Santa Barbara, California—C-Zero announced a $350,000 joint project with PG&E and SoCalGas which will allow the company to further its efforts in decarbonizing natural gas via methane pyrolysis.
Methane pyrolysis, or the splitting of natural gas into hydrogen and solid carbon, is a promising method for extracting energy from natural gas while minimizing the amount of carbon dioxide emitted. C-Zero is a spin-out of the University of California, Santa Barbara focused on translating promising clean energy research from the Department of Chemical Engineering into commercially ready, deployable systems.
Commenting on the award, C-Zero Director of Business Development Fadl Saadi said “We are very excited to announce our engagement with California's two largest natural gas utilities, SoCalGas and PG&E. By extracting just the portion of energy in natural gas that does not produce carbon dioxide, we can utilize this abundant natural resource while working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
The announced project will focus on the design and fabrication of C-Zero's pyrolysis reactor. In particular, the funding will support research on optimized gas inlet and bubble holdup, and the exploration of carbon post-processing techniques to enable applications like cement additives.