Stories of Technology, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship in the Southeast

SkyNano LLC, the “Innovation Crossroads” alum and participant in the “Spark Innovation Center,” recently announced the first ever production of carbon nanotubes from flue gas, obtained from Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA’s) John Sevier Combined Cycle Plant.

Co-founded by Anna Douglass, SkyNano is developing a manufacturing technique for the production of carbon-based nanomaterials using carbon dioxide – or CO₂ – and electricity.

“SkyNano is setting the standard worldwide for carbon capture and utilization,” she said in this news release (SkyNano Release). “We proved power plant flue gas emissions can be captured and turned into valuable, high-quality materials. The next step is to scale this approach so we can help utilities convert flue gas into valuable carbon nanotubes that can then be used by battery and tire manufacturers and even inks and coatings. This demonstration is one of the first of its kind, showing the ability to make a marketable product from real-life power plant flue gas.”

This latest effort by SkyNano to produce advanced carbon materials from CO₂ is part of a three-year, $2.5 million federally-funded project and a key step in bringing new carbon-utilization technologies to scale. In 2020, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management selected SkyNano to demonstrate the ability to utilize flue gas provided by TVA to produce carbon nanotubes.

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