The Liberty Lake startup CarbonQuest has landed contracts with New York City apartment owner Glenwood Management to install its carbon-capture systems in five buildings. The system aims to disrupt the global warming cycle by capturing CO2 emissions before they escape into the air.
The system doesn’t alter the building’s existing boilers, but rather runs the flue gases through a series of steps to isolate and pressurize the CO2. Tank trucks pick up the liquified CO2 for delivery to companies that use it, like green concrete manufacturing.
What is Carbon Dioxide?
Carbon dioxide (abbreviated CO2) is a clear, odorless gas with the chemical formula CH2O. It is the primary carbon series source for living organisms on Earth, and is found in the atmosphere at ambient pressure. It is one of many molecules in which carbon can be bonded to two oxygen atoms through a covalent double bond. It does not burn or react with most substances at normal temperatures and pressures, but can be dissolved in water to form the weak acid carbonic acid, H2CO3, which is used in industrial processes such as producing alcoholic beverages and some plastics.
Despite its bad reputation as a greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide is a vital part of the Earth's biosphere and plays an important role in the global carbon cycle. In the natural environment, CO2 is produced through photosynthesis by the breakdown of organic matter such as plants and microbes. This process releases oxygen into the atmosphere as a byproduct, and places such as forests and oceans act as massive carbon "sinks" removing CO2 from the atmosphere. Carbon is then reincorporated into living organisms or burned to produce energy. When these organisms die or are burned, the carbon is released back into the air as CO2.
The CO2 emitted by burning fossil fuels is rapidly increasing the concentration of atmospheric CO2, which has caused a rise in global temperature that is harming the Earth's climate system and creating other problems. The challenge is to reduce human emissions of CO2 to mitigate these effects and prevent the Earth's temperature from rising even further.
How does Carbon Dioxide Work?
Carbon dioxide is a colorless gas that has one central carbon atom attached to two oxygen atoms through covalent bonding. Its role in the Earth’s atmosphere is complex. It is a greenhouse gas, meaning it helps the atmosphere trap some of the solar radiation that would otherwise be lost to space by reflecting it back toward the Earth. Without it, Earth’s temperature would be much lower.
Plants, oceans, and soil act as natural carbon sinks that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in underground or underwater deposits or in roots and tree trunks. But human activities, such as burning fossil fuels, are adding so much carbon to the atmosphere and ocean that these natural processes can’t keep up. The result is that the Earth’s temperature is rising faster than it should.
This is the first onsite system to achieve this, and CarbonQuest’s technology has been installed at the Grand Tier, a 375,000-square-foot apartment building owned by Glenwood Management in Manhattan. The system taps into the two massive natural gas boilers that provide heating for the Grand Tier and runs the fumes through a series of steps to isolate the carbon dioxide. The captured gas is then stored in a pressurized liquid form. The company plans to sell the liquified carbon dioxide to companies that can use it in products such as fiber, composites, and synthetic diamonds.
The system also addresses a local law that penalizes large buildings for exceeding certain emission limits, starting in 2024 and ratcheting up in 2030. Johnson says the CarbonQuest system will eliminate about 25 percent of Glenwood’s building emissions and allow the company to avoid penalties under the new law.
Why is Carbon Dioxide So Important?
Carbon dioxide is one of Earth’s most important greenhouse gases, a molecule that helps the planet keep some of the heat it receives from the Sun without it all radiating away into space. It’s also an essential gas for life on Earth, allowing plants to absorb energy from the Sun and turn it into food.
Scientists have known about carbon dioxide for thousands of years, but it wasn’t until 1958 that atmospheric measurements began with Charles Keeling, a Scripps Institution of Oceanography atmospheric scientist who manned the observation station at Mauna Loa on the Big Island of Hawaii. He and his colleagues were tracking a variety of data from the air, including carbon dioxide, and found that its concentration in the air was steadily increasing.
Most of the world’s carbon is stored in rocks and sediments, but about a quarter is in the atmosphere and living organisms. When these organisms die, they release carbon dioxide into the air. Volcanic outgassing, wildfires and slash-and-burn agriculture are other sources of carbon dioxide. Combustion of fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum and natural gas is another major source.
CarbonQuest currently employs 12 people at its headquarters in the Spokane Business & Industrial Park, but the team hopes to double that number this year as the company moves into larger office and lab space. The team has landed contracts with several large New York buildings, including Glenwood Management’s portfolio of luxury apartment buildings, which are subject to city regulations that penalize owners who exceed carbon emission limits.
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