Six Projects to Convert Captured CO2 Emissions from Industrial Sources into Useful Products

$106 Million Recovery Act Investment will Reduce CO2 Emissions and Mitigate Climate Change

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced today the selections of six projects that aim to find ways of converting captured carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from industrial sources into useful products such as fuel, plastics, cement, and fertilizers. Funded with $106 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act -matched with $156 million in private cost-share -today's selections demonstrate the potential opportunity to use CO2 as an inexpensive raw material that can help reduce carbon dioxide emissions while producing useful by-products that Americans can use.

"These innovative projects convert carbon pollution from a climate threat to an economic resource," said Secretary Chu. "This is part of our broad commitment to unleash the American innovation machine and build the thriving, clean energy economy of the future."

Converting captured CO2 into products such as chemicals, carbonates, plastics, fuels, building materials, and other commodities is an important aspect of carbon capture and storage technology. Converting CO2 into other useful forms can help reduce carbon emissions in areas where long-term storage of CO2 is not practical. It is anticipated that large volumes of CO2 will be available as fossil fuel-based power plants and other CO2-emitting industries are equipped with CO2 emissions control technologies to comply with regulatory requirements.

The projects announced today were initially selected for a first phase funding in October 2009 as part of a $1.4 billion effort to capture CO2 from industrial sources for storage or beneficial use. Over the succeeding months, the project teams have performed experiments on innovative concepts and produced preliminary designs for pilot plants to study the feasibility of capturing and using CO2 exhausted from industrial processes. The selected projects now enter a second phase in which researchers design, construct, and operate their innovations at pilot-scale and evaluate the technical and economic feasibility of applying them commercially.

The projects selected to demonstrate the beneficial use of CO2 include:

Alcoa, Inc. (Alcoa Center, Pa.)-Alcoa's pilot-scale process will demonstrate the high efficiency conversion of flue gas CO2 into soluble bicarbonate and carbonate using an in-duct scrubber system featuring an enzyme catalyst. The bicarbonate/carbonate scrubber blow down can be sequestered as solid mineral carbonates after reacting with alkaline clay, a by-product of aluminum refining. The carbonate product can be utilized as construction fill material, soil amendments, and green fertilizer. Alcoa will demonstrate and optimize the process at their Point Comfort, Texas aluminum refining plant. (DOE Share: $11,999,359)

Novomer Inc. (Ithaca, N.Y.)-Teaming with Albemarle Corporation and the Eastman Kodak Co., Novomer will develop a process for converting waste CO2 into a number of polycarbonate products (plastics) for use in the packaging industry. Novomer's novel catalyst technology enables CO2 to react with petrochemical epoxides to create a family of thermoplastic polymers that are up to 50 percent by weight CO2. The project has the potential to convert CO2 from an industrial waste stream into a lasting material that can be used in the manufacture of bottles, films, laminates, coatings on food and beverage cans, and in other wood and metal surface applications. Novomer has secured site commitments in Rochester, NY, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Orangeburg, SC and Ithaca, NY where Phase 2 work will be performed. (DOE Share: $18,417,989)

Touchstone Research Laboratory Ltd. (Triadelphia, W. Va.)-This project will pilot-test an open-pond algae production technology that can capture at least 60 percent of flue gas CO2 from an industrial coal-fired source to produce biofuel and other high value co-products. A novel phase change material incorporated in Touchstone's technology will cover the algae pond surface to regulate daily temperature, reduce evaporation, and control the infiltration of invasive species. Lipids extracted from harvested algae will be converted to a bio-fuel, and an anaerobic digestion process will be developed and tested for converting residual biomass into methane. The host site for the pilot project is Cedar Lane Farms in Wooster, Ohio. (DOE Share: $6,239,542)

