News

  • 09/12/2024 - The Carbon to Value (C2V) Initiative, a multi-year partnership led by NYU Tandon School of Engineering’s Urban Future Lab, Greentown Labs, and Fraunhofer USA, has announced the selection of nine innovative startups for the fourth cohort of its carbontech accelerator program.

    This year, the C2V Initiative received 123 applications from 29 countries, showcasing a diverse range of technologies aimed at tackling carbon emissions. Innovations included point source and direct air capture (DAC), carbon-to-product conversion (fuels, chemicals, materials), and methods for carbon sequestration and removal, such as enhanced mineralization, ocean alkalinization, and biomass carbon storage. Following a rigorous evaluation process, the nine companies chosen, of which RenewCO₂ is one, will join the program to further advance carbontech solutions.

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  • 07/24/2024 - Our CEO, Anders B. Laursen, and CTO, Karin Calvinho, have been selected as recipients of the 2024 Edison Patent Awards, New Jersey's highest recognition for inventors and innovation. This accolade celebrates their collaborative work with Rutgers University and its co-inventors (Prof. Charles Dismukes and Prof. Martha Greenblatt).

    The awards were determined by a team of R&D Council researchers who evaluated patents based on the significance of the problem addressed, utility and socio-economic value, novelty, and commercial impact. Notably, all winning patents must have at least part of the technical or scientific work completed in New Jersey.

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  • 05/15/2024 - The Innovation and Research Fellowship Program (IRFP) grant funds are provided to support technological research and the innovation ecosystem in New Jersey and to encourage Ph.D. graduates to continue their research in fellowship with New Jersey’s science and technology companies. Research Fellowship grants may be issued for up to two years. The amount of funding available in the Fiscal Year 2024 is estimated to be $1,000,000.

    RenewCO₂ was awarded the maximum amount of $115,000 to support a fellow’s research in New Jersey for up to two years.

  • 05/14/2024 - RenewCO₂’s senior leadership, Dr. Karin Calvinho (CTO) and Dr. Anders B. Laursen (CEO), was recognized for their outstanding contributions to driving innovation within New Jersey on May 14th, 2024, at Innovate New Jersey’s celebration honoring the INNOVATE100. The evening highlighted and paid tribute to dynamic leaders from all industries statewide, and we are extremely fortunate to have our fearless leaders be recognized for all of their remarkable endeavors and exceptional dedication.

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  • 01/31/2024 - New Jersey’s Office of the Secretary of Higher Education (OSHE) awarded a stipend to RenewCO₂ through the Career Accelerator Internship Grant Program (CAIGP), which provides funding to New Jersey employers who are interested in hosting undergraduate and graduate interns. The program aims to facilitate internship opportunities between New Jersey businesses and students from NJ institutions of higher education and recognizes that unpaid internships are a barrier to achieving equity and opportunity for all college students.

  • 12/14/2023 - RenewCO₂, a pioneering company in industrial decarbonization, is thrilled to announce the grand opening of its new facilities in Somerset, New Jersey. This significant milestone was marked with a festive inauguration party held on December 14th, 2023, attended by investors, industry leaders, Rutgers professors and staff, Franklin Township and New Jersey Economic Development representatives, and the RenewCO₂ team.

    Spread across 15,000 square feet, the new RenewCO₂ facilities are set up for innovation and technological advancement. These facilities include:

    • Advanced Laboratories: Dedicated spaces for research and development (R&D) and engineering equipped with catalyst synthesis reactors, electrochemical testing stations, analytical instrumentation, prototyping facilities, and product purification to drive innovations in electrochemical solutions.

    • Office Area: A collaborative workspace that fosters productivity and collaboration among the RenewCO₂ team.

    • High Bay Area: A specialized zone for piloting processes, demonstrating RenewCO₂'s commitment to practical and scalable sustainable technologies.

    Establishing these facilities reinforces RenewCO₂'s dedication to creating a more sustainable future. The state-of-the-art laboratories and pilot areas are designed to advance research in carbon utilization and other sustainable technologies and bring these innovations to market more efficiently.

    The inauguration of the Somerset facilities marks the beginning of a new chapter for RenewCO₂. With its expanded capabilities, the company is poised to make significant contributions to the field of sustainable technology and to the broader effort of combating climate change.

