Iowa Team Reimagines What Can Be Done with CO2 Waste
(Boone, IA) An Iowa-led collaboration of rural investors, business leaders and engineering companies called the EE-AGG Team, today announced that it has been named as one of the 27 teams advancing in the $20M NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE, a global competition to develop breakthrough technologies that convert the most carbon dioxide emissions from coal and natural gas power plant facilities into products with the highest net value.
The EE-AGG Team is a private
sector venture that includes investors from Iowa, Texas, Kansas, and Arkansas. The Team is coordinated by agricultural
economist and university professor Dr. Mark Edelman of Boone, Iowa; and
includes John Wooley, Earth Energy business executive from Austin, Texas; Dave
Stevens, operations manager for a western Iowa rural electric cooperative; Dr.
Zhichao Wang, carbon consultant for EcoEngineers based in Des Moines, Iowa. The
Team’s initiative is based on initial experiments involving proprietary BTE
technologies and technical engineering and feasibility analyses of multiple
scenarios conducted by a California-based process engineering and project
management company that serves multiple energy sectors in 45 countries globally.
The EE-AGG Team has been
selected for the second round of competition by proposing to convert CO2 waste
emitted from coal and natural gas power plants in combination with renewable
power from wind and solar sources and carbonaceous feedstocks, including lignin
and renewable natural gas, into industrial alcohol-based intermediate products
for use in production of chemicals, construction materials, plastics, and biodiesel.
EE-AGG is one of 13 teams selected for
competition in CO2 conversion from coal emissions, and one of 21 teams for CO2
conversion of natural gas emissions.
Launched in September 2015,
the Carbon XPRIZE competition addresses global CO2 emissions by incentivizing
innovative solutions to convert CO2 from a liability into an asset.
Co-sponsored by NRG and COSIA, the four-and-a-half-year competition is designed
to address CO2 emissions from fossil fuels, a leading contributor to climate
change. Semi-finalist teams hail from Canada, China, India, Switzerland,
Scotland and the United States, and among the teams competing are leading
carbon capture technology companies, top-tier academic institutions,
non-profits and new startups. The advancing teams propose converting CO2 into
products as varied as enhanced concrete, biofuels, toothpaste, nanotubes, fish
food and fertilizer.
Teams selected to participate
in Round 2 of the competition will demonstrate their innovative technology at
pilot scale at a location of their own choosing, using either real flue gas or
simulated flue gas stream. Over a ten-month period, teams must meet minimum
requirements and will be scored on how much CO2 they convert and the net value
of their products. Following Round 2 judging scheduled for November and
December 2017, up to five teams in each track that score the highest will share
a $2.5 million milestone purse and move onto the finals of the competition,
demonstrating their technology at real-world power plants.
About the NRG COSIA Carbon
XPRIZE
Few challenges are greater
and more critical than ensuring access to clean, affordable and abundant
energy. As the global energy supply remains primarily derived from fossil fuels
– the leading contributor to climate change – the $20M NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE
will challenge the world to reimagine what we can do with CO2 emissions by
incentivizing and accelerating the development of technologies that convert CO2
from a liability into valuable products. For more information, visit: carbon.xprize.org.
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Media Contact:
Alex Merk
515-290-4575
alexandria.merk@gmail.com
