GreatPoint Energy

GreatPoint Energy

GreatPoint Energy
222 Third Street
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617.401.8760
Fax: 617.849.5691

GreatPoint Energy
222 S. Riverside Plaza
Suite 2750
Chicago, IL 60606
Phone: 312.564.4485

Pilot Plant
Project and Operations Office
GreatPoint Energy – Brayton Point, LLC.
1547 Fall River Avenue
Building 3 – Suite #3B
Seekonk, MA 02771
774.901.5626 – Main Line
774.901.5815 – Office Administrator,
Kelly Jo, Direct Line
774.901.5814 – Fax

About
GreatPoint Energy is a technology-driven natural resources company and the developer of a proprietary, highly-efficient catalytic process, known as hydromethanation, by which coal, petroleum coke and biomass are converted directly into low-cost, clean, pipeline quality natural gas, while allowing for the capture and sequestration of carbon dioxide (CO2).

GreatPoint Energy plans to build, own and operate large-scale natural gas production facilities strategically located at the intersection of natural gas pipelines and low-cost feedstock, as well as at locations where the CO2 produced and captured in its process can be geologically sequestered. The Company has identified numerous such locations and is in advanced development of its first commercial facility.

The Company’s cost of production is expected to be significantly lower than current prices of new drilled natural gas and imported liquefied natural gas (LNG), and the natural gas it produces, called bluegas™ meets all high-grade natural gas quality specifications. It can be transported through the thousands of miles of pipelines already in place around the world and can be used interchangeably with drilled natural gas for all applications, including power generation, residential and commercial heating, and the production of chemicals.

The Company has raised $140 million to date and is backed by leading strategic investors including The Dow Chemical Company, Suncor Energy, AES Corporation, and Peabody Energy, as well as major financial institutions and venture capital firms, including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Khosla Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Advanced Technology Ventures, and Citi’s Sustainable Development Investments.

Technology

Hydromethanation is an elegant and highly efficient process by which natural gas is produced through the reaction of steam and carbonaceous solids in the presence of a catalyst. The process enables the conversion of low-cost feedstock such as coal, petroleum coke and biomass (wood waste, municipal solid waste, and energy crops such as poplar and switchgrass) into clean, high-purity methane.

The chemistry of catalytic hydromethanation involves reacting steam (2H₂O) and carbon (2C) to produce methane (CH₄) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) according to the following reaction:

The first step in the hydromethantion process is to combine the catalyst with the feedstock in such a way as to ensure that the catalyst disperses throughout the matrix of the feedstock for effective reactivity. The catalyst/feedstock material is then loaded into the hydromethanation reactor. Inside the reactor, pressurized steam is injected to “fluidize” the mixture and ensure constant contact between the catalyst and the carbon particles. In this environment, the catalyst facilitates multiple chemical reactions between the carbon and the steam on the surface of the coal or biomass. These reactions (shown below) catalyzed in a single reactor and at the same low temperature, generate a mixture predominately composed of methane and CO₂.

The overall combination of reactions is thermally neutral, requiring no addition or removal of energy, making it highly efficient.

The proprietary catalyst formulation is made up of abundantly available, low-cost metal materials specifically designed to promote gasification at the low temperatures where water gas shift and reactions concurrently take place. The catalyst is continuously recycled and reused within the process shown below.

By adding this catalyst to the system, GreatPoint Energy is able to reduce the operating temperature in the gasifier while directly promoting the reactions that yield methane. Under these mild “catalytic” conditions, less expensive reactor components can be utilized, pipeline grade methane is produced, and very low-cost carbon sources (such as lignites, sub-bituminous coals, petroleum coke and biomass) can be used as feedstock.

As part of the overall process, the bluegas™ technology enables the recovery of contaminants in coal, petroleum coke and biomass as useful byproducts. In addition, roughly half the carbon in the feedstock is removed and captured as a pure CO₂ stream suitable for sequestration.

Hydromethanation yields dramatically improved economics for the production of natural gas and an environmental footprint equivalent to that of the most environmentally-friendly commercial fuel.

GreatPoint Energy

GreatPoint Energy
info@greatpointenergy.com

GreatPoint Energy
222 Third Street
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617.401.8760
Fax: 617.849.5691

GreatPoint Energy
222 S. Riverside Plaza
Suite 2750
Chicago, IL 60606
Phone: 312.564.4485

About
GreatPoint Energy is a technology-driven natural resources company commercializing catalytic gasification to convert abundant coal, petroleum coke and biomass into low-cost natural gas (methane) while capturing and sequestering CO2.

