October 2021
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INTERVIEW 11 THE Scott Matthews, Chief Executive, Easy Build Ltd.
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COMMENT 12Problem solving the next frontier.
Aspiring Materials raises $1m from Icehouse Ventures for carbon capture tech Climate-tech startup Aspiring Materials has raised $1 million to further expand its carbon capture technology for reducing industrial carbon emissions.
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The Christchurch-based company’s pre-seed funding round was led by Icehouse Ventures with support from Outset Ventures.
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Aspiring Materials extracts mineral products from globally abundant olivine-rich silicate rocks, using one of these minerals, magnesium hydroxide, to produce a powdery material that can remove and solidify carbon dioxide at the source of emission, such as a factory’s exhaust system. The captured carbon forms a safe carbonate substance which can be repurposed for a variety of uses from masonry construction blocks to cement additives. Further, the company’s innovative mineral extraction method is a closed loop process with several commercially viable options available for the two other minerals produced at the same time as the magnesium hydroxide. The silica can be used to replace around a third of the Portland cement required for the production of concrete, which is currently responsible for around 10% of the world’s carbon emissions. And a third extracted mineral, iron oxide, can be onsold as a high purity raw material for iron production. While the concept of using olivine rocks to extract magnesium for carbon sequestration has been explored for at least two decades, Aspiring co-founder and civil engineer Dr. Allan Scott says nobody’s been able to figure out how to make a carbon-free and waste-free way of supplying it.
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“Our method is capable of significantly reducing CO2 emissions that is not only environmentally-friendly, but is also scalable and profitable,” says Scott. “We’ve not found any other method out there right now that comes close. “Other experts and scientists who’ve previously thought that carbon sequestration on a global scale was a pipe dream have reached out to us saying that we are onto something. It’s exciting to be able to move onto the next phase so we can realise our vision of building a low carbon future.” Scott, an associate professor of civil engineering at the University of Canterbury (UC) co-founded Aspiring Materials two years ago with Dr. Christopher Oze, a US-based geology professor. The pair began
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