Phycal, LLC (Highland Heights, Ohio)-Phycal will complete development of an integrated system designed to produce liquid biocrude fuel from microalgae cultivated with captured CO2. The algal biocrude can be blended with other fuels for power generation or processed into a variety of renewable drop-in replacement fuels such as jet fuel and biodiesel. Phycal will design, build, and operate a CO2-to-algae-to-biofuels facility at a nominal thirty acre site in Central O'ahu (near Wahiawa and Kapolei), Hawaii. Hawaii Electric Company will qualify the biocrude for boiler use, and Tesoro will supply CO2 and evaluate fuel products. (DOE Share: $24,243,509)

Skyonic Corporation (Austin, Texas)-Skyonic Corporation will continue the development of SkyMine® mineralization technology-a potential replacement for existing scrubber technology. The SkyMine process transforms CO2 into solid carbonate and/or bicarbonate materials while also removing sulfur oxides, nitrogen dioxide, mercury and other heavy metals from flue gas streams of industrial processes. Solid carbonates are ideal for long-term, safe aboveground storage without pipelines, subterranean injection, or concern about CO2 re-release to the atmosphere. The project team plans to process CO2-laden flue gas from a Capital Aggregates, Ltd. cement manufacturing plant in San Antonio, Texas. (DOE Share: $25,000,000)

Calera Corporation (Los Gatos, Calif.)-Calera Corporation is developing a process that directly mineralizes CO2 in flue gas to carbonates that can be converted into useful construction materials. An existing CO2 absorption facility for the project is operational at Moss Landing, Calif., for capture and mineralization. The project team will complete the detailed design, construction, and operation of a building material production system that at smaller scales has produced carbonate-containing aggregates suitable as construction fill or partial feedstock for use at cement production facilities. The building material production system will ultimately be integrated with the absorption facility to demonstrate viable process operation at a significant scale. (DOE Share: $19,895,553)

Media contact(s):

(202) 586-4940

iGreenBuild’s Top 10 Premier Green Buildings

Thanks to everyone who submitted nominations for our inaugural iGreenBuild Top 10 Premier Green Buildings Contest. While every nominee deserves recognition for their innovative use of sustainable materials, their commitment to energy efficiency and preservation of natural resources, and in many cases their focus on building with a purpose, these 10 stand out. Here are our picks for the Top 10 Premier Green Buildings. Each twitter nominator will receive a copy of the book Leading With Marketing, by Brian Gallagher and Kimberly Kayler. Over the next month, we will profile each of these buildings, so check back often for details and insight into each of these exciting projects and some of the people behind them:

1. The Frontier Project- Rancho Cucamonga, CA
2. TC Williams High School- Alexandria, VA
3. Elgin Academy- Elgin, IL
4. Boston Consulting Group’s (BCG) office at Saint Anne’s Court; Dallas, TX
5. The King Pavilion@ ISU College of Design- Ames, IA
6. Genzyme Corporation- Cambridge, MA
7. Battery-Powered House- West Lancaster, CA
8. Refract House- Santa Clara, CA
9. Hawaii Preparatory Academy’s Energy Lab- Kamuela, HI
10. Jacob Burns Film Center’s Media Arts Lab- Westchester County, NY

We hope you enjoy the list, and we know you’ll enjoy getting to know these buildings. We’d love your comments on the list (even if you disagree!) and keep sending cool projects our way. You can follow us Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

AIA Introduces Tool to Help Architecture Firms Track Predicted Energy Use in Building Projects

As part of the voluntary 2030 commitment program where architecture firms and other entities in the built environment pledge to develop multi-year action plans and implement steps that can advance the American Institute of Architects’ (AIA) goal of carbon neutral buildings by the year 2030, the AIA has unveiled a new tool that generates a report on predicted energy use and project modeling.

“This tool is a valuable resource for architecture firms and will be used on their entire portfolio, not just for projects seeking green building certification,” said AIA President, George H. Miller, FAIA. “The tool was specifically developed to be simple to use and to be used by firms of all sizes on a variety of building types, large and small.”

