Aug 10 2010
Carbon Sciences Inc. (OTCBB: CABN), the developer of a breakthrough technology to transform greenhouse gases into gasoline and other portable fuels, today announced the successful synthesis of a proprietary raw catalyst, an essential step toward demonstrating commercial feasibility of the technology.
"In June of this year, we filed a landmark patent application for our breakthrough CO2 based Gas-to-Liquids technology," said CEO Byron Elton. "The production of this catalyst is the actual laboratory scale implementation of the catalyst formulation and its synthesis process disclosed in the patent. It is a major step forward for us," he added.
The major challenge in CO2 based GTL reactions is the activation of stable carbon dioxide and methane molecules. This company's novel and proprietary catalyst provides a simpler and cleaner route by activating these stable molecules and converting them to gasoline. Gas-to-liquid reactions are regulated through temperature, concentration, pressure and contact time. This catalyst accelerates these reactions, enabling them to be carried out under the most favorable thermodynamic regime and at much lower temperature and pressure. "Our catalyst, in conjunction with an optimized reactor and total plant design, will be the key factors in reducing both the capital and operating costs of our next generation GTL technology," Elton said.
"A fully active and stable catalyst will be the key to our success," said Dr. Naveed Aslam, inventor of the technology. "Synthesizing our proprietary raw catalyst is a vital step in a multi-stage catalyst synthesis and activation process," he added.
Gas-to-liquids (GTL) is a complimentary refinery processes that converts natural gas and other gaseous hydrocarbons into longer chain hydrocarbons such as gasoline. Carbon Sciences estimates that they can produce 138 billion gallons of gasoline a year (the annual amount used in the U.S.) with 23 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 586 million tons of CO2 without using crude oil or competing with current natural gas consumption.