Fueling the Circular Carbon Economy with Greenlyte Carbon Technologies
By Marieke Gehres with Dr. Hendrik Brandis and Dr. Frédéric du Bois-Reymond
In the battle against global warming, the simple reduction of emissions is no longer enough. We have reached a critical point where it is imperative to extract carbon from the atmosphere. Even in a future, where we achieve 100% clean electricity, numerous industries will continue to release substantial amounts of carbon dioxide for years to come. The current levels of atmospheric CO2, despite making up just 0.04% of its composition, have already reached alarming and catastrophic levels. Consequently, the process of capturing and removing CO2 has become a complex challenge.
Traditionally, this process involves channeling vast volumes of air through chemicals that bind to CO2 molecules, followed by the use of massive heaters to separate the captured CO2 from the chemicals.
However, there is now a groundbreaking solution: Greenlyte Carbon Technologies (GCT)
GCT’s direct air capturing (DAC) system effortlessly removes CO2 from the atmosphere, using a liquid-sorbent solution and only a fraction of the energy required by its competitors. Remarkably, this method doesn’t require excessive heat or pressure. But that’s not all. GCT takes the absorbed CO2 and transforms it into essential chemical products through electrochemistry: Green CO2 and hydrogen. These chemicals are crucial building blocks for numerous consumer goods, building materials, and even jet fuel. Therefore, GCT not only decarbonizes industries but also generates high-margin products.
We posit that to successfully implement and scale direct air capture and utilization, three critical elements are necessary. First, optimal energy efficiency is vital to ensure favorable unit economics. Second, utilizing off-the-shelf modules can minimize capital expenditure and enhance scalability. And finally, a team with outstanding technical and scientific expertise, combined with strong commercial execution capabilities, is crucial to leverage the advantages of being a pioneer in this field.
Greenlyte Carbon Technologies embodies these essential elements:
Their technology excels in achieving high energy efficiency, as well as capturing and processing carbon from the air at levels close to its thermodynamic minimum. This approach has the potential to achieve CO2 capture costs well below €100 per ton in the near future. By using off-the-shelf components and implementing a continuous cycle process that eliminates the need for material or component exchange, Greenlyte minimizes capital expenditure. The impressive speed demonstrated by the GCT team in scaling up their operations from 0tCO2 to 100tCO2 within a year, thanks to their agile product development approach, indicates their ability to make rapid progress and optimize for a swift time-to-market.
Fueling the circular carbon economy with green feedstock
We are thrilled to share the exciting news that Earlybird is taking the lead in Greenlyte Carbon Technologies’ pre-seed extension round of €4.5 million. Joining us in this endeavor are Earlybird-X fund, our pre-seed fund focused on identifying deep tech innovation opportunities, as well as Green Generation Fund and Carbon Removal Partners. Florian, Niklas, Peter, welcome again to the #EBVCgang. Together, we will be driving forward the advancement of GCT’s groundbreaking carbon capture technology.
Are you building something exciting in the ClimateTech space? Then make sure to keep up on LinkedIn with Dr. Hendrik Brandis, Co-Founder & Partner at Earlyird, or reach out directly to Marieke Gehres from the Digital West investment team (marieke@earlybird.com), as well as Frédéric du Bois- Reymond, Partner at Earlybird-X (fdbr@earlybird.com)!
