Tamar Hallerman
GHG Monitor
9/20/13
A Colorado firm has won a $15 million grant from the Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy to further develop an imidazole-based carbon capture system, according to Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.). Udall issued a statement late last week congratulating the Boulder-based ION Engineering on the funding, which his office says will go toward scale-up testing of the company’s solvent-based post-combustion capture system at sites in Colorado, North Dakota and Nebraska. “As our nation pursues a balanced energy portfolio and works to address global warming, we need to find new and innovative ways to capture carbon dioxide from power plant emissions. ION Engineering’s exciting and job-creating project holds the promise of vastly improving our abilities to sequester more carbon and help reduce the effects of traditional energy sources like coal and natural gas on our climate,” Udall said in a Sept. 12 statement. DOE and ION did not respond to requests for comment this week.
The low-volatility organic solvent used by ION has received buzz in recent years because of its low boiling point, which means it consumes less energy to separate CO2 from flue gas. Udall had written to acting Assistant Secretary of Fossil Energy (FE) Chris Smith on behalf of ION pushing the company’s candidacy for funding under the grant program, which seeks to fund bench- and pilot-scale pre- and post-combustion capture technologies for coal plants. “I ask that you give the grant application submitted by ION Engineering every appropriate consideration consistent with all applicable laws and regulations,” Udall wrote in June. ION has received multiple DOE grants in recent years to advance its imidazole-based solvent for carbon capture. It received a $3 million DOE grant in 2010 to build a bench-scale carbon capture unit and also netted a smaller FE grant of $150,000 earlier this spring. A University of Alabama professor affiliated with ION was recently granted a patent for an imidazole capture system.
