On January 4th 2017, Carbonclean, a company in India, announced that it had invented a new technology that can successfully turned Co2 into baking soda. The new technology is being used at the Tuticorin thermal power station on the Bay of Bengal. The new process was created by two young chemists at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur. After finding a lack of financing in India, the two took their idea to the UK.
Aniruddha Sharma, who is the CEO of Carbonclean, now headquartered in London, says that their process is similar to other carbon capture technologies that use a solvent to clean emissions. However, most carbon capture processes use a solvent, usually amine, which is expensive and corrosive. Carbonclean's solvent is made from a new chemical that is cheaper, less corrosive and their machinery is smaller and less expensive to build.
At the Tuticorin facility, the carbon from burning coal is turned into soda ash (Na2Co3) or baking soda. Until now, the debate over carbon capture has essentially centered around capturing emissions and forcing them into underground rocks, which can be costly. Sharma says that with Carbonclean's new technology, Co2 can be captured at less than $30 a ton. That's a price low enough to make converting Co2 into a product, and a wise business decision.
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