The Excel-based reporting tool will only require the user to enter project use type (from a drop down menu), gross square footage, (GSF), yes/no questions: Is project Interior only? Is project modeled? and predicted energy use intensity (PEUI).

Based on that information, for modeled projects the tool will automatically calculate the national average site EUI for that project type and the project’s percent reduction from the national average EUI toward meeting the firm’s 2030 goal for the current year (currently 60%). For non-modeled projects, users will enter in the design standard or code and similarly the sheet will calculate the project’s contribution toward the firm’s 2030 commitment.

The excel tool will generate three easy to decipher graphs that aggregate the individually listed active projects within the Excel sheet. These three graphs represent the report that firms will forward to the AIA. The three charts will show a snapshot of the firm portfolio including: the percentage of GSF of active projects meeting the current reduction goal, the percentage of GSF being modeled and percentage of GSF for which the firm will gather actual energy performance.

Firms are asked to track all active design projects for the reporting year, not just ones that are seeking green building certification and the reports developed through the tool are meant to provide a year-to-year look of a firm’s work. Firms of all sizes and building type expertise will use the same tool and report in the same manner.

The tool can be used for any type of building project and was developed through a collaboration between members of the AIA Committee on the Environment, the AIA Large Firm Roundtable, AIA Chicago Chapter Working Group and numerous individuals from AIA member firms.

Green Building is Growing Rapidly on U.S. Campuses According to New Green Building Trends White Paper

Green Building is Growing Rapidly on U.S. Campuses According to New Green Building Trends White Paper


Green building consultant, author and keynote speaker, Jerry Yudelson publishes a new white paper revealing that sustainable management, design and operations are rapidly growing practices at American universities, leading to 3000 LEED-registered projects.

Based on a study of the LEED project database, Yudelson Associates today released a new white paper, Green Building Trends in Higher Education, covering green building on campus. The White Paper can be downloaded immediately from Yudelson Associates’ website Free Resources section: http://www.greenbuildconsult.com/books/#new .

Leading green building consultant, Jerry Yudelson, principal of Yudelson Associates and author of 12 green building books, said that American campuses now host more than 3000 LEED-registered projects, about 15 percent of the total of all LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) projects. Moreover, with nearly 600 LEED-certified projects, American colleges and universities have found a practical and highly visible way to demonstrate their commitment to sustainable practices.

According to the new Yudelson Associates white paper, based on end-of-2009 data from the U.S. Green Building Council, the four leading campuses for LEED project registrations are, in order, the University of Florida, Harvard University, the University of California at Santa Barbara and the University of Washington. The rapid growth in LEED registrations at leading campuses has come from their adoption of LEED as a way of certifying the sustainability of campus operations.

LEED for Existing Buildings Operations & Maintenance (LEED EBOM) project registrations have become increasingly popular over the past several years.

Going beyond the LEED rating system, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) recently released its Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System (STARS). This new campus sustainability rating system incorporates a number of criteria that evaluate green building achievements.

It’s so important to know what different classes of users are doing to promote green building. In this White Paper, we review the status of sustainable construction and operations on campus.

Yudelson noted, “LEED for Existing Buildings Operations & Maintenance (LEED EBOM) project registrations have become increasingly popular over the past several years.” In the view of Yudelson Associates, this is a promising change, as almost all of the building stock on college campuses already exists in any given two- to five-year period. Reducing the impacts of existing buildings is critical to meeting carbon emission reduction and green building goals.

Jaimie Galayda, PhD, research director at Yudelson Associates assisted Jerry Yudelson in the preparation of this white paper. Galayda says that there is more going on at the campuses than just LEED certification. “Going beyond the LEED rating system, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) recently released its Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System (STARS). This new campus sustainability rating system incorporates a number of criteria that evaluate green building achievements.”

In addition, the new White Paper notes that the Sustainable Endowments Institute’s (SEI) Green Report Card ranks campuses according to their sustainable achievements. Several of their criteria address green buildings specifically. The growing popularity of these rating and ranking systems is putting more pressure on campuses to build green, along with their interest in saving money by operating buildings more efficiently.


