{"id":117114,"date":"2022-10-17T07:29:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-17T05:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=117114"},"modified":"2022-10-12T14:30:02","modified_gmt":"2022-10-12T12:30:02","slug":"co2-to-chemicals-startup-renewco2-spins-out-of-rutgers-university-with-seed-round-from-energy-transition-ventures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/co2-to-chemicals-startup-renewco2-spins-out-of-rutgers-university-with-seed-round-from-energy-transition-ventures\/","title":{"rendered":"CO2 to Chemicals Startup RenewCO2, Spins out of Rutgers University with Seed Round from Energy Transition Ventures"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.prnewswire.com\/news-releases\/co2-to-chemicals-startup-renewco2-spins-out-of-rutgers-university-with-seed-round-from-energy-transition-ventures-301627807.html#\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/mma.prnewswire.com\/media\/1902432\/RenewCO2Logo_2.jpg?w=500\" alt=\"RenewCO2\" width=\"157\" height=\"134\" title=\"RenewCO2\"\/><\/a><figcaption>RenewCO2<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Ground-breaking eCUT process creates carbon-negative chemicals for plastics from carbon dioxide and water using renewable power<\/strong><\/li><li><strong>Announces\u00a0$2 million\u00a0in seed funding from Energy Transition Ventures alongside\u00a0$8\u00a0mm in non-dilutive grants and awards<\/strong><\/li><li><strong>Executes exclusive license of novel electrolysis catalyst from\u00a0Rutgers University<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>With chemical production lending to more than\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/c212.net\/c\/link\/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3652913-1&amp;h=2444572060&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ipcc.ch%2Fsite%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F02%2Fipcc_wg3_ar5_chapter10.pdf&amp;a=fifteen+percent+\" target=\"_blank\">fifteen percent\u00a0<\/a>of global industrial greenhouse gas emissions, startup\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/c212.net\/c\/link\/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3652913-1&amp;h=1680732254&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.renewco2.com%2F&amp;a=RenewCO\" target=\"_blank\">RenewCO<\/a><sub><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/c212.net\/c\/link\/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3652913-1&amp;h=1226191915&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.renewco2.com%2F&amp;a=2\" target=\"_blank\">2<\/a><\/sub>\u00a0announced its spin-out from\u00a0Rutgers University, securing an exclusive licensing to scale its novel catalyst technology to convert carbon from hard-to-abate sectors and transform it into a feedstock for carbon-negative, plastic monomers at a fraction of the cost of plastics derived from fossil sources. Founded by two immigrants out of one of the leading catalyst laboratories in the US, the startup has raised over\u00a0$10 million\u00a0in venture investment and grant funding, including a seed round of over\u00a0$2 million\u00a0led by\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/c212.net\/c\/link\/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3652913-1&amp;h=291902163&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fenergytransitionventures.com%2F%3Futm_source%3Dmw%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_campaign%3Dtexas&amp;a=Energy+Transition+Ventures\" target=\"_blank\">Energy Transition Ventures<\/a>. RenewCO<sub>2<\/sub>\u00a0expects to begin supplying its eCUT electrolysis systems to customers by 2025.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Led by Dr.&nbsp;Karin Calvinho&nbsp;and Dr.&nbsp;Anders Laursen, the RenewCO<sub>2<\/sub>&nbsp;team has extensive experience in catalysis, electrolyzers, electrochemistry, chemicals and materials science. The company has repeatedly demonstrated its novel catalyst can essentially mimic nature&#8217;s route to reducing CO<sub>2<\/sub>&nbsp;with efficiencies that far exceed those of natural systems by chemically transforming carbon dioxide into chemicals at unprecedented selectivity and high energy efficiency in a single step. The low-cost catalyst has also received broad peer-review attention and several awards, including features in&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/c212.net\/c\/link\/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3652913-1&amp;h=1801856771&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.osti.gov%2Fpages%2Fbiblio%2F1457793&amp;a=The+Royal+Society+of+Chemistry%27s+Energy+%26+Environmental+Science+journal\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Royal Society of Chemistry&#8217;s Energy &amp; Environmental Science journal<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/c212.net\/c\/link\/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3652913-1&amp;h=821687832&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fpubs.acs.org%2Fdoi%2Fpdf%2F10.1021%2Fjacs.1c03428&amp;a=the+Journal+of+the+American+Chemical+Society.\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the Journal of the American Chemical Society.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>&#8220;When I came to\u00a0the United States\u00a0to pursue my graduate degree, I was sure I wanted to advance research in catalysis for renewable energy. When we discovered our catalyst, I knew we had the opportunity to reverse global carbon dioxide levels at a mass scale,&#8221; stated <strong>Dr.\u00a0Karin Calvinho<\/strong>, co-founder and chief technology officer of <strong>RenewCO<sub>2<\/sub><\/strong>, also a DOE Chain Reaction Innovations Fellow at Argonne National Lab. &#8220;With the potential to decarbonize chemicals, refining, power generation, biofuel production, and many other CO<sub>2<\/sub>-emitting processes, we are determined to change the way polymers are made by displacing fossil carbon resources while using renewable energy sources and making sustainable products.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>The plastics industry is responsible for at least&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/c212.net\/c\/link\/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3652913-1&amp;h=4277995002&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.reuters.com%2Fbusiness%2Fcop%2Fplastics-outpace-coals-greenhouse-gas-emissions-by-2030-report-2021-10-21%2F&amp;a=232+million+metric+tons\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">232 million metric tons<\/a>&nbsp;of greenhouse gases annually in&nbsp;the United States. With climate change rapidly intensifying, the petrochemical and chemical industries&#8217; decarbonization efforts and customer demand for zero carbon products are driving a focus on Carbon Capture and Utilization (&#8220;CCU&#8221;) technologies, including recently expanded support for CCU in the US Inflation Reduction Act.