OREANDA-NEWS. BG Brasil, a BG Group company, has co-founded the Gas Innovation Research Centre to increase natural gas in the region's future energy mix and to demonstrate the role of natural gas in helping to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.

Co-founded with the S?o Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), the Centre is the first institute of this kind dedicated to researching gas utilisation in the Latin America and the Caribbean region.

“This initiative was developed to invest in innovation in order to better understand how we can use natural gas today and in the future,” says Nelson Silva, CEO of BG South America. “This is an important part of the legacy of BG Brasil to Brazilian academia and industry.”

The centre is based at the Polytechnic School at the University of S?o Paulo. FAPESP will invest R$27 million (US$6.9 million) and BG Brasil will put R$30 million (US$7.6 million) into the project. The University of S?o Paulo will provide institutional and administrative support to the centre’s researchers.

Research at the centre will focus on engineering, physical chemistry, and energy policy and economics of natural gas as part of the wider energy system. Researchers will conduct work on low-carbon energy generation, increasing the use of natural gas as maritime fuel, minimising fugitive emissions of methane, advanced combustion of natural gas, use in fuel cells, conversion into raw materials for the chemicals industry, and the development of a natural gas supply chain for remote areas.

“We look forward to seeing this centre contribute to the development of new technologies to increase gas utilisation and improve energy efficiency. Natural gas is the cleanest-burning of the hydrocarbon fuels and we believe that it can play an important role in the Brazilian energy system.”

Adam Hillier BG Group's Chief Technology Officer

The centre’s research will be conducted in partnership with researchers at the University of S?o Paulo’s Polytechnic School, Energy and Environment Institute, the S?o Carlos Institute of Chemistry, and the Faculty of Law, along with S?o Paulo’s Nuclear Energy Research Institute (IPEN), and BG Brasil’s engineers.

The centre will also work with the Sustainable Gas Institute, a research partnership between Imperial College London and BG Group. The new collaboration will see researchers and students take part in an exchange programme, share information and research results, and participate in joint seminars, conferences and workshops.