Vessels Carbon Solutions Inc. is an emissions control company.  Our services include economically sustainable methane emission reduction, for the benefit of the climate and the air quality of communities near coal mines.  We create California Air Resource Board Offset Credits through the verification of our methane destruction. And we generate electricity eligible for Renewable Portfolio Standards.

Abbreviations:

ARB  -  California Air Resources Board.
ARBOC  -  California Air Resource Board Offset Credit.
IPCC  -  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
AR 2  -  Second Assessment Report on Climate, Impacts, and Vulnerabilities of the IPCC, 1996 (used by ARB in its Cap and Trade System).
AR 5  -  Fifth Assessment Report on Climate Change, Impacts and Vulnerabilities of the IPCC, 2015.
CH4  -  Methane.
CT  -  Cap and Trade System.
CO2  -  Carbon Dioxide.
CCAC  -  Climate and Clean Air Coalition.
GHG  -  Green-house gas.
GWP  -  Global Warming Potential of a metric ton of any greenhouse gas measured against one metric ton of CO2.  For example, a metric ton of methane has 84 times the GWP a metric ton of CO2 according to the IPCC AR5 over 20 years.
Mcf  -  Thousand cubic feet.
SLCP  -  Short Lived Climate Pollutant.
tCO2e  -  the volume of any greenhouse gas equal to the GWP of one metric ton of Carbon Dioxide.

Vessels Carbon Solutions Inc. is a company that provides both emission reduction and rewable energy eligible products and specialized services. The primary highest value product we produce is an ARBOC currently selling for $13-$14 per unit. An ARBOC is a certified credit that corresponds to the removal of one tCO2e under the California CT System which uses a GWP of 21 from AR2.  In 2007 the State of California passed a law mandating the California Air Resources Board to lower the carbon emissions from the State using “market-based solutions.”  ARB developed a CT system that included some specific reductions of greenhouse gas anywhere in the USA that could offset up to 8% of an entity’s emissions inside the state.  ARB discounts a methane derived ARBOC to almost one fifth (1/5) of its CO2 equivalence.  The most recent AR5 calculates a GWP of 84 for methane’s effect over twenty years.  Using this 84 GWP calculates one mcf of methane is equivalent to 1.64 tCO2.   Under the ARB CT one mcf of CH4 is equivalent to .348 tCO2 or almost 1/5th of the tCO2e using the AR5 20year GWP.  ARB uses the 1996 AR2 hundred-year GWP vs. the 2015 AR5 twenty-year GWP.  The Climate and Clean Air Coalition recommends using a twenty-year time period to focus on more immediate higher impact carbon reduction.  Never the less ARBOCS are the highest value carbon reduction products that can be generated in the USA.  This is because the California CT system is compliance based, which means acquiring allowances or offsets is mandatory for all polluters.  Noncompliance driven carbon offsets or credits have to sell into a voluntary market.  Buyers are under no need to buy carbon offsets so they only buy due to a corporate or personal policy.  The voluntary market tends to be a third the value of the California CT market.  ARB is implementing California law, which mandates a falling cap in greenhouse gas emissions using market-based systems.  Generally, a California entity that reports emissions of > 25,000 tCO2e is covered under the CT regulation.  In the California CT over three hundred covered entities are allowed to emit a certain amount of GHG converted into tCO2e.  To legally emit they must have allowances issued or sold by ARB equal to their allowed emissions.  Each year fewer allowances will be issued and the sales price charged by ARB will rise.  Those allowances are certificates that can be held or sold to other parties.  The emitters also have the option to buy ARBOCS which can be retired to offset emissions.  Under the California CT up to 8% of allowed emissions by a covered entity can be offset by ARBOCs. While an allowance allows emissions an ARBOC represents an actual emission reduction verified by two neutral third party entities and then a 3rd time by ARB staff.  Emission allowances issued by ARB have a price fixed by the state and are mandated to go up every year.  ARBOC’s by contrast are traded on the open market and can be purchased at whatever price the buyer and seller agree to.  This web page text is not a complete and detailed explanation of the California CT.  It is intended as a summary description of ARBOCs the primary product produced by VCS.

While an allowance allows the emission of one tCO2e, an ARBOC represents an actual verified reduction of a tCO2e.  An ARBOC from methane destruction yields 5 times the climate benefit accredited by ARB.  An ARBOC is priced at $13-$14.  According to the IPCC AR5 20 year GWP this comes out to $3.00 per actual tCO2e destroyed.

Abbreviations:

REC  -  One MegaWatt hour of qualifying electricity.  As a REC pertains to a MegaWatt hour of electricity, and not the carbon intensity of the fuel source, a REC dos not necessarily correspond to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
RPS - The Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard is the body of law dictating who is or is not eligible for renewable credits.  In Colorado not all energy in the RPS is legally defined as renewable.  Those energy sources are usually referred to as qualifying energy, and are eligible for REC’s.
PJM – The Pennsylvania New Jersey Maryland Interconnection, is a regional transition Organization on the east coast.  The entire PJM region has a Renewable energy program.
KWHR  -  a kilowatt hour that is , a unit of electricity that is actually generated, purchased and sold.
KW  -  1 thousandth of a MW.  A capacity to produce a certain amount of electricity.
MWHR  -  1,000 kilowatt hours.  Megawatt of electricity generated in an hour.  Actual product that is purchased and sold.
MW  -  Capacity to generate electricity of one Mega Watt or one thousand kilowatts.
QF  -  Qualifying Facility under the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

In the state of Colorado mine methane qualifies for the renewable energy portfolio standard.  In Pennsylvania it qualifies for the Pennsylvania Alternative Energy program.  In both states every one thousand kilo watt hours generated equals a REC and can be sold.  The REC can be sold separate and apart from the actual electricity.  This electricity generation creates two commodities, electricity and the REC.  The generation facility may also have to be listed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as a qualifying facility.  Electricity utilities can satisfy an obligation to buy a certain amount of renewable electricity by buying RECS separate and apart from the electricity.

VCS generated electricity from methane emissions it destroys from its Colorado and Pennsylvania projects. This electricity is generated from low btu diluted gas as low as 30% methane. This is achieved by modular containerized electric generators, of approximately one mega-watt capacity per generator.

Services

O3    Ozone
VOC    Volatile organic compound

Vessels Coal Gas is also a service provider.  We are a “thought leader” in the methane capture space.  We advise companies, government agencies, local environmental groups, politicians, land owners and environmental organizations on the practical issues surrounding methane capture. Vessels wrote the first Abandoned Mine Methane Protocol for the Verified Carbon Standard.¹ Vessels lobbied in the state of Colorado to have electricity generated from methane emissions from mines to be eligible for the Renewable Portfolio Standard.²  Vessels furthered participated in the working group advising the California Air Resources Board on the Mine Methane Capture Protocol.3

Vessels surveys sites for the presence and volume of CH4 and VOCs.  We reduce the amount of regulated air molecules emitted.  Our work reduces the local O3 from VOC emissions and the more widespread O3 from CH4 emissions.

We make on site field surveys and emission tests of sites with potential CH4 and VOC emissions.   Based on the results of surveys and tests we assess the economic potential of capturing the CH4.  This includes Vessels evaluation of the potential eligibility of the any CH4 emission capture for the California CT.

Vessels constructs, installs, and operates CH4 capture systems.  The systems include:  the recommissioning of old wells and vents, the drilling of new wells, installing of compressors, combustors, pipelines, measurement, recording and data transmission equipment.  Vessels also negotiates contracts to market and sell the carbon offsets, electricity and RECS.

We have conducted field surveys in nine states and 5 countries.