Viva Cundliffe’s carbon catcher may be the next step in green technology, if she has her way with it. Her catcher uses the carbon released by smokestacks and turns it into a product that can be burned again for energy.
The “carbon catcher†promoted by Viva Cundliffe promises huge savings to companies that emit carbon dioxide by breaking it down to its original components: oxygen and carbon.
That carbon is rendered into “black carbon,†a coal-like material that can be burned again.
Experiments conducted by Cundliffe, an applied technologist, have been financed by a number of government agencies, including Natural Resources Canada, the B.C. government and the Interior Science and Innovation Council.
“We just successfully proved this week a collection of black carbon from carbon dioxide,†Cundliffe said. “It’s been done and it’s a done deal.â€
Cundliffe has a testing facility on the city’s east side. She said she’s now seeking money from the province’s Innovative Clean Energy Fund as well as Southern Interior Development Initiative Trust in an effort to move toward commercialization.
Photo by Curran Kelleher