By Michael Parker, The Conversation
The term “carbon capture and storage” seems only to appear when shortly followed by “not commercially proven” or “in development”. But construction has now begun on what will be the world’s first commercial carbon dioxide mineralisation plant, in which carbon dioxide greenhouse gas is transformed into baking soda.
Skyonic has been developing its patent-backed carbon capture process since 2004. The principle is to turn gaseous waste products including CO2 into valuable industrial chemicals that can be sold. The technology, Skymine, is a self-contained unit about the size of an articulated lorry, set up at power stations or industrial installations such as steelworks or petrochemical plants. Construction of the first commercial Skymine plant began this week alongside the Capital Aggregates cement works in San Antonio, Texas. When completed in 2014, it will capture around 83,000 tons of direct CO2 emissions and create around 160,000 tons of bicarbonate, preventing 300,000 tons of emissions in total.
Read more at The Conversation.