Dr. Stephen C. Bates, President                Thoughtventions Unlimited LLC

thought@tvu.com                                        www.tvu.com

CO₂ Capture Team Members:

            Prof. Savas Yavuzkurt  Pennsylvania State University                               

1) Distribute CO₂ absorbent particles throughout the flowing gas in any hydrocarbon combustion exhaust duct.

2) The particles absorb the CO₂ from the gases flowing through duct as they fall through it, with only a small effect on the flow.

3) Wash (water) the CO₂ off of the particles and reactivate the particles.

4) Recycle the particles and repeat the process.

**  Process does not disturb the flow - low pressure drop

**  Process tolerates exhaust gas properties - humidity, corrosion, etc.

**  Process is energy efficient.

**  Apparatus is inexpensive - both in terms of capital investment and operating cost.

**  Apparatus can be retrofitted to existing facility (probably during operation!) - no major new installation.

Thoughtventions Unlimited LLC (TvU) is currently negotiating with Reliant Energy Inc. to install a pilot facility in a slipstream of one of their power plants.

Is global warming like the weather – people talk about it, but there’s nothing that we can do about it? A team in Connecticut does not believe that that adage applies to the contribution of CO₂ gas from industrial society – the major contributor to global warming. Thoughtventions Unlimited LLC (TvU), of Glastonbury, CT with Pennsylvania State University (PSU) is working on a solution to this problem. The team believes that they have found a technique that can grab the CO₂ out of power plant exhausts before it goes up the smoke stack, creating a process that is the final step in turning oil and coal into a real clean energy source.

Coal-fired power plants emit nearly 60% of the total carbon emissions of our country, and as dirty as they are we can’t afford to shut them down. Previous and current techniques under development to clean up these and cleaner oil and gas plants are so expensive that they will only be used if there is no other way – they would make our energy much more expensive. The TvU team’s approach could buy us enough time to develop alternate sources of energy. It is estimated that the US has enough coal reserves to last for over 200 years; a clean coal technology could reduce our dependence on oil imports from the rest of the world.

One of the big obstacles to this practice of capturing and storing/using the CO₂ now is the cost, which, for a 1,000 megawatt power plant would be as high as half again as much as it currently costs to generate the power. If successful, the TvU/PSU method has the potential to reduce the cost by a factor of ten, making it far more economical and manageable.

This new approach would allow the major sources of CO₂ to go green - use on traditional energy sources without adding to global warming since no CO₂ would be released into the atmosphere.

This technique is sound but novel science initially funded by a $100,000 NSF grant will allow technical feasibility to be demonstrated. The next step is a $500,000 NSF follow-on program coupled with industry support to build a prototype device. The NSF panel of scientists evaluating this program noted the potential importance of this research since it centers on the necessity of reducing carbon emissions as being critical to safe-guard the environment.

This is a radically new approach to battling pollution and global warming, and as far as Team knows, the team is the only one in the region working on it.