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Learning To Love CO2 | November 16, 2015 Issue - Vol. 93 Issue 45 | Chemical & Engineering News
19/10/16 19'46
But because it doesnt rely on fossil fuels, CCU could be a more sustainable
way of making chemicals and other materials. It could also play an
important role in energy storage by harnessing excess renewable energy,
such as that from wind turbines on a blustery day, and, in effect, storing it
in the form of chemicals or fuels.
A growing number of chemical processes that use waste CO2 have hit the
market or are getting ready to launch. If a step up in public funding for
R&D were to combine with sympathetic government policies, CCU could
quickly overcome cost hurdles and move from niche to mainstream,
proponents say. And a policy shift could be triggered as early as December
at the United Nations climate summit in Paris if participating nations
agree to stringent controls on CO2 emissions.
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Learning To Love CO2 | November 16, 2015 Issue - Vol. 93 Issue 45 | Chemical & Engineering News
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to make foam mattresses. The process uses another intermediate that can
be derived from methanol, which in the future could also be made from
waste CO2, Covestro says.
The facility is set to cost about $17 million. The new process will be
economically viable once it is at commercial scale, insists Christoph
Grtler, who manages the project.
Covestro is also developing variants of the CO2-consuming reaction to
make other polymers, including materials made from unsaturated
polyethercarbonate (PEC) polyols. PEC, for example, can be used to
produce cross-linked films that are resistant to solvents, Grtler says. Its
a new class of material.
The Covestro plant will be an example of what can be achieved and should
inspire other firms, says Grtler, who predicts that additional CO2-based
processes will emerge across the chemical industry. CO2 will become a
reasonable and profitable raw material, he says.
Although Covestro is breaking new ground, it is hardly the first company to
convert CO2 into useful chemicals. The Kolbe-Schmitt synthesis for
producing salicylic acid using CO2 is more than 150 years old. And sodium
bicarbonate has long been produced by reacting CO2 and sodium
carbonate.
But the largest-volume CO2-based reaction is the Bosch-Meiser process,
which combines CO2 and ammonia to make urea. It was introduced in
1922. About 100 million metric tons per year of urea is produced today
using the process, consuming roughly an equal amount of CO2.
A more sustainable version of the Bosch-Meiser process may soon be
introduced on the island of Shapinsay, near the north coast of Scotland.
Assisted by project partners that include the University of Sheffield, the
islands 300 inhabitants plan to use excess energy generated by their wind
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Learning To Love CO2 | November 16, 2015 Issue - Vol. 93 Issue 45 | Chemical & Engineering News
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Unlike the Shapinsay project, for which electricity will be free, Sunfire will
have to pay for electricity to make hydrogen. In general, von Olshausen
expects that CO2-based fuels will always be more costly than fossil fuels
and require financial support. If we dont have regulation to support
renewable fuels, then we wont have a business case, he says bluntly.
The cost of making hydrogen is a wrench in the business case of the Dutch
CCU start-up Antecy. It plans to react waste CO2 with hydrogen generated
from the photovoltaic-powered electrolysis of water to make methanol.
But if Antecy is to come close to matching the price of standard methanol,
it will have to cut its electrolyzer costs by a factor of two or three, says Timo
Roestenberg, the firms R&D manager. Antecy doesnt yet have that
technology. If the cost doesnt go down, then what are we going to do? I
know that is not a good answer, Roestenberg says.
CCU firms that plan to generate hydrogen face a formidable challenge,
according to Mar Prez-Fortes, a postdoctoral researcher for the Joint
Research Centre, a research unit of the European Commission (EC).
Primarily as a result of energy costs associated with water electrolysis, CCU
methanol would cost more than $1,500 per metric ton, she calculates,
compared with about $400 via the standard natural-gas-based route.
Similarly, producing a metric ton of formic acid via a CO2-based route
would cost $2,900, versus $745 via the petrochemical route, she says.
The only solution is to have electricity at price zero, Prez-Fortes says.
More R&D is required, coupled with renewable energy.
[+]Enlarge
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Learning To Love CO2 | November 16, 2015 Issue - Vol. 93 Issue 45 | Chemical & Engineering News
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ICELANDIC OPTION
CRI uses low-cost geothermal and hydro energy in Iceland to profitably turn waste CO2 into
methanol.
