BLOG: How you can become part of the climate change solution in 2023
BLOG | JANUARY 5, 2022
By Adila Butt, Head of People at Origen
In celebrating all the significant engineering and commercial milestones Origen has achieved in 2022, we also recognise that none of this could have happened without the passion, talent and commitment of the people who make Origen what it is.
This year, we have worked hard to build and develop our rapidly growing, diverse and multi-disciplinary team. Not only have we more than doubled our headcount, but we’ve also attracted global talent from across the UK, US, and EU and filled a diverse range of commercial, engineering, operational, finance and people roles. Most importantly we’ve united a group of like-minded people behind a shared vision of “The Atmosphere: Restored”.
Getting to where we are today is a huge accomplishment, but I know there is still much work to do and many roles to fill in 2023.
Of course, that also means that Origen has many fantastic new opportunities for talented people looking for a new challenge and a chance to become part of the climate change solution.
A career with purpose
The new year is a common time for people to start thinking about resolutions and changes they want to make in their life and/or career. A study from Gartner earlier this year suggests that many employees are increasingly seeking greater purpose and want to contribute more to society. What could be more purposeful than developing the technology to save our planet?
In the climate tech space, there is no shortage of career paths you could take. We need all green tech to ‘win’, so solutions in carbon dioxide removal (CDR), renewable energy, energy efficiency, sustainable building materials, afforestation and others will all be crucial in some way to mitigating climate change.
But what if I’m new to climate tech?
One of the great things about starting a career in the climate tech industry is that you’re not alone. There are lots of resources and communities like Work on Climate, MCJ Collective and Climatebase, to name a few, that will help you build your network, learn and gain experience.
Take our CEO, Ben Turner. Inspired by the clear need for CDR and what he saw as a tangible business opportunity in the carbon removal industry, he left a career in investment banking and hedge funds to bring his knowledge, skills and experience to Origen.
Our project manager Jonty Smith began his career in mechanical engineering and is also an Olympian, having represented South Africa in rowing at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
Whether your skills are in commercial strategy, engineering (e.g., process, EC&I), R&D, project management or operations… the chances are, they’re highly transferable and not a barrier to entry.
Why work in CDR at Origen?
In April 2022 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) laid out the stark truth that humanity now has an “unavoidable” need to remove carbon dioxide from the Earth’s atmosphere in addition to other solutions. CDR serves several purposes:
- Near-term: stabilising the climate by reducing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere
- Medium-term: helping to zero out emissions from hard-to-abate sectors to help the world reach net-zero emissions
- Long-term: removing more CO2 than we emit may “reverse [global] warming in the latter half of the century.”
If you want more information on why CDR is so crucial, this TED talk and this video from World Resources Institute will tell you everything you need to know.
But what makes Origen different in the CDR space?
First, it’s our technology. One of the biggest barriers to scaling CO2 removal is high current costs. Our low-cost, highly scalable zero-carbon lime (ZerCal) is a game changer, unlocking multiple pathways to carbon removal from the air and the oceans in a simple, yet elegant process.
Secondly, it’s our commercial pathways. Origen has already signed pre-purchase agreements with Stripe for direct air capture (DAC) alongside 8Rivers. Our technology has been shortlisted in a project with Singleton Birch by the UK government. And we have a pilot that has already been built. The versatility of our technology means we are taking a 50-year view of the problem and are ready to pivot our approach and resources to deliver impact.
Finally, it’s our culture. We’re working hard to make Origen a great, diverse, equitable and inclusive place to work that is breaking the mould of traditional engineering companies. We are innovative by nature and our culture reflects this.
New year, new direction
If you’re interested in finding out more about joining Origen on this amazing journey please connect with me on LinkedIn, email careers@origencarbonsolutions.com or click here to take a look at the roles we’re actively recruiting for at present.
Get your year off to the right start and become part of the climate change solution!
BLOG: 2022 in review – Origen and Singleton Birch plant approaches ‘construction complete’
BLOG | DECEMBER 23, 2022
By Ben Turner, Chief Executive Officer at Origen
As we reach the end of 2022, it gives me great pleasure that the ‘construction’ phase on our 3,000 tonnes per annum zero-carbon lime plant – in collaboration with Singleton Birch – is now nearing completion.
This is a significant milestone for Origen and is the culmination of a huge amount of work from our team and Singleton Birch over the last 18 months, in addition to the time spent honing the engineering and design of the plant, sourcing partners and investment, and procuring the necessary materials for the build phase to even begin.
