Cleantech startup Dioxycle has announced the successful raising of $17 million in funding from its Series A round, with the objective of advancing its technology designed to convert CO2 emissions into valuable sustainable chemicals.
Established in 2021, the French-American company Dioxycle is focused on developing a technology that employs a low-temperature electrolyzer to generate sustainable ethylene utilizing recycled carbon emissions, water, and renewable electricity.
This funding round was jointly led by well-known climate tech investors, Lowercarbon Capital and Breakthrough Energy Ventures Europe (BEV-E), and also featured participation from Gigascale Capital. With this infusion of capital, Dioxycle is poised to enter an exciting phase of development, geared towards creating a groundbreaking industrial-emission-reducing demonstrator.
Essentially, this innovation introduces a ‘green discount,’ which confers an immediate competitive advantage, unlike the typical ‘green premium’ that often hinders the adoption of sustainable products. Ethylene, valued at around $180 billion in the market, serves as the world’s most widely used organic chemical, instrumental in producing textiles, plastics, construction materials, and furniture. However, its conventional production process is significantly carbon-intensive. By eliminating the use of fossil fuels in ethylene production, Dioxycle holds the potential to slash annual CO2 emissions by an impressive 800 million tons – equivalent to over 2% of the global total.
Dioxycle’s achievement rests upon its pioneering low-temperature electrolyzer, which transforms carbon emissions, water, and renewable electricity into high-value chemicals. This exclusive electrolyzer relies on an innovative integrated approach, combining cost-effective catalytic technologies, a proprietary high-efficiency stack design, and advanced process integration strategies. This approach uniquely positions Dioxycle to deliver the most energy-efficient and cost-effective methods for producing sustainable ethylene and other vital commodity chemicals, with a system design primed for scalability.
Co-founder and CTO, David Wakerley, explains, “Given how much our society runs on carbon, CO2 emissions could be considered an incredible resource, but only with a highly efficient CO2-conversion technology to take advantage of them. To this end, we continually asked ourselves how we can push this device to the maximum energy efficiency possible. Now, two and a half years later, we are ready to build an electrolyzer with the carbon-converting capabilities of about 20,000 trees, focused on the production of sustainable ethylene.”
By devising an electrolyzer capable of enabling a green discount, Dioxycle amalgamates decarbonization with profitability, aiming to trigger swift adoption even in regions with limited incentives for carbon reduction. Having advanced from laboratory trials to the development of initial electrolyzer stacks in 2022, the funding garnered from the Series A round will facilitate the progression to on-site demonstrators and ultimately an industrial prototype, setting the stage for preliminary commercialization within the upcoming five years.
“Our vision is to become the INTEL Inside of the CCUS industry (Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage), the trusted technology provider empowering chemical manufacturers to reinvent chemical processes based on emission recycling rather than fossil fuel extraction. To reach our climate goals, we must disrupt the processes of incumbents instead of re-building the industry from the ground up. Leveraging existing industrial assets will allow us to scale sustainable technologies at the required speed,” co-founder and CEO, Sarah Lamaison, shared.