Projects
Here are active projects of the Institute of Gas Innovation and Technology
Devinder Mahajan, SBU
A new independent initiative to design and advocate policies that enable or support the development of technologies to expand the value of societal investments in natural gas related infrastructure including, transmission, distribution, data, local renewable production and end-use applications for space conditioning, process, electric generation, vehicular transportation and greenhouse gas mitigation. Founded in 2018, I-GIT is a partnership between Advanced Energy Research and Technology Center (AERTC) and National Grid. Several other entities joined thereafter. The first charge of I-GIT is to assess pathways that would lead to zero or net-zero power production in New York State by 2050. Specifically, I-GIT is investigating renewable methane and hydrogen, the latter produced from renewable off-shore wind. Multiple projects are underway under I-GIT umbrella in collaboration with CEWIT.
Funding: National Grid, CSE-San Diego, Danskammer Energy, AERTC, CIEES, SPIR, conEdison
Publications:
Devinder Mahajan, Christopher Cavanagh, Arie Kaufman, Rong Zhao, Shawn Jones, Gozde
Ustuner, Jeff Hung. 2020 NY-BEST Energy Storage Technology and Innovation Conference. Mode:
Virtual. New York BEST. Session: Topic: New Developments in Non-Battery Energy Storage
Technology. Session: “Super long duration storage: Hydrogen and Power-to-gas. December 8-9,
2020.
Devinder Mahajan, Julia K. Hasty, Jade Killean, Wiam Homir
Wastewater management is a major issue facing engineers as freshwater crisis expands globally.
In the United States, despite investments in the Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTWs) dictated by the Clean Water Act (CWA), the point source discharges continue to be a significant contributor to the degradation of surface water quality. Wastewater treatment is energy intensive and accounts for 2% of total U.S. electricity (2). In 2000, energy-related emissions resulting from POTW operations led to total emissions of 15.5 million metric tonnes (MMT) CO2- equivalents (CO2-eq.).
Coupled with the CO2 emissions of 14.8 (MMT), the CO2-eq. associated with CH4 releases from organic sludge degradation in wastewater treatment systems amounted to about 0.3% of total U.S. GHG emissions.In 2012, U.S. clean water needs for building new and updating existing wastewater treatment plants alone were $102 billion.
Typical commercial technology is multi-step: 1) separation of non-food components, 2) disinfection treatments are chlorination and ultraviolet (UV) and both have comparable energy consumption, 3) chemical additions of ferric salts and lime enhance coagulation and sedimentation processes for improved solids removal as well as removal of toxic pollutants.
These steps can be complemented with CH4 recovery, a step that includes the aeration process, which facilitates microbial degradation of organic matter, and can account for 25% to 60% of the energy use in wastewater treatment plants.Additionally, pumping systems typically add 10-15% of energy cost at wastewater treatment plants.We have developed a non-chemical approach to separate water and dissolved organics/inorganics from wastewater streams. The disruptive technology involves physical phase change of a commonly used non-reacting gas to “hydrate”, the gas is recycled. We recently completed construction of a batch unit and tested for water separation with brewery wastewater. We envision testing wastewater streams from: 1) breweries, 2) landfill leachate, 3) wastewater treatment plants. The process will be applicable to multiple segments of the industry including wastewater from hydraulic fracturing of oil & gas.
