Melbourne, Australia, 9 July 2024 – KC8 Capture Technologies, an Australian-founded startup that is commercialising industry leading carbon capture technology has raised AU $10 million to accelerate the deployment of its technology to critical and hard-to-abate industries.
The funding round was led by local and global leaders in energy, construction and chemical manufacturing including Woodside Energy (Woodside), Cemex Ventures (Cemex), and a major petrochemical company.
Founded in 2021, KC8 provides essential, yet hard to decarbonise, industries such as cement, steel, power generation and chemical production with a lower-cost, and lower potential environmental impact CO2 capture technology compared to conventional amine-based processes. Its technology can capture up to 95 per cent of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from heavy industrial sources at a capital cost up to 50 per cent lower than amine-based solutions and at an improved energy efficiency of up to 15 per cent.
Traditionally, the Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) industry uses amine-based solvents on these hard-to-abate industries. KC8 have developed a proprietary non-toxic solvent that’s derived from a naturally-occurring material. This allows KC8’s technology to treat low pressure, high volumes exhaust gases at lower cost to help these industries meet their net zero targets.
“Being able to provide safe, naturally occuring solvents that have little or no impact to the environment at scale is an incredible feat. By lowering the cost of capture, our goal is to enhance and accelerate CCUS as a leading greenhouse gas mitigation tool that will form an important part of a balanced solution to lowering emissions for all sectors,” commented Greg Ross, Executive Director, KC8 Technologies.
With carbon capture representing an addressable market of nearly US $100 billion by 2030 and US $600 billion by 2050 just in the United States alone, the market is a major growth area for investment and technology.
New funding to fast-track commercialisation
KC8 will use the new funding to expand its team and expedite deployment of its technology into hard-to-abate industries through a number of key projects.
KC8 will also work with Mexico-headquartered Cemex to deploy its technology through a Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) study at one Cemex’s leading cement plants with the aim to capture more than 100 tons per day (TPD) of CO2, an ambition that is 10 times greater than current project scopes.
In Australia, KC8 is working with Cement Australia to build a 15 TPD commercial demonstration plant — the ‘PACER’ project for the Cement Industries. The plant will be located in Gladstone, Queensland, and capture CO2 at a fully operational cement facility.
In the United States, KC8 is developing a Commercial Pilot Demonstration plant at the US Department of Energy’s National Carbon Capture Center (NCCC) that will achieve a capture rate of 10 to 15 TPD of CO2 from natural gas combustion flue gas.
“Our mission is to provide the most sustainable, cost-effective solution for large scale abatement — particularly for industries that don’t currently have a clear pathway to emission reduction. We’re grateful for the local and global industry investment, which will accelerate our commercialisation plans and the deployment of our technology into these critical industries,” said Ross.
Woodside Vice President Carbon Solutions Jayne Baird said KC8 technology has the potential to assist Woodside’s efforts to reduce emissions from its operations.
“As a global energy company, we understand the need to innovate and develop efficient and cost-effective ways to produce safe, lower carbon, affordable and reliable energy through the energy transition,” said Baird.
“We want to ensure we enable the technological innovation required to do this.”
“Achieving carbon neutrality requires not just sustainable investments, but aggressive action from major players like Cemex. By adopting clean technologies and fostering collaboration with innovative global startups like KC8, we aim to revolutionise the construction industry and significantly reduce the environmental impact of our operations in order to become a net-zero CO2 company by 2050,” said Gonzalo Galindo, Head of Cemex Ventures.
About KC8 Capture Technologies
KC8 Capture Technologies Ltd is a process licensing company developing carbon capture technologies. KC8 is an Australian based and operates in Melbourne, Perth and now has an office in the USA. The company has developed carbon capture technologies which are currently going into a commercial demonstration phase in both cement kiln flue gas and gas turbine flue gas. Through research and development it controls 11 patent families with over 40 awarded international patents and many more pending.
About Woodside Energy
Woodside is a global energy company, proudly Australian with a spirit of innovation and determination. Woodside provides energy that the world needs to heat homes, keep lights on and support industry. The company aims to thrive through the global energy transition with a low-cost, lower carbon, profitable, resilient and diversified portfolio. Woodside has a growing portfolio of lower carbon services (offsets, carbon capture and storage, carbon capture and utilisation), hydrogen, ammonia and renewable power opportunities in Australia and internationally. Our new energy opportunities include proposed hydrogen and ammonia projects H2Perth and H2TAS in Australia and a proposed hydrogen project H2OK in North America.
Website: https://www.woodside.com/
About Cemex Ventures
Launched in 2017, Cemex Ventures focuses on helping overcome the main challenges and capitalising on the opportunity areas in the construction ecosystem through solutions that consider sustainability. Cemex Ventures has developed an open collaborative platform to lead the revolution of the construction industry, engaging startups, entrepreneurs, universities, and other stakeholders to tackle the challenges in the construction environment and shape the industry’s future.
For more information on Cemex Ventures, please visit: www.cemexventures.com
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