The XPrize Foundation, a non-profit organisation that designs and manages public competitions intended to encourage technological development that could benefit mankind, has launched the EUR 18.8 million (USD 20 million) NRG COSIA Carbon XPrize, the aim of which is to challenge the brightest minds around the world to reimagine what can be done with CO2 emissions by incentivising and accelerating the development of technologies that convert CO2 into valuable products.
The competition will have two tracks – one focused on testing technologies at a coal power plant and one focused on testing technologies at a natural gas power plant. Each track will operate as a separate competition on the same timeline.
Launched in September 2015, the deadline for registration is in March 2016 and for first round submissions - in June 2016. Teams will be assessed and ranked based on these submissions and, in each track, up to 15 teams will move onto Round 2, for which the submission deadline will be in May 2017.
In Round 2, the teams will demonstrate their technologies in a controlled environment and will be scored on how much CO2 they convert and the net value of their products. In each track, up to 5 teams will move onto Round 3 and share a EUR 2.3 million (USD 2.5 million) milestone purse. The finalists will be announced in September 2017, when Round 3 will begin.
In the final round, the teams will demonstrate their technologies under real world conditions and will prove their technologies using actual power plant flue gas. The winners will be announced and the grand prize purses awarded in March 2020. In each track, the winner will be awarded a EUR 7 million (USD 7.5 million) grand prize.
The prize will incentivise the development of new and emerging CO2 conversion technologies, accelerating them from laboratory testing to demonstration under real world conditions. The prize will help identify the most promising pathways for CO2 conversion and prove they can be deployed at power plants and other industrial facilities.
Ultimately, the impact of the prize will go far beyond the critical demonstration of innovative technologies, by inspiring transformation, enabling new markets, and empowering people to be a part of the solution to one of the world’s greatest challenges.
For more information:
http://carbon.xprize.org/news/introducing-20m-nrg-cosia-carbon-xprize