Utilizing its proprietary conversion and carbon capture technology, GreatPoint Energy develops bluegas™, coal-derived natural gas. bluegas™ is 99.5 percent pure methane and can be transported throughout North America utilizing existing natural gas pipeline infrastructure, providing an attractive, cost-effective alternative to drilled and imported natural gas. Its environmental profile is as clean as natural gas; it consists mostly of hydrogen and therefore, has very low carbon emissions. Moreover, bluegas™ can be used in every application that natural gas is currently being used (i.e., power generation, residential and commercial heating, and production of chemicals).

Technology

GreatPoint Energy is following in the footsteps of the petroleum refining industry by implementing a more advanced and lower cost process for refining carbon-based feedstocks. In the early days of petroleum production, oil refineries – like today’s coal gasifiers – relied on intense heat (called thermal cracking) to break down heavy crude oil into light useable petroleum products. In the 1940’s however, scientists discovered that a catalyst could be used to minimize the amount of heat required. This lower cost and higher efficiency approach quickly replaced thermal cracking in oil refineries around the world.

GreatPoint Energy’s technology uses the same basic technique to “refine” coal by employing a novel catalyst to “crack” the carbon bonds and transform the coal into clean burning methane (natural gas). This single stage process is called catalytic coal methanation and forms the basis of the GreatPoint Energy bluegas™ process.

By adding a catalyst to the coal gasification system, GreatPoint Energy is able to reduce the operating temperature in the gasifier, while directly promoting the reactions that yield methane, CH₄. Under these mild “catalytic” conditions, less expensive reactor components are required, pipeline grade methane is produced, and very low cost carbon sources (such as lignites, sub-bituminous coals, tar sands, petroleum coke and petroleum resid) can be used as feedstocks.

In addition, GreatPoint Energy’s catalytic coal methanation process eliminates troublesome ash removal and slagging problems; reduces maintenance requirements; increases thermal efficiency; and eliminates the air separation plant (a system which alone accounts for 20 percent of the capital cost of most gasification systems).

Skyonic Corporation

Skyonic Corporation

Mark Clayton
Vice President, Corporate Relations
Tel: (512) 436-9276
Fax: (512) 436-9779
mark@skyonic.com

About
Skyonic is a for-profit Intellectual Property corporation dedicated to the proliferation of the internationally patented SkyMine™ process. SkyMine™ was developed with the intent to reduce global CO2 emissions and halt the advancement of global climate change without impacting development. Skyonic is based in Austin, Texas, with laboratory and field operations throughout the state.

THE HISTORY OF SKYONIC:
Like many great ideas, SkyMine™ began as an idea scribbled on a cocktail napkin and experiments conducted in the garage. The inventor of the SkyMine™ process, Joe Jones, founded Skyonic in 2005, incorporating it on January 7 of that year, in order to gain the funding and resources required to refine and proliferate this technology. Skyonic also filed a technology-defining method patent on the SkyMine™ process in 2005 with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Skyonic performed research and laboratory-scale testing on the process at Southwest Research Institute in 2005 and 2006, and began field testing the process at a coal-burning power plant in Texas later that year. Currently, Skyonic is performing pilot-scale demonstration plant work at Luminant’s Big Brown Steam Electric Station in Fairfield, Texas, in real-world conditions.

Technology

The Skyonic SkyMine™ process addresses the significant issue of climate change through the mineralization of CO2 as carbonate compounds. SkyMine™ is a post-combustion carbon capture and sequestration technology that works with any large-scale stationary CO2 emitter (e.g.- coal, natural gas or oil fired power plant). The process is effective, ecologically and thermodynamically sound, and can be done profitably. Since the technology can be retrofitted to existing facilities or designed into new ones, it addresses both the current problem of climate change, and the future demand for cleaner energy to support development.

The SkyMine™ process removes heavy metals, acid gasses, and carbon dioxide from conditioned at-temperature flue gas. SkyMine™ stores the carbon emissions as stable sodium bicarbonate (better-than-food-grade baking soda) for long-term storage as land or mine fill and returns the flue gas to the plants stack for release. This means that the SkyMine™ process is a non-emitter.

The feed chemical for the reaction to remove the carbon is sodium hydroxide, which is produced on site as a part of the SkyMine™ process. This reaction to produce sodium hydroxide also produces hydrogen and chlorine as byproducts. These can be sold to market at a profit, not only defraying the cost of CO2 removal, but even generating a profit for the SkyMine™ operators. These chemicals are also “green”; they are produced at low energy and without emitting CO2 (since the heat to drive the process is captured from the heat in the flue gas.

THE BENEFITS OF SKYMINE™:

• The SkyMine™ process turns gaseous CO2 emissions into solid, stable carbonates (primarily sodium bicarbonate).
• The SkyMine™ technology does this with a competitively low energy penalty.
• The SkyMine™ process also removes mercury and heavy metals, as well as acid-rain gasses from the flue stream.
• The SkyMine™ technology produces clean (non-methane-based) hydrogen and low-energy chlorine.

