CO2 CAPTURE PROJECT IN TEXAS RECEIVES INDUSTRY FUNDING

Farris Willingham
GHG Monitor
06/29/12

Skyonic Corporation has received $9 million from industry giants BP, ConocoPhillips, Northwater Capital and PVS Chemicals as part of a $35 million investment in its for-profit carbon capture project, the company announced this week. The Texas-based company will initiate construction this fall on a $125 million carbon capture facility at an existing cement plant that will use a patented industrial process to capture and mineralize CO2 to create profitable chemical products such as baking soda and hydrochloric acid. Centered at Capitol Aggregates Inc.’s cement plant in San Antonio, Texas, Skyonic’s patented SkyMine technology will capture heavy metals, acid gases and CO2 from the plant’s flue gas streams and convert them into chemical byproducts. Receiving an investment from “big players” in the gas and oil industries is a “huge vote of confidence” for Skyonic, company spokeswoman Stacy MacDiarmid told GHG Monitor. “It enables us to build our plant and move forward with our next-generation technologies,” MacDiarmid said. “You definitely need support from big friends.”

The commercial-scale project previously received a $28 million grant from the Department of Energy. It also garnered funding from private investors like venture capitalist Carl Berg and the construction and materials company Zachry Corp., which owns the Capitol Aggregates cement plant. Construction operations are expected to begin in September, with commercial operations slated for 2014. Construction was expected to begin last summer, but that work was delayed due to lack of funding, MacDiarmid said. She added that the funding from groups like BP and ConocoPhillips will help support the plant’s capital costs and other R&D work within the Skyonic. She said the company has most of the needed permits in place for the project.

Mineralization Process Is Expected to Create Profit

In addition to using a mineralization process that will create food-grade baking soda and other sellable chemical products for CO2, the SkyMine technology is also set to limit roughly 95 percent of the plant’s emissions of harmful pollutants such as mercury, SO2 and NOx. Skyonic CEO and Founder Joe Jones said the facility is expected to create a profit “quickly” because of the sale of chemical byproducts. In a previous interview with GHG Monitor, Jones said that mineralization technology is ideal for areas where geologic sequestration is impractical. “Mineralization can work on any plant, anywhere, any time,” he said. “That’s not necessarily true for all locations for geologic injection, where there often can be pipeline or liability issues.” He said that mineralization is also more profitable given that it has a lower energy penalty and a larger market potential for its byproducts than many other capture technologies.

MacDiarmid emphasized the potential benefits of commercial-grade testing of the technology. “This carbon capture project is significant because it’s the first commercial test of its kind,” she said. “We know that the process works, but now we have to prove that it works as a business. While we wait for [EPA’s] regulations to get passed, there’s still incentive for emitters to do something about CO2. There are a lot of interesting different technologies out there, but we absolutely think that the technology that we offer is going to be ultimately what puts a dent in our CO2 problem.”

Despite having the means to do enhanced oil recovery, Skyonic will not pursue the process initially, MacDiarmid said. “We certainly can because we make [hydrogen chloride],” she said. “It’s a definite possibility, but we’re not pursuing it yet. We wouldn’t be personally doing it because the plan for the plant is to sell the chemicals.” Skyonic has not yet released the list of companies that will purchase the chemical products from the plant.