The climate tech company's innovation converts CO2 and water
into sustainable platform molecules for use in agriculture, energy,
and transportation
RICHLAND, Wash., Nov. 15,
2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Carbon
conversion startup
OCOchem has raised $5 million in Seed funding from lead
investor TO VC. INPEX
Corp.
(IPXHF.NaE), the LCY Lee Family
Office, and MIH Capital Management
also participated in the round. These investors join
Halliburton Labs, Halliburton
Company's (NYSE: HAL) energy and climate tech accelerator, which
has been supporting OCOChem's scaling since 2021.
Using its proprietary technology, the Richland, Wash.-based company is
commercializing a new way to make highly versatile carbon-neutral
platform molecules by electrochemically converting recycled carbon
dioxide (CO2), water and clean electricity into formic acid and
formate chemicals. A wide variety of essential chemicals,
materials, and fuels that are conventionally made from fossil
fuel-based hydrocarbons can now be made more sustainably and more
affordably using this building block molecule.
OCOchem will use the newly raised funds to scale its modular
carbon conversion technology to industrial proportions and build a
pilot plant for commercial demonstration operations. Industry,
energy, and agricultural producers can purchase formic and formates
made using OCOchem's technology to reduce the carbon intensity of
everyday products from feed and fibers to fuels and fertilizers —
at the same or lower cost as similar products made from
petrochemicals.
"Using OCOchem technology and clean electricity, we can now do
what plants and trees have been able to do for billions of years --
convert CO2 and water into useful organic molecules using clean
energy. But unlike photosynthesis, we can do it faster and more
efficiently at a lower cost, using much less land," said
Todd Brix, co-founder and CEO of
OCOchem.
Joshua Phitoussi, Managing Partner of TO VC, said, "We're
incredibly excited about the new industrial paradigm that is being
opened by electrochemistry thanks to the relentless drop in cost of
renewable energy. Finally, we can create a circular carbon economy,
where recycled CO2 becomes the easier and most cost-effective
feedstock to produce a myriad of chemicals that are crucial to the
world economy. OCOchem is at the forefront of that transition,
reframing the thinking around CO2 and producing something vital
from it. As a first product, green formic acid is a very
interesting molecule given its diverse use applications in existing
agriculture and industrial markets, but also in future CO2 and
hydrogen storage as well as transportation markets. TO VC is
proud to be partnering with OCOchem to make its mission of keeping
fossil fuels in the ground a reality."
In addition to investing in the company, INPEX, Japan's largest oil and gas exploration,
development, and production company, has partnered with OCOchem to
evaluate collaboration opportunities leveraging the company's
technology to transport CO2 and clean hydrogen.
"Using renewable energy, OCOChem's technology enables the
conversion of water and carbon dioxide into formic acid, which is
stable under ambient conditions. The formic acid can also be
converted to useful carbon and hydrogen components with minimal
energy input. This is quite important as the world can leverage its
existing global-scale liquid distribution infrastructure to move
carbon dioxide and hydrogen as chemically bonded liquids at ambient
temperature and pressure, ensuring a safer and more cost-effective
approach," said Shigeru Tode,
General Manager for the New Business Development Unit of INPEX
Corporation.
Brix said OCOchem is not just turning CO2 into something useful,
it is reducing the added energy and emission expense of extracting
fossil carbon from the ground, transporting it long distances, and
processing it at high temperature and pressures. "Replacing fossil
carbon with renewable carbon as a feedstock in our target
applications could reduce global carbon emissions by more than 10
percent and enable more localized production of essential
chemicals, fuels, and materials. The world relies on carbon for
nearly everything made, consumed or done. The problem isn't carbon,
it's extracted geosphere-sourced carbon, which disrupts the carbon
balance in the atmosphere, oceans, and soil of the planet. By
sourcing carbon from the air and captured emissions, we can create
a circular carbon economy that lowers emissions while making the
carbon-based products that our world needs to thrive."
Backing from a globally diverse group of industry-based
investors and partners, Brix said, is a strong endorsement of the
wide applicability of OCOchem's technology to multiple industrial,
energy, and agricultural sectors for decarbonization solutions.
"Our goal is that the world adopts our technology not just because
it's greener, but because it's the safer, healthier, and more
affordable choice. This funding allows us to build out our team,
scale our technology, and expand our partnerships to give more
businesses a cleaner and less expensive way to reduce
emissions."
OCOchem's new technology contributes to a decarbonized world by
replacing extracted fossil fuels as a source of carbon and hydrogen
with recycled, captured carbon and water, to make products. The
company's modular carbon conversion device, known as
the OCOchem Carbon FluX Electrolyzer, can be built and
deployed at any scale.
OCOchem is a clean tech start-up commercializing its
proprietary technology to electrochemically convert carbon dioxide
and water into sustainable platform molecules, which can then be
used to make other less expensive and more environmentally friendly
chemicals, fuels, and materials, including clean distributed
hydrogen. Opened in late 2020, OCOchem operates its principal
R&D laboratories and manufacturing operations in Richland, Wash. Last year it built the world's
largest CO2 electrolyzer. Learn more at
www.ocochem.com.
TO VC supports vital teams that are solving the world's
most urgent problems.
TO VC is an early-stage decarbonization-focused venture capital
fund investing in climate technology companies through food
systems, energy systems, and carbon removal. The TO VC managing
partners, Arieh Mimran and Joshua
Phitoussi, believe these are the three most powerful areas of
innovation to get to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and
restore the balance between human and planetary health. TO VC is
confident that the biggest companies of tomorrow will be climate
companies, and the most attractive companies today are those whose
mission it is to solve climate change. Learn more at to.vc.
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SOURCE OCOchem