&nbsp; Energy and industrial CO2 point sources and direct air capture projects are ideal for supplying RenewCO2&#8217;s modular, scalable eCUT electrochemical conversion process. The RenewCO<sub>2&nbsp;<\/sub>catalyst technology benefits from falling costs and advancements in electrolysis and renewable power, making it both modular and easily scalable into a lower-cost solution than fossil feedstocks.&nbsp; Large CO<sub>2<\/sub>&nbsp;streams can be converted selectively into a range of demonstrated products in a single unit, including the precursors for various plastic materials such as monoethylene glycol (MEG), methylglyoxal, and furandiol. Such plastics and polymers are foundational to manufacturing electronics, appliances, plastic bottles, food containers, textiles, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Previously, the company announced a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/c212.net\/c\/link\/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3652913-1&amp;h=4107890206&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nsf.gov%2Fawardsearch%2FshowAward%3FAWD_ID%3D1938317%26HistoricalAwards%3Dfalse&amp;a=%24225%2C000+grant+from+the+National+Science+Foundation\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">$225,000&nbsp;grant from the National Science Foundation<\/a>&nbsp;and a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/c212.net\/c\/link\/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3652913-1&amp;h=2864423293&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Frutchem.rutgers.edu%2Fnews-events%2Fpast-news%2F2020-news%2F1487-renewco2-doe-phasei-sbir-grant&amp;a=%241.15M+in+research+and+development+funding+from+the+Department+of+Energy\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">$1.15M&nbsp;in research and development funding from the Department of Energy<\/a>&nbsp;(DOE) for its various solutions in utilizing carbon emissions to promote decarbonization in the production stages of the chemical industry. Most recently, it announced an additional&nbsp;$200,000&nbsp;from the DOE&nbsp;with Rutgers for conversion of CO<sub>2<\/sub>&nbsp;to ethanol. The company has won&nbsp;$8M&nbsp;in grants and contracts for eCUT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Converting CO<sub>2<\/sub>&nbsp;directly into negative carbon products is a game changer for the climate. With low-cost renewable power, combined falling costs and advancements in electrolysis, the RenewCO<sub>2<\/sub>&nbsp;has the opportunity to be world-changing,&#8221; said&nbsp;Neal Dikeman, co-founder and partner of Energy Transition Ventures. &#8220;They are completely rewriting how we make plastic and chemical products and how these industries will handle carbon emissions, regardless of the price of carbon or credits. We are excited about power to chemicals and working to use renewable energy to make CO<sub>2<\/sub>the low-cost chemicals feedstock of the future, not the present pollutant.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>&#8220;Climate change is one of, if not the most pressing issues of our time, and the team behind RenewCO<sub>2<\/sub>\u00a0is working to be a part of the solution,&#8221; said\u00a0<strong>Tatiana Litvin-Vechnyak<\/strong>, Associate Vice President of\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/c212.net\/c\/link\/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3652913-1&amp;h=443775690&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Finnovate.rutgers.edu%2F&amp;a=Innovation+Ventures\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Innovation Ventures<\/strong><\/a>, the academic technology transfer unit within\u00a0Rutgers Office\u00a0for Research that facilitated the exclusive license between the university and RenewCO2. &#8220;To take on the task of solving the issue of carbon dioxide is no small feat, and Innovation Ventures is proud to have done our part to help RenewCO2 advance its mission closer towards commercialization.&#8221;<\/p><p>&#8220;Plastic is essential to our society,&#8221; said\u00a0<strong>Anders Laursen, co-founder and CEO of RenewCO<sub>2<\/sub><\/strong>. &#8220;Our innovation was replicating nature&#8217;s process for making oil and gas over millions of years but doing so in a fraction of a second. More importantly, RenewCO<sub>2<\/sub>&#8216;s eCUT process goes from CO<sub>2<\/sub>\u00a0to valuable products in a single energy-efficient step, not just conversion to CO or syngas. By harnessing CO<sub>2<\/sub>\u00a0as the feedstock and building on the rapidly growing field of electrolysis, we can provide companies with an extremely sustainable replacement to fossil fuels when it comes to creating plastics.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>About Energy Transition Ventures<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Energy Transition Ventures LLC is a venture capital fund manager headquartered in\u00a0Houston, Texas, investing in early-stage startups that benefit from or drive the energy transition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>About RenewCO<sub>2<\/sub><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Supplying the chemical industry with innovative technologies for sustainable monomer production from CO\u2082 and developing highly scalable production modules based on our proprietary catalyst design, RenewCO<sub>2<\/sub>\u00a0is a start-up using cutting-edge research to design processes for CO\u2082 conversion into polymers and chemicals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ground-breaking eCUT process creates carbon-negative chemicals for plastics from carbon dioxide and water using renewable power Announces\u00a0$2 million\u00a0in seed funding from Energy Transition Ventures alongside\u00a0$8\u00a0mm in non-dilutive grants and awards Executes exclusive license of novel electrolysis catalyst from\u00a0Rutgers University With chemical production lending to more than\u00a0fifteen percent\u00a0of global industrial greenhouse gas emissions, startup\u00a0RenewCO2\u00a0announced its spin-out [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"Founded by two immigrants out of one of the leading catalyst laboratories in the US, the startup has raised over $10 million in venture investment and grant funding","footnotes":""},"categories":[5571],"tags":[5831,10744,14120,10743],"supplier":[3007,21143,21001],"class_list":["post-117114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-co2-based","tag-biorefinery","tag-carboncapture","tag-catalysis","tag-useco2","supplier-argonne-national-laboratory","supplier-energy-transition-ventures-llc","supplier-renewco2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117114\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117114"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=117114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}