ASCO Carbon Dioxide Ltd. resident in Romanshorn, Switzerland, a wholly owned affiliate of the Messer Schweiz AG, announces that it has established a long term cooperation with HTC Purenergy Inc. located in Regina, Canada.

HTC grants to ASCO for a period of 21 years an exclusive license to utilize HTC’s Carbon Capture Processes for the design, manufacturing and production of CO₂ plants with a maximum capacity of 250 tons per day to be sold by ASCO outside of North America. Through their collaboration and the implementation of HTC’s Carbon Capture Processes, ASCO will be able to substantially reduce the energy consumption of its CO₂ plants by more than 50 percent. HTC’s Carbon Capture Processes can also be applied to existing CO₂ plants resulting in a 75-80 percent reduction in fuel costs. This allows ASCO to achieve a considerable competitive advantage in this business sector.

ASCO covers the full range of CO₂ − from automatic dry ice production machines to CO₂ production and recovery plants, from dry ice blasting technology to cylinder filling systems, vaporisers and other CO₂ equipment.

HTC is listed at the Toronto Stock Exchange under TSX-V:HTC. It is an energy company focused on providing commercial engineering solutions to gas processors, oil & natural gas producers and other major industry sectors including companies producing fertilizer, cement, steel, aluminum, thermal power, lime and petro-chemical. HTC's Engineering Services and Products are designed to increase production, reduce operating costs, mitigate risk and manage process impurities. HTC personnel are fully qualified engineers with experience-based expertise and know-how in the energy, petro-chemical and other global industry sectors.