Michell Instruments has won a €50,000 grant from the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Framework to fund the development of an energy-saving analyzer for the natural gas processing industry.
The grant will be used to fund a six-month project to develop the business case for a commercially viable analyzer to provide real-time measurements to enable full control over natural gas processing, and which is also able to cope with changes of composition in the gas streams.
The importance of this development is two-fold. Firstly the sources of the gas used around the world are changing to include both shale gas and bio-methane: an analyzer that is able to cope with changes in composition is necessary to cope with this. Secondly, real-time analysis of gas composition will increase energy efficiency by around 20%. This will not only reduce carbon emissions during processing, but could also save the global natural gas processing industry an estimated €640 billion a year.
‘We are very pleased to have gained this funding,’ commented Michell’s Technical Director, Andrew Stokes. ‘Our idea is very innovative, and we believe it can offer significant performance improvements to the natural gas industry, but is inherently high-risk so would not necessarily get the green light without funding. Securing EU support will help Michell deliver this technology and in turn ensure that we make the most of our finite natural resources.’ At the end of the project Michell hope to secure further funding to move the development to its next stage.
Horizon 2020 is the biggest EU Research and Innovation programme ever with nearly €80 billion of funding available from 2014 to 2020. It aims to help companies in Europe have more breakthroughs, discoveries and world-firsts by taking great ideas from the lab to the market.