New flammable gas research facility under construction at Southwest Research Institute

(Press-News.org) SAN ANTONIO — May 20, 2025 — Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) will significantly expand its testing and research capabilities with a new hydrocarbon research facility. It will offer megawatt-scale testing of machinery and energy systems powered by hydrocarbons and other flammable gases. SwRI’s new 90,000-square-foot facility will evaluate a range of hydrocarbon machinery for efficiency, safety and durability.

The facility is designed for the safe use of flammable gases including hydrogen, hydrocarbons, organic fluids and refrigerants. Hydrocarbons like natural gas are organic compounds composed of hydrogen and carbon atoms and serve as a fundamental building block for many fuels, including petrochemicals. Some heat pumps also utilize advanced refrigerants including hydrofluorocarbons or ammonia. SwRI’s new hydrocarbon research facility will test machinery such as gas turbines, turbo compressors, reciprocating compressors, industrial heat pumps and many other systems that use these fluids in power generation or conversion applications.

“Natural gas provides over a third of the U.S. power supply and can be produced, stored and transported affordably relative to other sources of energy,” said Dr. Tim Allison, director of SwRI’s Machinery Department. “It significantly reduces carbon emissions in comparison to other fossil energy sources. Our new testing capabilities will facilitate technology development to improve the efficiency, emissions, reliability, affordability and safety of natural gas machinery and systems.”

The new facility will include three new buildings, including an open-sided facility for testing large machinery such as gas turbines, turbo compressors, reciprocating compressors and other rotating equipment for industrial process applications. Its 30-ton bridge crane supports handling and installation of heavy equipment on four dedicated machinery foundations rated up to 150 tons. The electrical and control building will provide up to 5 megawatts of electric power to support testing activities, including a dedicated control room with fiber-optic connections for fast data transfer across the facility. The third building will house steam and compressed air plants to facilitate advanced testing scenarios requiring compressed air or steam. Additionally, the facility will have a fuel yard to safely store and handle various flammable gases as well as overhead pipe racks to safely and efficiently dispose of waste gases.

SwRI will evaluate flammable gas-handling machinery for emerging applications including industrial heat pumps, turbomachinery-based heating, waste heat recovery, gas compression, gas-fired power generation, hydrogen compression and more. The Institute plans to use the facility to measure and improve the mechanical, aerodynamic, thermodynamic and emissions profiles of machinery and power systems to meet client requirements.

“Emerging technologies aimed at improving the reliability, affordability and emissions associated with electric power generation or industrial manufacturing utilize flammable gases like hydrogen, ammonia or various hydrocarbons as an energy source or working fluid,” Allison said. “Testing and validation are crucial to developing new systems, and SwRI’s ability to support emerging technologies benefits humankind by providing an independent, unbiased and industry-wide resource to enable these developments.”

Construction on the facility is underway and is expected to be completed in November 2025.

For more information, visit https://www.swri.org/markets/energy-environment/machinery.

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