  • 09/20/2023 - The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded RenewCO₂ approximately $1,000,000 for Phase II research to scale CO2 electrolyzers for competitive carbon negative production of formic acid for a duration of 24 months.

  • 05/24/2023 - Our very own CTO, Dr. Karin Calvinho, spoke at the “Women in Cleantech Part III: The State of Climate Investment” panel hosted by Young Professionals in Energy, Davis Wright Tremaine Project W, and the Women’s Energy Network in New York City.

  • 05/01/2023 - The Department of Energy (DOE) Biotechnologies Office (BETO) released a funding opportunity, “Scale-up of Integrated Biorefineries and Greenhouse Gas Reduction in First Generation Ethanol Production (Scale-Up+),” which supports high-impact technology RD&D to accelerate the bioeconomy and, in particular, the production of low-carbon fuels for the aviation, marine, rail, and long-haul trucking industries. BETO focused on applied RD&D to improve the performance and reduce cost of biofuel production technologies and scale-up production systems in partnership with industry. Additionally, this FOA was created to help strengthen current first generation (Gen-1) corn ethanol production facilities by reducing their overall carbon footprint. Under the current BETO vision, these biomass feedstocks would be developed for use in the production of sustainable aviation fuel through a variety of conversion technologies. BETO focused on developing and demonstrating technologies that were capable of producing low-carbon, cost-effective biofuels and co-products by 2030, as well as biofuel production pathways that can deliver at least 70% lower lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions than petroleum. An estimated federal share of $59,000,000 of FY22 funds were anticipated to be split across all topic areas.

    RenewCO₂ received $500,000 to conduct a feasibility study for converting waste CO2 from bioethanol production to a value-added plastics monomer with RenewCO2’s electrochemical process to (i) reduce the carbon footprint of the biofuel by more than 70% compared with gasoline and (ii) achieve a cost-competitive Minimum Fuel selling Price (MFSP).

  • 12/01/2022 - Ambassador Forster of Brazil awarded the Embassy’s Science and Technology Prize to six men and women who contribute to building bridges between Brazil and the US: Alessandra Abe Pacini, Andrea Horvath Marques, Fábio Ribeiro, Juliano Seabra, Karin Calvinho (CTO, RenewCO₂), and Tamy Guimarães.

  • One of 259 Grants Totaling $53 Million Nationwide to Support Scientific Innovation in Clean Energy Development and Climate Solutions

    05/18/2022 - U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm today announced that RenewCO₂ will receive $200,000 as part of 259 Department of Energy grants totaling $53 million to 210 small businesses in 38 states. The awards include projects relating to particle accelerators and fusion technology, applied nanoscience, quantum information applications, and dark matter research along with a wide range of other efforts.

    “Supporting small businesses will ensure we are tapping into all of America’s talent to develop clean energy technologies that will help us tackle the climate crisis,” said Steve Binkley, Acting Director of the DOE’s Office of Science. “DOE’s investments will enable these economic engines to optimize and commercialize their breakthroughs while developing the next generation of science leaders and ensuring U.S. scientific and economic competitiveness that will benefit all Americans.”

    Through the SBIR/STTR program across the federal government, small business powers the U.S. economy and generates thousands of jobs, both directly and indirectly, the DOE notes. DOE Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) awards aim at transforming DOE-supported science and technology breakthroughs into viable products and services. The awards also support the development of specialized technologies and instruments that aid in scientific discovery.

    RenewCO₂, in collaboration with Rutgers University, will receive $200,000 to develop an electrochemical process to convert CO₂ to ethanol. If coupled with carbon capture from bio-ethanol fermentation, this process can increase overall ethanol yields by up to 32% and could mitigate 1.3 gigatons of CO₂ emissions per year by 2050.

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  • One of 82 Grants Totaling $100 Million Nationwide to Support Scientific Innovation and Clean Energy Development

    03/31/2021 - U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm today announced that RenewCO₂ will receive $1,150,000 as part of 82 Department of Energy grants totaling $100 million to 68 small businesses in 24 states, including projects relating to wind turbine and wind farms, improved battery electrolytes, solar generation of hydrogen, and upcycling of carbon dioxide, along with a wide range of other efforts.