About Jerry Yudelson

Since 2005, Jerry Yudelson has written 12 books on green building, green development and water conservation, more than any other authority in the field. Yudelson also offers a unique perspective from his work providing green development consulting to national and international clients, including a major American university. Yudelson says, “It’s so important to know what different classes of users are doing to promote green building. In this White Paper, we review the status of sustainable construction and operations on campus.”


About Yudelson Associates

Yudelson Associates is a leading international firm in sustainability planning and green building consulting. The founder, Jerry Yudelson, is widely acknowledged as one of the nation’s leading green building and sustainability consultants. He is the author of 12 green building books, including the forthcoming Dry Run: Preventing the Next Urban Water Crisis (New Society Publishers, 2010), and served for two years as Research Scholar for Retail Real Estate Sustainability for the International Council of Shopping Centers, a 70,000-member international trade organization. He is a frequent green building speaker at industry and professional conferences and has chaired the industry’s largest annual show, Greenbuild, for the past six years, from 2004 through 2009.

To learn more, visit http://www.greenbuildconsult.com/  or contact Jerry Yudelson, president of Yudelson Associates at 520-207-9759.

AIA and USGBC Announce Plans For Collaboration

The The American Institute of Architects and the U.S. Green Building Council recently announced plans for collaboration between the two organizations. The following a a joint letter released by the two organizations detailing the relationship.

Last year, the boards of The American Institute of Architects and the U.S. Green Building Council established a Joint Task Force to explore how our organizations could work more closely together to advance our respective missions and give stronger voice to our shared values. The desire to use our interdependence as a catalyst for stronger collaboration was the platform from which a strategic framework for this effort was developed.

We offer a special note of gratitude for the leadership of the Joint Task Force co-chairs Gail Vittori, Immediate Past Board Chair, U.S. Green Building Council, and Clark Manus, FAIA, 2010 AIA First Vice President / 2011 President, The American Institute of Architects, who helped us identify opportunities where collaboration would yield the greatest benefit in advancing the mission of a more sustainable built environment.

In January, our senior staffs met to define a three-year action plan that includes: Collaboration around Haiti Relief: Both organizations and our members have significant expertise to offer Haiti as it begins to rebuild. Our ongoing collaboration will help inform how to proceed and how, together, we can best respond to future disasters.

Unified Sustainability Advocacy Agenda: In each of the next three years, we will develop a joint advocacy and communications plan that can be championed in conjunction with the President’s State of the Union address, including development of “issue briefs” as well as ongoing joint action on other topics of common concern, such as green affordable housing, green schools, and green healthcare facilities.

Coordinated Educational Activity: The action plan addresses the need to expand the market’s capacity to implement sustainable design practices. As such, we are moving quickly toward “reciprocal credit” for educational sessions that support each group’s credentials, the creation of a joint speakers registry, providing links to each other’s education web pages related to sustainable design, creating a common calendar, and jointly utilizing AIA’s upcoming 2010 convention in Miami as well as USGBC’s 2010 Greenbuild in Chicago as educational platforms.

As a note of progress on this effort, we are pleased to share that 107 LU/HSW/SD hours from 64
courses on sustainable design being offered at the AIA Convention in Miami are approved for
credit towards maintaining the LEED Green Associate and LEED AP specialty credentials.

Coordinated Research Opportunities: Identifying and jointly soliciting funding for research of
interest that supports our common agenda is another key action area.

Underpinning all of the specifics of the action plan is recognition of the importance of open and
ongoing communications in support of this collaborative initiative. And, to that end, we anticipate
making brief appearances at each other’s Board meetings and holding an annual joint
leadership meeting to report on our progress and discuss other strategic opportunities. These
more formal initiatives will be augmented by ongoing work between our staffs on each of the
action items.

Also, we will look for ways to highlight our collaboration with external audiences through joint
announcements and statements in newsletters, on web sites, and in other visible ways.