Funding: PowerBridgeNY, NSF- I-Corp, ITAS
Devinder Mahajan and Vatsal Bhatt (I-GIT)
Kevin Neumaier, Sustainable Dairy Technologies
Matt Tomich and Phil Vos, Energy Vision
The Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) potential in New York State’s manure and food wastes exceeds 34.2 trillion BTUs, or over 35% of the natural gas consumed by NY electric utilities in 2017. Today, a tiny fraction of RNG is captured from manure from 28 anaerobic digesters operating on NYS dairy farms for on-site electricity production. From climate perspective, dairy-manure and food waste-derived RNG is net-carbon-negative when considering “lifecycle” GHG emissions. By one estimate, carbon-negative RNG from a fraction of these sources could offset all GHG emissions from natural gas burned by electric utilities in NYS. The Institute of Gas Innovation and Technology (I-GIT) led team proposed to bring key stakeholders together and identified barriers and solutions to large-scale RNG production and off-take in NYS. This involves: 1) engaging dairies (and generators of organic waste), to seek operational data on digesters, both existing and proposed, 2) establishment of an advisory board whose members are drawn from State agencies and 3) engaging utilities to understand off-take agreements. I-GIT would analyze the data, share with the Advisory board through meetings/conference calls to propose deployable solutions. This Market Animation approach would set the stage to capitalize on the potential of RNG in NYS. Data sharing arrangements with other progressive states, such as California, would help NYS realize the potential to greatly expand NY’s digester capacity. The I-GIT team will help NYSERDA coordinate funding activities awarded under PON 3739 worth $16 million.
Funding: NYSERDA, National Grid
Publication:
3rd Annual Scientific Summit on Dairy Methane Management Research Virtual 2020, December 13-14, 2021. Co-Organizers: I-GIT/Cdfa/UC Davis/CSE/Denmark Trade Council.
Devinder Mahajan, Jake Lindberg, and Thomas Butcher (I-GIT)
Satya Sharma, Rong Zhao (CEWIT)
CSE-San Diego
This is a joint project between multiple industry, I-GIT, and CEWIT. As the share of renewables increase, the intermittency of these energy sources must be stabilized in electricity networks to realize their full potential. The power-to-gas (P2G) option offers a pathway to store renewable power from solar, wind or hydro to be converted into renewable hydrogen to directly power fuel cells for electricity or to be further reacted with captured CO2 to form renewable natural gas (RNG) that could be either burned directly or injected into pipelines. The potential of P2G to store energy that surpasses battery storage by at least two orders of magnitude, could be realized. The big data management will be provided by CEWIT.
The P2G concept is relatively new and regional data is crucial to expand its application in New York State. In Europe, there are 70 operating P2G plants but in the U.S, there are a few test units. This project will demonstrate the integration of a suite of technologies (water electrolyzer, CO2 extraction system, hydrogen storage system, and a fuel cell) to serve as a test bed for advanced P2G applications. The project also includes identifying optimal combinations to establish baselines for each source of renewable energy (solar, wind, hydro) and educating the public, including international audiences, about the tools and techniques available with the P2G test bed located on Long Island. Batteries are well established as a device for energy storage applications. The well-to-wheel efficiency of batteries is rather impressive at 73% whereas for the Power-To-Gas (P2G) storage option, the well-to-tank efficiency is 52% but when combined with the tank-to-wheel efficiency, the overall efficiency reduced drastically to 22%. The Institute of Gas Innovation and Technology (I-GIT) is at the forefront to realize the P2G potential. The P2G concept is a serious contender as a “Large Scale” energy storage option. To advance the P2G concept to commercial stage, several key R&D areas that remain to be addressed are: 1) Reduced hydrogen production cost, 2) Safe and high-density transport of hydrogen, both as liquid hydrogen and in existing repurposed natural gas pipelines while maintaining integrity of pipeline materials, 3) Transient hydrogen storage for uninterrupted feed availability, 4) Customized end-use.
Funding: I-GIT, National Grid, Danskammer Energy, ConEdison, CIEES
Publication
Transatlantic Power-to-Gas {TAP2G) Workshop, Aberdeen, Scotland [October 3-4, 2019]
Co-organizers: EMEC, I-GIT and Scottish Hydrogen and Fuel Association
Devinder Mahajan and Jake Lindberg, I-GIT
Julia Hasty, All Power Labs
Long Island’s geographic location puts the region at risk of losing power during intense storms due to flooding, downed power lines and debris strewn all across the island. Local utility PSEG Long Island’s records reflect that the last major windstorm (Super-storm Sandy) to hit Long Island produced approximately 40,000 cubic yards of wood debris and left sections of Long Island without power for up to two weeks. This amount of wood has 420,000 MW-equivalent if converted into power so wood waste-to-energy is the basis of a proposed demonstration project on Long Island. This is a joint project with All-Power Labs (APL), and Peconic Recycling, Inc.
