New Scrubber Technology Reduces Greenhouse Gas Emissions

AUSTIN, Texas -- Skyonic Corporation, a chemical engineering company developing technologies to safely recycle carbon emissions into economic mineral resources, announced a new scrubber technology that can remove virtually all sulfur oxides (SOx) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) emitted from flue gas stacks.

This new scrubber technology, SkyScraper, is designed to help refining, power and other industrial plants safely treat flue gas streams and have the potential to mitigate rising environmental concerns around fly ash. SkyScraper captures between 97-99 percent of pollutants found in exhaust gases, including SOx, NO2, mercury (Hg) and other heavy metals, and mineralizes these and other toxins while producing marketable byproducts, including chlorine and hydrogen.

This month, new regulations imposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will take effect, designed to decrease the greenhouse gases (GHGs) deemed most detrimental to the environment and human health under the Clean Air Act of 1970.

The largest fossil-fuel power plants (utility and refinery sectors) will be affected by the new rules first, in addition to any new construction facilities that will emit more than 100,000 tons of CO2 or GHGs annually. Existing plants that also modify facilities resulting in a 75,000-ton increase in annual emissions will have to meet these guidelines. SkyScraper addresses the GHG rules within these new mandates, while also providing a means for coal power plants to comply with other impending EPA rules that place challenging restrictions on the emissions of SOx and NOx, Hg and other pollutants from coal-fired plants.

"SkyScraper was specifically developed to provide a more effective alternative to scrubbing methods today," said Joe Jones, Skyonic's CEO and Founder. "Current wet-limestone and SCR scrubbing is only scalable to large (400 MW or greater) equivalents and costs $400 - 650/KW capital. SkyScraper can operate down to the 10MW equivalent level and costs less per KW. Additionally, current scrubbing technologies release CO2 as they capture acid gases; in contrast, this technology does not release any CO2, which is consistent with Skyonic's overall mission.

The patent-pending SkyScraper technology is a post-combustion process, and can be easily retrofitted to existing infrastructures or implemented as a new facility is being planned and built. It joins SkyMine, Skynonic's patented, for-profit carbon removal and mineralization technology, and expands the options for use by industrial plants to clean their facilities, while addressing air quality requirements.

A key advantage of SkyScraper is its scalability to scrub almost all toxins found in flue gas streams, including 99.9 percent SOx and 99 percent NO2. It achieves this by forcing an energy-efficient chemical reaction between the gases and an electrochemically generated caustic soda. The system also removes 97 percent Hg and other heavy metals with a separate unit.

This new technology helps coal plants eliminate the risks associated with coal ash, such as groundwater pollution, contamination of connected surface waters or generation of toxic vapors. Deployed in combination with the SkyMine technology, significant potential exists to eliminate the risks associated with coal ash disposal through its environmentally-safe approach to mineralizing smokestack emissions as baking soda, an ideal substance for long-term storage. Research has linked exposure to coal ash components, including arsenic, lead, and chromium and other toxic compounds to cancer and other health problems.

SOURCE: Skyonic Corporation