climatetech heroes

Carbon capture co. with Houston presence receives prestigious sustainability recognition

Carbon Clean has secured a prominent global recognition. Photo via CarbonClean.com

A United Kingdom-headquartered carbon capture business with a growing presence in Houston has received a distinguishing honor that recognizes climatetech leaders.

Carbon Clean, which has expanded to the United States by way of Houston, has received the Sustainable Markets Initiative 2023 Terra Carta Seal. The distinguishment recognizes global companies that are helping to create a nature-positive future for the climate. This is part of the Sustainable Markets Initiative’s larger mandate to help provide a framework to accelerate the transition to a sustainable future by placing the planet and people first.

“The Sustainable Markets Initiative’s Terra Carta Seal recognises those companies which are taking great strides in delivering real-world outcomes," Jennifer Jordan-Saifi, CEO of Sustainable Markets Initiative, says in the release. "As we stand on the eve of COP28, public, private sector, and philanthropic actors will come together at the inaugural Business and Philanthropy Climate Forum to bridge the gap between ambition and action. It isexamples exemplified by the 2023 Terra Carta Seal winners that are helping to inspire and lead the way.”

The Terra Carta Seal was launched in 2021 during COP26 by His Majesty King Charles III when he was the Prince of Wales. An international panel of experts from the environmental, business, political and philanthropic worlds chose 17 global companies for the honor.

“We are honored to be recognized by the Sustainable Markets Initiative for our contribution to the global transition to net zero, “ says Aniruddha Sharma, chair and CEO of Carbon Clean, in a news release. “Carbon Clean’s mission is simple: to deliver cost-effective, space-saving, modular carbon capture technology, enabling hard-to-abate industries to decarbonise at scale.”

Carbon Clean aims to revolutionize industrial carbon capture with its CycloneCC, which solves large barriers to widespread adoption of industrial carbon capture: cost and space.The technology of CycloneCC will be key in the company’s goal to achieve net zero by 2050.

Carbon Clean develops carbon capture technology for customers such as cement producers, steelmakers, refineries, and waste-to-energy plants. The company bills its offering as the “world’s smallest industrial carbon capture technology.” CycloneCC can reduce the cost of carbon capture by as much as 50 percent with a footprint that’s 50 percent smaller than traditional carbon capture units, according to Carbon Clean. The UK company established its Houston location this year.

Last month, CycloneCC was selected by ADNOC for a carbon capture project at Fertiglobe’s plant located in the Ruways Industrial Complex, Abu Dhabi. The project is the first deployment of a 10 tonnes per day CycloneCC industrial unit.

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A View From HETI

The project would nearly eliminate the emissions associated with power and steam generation at the Dow plant in Seadrift, Texas. Getty Images

Dow, a major producer of chemicals and plastics, wants to use next-generation nuclear reactors for clean power and steam at a Texas manufacturing complex instead of natural gas.

Dow's subsidiary, Long Mott Energy, applied Monday to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a construction permit. It said the project with X-energy, an advanced nuclear reactor and fuel company, would nearly eliminate the emissions associated with power and steam generation at its plant in Seadrift, Texas, avoiding roughly 500,000 metric tons of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions annually.

If built and operated as planned, it would be the first U.S. commercial advanced nuclear power plant for an industrial site, according to the NRC.

For many, nuclear power is emerging as an answer to meet a soaring demand for electricity nationwide, driven by the expansion of data centers and artificial intelligence, manufacturing and electrification, and to stave off the worst effects of a warming planet. However, there are safety and security concerns, the Union of Concerned Scientists cautions. The question of how to store hazardous nuclear waste in the U.S. is unresolved, too.

Dow wants four of X-energy's advanced small modular reactors, the Xe-100. Combined, those could supply up to 320 megawatts of electricity or 800 megawatts of thermal power. X-energy CEO J. Clay Sell said the project would demonstrate how new nuclear technology can meet the massive growth in electricity demand.

The Seadrift manufacturing complex, at about 4,700 acres, has eight production plants owned by Dow and one owned by Braskem. There, Dow makes plastics for a variety of uses including food and beverage packaging and wire and cable insulation, as well as glycols for antifreeze, polyester fabrics and bottles, and oxide derivatives for health and beauty products.

Edward Stones, the business vice president of energy and climate at Dow, said submitting the permit application is an important next step in expanding access to safe, clean, reliable, cost-competitive nuclear energy in the United States. The project is supported by the Department of Energy’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program.

The NRC expects the review to take three years or less. If a permit is issued, construction could begin at the end of this decade, so the reactors would be ready early in the 2030s, as the natural gas-fired equipment is retired.

A total of four applicants have asked the NRC for construction permits for advanced nuclear reactors. The NRC issued a permit to Abilene Christian University for a research reactor and to Kairos Power for one reactor and two reactor test versions of that company's design. It's reviewing an application by Bill Gates and his energy company, TerraPower, to build an advanced reactor in Wyoming.

X-energy is also collaborating with Amazon to bring more than 5 gigawatts of new nuclear power projects online across the United States by 2039, beginning in Washington state. Amazon and other tech giants have committed to using renewable energy to meet the surging demand from data centers and artificial intelligence and address climate change.

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