Austin, Texas-based carbon-capture firm Skyonic Corp. has raised USD$9 million from investors which include prominent oil and gas industry players. The funds will be used to begin construction on a full-scale manufacturing facility. Skyonic has said that it has a USD$35 million commitment from investors to build the San Antonio facility, which will be the country’s first commercial carbon capture and utilization plant. The plant will demonstrate the viability of capturing and reusing carbon dioxide as a profitable business-scale venture, officials said.
Investors in the project include BP, ConocoPhillips, PVS Chemicals and Northwater Capital Management. Previous investors participating in the project were Zachry Corp. and California billionaire real estate investor and venture capitalist, Carl Berg. Skyonic previously raised USD$3.25 million from investors and has received two federal grants totalling USD$28 million.
Construction of the facility on the site of Capitol Aggregates Ltd. Cement plant in San Antonio, TX, is scheduled to begin this summer.
Founder Joe Jones said that Skyonic’s carbon-capture technology uses a patented chemistry process that enables power-generation and industrial manufacturing plants to cost-effectively produce energy and products in a cleaner way.
Upon projected operation in 2014, the facility will capture 75,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year from the cement plant’s flues. The SkyMine technology converts the carbon dioxide into baking soda, hydrochloric acid and other chemicals that can be sold and also filters sulphur oxides, nitrogen dioxide, mercury and other heavy metals from the flue streams.