Johannesburg-based Anglo American Platinum Ltd has announced an investment in Sacramento, Calif.-based Greyrock Energy, Inc., whose gas-to-liquids technology converts methane-rich gas into transportation fuel.
The Greyrock process produces hydrogen as a byproduct, providing an alternative source for hydrogen and supporting lower costs associated with hydrogen delivery for use in fuel cell electric vehicles, Anglo American Platinum and Greyrock said in a press release.
By accelerating the commercialization of Greyrock’s technology, Anglo American hopes to drive demand for its products through enabling the adoption of fuel cell electric vehicles, which require platinum-based catalysts.
Anglo American is the world’s top producer of platinum, and also mines diamonds and other precious metals. The company has a market capitalization of almost $7 billion, according to Sacramento Business Journal.
Amplats accounts for about 38 percent of the world’s annual platinum supply, Independent Online reported.
Greyrock’s technology converts flare gas, natural gas, natural gas liquids, biogas, or others that might be wasted into clean liquid transportation fuels with hydrogen as a byproduct, according to the press release.
Flare gas is produced — and often burned off or flared — when crude oil is processed, resulting in carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon black and other pollutants being released into the atmosphere, Anglo American said. Flaring can also release methane, a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than CO2, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The World Bank estimates that 140 billion cubic meters of natural gas is flared annually, resulting in the emission of more than 300 million tons of CO2 globally. Eliminating these emissions would be equivalent to removing more than 77 million cars from the road.
Greyrock can provide systems to build small-scale refineries that convert natural gas or methane into pump-ready diesel fuel in remote locations, according to Sacramento Business Journal. The systems cost $10 million to $150 million each to deploy.
Greyrock CEO Robert Schuetzle did not disclose the amount of investment but he said it was a substantial. It could allow Greyrock to expand marketing, continue product development and start deploying it.
“We are excited to bring international investment into Sacramento,” Schuetzle said. “This is a large acceleration round for us.”
According to the Sacramento Business Journal:
The benefit of Greyrock’s product is that moving and storing diesel fuel is cheaper and easier than storing or moving natural gas. Methane and natural gas are byproducts of oil extraction, but the transportation of those gasses is so difficult and expensive that they are usually “flared” or burned in the oil fields. That practice of burning waste gas contributes to the creation of more volatile greenhouse gasses, and wastes energy.
Greyrock is building some of its systems in several locations in the western U.S., along the Gulf Coast and in Canada, Schuetzle said. The company is also working with Mexican oil and gas producer Compañia Petrolera Perseus to stop flaring of natural gas at oil wells in Mexico.
The Greyrock plants also have the potential to be deployed in Africa, Schuetzle said, adding that there is currently substantial gas flaring occurring there. “It is a huge opportunity for Greyrock,” he said.
