Greenearth Energy Limited has announced that it has successfully concluded negotiations with Yeda Research and Development Co. Ltd., the commercial arm of Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science, for an exclusive, worldwide Research and Licence Agreement, which it will assign to an ultimate subsidiary company NEWCO2FUELS LTD (NewCo2Fuels), for a revolutionary technology that has the ability to convert CO2 emissions into fuel.

 

Greenearth Energy’s CO2 to fuel conversion technology has the potential to reduce emissions substantially utilising low cost generation facilities and resources while at the same time potentially offsetting substantial future power cost increases.

 

The technology concept successfully developed in Israel by Professor Jacob Karni and his group at the Weizmann Institute of Science and proven in laboratory trials involves a new method of using concentrated solar energy for the dissociation of carbon dioxide (CO2) to carbon monoxide (CO) and oxygen (O2). The same system can also dissociate water (H2O) to hydrogen (H2) and oxygen (O2), at the same time it dissociates the CO2. The CO, or the mixture of CO and H2 (called Syngas) can then be used as gaseous fuel (e.g. in power plants), or converted to liquid fuel (e.g. methanol), which has the potential to be stored, transported and used in motor vehicles. The oxygen produced can be used in the combustion of the clean fuel, or elsewhere.


The key to delivering low cost clean fuel is a highly efficient process of converting solar radiation to chemical potential in the form of fuel. The technology process is aimed at achieving this goal. The source of carbon dioxide for the process could be existing power plants, cement factories and other emitting industries. The fuel produced could potentially be recycled back into the plant from which it was created (and used in these facilities and in doing so substantially reducing the CO2 emissions footprint of these plants), or utilized as transportation fuel.

 

The transaction documentation executed includes the Research and Licence Agreement, an Investment Agreement for the establishment of a company in Israel to help develop the technology (to which the worldwide licence will be transferred) and a Funding and Option Agreement with Erdi Fuels Pty Ltd. These are further described below.

 

Managing Director of Greenearth Energy Mark Miller said; "Greenearth Energy's subsidiary company NewCo2Fuels Pty Ltd will fund the development of the project (via NewCO2Fuels) from the laboratory into the field. Research will be performed under the supervision of Professor Karni, utilizing the Weizmann Institute’s world class solar tower and solar field facilities to generate fuel with the energy input being concentrated solar energy.


"Funding for the initial stage of the project (US$5.5M) will be generated by way of a combination of a placement in Greenearth Energy to Erdi Fuels Pty Ltd for 10% of the company's issued capital (being 8,093,297 shares at $0.1171 each, representing a $0.0511 or 77.42% premium to the share price as at 29 June 2011) and an option payment by Erdi Fuels Pty Ltd.

 

“The option is for the acquisition of the shares of NewCo2Fuels, the licensee (following assignment) of the worldwide rights to the technology, should the project prove commercially viable, in return for which Greenearth Energy and its subsidiaries will receive a substantial capital sum and an ongoing royalty stream from future product sales.

 

"We have been working with Professor Karni and the Weizmann Institute's commercialisation arm Yeda for the past 12 months to bring this project collaboration to fruition. We are both excited by the obvious and substantial potential that this project holds and honoured to work alongside a world class institute and team”.

 

"We believe the potential to turn our global CO2 challenge into an opportunity by way of producing commercially viable fuel from emissions represents literally a paradigm shift in the way society views and deals with one of our greatest challenges. We believe that this technology has the potential to be a viable alternative to CO2 sequestration and shift our thinking and approach to global CO2 emissions".

 

For more information, please contact Greenearth Energy on 03 9620 7299.g