We are incredibly proud to achieve this goal – enabled by our world-class team, our industrial partner, Singleton Birch, and our network of local suppliers in the Humberside region that have helped make this possible, including Graytons, RJE, CLS, UAP, Ffister, InControl, PDC, and Hegwein among others.
A game-changing year
2022 has been a game-changing year for Origen. Here are just some of the things we have accomplished in addition to nearing construction complete on our pilot:
- Funding from Stripe:
A joint project between Origen and XPRIZE-winning Calcite, an 8Rivers company, was selected by Frontier, a consortium of leading tech companies including Stripe, Google, Meta, and McKinsey, to deliver carbon removals via a joint pilot between 2024 and 2025.
- Funding from UK Government:
Singleton Birch was shortlisted for Phase 2 in UK Government’s Industrial Carbon Capture Hubs program, with ~$200M of potential funding to build 150,000 tonnes per annum of decarbonised lime production capacity with Origen’s technology (“ZerCaL250”).
- Strategic Partnership with Mississippi Lime (MLC):
In August, MLC announced the acquisition of Singleton Birch, (our UK lime partner where the pilot plant is located) enabling further direct support on Origen’s pilot program and transition to scale-up projects.
- Validation from a top Climate-Tech Accelerator:
Origen was selected for Elemental Excelerator, a leading advisor to and supporter of top climate tech startups.
- New Policies for Carbon Dioxide Removal
The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in the U.S., especially the enhancement of the 45Q tax credit to $85/ton for carbon capture and $180/ton for direct air capture, is a game-changing piece of legislation for the carbon removal industry and creates a profitable revenue framework to get projects built today.
Delivering on our promises
As you can see it’s been a fantastic year of significant progress. We often talk about the need for Blue Sky Doing if we are to truly make an impact on the planet-scale challenge that is tackling climate change and delivering on our mission of the atmosphere, restored.
This year of major milestones shows that we are staying true to that value and delivering tangible progress – technically, operationally and commercially – towards our goal of delivering giga-scale CO2 removal.
We are especially excited about the partners we are working with to make these goals possible. The size of the challenge in carbon dioxide removal means no one technology or company has the whole answer. We are committed to exploring and securing collaborations with key strategic partners, such as Singleton Birch, 8Rivers, Elemental, and Stripe that will enable all our roadmap milestones and accelerate our time to impact.
Looking ahead
Now that all the capital components of our kiln have been installed, our Singleton Birch plant will move into a commissioning phase over the next 3 quarters. This will allow us to verify the installation, and ensure the plant works safely as designed. After that, we will be able to get the plant online and run a series of tests to optimise its efficacy – and produce our first zero-carbon lime in 2023.
We also have a number of other major goals in 2023. We will be accelerating our Calcite-Origen pilot project, developing our scale-up opportunities, progressing R&D to become the experts of our lime, and continuing to scale our world-class team.
For all the pride and excitement we have had in 2022, 2023 stands to be even better!
Origen wins backing from climate tech investor Elemental Excelerator
NEWS | NOVEMBER 2, 2022
Origen wins backing from climate tech investor Elemental Excelerator
Origen has been named as one of 17 industry-leading technology companies selected to be part of the latest cohort by US-based climate tech investor Elemental Excelerator.
The cash injection will be used to help Origen continue its ground-breaking work to produce zero-carbon lime, which can be used to remove billions of tons of CO2 from the atmosphere.
In a statement, Elemental — which has one of the most robust climate tech portfolios in the industry with 151 start-ups — highlighted the work being done by Origen.
Explaining why it had selected Origen, Elemental said in a statement: “This is a dual-threat climate solution, decarbonizing a mega-emitting industry (responsible for 400 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year) while enabling gigaton-scale carbon removal.”
The announcement is Elemental's 11th cohort to date and focuses on urgent themes that pivot around climate resilience, zero carbon and the built environment.
Investment focuses on hard-to-decarbonise industries
This latest round of investment focuses on hard-to-decarbonise industries like maritime and ports, buildings, and construction.
In a statement, Elemental Founder & CEO Dawn Lippert said: "Today we welcome 17 teams working to redraw the big picture around our largest-emitting sectors and meaningfully collaborate with communities tackling climate change.