    “Small businesses play a critical role in launching scientific discoveries out of our National Labs and into the hands of the American people,” said Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “We’re so excited to watch them put their entrepreneurial spirit behind these bold, exciting projects, and bring these new products and services to market. We are thrilled to support RenewCO₂ in advancing its technology innovations.”

    Through the SBIR/STTR program across the federal government, small business powers the U.S. economy and generates thousands of jobs, both directly and indirectly, the DOE notes. DOE Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) awards aim at transforming DOE-supported science and technology breakthroughs into viable products and services. The awards also support the development of specialized technologies and instruments that aid in scientific discovery.

    RenewCO₂ will receive $1.15 million to develop their process for converting carbon dioxide emissions from the chemical and energy industries, water, and electricity into chemicals used to produce plastics. These plastics will have an overall negative carbon footprint, enabling governments and companies to reach emission reduction goals. Plastics can also reduce water use and emissions from transportation compared to other packaging materials such as glass and wood products.

  • 05/01/2020 - RenewCO₂ is delighted to announce the award of a Small Business Technology Transfer program (STTR) Phase I research grant from the National Science Foundation. The grant will fund the development of novel electrolyzers for the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide to mono-ethylene glycol (MEG) with the co-production of chlorine. RenewCO₂ will further advance the proprietary technology developed at Rutgers - the State University of New Jersey. MEG is currently used as one of the two primary constituents of poly-ethylene terephthalate or PET, which finds use in everything from food containers to textiles with a current market estimated at $30.4 million in 2018. Chlorine is used in plastic manufacture mainly in the production of PVC (vinyl), as well as in the water treatment and bleach industries, with a global market of $33.4 million in 2019. This technology will offer a carbon negative alternative to petrochemical MEG, where CO₂ will be extracted from emission sources and recycled into commodity chemicals and new products. This project proactively deals with the increasing atmospheric CO₂ content threatening our way of life.

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  • 02/28/2020 - The US Department of Energy has awarded RenewCO₂ a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research grant to develop novel electrolyzers for the electrochemical conversion of carbon dioxide into mono-ethylene glycol (MEG). The grant focuses on advancing critical milestones for operating of CO₂ electrolyzers at industrially relevant conditions.The proprietary process has the potential of mitigating climate change by providing a cost-competitive pathway to produce a bulk chemical from CO₂ waste streams of power plants, bio-refineries, and several other chemical industries. The product - mono-ethylene glycol - is one of the two primary constituents of poly-ethylene terephthalate (PET), a transparent plastic used to make beverage bottles, food containers, and polyester textiles. MEG is also widely used as a heat transfer fluid in the automobile industry. As a direct substitute to conventional MEG from petrochemical sources, this new MEG process will have negative carbon emissions overall.

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  • 06/2020 - Karin Calvinho will be joining Chain Reaction Innovations (CRI), the entrepreneurship program at the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Argonne National Laboratory, as part of the elite program’s fourth cohort.

    The two-year program starts this June, and each innovator will collaborate with a host scientist on staff at Argonne National Laboratory, while embedded full-time there, to develop revolutionary technologies that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase US competitiveness in emerging fields. The resulting technologies will assist the US Department of Energy’s Office of Science and Argonne National Laboratory in solving pressing, national problems related to science and technology.

    Argonne's Chain Reaction Innovations program, which is under the lab's Science and Technology Partnerships Outreach directorate, is funded by the Advanced Manufacturing Office within the US Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

    Chain Reaction Innovations' impact is far-reaching as it enters its fourth year of embedding entrepreneurs at Argonne National Laboratory. CRI's first cohort graduated in June 2019, amassing millions in investment. The combined total raised by CRI innovators through February 2020 is nearly $18 million. In addition, the program helped create 76 jobs to date.

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  • 05/2019 - RenewCO₂ was awarded a Phase 1 prize on the NASA CO₂ Conversion Challenge for designing a process that enables sugars to be created from CO₂ and water by electrolysis on Mars.

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Video by Argonne National Laboratory released at the 2022 LEEP Summit.

RenewCO₂ is one of the NASA CO₂ Conversion Challenge Phase I winners.