CHEYENNE, Wyo (AP) – Organizers of a $ 20 million contest for developing greenhouse gases flowing from power plants announced two winners Monday before launching a similar but much bigger competition with Elon Musk.
Both winners made concrete that trapped carbon dioxide, keeping it out of the atmosphere, where it could contribute to climate change. Cement production, the main ingredient of concrete, accounts for 7% of global greenhouse gas emissions, said Marcius Extavour, XPRIZE vice president of climate and energy.
“It is therefore not surprising that the winning teams have focused on reducing the emissions associated with concrete, which will be a game changer for global drainage,” he said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Musk, the electric car and space entrepreneur, has pledged $ 100 million to researchers who can show how to capture large amounts of carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere and store the gas permanently. This competition starts on Thursday, it’s Earth Day.
‘We want teams that will build real systems that can make a measurable impact and scale to gigaton level. Whatever it takes. Time is of the essence, ”Musk, founder and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, said in February.
Both contests are organized by XPRIZE, which encourages new technology by raising prize money for demonstrating achievements. The best known is that Mojave Aerospace Ventures won a $ 10 million XPRIZE in 2004 by flying a privately funded, reusable rocket aircraft into space for the first time.
The $ 20 million price announced Monday has two parts: one at a coal-fired power station in Wyoming and the other at a gas-fired power station in Alberta, Canada. The competition focused on the use of carbon dioxide trapped from the smoke stacks of the plants, and the winners showed that they can trap the emissions in cement and in some cases make stronger concrete.
The winner of the Los Angeles-based Wyoming plant, CarbonBuilt, used carbon dioxide to cure concrete and trapped it in a process that also releases less greenhouse gases compared to traditional cement production, according to XPRIZE.
The winner in Alberta was CarbonCure Technologies, based in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, which showed that it can inject carbon dioxide into water used to flush cement trucks and mixers at a cement plant, giving XPRIZE a mixture that is stronger concrete make.
The two winners will split $ 15 million. Ten finalists split the other $ 5 million in 2018.
The U.S. part of the game took place at the Wyoming Integrated Test Center, a facility at a coal-fired power station near the city of Gillette, which provides research on ways to capture and use carbon dioxide in real-world scenarios.
Governor Mark Gordon has often cited the research center as an example of Wyoming’s interest in finding solutions to climate change – which could potentially save the state’s declining coal industry in the process.
U.S. coal production has halved over the past fifteen years as utilities get more electricity from renewable energy and cheaper natural gas. About 40% of American coal comes from Wyoming, more than any other state.
The state covers three-quarters of the $ 20 million cost of the Wyoming Integrated Test Center, which opened in 2018.
“Carbon management will not be a one-time fit,” said Jason Begger, the center’s managing director. “A cement plant may not make much sense at a power station in Wyoming, but it may make a lot of sense in Japan.”
Wyoming officials have expressed interest in taking part in the Musk-funded XPRIZE contest, but have not heard from him, Gordon spokesman Michael Pearlman said.
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