Honeywell to commercialize carbon-capture technology developed at University of Texas

Honeywell (Charlotte, N.C.) plans to commercialize carbon capture technology created by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin that holds the promise of significantly reducing carbon dioxide emissions from many industrial sources.

The technology reduces the cost of capturing carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and other heavy industrial processes before they make it into the atmosphere. UT Austin has established itself as a leader in carbon capture technology during the past two decades, primarily through the Texas Carbon Management Program (TxCMP).

“We are thrilled that our decades of research have led to carbon capture technology that can significantly reduce carbon emissions,” said Gary Rochelle, professor in the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering and leader of TxCMP at UT Austin. “The licensing agreement with Honeywell enables us to commercially scale this in ways that can make major contributions toward zero-emission efforts to address global warming and to reduce pollutants in surrounding communities,” Rochelle said.

Rochelle and his team have developed a second-generation amine scrubbing system through years of research and analysis. The improved performance from this solution unlocks the ability to tackle “hard to abate” industries such as steel, cement, and chemical plants; and coal, natural gas and bio-energy power plants.

Honeywell plans to scale this technology and apply it around the world.

Rochelle believes the opportunity with this technology is enormous.

For just a single typical power plant, applying the advanced solvent carbon capture technology would enable the capture of approximately 3.4 million tons of carbon dioxide annually. That’s equivalent to removing nearly 735,000 cars from the road each year.  

This CO₂ removal technology can be retrofitted within existing plants or included as part of a new installation. In this process, carbon dioxide is absorbed into an amine solvent and then sent to a stripper, where the CO₂ is separated from the solvent. The CO₂ is then compressed for geological sequestration or used for other purposes.