CO₂ as a Commodity

Injection Wells and Sustainable Energy Systems Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage Technology CO₂ as a Commodity

Although EOR is the most common use of captured CO₂, many different industries have found ways to incorporate CO₂ into their production processes. This typically involves using CO₂ as a feedstock—reintroducing captured CO₂ into the production chain as a raw carbon resource, rather than a post-process emission. The potential uses of CO₂ in industry ranges from simple to very complex. Below is a broad overview of contemporary industrial applications.¹

Food and Beverage

One familiar CO₂ application is in the food and beverage industry – but there may be more to it than you realize! Carbon dioxide has long been an important chemical in the food industry, valued for its phase properties and chemical inertness. Gaseous CO₂ is used to add bubbles to soft drinks, refrigerate food, and deactivate enzymes and microorganisms that can affect food quality during long-term storage. Liquid CO₂ is used to produce frozen food as well as extract flavor chemicals and oils from food. Solid CO₂ (dry ice) is also a common method of refrigeration and preservation used in the production and shipping of meat, nuts, coffee and more. Even supercritical CO₂ (a phase we will discuss later) has applications as a solvent, most significantly decaffeinating coffee and tea.²

Solid Carbonates and Bicarbonates

Texas-based company Skyonic has patented a new technology called SkyMine® which allows plants to economically transform exhaust CO₂ into stable solids. These carbonates and bicarbonates are safe for landfill storage, but are also useful in a number of industrial chains. Plants can sell the solid waste products to the chemical production industry for use in making products like baking soda, hydrochloric acid and limestone. Additionally, the transformation of gaseous CO₂ to solid waste prevents the need for pipeline transportation, which reduces the risk of leaks and re-release into the atmosphere. The Capitol SkyMine® plant opened in 2015 and captures 15% (75,000 t) of the CO₂ emissions from the Capitol Aggregates cement plant in San Antonio, Texas. Gases captured from the plant are transformed into materials like baking soda, bleach and hydrochloric acid.³,⁴,⁵

Skyonic Sodium Bicarbonate Bubble Columns — Sodium bicarbonate bubble columns at the Skyonic pilot plant facility using SkyMine® technology.

Soda Ash

Sodium carbonate, or soda ash, has been used for centuries as a washing detergent and to produce glass for bottles and windows. It is also a common agent used to soften drinking water that has naturally hard mineral content, regulate the pH of swimming pools and aquariums, and help bind dye with fabric in the clothing industry. A UK-Mumbai company called Carbon Clean Solutions Ltd has developed an amine solvent to separate industrial CO₂ exhaust at very low cost—$30/t. Their initial project in Chennai, India fixed a CO₂-separation unit to the exhaust flue of a 10-MW coal power plant, which transfers CO₂ to a neighboring soda ash manufacturing plant operated by Tuticorin Alkali Chemicals and Fertilisers Ltd.⁶ Operating since October 2016, the project is designed to capture 60,000 t of CO₂ annually and is the world’s first industrial-scale carbon capture and utilization plant.⁷ This economic capture and immediate delivery to secondary production enables companies to implement CCUS at a profit, reducing the need for public sector investment.⁸

Map of Chennai India — Chennai (Madras) is a coastal city on the Bay of Bengal with a population of approximately 7,000,000. The city is one of the largest cultural, economic and educational centers of south India.

Ethanol

In South Africa, green technology company Swayana is partnering with U.S.-based carbon capture firm LanzaTech to funnel industrial offgases into the production of green fuels like ethanol in South Africa. LanzaTech has developed a microbial fermentation process that produces ethanol from exhaust gases like CO₂. As the bacteria eats the emissions it essentially ferments them—think of making beer—and emits ethanol. The company has plans to apply its technology at a ferroalloy smelting complex in Mpumalanga. South Africa has the potential to produce more than 400,000 t of ethanol annually from existing ferroalloy and titania producers. This utilization would essentially sequester over 700,000 t of CO₂ annually—the equivalent to removing 250,000 cars from South Africa’s roads.⁹,¹⁰

Mpumalanga in South Africa Map — Mpumalanga is a township in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa with a population of 62,000. There are a number of aluminum-smelting plants on the north coast in the province.

Images: “Carbonated Soft Drink” by banjongseal324 via Shutterstock.com

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