PROJECT SELECTIONS FOR FOA 2614: CARBON MANAGEMENT (ROUND 4)
AREA OF INTEREST 1B. Biological Pathways Utilizing Algae to Convert Anthropogenic CO2 to Products
Algae-to-Asphalt: Sequestration of Anthropogenic CO2 in Roadway Constructions — Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of Arizona State University (Tempe, Arizona) plans to capture carbon dioxide (CO2) to produce algal biomass and convert that biomass into bio-asphalt products. The project integrates previous research at Arizona State University demonstrating efficient capture of anthropogenic CO2 into algal biomass at wastewater treatment plants with the use of algal biomass and bio-sludge wastes as feedstock for hydrothermal liquefaction. The high-carbon organic and solid phases yield a bio-asphalt with improved longevity and physical properties relative to petroleum. The integrated process has the potential to sequester up to 18,000 tons of CO2 per day in durable asphalt pavement. It also provides a sustainable approach to wastewater treatment plant bio-sludge disposal and a route to production of clean struvite fertilizer from the hydrothermal liquefaction aqueous fraction. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory will conduct life cycle analysis (LCA) and techno-economic (TEA) modeling to evaluate the entire process. The TEA modeling will include analysis of revenues from processing a side-stream of the algal biomass to yield high-value ketocarotenoid pigments to increase the economic returns from the combined products.
DOE Funding: $1,000,000
Non-DOE Funding: $250,017
Total Value: $1,250,017
AGILE: Algal GHG Reduction by Increasing CO2 Utilization and Lowering Emissions of Methane — Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois (Champaign, Illinois) intends to enhance the design of an existing algae cultivation system by lowering operation expenses and increasing cool season productivity. The prime applicant will demonstrate field-scale production of algae feed product and verify its ability to reduce cattle methane emissions in live animal feed study. The project will provide TEA and LCA modelling to confirm that full-scale revenues can exceed production costs, and the cattle feed market can support capture of an estimated 100 million tons of CO2 annually while also reducing CO2-equivalent and methane emissions by approximately 25% relative to current baseline alternatives.
DOE Funding: $999,949
Non-DOE Funding: $250,000
Total Value: $1,249,949
RECLAIM: Recycling Effluent and Carbon Dioxide Through Algae Based Innovative Materials — CLEARAS Water Recovery Inc. (Missoula, Montana) plans to expand the impact of the Advance Biological Nutrient Recovery systems to decarbonize municipal and industrial wastewater treatment facilities while producing commercially viable algae-based feedstocks for chemicals production that reduce the carbon impacts of existing feedstocks such as petroleum. CLEARAS proposes to reduce the greenhouse gas contributions of wastewater treatment facilities by capturing on-site CO2 from flue gas that is routinely vented for algae growth without negative impacts on growth. Current facilities use off-site produced CO2. The major participants are CLEARAS Water Recovery and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The RECLAIM process is designed for application at small- and medium-sized wastewater treatment facilities to improve wastewater treatment, reduce emissions, and increase investments and jobs to primarily rural areas.
DOE Funding: $999,667
Non-DOE Funding: $250,000
Total Value: $1,249,667
Algal Conversion of Flue Gas CO2 to Polymer Feedstock — Global Algae Innovations (San Diego, California) intends to develop and demonstrate an integrated open raceway algae cultivation and processing system for carbon capture and utilization to make polyurethane consumer products. The system captures CO2 from the flue gas of a naphtha-fired power plant located in Lihue, Kauai, Hawaii. Oil is extracted from the algae and used as feedstock for polyurethane production. The coproducts are protein concentrate as a food or feed ingredient; saturated fatty acids for use in soaps, detergents, cosmetics, lubricants and food processing; and omega-3 fatty acids as a food and feed ingredient. Global Algae Innovations has demonstrated the CO2 delivery, cultivation, and harvesting subsystems at engineering scale in a prior project. This project will advance the oil extraction subsystem to engineering scale and integrate it with the rest of the system. Global Algae has partnered with the University of California at San Diego and Algenesis, who have commercialized the conversion of algal to polyurethane consumer products at engineering scale and are currently working on a parallel project to further scale-up the algal oil-to-polyurethane process.
DOE Funding: $1,000,000
Non-DOE Funding: $250,000
Total Value: $1,250,000
CO2 Conversion to Products Using Algae — Helios-NRG LLC (East Amherst, New York) plans to leverage Helios-NRG’s multi-stage continuous algae-based process to transform anthropogenic CO2 emissions from brewery off-gas into algae biomass and subsequently validate its use in animal feeds. The project will develop enhanced poultry and aquatic feeds using the algae biomass as a blend ingredient. The project will identify optimal algae species, culturing methods, and processing conditions to maximize the feeds’ nutritional value. The team intends to (1) formulate and manufacture the algae-blended feeds, (2) perform in-vivo digestibility studies, (3) conduct field trials to validate the practical use and benefits of the algae-blended feed on fish and chicken growth and quality, (4) demonstrate reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and (5) assess the technical and economic viability of the algae-based carbon capture and conversion technology to produce the value-added feed products. The potential impacts of the proposed project are reduced CO2 emissions from single-point source industries with large CO2 footprints, sustainable use of algae components in the rapidly growing fish and chicken feed markets compared to current practices, and avoidance of competition with food crops by enabling algae cultivation on nonarable land with minimal water consumption due to recycling.
