Bill Gates has invested in a carbon capture start-up. His Breakthrough Energy Ventures fund has taken part in an $80 million fundraising for Verdox, a Massachusetts-based business whose technology aims to remove carbon dioxide directly from the air.
Verdox was founded in 2019 and Brian Baynes, its chief executive, said that a recent breakthrough had helped it to raise cash from investors. The billionaire co-founder of Microsoft provided an unspecified sum, according to Bloomberg, which first reported the capital-raising.
Momentum is building behind carbon capture as governments strive to cut emissions to net zero. Historically, carbon capture and storage was regarded predominantly as a technology to clean up coal or gas-fired power plants operating as the backbone of the electricity system. In the longer term, however, it could be used actively to remove emissions from the atmosphere.
The technology to capture carbon varies depending on what is generating the emissions. Some processes emit fairly pure CO2, while others pump out a mixture of gases. Conventional carbon capture technologies use filters to separate CO2 from the gases emitted from factories. It is an energy-intensive process that uses solvents to extract CO2. The liquid is heated to release the CO2, which is compressed and stored underground.
Verdox, which is a spinout from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, claims that its system is cheaper and more efficient. It uses a special plastic, which when charged with electricity, can extract CO2 from a mixture of gases. A change in voltage releases the CO2.
According to Baynes, the new funding will sustain Verdox for between four and five years.
