Key Advantage

Biomass to Fuel vs. CO2 to Fuel

Liquid and gaseous petroleum fuels are formed from the preserved remains of prehistoric organisms such as phytoplankton and zooplankton that absorbed CO2 as part of their body mass. Likewise, solid fossil fuels such as coal are formed from the preserved remains of terrestrial crops that also absorbed CO2 as part of their growth.

Most of the renewable alternatives to fossil fuel today are based on the same fundamental concept of recycling CO2 into fuels. But, they are done through intermediaries such as terrestrial crops or microorganisms, where CO2 and water are transformed into complex energy molecules. These complex energy molecules, such as sugars, carbohydrates, lipids, and cellulose are stored inside the intermediary's biomass. They have to be extracted, broken down, and further refined into hydrocarbon fuel equivalents.

Carbon Sciences bypasses the inherent energy intensive and time consuming tasks of growing and processing biomass into fuel. Our breakthrough CO2-to-Fuel technology is based on the direct molecular transformation of CO2 and water into fuel molecules through a novel, elegant, and energy efficient biocatalytic process. The resulting fuels are molecularly identical to fuels that we use today such as gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. The difference between fuels produced by our technology and petroleum is that ours are renewable -- made from CO2 emissions and not dug up from the Earth. Unlike biofuels, they can be used as-is in today's infrastructure, supply chain and vehicles.

We believe our CO2-to-Fuel technology is the most direct and efficient way to produce renewable liquid fuels. The diagram below illustrates the difference between a Biomass to Fuel lifecycle and Carbon Sciences' CO2 to Fuel lifecycle.