DURHAM — 8 Rivers Capital is forging ahead with its own proprietary carbon capture technologies after receiving a massive boost from the federal government.

The Durham-based clean tech startup landed seven US Department of Energy (DOE) grants worth over $30 million to further develop its Allam-Fetvedt Cycle, a new type of power cycle that takes a novel approach to emissions reduction.

“By making clean cheaper than dirty, the 8 Rivers technology platform creates the economics that allows the world to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050,” Bill Brown CEO at 8 Rivers Capital, said in a statement. “Our mission is social at its very core: the world can only achieve its climate goals if we drive the cost of electricity down to a level that every human being can afford.”

Allam-Fetvedt Cycle uses the oxy-combustion of carbon fuels and a high-pressure supercritical CO2 working fluid in a highly recuperated cycle that captures all emissions by design. The only by-products are liquid water and a stream of high-purity, pipeline-ready CO2. The cycle can utilize a variety of fuels, including natural gas, unprocessed raw and sour gas, and gasified solid fuels such as coal or biomass.

The startup, founded in 2010, said the Allam-Fetvedt Cycle embodies major advantages over conventional systems: attaining high efficiencies at low costs with low to no water consumption. All this with full, free emissions capture.

8 Rivers added it sees a large global demand for its portfolio of low- and negative-carbon technologies, which also include oxy-combustion, retrofit carbon capture, and direct air capture (either through machines or through working with nature’s own processes)

8 Rivers is partnering with global leaders in carbon capture to deliver this multi-million-dollar suite of projects:

  • General Electric (GE): The Allam-Fetvedt Cycle optimized for high-variable renewable energy
  • MIT: Negative carbon electricity from retrofit carbon capture and direct air capture
  • National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL): Development of novel combustion codes for sCO2 combustion
  • Parametric Solutions, Inc. (PSI): Building the world’s first syngas-fueled sCO₂ combustor
  • Southwestern Research Institute (SWRI): Renewable energy storage through the Allam-Fetvedt Cycle
  • SWRI: Develop a detailed design for a sCO2 oxy-fuel turbine for syngas and the Allam-Fetvedt Cycle
  • UNOTech: Novel phase-change post combustion capture process for existing gas power plants

8 Rivers will be the principal investigator on two grants and provide its world leading carbon capture expertise to the five other projects.

The DOE’s Advanced Projects Research Agency for Energy (ARPA-E) is supporting four of these innovative projects through its new Flexible Carbon Capture and Storage program, which aims to develop carbon capture technologies that can be responsive to grid conditions with large amounts of solar and wind. The two syngas projects will be funded through DOE’s Critical Components for Coal FIRST Power Plants grant program.

8 Rivers is also developing technologies to deliver space launch and wireless communications at fiber speeds, but at a fraction of the cost of existing technologies.