![]() ![]() Q: Why did CarbonCure decide to compete for the XPRIZE, rather than raising money through investors?Ī: Well, the XPrize to me is all about signalling new industries, and it’s catalyzing their growth. They’re also taking data from these plants to be able to help the operators of concrete plants become more efficient by being prescriptive, and helping them make concrete with the highest sustainability and the highest economic value. But it also allows us to make sure that all of these systems are operating optimally. ![]() Those environmental benefits can be used to communicate to regulators or project builders, or even the carbon finance market. This provides very accurate reporting, so that we know what the environmental benefit is from moment to moment, or project to project, or plant to plant. Could you say more about that?Ī: All of our systems are connected through the cloud. Q: You alluded to the role that digital technology plays in CarbonCure’s business. So, having the largest customer make a statement where they’re tying procurement to decarbonisation is an extremely strong market signal. Government and the public sector sector represents 40 per cent of all procurement of concrete in Canada, and the same numbers apply in the U.S. (February’s) Greening Government Strategy is a key piece of that. The real issue here is how do we scale up solutions fast enough to be meaningful, as it relates to the the urgent need for decarbonization and climate change? That requires creative new strategies for growth and new partnerships and government policy to be able to scale up viable clean technologies fast enough. What worries me really is the 2030 timeline. And we have the technology and the team and the market to do that. So we’re continuing to innovate… But it’s just as important to strengthen the message that we have, that we need to continue to create a portfolio of hardware and digital technologies that allow us to achieve our mission.Ī: I’m not worried about the 500 million tonnes side of things - that’s just arithmetic. There are about 100,000 plants still that have not (installed CarbonCure systems) yet, that we see as opportunities.īut we know that just installing today’s technology and more plants isn’t going to be enough. Today, we’re already installed in over 300 plants on four different continents. One is expanding the deployment of our technology around the world. And what (the roadmap) tells you is that we’re going to be pushing on two specific focus areas. This funding and the credibility that this recognition provides allows us to be able to accelerate that roadmap. We actually look at CO2 as a feedstock, where we can take this harmful greenhouse gas and use it to make concrete - the most abundant man-made material on Earth.Ī: Our company is on a mission to reduce 500 million tonnes of CO2 emissions by the year 2030. Of course, there’s no point in capturing the CO2 if you can’t either put it away permanently, or put it into some product, or find some other creative way of managing that CO2. Q: Where does CarbonCure fit in to the broader carbon capture and clean tech landscape?Ī: Carbon capture is taking the CO2 from either a point source or the atmosphere. They were judged based on their technology’s ability to remove carbon from the atmosphere, and the value of their end products. Judging for the XPRIZE began in 2015 with 35 shortlisted contestants that specialize in turning greenhouse gas emissions into usable products. and oilsands industry group Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA), beating out more than 50 competitors during a nearly five-year competition. The CO2 remains trapped in the concrete forever and will not be released into the environment even if the structure is demolished, the company claims.Įarlier this month, CarbonCure bagged a US$7.5 million prize from a U.S. The CO2 reacts with calcium ions from the cement to form calcium carbonate, actually strengthening the concrete - which is a big plus of the technology. A CarbonCure machine, retrofitted in the concrete plant, captures the carbon and injects it back into the wet concrete mix. ![]() Founded in 2012, CarbonCure’s technology captures the carbon dioxide released during concrete production. ![]()
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