Carbon Sciences, Inc., the developer of a breakthrough technology to transform carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions into gasoline and other fuels, says that it anticipates the completion of a prototype that will demonstrate its innovative biocatalytic CO2 to fuel process by Q1 2009.

Other renewable fuel technologies such as those based on corn, sugarcane or palm seed require large amounts of energy and time to grow, process, and ferment the crops into fuel equivalents. Likewise, conventional chemical engineering approaches to creating fuel require immense energy due to high pressure and high temperature operating conditions, such as Fischer Tropsch processes.

Carbon Sciences' breakthrough technology is based on emulating certain metabolic strategies employed by living organisms where fuel molecules (hydrocarbons) are assembled from CO2 and H20 (water) through low energy biocatalytic processes. These natural biocatalytic processes occur under mild conditions due to low temperature and low pressure. The company's innovative technology allows these processes to operate on a very large industrial scale through advance nano-engineering of the biocatalysts and highly efficient process design.

Dr. Naveed Aslam, inventor of the company's technology and chief technology advisor, explained: "The prototype under development is a flexible laboratory scale setup comprising three primary sections: (1) Gas treatment section, (2) Biocatalytic reaction chamber, and (3) Fuel separation and collection chamber. It is also equipped with in-line sampling and analysis equipment to provide real-time information of process streams. We expect that the stream of CO2 can be transformed into a flammable liquid fuel."

"Our novel innovation is in the biocatalytic formulation and process that induce the biocatalysts to perform their natural function of assembling hydrocarbon molecules from CO2 and H20. The commercial viability challenge is lowering the manufacturing cost of the fuel by enabling the biocatalyst to go through many cycles before replacement. To address that challenge, we are developing a proprietary nanoparticle structure around the biocatalysts, which we expect to be available in the second version of the prototype," Dr. Aslam concluded.

Derek McLeish, Carbon Sciences' CEO, commented: "Our research shows that our CO2-to-Fuel process is linearly scalable, which means that if it works at the prototype level then there is a very good chance it'll work at a large scale. When the prototype is completed, we will intensify our business development efforts. Our ultimate goal is to license this technology to oil and gas companies and large CO2 emitters."

Tags: Carbon Sciences, Inc.