Grant: Alliance Grants

With a worldwide production volume of 15 million tons per year (~ $17B/year), Carbon Black (CB) is the largest nanomaterial by volume and value on the market today. Current CB manufacturing processes suffer from low mass yield and excessive emissions, generating 4 tons of CO2 per each ton of product on average, which makes it undesirable in terms of energy efficiency, sustainability, and environmental impacts. Another method to produce CB utilizes pyrolysis of natural gas (methane) to produce green, CO2-emission free, hydrogen and CB. Green hydrogen is thought to be key to achieving a net-zero CO2 economy. Additionally, Canada has rich natural gas resources, and Canada must find a viable method to leverage these resources with direct combustion of methane and other fossil fuels being phased out. Although methane pyrolysis methods display potential to produce green hydrogen and CB, most are expensive, requiring catalyst materials or very high temperatures achieved via a plasma, and suffer from poor CB yield and quality. Recently, Ekona Power Inc has developed the pulsed methane pyrolysis (PMP) method that reduces CO2 emissions by 90% compared to traditional methods for hydrogen and CB manufacturing while remaining economically viable. However, the yield and quality of CB produced via the PMP is uncertain. The goal of the research partnership between Ekona Power Inc, the University of Windsor, and Carleton University is to enhance the yield and quality of produced CB from the PMP method. This will be accomplished via application of computationally efficiency CB formation models that can quantify yield and quality and be used in process design and optimization simulations. The project is of paramount importance to Canada in its fight against global warming and climate change while bolstering its economy.