Photo by: Reuters
TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Canadian enzyme-enabled carbon-capture technology innovator CO2 Solutions and US emissions-control solutions provider Neumann Systems Group (NSG) this week announced “breakthrough” results for their collaboration efforts, resulting in the partners moving construction of their proposed pilot facility in Colorado Springs forward by half a year.
The two companies in June inked a collaboration agreement to demonstrate combining their two proprietary technologies on a pilot scale to capture carbon dioxide (CO2) from industrial effluent gases.
On Monday, the firms reported that initial testing had demonstrated the technologies to be compatible and synergetic.
In recent tests, the enzyme-based solvent operating in NSG’s NeuStream system achieved CO2 capture efficiency comparable with some of the better amines. This kinetic performance, when combined with the energy-efficient properties of the enzyme-based process, was expected to deliver substantially lower operating costs relative to the best amine-based CO2 capture systems.
The enzyme-based solvent is also more environmentally sustainable compared with conventional amines as it eliminates carcinogenic aerosols and other amine-related pollutants. Further, through significantly reduced equipment sizing, the NeuStream system provides low capital costs and a much smaller system footprint.
Because of these results, CO2 Solutions and NSG had decided to accelerate preparations to operate a pilot facility in Colorado Springs to capture about 10 t/d of CO2. The pilot, originally expected to take place in April 2015, would now start in October.
“These results demonstrate how our two technologies complement each other and can deliver a truly low-cost solution for CO2 capture and regeneration systems. Because of this, we have decided to accelerate our previously announced pilot project,” NSG president and CEO Dave Neumann said.
CO2 Solutions president and CEO Evan Price added that the partners saw a number of significant business opportunities for CO2 capture and regeneration, such as enhanced oil recovery, which it intended to pursue jointly with NSG once the pilot demonstration of the combined solution had been successfully concluded.
“Advancing the pilot start date by six months brings us even closer to providing our technology to these promising markets,” Price added.