CO2 into Baking Soda

[altenergygeek]

Of late, there have been a number of efforts to turn a problem into an opportunity - that is, to convert CO2 into something valuable. The latest I heard was efforts by some companies to convert CO2 into baking soda. Texas, Austin-based carbon capture company Skyonic will get $3 million in stimulus funding to add its technology to a San Antonio cement plant and turn carbon dioxide into baking soda. The Capitol-SkyMine® plant is targeted to capture 75,000 metric-tonnes of CO2 from flue gas emitted by Capitol Aggregates’ cement plant and mineralize the carbon dioxide-emissions as baking soda, while also offsetting an additional 200,000 metric-tonnes of CO2 in the manufacture of benign chemical byproducts. According to the reports, the plant will operate at a profit, due to the sale of these byproducts. The mineralized carbon dioxide (baking soda) will be used in several industrial applications and even tested as feed-stock for bio-algae fuels. It is also expected that the company will neutralize acid-rain emissions, and reduce mercury and heavy metals emissions. ([URL="http://powerplantccs.com/blog/2010/03/co2-into-baking-soda-skyonic-gets-3m-stimulus-funding.html"]Source - Power Plant CCS Blog[/URL])