Carbon Sciences Targets $150 Billion Hydrogen Market

SANTA BARBARA, CA--(Marketwire - Apr 30, 2012) - Carbon Sciences Inc. (OTCBB: CABN), the developer of a breakthrough technology to make transportation fuels, hydrogen and other valuable products from natural gas, today commented that the company is highly focused on completing the development of its steam reforming catalyst for the $150 billion hydrogen market. The company estimates that it can save the exiting natural gas-to-hydrogen industry approximately $6 billion per year.

Steam reforming of natural gas is the primary method for producing over $150 billion per year of hydrogen for use as a critical reactant in fuel and chemical processes and in making the world's fertilizers. There are approximately 2,000 steam methane reforming (SMR) plants around the world using older generation catalysts that require a high steam to natural gas ratio. Carbon Sciences novel catalyst will allow plant operators to reduce the steam to natural gas ratio. Less steam used means more natural gas is processed in a greener and cleaner solution that saves energy costs, increases profits and reduces CO2 emissions.

Byron Elton, the company's CEO, stated, "With an abundance of market opportunities ahead of us, we have chosen to focus first on the hydrogen market. Hydrogen is a here and now market and represents the lowest hanging fruit for us. If our catalyst proves to be best of breed, we expect to be adopted very rapidly."

Elton continued, "On a worldwide basis, we estimate approximately $6 billion per year of economic value to operators of steam methane reforming plants. Our engineering team calculates savings of approximately $3.7 million per year for an average size SMR plant producing 44,000 metric tons of hydrogen per year (~50 million standard cubic feet per day), assuming a current price for natural gas. World hydrogen production is about 75 million metric tons with a market value of approximately $2,000 per metric ton. Therefore, we calculate that our novel catalyst has the potential to save 75,000,000 / 44,000 x $3.7 million = $6.3 billion per year."

Major companies are moving to expand production to meet the worldwide demand for hydrogen. Last week, Air Liquide, a world leader in gases for industry, health and the environment, announced the start up of a new steam methane reforming plant in La Porte, Texas, just east of Houston. The estimated 120 million standard cubic feet per day of gaseous hydrogen produced by this SMR plant will feed into the company's pipeline system along the Texas Gulf Coast, including the recently built 85 mile pipeline expansion to supply refineries in Port Arthur, Texas. The hydrogen will be used in the oil refining process to convert heavy crude oil into clean burning transportation fuels and petrochemical feed stocks.

In addition to the benefits of hydrogen in manufacturing cleaner gasoline, the gas increasingly is being used with fuel cells for transit buses and fork lift trucks for materials handling. Earlier this month, Air Liquide announced a demonstration project for a hydrogen-powered fuel cell transit bus in Birmingham, Alabama. In January 2012, Air Liquide began supplying hydrogen to a fleet of 37 hydrogen-powered fuel cell forklifts at a leading soft drink maker's bottling and distribution facility in California.

Elton concluded, "$150 billion a year is a big market and it promises to get even larger. If hydrogen, the cleanest and greenest of all fuels, is widely adopted to power vehicles, then it could become a $1 trillion a year market. We are positioning our breakthrough catalyst to take full advantage of that market."

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, hydrogen 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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