Projects aim to make the most of captured CO2

The projects will be supported with $106m (£69m) from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and matched with $156m in private money.

With its share of the funds, aluminium giant Alcoa is to optimise a pilot-scale process that converts flue gas CO₂ into soluble bicarbonate and carbonate using an in-duct scrubber system featuring an enzyme catalyst. The carbonate product could then be used as construction fill material, soil amendments, and green fertiliser.

Novomer, on the other hand, has teamed up with Albemarle Corporation and Eastman Kodak to develop a process for converting waste CO₂ into a number of polycarbonate products (plastics) for use in the packaging industry. Novomer’s novel catalyst technology enables CO₂ to react with petrochemical epoxides to create a family of thermoplastic polymers that are up to 50 per cent by weight CO₂.

For their part, researchers at Touchstone Research will pilot-test an open-pond algae production technology that can capture at least 60 per cent of flue gas CO₂ from an industrial coal-fired source to produce biofuel and other high-value co-products. Lipids extracted from harvested algae will be converted to a biofuel, and an anaerobic digestion process will be developed and tested for converting residual biomass into methane.