<\/p>\n
The global problem of an over-abundance of CO2 in the atmosphere is ongoing, and a huge area that needs to be addressed, given the amount pumped out by industry. It\u2019s hoped that if carbon dioxide could be converted at the point of emission, we could deal with the climate crisis a lot faster and create a sustainable carbon economy.<\/p>\n
There are a few companies trying to tackle this. Zurich-based Climeworks is capturing CO2 from the air via commercial carbon dioxide removal technology, and has raised $784M so far. US-based Lanzatech is doing something similar, turning turning carbon into feedstock. It has raised $310.4M.<\/p>\n
Now Copenhagen-based BioTech company SecondCircle thinks it also has a novel approach.<\/p>\n
It claims to be able to capture CO2 from industrial emitters at the point of emission using \u2018synthetic biology\u2019 to develop biocatalysts (bacteria). These then convert the carbon dioxide into chemical compounds that are sold back to industry. If it cane be scaled-up, this could turn even emissions into a revenue opportunity.<\/p>\n
The company has now closed a \u20ac1.2M Pre-Seed round led by Berlin-based early stage investor Atlantic Labs. But it has a lot more to play with than that. It also has a \u20ac43m EU grant\u00a0to scale-up the process, as it is part of a consortium which received cash from the EU\u2019s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Dubbed \u201cPyroCO2\u201d the project aims to demonstrate the large-scale conversion of industrial carbon emissions into value-added chemicals and materials.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Torbj\u00f8rn \u00d8lsh\u00f8j Jensen, co-founder and CEO of SecondCircle said in a statement: \u201cWe\u00a0strongly believe that we can only solve the global CO2 problem by building new approaches for sustainable value creation from inevitable emissions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Synthetic biology\u2019 technology is already starting to be widely applied in a number of areas. SecondCircle\u00a0spun out of the Biosustain NNF Center for Biosustainability at the Danish Technical University. Founded in 2020 and based in Copenhagen, the company is run by the founding team Alex Toftgaard Nielsen, Stephanie Redl, Torbj\u00f8rn \u00d8lsh\u00f8j Jensen.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy\u00a0capturing carbon at the source and converting it into highly valuable products, SecondCircle has the potential to reduce customers\u2019 emissions and simultaneously turn the unit economics of carbon capture on its head by finally having a profitable use case. Supporting this team was a no brainer for us,\u201d added Max Kufner, Principal at Atlantic Labs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The global problem of an over-abundance of CO2 in the atmosphere is ongoing, and a huge area that needs to be addressed, given the amount pumped out by industry. It\u2019s hoped that if carbon dioxide could be converted at the point of emission, we could deal with the climate crisis a lot faster and create […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1172548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1172546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrity-gossip"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1172546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1172546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1172546\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1172546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1172546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1172546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}