Technology
CARBON CAPTURE TECHNOLOGY
How we remove carbon dioxide from the air
We are developing our technology to reach the 2050 IPCC’s 10 gigatonne per year carbon capture needs. That’s the equivalent of the CO2 absorbed every year by nearly 460 billion trees.
Biochar
Algae alone can't sequester carbon dioxide for thousands of years. But if heated to a high temperature without oxygen, it becomes biochar, a stable form of carbon that improves crop yields.
Algae Bioreactors
Algae can absorb CO2 400X more efficiently than trees, does not compete for cropland, and can easily be turned into profitable products.
Carbon Fiber
From the lipid oils of the algae grown, we can produce carbon fiber than is not only highly profitable, but carbon negative.
Biodiesel Production
We can produce carbon neutral diesel fuel that can be sold at the same price as petroleum-based diesel fuel as a byproduct of our carbon capture.
Agricultural Leftovers
Our process of converting algae biomass into solid, stable carbon and biofuels can also do the same with agricultural leftovers, increasing farm profitability and sequestering carbon dioxide.
Bio-oil
A byproduct of our reaction is oil that can be refined into everything from carbon neutral jet fuel to carbon negative plastive.
Wastewater Treatment
Our algae can clean up wastewater from municipalities and from fracking, creating a carbon-negative way to recycle water.
Biogas
We harness syngas created in the biochar production process so it can be turned to biogas, which can be burned for electricity. By capturing flue gases, this becomes carbon negative.
CARBON CAPTURE TECHNOLOGY
How we remove carbon dioxide from the air
We are developing technology to reach the 2050 IPCC’s carbon capture goal of 10 billion tonnes per year. That’s the equivalent of the CO2 absorbed every year by nearly 460 billion mature trees.
To achieve this, we’re copying lessons from nature, and securely storing the Earth’s excess CO2 in:
Soil
Through farming and other land use, humans have depleted the carbon content of soils around the world. We can replace this lost carbon, improving crop yields, boosting water retention, and sequestering CO2 at the same time. We create biochar, a biological charcoal-like material, by heating waste biomass in the absence of oxygen. For every tonne of biochar put in the soil, 2.7 tonnes of CO2 will be sequestered securely for over a century.
Rocks
By converting waste biomass into combustible gases, its possible to produce carbon-neutral power. This waste biomass would have decomposed and returned its carbon to the atmosphere anyway, so harnessing it for power is considered low-to-zero emissions. We not only produce these biogases, but we capture the CO2 coming off the process and convert it into carbonate minerals that will lock away the carbon for millions of years.
Wells
Climate change is occurring mainly because humans have removed sequestered carbon from underground, in the form of oil, and burned it. It seems appropriate that we return oil to the wells we extracted it from. We produce a crude, low-energy bio-oil that crystallizes underground, securely remaining for thousands of years.
Medusa System
We continue to develop and improve our proprietary carbon mineralization technology that can take CO2 from flue gases and turn it into stone. We can use this to make our biogases a source of carbon-negative power, capture and reduce emissions from fossil fuel power plants, and extract valuable metals like nickel and cobalt from the process.
Organic Waste Disposal
30% of municipal waste is organic, meaning that when landfilled it will likely decompose into methane, a greenhouse gas 86X more potent than CO2. Additionally, there are millions of tonnes of brush waste, tens of millions of tonnes of forestry waste, and billion of tonnes of crop residues produced every single year around the world. By harnessing this waste biomass and converting it into secured carbon, we reduce methane emissions and capture carbon dioxide.
Biofuel Production
Not all organic waste makes great biochar. For instance, food waste is so variable that it can’t be a consistently great feedstock. Waste like this goes through a process called Hydrothermal Liquefaction (HTL) which produces an oil that can be refined into biofuels and other positive byproducts. We use these fuels to reduce our emissions in our operations to have a greater net amount of carbon captured.
Anaerobic Digestors
Turning organic waste into biogas through anaerobic digestion is not a new concept. Typically within 30-60 days, organic waste becomes methane (the key component of natural gas), CO2, and compost. We can speed this process up to be completed in under a week, separate out the CO2, convert the methane into electricity and more CO2, then mineralize the carbon emissions so they become stable carbonates for millions of years. And yet another benefit: compost and biochar make a great mixture.
Vulcan System
Our ability to pyrolyze large amounts of biomass as quickly as possible is the key to scaling our carbon capture technology. Our proprietary Vulcan I allows for rapidly deployed, low-cost pyrolysis systems to produce large quantities of high-quality biochar, collect crude bio-oil, and capture biosyngas for power generation.