GE and Svante have announced a partnership to develop solid sorbent technologies for carbon capture from natural gas-fired generation.

The joint development agreement will focus on further development and commercialisation of novel solid sorbent technologies “aimed at decarbonising natural gas-fired turbines in a cost-effective, environmentally responsible manner,” according to Claude Letourneau, Svante’s president and CEO.

GE said these kinds of research collaborations will drive the company’s commercialisation of carbon capture technologies. In December 2022, GE made an equity investment in Svante as a part of Svante’s $318-million Series E fundraising round.

Svante has developed carbon capture and removal technology using filters made by coating solid adsorbents, including metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), onto thin sheets of laminate that are stacked to become the company’s nano-engineered filters. The technology can be used for point-source post-combustion carbon capture in which the filters take CO2 out of industrial flue gas.

These filters can be used in multiple applications for capturing carbon at refineries, cement, steel, aluminum, lime, boilers and pulp & paper plants.

Accelerating advancements in CO2 removal

The announcement of the Svante collaboration comes a day after GE said it successfully tested its first Direct Air Capture (DAC) prototype unit in the lab.

The company said the thermal management design of its DAC system provides an “optimal environment” for the sorbent materials to remove CO2 from the air. GE said this is a similar approach to its project with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to capture clean, potable water from extremely arid, desert-like air.

Much of this work is being supported by federal funding. GE said it has been working on projects with multiple partners, including the DOE, ARPA-E, UC Berkeley, U. of South Alabama, TDA Research, and others to advance the quality of sorbent materials and thermal management technologies

GE announced it would plan larger-scale demonstrations for the CO2 removal technology in 2024. This includes partnerships with the US Department of Energy (DOE) and a host of other industry and academic research partners.