Researchers transform CO2 emissions
UBC TEAM DEVELOPS NEW TECHNOLOGY THAT CONVERTS CARBON INTO REUSABLE ENERGY
UBC scientists Colin Oloman and Hui Li have found a process to turn carbon dioxide into reuseable compounds using electro-reduction technology.
GOH IROMOTO PHOTO/THE UBYSSEY
BY SAMANTHA JUNG
SENIOR NEWS STAFF
Tuesday, March 24th, 2009
Two UBC researchers are responsible for a creating a technology that could change the way the world uses carbon dioxide emissions.
Chemical and biological en gineering professor Dr Colin Oloman and PhD graduate Dr Hui Li have invented a new tech nology that converts carbon di oxide into useable compounds for commercial use through electro-reduction technology.
The breakthrough is the re sult of four years hard work by Oloman and Li. The partnership began in 2002 when Oloman advertised for help working on the project, and Li accepted. The pair were a team until Li gradu ated in 2006.
Research proving carbon con version is possible isn’t new. The possibilities have been detailed in papers for nearly 100 years. For Oloman and Li, the hurdle to overcome was to engineer it in a commercial, practical way. “We didn’t know it would work really, we just thought ‘it’s worth a try,’” said Oloman.
Electro-Reduction Carbon (ERC) is an electrochemical process that converts carbon dioxide emissions directly from blast furnaces into formic acid. The compound is a liquid fuel that is used for many industrial processes, including a chemi cal intermediate in the manu facturing of various chemicals such as caffeine and artificial sweeteners, and in the cleaning of steel during manufacture. Formic acid is also a non-toxic, biodegradeable, reusable com pound which yields oxygen as a by-product, which can be used to improve combustion in blast furnaces.
A thermochemical process is normally used to convert car bon dioxide; however, it uses high temperatures and fossil fuels, making it commercially unviable. ERC is advantageous because it can operate at lower temperature conditions which can be powered by electric ener gy, created by more sustainable options such as hydro or wind power.
Oloman said that once the technology was developed, the problem was obtaining the funding to develop it at the commercial level. They ap plied for a formal patent, which values $10,000, from UBC’s University-Industry Liason Of fice (UILO), but their application was denied. Oloman made a risky move and paid for the pat ent application out of his own pocket, applying to a European patent office at the end of 2006.
The leap of faith paid off, and companies started noticing ERC technology. One of these companies was the Mantra Ven ture Group (MVG), which has a research facility in BC. Oloman said that he sold the technol ogy to MVG in exchange for shares in the company. While he acknowledged the risk in such a decision, he argued that it would be much more profit able than obtaining a personal licence for it.
Oloman understands that the project is still in the early stages, but he remains hopeful. “I haven’t got huge expectations for this,” he said. “I know it’s speculative…there are several technical problems we have to overcome and some of them are quite difficult. I think there’s a good chance we can overcome them.”
Kol Hendrickson, corporate communications representative for MVG, said that a commercial prototype is being worked on in Richmond with the help of Ke metco Research Incorporated.
“Right now the biggest prob lem with it is the electricity consumption is pretty huge,” Hendrickson said. “So to pro duce one tonne of formic acid it would cost $480 in electricity, so if you’re doing 500 tonnes per day, it gets kind of expensive.”
Hendrickson says that ERC has been contacted by a few com panies potentially interested in funding the commercialization and mass production of the tech nology, and the plan is to license the technology to them in order to speed up the process. He said that once this happens they’ll “be in Asia in a couple of months.”
