Finalists chosen in XPRIZE CO2 competition, will continue research at Wyoming Integrated Test Center

Northeast, Wyoming – 10 finalists have been announced in the XPRIZE Foundation’s international CO2 competition, where the goal is to find ways to create valuable products from gas-waste, and to reduce CO2 emissions in a variety of industries that may contribute to climate change.

Finalists were announced from six countries, and include teams from from India, China, Scotland, Canada and the U.S. The semi-finalist teams in the competition were given one year to build breakthrough technologies that convert CO2 into valuable products.

The team competitors were from universities, startups, and companies from all over the world, and were using CO2 to produce a whole range of valuable products, such as fish food, fuels, building materials, and carbon fiber.

The competition is about more than finding immediate solutions for climate change, according to XPrize’s senior director of energy and resources, Marcius Extavour, “It’s about opening people’s minds and really demonstrating what is possible”.

The competitiors will get the chance to put their lab-formulated ideas to work this summer, using much larger volumes of CO2 that will be obtained from actual power plant emissions.

The ten finalists will be split into two groups, representing two different tracks. Five finalists will work with CO2 concentrations at the Wyoming Integrated Test Center, at the Dry Fork Station coal-fired plant near Gillette. The other five will compete at a gas-fired plant in Calgary, Alberta.

In the end, two winners will be chosen, one from each site, and each will be rewarded with a $7.5 million grand prize.