Set of Proposed Research Projects Relating an
Opportunity that has Emerged to Reduce Carbon Emissions on a Global Scale.
Given below is a summary about a set of proposed research projects relating to the opportunity that has emerged to reduce carbon emissions on a global scale:
A. Background: Summary of the opportunity that has emerged to reduce carbon emissions on a global scale:
A major opportunity has emerged to capture and sequester hundreds of millions of tons of CO2 from the atmosphere as a result of these three major developments:
a) Development of a technologies to capture CO2 from fossil fuel power-plants:
i) Development of a breakthrough technology (Allam Cycle) that generates power from natural gas and captures 100% of CO2 created.
ii) Shell CANSOLV® CO₂ Capture System – A proprietary amine technology captures the CO2 from the flue gas and releases it as a pure stream.
iii) SureSource Capture By FuelCell Energy – Enables a coal plant to generate 80% more power, capture 90% of CO2 and reduce NOx emissions by 70%.
iv) Global Thermostat -Their DAC technology can cost-effectively capture CO2 from the outside air and natural gas power plants simultaneously.
b) Development of new technologies that can capture CO2 from outside air at a relatively low estimated cost. For example:
c) Rapid growth of Green Bonds to finance projects that can be sold to financial organizations that have committed to investing in climate action such as the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, which has a combined total of over 70 trillion US dollars under management.
Since there are multiple technology options for DAC, including ones that work well in warmer climates, power plants combined with DAC can be located anywhere in the world. Although many different technology configurations are possible for power plants combined with DAC, we have identified these two configurations as significant:
1) Combined Power Plant to Supply Energy to Local Grid and DAC System: Power plants running the Allam Cycle can be combined with renewable energy farms to provide reliable power to the grid along with carbon capture, utilization and sequestration. This combination is can be referred to as a “Combined Power Generation with Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CPG+CCUS)”. It would be located in areas that have a local electrical grid, source of fuel for the power plant and appropriate geological formations for sequestering CO2. To view a summary of this opportunity, see this 6-min. animated video embedded in this webpage: “Opportunity for Rapid Large-Scale Carbon Emissions Mitigation”. A schematic illustrating this technology configuration is shown below:
2) Special Purpose Power Plant for Large Scale Direct Air Capture (DAC) of CO2: Power Generation with Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (PG+CCUS) Facility. For example, TerraFixing has indicated that a 300 MW plant running the Allam Cycle can power the capturing and sequestering of 2.6 million metric tonnes of CO2 per year using TerraFixing’s DAC technology. This type of plant can be located anywhere in cold climate areas that have a sufficient source of natural gas and appropriate geological formations for sequestering CO2. Many areas in northern Canada and Alaska meet these criteria. Therefore, there are many locations where this type of combined power and DAC plant can be built.
This opportunity is outlined in this 4-minute segment in our full presentation video: Combining a power plant running the Allam Cycle with TerraFixing’s DAC technology (PG+CCUS). A schematic illustrating this technology configuration is shown below:
B. Outline of proposed research projects:
1) Review, evaluate, categorize DAC technology options including the ones by these organizations:
b) TerraFixing
c) Climeworks
d) Verdox
h) Infinitree
i) Skytree
j) Carbyon, Eindhoven, the Netherlands
k) CarbFix – a subsidiary of Reykjavik Energy, Iceland
l) Center for Negative Carbon Emission of Arizona State University
m) UK Carbon Capture and Storage Research Centre
n) Agora Energy Technologies, which recently won a Keeling Curve Prize for its CO2 redox flow battery (CRB).
2) Estimate the impact of implementing combinations of technologies on a global scale including:
a) Special-purpose power plants running the Allam Cycle with TerraFixing’s DAC technology ( (PG+CCUS) in cold climates.
i) Identify locations in cold climates that appear to be good options for this combination (source of energy and appropriate geology for sequestration).
ii) Estimate appropriate size for power plant and DAC package for each location.
b) Combined Power Generation with Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CPG+CCUS).
i) Identify locations that appear to be good options for this combination (source of energy and appropriate geology for sequestration).
ii) Estimate appropriate size for the power plant and renew energy farms in each location.
iii) Develop a power management and energy storage package for the entire combined system. This power management system would decide in real-time how much energy to store and how much to use for direct air carbon capture while providing reliable power to the grid.
3) Estimate the expected approximate impact of spending $5 trillion dollars on implementing climate action via CPG+CCUS and PG+CCUS Facilities on a global scale. This estimate would be highlighted at COP26 to counter the current estimated $5 trillion dollars in subsidies for fossil fuels.
4) Estimate the approximate revenues to financial firms if they financed the implementation of the technology combinations shown above on a global scale. This includes bridge financing and Green Bond issuance.
5) Estimate the approximate revenues to manufacturers and construction firms if they implemented the technology combinations shown above on a global scale.
6) Estimate the approximate potential revenues to key oil and gas produce countries including Russia, Saudi Arabia if the technology combinations were implemented on a substantial scale.
7) Compare common arguments for and against CCUS and develop a plan to build-broad based support very-large scale action using CCUS.
8) Develop a strategic plan to create awareness of the economic benefits of the technology combinations shown above to oil-producing countries and companies.
