Because the brewery off gas is totally different from the LaFarge off gas. LaFarge is only 20% CO2, with 80% other unwanted contaminates, mostly N2 nitrogen and trace but lethal to catalysts, heavy metals like mercury, that must be removed first.
The entire economics of the LaFarge pilot plant operation starts with non-MVTG hardware that must be bought from others in the market place (if they use an amine scrubber to capture and concentrate the CO2 before it is feed to the MVTG ERC, and that is just one main option for the CO2 scrubber and concentrator ) at LaFarge.
The Brewery does NOT need an amine scrubber or concentrator or amine recycling system, as the Brewery has 95-99% pure CO2 already as off gas. MVTG's ERC needs 80% CO2 feed to make 80% formic acid.
Not sure what % feed of CO2 the MVTG-CO/Alstom-Syn gas ERC would work best with, but 95% should be more than high enough. So the economics of the brewery demo would not tell LaFarge what they need to know about the entire LaFarge Pilot plant system including the Non-MVTG scrubber.
Also Lafarge agreed to an MVTG-Formic acid/Formate ERC pilot plant, not a syn gas MVTG-ERC. A Syn gas pilot plant was not possible or available until late last year when MVTG delayed the LaFarge Pilot plant demo and until MVTG-Alstom phase 2 results showed that MVTG had a catalyst that meet Alstom's ERC needs for making Syn gas.
What difference would it make to Lafarge? It is only a test project not a commitment from them to purchase.
Lafarge would still have the brewery data to determine which way they would rather pursue.
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No not saying that. If MVTG had a Canadian grant to cover the excess costs of the scrubber, I think the LaFarge pilot plant would have been completed on time no matter what.
But what if the new MVTG-Alstom ERC design can make CO-Syn gas using 20% CO2 feed with out a scrubber?
What if LaFarge would rather target an exisiting 30 billion dollar market for CO than a 1 billion dollar market for formic acid?
LaFarge has enough waste CO2 world wide to make about 100 billion dollars a year of formic acid (and that may be a gross underestimate).
Maybe now that CO-Syn gas is an option, LaFarge and Alstom wanted to re-look at the LaFarge pilot plant options, the new option before completing the Pilot plant? Maybe the German brewery would be a better choice for formic acid in that case?
Phase 3 of the Alstom R&D will, and is producing that precise what if analytical data right now.
Going by your theory are you saying that Mantra is abandoning the formic acid (product Mantra will be using in they fuel cells) ERC and will only be testing the ERC for syn gas at both plants.
The process are different, right?
Yes the processes are different. The CO2 source, contaminates and concentrations are different. The catalyst is different. The patented reactor is the same, unless the new membrane-less reactor just discovered in our patent DD today is being used in the MVTG-Alstom-ERC?????
Or is the membrane-less design being used in both?
Stay tuned for updates and more patents!!!!
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