🌟 Patent of the Week: Turning Carbon Capture Into Useful (and Profitable) Chemicals
Cracking the code on making our economy more circular and helping drop our net carbon emissions
YCombinator recently put out a Request for Startups callout and it’s a really interesting lens into the type of startups that they’d like to support. It’s worth a read on its own and I’ll be focused for the next few patents on linking it to specific callouts they made. This one is related to their request for a carbon capture startup tied to plants and manufacturing.
🧐 What’s the Big Idea?
A research team lead by Dr. Berlinguette at the University of British Columbia developed an electrochemical method to transform carbon dioxide into syngas and other useful chemicals. What’s syngas? It’s a really useful chemical fuel that’s used in a number of manufacturing processes. This invention efficiently captures CO2 which has been really challenging in the past. The big challenge with carbon capture efforts is making them economically viable, well, this processes produces a byproduct that has an active and reliable customer base so the unit economics around it could actually work.
🔍 Why It Matters
This method distinguishes itself by operating at ambient temperature and pressure, unlike traditional carbon capture technologies that often demand high energy inputs and complex infrastructure. This not only enhances its efficiency but also significantly reduces the operational costs and energy consumption associated with CO2 capture and conversion. This innovative approach is a key step in efforts to make our economy more circular.
🚀 Stage of Development
This technology has moved beyond the prototype and into scaling (TRL 5-6). Dr. Berlinguette is a leader in this space and has an active lab looking at climate tech solutions.
🤝 Interested?
Reach out to University of British Columbia’s office via this link.
📒 The Details
Research Page: ISED’s ExploreIP Invention Page
Patent Status: WIPO Issued Patent
🎨 About the artist
Wally Wood, an American comic artist who worked in science fiction, creating numerous pieces for EC Comics.