Carbon capture and storage technology are evolving quickly. As many large corporations move toward carbon sequestration to meet net-zero sustainability goals, more and more companies are finding unique uses for this captured and stored carbon. The rapid expansion in technology is also leading to creative uses for the newly-stored carbon, including turning it into plastic-like fibers, fuel, feed for livestock – and even diamonds.
While natural carbon sequestration happens through forests and agriculture, it takes a very long time. New carbon tech companies are capturing carbon at lightning-fast speeds, and constantly look for new ways to turn that carbon into things useful for everyday life.
The good news is that this industry has the potential to remove the harmful excess 1,000 billion tons of carbon dioxide currently trapped in Earth’s atmosphere.
Companies such as Carbon Engineering and Climeworks are pioneering new methods to extract and reuse carbon, and they aren’t the only ones. Many companies have inventive, waste-reducing technology that is making a difference in corporate sustainability goals worldwide.
California-based Blue Planet uses carbon captured as a raw material substitute for limestone, which can be used for concrete. Its product is growing in popularity and has already been used at the San Francisco International Airport. Canada’s Carbon Upcycling Technologies is also creating concrete and plastic from carbon, using a pressurized technique that can produce more than 20,000 pounds of materials each day.
Across the pond, CCm Technology is using captured carbon for fertilizers and plastics. The United Kingdom based company has developed a fiber that absorbs carbon and then can be incorporated into plastics. PepsiCo has already teamed up with the firm to help reuse potato waste. In Holland, DyeCoo has developed a water-free, chemical-free process to use reclaimed carbon to dye textiles. This is significant news for the textile industry, second only to the automobile industry in carbon emissions with more than 1.2 billion metric tons of carbon emissions annually. DyeCoo is in talks to partner with Nike and Adidas, and DuPont Biomaterials.
Kiverdi piggybacked on NASA technologies to transform carbon into aqua feed for wild fish, a breakthrough that could mean more wild fish are available for human consumption. The California company uses renewable energy to mix captured carbon with other elements from its bioreactors to make the fishmeal. In Silicon Valley, NovoNutrients has teamed up with Chevron on a similar captured-carbon fish food based on protein flours.
And – just like Superman crushing coal into diamonds — Aether Diamonds is working on carbon-negative diamonds with captured carbon. Each diamond offsets more than two years of one American individual’s carbon emissions.
The move to capture and store carbon is proving to have valuable green benefits as numerous companies get creative. Whether it’s feeding fish, making diamonds, or creating more sustainable plastics, carbon sequestration is a positive move toward net-zero emissions and a healthier planet.
