Congratulations to CO2L Tech who recently won the Champion Prize in the "Renewables and Carbon Removal" track at the Net Zero Challenge competition 2024. The Net Zero Challenge attracted >500 global applications from 55 countries. In addition to winning the main equity-free grant of ~$275K CAD from Temasek Foundation and Touchstone Partners, CO2L Tech also secured an investment prize of $50k USD (or ~$70K CAD) from Touchstone Partners, which will significantly enhance their capacity to implement their groundbreaking Electrochemical CO2 Reduction technology.
Figure 1. Dr. Anh Tran Ly, CEO and Co-founder of CO2L Tech presents at the Net Zero Challenge Grand Finale
Started in 2023, Net Zero Challenge (N0C) is a global climate-tech competition supported by Touchstone Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm based in Vietnam and Temasek Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Temasek Holdings, a Singapore-based investment company in partnership with the Ho Chi Minh City Institute for Development Studies (HIDS) . Teams competed in three tracks for a total prize pool of VND 15 billion (~$830K CAD) to pilot their solutions in Vietnam. Participating teams also had the chance to receive VND 6,5+ Billion (~$360K CAD) in additional prizes from Dragon Capital, HaoShi Foundation, Sembcorp Industries, Sopoong Ventures, Touchstone Partners, GIZ Vietnam and much more in in-kind support and mentorship. Only teams that had developed a minimally viable product, a pilot plan to demonstrate proof of value with the intention of commercialization were eligible. Finalists (3 from each track) presented their innovative solutions during the Grand Finale, on November 22, 2024, in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
“Being recognized in a competitive arena that attracted >500 global applications from 55 countries is a strong endorsement of CO2L Tech's innovative solution in carbon removal”, said Dr. Anh Tran Ly. “This recognition is not just a win for us but a testament to the potential of climate tech startups in driving sustainable change.”
CO2L Tech (/kool tek/) is a technology platform to transform carbon emissions into industrially useful chemicals. CO2L Tech was founded by Dr. Tu Nguyen, former Research Associate and Dr. Anh Tran Ly, former Post-doctoral Fellow, in Dr. Cao Thang Dinh’s Refuel@Queens research group. Dr. Dinh, as well as Dunin-Deshpande Queen’s Innovation Centre (DDQIC) Academic Director, Dr. James McLellan, serve on the advisory board. CO2L Tech were the winners of the DDQIC Summer Pitch Competition in 2022, winning $30K in start-up funding, and they have received incubator, training and mentoring support from DDQIC and from the Simon Fraser University/Mitacs Invention to Innovation (i2I) program, for which DDQIC is a regional academic partner.
The technology developed by CO2L Tech is based on the Electrochemical Reduction (ECR) of CO2. Their electrolytic systems work at high CO2 reduction rates, with high selectivity to products and long-term stability. More importantly, they can be incorporated into CO2 emission sources without the need to have major modifications to the infrastructure. The input can either be pure CO2 gas or CO2 from the emission sources, which under an applied voltage is transformed into ethylene, syngas, or formic acid depending on which catalyst is used. With the rapid development of renewable technologies, it would be possible to run these systems with solar or wind energy in the future. Their ECR technology transforms carbon from CO2 emissions to useful products and brings them back to the economic life cycle instead of the atmosphere. They envision the heavily petrochemical-depending economy fading away as the new market of CO2-derived products rises.
Highlights of Net Zero Challenge 2024 Grand Finale can be seen on their Instagram and Tik Tok.