Project Selections for FOA 2614: Carbon Management (Round 5)

AREA OF INTEREST 1C. Non-Photosynthetic Biological Conversion of Carbon Dioxide (CO₂)

Elevating Sustainable Protein Production: High-Pressure Oxyhydrogen Technology for Commercial Readiness — Air Protein (San Leandro, California) intends to develop a technology to create a low-carbon-footprint protein ingredient. The project will consist of scaling up Air Protein’s previously developed oxyhydrogen fermentation platform and integrating the platform with an existing gas recycle system. This upgrade will reduce energy use and increase bioreactor productivity as well as the hydrogen yield. The protein ingredient produced by the technology will have lower water usage and land requirements than other protein sources and will eliminate reliance on agricultural resources and animal farming. The project will quantify impact of the technology at laboratory and pilot scales.

DOE Funding: $2,999,181
Non-DOE Funding: $1,534,542
Total Value: $4,533,723
 

An Oxyhydrogen Process for Biological Conversion of Anthropogenic CO₂ to Fatty Acids — Kiverdi (Pleasanton, California) intends to develop a microbial host for an oxyhydrogen bioprocess technology that will transform waste carbon from a variety of abundant, low-cost CO₂ feedstocks into value-added products in a clean, continuous process. The project will produce industrially important fatty acids by candidate oxyhydrogen organisms using feedstock containing a proportioned mixture of CO₂ and the expected industrial exhaust gases (such as nitrogen and carbon monoxide), with hydrogen supplied as an energy source. The project will test oxyhydrogen organisms for growth and fatty acid productivity on the anthropogenic CO₂ mixture. One of the two organisms will be chosen for further development based on a strain performance test done on the anthropogenic CO₂.

DOE Funding: $2,160,318
Non-DOE Funding: $540,123
Total Value: $2,700,441

AREA OF INTEREST 1D. Conversion of CO₂ to Plastics

Project ADAPT: Accelerating Decarbonization via Advanced Production Technologies: Anthropogenic CO₂ conversion to isopropanol, a precursor to propylene — LanzaTech Inc. (Skokie, Illinois) plans to advance new strains and gas fermentation process conditions for the conversion of CO₂ into isopropanol, a precursor to the propylene value chain of chemicals. The technology will contribute to a greenhouse gas savings of 200% on a cradle-to-gate basis and will significantly reduce particulate matter emissions, land use, and water use. The project team will conduct activities to increase awareness and access to the benefits of the production of isopropanol and propylene from industrial waste CO₂.

DOE Funding: $3,000,000
Non-DOE Funding: $834,467
Total Value: $3,834,467
 

Direct and Economical CO₂ to Polyethylene Conversion Using Flue Gas from Pulp and Paper Mills — Auburn University (Auburn, Alabama) intends to develop a process for the conversion of CO₂ to polyethylene using flue gas from the pulp and paper industry. The project will produce low-cost biocarbon from paper mill sludge and produce ethylene, which will replace petroleum-based ethylene to synthesize polyethylene. The developed technology will result in at least a 90% decrease in CO₂ emissions from the pulp and paper industry, with the potential to achieve total elimination of CO₂ emissions.

DOE Funding: $1,500,000
Non-DOE Funding: $375,417
Total Value: $1,875,417
 

Development of a Synergetic Process for Algae-based Non-isocyanate Polyurethane Production from CO₂ — Quasar Energy Group LLC (Independence, Ohio) intends to develop a technology that will convert CO₂ derived from industrial waste streams and algal biomass into non-isocyanate polyurethane (NIPU) for foam application via sustainable thermochemical pathways. The project will synthesize bio-epoxy monomer with epoxy on both the side and end chains of the algae oil. Anthropogenic CO₂ and the synthesized bio-epoxy monomers will be polymerized in the presence of a proprietary catalyst system to produce polycarbonate (PC)-cyclic carbon (CC) prepolymers. The PC-CC prepolymers will be converted to NIPU, which will demonstrate improved performance and reaction kinetics over current state-of-the-art materials for industrial applications.

DOE Funding: $1,500,000
Non-DOE Funding: $375,001
Total Value: $1,875,001

AREA OF INTERET 1E. Conversion of CO₂ to Solid Carbon Products

Conversion of CO₂ to Solid Carbon Products — TDA Research Inc. (Golden, Colorado), in collaboration with North Carolina State University, intends to develop a green and efficient process to produce graphitic carbon compounds (for instance, graphite, graphene and graphene oxides) from CO₂ captured from point sources or directly from ambient air. The CO₂ reduction process consists of a closed-cycle oxidation and reduction of a liquid metal, splitting CO₂ into a carbonaceous residue and oxygen gas. The redox process produces crystalline carbonaceous deposits (primarily graphite but also small amounts of graphene) with high yield.