"Entering our second decade of climate investing, we are betting on entrepreneurs tackling major sources of emissions -- like shipping, air conditioning, transportation and construction — and working with every company to deploy successfully in local communities," she said.
News of the award has been welcomed by Origen CEO, Ben Turner as further evidence of the company’s growing ambitions.
“Joining Elemental’s 11th Cohort is exciting news for Origen. Elemental is an incredibly successful company focussed on innovation, systems change and community and we are thrilled to be working with them to further Origen’s goal of removing CO2 from the atmosphere to tackle climate change head-on.”
Elemental has now awarded more than $57 million to its portfolio of beneficiaries, and those companies have since progressed to raise just over $7 billion in follow-on funding.
“This round was focused on companies tackling major sources of emissions - and our breakthrough carbon removal technology does just that,” Turner continued.
“We are looking forward to working with Elemental and the other 17 members of the cohort to further our shared purpose: to decarbonise our economy while creating equitable opportunities for all.”
Elemental’s announcement comes just a few months after Origen and 8 Rivers Capital announced that a joint direct air capture joint project had entered into an initial carbon removal purchase contract facilitated by Frontier, an advanced market commitment to accelerate carbon removal founded by Stripe, Alphabet, Shopify, Meta, and McKinsey.
Stay up to date with Origen’s news and views by following us on LinkedIn.
Media contact
Hadley Menk
Wildfire PR
origen@wildfirepr.com
+44 (0)20 8408 8000
BLOG: Origen is transforming the carbon removal industry. Here’s how.
BLOG | SEPTEMBER 20, 2022
Origen is transforming the carbon removal industry. Here’s how.
By Ben Turner, CEO, Origen
Summer 2022 may be remembered for a prolonged drought and record high temperatures in the UK. But for us at Origen, it’s been the culmination of years of ground-breaking research and development into a technology that has the potential to reverse the causes of climate change.
Which is why now is the time to provide an update on our activity over the last 12 months during which time we’ve passed important project milestones, forged new partnerships and secured high-profile funding from the world’s largest carbon removal purchasing group.
The first thing to say is that I’m pleased to announce that we have now emerged from a period where we have been effectively operating in stealth mode while working on our tech, to talk more openly about our plans and ambitions.
The founding principles of Origen
Origen's founding principle is "the atmosphere, restored" – finding new ways to reverse the harm caused by almost two centuries of industrialisation.
And at the heart of what we do is calcium oxide — commonly known as lime — a material about which most of us don’t give a second thought. And yet, this important mineral is used throughout the world in construction, the manufacture of cement and steel, purifying drinking water and even refining sugar.
To understand Origen and the important work we do in looking to overturn centuries of damage to our environment, it’s important to understand why lime is such a wonder material.
The importance of lime and the role it plays in removing CO2 from the atmosphere
Lime has a natural affinity for reacting naturally with carbon dioxide (CO2) making it an ideal material for capturing CO2 from industrial processes and from the atmosphere itself.
But there’s a problem. Existing lime production technologies emit around a tonne of CO2 for every one tonne of lime produced, leading to the creation of millions of tonnes of CO2 emissions.
The breakthrough is that Origen has developed a lime kiln — based on our ZerCaL oxy-fuel flash calciner technology — that can separate and capture CO2 efficiently at source during the lime production process. Once isolated, the CO2 can then either be converted into useful products or stored permanently underground
Zero-carbon lime actively removes CO2 from the atmosphere
And it is the creation of zero-carbon lime that is a game-changer. Because one tonne of our zero-carbon lime can remove about 800kg of CO2.
Not only has Origen developed a technology that can decarbonise lime production and those industries that rely on this important mineral; crucially, it has created a method to produce zero-carbon lime that can be used by the emerging carbon removal industry to permanently remove CO2 from the atmosphere and even the world’s oceans.
Building a lime kiln to create zero carbon lime
After years of R&D, in October 2020 we announced a partnership with Singleton Birch — the UK’s leading independent supplier of lime — to build a zero-carbon lime kiln at its quarry at Melton Ross in North Lincolnshire.
In July 2022, this project reached an important milestone with a majority of construction work now complete despite supply chain issues made worse by the pandemic.
It’s taken a little over a year to reach this stage and I must thank everyone at Singleton Birch — and the Origen team as well — for the work they have done to make this happen.
Work has already begun on the next phase of the project including the work required to commission the kiln.
The smooth running of our build timetable and completion of key phases couldn’t have come at a better time.
