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GreatPoint Energy, Inc. is a
Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
based energy company that produces
natural gas Natural gas (also fossil gas, methane gas, and gas) is a naturally occurring compound of gaseous hydrocarbons, primarily methane (95%), small amounts of higher alkanes, and traces of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide and helium ...
from coal, petroleum coke, and biomass utilizing catalytic hydromethanation. GreatPoint Energy was founded in 2005 by serial entrepreneur
Andrew Perlman Andrew Perlman (born June 19, 1975) is an American entrepreneur who has co-founded nine venture-backed companies in the telecom, high-tech, pharmaceuticals, energy, water, and biotechnology industries. He is currently general partner of GreatPoin ...
and his business partners. The company has raised $150 million in venture capital from Dow,
AES Corporation The AES Corporation is an American utility and power generation company. It owns and operates power plants, which it uses to generate and sell electricity to end users and intermediaries like utilities and industrial facilities. AES, headquarte ...
, Suncor Energy Inc.,
Peabody Energy Peabody Energy is a coal mining company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Its primary business consists of the mining, sale, and distribution of coal, which is purchased for use in electricity generation and steelmaking. Peabody also marke ...
, Advanced Technology Ventures (ATV),
Draper Fisher Jurvetson Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) is an American venture capital firm. In January 2019, DFJ Venture, the early-stage team, spun out and formed Threshold Ventures. DFJ Growth continues to be managed by co-founder John Fisher and co-founders Mark Ba ...
,
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Kleiner Perkins, formerly Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), is an American venture capital firm which specializes in investing in incubation, early stage and growth companies. Since its founding in 1972, the firm has backed entrepreneur ...
,
Khosla Ventures Khosla Ventures is a private American venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California. It was founded by entrepreneur Vinod Khosla in 2004. The firm works with early-stage companies in the Internet, computing, mobile technology, artifici ...
and Citi Capital Advisors (CCA). In May, 2012 GreatPoint Energy and China Wanxiang Holdings closed a $1.25 billion investment and partnership agreement to finance and construct the first phase of a one trillion cubic feet per year coal to natural gas production facility in
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
. The deal between GreatPoint Energy and Wanxiang was the largest US venture capital investment in 2012.


Technology

GreatPoint Energy utilizes a sulfur-tolerant
catalyst Catalysis () is the increase in rate of a chemical reaction due to an added substance known as a catalyst (). Catalysts are not consumed by the reaction and remain unchanged after it. If the reaction is rapid and the catalyst recycles quick ...
that enables gasification at the low temperatures where
water gas shift Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance. It is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms ( ...
and
methanation Methanation is the conversion of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide (COx) to methane (CH4) through hydrogenation. The methanation reactions of COx were first discovered by Sabatier and Senderens in 1902. CO''x'' methanation has many practical ap ...
reactions concurrently take place. The catalyst, which is continuously recycled and reused within the reactor, reduces the gasifier
operating temperature An operating temperature is the allowable temperature range of the local ambient environment at which an electrical or mechanical device operates. The device will operate effectively within a specified temperature range which varies based on the de ...
. Under these lower-temperature conditions pipeline grade
methane Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The abundance of methane on Earth makes ...
is produced. As part of the overall process, the technology enables the recovery of contaminants in coal, petroleum coke and biomass as useful byproducts and nearly all of the produced in the process is captured as a pure stream suitable for sequestration or enhanced oil recovery.


GreatPoint Energy deal in China

China has the world's third largest reserve of coal, making coal such a cheap and abundant fuel source that the country relied on it for about 70% of its energy in 2009. China burns almost as much coal as the rest of the world combined, according to the
International Energy Agency The International Energy Agency (IEA) is a Paris-based autonomous intergovernmental organization, established in 1974, that provides policy recommendations, analysis and data on the global energy sector. The 31 member countries and 13 associatio ...
, and as a result, air pollution has gotten so bad that a study by the World Bank found that air pollution kills 750,000 people every year in China. Amidst growing public concern, social unrest incidents are growing around the country. For example, in December 2011 the government suspended plans to expand a coal-fired power plant in the city of
Haimen Haimen (, Qihai dialect: , Shanghai: ) is a district of Nantong, Jiangsu province, with a population of approximately 1 million. It is located at the opposite side of the Yangtze River to Shanghai and is directly north of Chongming Island except ...
after 30,000 local residents staged a violent protest against it, on the grounds that "the coal-fired power plant was behind a rise in the number of local cancer patients, environmental pollution and a drop in the local fishermen's catch." In addition to environmental costs at home, China's dependence on coal is cause for concern on a global scale. Due in large part to the emissions caused by burning coal, China is now the number one producer of carbon dioxide, responsible for a full quarter of the world's output.Bawden, To
"China agrees to impose carbon targets by 2016"
''The Independent'', 21 May 2013
According to a recent study, "even if American emissions were to suddenly disappear tomorrow, world emissions would be back at the same level within four years as a result of China’s growth alone." The country has taken steps towards battling climate change by pledging to cut its
carbon intensity Carbon () is a chemical element; it has symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalent—meaning that its atoms are able to form up to four covalent bonds due to its valence shell exhibiting 4 electrons. It belongs to grou ...
(the amount of produced per dollar of economic output) by about 40 per cent by 2020, compared to 2005 levels. Reuters reports that "emissions and coal consumption will continue to rise through the 2020s, even though at a slower rate, barring a major intervention including a shift to cleaner burning gas from coal" - in other words, "meeting the carbon intensity target will require a significant change in trajectory for carbon emissions and coal consumption."Wynn, Gerar
"China's carbon goal shows coal growth has peaked"
''Reuters'', 7 August 2013
To that end, China has announced a plan to invest 2.3 trillion yuan ($376 billion) through 2015 in energy saving and carbon emission-reduction projects. GreatPoint Energy's coal gasification technology appeals to China because it allows them to keep using cheap domestic coal, but in a much cleaner manner. In 2012, GreatPoint announced a $1.25 billion deal to build the first of 34 reactors in a remote, coal-rich part of China. The total project will cost an estimated $20 – 25 billion and will supply a trillion cubic feet of natural gas.Daniels, Stev
"A Chicago company brings power to the People's Republic"
''Crain's Chicago Business'', 12 September 2012
This represents a massive leap in the scale of domestic production for China, which last year produced only 107 billion cubic feet of natural gas."China's natural gas consumption up 13% in 2012"
''China Knowledge Newswires'', 29 January 2013
The deal includes an equity investment of $420 million, the largest ever by a Chinese corporation into a venture-capital-funded U.S. company, according to industry tracker VentureSource.Kolodny, Lor
"Bluer Skies for Shanghai?"
''Wall Street Journal Venture Capital Dispatch'', 20 February 2012


References

{{reflist Energy companies of the United States