What can we learn from Canadian carbon capture?

What do they do?

Carbon Upcycling’s technology is becoming an integral feature in combatting climate change by delivering lower carbon concrete at scale and at a cost that is competitive with conventional products.

On its recent formation of an advisory board, Apoorv Sinha, CEO and Co-Founder of Carbon Upcycling said: “We are excited to tap into the deep knowledge and broad networks of this impressive group of advisors as we focus on scaling to meet demand for low-carbon goods and achieving our goal of reducing carbon emissions through productive use of carbon in concrete.”

“It’s exciting to be contributing to the next phase of development for Carbon Upcycling, which has such a promising and innovative concept to convert waste CO2 into a valuable product that society needs,” said Michael Crothers, who will be advising Carbon Upcycling on commercialisation best practices and business development management. Michael has 37 years of operations, commercial, and leadership experience in the upstream, downstream, and integrated gas businesses, of which over 33 years were with Royal Dutch Shell.  

“There's been a huge upsurge in the voluntary carbon market recently, particularly as we're all witnessing the increasing severity of the climate crisis, and therefore I believe that Carbon Upcycling is in a strong position to take advantage of this market trend because of the premium the market is specifically putting on carbon removals,” said Seth Baruch, CEO of Carbonomics, who will advise the company on carbon offset strategies and protocols.

Single step, low-energy carbon utilisation

Pressurised with CO2 from source point emissions, the reactors have evolved from a compact size, “no larger than a cookie car” to an operating unit that produces 20 tonnes of material per batch.

The material is treated through Carbon Upcycling’s MACE (mechanically assisted chemical exfoliation) process and then a suite of Co2 enhanced additives are used in concrete, anti-corrosion coatings, plastics, consumer products and more.

Carbon Upcycling is trying to emphasise the shifting attitudes in responsibility. Shina explained: “The situation is much the same for the cement and concrete industry’s Co2 goals.

“The onus is on startups working on commercialising or scaling up new technologies to ensure the industry’s slower-moving players have the tools to reach their net-zero targets.”

CEO and Founder of CarbonCure, Rob Niven, says of the biggest issues is getting government and authorities on board. He said that regulators must begin to more strictly enforce carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS).

CarbonCure is a likeminded CCUS business whose “vision is to make its concrete technology standard for all concrete production across the globe. By realising the full potential of CarbonCure’s portfolio of carbon utilisation technologies, the goal of saving 500 million tonnes of embodied carbon emissions every year by 2030 could be met – which would be equivalent to taking 100 million cars off the road.”

UK CCUS

Over the pond from these Canadian-based CCUS companies, the question remains: What is Britain doing about carbon capture?

In 2017, the British government’s ‘Clean Growth Strategy’ announced its new approach to carbon capture. Using three key themes, the government hoped to “enable the UK to become a global technology leader for CCUS”.

• Re-affirming commitments to CCUS deployment – Cost reductions are a necessity in order for the government to decarbonise the economy. It has established a CCUS Cost Challenge Taskforce to tackle this challenge and has set out plans for widespread deployment of CCUS in the 2030s.
• International Collaboration – With its participation in ‘Mission Innovation’, the government is working closely with private sector led initiatives such as the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative. It has also announced closer collaboration with countries such as Norway, the US, Canada and Australia.
• Innovation – Plans to make up to £20m available from the Energy Innovation Programme for a Carbon Capture and Utilisation demonstration programme will invest innovative technologies that capture and utilise CO2.