs.  Hear and discuss the science behind the SWAP and its potential impact on the hydrocarbon industry.

PARTICIPANTS

  • Raymond Stenger (B.S.,WV University ‘57)
  • James Wasas (B.S., Rutgers ‘68)
  • Wolf Koch, Ph.D, Chemical Engineering, University of Cincinnati (B.S., Rutgers ‘68), President, Technology Resources International, Inc.
  • Gene Hall, Ph.D, Analytical Chemistry, Rutgers University (independent GC verification)
  • Randa Fahmy-Hudome, Former U.S. Associate Deputy Energy Secretary

Stenger and Wasas will discuss the catalytic and recombinant science behind the reaction.  Dr. Wolf Koch will discuss the potential commercial applications.  Q & A will follow: Dr. Hall will answer questions about his independent chemical and gas chromatography (GC) analysis; Executives will answer questions about findings and verifications of thermodynamic and chemical kinetic results showing scalability of the SWAP.

If you would like to attend, please visit: www.swapsol.com/events.php

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Evolving energy policy ignoring Hydrogen Sulfide in global warming causes

Monday, August 17th, 2009

Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) isn’t the first thing you think about when you try and identify environmental enemies.  That is, of course, if you don’t live next to a landfill.  But it is attracting more and more attention in local communities, following reports of children feeling sick, public water being contaminated, and of course, the foul stench it creates when its gas emissions are released into the air.

Hydrogen Sulfide has been around for a long time.   In fact, some scholars theorize it was partly responsible for the “first mass extinction” millions of years before the dinosaurs met their demise.  They hypothesize this occurred during the Permian period, between 299 to 252.6 million years ago.  They think the Hydrogen Sulfide emitted from the oceans and elsewhere, such as “flood basalts,” turned the sky green, chocked off oxygen for plants, animals and marine life and killed 90 percent of species in the oceans and 70 percent of life on land.  That was a natural phenomenon.  But one expert thinks we’re on track for opening that door again.

Permian Period 291 - 251 million years ago (courtesty University of Michigan)

Permian Period 291 - 251 million years ago (courtesy University of Michigan)

“We’ve had these mass extinctions [from hydrogen sulfide] when carbon dioxide has hit 1,000 ppm. We have not hit that [level] for 100 million years,” said Peter Ward, professor of paleontology at University of Washington.  “But we are currently at 380 ppm — and climbing rapidly at 2 ppm a year and accelerating — and this is the highest CO2 I think in the last 40 million years. The only time [these extinctions] ever happened in the past is when these big flood basalts happened. But now we’re making it happen far faster than the flood basalts ever did. This is a unique event in the history of the planet.” (Wired Magazine 3/2008)

H2S should certainly be part of the discussion over global warming causes, but there of course remains the question of what to do with CO2.  Emit it or bury it (energy policy is driving carbon capture technologies still in the emerging stages of course.)  Like energy, you can’t destroy it. But what if you could turn it into something else?

But finally, what if you could turn H2S into something else as well?  www.swapsol.com

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An Inconvenient Truth Inspired a Breakthrough in Natural Gas Conversion

Thursday, August 13th, 2009

It looks like two New Jersey scientists have come up with something that may potentially have a significant impact on our future energy policy, and it comes from toxic hydrogen sulfide (H2S).

"An Inconvenient Truth" (2006)

Ray Stenger went to see Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” when it came out in 2006.  An engineer by trade, Stenger already a deep understanding of the chemistry behind the elements Gore proposed as global warming causes, among those being carbon dioxide.

But while Stenger was intrigued by some of the claims made by the documentary, he still had some questions about how we got into this mess in the first place.  Addiction to oil and coal were the obvious reasons because of sulfur, sulfur dioxide (SO2) and of course, carbon dioxide. Chief emitters were the coal plants, the concrete plants and the oil refineries.  But he kept coming back to carbon dioxide. With two parts oxygen, CO2 should theoretically be a powerful oxidizer.

Ray Stenger and Jim Wasas

Ray Stenger and Jim Wasas

He got together over lunch with his friend, Jim Wasas.  Among other things, Wasas was a specialist in catalysts.  Over the months they talked. Being the entrepreneurs that they were, they worked to figure out what conditions need to exist for CO2 to begin breaking down into its components. In 2007, they figured it out. And they figured out that hydrogen sulfide played a key role. But they needed to find a place where H2S and CO2 were both present. It was “sour” natural gas – an area of key interest of those involved in natural gas conversion and processing. Then came the catalyst to finish the job. Wasas’s extensive experience in catalysts brought him around to a hidden-in-plain-sight natural material that did the job extremely well.  And the discovery has been shown to potentially have a wide range of applications.  They call this suite of solutions the “Stenger-Wasas Process” (SWAP).

In less than a second in a single laboratory column, the SWAP reacts H2S and CO2, converting the mix into water, carbon and sulfur. The SWAP is not a carbon capture process. It is a conversion and elimination process based on a previously undiscovered exothermic reaction between the two. Stenger and Wasas seemed to have stumbled upon and verified An Inconvenient Truth if only because it’s not in the textbooks yet. http://www.swapsol.com

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