Nation’s First Commercial-Sized Carbon Capture Plant Uses San Antonio Cement Kiln For Source

On the same day President Obama was making news in launching his climate change initiatives aimed at power plants, a company called Skyonic was announcing it had obtained financing to build America's first full-size carbon capture facility adjacent to the Capital Aggregates cement plant in San Antonio.

If all goes as planned the technology will be retrofitted to the kiln and capture carbon dioxide, acid gases, and heavy metals from the kiln's pollution plume and turn them into products such as baking soda and hydrochloric acid. 

The company recently raised over $120 million to complete the project. Investors include Canadian oil giant Cenovus Energy, ConocoPhillips, BP Ventures, Energy Technology Ventures, BlueCap Partners, Toyo-Thai Corporation Public Company Limited, Berg & Berg Enterprises, Northwater Capital Management, PVS Chemicals, and Zachry Corporation, owner of the kiln.

Skyonic had been operating two pilot projects in Texas, including one at the same kiln. but this new facility is a large upgrade, able to remove more than 300,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually. It hopes to make a profit in three years.

Cement plants are among the largest sources of greenhouse gases on the planet, and there are a variety of start-ups and established firms competing to find a low-CO2 way of making the product. Some are concentrating on changing the manufacturing process itself, and others, like Skyonics, are looking at end-of-pipe treatment or recovery. 

It's a shame there's zero interest among local Midlothian cement plant operators to bring any of this new technology to North Texas. We have the largest concentration of cement manufacturing in the country, and so we're also likely to have the largest concentration of cement-generated greenhouse gas pollution in the country as well. There's also the fact that DFW is the largest urban area in the nation downwind of so many kilns, and any reductions in pollution among those kilns, especially in metals and acid gases, would be welcome.