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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What is the CEFCO Process and what industry applications does it have?

The CEFCO Process is a patented breakthrough Multi-Pollutant Capture Air Quality Control System (“AQCS”) and CO2 Capture technology that integrates the proven shockwave-enabled technologies in a revolutionary compact-design enabling the selective capture and removal of over 99+% of multiple flue gas pollutants and over 90% of CO2.

The CEFCO Process Technology provides a single vendor solution enabling any industrial or commercial emissions facility to operate essentially emissions free, at a lower operating cost and lower energy cost or “energy penalty” (commonly called “parasitic load”), while generating recoverable and usable end-product streams from the captured pollutants

How is the CEFCO Process different from current Carbon Capture and other AQCS technologies?

The CEFCO Process’ shockwave-enabled technology complies with the EPA Maximum Achievable Control Technology (“HWC MACT”) Standards established as part of 1990 Clean Air Act amendments and is superior to the current Best Available Control Technology (“BACT”) compliance requirements. The Process, in various modules, is designed to remove over 99% of mercury, other trace metals, and fine particulates (below 2.5 microns), sulfurous oxides (“SOX”) and sulfur dioxide (“SO2”), and nitrous oxides (“NOX”), and also over 90% of carbon dioxide (“CO2”). The CEFCO Technology integrates advanced aerodynamics, physics, and molecular surface chemistry to create a revolutionary breakthrough in air pollution and CO2 removal. As a result, CEFCO Process is Cleaner, Faster, Cheaper and Safer than all other existing AQCS technologies.

CLEANER
Expected >99% removal for regulated air pollutants including SOX, NOX, mercury, trace metals and particulate matter and expected >90% removal for CO2

FASTER
erodynamic capture mechanisms operate to remove pollutants at the same velocity and flow rate as the flue gas, resulting in less “residence time” and smaller equipment size

CHEAPER
Expected < 12% Energy Penalty or Parasitic Load, lower CAPEX and OPEX

SAFER
Reduces health and environmental hazards associated with mercury removal and ammonium-based NOx and carbon control technologies

Within the CEFCO Process reactor, extremely rapid chemical reactions take place that use and absorb the tremendous energy generated by the shockwaves together with the aerodynamic rapid pressure drop. This reactive condition designed by aerospace physicists for super-efficient chemical reactions is the substitute for the required input of high heat and pressure and/or catalyst that are used in the conventional thermodynamics and thermo-chemical science for comparable results. Thus, the CEFCO Technology is much more economical to use than conventional chemical and thermodynamic reaction processes.

What stage of commercial development is the CEFCO Technology currently at and when will it be commercially viable?

The main components of the CEFCO Process have been in use in multiple American incineration plants for almost 30 years. In 2011, CEFCO had a 5 MWe Pilot Plant proven at an industrial factory in Wichita Falls, Texas, and currently has a 35 MWe Demonstration Plant at a major coal-fired power utility company in China. The purpose in China is to demonstrate throughout 2017the economical capture of all targeted emissions to comply with China’s New National Emissions Standards for the Year 2020, via a standardized capacity (e.g., between 25 and 1,000MW equivalent) and is expected to show compliance with all U.S. and worldwide requirements of National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (“NESHAP”).

Compared to other pollution control technologies, what is the relative cost of implementation?

The CEFCO Process is more economically viable than competing AQCS technologies due to its comprehensive capability to capture multiple pollutants, including CO2, from a single integrated control technology installation. This contrasts with existing, commercially marketed technologies requiring large footprints, which typically require multiple slightly overlapping control technologies to address the same overlapping range of pollutants. Furthermore, the CEFCO Process’ modular design allows for partial or full system retrofit for all kinds of fossil-fuel facilities that had previously installed existing control technology.

The CEFCO Process is anticipated to be the most powerful and effective carbon capture and multi-pollution control technology because of its efficiency of energy use and virtual completeness of carbon and pollutants capture altogether into a saleable and commercially useful form.  The total energy penalty or parasitic load across all four modules of the system is less than 12% of the generation facility.  Thus, in the situation for a power plant, the CEFCO Technology’s very low energy penalty or parasitic load minimizes the impact to the net saleable power generation from the power plant, enhancing overall operational economics versus the competition.  End-Products produced are separate groups of saleable trace metals, sulfate fertilizer, nitrate fertilizer, and pure CO2. In the situation for a cement plant, the CEFCO Technology’s lower energy and reagent consumption is expected to reduce the total cost of compliance for meeting the NESHAP requirements and thus providing for the cement plant more room for profitability. In chemical plants, CEFCO enables to capture and recovery of pollutants and wastes into new chemical production. “Making Waste into Resources!” is a well-known slogan.

