NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE: tech innovators stalk a stealthy WMD

April 24, 2017 | Jim Lane

You may be familiar with the story-telling factoid couplets of the Harper’s Index, and here’s an interesting set in that magazine’s iconic style:

Concentration of sarin (nerve gas) required for fatal human toxicity: 0.0028%
Concentration of deadly chemicals in the earth’s lower atmosphere if all the world’s stockpile of chemical weapons were simultaneously released: 0.0000000000013240774%

Concentration of CO2 in the earth’s atmosphere that would trigger catastrophic climate change: 0.06%
Concentration today: 0.04%
Concentration in 2050 with “business as usual” conditions: 0.06%

Now, the elimination of chemical weapons held by unfriendlies was the proximate cause of the 2003 Gulf War and the invasion of Iraq. Yet. there’s no comparable sense of urgency, finance, or political unity in the war of carbon.

The skewing of risk perception

What’s an explanation? Psychology Today had this to say about the mechanisms of fear back in 2008:

After 9/11, 1.4 million people changed their holiday travel plans to avoid flying. The vast majority chose to drive instead. But driving is far more dangerous than flying, and the decision to switch caused roughly 1,000 additional auto fatalities, according to two separate analyses comparing traffic patterns in late 2001 to those the year before. In other words, 1,000 people who chose to drive wouldn’t have died had they flown instead.

The magazine noted:

Fear hits primitive brain areas to produce reflexive reactions before the situation is even consciously perceived. Because fear strengthens memory, catastrophes such as earthquakes, plane crashes, and terrorist incidents completely capture our attention. As a result, we overestimate the odds of dreadful but infrequent events and underestimate how risky ordinary events are. The drama and excitement of improbable events make them appear to be more common.

One way to think about carbon build-up is that it is the most successful stealth technology ever deployed against civilization. Actual stealth technology defeats radar. This technology — carbon emissions technology’s consequences, that is — is so powerful that when it is defeated by early-warning detection, we dismantle the alarms when they go off.

Attacking the Silent Stalker: The XPRIZE contestants

Like nerve gas, CO2 is a silent killer — and all the more insidious because it builds up slowly, like the slow strangulation of a boa constrictor as opposed to the faster death from snake bite toxins.

Among the climate warriors fighting CO2 build-up, perhaps the most ambitious are those who are seeking to use CO2 to make industrial materials, fuels or chamiclas — displacing the need to use oil or gas out of the ground, in addition to utilizing waste emissions that would go the the sewer in the sky.

Around the world this year, 25 teams have advanced to the semi-finals of the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE competition, which aims to reward the pioneers who most effectibvely do just that. Recycle and re-use.

Tough Demonstration Criteria

Over the next several months, the teams will have to demonstrate a real working device, run it in a lab, based on handling at least 200 kilograms of flue gas per day.

So, they have to demonstrate that they can capture flue gas, clean it and concentrate it as needed for their process, and then convert to a fuel, chemical, or material.

The top 10 teams will advance to a final in which they will have 2 years of access to an integrated test center (one is in Gilette, Wyoming and one is in Calgary, Alberta), in which at least 9 months will be “on the clock” and during that time they will have to demonstrate 150 days of uptime, and at least 30 days of continuous uptime, and the ability to handle 2 tons of flue gas per day.

“We think carbon capture itself is a huge topic,” Dr. Marcius Extavour, Director of Technical Operations for the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE told The Digest. Accordingly, the scoring is, “evenly divided between the highest percentage sequestered and the highest valuable product.”

In the semi-finals, the teams will be using any source of flue gas they can simulate or acquire — so long as the composition is right — but in the finals, Extavour explained, they will plugging into real power plant. “They will have to deal with real-world conditions,” he said.

The 25 semi-finalists

Competition Track A (coal) includes 12 teams creating technologies for use at a coal power plant:

Aljadix (Switzerland) – Led by Thomas Digby, the team is producing carbon negative biofuel.
Breathe (India) – Led by Sebastian Peter, the team is producing methanol.
C4X (China) – Led by Wayne Song, the team is producing methanol and bio-composite boards.
Carbon Capture Machine (Scotland) – Led by Mohammed Imbabi, the team is producing solid carbonates.
Carbon Cure (Canada) – Led by Jennifer Wagner, the team is producing enhanced concrete.
Carbon Upcycling Technologies (Canada) – Led by Apoorv Sinha, the team is producing graphitic nanoparticles.
Carbon Upcycling UCLA (United States) – Led by J.R. DeShazo, the team is producing 3D-printed concrete replacement building material.
EE-AGG (United States) – Led by Mark Edelman, the team is producing methanol.
Innovator Energy (United States) – Led by Ethan Novek, the team is producing syngas and acetic acid.
Low-Energy-Consumption CO2 Capture and Conversion (United States) – Led by Maohong Fan, the team is producing fuels and chemicals.
Opus 12 (United States) – Led by Etosha Cave, the team is producing plastics, fertilizers, and gasoline.
Terra COH (United States) –Led by Jimmy Randolph, the team is producing energy storage and retrieval, and electricity generation.

Competition Track B (natural gas) includes 21 teams creating technologies for use at a natural gas power plant:

C2CNF (United States) – Led by Stuart Licht, the team is producing carbon nanotubes.
Carbicrete (Canada) – Led by Yuri Mytko, the team is producing carbon-negative construction blocks.
Carbon Cure (Canada) – Led by Jennifer Wagner, the team is producing enhanced concrete.
Carbon Upcycling Technologies (Canada) – Led by Apoorv Sinha, the team is producing graphene nanoplatelets.
Carbon Upcycling UCLA (United States) – Led by J.R. DeShazo, the team is producing 3D-printed concrete replacement building material.
CAT.ALY.ST (United States) – Led by Stafford Sheehan, the team is producing biofuels.
CERT (Canada) – Led by Ted Sargent, the team is producing formic acid.
CO2 Solutions (Canada (TSX-V: CST)) – Led by Dr. Louis Fradette, the team is producing a high-value bioproduct.
Dimensional Energy (United States) – Led by Jason Salfi, the team is producing hydrocarbon fuels.
EE-AGG (United States) – Led by Mark Edelman, the team is producing methanol.
Hago Energetics (United States) – Led by Wilson Hago, the team is producing gas and liquid fuels.
Ingenuity Lab (Canada) – Led by Carlo Montemagno, the team is producing dihydroxyacetone (DHA) and other chemicals.
Innovator Energy (United States) – Led by Ethan Novek, the team is producing syngas and acetic acid.
Low-Energy-Consumption CO2 Capture and Conversion (United States) – Led by Maohong Fan, the team is producing fuels and chemicals.
Newlight (United States) – Led by Mark Herrema, the team is producing polymers.
Pond Technology’s Carbon Cyclers (Canada) – Led by Peter Howard, the team is producing biodiesel and solid biofuel.
Protein Power (United States) – Led by Lisa Dyson, the team is producing high-protein fish food.
RES Kaidi (United States) – Led by Mark Robertson, the team is producing dimethyl ether (DME) for chemical feedstock or fuel.
Tandem Technical (Canada) – Led by Jerry Flynn, the team is producing health supplements, toothpaste, paint and fertilizers.