The Opportunity
Concentrated oxygen is valuable for a multitude of purposes,
including medical, industrial, and utility applications. For example, coal
plants could produce syngas as a byproduct and emit less carbon dioxide if they
could cheaply add additional oxygen to their combustion processes. But today's
high-volume oxygen concentrators use energy-intensive methods that drive costs
too high for industry.
The Innovation
ITN has developed a method for oxygen enrichment that uses a
strong pulsed magnetic field and polymer coated ferric beads to economically
separate oxygen from ambient air.
Because oxygen is attracted to magnets and nitrogen is not, ITN’s
technology pulls the oxygen out of the airstream and captures it for immediate
use or storage.
The Vision
Implementing ITN's magnetic oxygen separation systems at
coal-fired power plants and other industrial plants will reduce greenhouse gas
emissions while lowering operating costs.
