We hope that our summer newsletter finds you all well. We are excited to announce that Stanford will be welcoming students back to campus this fall, and we hope to be hosting in-person events soon. Throughout the campus lockdown, NGI has remained dedicated to focusing on our mission of conducting fundamental research and promoting an inclusive space for scientific debate and information sharing. During this time, our NGI faculty have had access to specialized labs and research areas. We are pleased to report that our research portfolio has continued to expand, particularly in the areas of sustainable gas and methane emissions. We look forward to sharing the results of our research activities at our 2021 Annual Affiliates Meeting, to be held virtually on October 19 and 20.
Membership in NGI continues to grow. Please join us in welcoming new NGI affiliate members: Tudor Pickering Holt, EQT, and Project Canary.
The NGI website contains all our latest news, publications and event information, and a short summary of recent and upcoming events may be found below. We are grateful for your continued support and we welcome you to contact us any time with questions, comments and suggestions.
Naomi Boness
Managing Director, Stanford Natural Gas Initiative
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Adam Brandt to lead Stanford’s Natural Gas Initiative research program |
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Stanford Global Energy Dialogues |
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ABOUT GLOBAL ENERGY DIALOGUES
Stanford Global Energy Dialogues is a virtual series where distinguished global energy thought leaders and world-renowned Stanford faculty address new challenges and unknowns that the world now faces
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NGI insights - Stanford NGI Managing Director, Naomi Boness, and Research Scholar, Gireesh Shrimali, discuss the hydrogen opportunity and the role of blue hydrogen in establishing the market.
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Charting a Course Toward Jet Fuel and the Sun |
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What is different about different net-zero carbon electricity systems? |
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Stanford PhD candidate, EJ Baik working with Professor Sally Benson is lead author on a paper “What is different about different net-zero carbon electricity systems” that utilized three independent capacity expansion and dispatch models. Key findings are: 1) that each model shows that clean firm resources are cost-effective in decarbonizing the grid. 2) Complementary cost structures of clean firm resources allow assets to co-exist. 3) Diverse portfolio of clean firm resources lowers system costs by optimizing asset utilization.
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Biological formation of polyarylate in a gas-fermenting microbe |
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Dr Nils Averesch, an NGI-sponsored researcher in the Criddle-Lab (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering), has been able to show, for the first time, biological formation of a polyarylate (i.e., an aromatic polyester) in a gas-fermenting microbe: through genetic engineering Dr Averesch has introduced foreign DNA into 'Knallgas' Bacteria that now allow co-polymers of phloretic acid, a naturally occurring phenolic compound, to be formed. The obtained bioplastic has structural similarity with PET, which opens the door to the bio-production of high-performance thermoplastics and thermosets from CO2 and H2. In future this microbial cell factory could be further engineered towards direct utilization of methane and conversion into advanced aromatic polyesters. Enabling bio-production of bio-polyesters with superior properties is expected to accelerate the transition from synthetic materials to biodegradable plastics. Especially materials that can directly replace industrial (petrochemistry-based) polymers are needed, without the prerequisite for extensive modifications to the existing processing- and recycling-infrastructure. Production from gaseous feedstocks will improve economically viability of the green processes.
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Closing the methane gap in US oil and natural gas production emissions inventories |
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Photo Credit - Yulia Chen
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It has been widely reported over the past several years that the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Greenhouse Gas Inventory is undercounting methane emissions from oil and gas production compared to recent field studies. However, these field studies tended to have less granularity than EPA’s detailed engineering models, so it was unclear where the divergence was coming from. Stanford PhD student Jeff Rutherford and colleagues’ new paper published in Nature Communications has finally cracked the code.
Using a detailed engineering simulation model, very similar to that employed by EPA, Rutherford’s study demonstrates that with input data based on the latest fine-grained field measurements, results agree very closely with coarser-resolution field studies.
These results demonstrate that, contrary to previous assertions, the bottom-up methodology is a valid approach to produce accurate emissions estimates. Further, because the bottom-up approach to inventory design allows for highly granular equipment-level emission estimates, it is possible to diagnose changes in emissions with specificity.
While this study was based upon entirely US data – and will thus be of most interest to US policy-makers, scientists, and industry – it is also relevant to the international community. Emission factors used by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (or more specifically, default values used by countries lacking data) are designed largely based on the EPA Greenhouse Gas Inventory. Thus, improving EPA estimates will help other countries accurately estimate their oil and gas methane emissions as well.
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NGI Methane Emissions Symposium - Feb 23-25 |
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NGI Brief - The Stanford Natural Gas Initiative held a three-day Methane Emissions Symposium of nearly 200 global thought leaders from industry, universities, NGOs, and government, to highlight the latest technological advances in methane management and discuss possibilities for rapid deployment to dramatically reduce emissions.
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The Future of Natural Gas in Africa – March 30-31
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NGI Brief - Five Lessons for the Future of Natural Gas in Africa captured from an event co-hosted by NGI and Energy for Growth Hub
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Decarbonizing Heavy Duty Transportation – April 13-14 |
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Workshop Brief - An in-depth report covering the key learnings from a workshop hosted by the Hydrogen Focus Group
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Hydrogen Energy Dialogues: The Interplay of Natural Gas and Hydrogen – April 16
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Executive Summary - Primary themes and key learners captured at this event co-hosted by Energy Dialogues and NGI
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NGI Annual Affiliates Meeting – October 19 and 20
Differentiated Gas Markets - TBD
Bi-Weekly Methane Emissions and Flaring Seminar Series
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Methane Emissions and Technology Alliance (META) Seminar Series |
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A group of Stanford methane researchers led by postdoc Evan Sherwin is now hosting an informal remote seminar series in topics on Methane Emissions and Flaring for researchers and practitioners in universities, industry, government, and NGOs focusing on recent advances in detection and mitigation of methane emissions from industrial and other sources. Attendees currently include researchers from five departments at Stanford and four other universities as well as several companies and government labs. Recent speakers include Prof. Emily Grubert of Georgia Tech and Dr. Natalie Pekney of the National Energy Technology Laboratory.
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NGI
397 Panama Mall, Mitchell Building, Stanford, CA, 94305-2215
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