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It wont have the low-cost energy of Iceland and it wont be profitable, but
on the basis of the wholesale price of energy in Germany in 2014, the
Lnen plant would have broken even for 70% of the year, says Benedikt
Stefnsson, CRIs business development director. And when a European
law comes into effect in 2020 that requires 10% of transport fuel to be
derived from renewable sources, CRI expects to be in a strong competitive
position.
Bedford, Mass.-based start-up Joule Unlimited has a radically different
technology for making fuels and chemicals based on photosynthetic
cyanobacteria. The process doesnt require splitting water to generate
hydrogen, yet Joule still expects to need government intervention if it is to
bridge the gap from demonstration phase to commercial success.
Joules technology involves pumping engineered cyanobacteria in
transparent tubes so they can convert sunlight, waste CO2, and nonpotable
water directly into fuels such as ethanol and kerosene, or into C12 fatty
acids similar to those derived from palm or coconut oil.
No sugars or chemical additives are used to make the fuels, which are
separated from the water by distillation. We are trying to industrialize
photosynthesis, says Kees van der Kerk, the firms director of business
development.
Joule has a team of 135 employees and a demonstration facility in Hobbs,
N.M., that consumes CO2 emissions from a cement factory. The firm plans
to open a 1,000-acre facility in 2017. We are very confident that we will be
commercial in two years, van der Kerk says.
Joule has raised $200 million in private equity and venture debt financing.
At this point, however, the firms technology is uncompetitive. Joule
estimates that its first commercial plant will produce fuels for $3.00 to
$8.00 per gal, compared with $1.50 per gal via traditional routes. So we
need some kind of bridging finance, van der Kerk acknowledges.
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Down the road, chemistry can also provide cost-effective CCU technologies
that avoid the need for hydrogen, argues Michael North, professor of
chemistry at the University of York.
U.S. academics solar mat aims to become the complete solution
[+]Enlarge
SYNTHETIC LEAF
Lewiss experimental technology converts solar energy along with water
vapor and CO2 from the air to generate useful chemicals.
Credit: Joint Center For Artificial Photosynthesis
A researcher at the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis in Pasadena,
Calif., is developing the ultimate solution to the problem of CO2: a solarpowered mat that takes CO2 and water vapor from the air and converts
them directly into useful chemicals or fuels.
Nathan S. Lewis, principal investigator and a professor of chemistry at
California Institute of Technology, has been working on the process for
almost five years. We need to do what nature does and use the biggest
energy sourcesunlight, Lewis says.
Using lessons from photosynthesis, Lewiss team has developed a polymer
mat made of a silicone or a fluoropolymer into which is fixed a grasslike
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Learning To Love CO2 | November 16, 2015 Issue - Vol. 93 Issue 45 | Chemical & Engineering News
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volumes of CO2, they claim, could be stored for long periods by locking it
up in mineral blocks used in construction.
U.K. start-up Carbon8 Aggregates has already commercialized a method of
making building aggregates using waste CO2. And the business is
profitable, according to Managing Director Paula Carey.
Carbon8 combines CO2 with waste residues, including ash from municipal
incinerators and energy plants. Under tightly controlled reaction
conditions, the CO2 is rapidly absorbed by the residues in the presence of
water to form calcium carbonate.
The calcium carbonate is then mixed with fillers and binders to produce
pellets in a drum pelletizer where more CO2 is added to carbonate the
binder. Most of these pellets end up in blocks used in building and
construction.
In addition to generating sales from its final product, Carbon8 is able to
charge suppliers of its waste residues up to $190 per metric ton, which is
less than they would have to pay to put their material in landfills.
Carbon8 currently treats 25,000 metric tons of residues and consumes
2,000 metric tons of CO2 per year at a facility in Brandon, England. The
CO2 is purified from the waste stream of a sugar beet factory 20 miles from
the Carbon8 plant.
Ironically, CO2 represents 25% of Carbon8s costs. It is very expensive as
we have to buy high-purity CO2. We cannot liquefy impure gas, Carey
says.
The firm is about to commission a new plant near Bristol, England, that
will treat 40,000 metric tons of residues and consume 4,000 metric tons of
CO2. Carbon8 is planning three more sites in the U.K. in the next two
years. We have also had a lot of interest from outside the U.K., including
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