Developed by Svante, our technology captures carbon dioxide from flue gas, concentrates it, then releases it for safe storage or industrial use, all in 60 seconds.
Our approach is tailored specifically to the challenges of separating CO₂ from nitrogen contained in diluted flue gas generated by industrial plants such as cement, steel, aluminum, fertilizer and hydrogen, which is typically emitted in large volumes, at low pressures, and dilute concentrations.
We are using tailor-made nano-materials (solid adsorbents) with very high storage capacity for carbon dioxide. A sugar-cube sized quantity of our material has the surface area of a football field. We have engineered these adsorbents to catch and release CO₂ in less than 60 seconds, compared to hours for other technologies.
Therefore, we need a much smaller inventory of adsorbent relative to traditional technology using liquid solvent.
Svante’s carbon capture technology consists of a patented architecture of structured adsorbent laminate (spaced sheets), proprietary process cycle design, and a rotary mechanical contactor to capture, release and regenerate the adsorbent in a single unit.
The Structured Adsorbent Advantage
The commercial gas separation systems currently using adsorbents have changed little since the late 1950s. Conventional temperature swing adsorption and pressure swing adsorption processes – the two main adsorptive gas separation processes widely used in gas separation platforms – cannot provide an economically viable solution for industrial CO₂ capture due to their high capital and operating costs.
Conventional pressure swing adsorption processes using adsorbents are not well-suited to atmospheric post-combustion CO₂ capture due to the energy required to compress the large volume of gases. Conventional temperature swing adsorption processes, meanwhile, are hampered by poor heat and mass transfer properties and result in prohibitively long cycle times and large equipment costs.
The fact is conventional adsorbents are more than half a century old and lack the sophistication and properties required for economical and scalable CO₂ capture.
A new class of materials such as functionalized-silica or metal-organic frameworks exhibit far sharper temperature and pressure swing absorption and desorption, which allow for lower parasitic energy loads and faster kinetic rates.
Svante’s process is largely material agnostic, which means that when new materials are developed we anticipate lowering the cost of industrial scale carbon capture even further.
A Center For Testing and Innovation
ICS3 International Carbon Capture Center
The innovation process for new adsorbent materials from the laboratory to market can take 10 to 15 years and is very expensive, so a collaborative approach is needed to improve each step of the innovation chain.
Svante, in partnership with Electricore Inc, created ICS3 to focus on the demonstration, testing, and education of second-generation CO₂ capture technology using advanced solid adsorbent materials. The center’s objective is to move novel solid adsorbent materials from the laboratory to operational power and industrial plants, and to establish new standards in the characterization of new adsorbent materials and benchmark the performance of CO₂ capture processes using rapid cycles. The planned work is centred on Svante’s carbon capture technology platform.
Initially, the centre will leverage Svante’s state-of-the-art testing facilities in Burnaby, BC; and, subsequently, the National Carbon Capture Centre (NCCC) in Alabama, US, and Technology Centre Mongstad (TCM) in Norway. Svante demonstration units of 100-to-500 kg per day will be deployed at these testing facilities over the next few years.
