SwRI Ready to Support DOE Chemical Technology Scale-Up Program

Southwest Research Institute is ready to serve as a “teaming partner” in a U.S. Department of Energy program that will provide up to $58 million for bench-scale and pre-pilot projects intended to strengthen domestic supply chains and reduce U.S. dependence on chemical imports. The initiative, established by the Department of Energy’s Alternative Fuels and Feedstocks Office, is called the Accelerating Scale-up and Pre-piloting of Emerging Chemical Technologies program, or ASPECT. Under the program, selected organizations can match with SwRI to advance projects involving alternative or waste feedstocks.

SwRI’s planned role centers on scaling technologies beyond the proof-of-concept stage and integrating them into systems. The San Antonio-based institute develops chemical processes and technologies for alternative and renewable feedstocks, and its Chemical Engineering Department has evaluated alternative fuels and feedstocks since the oil embargoes of the 1970s, when its experts began considering options that could mitigate oil and gas supply shortages. For ASPECT, the institute will offer chemical pilot-plant capabilities to help participating organizations advance technologies toward commercialization.

The institute recently upgraded several alternative-fuels facilities and pieces of equipment, including a circulating fluidized bed reactor. The roughly room-sized reactor can support pyrolysis, which breaks down organic materials at high heat without oxygen, and gasification, which converts carbon-rich materials into a combustible gas mixture. Chemists can use the reactor to evaluate renewable feedstocks such as biomass and recycled plastics, as well as processes for upgrading spent heavy oils. SwRI also works with natural gas, biomass, hydrogen, supercritical carbon dioxide and ammonia, and its Chemical Engineering Department provides engineering, procurement, construction and operations services, in-house fabrication, built-in utilities, existing infrastructure, flexible permitting support and customizable pilot plants for industrial and government clients.

SwRI officials said the availability of reactors in different sizes, together with indoor and outdoor spaces and built-in utilities, can make scale-up more efficient. Eloy Flores III, director of SwRI’s Chemical Engineering Department, said those resources can reduce the time normally required to reach commercialization. The announcement describes the institute’s readiness to provide engineering and pilot-plant support within ASPECT, but it does not identify the selected projects or technologies, report completed scale-up results, provide commercial performance data, quantify changes in chemical imports or establish that any project has reached the market. ASPECT is a development program with planned technical and supply-chain objectives, rather than evidence of completed commercial deployments or measured reductions in U.S. import dependence.

Subject of Research: Southwest Research Institute’s planned engineering support for DOE scale-up and pre-pilot projects involving alternative and waste feedstocks

Article Title: SwRI listed as ‘teaming partner’ for DOE chemical technology research, development program

Article References: SwRI listed as ‘teaming partner’ for DOE chemical technology research, development program. Original publication (Bibliographic details unavailable.)

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: Not provided

Keywords: Southwest Research Institute, Department of Energy, ASPECT program, chemical technology, technology scale-up, pre-pilot plants, alternative feedstocks, domestic supply chains, pyrolysis, gasification, SwRI, listed