Joint zero-carbon lime and direct air capture project announced with 8 Rivers
In June, we confirmed that a joint project with 8 Rivers Capital LLC to create a direct air capture facility to pull a thousand tonnes of CO2 a year directly from the air had been given the green light.
The 8 Rivers direct air capture (DAC) solution is to be located adjacent to our newly completed kiln on Humberside.
In what is a truly innovative step forward in carbon removal, the project will marry our zero-carbon lime manufacturing process with 8 Rivers’ Calcite Carbon Removal technology.
Once up and running, the joint project will demonstrate a new approach to remove CO2 from the atmosphere.
Financial backing from industry-leading Stripe-backed Frontier
Recognising the huge potential of the technology, in June 2022 the project was selected for $1.5 million in carbon removal purchases from Frontier, the advance market commitment to buy permanent carbon removal.
To receive this endorsement for the work we’re doing with 8 Rivers shows what can be achieved when you collaborate for good.
Working with our partners, we know our innovative technology can build a cleaner future by removing the CO2 emissions of our past. To us at Origen, restoring the earth’s atmosphere isn’t just about blue-sky thinking, it’s about radical blue-sky doing.
The award and recognition for this collaborative project will help us achieve the goal of reversing climate change.
Investing in the future
As of today, we have closed out several rounds of funding, raised $20 million between equity fundraisers and grants including more than $3.5m from the UK government’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). We continue to talk with investors — as well as companies looking to harness our technology — about the important role our technology can play in reversing the damage of the past.
But this is just the beginning. With funding in place to deliver the pilot plant, we will be looking to raise further capital in 2023 to build scale and develop our technology further.
Collaboration for good
Make no mistake. The work we’re doing with all our partners is a major collaboration for good.
While many industries are focusing on capturing their own emissions — as our pilot plant does — our longer-term strategy is to develop our own technology further so that it actively removes CO2 from the atmosphere.
As I said at the beginning, Summer 2022 has been an important milestone for Origen. The build work on our lime kiln with Singleton Birch is now complete ahead of commissioning. Our major collaboration with 8Rivers to develop a direct air capture plant has received financial backing from Frontier. And we’re already talking with potential investors as we work to implement the next phase of our plan.
As we embark on the next phase of our work, we’re calling on all leaders to catalyse a new Giga-industry – on a scale that the world has never seen – that can reverse the harm caused by more than a century of industrialisation.
No more excuses. No more blue sky thinking. It’s time for blue sky doing.
If you’re interested in finding out more about our work, please send me an email or connect with me on LinkedIn.
You can also find out more about what we’re doing via our company LinkedIn.
BLOG: DAC may be taking off but it needs more investment if it’s ever going to really fly
BLOG | OCTOBER 14, 2022
DAC may be taking off but it needs more investment if it’s ever going to really fly
By Dustin Pool, Chief Commercial Officer at Origen
In summer 2022, Airbus and several major airlines including Air Canada, easyJet, Lufthansa Group and Virgin Atlantic – agreed to explore opportunities for a “future supply of carbon removal credits from direct air carbon capture technology.”
In essence, the announcement hinges on the fact that the aviation industry cannot currently capture CO2 emissions released into the atmosphere at source when aircraft are mid-air.
Instead, it’s proposed that a ground-based direct air carbon capture and storage solution would allow airlines to extract the equivalent amount of emissions generated by their aircraft.
Once removed from the atmosphere, the CO2 would be stored permanently – most likely underground.
For me, this announcement is yet another interesting development in carbon dioxide removal (CDR) in response to the clear and unequivocal lead by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in stating that carbon removal is essential for us to reach net zero.
It would supplement other solutions the aviation industry is looking at, such as sustainable aviation fuels and short-haul electric planes, as part of this global imperative.
It also shows that the message — and proposed solutions — around direct air capture (DAC) is spreading and becoming increasingly mainstream.
The Origen story is taking off
For us at Origen, we’re harnessing a natural earth process — facilitated by our own technology — to loop calcium carbonate to calcium oxide to capture CO2. Working alongside our partners, 8 Rivers, we’re working to develop a demo plant in the UK to use our zero-carbon lime in a process that would start with a target of 1,000 tonnes net CDR.
The next phase would be to set our sights on 100,000 tonnes of net removal.
