Its processing plant will test Cool Energy’s gas sweetening technology – CryoCell – and Woodside’s new gas dehydration technology, which aims to remove water from natural gas streams. According to Cool Energy managing director Jessie Inman, the Woodside technology offers operating and cost advantages over existing molecular sieve dehydration technology.

Shell Global Solutions International of The Hague will provide advice and assistance to Cool Energy during the CryoCell testing period. Shell Technology Ventures is a significant shareholder in Cool Energy.

Cool Energy plans to test the gas dehydration technology initially for about four weeks before adding the CryoCell technology in series, Inman told EnergyReview.net.

Inman said she was confident Woodside's dehydration technology would work well, but Cool Energy also had a conventional molecular sieve system in place as a back-up so that testing of CryoCell could proceed regardless.

The CryoCell system removes carbon dioxide (CO2) from natural gas streams as a liquid that can be readily used for geosequestration or miscible flood enhanced oil recovery, Inman said.

The tests will involve a wide range of process conditions, maximising the amount of data gathered to determine optimum operating parameters and configuration for commercial use.

“The success of the tests for the gas dehydration plant and the CryoCell will determine the optimum conditions the company will seek for its first commercial plant,” Inman said.

“The field trial will also provide live data to analyse all aspects of the technology including those that may need further research and development.”

CryoCell has the potential to unlock previously uneconomic gas reserves due to a high CO2 content and help to meet rising energy demand, and once it had been proved onshore it could be used to exploit previously uncommercial giant offshore gas fields, according to Inman.

“Cool Energy is aiming to complete the trials of the gas dehydration and CO2 removal plant and begin a commercial project by the end of the year,” she said.

“We are looking for onshore high-CO2 fields where we can work with the operators to sweeten the gas.”

CryoCell was superior to existing amine-based gas sweetening technology in that it required a smaller plant and costs were inversely proportional to the size of the gas resource and the percentage of CO2 in the gas stream, whereas amine systems costs were linear.

“CryoCell becomes cost-competitive at above 10% CO2,” she said. “At 15% CO2, it is 25% cheaper than amine.”

Both technologies were developed at Western Australia’s Curtin University of Technology. The Australian Government is providing financial assistance for the CryoCell through an AusIndustry Innovation Grant.

After completion of all of the tests, the results will be analysed in the third and fourth quarter of 2006.