Schlumberger and RTI International partner on carbon capture technology

Schlumberger announced that it has entered into an agreement with RTI International, a nonprofit research institute, to accelerate the industrialisation and scale-up of its proprietary non-aqueous solvent (NAS) technology, which enhances the efficiency of absorption-based carbon capture.

The NAS technology will be applicable to capture CO2 across a broad variety of industrial emissions.

“With the world’s carbon budget running out, reducing emissions is a societal imperative,” said Gavin Rennick, president of Schlumberger’s New Energy business. “Carbon capture technologies are a key enabler in realizing a low carbon future—and we are excited about this exclusive agreement to work with RTI on industrialising and scaling this innovative carbon absorption technology, and bringing it to market.”

The NAS technology offers an alternative to conventional aqueous solvent technologies for carbon capture, as it consumes less energy while retaining high CO2 capacity, resulting in a material reduction in operating costs. The NAS technology is also less corrosive—eliminating the need for high-grade corrosion-resistant alloys and the associated increase in capital costs. This enhances the overall economics of carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) projects.

“RTI has developed the innovative NAS technology over the past 12 years, progressing from lab scale to large engineering scale,” said Dr. Marty Lail, senior director of RTI’s Decarbonisation Sciences program. “NAS technology uses as much as 40 percent less energy during the CO2 capture process. High capture efficiency at lower energy cost is critical for widespread commercial use of carbon capture solvents.”

As part of an engineering-scale carbon capture demonstration funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, NAS technology was able to remove >99 percent of the CO2 from natural gas combustion exhaust streams—the highest capture efficiency reported for any carbon capture solvent technology for this application. 

RTI and Schlumberger will collaborate to develop models that enable fast design and process customisation to achieve a step-change in CO2 capture operations while leveraging Schlumberger’s global footprint to expand market opportunities for the technology.