Company History
2008 – PHYCO2 LLC was formed by Greg Hagopian, Managing Member, and Robert (Bob) Morgan, Secretary, as a Delaware LLC.  The company’s purpose was to sequester CO2 from power plants through a photosynthetic process with algae. Bob Morgan designed the first helical coil reactor.
2010 – Patent applications were filed in the US and Canada.  The company tested a small-scale reactor at Utah State University which showed the potential of the design to grow algae and reduce CO2.  A Cooperative Research Agreement was signed with Michigan State University to test the PHYCO2 designed reactors and its performance with various algae strains.
2014 – The company raised capital to fund the construction of two prototype reactors and run an 18-month series of tests at Michigan State University (MSU).
2015 – The prototypes were built and installed at the MSU T.B. Simon Power Plant where they received a slip stream of flue gas from a natural gas and coal fueled boilers.  Testing of the reactors and their subcomponents began in November 2015.
2016 – Testing of the prototypes was completed in late October 2016.  The reactor set-up was modified to increase the light intensity on the algae which resulted in much higher algae production and CO2 sequestration rates.  The design of scalable reactors for large algae production plants was started with 3D modeling of the reactors and CFD analysis of the fluid circulation in the reactor designs.
2017 – We received a 3-year DOE grant with Michigan State University received DOE grant for new CO2 sequestration project from fossil fueled power plants. PHYCO2 provided reactors to grow algae as a chemical feedstock for process.
2018 – MSU project started, helical coil reactor in service starting January 2018. New design entered service on June 2018.
2019 – New scalable PBR tested and quickly grew algae.
2020 – Original PBR design operated continuously for 33 months as part of the DOE project.
2021 – Final DOE report completed with technical paper from Ph.D. thesis was published by Elsevier. Joint venture formed with ABI Energy, LLC to pursue commercializing the PHYCO2 Technology to reduce CO2 emissions from industrial combustion operations in the oil field, power plants, and process heat markets.
2023 – PHYCO2 equipment installed on an oil lease in California as part of a validation project. Patents filed.