DOE Funding: $999,024
Non-DOE Funding: $249,817
Total Value: $1,248,841
Production of Plant Fertilizers and Bioproducts with Nitrogen-fixing Cyanobacteria — MicroBio Engineering Inc. (San Luis Obispo, California) intends to develop a novel agricultural technology based on cultivating nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria (microalgae) for use in commercial bioproducts ranging from organic fertilizer, crop and soil biostimulants, and higher-value pigment extraction. This project seeks to leverage experts in microalgae genomics, outdoor cultivation, and feasibility studies to determine pathways to a scaled-up production process capable of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by more than 25% while staying commercially competitive compared to conventional fertilizer. Simulated lab-scale cultivation will select for ideal algae strains with high growth rates and productivities to be grown with simulated flue gas CO2 in indoor and outdoor raceway cultivation trials. The team will harvest the biomass with simple screens and settling, then dry or stabilize it for bioproduct conversion and comparison by Heliae. The results of the cultivation experiments will determine CO2 utilization efficiencies as well as projections for scale-up costs, greenhouse gas reductions, and environmental and social impacts.
DOE Funding: $1,000,000
Non-DOE Funding: $250,000
Total Value: $1,250,000
AREA OF INTEREST 3D. Decarbonization of Industrial Processes Using Oxygen-Based (Oxy-combustion and Chemical Looping) Approaches
Sustainable Aromatics Manufacturing from Methane via Oxidative Coupling and Aromatization — Catalytic and Redox Solutions LLC (Cary, North Carolina) plans to implement an oxidative coupling-dehydroaromatization (OC-DHA) process that partially oxidizes methane into ethane and ethylene, followed by conversion into easily transported aromatic liquids. The efficiencies of the high single-pass aromatic yield and autothermal operation enabled by chemical looping oxygen carrier materials can reduce carbon emissions by 65% before any additional abatement technology. All CO2 is generated in the process gas stream allowing for either easy carbon capture and sequestration or, more ideally, conversion back to light hydrocarbons for added yield and nearly 100% CO2 emissions reduction. Specific project goals include development of a refined process model for the conceptual plant design and base comparison cases, confirming screening results of greater than 20% cost reduction compared to typical DHA with an aromatic cost of less than $0.80/kg, confirming the ability to achieve greater than or equal to 95% CO2 emissions reduction for aromatic production, and developing a gap analysis of the OC-DHA system and planning of a phase 2 research plan.
DOE Funding: $250,000
Non-DOE Funding: $78,060
Total Value: $328,060
Rotary Lime Kiln Oxy Fuel Retrofit — Electricore Inc. (Valencia, California) intends to perform the conceptual design of an oxyfuel combustion system for the retrofitting of existing rotary lime kilns that will enhance energy efficiency and reduce the carbon emissions of lime production. The proposed technology is based on the retrofit of rotary lime kiln technology using partial oxyfuel combustion and flue gas recirculation to increase the CO2 concentration of the kiln flue gases, with the aim of decreasing the cost of capturing the CO2 generated in the lime production process. By performing the combustion using enriched oxygen air, this innovative calcination process reduces the dilution of the CO2 in the flue gases with nitrogen. A higher CO2 concentration in the flue gases significantly reduces the cost of capturing the CO2 and purifying it to the specifications required for pipeline transport, sequestration or utilization.
DOE Funding: $250,000
Non-DOE Funding: $62,500
Total Value: $312,500
Chemical Looping Splitting of CO2 and H2O for Syngas Production and Oxidative Coupling of Methane for Producing Ethylene at Intermediate Temperatures — Kansas State University (Manhattan, Kansas) plans to design, analyze and validate a novel bifunctional chemical looping concept that utilizes a perovskite-based oxide as an oxygen carrier, which can be employed to produce chemicals and mitigate CO2 emissions in both reduction and oxidation steps. In the oxidation step, the perovskite oxide is re-oxidized by taking the oxygen from CO2 and water molecules while producing syngas. In the reduction step, the re-oxidized oxide is exposed to methane, which is converted to ethylene via oxidative coupling of methane. The objectives of this project are to achieve highly efficient chemical synthesis by valorizing methane, CO2, and water, mitigating emissions.
