The United States, an Energy Exporter

• Tariq Hannoun
• Diego Martinez
• Erick Yspango

Advisors: Betul Bilgin, PhD, John Prudhom, UOP with Honeywell

The outcome of recent unprecedented challenges to humanity that COVID-19 wrought will change the way energy is used, produced, and distributed globally. The rapid changes to the environment and fuel economy are already apparent, and it is possible that a valuable lesson will be learned from catastrophe. For now, oil’s final hurrah will dominate the fuel market for the near future, at least until well exhaustion. According to current market data, there isn’t much room for natural gas in the present, but the future is near. The design goal of this project is to purify Marcellus Shale natural gas to be liquefied and exported to Asia. Natural gas is abundant in the United States, and improvements in fracking technology had a positive impact on economic viability. Marcellus shale gas can be purified with the least effort with the intent for liquefication when compared to western shale gas deposits due to its low concentration of acid gasses. Additionally, the Helium content of the natural gas feed is small enough that processing for Helium recovery is not required. The plant would be designed to process an amount of one billion cubic feet of shale gas per day. The mass flow rate of the final product stream approaches 99% of that of the feed. When all of the dust of current events settles, the demand for natural gas will return stronger than before. The United States needs to be able to attack that opportunity the moment it arises.

See supporting documentation in the team’s Box drive.