Some people may say that’s ambitious. We don’t think so. The more zero-carbon lime we produce, the more it can be used to soak up CO2 from the atmosphere. That isn’t ambitious. That’s exciting. And it’s what motivates us as individuals — and as a company — to continue forging ahead, through the development stages before a full-scale commercial roll-out.
Funding and financial incentives are vital to DAC progress
Indeed, our work was given another boost only recently when the UK Government named ZerCaL250 — a collaboration using Origen’s zero-carbon tech and Singleton Birch’s lime production know-how — as one of 13 projects shortlisted nationally for the second phase of its Carbon Capture, Usage, and Storage (CCUS) cluster process.
As Origen CEO Ben Turner said at the time: “Thanks to our zero-carbon lime technology — and collaboration with forward-looking Singleton Birch — we are developing a way to remove CO2 from the atmosphere. Once we capture CO2 from the lime production process, this CO2 can be stored permanently, and the resulting lime utilised to remove CO2 from the atmosphere in a continuous loop.”
Again, it is yet another milestone in our DAC journey. But it is still early days. If we — along with the scores of other projects and approaches currently being developed — are to succeed, then the nascent CDR industry needs more funding.
Climate funds like Stripe’s Frontier — which purchases CO2 offtake in the form of advance market commitments for CO2 removed in future — are clearly stand-out beacons in this area. Origen having recently been selected for this funding serves as positive recognition of the work we’re doing, as well as an important investment.
Different policy approaches can have an impact on outcomes
The recent passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in the US is also a game changer. The 45Q changes to tax credits — increasing the credit values to $180 tonne of CO2 captured and stored for DAC – should provide sufficient financial incentive to companies looking to invest.
The Inflation Reduction Act is important for several reasons, not least in the approach the US takes to this issue compared with the UK and Europe.
In Europe, the prevailing wind is very much, “if you don’t decarbonise, we’re going to tax you.” Whereas in the US, the approach is “we won’t tax you if you don’t, but we’ll give you an incentive and boost your profitability if you do.”
Get it right, and we have the potential for a new trillion-dollar industry
It’s a key differentiator between how net zero policy is approached on either side of the Atlantic. And from what I can see, the incentives proposed in the IR Act in the US could be transformational in making carbon removal mainstream, allowing us to tackle the challenge of climate change head-on.
Despite these much-publicised cash injections — as well as the new developments as trailed by the airline industry — there is still not enough money being raised to finance DAC projects. The know-how is there. It just needs the funding to make it happen.
After all, if we’re to hit the target set out by the IPCC we have to go from zero carbon removed today to tens of billions removed in the 2030s. By then, DAC will be a trillion-dollar industry that permanently reverses the impact of more than a century of unfettered industrialisation. That’s our mission at Origen. It’s what drives us every single day. For us, decarbonising the planet isn’t about some nebulous blue sky thinking.
We’re actually doing something about it. We’re working towards making it happen. We’re blue sky doing.
Connect with Dustin on LinkedIn
Origen’s decarbonisation plans receive UK Government boost
NEWS | AUGUST 18, 2022
Origen’s decarbonisation plans receive UK Government boost
The UK Government has named ZerCaL250 — a collaboration using Origen’s zero-carbon tech and Singleton Birch’s lime production know-how — as one of 13 projects shortlisted nationally for the second phase of its Carbon Capture, Usage, and Storage (CCUS) cluster process.
It is also one of eight industrial carbon capture (ICC) projects in the government’s East Coast Cluster, supported by zero carbon partnership Zero Carbon Humber.
All 13 projects are in the running for government funding — for what is a pivotal technology in the UK’s transition to net zero — that utilises innovative climate-tech to decarbonise heavy industry.
Together, they represent a range of innovative CCUS technologies that will capture and store carbon emissions, preventing them from being released into the atmosphere.
The announcement is significant for Origen as the cleantech company — founded following innovative research at Oxford University — is nearing operation at its ZerCaL3 pilot plant at Singleton’s Birch’s Humberside-based operation.
Final stages with Singleton Birch
Origen is in the final stages of developing a new zero-carbon lime kiln as part of a joint project with Singleton Birch — the UK’s leading independent supplier of lime — at its quarry near Melton Ross in North Lincolnshire
Commenting on the news, Origen CEO Ben Turner said: “The significance of this announcement cannot be underestimated.
“No one business — no one country — can turn around the damage of more than a century of unfettered industrialisation. The task of reversing the damage that causes climate change can only be done by working together.