DOE Funding: $250,000
Non-DOE Funding: $62,500
Total Value: $312,500
Sustainable Ethylene via Chemical Looping – Oxidative Dehydrogenation — North Carolina State University (Raleigh, North Carolina) intends to demonstrate its chemical looping–oxidative dehydrogenation (CL-ODH) technology for sustainable and cost-effective ethylene production. The proposed phase 1 work will focus on in-depth TEA and LCA based on the experimental performance of a new generation of catalysts and detailed design of all the relevant unit operations in CL-ODH. In collaboration with SABIC, this project will verify a clear pathway for cost-effective, net-zero production of ethylene to prepare for Phase 2 experimental tasks and the follow-on scale-up and commercialization efforts. The proposed work aims to thoroughly verify the emission and cost savings enabled by CL-ODH.
DOE Funding: $249,998
Non-DOE Funding: $62,759
Total Value: $312,757
Integrating Biomass Chemical Looping for Decarbonizing Iron and Steel Industry with Complete CO2 Capture — The Ohio State University (OSU) (Columbus, Ohio) plans to decarbonize iron production in a direct reduction of iron (DRI) plant by integrating the Biomass Chemical Looping (BCL) technology for syngas generation from carbon-neutral biomass feedstocks with in-situ carbon capture. Iron, an essential precursor in the production of steel, is conventionally produced using the MIDREX® process and contributed 8% of industrial emissions in 2018. OSU’s chemical looping-based three reactor-BCL process is a disruptive technology that can overcome the challenges of conventional biomass gasification techniques by implementing two moving bed reducer reactors and the propriety iron-based oxygen carriers that utilize their lattice oxygen for feedstock gasification. This pathway allows for generating high-quality syngas from carbon neutral biomass feedstock while enabling complete carbon capture, significantly decreasing the system’s overall carbon footprint.
DOE Funding: $249,711
Non-DOE Funding: $64,256
Total Value: $313,967
Gas Switching Reforming for Clean Hydrogen Production with CO2 Capture (GSR) — The University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa, Alabama) intends to accelerate the development of gas switching technologies by developing a business case for further technology development. Gas switching technology offers a promising alternative to chemical looping applications for hydrogen production with integrated CO2 capture. To maximize efficiency, these processes need to operate at elevated pressures, creating serious scale-up challenges for interconnected chemical looping reactors. Gas switching reactors, on the other hand, use standalone bubbling/turbulent fluidized beds that are alternatively fed with oxidizing and reducing gases. This reactor configuration can be scaled up and pressurized without facing unforeseen challenges.
DOE Funding: $248,626
Non-DOE Funding: $62,474
Total Value: $311,100
Near-Zero Carbon Direct Iron Production From Industrial Waste Using Chemical Looping with Hydrogen Co-Production — University of Kentucky (UK) Research Foundation (Lexington, Kentucky) plans to utilize a hydrogen and direct iron coupled chemical looping process comprising three main unit operations, including the air reactor, fuel reactor and direct iron producer, which are based on fluidized bed technology for gasification/hydrogen production and include thermal integration for cost-savings. UK’s Institute for Decarbonization and Energy Advancement cost-effective red mud oxygen carrier is abundant and currently disposed of as a waste product in the bauxite aluminum production process. The red mud oxygen carrier is circulated and upgraded between reactors with only air, steam, and natural gas as feedstock to produce hydrogen and direct reduced iron (DRI). To develop an effective DRI system, three Phase 1 project objectives are targeted, including (1) high-fidelity analysis and process modeling on developing a process plus auxiliaries for producing DRI and hydrogen with in-situ CO2 separation, (2) demonstration of the effectiveness of heat integration for the air reactor and turbomachine compressor for fuel reactor autothermal operation, performance optimization and reaction kinetic enhancement, and (3) performance of a preliminary assessment on costing, engineering economics, life cycle, community benefits and environmental health and safety.
DOE Funding: $249,989
Non-DOE Funding: $62,730
Total Value: $312,719
Decarbonization of the Recycled Paper Industry via Staged Pressurized Oxygen-Combustion — Washington University in St. Louis (St. Louis, Missouri) intends to utilize a staged, pressurized, oxy-combustion technology for decarbonizing steam processes. The process offers (1) high-efficiency through staging and latent heat recovery; (2) near-zero emissions through 95% or higher CO2 capture efficiency; (3) ability to fire with biomass as well as natural gas or coal; (4) small modular boilers and pollutant removal units that can be fabricated in-shop and assembled on-site, further reducing plant capital costs; and (5) integration with energy storage via liquid oxygen storage and use of curtailed electricity from wind and solar. The expected outcome of this project will be an economically optimized conceptual design for a commercial-scale, pressurized oxy-combustion biomass-fired plant, with specific emphasis on the paper industry.
DOE Funding: $250,000
Non-DOE Funding: $62,566
Total Value: $312,566