CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) – $ 20 million competition to develop greenhouse gas products flowing from power plants announced winners on Monday before launching a similar but much larger competition by Elon Musk .
Both winners made concrete that trapped carbon dioxide, keeping it out of the atmosphere, where it can contribute to climate change. Cement production, the key ingredient in concrete, accounts for 7% of global greenhouse gas emissions, said Marcius Extavour, XPRIZE’s vice president of climate and energy.
“It is therefore not surprising that the winning teams have focused on reducing emissions associated with concrete, which will change the game for global decarbonisation,” he said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Musk, the car and electric space entrepreneur, has promised $ 100 million to researchers who can show how to capture huge volumes of carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere and store gas permanently. This competition will start on Thursday, which is Earth Day.
“We want teams to build real systems that can have a measurable impact and expand to a gigaton level. Everything you need. Time is of the essence, ”said Musk, founder and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, in February.
Both competitions are organized by XPRIZE, which encourages new technologies by awarding cash prizes to demonstrate achievements. Most famously, Mojave Aerospace Ventures earned a $ 10 million XPRIZE in 2004, the first to fly a privately funded reusable rocket aircraft into space several times.
The $ 20 million prize announced Monday had two parts: one at a coal-fired power plant in Wyoming and the other at a gas-fired power plant in Alberta, Canada. The competition focused on the use of carbon dioxide taken from plant chimneys, and the winners showed that they can trap emissions into cement, making concrete stronger in some cases.
The winner at the Wyoming plant, CarbonBuilt, based in Los Angeles, used carbon dioxide to cure the concrete, trapping it in a process that also emitted fewer greenhouse gases compared to production. traditional cement, according to XPRIZE.
The winner in Alberta was CarbonCure Technologies, based in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, which showed that it can inject carbon dioxide into the water used to wash cement trucks and mixers at a cement plant, resulting in a mixture that makes the concrete more durable. , according to XPRIZE.
The two winners will share $ 15 million. Ten finalists shared the other $ 5 million in 2018.
The US part of the competition took place at the Wyoming Integrated Test Center, a coal-fired power plant near Gillette, which hosts research on ways to capture and use carbon dioxide in real-world scenarios.
The Mark Gordon government has often supported the research center as an example of Wyoming’s interest in finding solutions to climate change – thus keeping the coal industry in decline.
US coal production has halved in the past 15 years as utilities get more electricity from renewable sources and cheaper natural gas. About 40% of US coal comes from Wyoming, more than any other far-flung state.
The state covered three-quarters of the $ 20 million cost of the Wyoming Integrated Test Center, which opened in 2018.
“Carbon management will not be a unique model,” said Jason Begger, the center’s general manager. “A cement plant may not make much sense at a Wyoming plant, but it might make a lot of sense in Japan.”
Wyoming officials have expressed interest in participating in the Musk-funded XPRIZE contest, but have received no response from him, Gordon spokesman Michael Pearlman said.
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