Frequently Asked Questions
What does Cool Planet Technologies do?
Cool Planet Technologies is a carbon capture complete solution provider developing and deploying advanced membrane technology to provide capture solutions for hard to abate industries including lime, cement, steel, smelting, paper and pulp, power generation, refining and fuel cells.
What is Cool Planet’s carbon capture solution?
Cool Planet proprietary and highly differentiated end of pipe point source carbon capture solution is built around the PolyActive™ membrane which is selective for CO2. The membranes are packed into patented membrane cartridges which deliver high capture efficiency whilst allowing full scaling to industrial sized capture plants. Cool Planet’s technology benefits from 15 years of development and 10 years of industrial pilots across multiple industries and is rapidly scaling.
How are you different from conventional carbon capture technologies and suppliers?
Cool Planet’s carbon capture solution is an intrinsically modular, simple, scalable, compact, low rise, solvent free, reliable, with, depending upon the application, typically significantly lower energy use and lower costs per tonne of CO2 captured than conventional technologies.
Cool Planet works in close collaboration with emitters to understand the technical and commercial dynamics of their plant and design an optimised end of pipe capture solution which is integrated into your plants’ existing processes. Furthermore, we can advise and support on other parts of the CO2 chain including utilisation, transportation and sequestration.
How well will Cool Planet’s carbon capture technology work with my plant emissions?
Cool Planet proprietary and highly differentiated end of pipe point source carbon capture solution is built around the PolyActive™ membrane which is selective for CO2. The membranes are packed into patented membrane cartridges which deliver high capture efficiency whilst allowing full scaling to industrial sized capture plants. Cool Planet’s technology benefits from 15 years of development and 10 years of industrial pilots across multiple industries and is rapidly scaling.
Is Cool Planet’s capture solution suitable to a retrofit?
Cool Planet’s plant’s compact low-rise footprint is ideally suited for restricted space retrofits. There is flexibility in arranging the various plant components around existing facilities.
Is your technology proven?
Our technology has been extensively tested in five pilots; three separate pilots have been undertaken in hard coal at EnBW Karlsruhe plant in Germany under the Federal German MetPor II, MemKor I and MemKor II programmes. Cool Planet ran a highly successful pilot in cement at Holcim’s Höver cement plant near Hanover in 2022. There is an ongoing long-term pilot at Dillinger’s Hüttenwerke steel plant in Saarland, Germany which is yielding strongly positive results.
The membrane has been in continuous operation since 2014 separating CO2 from a boiler to supply CO2 to the world first algal bioreactor in Hamburg.
What is the PolyActive™ membrane and how does the PolyActive™ membrane work?
PolyActive™ is a class leading membrane with an excellent optimisation between selectivity (the preferential selection of CO2 in comparison to other gases) and permeability (the amount of CO2 that flows through the membrane in a given time).
PolyActive™ is a solution diffusion membrane; the CO2 molecules dissolve on the membrane surface and diffuse though it driven by a pressure differential across the two sides of the membrane. No chemical reaction takes place in the membrane. The membranes are manufactured in sheets and are optimised for mass production.
Does your membrane require water or special conditions in which to operate?
The PolyActive™ does not require the flue gas to be humidified nor does it require special temperature and pressure conditions under which to operate. As no chemical reaction takes place in the membrane the membrane cannot be poisoned by contaminates.
How long are the membranes expected to last?
PolyActive™ has been designed from the outset to be placed in harsh industrial environments and to operate reliably for years without intervention over a wide range of environmental conditions. PolyActive™ has over 10 years of proven operations having been in continuous use since 2014 in the world’s first bioreactor. Membranes are expected to last between 5 and 7 years in commercial plants with a slow drop off in performance as they reach the end of their working lives.
Is it just about the membrane?
The membrane is just one part of the advanced engineering which makes up Cool Plant’s capture process. The membranes are packed into proprietary patented modules which allow high capacity and highly efficient flow of the flue gas. The modules are specifically designed to facilitate scaling to industrial volumes of carbon capture. The membrane modules have undergone multi-generational development with the 3rd Generation modules being deployed on the Holcim’s Höver cement plant in 2025. The next generation of modules, the 4th, will be deployed as part of the ICO2NIQ CO2 utilisation project which will also be at Holcim’s Höver plant which is scheduled to commence in 2027.
Can my Cool Planet capture technology be upgraded?
Cool Planet has an ongoing R&D programme with our research partner the Hereon which is part of the Helmhotz institute which is part of Germany’s largest research organisation. Part of this research is focused on continuous performance improvements to the PolyActive™ membrane. When the PolyActive™ membranes have reached the end of their working lives they can be replaced with the latest generation of membranes with enhanced performance characteristics.
Will Cool Planet Technologies manufacture membrane?
Cool Planet is designing an advanced manufacturing facility in Europe which will be able to supply high quality membranes and modules in industrial scale volumes.
I am an emitter how will Cool Planet work with me?
The Cool Planet team have decades of experience delivering complex industrial projects often offshore. Cool Plant works in close collaboration with emitters to understand the technical and commercial dynamics of their plant to design and deliver optimised capture solution from flue to export which is integrated into the plants’ existing processes.
Furthermore, we can advise and support on other parts of the CO2 chain including utilisation, transportation and sequestration.
How do I discuss your carbon capture process further with you?
Please contact us on [email protected] and we will be happy to discuss with you how we can help with your decarbonisation goals.