The ThermoEnergy Integrated Power System (TIPS) is a patented technology under active development. Once it is commercially deployed, TIPS will revolutionize the way the world generates energy from hydrocarbons. Based on reliable oxy-fuel chemistry, TIPS combines the combustion of carbonaceous fuels with essentially complete recovery of all by-products including acid gases, mercury, particulates and CO₂, at efficiencies comparable to those of conventional large-scale combustion technologies.

TIPS departs from the traditional oxy-fuel approach by pressurizing the entire combustion system. This increased system pressure enables the use of gas-to-liquid steam-hydroscrubbing to collect and remove priority and toxic pollutants including NOx, SOx, mercury, particulates and CO₂. These pollutants are then recovered via direct condensation and can be sold as commodity products.

TIPS enjoys numerous economic and environmental advantages when compared to conventional "clean coal" combustion technologies, such as the Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) process. TIPS is a straight-forward approach to power generation containing fewer unit operations and thus intrinsically more reliable. TIPS and IGCC are similar for a new large utility plants (excluding CO₂ capture) using high-rank coal as a fuel, projections indicate TIPS to be far superior economically for all other cases. With CO₂ as an added condition, IGCC cannot match TIPS economic performance in any category.

In the most recent U. S. Government budgeting cycle, an aggregate of $2.3 million was authorized for TIPS research and development. ThermoEnergy is currently working with its grant collaborators to use this money to expedite the development of the technology. The Company's goals are to 1) partner with a key industry participant, 2) build a prototype facility, and 3) commercialize the TIPS process.

Alex Fassbender, SVP for Engineering and Technology Development for ThermoEnergy, presented a technical paper on the TIPS process at the recently held 30th International Technical Conference on Coal Utilization & Fuel Systems, in Clearwater, Florida. Please click here to view or download this paper.