Carbon Sciences Draws Interest From Oil Refineries at Istanbul CO2 Conference

Carbon Sciences Inc., the developer of a breakthrough technology to transform carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions into gasoline and other fuels, announced that representatives of oil refineries expressed a high level of interest in the company’s technology at the ACI Downstream CO2 & Energy Efficiency Forum held December 3-5 in Istanbul, Turkey.

Derek McLeish, the company’s CEO and a featured speaker at the Conference, commented, “Our breakthrough technology for transforming CO2 to hydrocarbons fits refineries’ needs in today’s environmentally conscious world. Instead of emitting hundreds of millions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere and face potential legal and economic penalties, oil refineries can use our technology to transform their CO2 streams directly into fuel building blocks. These building blocks can then be used in their existing refinery processes to produce gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel and other portable fuels — without using additional crude oil.”

Oil refineries, power plants, manufacturers and other large CO2 emitters have been targeted by various political initiatives. On December 11, 2008, California regulators adopted the nation’s first comprehensive plan to slash greenhouse gases and characterized it as a model for President-elect Barack Obama, who has pledged an aggressive national and international effort to combat global warming. The ambitious blueprint by the world’s eighth-largest economy would cut the state’s emissions by 15% from today’s level over the next 12 years, bringing them down to 1990 levels.

The financial community has not ignored these efforts. Investors have poured $2.5 billion into California clean-tech companies in the first nine months of the year, up from $1.8 billion for all of 2007, a level that eclipsed the software industry.