Could you introduce us to what Svante does as well as to the industry it belongs to?
Svante is a climate technology company focused on reducing current levels of CO2 in the atmosphere. With our unique filter technology we prevent CO2 from going into the atmosphere (carbon capture) and equally remove CO2 that has been emitted into the air (carbon removal).
We named the company after the Swedish scientist, Svante Arrhenius, who in 1896, was the first to establish the link between CO2 going into the atmosphere and the increasing temperature of the planet. We are like the Tesla of carbon capture.
The industry of Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) or Carbon Management is facing significant growth as it seeks to unlock the pathway to net zero – a commitment entailing a $120-trillion capital investment. By 2030, the world must develop the climate technology necessary to meet our net-zero objective at an exponential scale. Accordingly, CCUS must grow by 100x in order to make its necessary contribution to reaching that objective. So, at Svante, we see ourselves as a transition tool. Out of the $120 trillion capital investment needed in the energy transition – for renewables, electrification of vehicles, and the like, only $2 trillion will be required for capturing CO2, which, in turn, should actually capture 20% of the total CO2 that’s in the atmosphere (around 10 giga tons or 10 billion tons). When you do the math, the world needs to deploy 10,000 carbon capture plants over the next 30 years – that is a daunting prospect.
We believe there will be just a few players who could deliver such solutions at a mass scale. A suitable parallel could be the commercial aircraft industry: with our carbon capture technology, we would be to CCUS what Rolls-Royce or GE are to Airbus and Boeing -- the engine developers for the aircraft manufacturers. In our space, however, there are no equivalents to Airbus and Boeing yet: those will probably be major engineering companies building commercial carbon capture plants. Currently, we work with Kiewit as a partner in North America, Samsung Engineering in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, and Technip Energies in France.
What will your manufacturing capacity be in the near future?
We find ourselves at the upstream of heavy industries, as an original equipment manufacturer and technology package provider. We are building a factory as we speak in Vancouver, BC, Canada, involving a $100-million investment. That plant will have the capacity to equip ten carbon capture plants, each holding 1 million tons of CO2 per year, every year. That means that our filter technology will prevent 10 million tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere annually – the equivalent of taking over 2 million gas-powered cars driven for 1 year off the road every year, or planting over 165.3 million trees, according to the US’s Environmental Protection Agency’s Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator. We expect this new carbon capture filter manufacturing facility to be at full capacity before 2030. We will then need to build another factory somewhere else.
What are the main challenges you are facing at the moment?
Because our focus is on decarbonizing different industries that operate on fossil fuels, such as the cement and steel industries, our challenge is to find the equilibrium between the source of the CO2 and its destination, that is, where it goes.
A few weeks ago, Exxon announced a new purchase that gives them the footprint to transport and store CO2 in the U.S. This makes the fossil fuel industry a potential partner for us, since we wish to tap into their deep storage expertise, as well as their financial means to deploy these large scale projects.
Another important challenge today concerns the question of who will pay for the CO2 capture and storage. We see the U.S. setting tax incentives of $85 per ton to whoever is capturing or storing CO2. Hence, the tax credit one gets from the American government allows many projects to be effectively financially supported. As of today, the U.S. is the only country that can get the CCUS industry up and running, and we need the rest of the world to catch up in terms of policy frameworks that enable the industry to do what it needs to do. Finally, the permitting to do CO2 capture, transportation, and storage takes an incredibly long time.
As you mentioned, partnerships are key in your industry. What is your methodology to find the right partners?
Yes, collaboration in our space is paramount as there is so much specialized expertise required in the field to get projects done. Since we specialize in providing the technology and equipment for carbon capture and removal – the “engines” of a carbon capture plant, we needed to find partners equivalent to Boeing and Airbus in the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) space. That’s how we reached Kiewit, Samsung Engineering, and Technip Energies.
In addition to our EPC partners, we also collaborate with three other types of partners. Firstly, we attempt to find partners who have the capacity to scale up our own technology, such as the nanotechnology that selectively grabs onto carbon molecules and releases other gasses such as nitrogen. Secondly, we partner up with companies that develop complementary technologies -- such as 3M, as they are specialists in the coating technique required to make our filters. Thirdly, we look for partners who can help us obtain necessary auxiliary equipment and thus enhance our cost-effectiveness.
What is your message for the COP28 audience?
We must work at what I call “ludicrous speed”. We should think of the urgency for action as if a tsunami were approaching. Everyone seems to be waiting for the unflawed, tried and tested carbon management solution to come along, but we don’t have time for that. The climate emergency is real, and without commercial CCUS projects being rapidly deployed at scale starting now, we will miss our Paris Agreement targets.
Barriers need to be broken—legal, regulatory, infrastructural. This can only happen if governments, industries, and financial institutions all work together. And on top of that, CCUS projects must have a license to operate on a social level. The world needs to get educated and onboard with the impactful difference that the CCUS industry can deliver – we are truly a complement to the other key pillars of decarbonization.
