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Colorado School of Mines Wins OEDIT Proof of Concept Award in Partnership with Utility Global
Utility Global, the company pioneering the eXERO™ technology platform optimized to decarbonize hard-to-abate industry sectors, today announced that Colorado School of Mines, in partnership with Utility Global, has secured a $150,000 proof of concept award from the State of Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade for a proposal submitted by Dr. Neal Sullivan entitled “Hydrogen production and CO2 utilization with eXERO ceramics.” This grant will significantly accelerate the advancement and commercialization of Utility Global’s eXERO technology and create multiple jobs between Colorado School of Mines and the Utility Global Advanced Technology Center just outside Denver, further accelerating growth of the Center and commercialization of eXERO technology.
The eXERO (Electroless Coupled Exchange Reduction Oxidation) technology platform simplifies the electrolysis process by eliminating the need for electrical connects and external circuitry in the reactor – a new “green” paradigm. Without the requirement for electricity, the platform eliminates the entire electrical infrastructure from renewable source through to the electrolyzer and the reactor internals – allowing the platform to process dilute offgas streams into H2 in a single reactor and thereby decarbonize existing infrastructure and processes.
Analysis of Electroless Coupled Exchange Reduction Oxidation Technology
Utility Global Inc. (UG) is leading the development of a novel ‘electroless X: coupled exchange reduction oxidation’ (eXERO) technology towards enabling a circular carbon economy. Feedstock for eXERO technology includes renewable natural gas, effluent gases from production streams of steel, refineries or biogas, and carbon-rich solid waste such as biomass. Operated in H2GenTM (h2G) mode, enriched carbon dioxide (CO2) and high-purity hydrogen (H2) can be produced without added electric power. Product CO2 can be used to operate eXERO in CO-GenTM (COGen) mode to execute the water gas shift reaction across a ceramic membrane to produce green carbon monoxide (CO) and water vapor (H2O) as a harmless byproduct. The electrochemical equivalence in COGen mode provides 1:1 molar conversion of excess H2 in feedstock to green CO without added electric power. Low-cost ammonia (NH3) can be cracked by steam without added electric power to convert NH3 to nitrogen (N2), H2O, and high-purity H2 as a product stream by running eXERO in Am2H2 mode. Experimental runs of eXERO in H2Gen mode have been conducted over the past four years. In this study, ORNL examined recently conducted experiments in the year 2023 and large-scale pilot runs conducted in the year 2022.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Utility Global Inc. (UG) agreed to enter into a strategic partnership under contract NFE-23-09559. A document with summarized measurements and predictions was provided to Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) for independent verification of first- and secondlaw conservation.
The key objective of this project is to conduct an independent analysis of UG’s eXERO technology. Additionally, ORNL will perform 3D multiphysics modelling of the cell to understand and optimize the key operating parameters in generating 99.9+% pure hydrogen. The first objective of this work is to conduct first and second law analysis of the eXERO technology and independently verify the measured performance data, provided by UG.