Due to its aerodynamic nature, the CEFCO Process has lower operational costs than its competitors that only use conventional thermodynamics and traditional chemistry for pollution removal. CEFCO Process’ reaction steps are also completed more quickly and efficiently. Therefore, it uses less energy input, less process chamber or reactor space, less overall physical dimensions for the equipment, less reagent material and less water. Moreover, the Process employs a chemical reagent re-circulating and re-generating system that optimizes the total conservation and recycling of all input resources including water.  Conventional technologies currently being offered in the market require more reaction time and consume more reagent material, heat and catalysts, but provide a lower pollutant capture result. Finally, unlike other technologies, the CEFCO aerodynamic equipment has no mechanically moving parts so it can be regularly cleaned with power-washing, thus reducing its total maintenance costs.

Compared to other AQCS pollution control technologies that equip a cement or power plant to capture multi-pollutants and CO2, what are the infrastructure requirements and build-time?

The CEFCO Technology infrastructure build-time takes less than one year to plan, engineer, shop-build, site-install, test-run and deploy for a typical modular 300,000 ton-per-year cement kiln or a 100 MW equivalent system for a power plant. For larger applications, CEFCO proposes to use multiple parallel or stacked up modules (of either 25, 50, 100 or 200 MW equivalent in combination) for scaling-up to 1,000 MW equivalent or larger designs for power plants and industrial plants or refineries. Other conventional technologies require several years of engineering, building and installing their equipment units due to their larger size and their integration complexity.

What is the purity of the CO2 removed by the CEFCO Process and how does it compare to competing technologies?

The CEFCO Technology produces pure CO2 of food and beverage grade, such as releasing CO2 from Bi-Carbonate or Carbonate, according to the customer’s desire. CEFCO’s sequential and selective pollutant control approach is designed to capture over 90% of the CO2 from the industrial process gas or from flue gas using very low energy consumption. Competing technologies deploy reagents in a less selective manner thus producing an off-gas that may contain other pollutants, including hydrogen sulfide, a toxic and flammable gas. Additionally, competing ammonia-based reagents are most commonly used for CO2 removal but are subject to hazardous reagent slippage into product streams, and contaminating the product

How will the CEFCO Process be able to adapt to control emissions for larger plants?

Advantages of the CEFCO Process include a small footprint and modularization, as facilitated by enhanced rapid reaction times, resulting in lesser reagent usage and smaller equipment for reaction chambers. The CEFCO Technology’s modular unit can handle flue gas emissions of 25, 50, 100 and 200 MW equivalents. These units are designed to operate in parallel tandem and can be stacked as required to fit within even very limited available footprints. For example, a typical 1,000 MW power plant could install 10 x 100 MW equivalent modules or 5 x 200 MW equivalent modules. Furthermore, the CEFCO Process’ modular design allows for partial or full system retrofit for all fossil-fuel facilities that had previously installed existing control technology.

What are the primary waste streams that remain and require disposal following the CEFCO Process?

The CEFCO Process is designed as a “closed loop” re-circulating and re-generating system. The recirculated liquids in the process are conserved with the addition of optimum fresh make-up chemicals to control the strength and concentration of the reagents for repetitive re-use. Additionally, water vapor is collected and condensed, and re-circulated back into the system. A very minimal bleed stream may contain a benign waste for non-toxic disposal. All captured pollutants are recovered in the form of saleable products or non-hazardous (neutralized) waste streams.

What kind of end-products does the CEFCO Process produce and how are they used?

It is expected that the CEFCO Process produces:

(1)     Recovered and valuable trace metals for recycle. Instead of emitting many tons of both valuable and hazardous metals into the atmosphere annually, the CEFCO Process will recover and isolate over 99%of these metals, including mercury, barium, copper, selenium, arsenic, germanium, chromium, vanadium, lithium, manganese, and palladium for productive use.

(2)     Potassium Sulfate or Sodium Sulfate, as valuable and commonly used fertilizers.

(3)     Potassium Nitrate or Sodium Nitrate, as valuable and commonly used fertilizers.

(4)    Pure CO2 for enhanced oil recovery (EOR); to transmit for permanent carbon sequestration (CCS); and for sale and re-use into food and beverage industry (CCUS). It can also be sold as feedstock for production of petrochemicals, biofuels, or hydrocarbon-based transportation fuel.

(5)     New water generated or “liberated from the combusted fossil-fuels” could be recirculated into the CEFCO system or could be made available to supply to the host facility and its neighbors as “new water” for their own other uses.