Carbon Sciences Inc. (CABN.OB) is a California-based company in the process of developing an innovative technology for transforming harmful carbon dioxide (CO2) into earth-friendly carbon products such as building materials, plastics, and fertilizers. The technology is based on a patent filed by the company.
By eliminating harmful CO2 emissions, the company’s technology will provide a partial solution to the problem of global warming. Carbon Sciences is initially targeting emissions from coal-fired electric plants and fuel production plants, since about one third of CO2 released into the atmosphere is from the combustion of coal. Current methods for reducing CO2 from power plants involve capturing the CO2 and storing it underground. This method is just not economically viable at a cost of approximately $150 per ton.
The company’s Green Carbon Technology shows promise. This technology can be installed in new coal-fired plants or retrofitted for existing plants. The company’s GreenCarbon ‘reactor’ takes the CO2 and – in a process using water and mineral rock particles – transforms the CO2 and mineral feedstocks into green carbonate, a highly stable and useful mineral carbonate product with numerous applications, including agricultural fertilizer, extender in paints and coatings, concrete fillers used in construction, plastics, paper-making uses to help increase paper’s whiteness and gloss, etc. By selling this very useful carbonate product, companies would be able to reduce the cost of CO2 transformation.
Carbon Science’s technology should find a ready market. Both the Bush administration and the Kyoto Protocol have mandates which require greatly reducing carbon emissions by 2012. The Kyoto treaty calls for a $40 per ton penalty on CO2 emissions which eventually rises to $100 per ton, so the company’s product should have strong demand from around the world. At the Bali Global Warming Conference in December 2007, many of the participants showed great interest in Carbon Science’s Green Carbon Technology.
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