At the heart of the project is an innovative commercial mobile power pallet, dubbed “PP30”, a 30kW gasifier provided by APL and fueled by waste wood on Long Island. The APL system (PP30™) is a modular unit that could be deployed routinely to avoid landfilling of debris and to provide emergency power. Under the proposed project, one APL 30 kW power pallet will be initially staged at a designated site. Though the PP30 unit has documented success gasifying wood chips in California, the consortium seeks to gather performance, emissions, reliability and affordability data using a feedstock mix produced from operations on Long Island. The business model envisions revenues from the sale of power, and to produce a potentially usable solid by-product, biochar. A mobile data collection system to monitor a series of units will be managed by CEWIT.
Funding: Peconic Recycling, Inc. and APL
Devinder Mahajan, T. Venkatesh, C. Clayton, T. Butcher, Sayantani Sikder, Jake Lindberg,
Leela Sotsky, I-GIT
Satya Sharma and Rong Zhao, Zachary Lerman- CEWIT
This project will determine the current ability of each component of the utility gas distribution system to transmit hydrogen or natural gas/hydrogen blends and identify the requirements for increased use of hydrogen to deliver green power to New York State customers. The five proposed tasks are structured to assess gas network requirements as a function of blended percentage of hydrogen in natural gas, including requirements for pipe and joining materials, metering and system controls and storage to establish engineering risk assessment and associated protocol; build a test unit to simulate pipeline system and collect data to visualize structural changes (embrittlement, fatigue) to pipeline components using advanced spectroscopic techniques; validation of the relationship between Wobbe Number and blend percentage for geologic natural gas blended with hydrogen using high resolution gas chromatographs. The project is a collaboration between the Institute of Gas Innovation and Technology (I-GIT) at Stony Brook University and National Grid and builds on the results reported in literature from Europe and projects funded by the United States Department of Energy. Together with known data, we calculate that upon achieving total decarbonization of natural gas, New York State can achieve 24.89 million metric tons of CO2 or a 15.0% decrease in New York’s total CO2 emissions.
Funding: NYSERDA/National Grid
Publication:
Stephanie Taboada, Devinder Mahajan, Christopher A. Cavanagh, McKenzie Schwartz. Hydrogen
injection in natural gas pipelines for decarbonization of power sector in New York State.
Symposium: Fuel Processing for Hydrogen Production, Transforming the Future through Chemical
Engineering. AIChE Annual Meeting 2019. Hyatt Regency, Orlando, Orlando FL, United States.
November 10-15, 2019. AIChE Abstract ID# 579106
Devinder Mahajan, Jake Lindberg, Gozde Ustuner, I-GIT
Gilman Industries LLC has developed a novel hydrogen producing water electrolyzer technology that is potentially superior to those presently in the commercial market. The technology is are far enough along for further testing that is being done at the I-GIT laboratories to independently test in both single cell and 7-cell Evolve™ units. We are conducting a series of tests that are needed for a feasibility study for Gilman Industries, and to validate the technology. This engagement between Gilman Industries and I-GIT is designed to help evaluate Gilman Industries to develop Evolve™ electrolyzer technology for customers. We recently completed a series of runs to establish hydrogen production from Deionized (DI), tap and simulated seawater samples.
Funding: Gilman Industries and CIEES
Devinder Mahajan and Stephanie Taboada, I-GIT
Public attention to climate change challenges our locked-in fossil fuel-dependent energy sector.
Natural gas is replacing other fossil fuels in our energy mix. One means of improving the Greenhouse gas (GHG) impact of fossil natural gas is to replace it with renewable natural gas (RNG), which has no climate change impact when combusted. However, the potential for improvement should be quantified before committing to the change. This study quantifies the potential production of biogas (i.e., the precursor to RNG) and RNG from agricultural and waste sources. Only about 10% of the state's available resources are used to generate biogas, of which a small fraction is processed to RNG on the only two operational RNG facilities in the state.
