Svante offers companies in hard-to-abate industries such as cement, hydrogen, chemicals, and pulp and paper a solution to capture carbon dioxide from existing infrastructure, either for safe storage underground or to be used for further industrial use in a closed loop. Here, we speak to Brett Henkel, Vice President of Strategic Accounts and Government Affairs, to understand how Svante’s solution can help decarbonise these hard-to-abate sectors.
Can you tell us a bit about the company and its founders?
Named after Nobel Laureate Svante Arrhenius, one of the first scientists to identify the atmospheric carbon-climate change connection back in 1896, Svante is the first name in commercially viable, economically scalable, second-generation carbon capture technology using solid sorbents.
The company was founded in 2007 with the idea of using solid nano-materials to make a high-efficient filter to capture CO2 from post-combustion flue gases. Today, the technology is currently being deployed in the field at pilot plant-scale by industry leaders in the energy and cement manufacturing sectors.
We have attracted more than 200M USD to develop and commercialise this technology funded by world-class energy producers, strategic and financial investors, making this the largest private investment in carbon capture technology development.
Svante developed novel hydrogen purification technology for the fuel cell industry before turning our attention to climate change and creating a breakthrough technology for carbon capture.
How does your solution contribute to the Digitalisation and Decarbonisation of the energy sector?
Carbon capture and removal is an important weapon in the climate solution arsenal alongside renewables for power generation, electrification of our transport system and a shift to hydrogen as a carbon-free energy source.
Cement and hydrogen production are two essential industries, but they emit more than 2.5 gigatons of CO2 per year. Svante carbon capture technology can enable green cement and blue hydrogen and decrease the CO2 intensity of fossil fuel. Blue hydrogen made from natural gas is the lowest cost solution to make hydrogen, which is a critical path to decarbonise a variety of sectors, including transportation and other industries around the world that require heat for their main processes.
What is your company’s proudest achievement to date?
We recently closed a Series D financing round led by Temasek of 75M USD plus 25M CAD (19.6M USD) from the Canadian government to set up the first facility in Canada to manufacture our proprietary nano-filters. The new facility will have an annual capacity to deliver filter modules capable of removing 5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, or the equivalent of project delivery of five world-scale carbon capture plants of 1 million tonnes per year.
What specifically attracts you about the prospect of expanding to the Japanese market?
Our growth strategy is to be shovel-ready for commercial size carbon capture plants by the end of 2024. We have three partnership platforms to scale our business model: strategic supply chain platform, channel-to-market platform and strategic account management with early adopters. These partnerships will allow us to focus our development efforts on building a scalable supply chain for active capture materials.
We have various partners and investors from North America, Europe and Asia including Temasek, Mitsui Group, Technip Energies, Linde AG, and Total Energies with ongoing plans to serve the broad commercial market by the end of 2023.
Japan is the world’s 5th biggest carbon emitter. The government of Japan is aiming for a 46% emissions cut by 2030 and looking for ways to go even further to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. Carbon capture is a powerful tool that can be used to reduce CO2 emissions from Japan’s hard-to-abate industrial sectors.
How will your solution/product help advance the Japanese energy sector?
Economical carbon capture can enable hard to abate industries such as cement and chemical production to accelerate significant reductions in emissions while still catering to the needs of our modern society. Svante also has the leading carbon capture technology for the growth of hydrogen production plants that are necessary for the energy system transition to clean hydrogen.