Market Opportunity
The Golden Age of Gas
The natural gas used today to produce electricity, heat our homes and power our trucks, is primarily methane gas extracted from deep under the Earth's surface that was formed hundreds of millions of years ago. Most of this gas was the result of ancient decomposition of plants and other organic matter. Inspired by plant leaves, HyperSolar is developing a technology that mimics photosynthesis to produce a renewable natural gas in a matter of seconds, using only sunlight, water and carbon dioxide.
A High Demand Fuel
Like petroleum, natural gas is a very flexible fuel with many applications. Unlike petroleum, natural gas is an untapped and geographically dispersed natural resource, and is the world’s fastest-growing fuel. As the cleanest burning fossil fuel, natural gas is the fuel of choice in regions of the world that are concerned about air pollution and climate change.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) projects that global consumption of natural gas will exceed coal by 2035 and calls this period the “Golden Age of Gas.” To keep up with this demand, the IEA estimates that nearly $8 trillion will need to be invested in natural gas infrastructure, with $5.1 trillion in gas well exploration and development, and $2.1 trillion in transmission and distribution.(1) HyperSolar’s breakthrough technology is directed at “manufacturing” natural gas instead of conventional geological exploration and well development.
A Dirty Fossil Fuel
For all of its merits, conventional natural gas is still a dirty fossil fuel that must be laboriously extracted from deep below the Earth’s surface and then cleaned up. When a natural gas deposit is located through advanced exploration technology, a well must be physically drilled to extract the gas. If the gas deposit is found onshore, a new process called horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” is often used to extract the gas from underground rock formations by pumping 3 to 5 million gallons of high pressure water, mixed with sand and chemical additives, into the underground bedrock, cracking it to release the trapped gas.(2) This new process is very effective in extracting natural gas, but the environmental and public safety concerns about groundwater and ecological contamination by chemicals and methane have not been resolved. If the gas deposit is found offshore, platform drilling technology is used with the same environmental risk as the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Raw natural gas, found underground, is not the same natural gas that we burn at home. It exists as methane gas mixed in with carbon dioxide (CO2), traces of chemical compounds, oil and water, all of which must be removed before the gas is ready for commercial use. Oftentimes, the CO2 removed from natural gas is simply vented into the atmosphere along with inevitable leaks of methane, a greenhouse gas that is 20 times more harmful than CO2. Finally, when it is burned as a fuel, natural gas turns into CO2.
The Renewable Natural Gas
With hundreds of billions of dollars already invested in natural gas infrastructure and trillions more dollars on the way, natural gas as a primary fuel is a reality. However, the environmental risks associated with the extraction and usage of conventional natural gas is also a reality. Based on advanced nanotechnology, HyperSolar intends to eliminate the harmful aspects of extracting natural gas and preserve its existing delivery infrastructure and economy by fundamentally changing the source of natural gas from underground to aboveground. We intend to do this by creating natural gas aboveground using sunlight, water and carbon dioxide, in a renewable and sustainable manner.
(1) IEA World Energy Outlook 2011 – Golden Age of Gas
(2) NaturalGas.Org
