APRIL- MAY 2022
Drowning our sorrows and burying our sins Planetary Technologies has been recognised for its leadership in climate technology, being the first to remove carbon using direct ocean capture while creating renewable fuel and restoring ocean damage from climate change
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he Canadian based startup's approach to ocean carbon dioxide removal is unique. Carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere up to gigaton scale and sequestered for tens of thousands of years. By essentially giving the ocean an antacid, the process can help heal local marine ecosystems harmed by climate change, improving natural growth in animals like coral and shellfish, leading to a better functioning food chain and a healthier regional economy. Planetary’s process also creates green hydrogen as a by-product, which can be burned without carbon emissions, allowing carbon challenged industries to limit their use of fossil fuel. It also extracts metals from mine waste that can be used in batteries, another important tool for a future low-carbon economy. 26 infrastructurenews.co.nz
The company recently raised C$7.8 million to add to pre-seed and seed funding rounds at $4.2 million. It received $3.6 million through grant funding. Planetary will use the new funding to build pilot facilities to deploy its proprietary carbon transition technology, which speeds up the earth’s natural process of removing carbon from the air and safely storing it in the ocean, the largest natural carbon sink on earth’s surface. This funding also will support the launch of Planetary’s pilot plants in Quebec and Nova Scotia, which will demonstrate a scaled version of its patented carbon removal process. The pilot plants will come online in phases beginning later this year and will be integrated with a major oceans research project in coordination with local partners to continually monitor the chemical and
biological effects, and finetune Planetary’s process. Planetary is currently selling 3,000 carbon credits with retirement dates of 2025-2027. The company has previously pre-sold carbon credits to Shopify, a leading provider of essential internet infrastructure for commerce, based on carbon removal to be generated by Planetary's pilot plant later this year. There is an impressive range of academic research partners including the University of Dalhousie and University of Miami Basico2 project, an XPRIZE Carbon Removal Student Award Winner. Major investors include Innovacorp and Apollo Projects. Based on the research of biogeochemist and Planetary Chief Technology Officer Dr Greg Rau, Planetary’s carbon dioxide removal technology accelerates the earth’s natural
carbon cycle, pulling carbon from the air and storing it as a natural component of ocean chemistry for up to 100,000 years. Planetary is also testing its carbon transition platform with Brazilian Nickel PLC, a UK-based sustainable nickel and cobalt mining company. Using its technology Planetary is working with the company to assist it on its decarbonisation path. Planetary Co-Founder Brock Battochio was named to Forbes’ 2022 30 under 30 Energy List. This innovative startup has been recognised for its leadership in climate technology receiving the OceanShot award from the Ocean Startup Project. The United Nations’ Blue Climate Initiative named Planetary as a semi-finalist for its Ocean Innovation Prize. Thanks to Waste Management World