Both organizations are significantly strengthened through this focused collaboration and we
believe that working together advances both of our missions. We’re very excited about this new
initiative, and look forward to sharing with you the fruits of our positive engagement.

Benefits of Modern Daylighting

Daylighting a space is both an art and a science. The impact of daylight can make a building’s design and use come to life. Daylighting can be skillfully planned and well implemented, or it can be too casually considered, totally misunderstood, and negatively affect a building and its occupants. Bad daylighting is devastating to a space, and costly to counteract. Today, in this era of sustainable design, daylighting is given more consideration than ever and practitioners are encouraged to demonstrate design compliance with recommended measures of building performance, such as LEED®. To read full story, click here.

EPA Issues Second Annual Ranking of U.S. Cities with the Most Energy Efficient Buildings

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a list of U.S. metropolitan areas with the largest number of energy efficient buildings that earned EPA’s Energy Star in 2009. The list is headed by Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Denver, Chicago, Houston, Lakeland, Dallas-Fort Worth, Atlanta and New York. Energy efficiency saves building owners money and fights climate change.


"These cities see the importance of taking action on climate change," said Gina McCarthy, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation. “Communities from Los Angeles to Louisville are reducing greenhouse gases and cutting energy bills with buildings that have earned EPA's Energy Star."

EPA first issued its ranking of cities with the most Energy Star labeled buildings last year. This year, Los Angeles remains in first place; the District of Columbia picks up second; Denver and Chicago move into the top five; and Lakeland and New York City are new to the top 10.

Continuing the impressive growth of the past several years, in 2009 nearly 3,900 commercial buildings earned the Energy Star, representing annual savings of more than $900 million in utility bills and more than 4.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

Since EPA awarded the first Energy Star to a building in 1999, nearly 9,000 buildings across America have earned the Energy Star as of the end of 2009, representing more than a 40 percent increase over last year’s total. Overall annual utility savings have climbed to nearly $1.6 billion and greenhouse gas emissions equal to the emissions of more than 1 million homes a year have been prevented.

Energy use in commercial buildings accounts for 17 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions at a cost of over $100 billion per year. EPA awards the Energy Star to commercial buildings that perform in the top 25 percent of buildings nationwide compared to similar buildings. Thirteen types of buildings can earn the Energy Star, including schools, hospitals, office buildings, retail stores and supermarkets.


View a list of the Top 25 Cities in 2009 with Energy Star labeled buildings: http://www.energystar.gov/ia/business/downloads/2009_Top_25_cities_chart.pdf


Access EPA’s real-time registry of all Energy Star labeled buildings 1999-present:

http://energystar.gov/buildinglist


Learn more about earning the Energy Star for commercial buildings:

http://energystar.gov/labeledbuildings

Energy Film Uses Nanoparticle Technology to Save Energy

The U.S. Department of Energy has stated that 60% of a rooms heat load in summer is due to solar heat through the windows. They have also stated that 25% of energy loss in winter is through the windows. Energy Film is a cost-effective solution to saving energy by reducing heat gain in summer and reducing heat loss in winter. To read full article, click here.

Construction Backlog Indicator (CBI) Down 9 Percent in January

Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) today reports that its Construction Backlog Indicator (CBI) sharply declined by 9 percent between November 2009 and January 2010. CBI has slipped 16.3 percent during the last year and currently stands at 5.5 months, the lowest point reported in the 15 months ABC has gathered data. CBI is a forward-looking indicator that measures the amount of construction work under contract to be completed in the future.


"The fact that the CBI is now at its lowest point since ABC began measuring the statistic in November 2008 indicates that the nation's nonresidential construction industry remains mired in its own recession," said ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu.

"Nonresidential construction tends to lag the overall economy by 12 to 24 months. With the broader economy having been in a slow recovery for roughly three quarters, and with the stimulus package still having an impact, the hope had been that some signs of backlog stability would be apparent by now. However, all indications continue to point toward an ongoing decline in the commercial and industrial construction industry."

