Mantra Venture Group, a Company Nobody Has Heard of (Yet), Goes for Gold with CO2 (Pt. 4 of 4)
Submitted by EnergyTechStocks.com
“Nobody knows we’re here!” Larry Kristoff, president and CEO of Mantra Venture Group Ltd., literally screams into the phone.
A year from now Kristoff may be smiling instead of screaming if, as seems likely, 2009 brings to the U.S. the beginnings of a nationwide carbon trading market.
Seattle-based Mantra, whose stock trades in Frankfurt and in the over-the-counter market, is developing for commercial use a chemical process referred to as electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide, or ERC. The process combines water with captured CO2 to produce high value materials such as formic acid, the natural form of which is used in steelmaking and more.
In the coming carbon-constrained world, where basic manufacturers could be at a major disadvantage in terms of having to buy carbon “credits” to offset the CO2 their processes emit, a company like Mantra may be welcomed with open arms. According to Kristoff, Mantra has a game plan under which not just steelmakers but cement makers, pulp and paper products firms and others will all be able to hook up one of its reactors, thereby helping many companies get under their government-mandated carbon “cap” by capturing CO2 emissions and converting them into usable products including hydrogen and methanol in addition to formic acid.
Mantra is just one of a number of mostly small unknown companies hoping to hit it big by helping turning CO2 into a positive instead of a negative. Some, for example, are working on using CO2 from power plants to grow algae (for biofuel) on land next to their power plants.
Kristoff told EnergyTechStocks.com in an interview that while the technology behind his reactor works, and that he has built a working prototype that was recently on display at a trade show, his product isn’t yet cost effective. But that will come, he quickly said, noting that a number of major companies currently are in discussions with Mantra. Kristoff added that while his reactor isn’t generating any revenue for Mantra at this point, he expects the company to be in the black within three to five years
