What a year it’s been for AI and machine learning. It’s hard to believe it was only in March that the world was in meltdown over the release of Chat GPT4 which began the race for regulators to ensure responsible development of AI. Since then the UK hosted the AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park and the EU published the EU AI Safety Act. What’s more, with the publicity nightmare surrounding Sam Altman and the Open AI board, it’s not surprising AI has remained in the public eye all year.

At Carbon Re, we are focusing our machine learning models on addressing the significant carbon emissions from foundational materials like cement, steel and glass. With COP 28 finishing up last week without urgently addressing the need to reduce fossil fuel we, like so many others, are incredibly frustrated and disappointed, but we use this as motivation to continue improving and developing our decarbonisation solution.

With this in mind, I’m delighted to share with you some updates from Carbon Re this last quarter. If you are interested in what we are doing and would like to talk please do reach out.

From Buffy

Interim CEO & Co-founder

Company Milestones

Carbon Re Updates

Our new MQTT data ingestion pipeline was built and launched this quarter.  MQTT is the industry standard for IoT messaging, meaning that with our new pipeline, we will now be able to onboard more customers faster. Additionally, the improved pipeline means that our customers will have access to newer data on the platform as we will be able to update their dashboards more quickly.

Further MLOPS (machine learning operations) development this quarter has led to an improved system for the automated retraining and deployment of our models. Our software’s capability to remotely and automatically retrain our complex models, based on the most recent data and plant state, is an exciting and novel approach to optimisation in the cement industry.

Levers of change: A reference of decarbonisation levers for the cement industry

Earlier this month we released our latest whitepaper, Levers of Change, a blueprint for the stakeholders of the complex cement ecosystem to navigate the regulatory and commercial factors steering decarbonisation efforts in the industry. Download it here.

Evidence presented at the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Artificial Intelligence

At the APPG AI chaired by Lord Clement Jones CBE and Stephen Metcalfe MP, Buffy was asked to present Carbon Re’s work to parliament to explore the immense potential of AI in contributing to the achievement of the globally imperative UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). You can read more about it here.

Increasing alternative fuel use with AI

Exciting progress in our research project, funded by a recent grant, was achieved this quarter as we developed models to predict the risk of blockage events in cement plants and identified the role of harmful chemicals and changing combustion conditions in creating blockages. Cement plants typically see an increase in blockages with the use of alternative fuels (AFs), which limits their use in cement production. As increasing AF use is one of the most feasible, near term solutions to reduce emissions, having an AI tool to assist operators and make predictions to guide usage of AFs will allow the industry to accelerate its decarbonisation progress.

Digitalisation: an important decarbonisation pathway

Recently, we surveyed cement producers globally to understand the progress and goals of the industry regarding digitalisation and decarbonisation. The results showed the industry understands the importance of decarbonising and is actively pursuing technologies that can help achieve these goals. To learn more about the state and opinions of AI and ML in the industry you can see the results here.

New product brochure

Earlier this quarter we published our new product brochure in line with Carbon Re’s new capabilities and the integrations with new customers. For a copy, please send me a message or request a brochure here.

Conferences and events

Conference season was in full swing this quarter with all teams representing Carbon Re. Daniel Summerbell, CSO and co-founder, presented results from our research to an engaged cement industry audience in Istanbul at CemTech Europe and in Dubai at the World Cement Association Annual Conference. Aidan O’Sullivan, CTO and co-founder, presented at the World AI Summit in Amsterdam. Chiara Campagnola, Machine Learning Engineer, captivated viewers globally as she highlighted our work and the opportunity for machine learning to impact climate change in a webinar hosted by Weights & Biases. Buffy also introduced the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, to Carbon Re and our AI decarbonisation platform at a UCLB event in London.

Thank you to everyone who has helped in our development so far this year and we look forward to a positive, carbon-reducing and cost-saving rest of 2023.