SecondCircle plans to show CO2 emissions into gold

The worldwide downside of an over-abundance of CO₂ within the ambiance is ongoing, and an enormous space that must be addressed, given the quantity pumped out by business. It’s hoped that if carbon dioxide could possibly be transformed on the level of emission, we may cope with the local weather disaster quite a bit quicker and create a sustainable carbon economic system.

There are a couple of corporations attempting to sort out this. Zurich-based Climeworks is capturing CO₂ from the air by way of industrial carbon dioxide elimination know-how, and has raised $784 million thus far. U.S.-based LanzaTech is doing one thing related, turning turning carbon into feedstock. It has raised $310.4 million.

Now Copenhagen-based biotech firm SecondCircle thinks it additionally has a novel strategy.

It claims to have the ability to seize CO₂ from industrial emitters on the level of emission utilizing “artificial biology” to develop biocatalysts (micro organism). These then convert the carbon dioxide into chemical compounds which might be offered again to business. If it may be scaled-up, this might flip even emissions right into a income alternative.

The corporate has now closed a €1.2 million pre-seed spherical led by Berlin-based early stage investor Atlantic Labs. Nevertheless it has much more to play with than that. It additionally has a €43 million EU grant to scale-up the method, as it’s a part of a consortium that acquired money from the EU’s Horizon 2020 analysis and innovation programme. Dubbed “PyroCO2,” the venture goals to reveal the large-scale conversion of business carbon emissions into value-added chemical substances and supplies.

SecondCircle founders. Picture Credit: SecondCircle

Torbjørn Ølshøj Jensen, co-founder and CEO of SecondCircle stated in an announcement: “We strongly imagine that we are able to solely remedy the worldwide CO₂ downside by constructing new approaches for sustainable worth creation from inevitable emissions.”

Artificial biology know-how is already beginning to be extensively utilized in a variety of areas. SecondCircle spun out of the Biosustain NNF Middle for Biosustainability on the Danish Technical College. Based in 2020 and primarily based in Copenhagen, the corporate is run by the founding workforce Alex Toftgaard Nielsen, Stephanie Redl and Torbjørn Ølshøj Jensen.

“By capturing carbon on the supply and changing it into extremely useful merchandise, SecondCircle has the potential to cut back clients’ emissions and concurrently flip the unit economics of carbon seize on its head by lastly having a worthwhile use case. Supporting this workforce was a no brainer for us,” added Max Kufner, principal at Atlantic Labs.