Industry, academic and government organizations have formed an alliance to commercialize technologies that utilize concentrated solar energy to convert waste carbon dioxide (CO2) into diesel fuel.
The alliance team members include Sandia National Laboratories, Renewable Energy Institute International (REII), Pacific Renewable Fuels, Pratt Whitney Rocketdyne (a United Technologies Division), Quanta Servicesn (NYSE: PWR), Desert Research Institute and Clean Energy Systems. In addition, commercial partners have signed on to advance work on the first round of commercial plants.
The project team has received a first phase of funding from the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) to demonstrate these technologies.
As envisioned, the solar reforming technology platform will be colocated next to industrial facilities that have waste CO2 streams such as coal power plants, natural gas processing facilities, ethanol plants, cement production facilities and other stationary sources of CO2.
"Sandia began working on research, development and demonstration of
solar reforming technologies more than 20 years ago. We are pleased for
the opportunity to extend these concepts in a public/private partnership
that we expect will accelerate commercialization to accomplish our
joint goals of CO2 emissions reduction and domestic fuel production,"
said Ellen Stechel, recycling CO2 program development lead for Sandia
National Laboratories.
A solar reforming system is currently being demonstrated in Sacramento,
Calif., and demonstrations will continue both at Sandia’s facilities in
New Mexico and at a power plant project site in Bakersfield, Calif.
Planning for the first round of commercial plants is under way at
several locations in the U.S. The project team anticipates that
deployment of the first commercial plants can begin in 2013.
In May, renewable fuel company Joule announced an additional $30 million in funding for a process it says can directly produce liquid fuel from sunlight and waste carbon dioxide (CO2) using proprietary microorganisms.
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