“Thanks to our zero-carbon lime — and collaboration with forward-looking Singleton Birch — we are developing a way to remove CO2 from the atmosphere. Once we capture CO2 from the lime production process, this CO2 can be stored permanently, and the resulting lime utilised to remove CO2 from the atmosphere in a continuous loop.
That’s why the potential CCUS Phase 2 funding, which would see a decarbonisation of the entire Singleton Birch facility in the East Coast Cluster, is so important,” said Turner.
The government has said that further information on the final confirmed projects for Phase 2 will be “shared in due course”.
Stay up to date with Origen's news and views by following us over on LinkedIn.
Media contact
Hadley Menk
Wildfire PR
origen@wildfirepr.com
+44 (0)20 8408 8000
8 Rivers’ Calcite and Origen Carbon Solutions announce joint project in the UK, selection by Frontier
NEWS | JUNE 29, 2022
8 Rivers’ Calcite and Origen Carbon Solutions announce joint project in the UK, selection by Frontier
The project has received backing from Stripe Climate’s Spring 2022 Carbon Removal Purchase cycle to the value of $1.5 million
8 Rivers Capital, LLC, and Origen Carbon Solutions, Inc., today announced a direct air capture joint project to pull a thousand tons of CO2 per annum directly from the air.
This ground-breaking project has today entered into an initial carbon removal purchase contract facilitated by Frontier, an advanced market commitment to accelerate carbon removal founded by Stripe, Alphabet, Shopify, Meta, and McKinsey earlier this year.
The project will pilot Origen’s ZerCaLTM zero-carbon lime manufacturing process and 8 Rivers’ Calcite Carbon Removal technology (“Calcite”) to demonstrate an innovative method of direct air capture – a technology that the IPCC has declared essential if the world is to achieve its net zero climate goals. The project has been selected for $1.5 million in carbon removal purchases from Stripe, a financial infrastructure company.
The ground-breaking UK/US joint project to create zero-carbon lime and use it to remove CO2 from the atmosphere has the potential to be a scalable and affordable approach to carbon removal.
Frontier’s members have committed to buy an initial $925 million of permanent carbon removal between 2022 and 2030. The goal is to send a strong demand signal that there is a growing market for carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies, and to then deploy these funds in a way that fast-tracks carbon removal projects and help remove billions of tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere.
Origen is an international CO₂ removal company, with ambitious plans to use its patented zero-carbon lime technology to accelerate global decarbonisation. Origen’s technology utilises limestone, a highly abundant and accessible natural resource which accounts for 10% of the total volume of all sedimentary rock on Earth. Using a new lime kiln based on novel oxy-fuel flash calciner technology, Origen can deliver CO₂ separation efficiency close to 100% to create zero-carbon lime (ZerCaLTM) with enhanced CO₂ absorption capabilities perfectly suited to carbon removal.
8 Rivers’ Calcite technology would then use this lime to pull CO₂ from the air, reducing global atmospheric carbon content. 8 Rivers, a world-leading developer of innovative decarbonization technologies, invented Calcite in 2019 and has been advancing the technology with funding from the US Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) FLECCS program. The Calcite process captures CO2 directly from air and sequesters it underground, aiming to support the world's climate targets by removing CO2 for less than $100 per ton of CO2 at scale.
In April 2022, 8 Rivers’ Calcite Carbon Removal technology, Calcite, was named as one of fifteen milestone winners of the XPRIZE Carbon Removal funded by The Musk Foundation – with its approach to direct air capture receiving an initial $1million-dollar award.
The joint project selected by Frontier involves collaborating on a carbon dioxide removal plant in the UK to remove a thousand tonnes of CO2 from the air while piloting the scaled-up integration to enable larger-scale commercial direct air capture plants.
Ben Turner, CEO at Origen Carbon Solutions, said: “To receive this endorsement from Stripe Climate for the work we’re doing with 8 Rivers shows what can be achieved when you collaborate for good.
“Working with our partners, we know our innovative technology can build a cleaner future by removing the CO2 emissions of our past. Restoring the earth’s atmosphere isn’t just about blue-sky thinking, it’s about radical blue-sky doing. The award and recognition for this collaborative project will help us achieve the goal of reversing climate change,” he said.
In a statement, Cam Hosie, CEO at 8 Rivers said: "Scalable, economic, and rapidly deployable direct air capture is vital to help achieve our collective Net Zero goals.
