Resolution: Dioxycle is a developer of built-in modular electrolyzer programs to seize and convert industrial carbon dioxide emissions.
Nisa Mirza of Cleantech Group sat down with Dioxycle’s Sarah Lamaison, Co-Founder & CEO, to debate all they’ve accomplished to be acknowledged as a Cleantech 50 to Watch firm.
Sarah Lamaison, Co-Founder & CEO, Dioxycle
Cleantech Group: Are you able to give us some context for the problem your expertise is making an attempt to resolve?
Sarah Lamaison: Yearly, 35 gigatonnes of anthropogenic CO2 are launched into the environment, making it a significant contributor to local weather change. Motion to cut back these emissions is important if we would like future generations to understand the fantastic thing about the atmosphere as we all know it, and now we have lengthy been dedicated to this trigger.
Dioxycle’s technological philosophy advanced instantly from the instance set by photosynthetic life, which demonstrated that low temperature, environment friendly conversion of carbon dioxide (CO2) to chemical fuels is important to power storage and launch. Our improvements stem from the event of a personalized electrolysis atmosphere able to changing carbon dioxide into energy-rich and helpful merchandise with minimal power enter.
Cleantech Group: What sparked Dioxcycle within the first place?
Sarah Lamaison: For the previous six years, now we have been investigating electrolysis and CO2 conversion in some capability. We had targeting designing electrocatalysts, particularly, and it was clear from our analysis that the expertise was able to allow us to take the leap from academia to start-up. Moreover, we had beforehand had dialogues with industrial teams that expressed a necessity for CO2-converting applied sciences. It grew to become evident that industrial sectors had been searching for new methods to cut back their annual emissions, so we got down to discover them an answer.
Cleantech Group: The place did the identify Dioxycle come from?
Sarah Lamaison: Dioxycle is solely the phrases “carbon dioxide” and “recycle” collectively, pronounced “Diox-cycle.” Ultimately, we determined to only selected a reputation that makes it clear what we do: recycle carbon dioxide.
Cleantech Group: How is Dioxycle recycling carbon?
Sarah Lamaison: We’re growing helpful chemical substances and fuels from industrial CO2. CO2 is clearly an enormous drawback when it’s emitted indefinitely into the environment, but it surely additionally has an enormous potential to be a supply of sustainable feedstocks with an environment friendly CO2 conversion expertise. Consequently, Dioxycle is growing electrolyzer applied sciences to transform CO2 into energy-rich small molecules comparable to carbon monoxide, formic acid, ethylene, and ethanol. These are exceptionally versatile constructing blocks used within the manufacturing of a variety of on a regular basis substances comparable to polymers, commodity chemical substances, and gasoline.
We’re designing our electrolyzer from the bottom up in an effort to create essentially the most energy-efficient CO2 electrolysis platform doable. As a result of power effectivity is instantly associated to the price of CO2 conversion, it’s important to an economically viable course of. We at the moment are scaling the electrolyzer to remodel industrial volumes of CO2 at an inexpensive value. Our goal is to permit a polluting trade to seize and convert its emissions into helpful feedstock that can be utilized on-site or bought to a different trade, thereby making a round CO2 economic system.
Based mostly on our core electrolyzer, our answer will probably be built-in in container-sized modular programs to permit for the managed seize and therapy of business CO2-containing exhausts. The person cells of the electrolyzer have the potential to remodel >80 kg of CO2 per m² every day and thru stacking these cells, a single container will be capable to convert a number of tonnes of CO2 every day.
Cleantech Group: What have been a number of the obstacles you’ve needed to overcome since launching in 2021?
Sarah Lamaison: Because of the pandemic, we discovered that the provision chains for some gear and supplies had been disrupted, which we needed to account for, however teleconferencing and social distancing protocols within the lab allowed us to proceed on the mandatory tempo. We had been lucky to have labored in labs at Stanford College previous to beginning Dioxycle and at first of the pandemic, which offered wonderful examples of tips on how to run an efficient analysis lab whereas conserving everybody feeling comfy and protected.
Cleantech Group: What’s your calculus for the way forward for the trade?
Sarah Lamaison: A number of start-ups are engaged on related ideas, whereas others are investigating complementary processes to remodel, separate, or retailer CO2. Engaged on CO2-related expertise is a particularly thrilling time. The excellent news for us is that there’s loads of CO2 for everybody proper now, with just a few actors capitalizing available on the market, although we acknowledge that having all this CO2 doesn’t give a lot trigger to have a good time!
CO2 electrolysis presents a path to free us from crude oil dependence. For years, chemical substances and fuels have been produced by refining crude oil, which when burned, finally releases CO2. The extra oil extracted, the extra CO2 that accumulates in our environment. Dioxycle gives the electrochemical blocks able to changing CO2 again into helpful feedstocks, referred to as e-fuels and e-chemicals. Their imaginative and prescient is a brand new, cleaner world the place CO2 feeds our society, as an alternative of threatening our local weather.
For extra info, go to the Dioxycle web site.
