Carbon Sciences May Save the World with Chalk

Written by Hank Green

Monday, 28 April 2008

In our recent profile of ways to turn all of the world's billions of tons of excess CO₂ into useful products, we mentioned a little company called Carbon Sciences. The company is as small as they come...one employee. And yet they have a demonstrated (though not patented) technology that allows them to turn CO₂ into useful (and in some cases) very valuable commercial products.

We tracked down Carbon Science's sole employee, their CEO, Derek McLeish, to talk about their technology, and the effects he hopes it will have.

EcoGeek: So you want to turn CO₂ into calcium carbonate. That's basically limestone...chalk...right?

Derek McLeish: If you look at the calcium carbonate market, it's moved into 64 different kinds of calclum carbonate. It's in toothpaste, yogurt, milk filler, PVC, paper, etc. All of these applications require different grades, and they can cost anywhere from $5 a ton to $1000 per ton.

We'll never have too much calcium carbonate. 60% of calcium carbonate is currently used in the paper industry as a filler and brightener. Nowadays they're actually co-locating calcium carbonate plants along side paper plants.

EcoGeek: But we are talking about a LOT of calcium carbonate here. Right?

The leaders in this are are the guys in Helskinki. They've calculated that if you took all of Finland's CO₂ output and turned it into calcium carbonate, you'd have four soccer fields 8m deep per year. Right now if you do the numbers on calclium carbonate it's probably a 20 billion business. Two freighters of gypsum a week feed one wallboard factory in California.

Worse, right now, that CaCO₃ either mined or even worse. There's huge amounts of energy used to mine and process calcium carbonate right now.

EcoGeek: To Create CaCO₃ from CO₂, you need a lot of calcium. Where do you think all of that rock is going to come from?

There are lots of areas where this could be an efficient process. And there are some where it wouldn't be. Imagine co-locating a power plant at a slurry pile from a metal mine. The rock is there, in many cases actually needing to be hauled away. Our process can use that waste material, as well as CO₂, to create something useful.

EcoGeek: Obviously there is no incentive for CO₂ producers to look into this technology right now. What does the carbon sequestration industry need to get on its feet?

Thank god that the Supreme Court made the ruling that CO₂ is a pollution. Now the EPA has to monitor it. Also, the California Air Resource Board is charging emitters four cents a ton for carbon emissions. Soon, there's either going to be cap and trade or tax or something. The beauty of our system is that we can be on both sides. We can create a useful material and get paid to sequester the CO₂.

EcoGeek: There are a lot of other proposed ways to get rid of CO₂, though none of them are very well proven. What do you see as other viable and not-so-viable solutions?

Geosequestration seems like an infinite ticking time bomb to me. The mines and oil wells where they want to bury the CO₂ have a wonderful way of having lots of holes. If there's a big burp in downtown LA and it kills a bunch of people, it's not going to seem like such a good idea.

I think that algae is definitely a great slice of this pie as well. But just like our technology, there are places where it makes a lot of sense and places where it doesn't.

Skyonic [who convert CO₂ into baking soda] are fellow travelers but have big problems with the cost factors. But anybody who helps legitimize transforming instead of just burying it is great.

EcoGeek: So you have your mobile demonstration unit turning CO₂ into sticks of chalk. What's the next step for Carbon Sciences, and how far off do you think you are from commercial implementation?

Our next step is to get to our pilot plant online, which will prove all of our basic engineering and patent ideas and move us forward. Our position is that we're going to go for small scale with lots of different deployments.

Within 2 years we'll have good numbers out of the pilot plant process. 3.5 years to have the pilot plant up and running.

Comments (7)

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written by selenized , April 28, 2008

On a somewhat related note there is a group in the UK that is looking at modifying soils to sequester carbon as calcium carbonate as well. While this wouldn't be an industrial product, it certainly looks like carbonates are coming into vogue as a carbon capture technology.

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written by summera , April 29, 2008

ecogreek is an intelligent way providing good information.

Some interesting ideas
written by Michael Peacock , April 29, 2008

I agree that the idea of geosequestering CO2 isn't likely to pan out, and I find the notion of turning all that excess CO2 into CaCO3 really interesting. My question is how efficient is the conversion process? As in corn-based ethanol, it wasn't until we looked at the total production costs that we realized that it would consume more energy than it produced. In this case, if the entire process requires additional energy input to sequester the CO2 into calcium carbonate, then presumably there will be CO2 emissions as a result of the process. What's the net-net there?

Help your business go green!
written by katherine , April 29, 2008

Help your business go green!

My name is Katherine and I work for a Television Production Company called Creative Bube Tube INC. out of Toronto. I just wanted to let you know that if you are looking to take your business green, I know a very cost effective way, which will help everyone out in your office too. We recently changed our water cooler over to a bottle less water cooler. There is no heavy lifting with the refills and because there are no plastic bottles to replace its much better for the environment. It's a small change but has a big impact. Also, no one has to refill it; the cooler is connected to a water supply in the wall. You can also choose hot or cold, it's so cost-effective. Water bottles produce bacteria and with this bottle less water cooler it has water purification inside it so you don’t have to worry about that. The best thing about not having to lift these heavy bottles is the fact that you don't have to worry about storing them anywhere too. It really is the easiest way to take your business green, as well as being cost effective and easy to use, it's a great choice. Oh, also if you would like some advice on where you can purchase them, you can go to www.cityh20.com that's where we got ours at City Water International. It's a Toronto business and they have any info you need on these bottle less water coolers. Thanks and I hope you will do the same as us.

Cheers
Katherine

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written by Tim McGee , May 03, 2008

I'm left wondering what the energy requirements are in the process (the reactor). I'm also curious about scale, and the potential for local use of small scale calcium deposits.

It seems like a great way to pick up on the wastes of other industries, but how about recycling current dry wall, or other building waste? Is there a way this can become an industrial loop as well as a sequestering system?

I think this is an exciting company, and I'm excited to see where they go. Thanks Hank.

What tosh.
written by T , May 05, 2008

This is rubbish, wallboard an chalk are made of Calcium Sulphate not Calcium Carbonate.

A little research please
written by S , July 26, 2008

If your going to make bold claims about what is or isn't chalk you may wish to do a brief bit of research to make sure what your saying is correct, alternatively you can continue making yourself look like a fool.

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Hank Green
		About the author:
		Hank Green is the founder and chief geek at EcoGeek.org. Aside from being obsessed with saving the planet with technology, he loves to write and make videos. If you want to find out more about him, visit hankgreen.com

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