Regional Highlights

Between January 2009 and January 2010, average backlog was down in each of the geographic regions, except for the Middle States.

Particularly sharp declines occurred in the Northeast and the South, which have both experienced declines of roughly half a month of backlog during the past two months.

The sharpest regional decline occurred in the South, falling from 8.12 months in January 2009 to 6.03 months in January 2010.

Analysis

"While most regions experienced a decline in average backlog during the latest two-month period, with the exception of the Middle States, the pace of decline was quite modest. Overall, the data are consistent with the notion that while the pace of decline continues to slow, the downward trend is evident in virtually every region of the nation."

Industry Highlights

The average backlog fell in all three industry segments – commercial, industrial and infrastructure – between January 2009 and January 2010.

Between November 2009 and January 2010, average backlog in the infrastructure category fell by precisely two months.

At 5.3 months, backlog in the commercial and institutional category now stands at its lowest level in the survey's history.

Analysis

"The data indicate that infrastructure-related work, attributable to the stimulus package passed in February 2009, is no longer generating substantial new backlog now that the funds have largely been obligated to current projects under way. The elevated backlog readings of previous months are associated with substantial levels of ongoing construction, but the decline in backlog signals an eventual downturn in infrastructure-related construction spending."


Highlights by Company Size

With the exception of firms in the $30 million to $50 million category, average backlog declined for every size category.

No firm in the $75 million to $100 million category reported an average backlog of more than five months, and many reported backlog between three and four months.

Firms with annual revenues in excess of $100 million reported the lengthiest backlog, although backlog for this group has been declining overall in recent months.

Analysis

"Average backlog is now at its lowest level in both the $50 million to $75 million and the $75 million to $100 million categories. Many of these firms appear to be general contractors that continue to be underbid by larger firms with greater resources and greater capacity to undertake projects with little or no profit margin built into their bids. Larger firms also may be more likely to maintain productive banking relationships, allowing them to more nimbly access available contractual opportunities."

To read more about the latest CBI, click here.

Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) is a national association with 77 chapters representing 25,000 merit shop construction and construction-related firms with two million employees. Visit ABC at http://www.abc.org/

AIA Billing Index Shows Slight Increase in Demand

According to the American Institute of Architects, the Architecture Billings Index (ABI) moved slightly higher in February. The index for last month was 44.8, compared to 42.5 in January. The February index indicates a continued decline in demand for design services. Any reading above 50 indicates an increase in billings.

The ABI is widely viewed as a leading economic indicator of construction activity. The ABI tyoically reflects an approximate nine to 12 month lag time between architecture billings and construction spending.

"We continue to hear that funding dedicated for construction projects in the stimulus package has not yet been awarded, resulting in a bottleneck of potential projects that could help jump-start the economy," said Kermit Baker, PhD, Hon. AIA, chief economist at the American Institute of Architects, which compiles the ABI. "That, coupled with a persistently rigid credit market for private sector projects, is a key reason why the design and construction industry continue to suffer at near historic levels in terms of job losses." The AIA conducts a monthly survey of architectural firms to build the index.

Key February 2010 ABI highlights:

Regional averages: Midwest (49.4), Northeast (44.1), West (43.6), South (40.7)

Sector index breakdown: multi-family residential (47.3), institutional (44.2), mixed practice (43.3), commercial / industrial (43.2)

About the Architecture Billings Index

The Architecture Billings Index (ABI) is a diffusion index derived from the monthly Work-on-the-Boards survey, conducted by the AIA Economics & Market Research Group. The ABI serves as a leading economic indicator that leads nonresidential construction activity by approximately 9-12 months. The indexes are developed from the monthly Work-on-the-Boards survey panel where participants are asked whether their billings increased, decreased, or stayed the same in the month that just ended. According to the proportion of respondents choosing each option, a score is generated, which represents an index value for each month.