A SkyMine™ plant can be operated at a profit, because the hydrogen produced (as well as the chlorine and bicarbonates) have commercial value.

Carbon Sciences, Inc.

Carbon Sciences, Inc.

50 Castilian Drive, Suite C
Carbon Sciences, Inc.
Santa Barbara CA 93117, USA

tel: (805) 690-9090
fax: (805) 879-9892

About

Carbon Sciences, Inc. is developing a breakthrough technology to transform harmful carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from human created sources, such as power plants and industrial factories, into high value, earth-friendly products.
The initial application of their patent-pending technology is targeted at a multi-billion dollar market. They are developing a proprietary process to transform CO2 emissions into a high value chemical compound (PCC), currently used in the manufacture of paper, pharmaceuticals and plastics. Unlike existing methods of production, their process will be carbon neutral, use less energy and result in a lower cost product.

Carbon Sciences’, business strategy is to transform CO2 emissions into various high value products for existing markets. This strategy allows them to achieve business success without waiting for effective governmental legislation limiting CO2 emissions. As CO2 emissions become more heavily regulated in the future, they will be well-positioned to capitalize on other business opportunities in the massive global CO2 mitigation market.

Technology

The Need for a Breakthrough Technology Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a major greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. In 2005 there were 25 billion metric tons of CO2 released into the atmosphere. Existing strategies to deal with CO2 emissions include capturing the CO2 and storing them in underground geological formations and the ocean floor. Carbon Sciences believes that these are potentially dangerous solutions. Instead, a simple and safe solution must be applied at the source to transform the carbon dioxide into useful products.  They believe that their patent-pending GreenCarbon Technology can be the solution.
GreenCarbon Advantages Stability over the long term – The production of mineral carbonates insures a permanent fix rather than tempo­rary storage of the CO2, thereby ensuring no legacy issues for future generations; Immense Capacity – Raw materials for binding CO2 exist in vast quantities across the globe in amounts that far exceed even the most optimistic estimates of coal reserves (~10,000 × 10 9 tons); (1) Economic Viability – The sale of value-added products created during the carbonation process has the potential to offset carbon sequestration costs.		GreenCarbon™ Technology Using their patent-pending technology, mineral feedstocks are transformed into a highly stable and useful mineral carbonate product for use industrial products such as building materials, paper, plastics and fertilizers.

Global Research Technologies, LLC

GRT

address
3450 S. Broadmont Dr.
Suite 100
Tucson, AZ 85713

e-mail
info@grestech.com

telephone
(520) 547-0956

fax
(520) 903-0570

About
Global Research Technologies, LLC (GRT) is a research and development company whose mission is the demonstration and commercialization of technologies for the capture of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is acknowledged to be a major greenhouse gas and a major contributor to global warming. Commercial implementation of GRT’s ACCESS™ (Atmospheric Carbon CapturE SystemS) technology will enable active management of global atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations irrespective of the source of the emissions.

Global Research Technologies is a privately-owned company which was founded in 2004. It currently occupies a 10,000 sq. ft. facility in Tucson, Arizona with administrative offices, a research laboratory, and a prototype development and demonstration area.

The Team

Allen Wright, President/Chief Executive	awright@grestech.com
Klaus Lackner, VP of Research	klackner@grestech.com
Billy Gridley, Chief Financial Officer	bgridley@grestech.com
Ryuhei Ishikawa, Director of Engineering	rishikawa@grestech.com
George Grimm, Business Development	ggrimm@grestech.com
Betsy Murton-Mendoza, Business Manager	bmendoza@grestech.com

The Story

GRT was founded on the shared vision and unique capabilities of four people: Gary Comer, Allen Wright, Klaus Lackner and Wally Broecker. After sailing through the Northwest Passage in 2001 without being blocked by ice, Gary Comer was convinced that climate change was real. He vowed to take action.

Comer’s experience sparked his relationship with Wally Broecker, the Newberry Professor and a Crafoord Prize climate scientist at Columbia University’s Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory. In 2003, Broecker introduced Comer to Klaus Lackner and Allen Wright. Lackner, a widely recognized world leader in energy technologies, had developed the concept of carbon dioxide air-capture and written papers on carbon sequestration while at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Subsequently, Broecker convinced Lackner to join Columbia University as the Ewing Worzel Professor of Geophysics. Broecker had hired Wright to manage the interface between facilities and researchers at Biosphere 2 when that facility was operated by Columbia. He recognized Wright’s demonstrated ability to turn novel concepts into reality.

GRT was born in 2004, funded by Comer’s generosity and based on the strongly held belief of its founders that climate change solutions can and must be found. In 2007, GRT announced that it had successfully demonstrated that air-capture of carbon dioxide is technically feasible and economically promising. Currently it is refining and expanding its suite of air-capture technologies consistent with its mission.