Advanced BioFuels USA

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Today, in part 2 of our series The Extraordinary remaking of Ordinary Things, let’s begin with a bit of news overlooked by the major news outlets last week, that Alberta-based Delta CleanTech acquired the CO2 capture and solvent reclaiming division and operating assets of HTC Extraction Systems and has focused its mission on CO2 capture and management, primarily serving fossil energy companies. The company raised $7.5M to expand its commercial capacity.

Another driver. The Globe and Mail reported on March 7, 2021 that the Alberta government intends to seek $30 billion in federal funding via spending or tax incentives over the next decade for large scale industrial carbon capture projects.

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(T)here are two major strands of innovation and one of them is direct air capture of CO2 from the atmosphere, generally funded through advanced R&D funds operated by governments and committed private investors; then, there’s CO2 capture from oil & gas operations, funded by oilcos eager to continue business operation and meet their statutory obligations on emissions. The arrival of government R&D funding on such a massive scale is a game-changer.

What’s at stake? Well, not much except the future of oil & gas, the Hydrogen Economy, the Climate, the continuation of boom times in the Western Canadian economy, and a Revolution in everyday materials. The last of which we’ll spend some time on later in this review.

First of all, let’s do some basic science and math, and look at how we produce CO2 when we make hydrogen from natural gas (primarily, methane). The stream reformation method goes like this (CH4 + H2O —> CO + 3 H2), and CO becomes CO2 this way (2CO + O2 —> 2CO2).

What happens if we capture all that CO2 and sequester it permanently in materials? Bottom line, making hydrogen from methane would be more carbon-friendly than using electrolysis to split water (with standard sources of power). Now, that’s interesting to oil & gas — and to fans of fossil sourcing everywhere.

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In Reversa’s curing process, CO2 contained within dilute flue gas streams (with no requirement for capture or purification) is permanently sequestered into the concrete. Together, these innovations enable concrete manufacturers to significantly reduce the carbon footprint of their products in a manner that increases profitability.

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Bottom line? While we are skeptical about the long-term prospects of CO2 injection into oil wells, since ultimately the economy is supposed to be turning away from petroleum exploration, injection into everyday materials such as concrete offers a market that is large and stable. We might think of better sources of CO2 than oil & gas operations — for example, cement production itself, or ethanol plants — but no one is more motivated or better capitalized than oil & gas operations. And, not just for hydrogen production. After all, when we combust natural gas for power we also produce CO2, and a lot of it.

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Bottom line, we need big applications. Limestone is one, it’s about 15 percent carbon and sixty percent oxygen, overall you can make limestone with roughly 44 percent of the content representing CO2. Blue Planet is working on a synthetic limestone technology. Otters are working on methanol or ethanol from CO2, and those are big markets, too. We need a lot of big apps, not a lot of small apps and not one or two big apps. We’ll be watching the extraordinary remaking or everyday things to see how we capture CO2 and then convert it to useful materials. DCT has taken a nice step in that direction. More on them, here.  READ MORE