Mantra Venture Group Ltd. (OTCBB: MVTG, FSE: 5MV) will begin pushing a new process in early 2009 that it says can reduce the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from steel production, while simultaneously reducing costs.
The company says its Electrochemical Reduction of Carbon dioxide (ERC) process converts CO2, a steel production byproduct,
into valuable formic acid that can replace the use of hydrochloric acid
in steel pickling. The steel industry currently spends $1.5 billion
annually on hydrochloric acid for the removal of rust and oxidation (pickling) from their steel products.
Mantra says that by adopting its
ERC technology, a steel producer can effectively reduce the release of
harmful CO2 while simultaneously generating organic acid that they
would otherwise have had to purchase.
"This is a win/win/win for a steel producer, the environment and perhaps, our shareholders," said Larry Kristof, CEO of Mantra Energy Group Ltd. "By using Mantra’s technology, steel producers can reduce a dangerous emission that is the primary cause of global warming and are immediately rewarded with biodegradable formic acid that replaces yet another harmful chemical–hydrochloric acid–for which the industry is spending $1.5 billion a year."
"To make an illustrative analogy to the automotive industry, this would be like capturing car emissions, preventing them from ever entering the atmosphere, and then turning that noxious waste into gasoline. Better yet, at the end of the use of this new fuel, you would be left with a biodegradable fluid that doesn’t harm the environment," Kristof added.
The ERC process, defined as the Electrochemical Reduction of Carbon dioxide, combines captured carbon dioxide with water to produce high value materials, such as formic acid and formate salts, which are conventionally obtained from the thermochemical processing of fossil fuels. However, ERC has an advantage over the established thermochemical methods for converting carbon dioxide to liquid fuels, Mantra says.
While thermochemical reactions must be driven at relatively high temperatures that are normally obtained by burning fossil fuels, ERC operates at near ambient conditions and is driven by electric energy that can be taken from an electric power grid supplied by hydro, wind, solar or nuclear energy.
Loading...