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By Sharryn Harvey, Online Editor, Power Engineering magazine
Cutting carbon emissions is a hot topic of discussion, with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency debating how they should handle power plant emission levels and the government wondering the same.
Some companies have developed carbon capture and sequestration technology that pulls carbon dioxide (CO2) out of flue stream gas and through a series of chemical reactions and injects it underground.
Carbon Sciences, a technology company based in California, is working on a process that takes CO2 and water and turns them into hydrocarbons used in everyday fuels like jet fuel and automobile gasoline. Could carbon capture and recycling replace CCS or is it just an additional tool in the fight against emissions?
When Carbon Sciences first started back in 2007, the focus was mostly on creating liquid portable fuels. Dr. Naveed Aslam, a chemist who was doing cancer research at the University of Houston, realized there was a way to turn carbon into a fuel through catalytic reactions. He joined Carbon Sciences as their Chief Technical Officer and the focus of the company changed to carbon recycling technology.
Byron Elton, president and CEO of Carbon Sciences, said the technology is really a scaled-down version of what Mother Nature already does. Plants absorb CO2 over time. When they die and are buried, the stored CO2 over millions of years mixes with water and creates hydrocarbons. We then use the hydrocarbons to create fuels like diesel, jet fuel and gasoline.
"We do the same thing in a controlled environment, but we're just speeding up the process" Elton said. "Our goal is to emulate the process and do it quickly and efficiently."
Unfortunately, the enzymes needed to do the reactions generally do not last long, work slowly and are expensive to replace. Elton also said that, since it is such a slow process, the volume of hydrocarbons produced for the price of the enzymes does not make the process commercially viable. However, Carbon Sciences created a nano-scale reactor where the enzymes can live longer than normal, and therefore create more hydrocarbons-- which means greater chances for fuel production. This could be the first step in making a large-scale version that could create large amounts of fuel for commercial use and sale.
"So the question is can we make it commercially viable?" Elton said. "We believe we can.
"There is a lot of work to be done," he continued. "We believe that our internal timetable-- and this is aggressive-- is that by this time next year, we will have a commercial package available."
Elton said the goal is to license the technology to large facilities, like coal-fired power plants that are looking for ways to cut emissions.
"From there, they can do what they want with the fuel," Elton said. "They will use it themselves or sell it."
It may be a while before they can sell profitable enough amounts of fuel. "It's probably another year before we begin producing copious amounts of fuel," Elton said. "That's an aggressive timetable when sequestration people think they're still about 10 years off."
With Elton predicting the technology could be available in the very near future, will carbon recycling give carbon capture and storage technology a run for its money?
There's a chance it could, Elton said. "Given the choice of either paying to sequester as opposed to turning it back into something valuable, most people would choose the latter," he said. "Why pay to hide it when you can take it and turn it back into something?"
But there's no reason why the two can't partner up. "There's enough CO2 for everybody," Elton said. "We'll probably stand side by side."
One thing that separates the two technologies, Elton said, is the overall cost effectiveness. "The capture part is going to be expensive for both technologies and there are a lot of questions for the sequestration part about if it's safe, what happens to the stored carbon during an earthquake," Elton said. "But, since plants use a lot of fuel, with this technology, they can make their own and then take some and sell it. This alternative is a more attractive one."
Critics question if this technology, like CCS, will really work but Elton said it's a win-win for many. "We have a way of taking a readily available feedstock and not borrowing money to use oil from countries we don't get along with," he said. "Even a skeptic would love the idea of a technology that makes its own fuel and is better for the environment."
Helping the environment is another reason Elton said Carbon Sciences came up with the carbon recycling technology.
"Our current energy situation is the largest in the world because we're demanding more energy as a globe and certainly as a country," Elton said. "In the next 20 years, demand for energy will be 50 percent higher than it is now."
An increase in energy equals an increase in CO2 emissions, Elton said.
"The amount of CO2 available is extraordinary," he said. "(Energy Secretary) Dr. Steven Chu said that, around the world annually, 6 billion tons of coal is used, which equals about 18 billion million metric tons of CO2 and that's just from the coal industry."
Elton said he believes the company's new carbon recycling technology will change the playing field. "If we are able to do this and bring it to the large marketplace, this technology is going to be the most powerful, sustainable technology available in the world," he said.
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