MOF Sorbent on a Roll – A Scalable Solution for Gigaton Scale Carbon Capture

• Results of research published today in the international peer-reviewed journal, Science.
• A durable and scalable metal-organic framework (MOF) captures CO₂ with high capacity, high stability and selectivity over steam with modest regeneration penalty.

Svante Inc. announced today the successful scale-up of a new sorbent material used in carbon capture processes. This sorbent can capture up to 95% of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emitted from industrial sources, such as cement and blue hydrogen plants, using rapid solid adsorption and low temperature steam.

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Metal-organic frameworks (MOF) for CO2 capture. (Graphic: Business Wire)

By engineering the structure of the metal-organic framework (MOF) nano-material, Svante’s team of scientists, along with University of Calgary’s professor George Shimizu and his team of faculty and students, have been working collaboratively for four (4) years to develop and scale-up this novel sorbent material that acts as a sponge for adsorbing CO₂. Results of the research were accepted to be published today in the international peer-reviewed journal, Science. These results demonstrated the very special characteristics of this sorbent together with its resistance to oxidation and water vapor, allowing CO₂ to be captured at low cost using Svante’s proprietary structured adsorbent filter.

Solid sorbents are a step change for carbon capture but the challenge is to merge all of the desirable commercially viable features into a robust framework material with a low manufacturing cost. Calgary Framework 20 (CALF-20) is a metal-organic framework that addresses this challenge and captures CO₂ with high capacity and selectivity over water. “For high performance CO₂ capture and removal, steam stripping – where direct contact steam is used to flush CO₂ out of the sorbent – has been a sort of holy grail in the field. It is seen as the most effective way to do it,” said Claude Letourneau, President & CEO of Svante Inc. “This MOF material, combined with our proprietary structured adsorption filter, is a game-changer. We have the technology to reduce the capital cost of CO₂ capture. Now we need to scale up this technology and commercialize it to create a viable marketplace for CO₂”.

Svante, in collaboration with BASF, have successfully scaled-up the CALF-20 MOF sorbent from laboratory to industrial size by using a simple low temperature process in accordance with green chemistry principles. Scalability and low cost of solid sorbent are imperative since the quantity of sorbent required for a typical cement flue gas carbon capture plant is in the range of 200 tonnes. Furthermore, over two thousand carbon capture plants need to be deployed by 2040 or equivalent to commission two world-class CO₂ capture plants per week for the next 20 years. Up until now, large scale production of MOF materials at low cost had been a barrier for the gas separation industry.

In addition to scaling-up the MOF (CALF-20) manufacturing process, Svante has developed a high volume and low-cost roll-to-roll process for coating the sorbent onto a sheet laminate called “Sorbent on a Roll”. This laminate is then stacked into a high-performance filter with low pressure drop and high CO₂ capacity.

About Svante

Svante offers companies in emissions-intensive industries a viable way to capture large-scale CO₂ emissions from existing infrastructure, either for safe storage or to be used for further industrial use in a closed loop. With the ability to capture CO₂ directly from industrial sources at less than half the capital cost of existing solutions, Svante makes industrial-scale carbon capture a reality. Svante’s technology is currently being deployed in the field at pilot plant-scale by industry leaders in the energy and cement manufacturing sectors. The CO₂MENT Pilot Plant Project – a partnership between Lafarge (Holcim) and TotalEnergies. – is operating a 1 tonne per day (TPD) plant in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada that will re-inject captured CO₂ into concrete, while the construction and commissioning of a 30 TPD demonstration plant was completed in 2019 at an industrial facility in Lloydminster, Saskatchewan, Canada. A 25 TPD demonstration plant is currently under design and construction at Chevron U.S.A. located near Bakersfield, California. In addition, several feasibility studies for commercial scale carbon capture projects ranging from 500 to 4,500 TPD are underway in North America and Europe.

Svante Inc. has selected Kiewit Engineering Group Inc. to provide engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services for two US DOE funded carbon capture projects. On September 1, 2020, the United States Department of Energy’s National Energy Laboratory Technology (DOE-NETL) through Electricore awarded $1,500,000 in federal funding for cost-shared development to support the initial engineering analysis and advancement of the LH CO₂MENT Colorado first-of-a-kind commercial project of up to 1.5 million tonnes per year of CO₂; and $13,000,000 in federal funding for the cost-shared development to support the design, construction and operation of a second-of-a-kind engineering-scale carbon capture plant at Chevron’s Kern River oil field in the San Joaquin Valley, California. Both of these US DOE-NETL projects are using the novel CALF-20 MOF sorbent material.

Svante has attracted more than USD$195 million in investment since it was founded in 2007 including the recent CDN$25 million investment from the Government of Canada’s Strategic Innovation Fund. Svante is building scalable supply chain for active capture materials to address a broad carbon capture and removal solutions offering at Gigaton scale. Svante’s Board of Directors includes Nobel Laureate and former US Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu, and Chairman Steven Berkenfeld, former Head of Industrial & Cleantech Practice at Barclays Capital. To learn more about Svante’s technology, click here or visit Svante’s website www.svanteinc.com, LinkedIn or Twitter (@svantesolutions).

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