Energy Factor, an ExxonMobil promotional newsletter, describes a partnership
with Global Thermostat to remove CO2 emissions from the atmosphere.
///////
Joining forces to remove CO2 from the atmosphere
Energy Factor, Sep 25,
2020
Scrub and remove: Capturing carbon straight out of the air [Video]
ExxonMobil is extending its breakthrough research collaboration with Global
Thermostat on direct air capture, which could significantly remove CO2 emissions,
especially those that have already accumulated in the atmosphere.
///////
According to the Global Thermostat (www.globalthermostat.com)
Web site, Global Thermostat is commercializing its advanced, multi-patented
technology to transform Carbon Dioxide from a global liability into an immense
profit center. Formed in 2010, it has 34 patents detailing technology designed
to cost-effectively capture CO2 from the atmosphere.
There is more about Global Thermostat in the GreenBiz article Inside ExxonMobil's hookup with carbon
removal venture Global Thermostat, excerpts of which appear below.
///////
Inside ExxonMobil's hookup with carbon removal venture Global
Thermostat
By Ben Soltoff, August 29,
2019
[ EXCERPTS ]
Global Thermostat
Ten years ago, Graciela Chichilnisky and Peter Eisenberger set out to remove
carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and use it as the basis for renewable
low-carbon fuels. When the pair — both Columbia University professors — founded
their company Global Thermostat, they encountered heavy skepticism. Now, they
have two functioning pilots, and they’re partnering with the world’s largest
oil and gas company to bring the idea to scale.
This summer, ExxonMobil announced it would be working with Global Thermostat to
help scale up their technology, with an eye towards large industrial
applications. The announcement is the latest indicator that fossil fuel
companies are looking ahead towards a world that’s far less friendly towards
their products and the emissions they produce. Earlier this year, the venture arms of Occidental Petroleum and Chevron jointly
invested in Carbon Engineering (www.carbonengineering.com), one of
Global Thermostat’s competitors.
Both Carbon Engineering and Global Thermostat are working on what’s called
direct air capture, the removal of carbon dioxide from ambient air such as the
air you would breathe in your house or on a city street. Other carbon removal
technologies rely on a concentrated source such as the flue of a power plant
smokestack.
Anatomy of a dream
How did Global Thermostat go from two professors’ pipe dream to a
partnership with the largest fossil fuel company in the world?
Both founders had been leading environmental research for decades, and they
decided to pursue direct air capture because they were disenchanted with other
pathways for solving the climate crisis.
Chichilnisky is a development economist and a member of the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change, which shared the 2007 Nobel Prize with Al Gore. In the
1990s, she wrote the section of the Kyoto Protocol dealing with carbon markets,
which later formed the basis for the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme,
as well as other carbon markets around the world. After a career spent
developing the economics of trading carbon, she realized that her work in that
field was insufficient. Markets would not solve the problem fast enough if they
lacked a viable technology to reverse emissions.
Eisenberger realized the need for direct air capture after approaching the
problem from a science and engineering perspective. He’s a materials scientist
and was the founding director of Columbia’s Earth Institute, an
interdisciplinary environmental research center.
Earlier in his career, Eisenberger was working in research and development at
none other than ExxonMobil. The company began looking into synthetic fuels
during a prolonged decline in oil prices in the 1980s. This effort fizzled out
once oil prices began to rise again, but it inspired Eisenberger to consider
using carbon from the air to create fuels, mimicking the photosynthetic process
used by plants. The experience also gave him a read on ExxonMobil’s approach to
new technologies.
Read the full text of this article at …: https://www.greenbiz.com/article/inside-exxonmobils-hookup-carbon-removal-venture-global-thermostat
///////
Global Thermostat competitor Carbon Engineering
(www.carbonengineering.com) has
its own approach to the decarbonization of the atmosphere. It is described in
another GreenBiz article, excerpts of which appear below …
///////
A conversation on carbon capture: Carbon Engineering's CEO on
commercialization, costs
By Heather Clancy, April
18, 2019
[ EXCERPTS ]
Carbon Engineering (www.carbonengineering.com)
One common theme buried in stories about carbon capture technologies is the
massive expense of scaling and commercializing these approaches.
That’s one reason many journalists, including yours truly, took notice of the
$68 million funding round disclosed in mid-March by Carbon Engineering, a
10-year-old Canadian company seeking to have at least four commercial plants up
and running by 2020.
That money brings Carbon Engineering’s backing up to around $100 million. Among
the investors that have put up money are Bill Gates, who has his hand in a
number of energy ventures; Murray Edwards, a prominent financier of oil sands
projects; Australian mining company BHP; and the venture arms of two U.S. oil
and natural gas companies, Occidental Petroleum and Chevron.