“We are tremendously excited by the partnership between Calcite and Origen, aligning our complementary technologies to accelerate the removal at-scale of atmospheric CO2 while creating the market-leading pathway to meaningful direct air capture. Stripe’s leadership is accelerating progress in direct air capture, and the Stripe Award will meaningfully shorten the path to market for these vital energy transition technologies.”
Nan Ransohoff, who leads Frontier, said: “Carbon removal is essential to achieving our climate goals, and we’re way behind schedule. But scalable, low-cost technologies like Calcite-Origen are grounds for optimism. We’re particularly excited about the diversity of approaches we’re seeing to Direct Air Capture, which likely has an important role to play in getting permanent carbon removal to gigaton-scale by 2050.”
About Origen Carbon Solutions
Origen is answering humanity’s ‘unavoidable need’ to remove CO2 from the Earth’s atmosphere. Driven by a robust and credible roadmap Origen is on a mission to achieve giga-scale carbon removal at <$100/ton by the mid-2030’s in support of its vision of the atmosphere, restored.
Today Origen is aggressively focusing on the commercial application of its ZERCAL zero-carbon lime in direct air capture (DAC) but the extreme versatility and scalability of ZERCAL has the potential to be applied to many kinds of carbon removal approaches in the future.
About 8 Rivers Capital, LLC
8 Rivers Capital, LLC is a Durham, NC-based firm founded in 2008 which is leading the invention and commercialization of sustainable, infrastructure-scale technologies as the premier net zero solutions company for industrial decarbonization. 8 Rivers is developing and deploying technologies for clean hydrogen and ammonia (8RH2), transformative zero-emissions power cycles (NET Power and the Allam-Fetvedt Cycle) direct air capture (Calcite), retrofit carbon capture (Carbon8), sour gas sweetening (TarT), clean ethylene (Codox), and other advanced clean energy systems.
Media contact
Hadley Menk
Wildfire PR
origen@wildfirepr.com
+44 (0)20 8408 8000
Earth Day
UPDATE | APRIL 22, 2022
Earth Day
Launched in 1970 against a backdrop of burgeoning environmental consciousness, Earth Day was created to inspire, educate and motivate people on the issues that impact our planet and our health.
The initial Earth Day saw 20 million American people demonstrate against industry's impact and unite to bring environmental issues into the spotlight. Since then, Earth Day has grown into a global movement, and now one billion people worldwide participate in driving positive environmental change.
Earth Day takes place on the 22nd of April. This year, the event focuses on the theme of Invest In Our Planet, a message that encourages innovation and bold action in the journey to restore our planet and ensure a brighter future.
Earth Day is an important day at Origen as we passionately believe in the movement's mission and strive to actively drive positive environmental change by developing innovative new technologies. At present, we are working on cutting-edge solutions that will transform the lime industry and potentially remove billions of tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere.
Lime is an essential component in many products and processes, and currently, the production of lime results in around 400 million tonnes of CO2 emissions every year. To address these emissions, Origen has developed an innovative new calciner technology-based lime kiln capable of creating zero-carbon lime (ZerCaL). The kiln separates the CO2 generated during the production process to be safely stored or used in other industries rather than being released into the atmosphere.
While eliminating the 400 million tonnes of CO2 associated with the lime industry annually will contribute to developing a more sustainable future, Origen's ambitions are much more significant than this. The zero-carbon lime created by this new kiln technology also has the potential to collect billions of tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere in a highly efficient process called direct air capture. When capturing emissions from the atmosphere, the ZerCaL returns to its original limestone form, which can then be processed by the kiln again, resulting in more carbon-catching ZerCaL. This breakthrough technology is being developed to offer the lime industry the opportunity to Invest In Our Planet and work with the goals of Earth Day to transform this sector radically.
The Origen team are celebrating Earth Day 2022 by visiting the revolutionary carbon-neutral lime kiln. The kiln, which is the first of its kind in the UK, is currently being built at the Singleton Birch site in Barnetby, North Lincolnshire and is scheduled for completion in June. The visit will allow the team to review the progress of the project and meet the on-site teams ahead of the launch as we prepare to deliver our innovative clean technology and start transforming the lime industry. By Earth Day 2023, we aim to have made further progress towards our direct air capture targets, enabling us to build a cleaner future and clean up the carbon dioxide emissions of the past.
The Great Restoration
NEWS | MARCH 25, 2022
The Great Restoration
The Great Restoration - Ruffer Review
