Radical decarbonization tools - TODAY

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Radical decarbonization tools

Deep tech climate startups can radically decarbonize our industries by leveraging two superpowers: 1) science and 2) entrepreneurship.

While science provides impactful breakthroughs, entrepreneurship enables their fast implementation for tackling the climate crisis.

Deep tech climate startups have already developed ways to grow steaks without an animal (Mosa Meat, Aleph Farms), build electric airplanes (Heart Aerospace), invent multi-day energy storage (Antora Energy, Form Energy), and develop plastic-eating enzymes (Epoch BioDesign, Beworm).

There are two areas where I believe deep tech startups can make an outsized climate impact:

#1. Decarbonizing hard-to-abate manufacturing sectors

Concrete, steel, and other manufacturing industries (e.g., plastics and chemicals) form the backbone of our modern society. These industries make up 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions and, unfortunately, are all behind schedule for humankind to reach 50% emissions reductions by 2030 and net zero by 2050. Luckily, we have impactful deep tech climate startups dealing with manufacturing sectors’ emissions. 

The following examples illustrate the wide array of science-based solutions frontier startups are bringing from the lab to the market.     

  • Boston Metal and Electra develop ways to electrify steelmaking directly. On the other hand, Ferrum Decarb and H2 Green Steel make low-emission steel by using green hydrogen. H2 Green Steel announced a massive €3.5B debt financing round in October 2022 to build its steel plant in Sweden. 

  • In concrete, an MIT spin-out Sublime Systems makes low-carbon drop-in cement via direct electrification. Neustark recycles concrete and injects removed CO2 in it, while CarbiCrete and Betolar develop cement-free alternatives for concrete.       

  • In chemical manufacturing, Phase Biolabs, a Breakthrough Energy Fellowship company, makes carbon-negative chemicals with microbes. Bloom Biorenewables has developed a novel process to turn wood waste into chemicals.  

#2. Building permanent, low-cost carbon removal

Removing carbon from the atmosphere has become necessary, as we have emitted a staggering 1.5 trillion tons of CO2 since the start of the industrial revolution in 1750.

We must build gigaton-scale carbon removal to tackle the climate crisis. 

By 2021, only 10 kt of CO2 had been permanently removed from the atmosphere, underlining the urgency for developing and scaling carbon removal. 

Many science-based startups are trying to crack the code for permanent, scalable, and low-cost carbon removal with a variety of technological approaches. 

Heirloom and Paebbl utilize carbon mineralization, Ucaneo synthetic biology, and Mission Zero Technologies and Holy Grail electrochemical processes. The list could go on! 

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