9) Develop a strategic plan to integrate economics and security into the global scale-up of the technology combinations shown above.
C. Additional background information:
An opportunity has emerged for large-scale carbon emissions mitigation in a relatively short amount of time. This opportunity has emerged due to a new breakthrough technology called the Allam-Fetvedt Cycle or simple the Allam Cycle, which enables 100% carbon capture for power plants fueled by natural gas, bio-gas, syngas from coal and diesel fuel. A power plant using this proven technology can be combined with proven technologies such as renewable energy farms, direct air capture (DAC) and vertical farms to provide the following benefits:
- Low-cost reliable power to the nearby electrical grid even when wind and/or solar farms are not generating power.
- Substantial negative carbon emissions.
- Jobs for people to manufacture and construct these systems for use in and outside of Canada.
- Helps build an industry that utilizes CO2 for productive uses including vertical farming, which supports food security.
- Helps workers, companies and governments that depend on income from fossil fuels to transition to a low-carbon economy.
- Helps build political support to transition to a low carbon economy.
- Low-cost reliable power to the nearby electrical grid even when wind and/or solar farms are not generating power.
Recently, Kanata Clean Power & Climate Technologies Corp (“Kanata”) and Frog Lake First Nation announced their plans to build a 300 MW Allam Cycle-based power plant. Frog Lake First Nation is a Cree-speaking Treaty 6 Nation in Alberta. For more info, visit: CBC News Article. Kanata is interested to implement similar types of projects in Ontario.
The Allam Cycle technology is owned by NET Power, which is a licensing company that enables others to manufacture and construct the needed equipment under license. NET Power is owned by Exelon Corporation, McDermott International, Occidental Petroleum Corporation, and 8 Rivers Capital. Since an Allam Cycle-based power plant uses similar type of equipment as a conventional power plant, I expect virtually all of the needed equipment for this new type of power plant can be manufactured and constructed by Ontario-based companies.
To illustrate this combination of technologies, our team at ClimateSAN, created a short (3 min.) animated video, which is embedded in this webpage: Opportunity for Rapid Large-Scale Carbon Emissions Mitigation. In addition, we created an extended short video that illustrates a system that combines power generation from fossil fuels with renewable energy generation and Direct Air Capture (DAC) of CO2. This extended short (6-min.) video is shown just below the 3-min. video on the same webpage.
This expanded combination of technologies enables reliable power to the electric grid and the entire project to be substantially carbon-emissions negative. As a result, we expect this project can be constructed with bridge financing and after it is operational, be refinanced with Green Bonds. The buyers of these Green Bonds would likely be financial institutions that are concerned about climate change such as members of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), which have a combined total of over $70 trillion dollars in assets under management.
The Canadian Federal Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Offset System, which is under development, may adequately fund the operating cost of the DAC component of this combined system in projects in Canada, however, further analysis is needed. Fortunately, due to considerable investment and innovation in the DAC sector, the cost of capturing carbon from the air is declining substantially. As well, recent news about climate change is expected to increase pressure for a substantial price on carbon emissions in many developed countries including Canada. For some recent example articles that are particularly notable, visit: Articles Indicating the Need for Large-scale Climate Action.
To view a brochure about this opportunity: Opportunity for Rapid Large-Scale Carbon Emissions Mitigation Brochure.
Given below is a summary of draft calculations completed by TerraFixing regarding combining their DAC technology with the Allam Cycle:
TerraFixing’s DAC technology can be incorporated neatly into the Allam Cycle. Our technology can replace the front-end purification unit while being able to capture and concentrate 9.7 [metric] tons of CO2/day from the air (for a 300MW power plant). This will cost approximately 0.4 MW to run. Another opportunity for our technology lies in using the Allam Cycle to power our DAC process. With energies as low as 1 MWh/[metric] tonCO2, a 300 MW Allam Cycle power plant could power 7200 [metric] tons of CO2 being capture per day using TerraFixing’s technology. This would equate to 2.6 million [metric] tons of CO2 being capture per year. For more details, see: https://climatesan.org/share/TerraFixing-Carbon-Capture-Technology-Powered-by-Allam-Cycle-PowerPlant.pdf
The potential impact of combining an Allam Cycle Power Plant with TerraFixing’s DAC is very large and can be replicated in many areas of the world. This type of plant can be located anywhere in cold and dry areas that have a sufficient source of natural gas and appropriate geological formations for sequestering CO2. Many areas in northern Canada and Alaska meet these criteria. Therefore, there are many locations where this type of combined power and DAC plant can be built.
Captured and sequestered CO2 could facilitate enhanced natural gas recovery. The recovered gas could be fed into the Allam Cycle power plant so that the whole process of power generation would be closed loop and when combined with DAC, would be substantially net-negative in carbon emissions.
After local electrical demand is satisfied by the power plant, all the remaining power could be used to power the DAC. Therefore, there is no need to install long-distance power-lines to customers – there only needs to be a price on carbon that is high enough to cover the cost of capturing and sequestering carbon. This price level on carbon already exists in some countries and can be expected to be implemented in more countries due to the increasing alarm about climate change.