CarbinX™ carbon capture technology
A device that fights climate change at its source.
A single room with a big problem
A large amount of carbon dioxide (averaging 7 per cent globally and up to 20 per cent in northern countries) is produced when we heat buildings and heat water within those buildings.
The heating for buildings is produced in one location: the mechanical room. This is where the water heater/boiler and climate-control systems live. CleanO2’s CarbinX addresses the carbon-capture challenge at the source, with an appliance that fits in the mechanical room and attaches directly to natural gas heating appliances.
Roughly the size of two refrigerators, a CarbinX unit is micro in scale, but mighty in impact. It does two jobs in the mechanical room: captures carbon and reclaims heat.
How CarbinX captures carbon
CarbinX captures carbon dioxide from heating-appliance flue gas in a one-step, zero-waste reaction. The CarbinX unit is charged with potassium hydroxide. This compound reacts with the carbon dioxide, producing potassium carbonate (or pearl ash).
The potassium carbonate is a valuable compound, which is used as an ingredient in a number of products, including soaps, detergents, fertilizers, pH balancers, and more.
How CarbinX saves money
In addition to capturing carbon, CarbinX is an economizer. It reclaims heat from two sources and recycles it for use in the building.
The first source is the heating-appliance flue gas. It contains heat which would normally escape to the atmosphere through the chimney. The second source is the carbon-capture reaction. It is an exothermic reaction, meaning it naturally generates heat of its own.
CarbinX captures the heat from the flue gas as well as from the carbon-capture reaction and uses that energy to heat domestic water for the building. As a result, CarbinX owners can anticipate as much as a 20% reduction in natural-gas costs.
Four key facts about CarbinX
Equivalent to 300 trees
Each CarbinX unit can reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by 6 to 8 tonnes each year
No harmful by-products
The carbon-capture process produces only potassium carbonate and water from the reaction
Permanently sequestered
Carbonate is not converted back to a greenhouse gas, even after our carbon capture products are used
Energy savings
The CarbinX unit reclaims more energy (from waste heat) than is required to run the unit
CarbinX is energy positive
An independent, third-party lifecycle analysis by the University of British Columbia found that CarbinX actually captures and reclaims more energy than it uses. This analysis not only included the carbon balance of daily use (carbon capture and heat reclamation) but also factored in the impact of device manufacture and upstream feedstock production.