Based in San Francisco, the company has the ambitious aim to capture 10 per cent of global CO2 emissions through carbon capture and usage.
While this method is still in its infancy, the initiative aims to commercialise new ideas quickly by granting up to $100m a year for 10 years to researchers developing viable new products. Its global advisory board includes Steven Chu, the former US secretary of energy, and Jeremy Oppenheim, programme chair of the New Climate Economy project.
Carbon Brief spoke to Dr Issam Dairanieh, the company’s CEO, about his idea to tackle climate change through CO2 reuse. He explained what carbon capture and usage is, and how it could play a role in future efforts to reduce emissions:
“The idea here is go with what we call ‘carbon negative technologies’. So think of trees on steroids. That’s really what it is. So it is acceleration absorption of CO2 converted into products. Nature does it, does it very well, but does it slowly, and our solution says let’s see what nature does, and do that extremely fast.
So, instead of years, we want to do that in minutes. And the idea here is really all about developing and commercialising technologies that can absorb CO2 and convert it into useful products.”
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