Frontieras To Capitalize on FASForm’s Hydrogen Yield To Power First Commercial Plant
Author: Joe Witherspoon P.E., CTO and Co-Founder of Frontieras North America
There are many ways to look at the world. As a Chemical Process Design Engineer with an emphasis on fuels and energy engineering, I tend to concentrate on the smallest of things to understand the larger picture. As CTO and co-founder of Frontieras North America, I have a unique perspective on the four key elements of life – oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen. Understanding why and how chemical reactions occur, how things grow and interact, and more importantly where efficiencies are being lost with today’s current energy processes has allowed me to innovate and engineer Frontieras' unique process technology.
It's with these core compounds in mind that I developed and patented the FASForm™ process to change how we address the growing energy crisis, and change the narrative regarding the impact hydrocarbons' have on our world. Outlined below is a quick summary of how we are changing the value proposition of hydrocarbons and the conversation that surrounds their use.
Frontieras North America’s introduction of FASForm has led rethinking and understanding the various types of energy stored in solids, liquids, and gases. Specifically, FASForm extracts high value liquids and gases from solids while producing a purified solid carbon product known as FASCarbon™. FASForm also illustrates how Frontieras captures and repurposes those energy elements so no waste is emitted into the air, water, and soil. This innovation provides Frontieras a competitive advantage, and has Frontieras on track to become a key player within the energy sector, improve the emissions of energy production, and reduce the waste that occurs with today’s archaic processes.
Frontieras made news recently with its announcement to break ground and build its first patented FASForm™ plant in Mason County, West Virginia. Frontieras’ 7500-tons/day capacity plant will have the ability to process coal, lignite, oil sands, and waste plastic. As a result of Frontieras’ FASForm energy technology, the plant will be the first in the United States powered by hydrogen.
Why is this important? Hydrogen, a pillar within the element market, is typically bonded to another element – solid, liquid, and gas. As a result, the only way to isolate hydrogen is to separate it from other elements and use it onsite. Hydrogen, which has the highest energy content of any common fuel by weight, is often overlooked as a commercial power source; separating it from other elements typically requires more energy to produce than hydrogen provides when it’s converted to useful energy. During FASForm’s solid carbon fractionation process, Frontieras is expected to liberate more than 20 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) of hydrogen. This volume of hydrogen is equivalent to a typical industrial hydrogen plant. Leveraging hydrogen streamlines the overall process, reduces emissions, and creates quantifiable value to Frontieras and the markets that benefit from Frontieras’ offerings.
Frontieras’ ability to liberate, capture, and utilize hydrogen is a major accomplishment in controlling the net aggregate reduction of CO2 emissions throughout the energy and supply chain cycles of the plant. This shines a light on Frontieras’ “no waste” philosophy. Frontieras’ FASForm applies a continuous-feed process using thermal cracking and distillation of solid carbon materials with high efficiency in order to produce easily marketable gases, liquids, and solids. In designing and testing the plant’s FASForm processing of hydrocarbons, we devised methods to capture and repurpose key compounds, including hydrogen. Because FASForm breaks down the elements before they are processed, we can harvest the hydrogen as an energy resource and repurpose it to power the plant.
Frontieras’ “no waste” vision has allowed the company to be a thought leader in the clean technology arena, and help define what that means going forward. Frontieras is looking to change the physical make-up of its feedstock by harvesting the different elements from the raw material. This new approach allows Frontieras to breakdown the feedstock into its simplest and most efficient forms. For example, Frontieras’ use of standard coal as feedstock reduces the amount of sulfur in the coal, syphons off the ammonia gas, and changes the standard coal into coal coke (often used in the production of steel manufacturing). In addition to the extraction of hydrogen, Frontieras is left with production yields that allow for the manufacture of a wide gamut of materials, including nitric acid, ammonia salts, and fertilizer. As a result, this creates a cleaner product with a host of benefits, including:
· Energy efficiency
· No air, water or soil pollution
· No waste streams
· No waste products
Having spent decades in the energy sector has allowed me to look beyond the latest trends, buzz words, and acronyms. The fact that the term “Clean Technology” was created within the financial world as a blanket statement to qualify segments of the energy sector is interesting, a bit naïve, and limiting. I believe that Frontieras’ zero-waste philosophy changes the narrative about what clean technology means for the industry, its impact on specific markets, and its overall impact on the environment.
Technologies aren’t typically considered outdated until new technology is produced to replace it. This is true with Frontieras and its role in changing the conversation surrounding the use and processing of hydrocarbons for energy. Frontieras is in a unique position in the market. Our patented technology is proven, we can find value where no one else has looked, and because of FASForm’s unique architecture, we are able to capture energy-rich elements in one continuous process. This allows Frontieras to deliver abundant, available, and affordable energy into diverse markets around the world.
About the Author
Joseph Witherspoon, P.E. Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
Joe Witherspoon serves as CTO and co-founder of Frontier Applied Sciences and Frontieras North America.
Joe is recognized as the inventor of Frontieras’ FASForm™ process and has authored the patents for FAS technology. Joe brings to the CTO post a strong conceptual and practical understanding of petroleum refining processes, natural gas processing (including cryogenics), and other major chemical processes.
Prior to Frontieras, Joe held engineering positions with Chevron, Enterprise Products and Sinclair Oil and Marathon Petroleum. As a Process Design Engineer and Major Capital Project Manager, Joe’s successful project resume has yielded millions of dollars in new profitability for the companies he worked for and projects that he controlled.
Joe holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical & Fuels Engineering from the University of Utah and is a licensed Professional Engineer.