RNG production is supported by several New York State and federal policies, but its value can be increased 10-fold by applying to California’s incentive policy. A second renewable substitute for fossil natural gas is “green” hydrogen. Injecting RNG and “green” hydrogen gas into the pipeline system can reduce up to 20% of the state’s carbon emissions resulting from fossil natural gas usage, which is a significant GHG reduction. After this study, we are also evaluating nano-sized particles of Co and Ni, supported on gamma-alumina or ceria to catalytic conversion of carbon dioxide to renewable methane by hydrogenation.
Funding: I-GIT and NYSERDA
Science Training & Research to Inform Decisions (STRIDE) Fellowship (to ST)
Publication:
Devinder Mahajan, Stephanie Taboada, Lori Clark, and Kyoung Ro. Estimation of renewable natural gas potential in New York State. PRESENTATION FORMAT: On-Demand Oral. DIVISION/COMMITTEE: Environmental Chemistry. 2020 Fall ACS Meeting. San Francisco, CA. PAPER ID: 3434346.
Devinder Mahajan, T. Venlatesh and Kun Tan, I-GIT
Replacing fossil fuels and natural gas with alternative fuels like hydrogen have been suggested and thoroughly examined for years. However, because of the vast property difference between hydrogen fuel and traditional energy sources, hydrogen conversion in large scale requires huge investments.
Instead of jumping directly from the current energy system to a pure hydrogen energy society, several intermediate steps must be considered for practical reasons. Blending hydrogen to methane is one of the most important intermediate steps. Running hydrogen blended methane in existing natural gas pipelines can reduce carbon emissions. Methane-hydrogen gas has been served as an alternative fuel in many existing applications that commonly use fossil fuels. End-use applications like engines and burners can switch from petrol to methane-hydrogen mixture with a few modifications.
Computational fluid dynamic (CFD) modeling is a numerical method for solving fluid flow related differential equations with assistance of iterative computer capability. In this research, a 3D steady-state CFD model has been built to study energy efficiency of methane-hydrogen fuel transportation in a straight horizontal pipe flow using the same setup described in Cadorin et al. (2010). Additional models built on top of the reference model were constructed for testing variables such as 1) hydrogen concentration, 2) pipe surface roughness of common pipe materials, and 3) pipe diameter.
Funding: I-GIT, NYSERDA and NSF
Publication:
Kun Tan, Devinder Mahajan, and T. A. Venkatesh. Computational Fluid Dynamic Modeling of Methane-Hydrogen Mixture Transportation in Pipelines: Estimating Energy Costs. MRS Advances, Submitted 2022.
Devinder Mahajan and Sakshi Sharma, I-GIT
Yue Zhao, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Based on VJT’s previous work with organizations such as BP, Total, Con Edison, PSE&G, National Grid, EPRI and the like, VJT has witnessed the impacts of corrosion on existing pipeline infrastructure and the catastrophic failures that can occur. In-situ monitoring, pigging, replacement of steel pipes with composites, etc. are some of the methods that organizations are using to combat and deal with the corrosion issues and VJT has played a role by providing Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) services, primarily in the form of radiography, to observe and detect corrosion. Detecting and observing corrosion is the current best practice, however, VJT is interested in developing and using AI and ML tools along with sensors, NDT data, and metallurgical data, to generate a predictive model that can enable companies to be proactive about corrosion mitigation strategies. Proactive response toward corrosion will ensure continued efficiency of infrastructure and enable companies to plan outages, repairs, and extend the life of infrastructure as well as reduce the risk of catastrophic failure saving money, lives, and the environment. This predictive model will be a combination of AI/ML algorithms along with a Big Data approach that’s comprised of data based on NDT and other relevant data on the pipelines and the pipes themselves.
Funding: I-GIT and VJ Technologies
