This article caught my eye.
The president and CEO of Atlantic Hydrogen Inc. is floating on air after an announcement Tuesday that his company is receiving millions of dollars in private and public funding. David Wagner said the money will be used to fund a three-year $10-million demonstration project of the company’s CarbonSaver, a plasma technology that produces hydrogen and removes carbon from natural gas.
The article implies that the carbon removed from the gas stream would be in usable form.
Wagner said what makes his company’s technology unique is that it works in line with existing natural gas infrastructure and doesn’t release greenhouse gas. “There are many technologies that remove hydrogen from natural gas but ours does it without generating greenhouse gases,” Wagner said. “We remove carbon in a solid form.” The technology once streamlined and commercialized is expected to be used in operations such as power plants, compressors, natural gas vehicle refueling, as well as for home and commercial heating.
No idea what the specs on a product like this would be. The company’s website indicates the process “generates a solid that is high purity carbon without generating GHG emissions.” Here is an excerpt from the company’s website on the carbon black created by the process.
An initial evaluation demonstrates the potential of value-added carbons with a high surface (greater than 200m2/g) with highly branched aggregates and graphic sheets. If confirmed, the possible uses include carbon for composite fillers, structural reinforcement, enhanced conductivity and increased durability. Also the carbon’s low polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and high-purity may mean that it meets stringent pharmaceutical and food grade specifications. At current market rates, carbon black trades in the range of $0.30 to $0.60 per pound. Preliminary analysis by Dr. Felipe Chibante (University of New Brunswick), suggests that AHI carbon could fetch a three to ten time premium over most carbon black produced today.
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