Clément Cid, CEO and co-founder of Mitico on May 23rd, 2024.
The US EPA recently released a ground-breaking rule making carbon dioxide (CO2) capture a requirement for all coal-fired power-plants and new gas-fired power plants.
“Coal plants that plan to stay open beyond 2039 would have to cut or capture 90% of their carbon dioxide emissions by 2032, the EPA said. Plants that expect to retire by 2039 would face a less stringent standard but still would have to capture some emissions” Associated Press, 4/25/24.
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As an Environmental Scientist and Engineer, I was taught the value of the Clean Air (2) and Clean Water (3) Acts that cemented the power of the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) and provided for healthier water ways and neighborhoods over the past half-century. These regulations have provided evolving frameworks of regulating emissions that are now common sense and part of doing business. A classical case are NOx and SOx removal technologies. They were invented for and commercialized to provide solutions for point source emitters to meet more stringent air quality standards.
As an example, NOx removal through Selective Catalytic Removal/Reduction (SCR) is installed in 650 Combined Cycle Gas-fired Power Plants (CCGT) with an average capital cost from $160 to $50 per kW produced (4,5). This added cost to the projects have clear benefits: for each dollar spent to follow Clean Air Act Amendment mandates, thirty dollars were saved in reducing mortality and healthcare costs, and in improving environmental and other welfare effects (6).
Today as we grapple with the effects of a changing climate and acknowledge the major role of CO2 emissions as a cause, we realize that CO2 abatement from large (point) sources of greenhouse gas is key in reducing this global pollution problem. The new EPA rules on reducing CO2 emissions 75% below 2005 levels by 2035 and 83% by 2040 (7) come down again to cost-benefit and technology analyses: can we effectively and cheaply capture CO2 so we can decarbonize our industries fast and without an insurmountable burden to the emitters passed down to the customers.
With the signing of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in 2022 and the now famous paragraph 45(q) tax credit on CCS, combatting CO2 pollution can be offset by generous tax incentives.
At Mitico, we have developed the lowest-cost carbon capture technology that can be applicable to power industry emitters faced with EPA’s regulations on carbon emissions, as well as to other industries that are willing to “walk the walk” on reducing their Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, meaning directly reducing the CO2 emitted at their facilities and by their suppliers (e.g. electricity providers).
Our Centennial system deployed to a third-party test and validation site this summer is Mitico's first big step in this direction. Centennial is a modular, versatile, and automated carbon capture technology utilizing Mitico’s proprietary granulated metal carbonate (GMC) sorbent. With a low environmental-footprint and minimal power requirements, we capture and purify the CO2, and then provide it to customers for utilization.
