Carbon Sciences Files Patents for Steam Reforming of Natural Gas

SANTA BARBARA, CA--(Marketwire - Feb 13, 2012) - Carbon Sciences Inc. (OTCBB: CABN), the developer of a breakthrough technology to make transportation fuels and other valuable products from natural gas, today announced that it has filed two provisional patent applications related to its steam reforming catalyst technology. The patents are designed to provide comprehensive protection for its global intellectual property portfolio.

The new patent applications complement the company's strong dry reforming catalyst patent previously issued in 2011. In January 2012, Carbon Sciences announced its plan to focus the commercialization effort of its catalyst technology on steam reforming applications. Steam reforming of natural gas is the primary method for producing hydrogen, methanol and other large volume chemicals. The most valuable product of steam reforming of natural gas is hydrogen, which is a growing market and currently exceeds $150 billion per year.

The unique low-coking characteristic of the company's catalyst will enable steam reforming processes to operate at a substantially lower steam to methane ratio, resulting in lower operating costs, lower capital costs, lower carbon footprint, and increased production. The new provisional patent applications have been filed in support of this commercialization program. These new filings, as well as several other upcoming filings, when granted, will provide the company with strong worldwide IP protection for steam reforming of natural gas.

Byron Elton, CEO of Carbon Sciences, commented, "These patent applications speak directly to the near term commercial feasibility of our technology. We recently announced the acceleration of the development of our steam reforming catalyst as a drop-in replacement for catalysts used in existing plants worldwide. These patents will provide the coverage and protection we need to move forward."

A new composition of matter application was filed to address the characteristics of the catalyst required to operate in a steam atmosphere, including constant activity without the formation of coke, increased thermal stability and improved mechanical properties necessary for commercial reformers. The second application discloses a low steam to methane ratio reforming process. The combination of a new process patent and a new catalyst patent provides broad intellectual property coverage to support the company's technology development business model.

Gas-to-liquids (GTL) technology, based on abundant and inexpensive natural gas, offers the best solution to meet the increasing demand for liquid transportation fuels. The GTL market is still developing and represents the company's most significant long-term market opportunity. Today, most small to mid-size GTL plants use steam reforming of natural gas to syngas as the first step in the process. Carbon Sciences is targeting this market segment as a drop-in replacement opportunity for its steam-reforming catalyst. By reducing the cost of the steam reforming section, the most cost intensive part of a GTL system, the company intends to significantly reduce the cost of producing gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and other GTL products from natural gas.

The company continues to develop its dry reforming catalyst that can be used with captured CO2 or high CO2 content natural gas to make syngas.

About Carbon Sciences Inc.
Innovating at the forefront of chemical engineering, Carbon Sciences is developing a breakthrough technology to make cleaner and greener transportation fuels and other valuable products from natural gas. Our highly scalable, clean-tech process will enable the world to reduce its dependence on petroleum by transforming abundant and affordable natural gas into gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, and other products, such as hydrogen, methanol, pharmaceuticals, solvents, fertilizers, pesticides and plastics. The key to this process is a breakthrough catalyst that can reduce the cost of reforming natural gas into synthetic gas (syngas), the most costly step in making products from natural gas. To learn more about Carbon Sciences' breakthrough technology, please visit www.carbonsciences.com and follow us Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/carbonsciences.

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