New name reflects mission enabling global infrastructure development to drive gigaton-scale CO2 emissions reductions
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 22, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CO2Concrete today announced it has changed its name to CarbonBuilt to better align with its mission to store significant amounts of carbon dioxide in concrete used for the built environment. The company also announced the appointment of climate-tech veteran Rahul Shendure as Chief Executive Officer.
CarbonBuilt’s ReversaTM platform, which was developed over the course of seven years at UCLA’s Institute for Carbon Management, includes innovations to both the concrete mixture design and the curing process. The Reversa formulation(s) includes calcium hydroxide, a commodity chemical used in a wide range of applications, and enables the increased and more flexible use of waste materials like fly ash. In Reversa’s curing process, CO2 contained within dilute flue gas streams (with no requirement for capture or purification) is permanently sequestered into the concrete. Together, these innovations enable concrete manufacturers to significantly reduce the carbon footprint of their products in a manner that increases profitability.
The first field demonstration of the technology at scale took place at the Wyoming Infrastructure Authority’s Integrated Test Center, where the team successfully sequestered waste CO2 from a coal-fired power plant in more than 10,000 concrete blocks. A second demonstration, using waste CO2 from a natural gas-fired turbine at the National Carbon Capture Center in Alabama, is currently under way. These demonstrations highlight the technology’s ability to accommodate a wide range of dilute CO2 streams, unlocking the potential for partnerships across a wide range of industries.
“The incredible size of the concrete market and its ability to permanently store carbon make it perhaps the best opportunity the world has to reduce CO2 emissions,” said Shendure. “Our ‘no compromise’ concrete meets the sustainability needs of builders and customers while offering a compelling value proposition for concrete producers and companies seeking to reduce their carbon footprint. Together, this adds up to the potential for a gigaton-scale reduction in emissions.”
CarbonBuilt is also a finalist for the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE, a global contest designed to foster and fund the development of breakthrough technologies that convert CO2 emissions into usable products.
Rahul Shendure brings more than 20 years of leadership experience with pioneering climate- and bio-tech companies to CarbonBuilt. After starting his career as a chemical engineer in GE’s plastics business, he held senior product management and business development roles at Amyris and Ballard Power Systems, co-founded and remains Board Chair of Oscilla Power and co-founded cancer diagnostics company Bellwether Bio, which was acquired by Guardant Health in 2019. He is an investor in over twenty early-stage climate-tech companies.
About CarbonBuilt
CarbonBuilt’s mission is to enable concrete manufacturing to drive large-scale greenhouse gas reductions through the cost-effective utilization of CO2 and other industrial wastes. Its ReversaTM process injects CO2 emissions taken directly from industrial sources into proprietary low-carbon concrete formulations. This revolutionary approach reduces overall CO2 emissions by more than 50 percent while creating end products that meet industry specifications and increase profitability for concrete producers. CarbonBuilt was spun out of UCLA’s Institute for Carbon Management, which is led by Professor Gaurav Sant of the Samueli School of Engineering. More information is available at www.carbonbuilt.com.
Media Contact
John Williams, Scoville PR for CarbonBuilt
jwilliams@scovillepr.com; 206-660-5503
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e0e9d67a-0beb-4a17-9fbf-d9d258f8df21