Carbon capture startup boosted by Gates, others

Carbon capture startup Verdox, based in Boston, said February 2 it had attracted $80mn in committed capital from a syndicate that includes Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV). 

The funding, from BEV, Prelude Ventures and Lowercarbon Capital, will be leveraged to develop and deploy an electrochemical carbon capture technology initially developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that can capture CO₂ either from industrial sources or directly from the atmosphere.

Brian Baynes, founder and CEO of Verdox, said many existing industries lack fully-formed carbon capture plans, largely because of the high cost and energy-intensive nature of existing technologies.

“Combating climate change requires the world to prevent further increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and eventually return them to pre-industrial levels,” Baynes said. “Verdox’s technology has the potential to capture carbon from any industrial source or the air – and at up to 70% relative energy savings, giving us the ability to intervene completely.” 

The technology was developed at MIT by professor Alan Hatton, now on Verdox’s scientific advisory board, and Dr Sahang Voskian, who is now the company’s chief technology officer.

In the lab, they rethought carbon removal by combining the efficiency of electrochemistry with the tunability of organic chemistry. This pairing allows for the targeted use of electrical energy to capture and release CO₂ at any concentration and with unparalleled selectivity.

“The high energy efficiency and scalability of Verdox’s technology could enable the company to play a major role in addressing the carbon removal challenge,” BEV’s Carmichael Roberts said. “This innovation has provided a paradigm change for both industrial and air capture – and the Verdox team has made great strides to reduce the concept to economical commercial practice.”