North Haven, CT (February 19th, 2018) - Precision Combustion, Inc. (PCI) announced today that it has won a Department of Energy (DOE) SBIR Phase I grant to develop a novel process to produce valuable fuels and products from waste carbon dioxide (CO2) using excess renewable electricity, permitting carbon neutral or positive performance.
The flexible nature of PCI’s approach lends itself to accommodate intermittent renewable sources of energy, including wind- and solar-generated electrical power. PCI’s innovation will be applicable to a wide range of CO2 sources, including fossil fuel power plants, cement plants and other low- and high-volume industrial sources. This waste CO2 will be used to manufacture diesel and jet fuels and a range of chemicals, directly replacing petroleum-sourced products. PCI’s process utilizes renewable electricity, which is often produced in quantities well in excess of demand, providing improved load leveling and stability in power grids.
PCI’s technology converts carbon dioxide to usable fuels can be size-matched to the available local energy sources, enabling new CO2 markets and opportunities due to scale independent economics. If successful, PCI’s system, deployed at the emissions source, would set a new standard for state-of-the-art renewable fuels production, avoid the cost of CO2 transportation and sequestration, and offer an affordable system for on-site use after capture.
Having the flexibility to address both large and small-scale projects makes the proposed system much more practical than that of more conventional CO2 capture and conversion processes, which require intensive energy input and are typical not carbon neutral. Current solutions for CO2 to fuel conversion are unsuitable for smaller sources of CO2 due to their economic viability dependent upon large-scale production.
“Successful deployment of our technology will enable a wide range of industrial consumers and CO2 emitters to convert what otherwise would be waste into a financially viable product,” according to PCI’s Principal Investigator Dr. Jeffrey Weissman.
“The worldwide petroleum market is over $500 billion per year; the segment which will adopt CO2 utilization is speculative but undoubtedly substantial, as many manufacturing and industrial processes could implement this system within their existing facilities,” PCI President Kevin Burns adds. “The scientific and technical challenges are significant, but the payoff would result in an industry changing technology,”