HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_015486.jpg
1.7 MB
Extraction Summary
3
People
4
Organizations
3
Locations
3
Events
2
Relationships
7
Quotes
Document Information
Type:
Article/educational material (likely from a house oversight committee document production)
File Size:
1.7 MB
Summary
This document appears to be a page from a 'Nautilus Education' publication, filed under a House Oversight document dump (Bates stamp HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_015486). The text discusses energy production technology, specifically the company 'Primus' shifting focus in mid-2012 from biomass to natural gas/syngas due to the fracking boom and low natural gas prices. It quotes individuals named Fang, Boyajian, and Primus CEO Robert Johnsen regarding the environmental impact and economic viability of these fuel sources.
People (3)
| Name | Role | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Fang | Researcher/Scientist |
Shows the machine to the author; discusses the technical process of turning methane into syngas.
|
| Boyajian | Employee/Associate at Primus |
Has a map of shale formations in his office.
|
| Robert Johnsen | CEO of Primus |
Comments on the gas to gasoline process and the company's future.
|
Organizations (4)
| Name | Type | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Nautilus Education |
Header indicates this is a beta product from this entity.
|
|
| Primus |
Company focused on making syngas from natural gas; shifted focus in mid-2012.
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| ExxonMobil |
Cited as having built a similar plant in New Zealand in 1986.
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| House Oversight Committee |
Implied by the footer 'HOUSE_OVERSIGHT'.
|
Timeline (3 events)
1986
ExxonMobil built a plant to turn natural gas into methanol and then gasoline.
New Zealand
mid 1990s
Locations (3)
| Location | Context |
|---|---|
|
Mentioned as the world's biggest producer of shale gas.
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Location of an ExxonMobil plant built in 1986.
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Region shown on Boyajian's map of shale formations.
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Relationships (2)
Both appear to be associated with the company Primus (Fang demonstrates the machine, Johnsen is CEO).
Key Quotes (7)
"Making long hydrocarbons from the single carbon in methane molecules is 'very easy'."Source
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_015486.jpg
Quote #1
"But 'natural gas is not true green,' he concedes. 'There is no benefit in [the reduction of] greenhouse gases. Biomass is still true green.'"Source
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_015486.jpg
Quote #2
"The world is full of shale."Source
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Quote #3
"Right now it is abandoned."Source
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_015486.jpg
Quote #4
"This is the way to get to biofuels."Source
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_015486.jpg
Quote #5
"Will we be the ones to get there? Maybe."Source
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_015486.jpg
Quote #6
"The energy in these fuels is the pent-up power of ancient sunlight, which billions of photosynthetic microorganisms soaked up before dying."Source
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_015486.jpg
Quote #7
Full Extracted Text
Complete text extracted from the document (2,583 characters)
NAUTILUS EDUCATION | BETA PRODUCT
cost as little as $2 per gallon, or about half the price gas currently goes for at local pumps, to produce at a full-sized facility, even though such an industrial plant would require a lot of capital to build.
However, the machine Fang shows me is not running on the biomass that Fang originally tested: wood chips, switchgrass, canary grass, miscanthus. Instead, it churns through natural gas, turning methane into syngas. Making long hydrocarbons from the single carbon in methane molecules is “very easy,” he assures me. But “natural gas is not true green,” he concedes. “There is no benefit in [the reduction of] greenhouse gases. Biomass is still true green.”
Natural gas from the fracking boom has revolutionized the global energy landscape—particularly in the United States, the world’s biggest producer of shale gas. But it is also controversial. Gas burns cleaner, but it still produces around half the greenhouse emissions of its dirtier cousins like coal, not including the excess methane that leaks from fracking sites and the pipelines that transport the gas. Fracked gas can also contaminate groundwater supplies. And while in 2012 it brought America’s carbon footprint down to its lowest level in 20 years, relying on it in the long-term will make it hard to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions, as is required to combat climate change.
As the price of natural gas slid in response to the glut of shale gas, Primus changed gears in mid-2012 to move away from biomass and to focus on making syngas from natural gas. This is not a new idea: ExxonMobil built a plant in New Zealand in 1986 to turn natural gas into methanol and then gasoline, but abandoned its efforts when the price of petroleum dropped dramatically in the mid 1990s. Now, though, natural gas is cheap and attractive. Boyajian has a map of all the shale formations in North America tacked to the wall of his office. “The world is full of shale,” he notes.
An earlier version of Primus’ machine, tuned to process biomass, sits swathed in silvery insulating tape in a locked and darkened lab. “Right now it is abandoned,” Fang says. The company insists that the statement doesn’t apply to Primus’s biomass efforts more generally. “This is the way to get to biofuels,” says Primus CEO Robert Johnsen, of the gas to gasoline process, through a tight smile. “Will we be the ones to get there? Maybe.”
The energy in these fuels is the pent-up power of ancient sunlight, which billions of photosynthetic microorganisms soaked up before dying.
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HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_015486
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