DOE Funding: $1,500,000
Non-DOE Funding: $375,000
Total Value: $1,875,000
 

Converting CO₂ to Carbon Nanotubes via Tandem Thermocatalytic Processes — Washington University in St. Louis (St. Louis, Missouri) plans to develop a highly energy-efficient, low-carbon process to convert CO₂ to valuable high-quality carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and deliver a laboratory-scale, prototype system capable of producing 20 grams per day CNTs. The process will consist of converting CO₂ to one intermediate form and then converting the intermediate to CNTs. Any unreacted intermediate will be recycled. The produced CNTs will be systematically characterized and tested as potential anodes for lithium-ion batteries.

DOE Funding: $1,500,000
Non-DOE Funding: $375,423
Total Value: $1,875,423

AREA OF INTEREST 3E. Carbon Capture R&D for Electric Generation and Industrial Point Sources: Development of Enabling Technologies

Cost-Effective Cold Membrane Carbon Capture Enabled by Nitrogen Oxides Abatement — American Air Liquide Inc. (Newark, Delaware) plans to develop and qualify a nitrogen oxides abatement technology to enable cold membrane CO₂ capture from flue gases. Nitrogen oxides abatement is necessary because it leads to the degradation of capture media and is an Environmental Protection Agency criteria air pollutant. The project will culminate in a two-month demonstration of nitrogen oxides mitigation and carbon capture technologies using state-of-the-art gas processing test skids at Air Liquide’s Innovation Campus Delaware.

DOE Funding: $3,000,000
Non-DOE Funding: $750,000
Total Value: $3,750,000
 

Transformational Process for Flue Gas Purification and Improvement of Environmental Performance of CO₂ Capture — InnoSepra LLC (Middlesex, New Jersey) plans to demonstrate, at pilot scale, a flue gas purification process for the removal of acids, acid gases, and acid aerosols responsible for amine degradation and emissions. Using pilot test data, a techno-economic analysis, and life cycle analysis, the project will demonstrate that flue gas purification before CO₂ capture improves the functionality of the CO₂ capture solvent, reduces associated process emissions, and reduces costs related to CO₂ capture solvent make-up.

DOE Funding: $3,000,000
Non-DOE Funding: $750,000
Total Value: $3,750,000
 

Advanced Water Wash and Acid Wash Recovery as Enabling Technologies for Water-Lean Solvent — RTI International (Research Triangle Park, North Carolina) plans to test an acid wash recovery process to reduce amine emissions from a broad set of point-source CO₂ capture technologies, including aqueous amine and water-lean solvents. The project will demonstrate a greater than two-month operation of the acid wash recovery process applied to a pilot-scale solvent-based capture system while limiting amine emission concentrations to less than 1 ppm. The process will be an enabling technology for CO₂ capture solvents to successfully deploy and minimize the environmental impact from secondary emissions.

DOE Funding: $3,000,000
Non-DOE Funding: $750,000
Total Value: $3,750,000
 

UK IDEA Dual Loop CO₂ Capture for Flue Gas With Less Than 100 ppm CO₂ at Nucor Steel Gallatin — University of Kentucky Research Foundation (Lexington, Kentucky) plans to add a polishing CO₂ capture loop with hydrogen production to a post-combustion CO₂ capture technology. This project will focus on scaling up and demonstrating the polishing technology at the engineering scale on an existing aqueous-amine-solvent-based CO₂ capture unit installed at Nucor Steel Gallatin. The project will consist of design/construction of the polishing loop to integrate with the existing capture unit. The integrated capture system/polishing loop will then be tested and analyzed. An important component of the testing will be measurement of solvent/solvent-degradation-product emissions as well as measurement of criteria pollutants to quantify co-benefits of capture system installation.

DOE Funding: $3,000,000
Non-DOE Funding: $750,001
Total Value: $3,750,001
 

Emission Mitigation Technologies for Post-combustion CO₂ Capture at NCCC — University of Kentucky Research Foundation (Lexington, Kentucky) intends to test approaches at the National Carbon Capture Center (NCCC) to remove and capture volatile compounds (VCs), including organics and ammonia, produced from amine oxidative and thermal degradation, and capture and decompose stable nitrosamines generated from advanced solvents containing secondary amines. The project team will develop a database for secondary emissions at absorption exhaust and desorption outlets after condensation by gathering and characterizing various gas and liquid samples under static, cyclic, dynamic, and process upset operations. The VCs removal and capture unit and electrochemical-based nitrosamine destruction unit will be designed and built at a scale of five liters per minute.

DOE Funding: $3,000,000
Non-DOE Funding: $750,001
Total Value: $3,750,001