Technology
Carbon Emissions
Carbon emissions have been steadily rising since the 1900’s. We emitted 42 G tpy in 2019. In the past decades, we saw continual rise in global mean surface temperature, a rise in sea level by over half-foot and iceberg calving in Antarctica. These climatic patterns cause high local weather variation. This impacts the animal kingdom, and we are one of the impacted species. Examples are abound: wildfires in California, heavy flooding in Kentucky and Pakistan, and high coastal flood insurance. Given the large magnitude of carbon emissions, it makes sense to solve carbon reduction first and to accelerate innovation in this space.
Finer Grain view of carbon capture
In general, there are 5 C’s in carbon capture whether it is direct air capture or point capture. They are Collection, Concentration, Compression, Conversion, and Consumption. The first operation is to collect CO2 via chemisorption or physisorption in sorbents. The 2nd phase is to concentrate and regenerate the sorbent for reuse. The third operation is to compress (liquefy) the gases. The 4th phase is chemical conversion of CO2 into high value feedstock. This is called reactive capture. The last phase is consumption. For carbon storage, it is sequestration or mineralization. In reactive capture, the feedstock produced from CO2 is utilized in high-value durable products.
Collection
collect CO2 via chemisorption or physisorption in sorbents
Concentration
concentrate and regenerate the sorbent for reuse
Compression
compress (liquefy) the gases
Conversion
chemical conversion of CO2 into high value feedstock
Consumption
the feedstock produced from CO2 is utilized in high-value durable products
Core Technology
Nanomaterials
Our strategy in sorbent development for carbon capture is based on advanced nanomaterials engineering, specifically graphene oxide or carbon nanotubes (CNT), to be deployed in a modular process. Graphene is known to have high specific surface area, high selectivity for various pollutants and high mechanical and chemical stability. It is an ideal “filter” for CO2, N2O, CH4, and SO2. Past data on CNTs have shown similar effects. The product is a solid sorbent in pellet form. It is designed to be modular (small footprint), low energy of regeneration, and high regeneration cycles. This translates to low operating cost per use and retrofittable to existing businesses.
Our team has over 10 years of commercial experience in commercializing nanomaterials. More importantly, beyond product development bespoke to industry-specific applications, we have deep corporate experience in driving cost reduction. These two business processes will be executed simultaneously during scale up.
If you want to learn more, please contact us.