Energy & Environment
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SwRI scientists and engineers used this test rig to determine if human intrusion barriers would effectively deter drilling near radioactive waste disposal facilities.
As the United States and many other countries have set goals to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 or sooner, the Institute continues cutting-edge research to support decarbonization of the energy sector by exploring carbon-neutral fuels such as hydrogen. We also are helping develop sustainable industrial processes that produce useful chemicals and advance decarbonization methods. SwRI continues to support safety for the nuclear power industry and oil and gas production. We support groundwater management to protect this vital resource.
The Supercritical Transformational Electric Power (STEP) Demo pilot plant at SwRI’s headquarters in San Antonio achieved many important milestones in 2024. In January, the $169 million supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) test facility made a new breakthrough for sCO2 power generation — it achieved an industry first during commissioning, firing its natural gas heater and operating its turbine at an intermediate speed of 18,000 rpm. In May, the pilot plant generated electricity for the first time. Just a few months later it reached its full operational speed of 27,000 rpm, generating four megawatts of net power. In 2025, the facility will be reconfigured to undergo a new phase of testing to achieve its full capacity of 10 megawatts, enough to power 10,000 homes. SwRI is also pursuing decarbonization of land-based electric power generation via gas turbines utilizing low- and zero-carbon fuels. This includes the expansion of its facilities to investigate the performance of a gas turbine combustion system using a variety of alternative fuels including hydrogen, propane, fuel oil and renewable diesel. To support this work, SwRI has installed a new air compressor triple the size of the previous equipment in its High Energy Annex Test (HEAT) combustion facility.
The STEP Demo’s sCO2-powered turbine is a tenth the size of standard turbomachinery. STEP power cycles use sCO2 instead of water as a thermal medium due to its favorable thermodynamic properties.
SwRI’s High Energy Annex Test (HEAT) combustion facility includes a new, powerful air compressor to explore how alternative fuels affect the performance of gas turbine combustion systems.
SwRI is creating a fuel reformer for large natural gas engines to cut emissions. If widely adopted, this technology could reduce carbon dioxide equivalent greenhouse gas emissions by 5 million tons a year. Additionally, Institute researchers are conducting validation testing of a full-scale turbomachine for hydrocarbon steam pyrolysis. This technology aims to decarbonize the production of high-value industrial chemicals — ethylene, propylene and hydrogen — currently produced using large fossil-fuel-fired furnaces.
SwRI is also developing a high-temperature tubular membrane that creates a chemical reaction to remove carbon dioxide gas during industrial processes. The CO2 separator offers a "plug-and-play" carbon capture and sequestration tool that could offer businesses an opportunity to earn carbon credits. Developed over the last 10 years using internal funding, the current separator features a ceramic tube within a metal tube, operating at 650°C. In addition to researching carbon capture, SwRI’s multidisciplinary team is exploring ways to use carbon waste once it’s sequestered.
SwRI is developing novel technology to capture and sequester CO2 during industrial processes. The membrane technology builds upon several iterations developed by SwRI staff over 10 years.
In 2024, SwRI developed a fluidized bed pilot plant that can produce 2.3 tons of clean hydrogen a year. The facility demonstrated circulating and bubbling bed capabilities that ran continuously for thousands of hours. Operating at precommercial temperatures and scales, SwRI is identifying solutions for solids transport and tackling challenges related to equipment lifetime prior to scale-up. These advancements will help support sustainable practices in the chemical industry and address feasibility issues surrounding clean hydrogen and carbon capture.
SwRI tests advanced chemical recycling processes for post-consumer recyclable (PCR) plastics in a newly designed facility. Exploring a variety of feedstocks from multiple industries, engineers are focusing on new solutions for clients interested in turning waste and difficult-to-recycle PCRs into something useful. Through pyrolysis, which heats organic materials without oxygen, and catalysis, which uses a catalyst to spark a chemical reaction, engineers are exploring how PCRs respond to various temperatures and recycling methods. The new facility is booked through the end of 2025.
Chemical engineers use a new SwRI facility to develop advanced chemical recycling processes to turn waste plastics into commercially useful materials.
The SwRI Center for Nuclear Waste Regulatory Analyses (CNWRA®) continues to support the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). In 2024, the CNWRA provided expertise and guidance on seismic hazards and structural engineering for the NRC as the regulatory body reviewed license applications for advanced nuclear power reactors proposed for the United States. The CNWRA offers evaluation and regulatory guidance for storing, transporting, processing and recycling fuels for tomorrow’s advanced nuclear reactors. The CNWRA also field-tested designs of intrusion barriers, including rolls of chain-link fence, granite boulders, tires embedded in grout, and five feet of reinforced concrete. The barriers are designed to deter near-surface drilling at low-level radioactive waste disposal facilities licensed to store waste with higher concentrations of radionuclides.
In international activities, SwRI-led seismic hazard assessments played a key role in the license extension process for the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station and a second proposed site in South Africa. SwRI staff served on safety review panels for the first-ever deep geologic repository of spent nuclear fuel, under construction in Finland. SwRI explored the chemical stability and effectiveness of barriers designed to isolate and contain nuclear waste over extended time frames for the Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority.
SwRI is developing manufacturing processes for tri-structural isotropic (TRISO) nuclear fuel, small robust particles that are intrinsically safer because they resist melting at high temperatures. TRISO is the fuel of choice for tomorrow’s advanced gas reactors. SwRI is conducting a comprehensive materials and process engineering study, considering state-of-the-art plant design and a production-ready rollout plan to provide a reliable TRISO supply chain to meet national and international demands.
We developed capabilities to install the Electric Power Research Institute’s (EPRI’s) radio frequency conductor monitors on power lines with a drone, which are presently installed by line crews, making the process more efficient and safer.
SwRI is collaborating with the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) to search for new domestic lithium supplies, a critical resource for battery systems used in electric vehicles. The project is studying lithium deposit formation through fieldwork, geological mapping and subsurface interpretation in support of conceptual model development to help meet pressing needs.
To bolster drinking water reserves in the American Southwest, SwRI developed a proof-of-concept process to produce clean drinking water using solar condensers and the “lake effect.” Researchers modeled the potential potable water that an artificial saltwater lake could yield, demonstrating the process at laboratory scales. Desert communities could one day utilize existing condenser technology and the evaporative effects of the Sun to desalinate brackish lake water as a potential source of drinking water.
Courtesy Dr. Hayley Cawthra/Council for Geosciences of South Africa
CNWRA staff traveled around the world to support nuclear regulatory efforts, shown here conducting seismic hazard assessments for a proposed
reactor site and a license extension in South Africa.
Using advanced modeling, scientists calculated the amount of water that new desalination techniques could produce from an artificial saltwater lake to develop drinking water for arid regions of the country.
To search for new domestic lithium resources, SwRI collaborated with UTD, conducting reconnaissance field work in North America’s only commercial production region for the raw material.