In early 2022, the developer and property manager Glenwood Management, working with CarbonQuest, which specializes in turnkey solutions to reduce CO2 emissions from buildings, initiated what was touted as the first commercially operational building carbon capture on the market, at Glenwood’s 30-story 377,564-sf 232-apartment Grand Tier building at 1930 Broadway in New York City, which opened in 2005. This modular system, installed in the building’s parking garage, took up the equivalent of just three parking spaces.
At the time of that installation, CarbonQuest’s CEO Shane Johnson said the system was expected to eliminate about 25 percent of the building’s annual carbon dioxide emissions with zero interruption to tenants, with the longer-range goal of cutting between 60-70 percent of the building’s emissions.
Having deemed the pilot a success, CarbonQuest is now installing its decarbonization technology into another five of Glenwood’s multifamily New York properties: The Fairmont at 300 East 75th Street, The Paramount Tower at 240 East 39th Street, The Bristol at 300 East 56th Street, The Barclay at 1755 York Avenue, and The Somerset at 1365 York Avenue.
This rollout is occurring in anticipation of New York City’s Local Law 97, which in 2024 will start penalizing buildings over 25,000 sf that don’t meet new energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emission limits that will get even stricter in 2030 and 2035. Based on their current carbon use, Glenwood’s properties would incur penalties of about $7 million between 2024 and 2029 without CarbonQuest’s technology, and another $15 million in penalties from 2030 through 2034.
Other cities, such as Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago, are traveling on the same regulatory path.
“A growing number of property owners are evaluating our carbon capture technology, and we are excited to continue partnering with forward-thinking real estate operators to reduce carbon emissions in the built environment,” says Brain Asparro, COO of CarbonQuest, which was founded in 2019 in Seattle.
From gas to liquid
Onsite natural gas combustion generates more than half of total building CO2 that represent between 60 and 90 percent of total emissions in cities globally, states CarbonQuest. The company estimates that its system can eliminate more than 1,000 tons of CO2 emissions per building per year.
It works this way: CarbonQuest’s proprietary technology captures CO2 from a building’s flue exhaust before it escapes as a greenhouse gas. Subsequent to this capture, the CO2 undergoes a multistage process that isolates carbon dioxide from nitrogen and oxygen, and cools the CO2 to a liquid state that gets stored in a bulk tank. CarbonQuest sells this trademarked Sustainable CO2 to companies that are focused on carbon utilization and sequestration.
For example, the Sustainable CO2 from Glenwood’s properties is earmarked to be sold to Glenwood Mason Supply (unaffiliated with the developer), a New York-based masonry firm, which will sequester the CO2 permanently in concrete blocks.
CarbonQuest’s modular systems comes in several sizes to support different building types and applications. Its carbon capture process at each property it’s installed in is coupled with carbon management software that provides real-time data and analytics to verify, measure, and report CO2 emissions to third-party verifiers, auditors, and regulators.
Related Stories
| Dec 2, 2010
U.S Energy Secretary Chu announces $21 Million to improve energy use in commercial buildings
U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced that 24 projects are receiving a total of $21 million in technical assistance to dramatically reduce the energy used in their commercial buildings. This initiative will connect commercial building owners and operators with multidisciplinary teams including researchers at DOE's National Laboratories and private sector building experts. The teams will design, construct, measure, and test low-energy building plans, and will help accelerate the deployment of cost-effective energy-saving measures in commercial buildings across the United States.
| Nov 29, 2010
Data Centers: Keeping Energy, Security in Check
Power consumption for data centers doubled from 2000 and 2006, and it is anticipated to double again by 2011, making these mission-critical facilities the nation’s largest commercial user of electric power. Major technology companies, notably Hewlett-Packard, Cisco Systems, and International Business Machines, are investing heavily in new data centers. HP, which acquired technology services provider EDS in 2008, announced in June that it would be closing many of its older data centers and would be building new, more highly optimized centers around the world.
| Nov 29, 2010
Renovating for Sustainability
Motivated by the prospect of increased property values, reduced utility bills, and an interest in jumping on the sustainability bandwagon, a noted upturn in green building upgrades is helping designers and real estate developers stay busy while waiting for the economy to recover. In fact, many of the larger property management outfits have set up teams to undertake projects seeking LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance (LEED-EBOM, also referred to as LEED-EB), a certification by the U.S. Green Building Council.
| Nov 23, 2010
The George W. Bush Presidential Center, which will house the former president’s library
The George W. Bush Presidential Center, which will house the former president’s library and museum, plus the Bush Institute, is aiming for LEED Platinum. The 226,565-sf center, located at Southern Methodist University, in Dallas, was designed by architect Robert A.M. Stern and landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh.
| Nov 23, 2010
Honeywell's School Energy and Environment Survey: 68% of districts delayed or eliminated improvements because of economy
Results of Honeywell's second annual “School Energy and Environment Survey” reveal that almost 90% of school leaders see a direct link between the quality and performance of school facilities, and student achievement. However, districts face several obstacles when it comes to keeping their buildings up to date and well maintained. For example, 68% of school districts have either delayed or eliminated building improvements in response to the economic downturn.
| Nov 16, 2010
Brazil Olympics spurring green construction
Brazil's green building industry will expand in the coming years, spurred by construction of low-impact venues being built for the 2016 Olympics. The International Olympic Committee requires arenas built for the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro meet international standards for low-carbon emissions and energy efficiency. This has boosted local interest in developing real estate with lower environmental impact than existing buildings. The timing couldn’t be better: the Brazilian government is just beginning its long-term infrastructure expansion program.
| Nov 16, 2010
Green building market grows 50% in two years; Green Outlook 2011 report
The U.S. green building market is up 50% from 2008 to 2010—from $42 billion to $55 billion-$71 billion, according to McGraw-Hill Construction's Green Outlook 2011: Green Trends Driving Growth report. Today, a third of all new nonresidential construction is green; in five years, nonresidential green building activity is expected to triple, representing $120 billion to $145 billion in new construction.
| Nov 16, 2010
Calculating office building performance? Yep, there’s an app for that
123 Zero build is a free tool for calculating the performance of a market-ready carbon-neutral office building design. The app estimates the discounted payback for constructing a zero emissions office building in any U.S. location, including the investment needed for photovoltaics to offset annual carbon emissions, payback calculations, estimated first costs for a highly energy efficient building, photovoltaic costs, discount rates, and user-specified fuel escalation rates.
