Why this UK carbon capture co. expanded to Houston, IRA’s impact, and more
Originally published @EnergyCapHTX, Natalie Harms, August 23, 2023
Earlier this year, a growing carbon capture company announced its new North American headquarters in Houston. Now, the company is focused on doubling it’s headcount before the end of 2023 to meet demand.
Carbon Clean, which has a technology that has captured nearly two million tons of carbon dioxide at almost 50 sites around the world, opened its new office in the Ion earlier this year. The company is now building out its local supply chain with plans to rapidly expand.
In an interview with EnergyCapital, Co-Founder, Chair, and CEO Aniruddha Sharma weighs in on the new office, how pivotal the Inflation Reduction Act has been for his company’s growth, and the future of Carbon Clean.
EnergyCapital: Looking back on the past year since the Inflation Reduction Act was enacted, what has the impact been on Carbon Clean?
AniruddhaSharma: The IRA did much to jolt industry, incentivizing investment in carbon capture, while also telegraphing that the US government is getting serious about bringing emissions down. Overnight, the US became Carbon Clean’s biggest growth opportunity: inquiries from industrial emitters leapt a staggering 64 percent.
The impact of the IRA cannot be overstated for our industry, especially for point source carbon capture technology companies like Carbon Clean. The momentum created by the law’s passage, along with our existing activity in North America, led to the opening of our US headquarters in Houston in March this year. We will double our US headcount to meet demand for CycloneCC, our breakthrough, fully modular carbon capture technology.
EC: What does the sector still need to see — in terms of support from the government — to continue to move the needle on the energy transition?
AS: There’s much to admire in the way that the IRA incentivizes business. While it involves billions of dollars of public investment, it is set up in such a way that companies must make substantial investments first. IRA funding doesn’t arrive on day one — it comes over several years and to get to the first dollar of funding, a company must secure considerable private investment first. In other words, every single dollar of the IRA funding is unlocking additional private investment, creating high-paying jobs, and bringing manufacturing back home.
Of course, a lot of additional investment still needs to happen, and for some harder-to-abate sectors additional policy measures may be required to enable deployment at scale. The IRA is just a first step, but what a giant step it promises to be.
EC: You recently opened Carbon Clean’s HQ in Houston. What’s next for your company in terms of growth — especially here in Houston?
AS: We’re experiencing phenomenal growth globally, but we expect our expansion in North America to outpace all other regions. In line with this, we’ve seen a surge in interest from industrials across the US and our newly-opened Houston office will help us to meet this demand.
We are establishing a very significant base in the US — doubling our headcount this year — and we are developing a local supply chain to support the commercialization of our breakthrough modular technology, CycloneCC.
The potential for CycloneCC in the US and Houston area is huge. It is optimised for low to medium scale industrial emitters and recent Rice University research on the US Gulf Coast, for example, found that it is well suited to 73% of Gulf Coast emitters.
We’re currently working with Chevron on a carbon capture pilot for our CycloneCC technology on a gas turbine in San Joaquin Valley, California. We expect to be announcing additional carbon capture projects in the US in the coming months.
About Carbon Clean
Carbon Clean is a leader in revolutionising carbon capture solutions for hard-to-abate industries including cement, steel, refineries, and energy from waste. The company’s patented technology significantly reduces the costs of carbon capture when compared to conventional solutions.
Carbon Clean has over a decade of experience in designing, building, and operating industrial carbon capture systems and it has 49 technology references around the world. The company is an innovation leader in the CCUS market, with over 90 active patent assets across 16 patent families covering over 32 countries, and has developed a fully modular technology, CycloneCC, that is vital for scaling industrial carbon capture deployment to achieve global net zero targets.
Headquartered in the UK and with offices in the US and India, the company has received funding and grant support from the British and US governments and has established partnerships with industry leaders including Chevron and CEMEX. It is also an investor in the Swedish eFuel company, Liquid Wind.
For further information: www.carbonclean.com
About WAVE Equity Partners
WAVE Equity Partners (WAVE) is an independent sustainability-focused investment firm. We partner with early-growth companies whose proven clean technologies drive meaningful bottom-line impact and environmental benefits for large industrial manufacturers. Our industry knowledge and dedication to true partnership allow us to identify and support leaders whose innovative solutions are commercially accepted, deliver immediate impact and are poised to scale. WAVE is currently investing out of its third institutional fund and has approximately $460 million under management (AUM) as of September 30, 2023. For more information please visit https://waveep.com/ or by following the company on Twitter/X and LinkedIn