Carbon Engineering is focused on two separate but related businesses. Its main
focus is designing direct air capture systems that suck carbon dioxide out of
the air, using very old industrial processes and systems to turn atmospheric
CO2 into a solution that can be either sequestered or used in various
industrial applications, like enhanced oil recovery. But the company is also
working on technology for using CO2 as one of the feedstocks for creating
"clean" synthetic fuels.
Last year, research led by Carbon Engineering’s founder, David Keith, suggested
it’s possible to capture carbon emissions directly from the air at a cost of
less than $100 per ton. That’s a magic number that startups in this space would
love to use in their return-on-investment formulas — previous estimates
suggested that the process would cost at least $600 per ton, which would make
it far too expensive to be commercially feasible.
Aside from Carbon Engineering, what’s with the other carbon capture tech
startups we’ve been following for several years? Here’s a quick update on its
two most direct rivals (on paper, at least):
Climeworks (https://www.climeworks.com/):
Also focused on capturing CO2 from the air, the Swiss company established a
testbed in Iceland in October 2017. More recently, in late 2018, it signed a
deal with a Swiss affiliate of Coca-Cola, which plans to use the carbon dioxide
captured by Climeworks to put the bubbles and fizz into its beverages. Over the
long term, the startup is seeking to capture up to 1 percent of all global
emissions by 2025.
Global Thermostat: The nine-year-old company is
building a commercial plant in Huntsville, Alabama, at an operating cost of
$150 per ton. Like Climeworks, it hopes to sell its captured CO2 to beverage
companies both for bubbles and as a material for bottles. Accordingly, it’s
also working on smaller scale equipment that can be installed alongside the
existing manufacturing lines at bottlers. You also will see Global Thermostat
cultivate customers who might use its captured CO2 in building materials,
biofertilizers and industrial gases.
Read the full text of this article at … https://www.greenbiz.com/article/conversation-carbon-capture-carbon-engineerings-ceo-commercialization-costs
///////
Both Global Thermostat and Carbon Engineering support and protect their
technology with a number of patents. However, identifying the patents of each
company requires different search strategies.
In line with the overarching theme of the posts in the Desulfurization Blog (www.desulf.blogspot.com), namely, to
help you save time by honing your online research skills, here are a couple of
tips …
TIP #1:
Google® carbon
engineering patents
Conveniently, Carbon Engineering lists its patents on its Web site, detailed in
the table below …
CE-Carbon
Engineering owned patents and pending patent applications:
|
Application/patent number |
Title |
Related products & services |
|
Carbon dioxide capture method and facility |
Air contactor system |
|
|
Continuation of patent – Carbon dioxide capture method and facility |
Air contactor componentry |
|
|
Carbon dioxide capture |
Air contactor system with alternate chemistry |
|
|
Recovering a caustic solution via calcium carbonate crystal aggregates |
Direct Air Capture system |
|
|
Continuation of patent – Recovering a caustic solution via calcium carbonate crystal aggregates |
Direct Air Capture system componentry |
|
|
Target gas capture |
Alternate Direct Air Capture system |
|
|
Recovering a caustic solution via calcium carbonate crystal aggregate |
Pellet Reactor and Slaker systems |
|
|
Capturing carbon dioxide |
Modified air contactor componentry including additional drift, nozzle and basin technology |
|
|
High temperature hydrator |
Slaking componentry |
|
|
Method and system for synthesizing fuel from dilute carbon dioxide source |
AIR TO FUELSTM technology |
///////
TIP #2: To find Global Thermostat patents, try Googling patents AND (eisenberger OR chichilnisky)
Unlike Carbon Engineering, Global Thermostat does not list its patents on its Web site. Further complicating the patent search is the fact that the company Global Thermostat is not the Patent Assignee on its patents. The Patent Assignees are either Eisenberger, or Chichilnisky, the two founders of the company.
Browsing the results of the above search will expedite discovery of Global Thermostat patents.
///////
Google® Better!
Jean Steinhardt served as Librarian, Aramco Services, Engineering Division, for 13 years. He now heads Jean Steinhardt Consulting LLC, producing the same high quality research that he performed for Aramco.
Follow Jean’s blog at: http://desulf.blogspot.com/ for continuing tips on effective online research
Email Jean at research@jeansteinhardtconsulting.com with questions on research, training, or anything else
Visit Jean’s Web site at http://www.jeansteinhardtconsulting.com/ to see examples of the services we can provide
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