Cambridge University and UCL joint spin-out to accelerate roll-out of AI-based industrial decarbonisation technology.

Carbon Re, a climate tech company building state-of-the-art AI to decarbonizs energy-intensive industries, has raised £4.2 million seed funding to scale up development and deployment of its novel technology. Their AI platform enables the highly pollutive cement industry to reduce over 50 kilotonnes of annual CO2 emissions per plant. Each installation of the software saves as much CO2 as taking 11,000 cars off the road.
Energy-intensive industries, such as cement, steel and glass, account for over 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions and are one of the hardest sectors of the economy to decarbonise. The current plan for these industries relies heavily on Carbon Capture and Storage, a technology that will take decades to scale and increases the cost of these fundamental materials by as much as 60%. Carbon Re’s platform, in contrast, is already reducing emissions today, cuts the cost of production, and requires no new equipment.
Planet A Ventures, a Berlin-based green tech venture capital firm led the investment, with follow-on participation from Clean Growth Fund, UCL Technology Fund and Cambridge Enterprise. The new investment will enable product roll-out into the global cement market and expand into other energy-intensive industries, such as steel and glass.
In just two years, Carbon Re’s innovative software is already being used in pilot projects to cut fuel use and CO2 emissions by up to 10% at cement plants in Europe, Asia and the Americas.
Sherif Elsayed-Ali, CEO of Carbon Re said, “At a time of escalating fuel prices and increasing emphasis on CO2 reduction targets, there is an urgent need for action. Carbon Re is connecting the biggest challenge of our time – climate change – with the biggest opportunity – advances in AI. Our cement plant trials have demonstrated that Carbon Re can deliver dramatic CO2 savings on a near-live basis.
“Our platform provides a unique solution for energy-intensive industries that delivers £2 million in fuel cost savings and 50,000 tonnes of CO2 savings per plant. This latest funding round will enable us to accelerate our mission to reduce carbon emissions by gigatonnes every year.”
Carbon Re’s cloud-based platform models the unique production environment of each plant and uses advanced machine learning and AI techniques to achieve previously out-of-reach operational efficiencies. Carbon Re continuously analyses manufacturing data to enable plant operators to optimise production processes on a near-live basis.
Optimal processes can be identified for the lowest possible CO2 output and fuel use, reducing operational costs and carbon emissions to otherwise unachievable levels, with no capital expenditure.
Jan Christoph Gras, General Partner at Planet A, said: “Energy-intensive materials, such as cement and steel, are the backbone of modern economies but they account for more than 20% of global CO2 emissions. Carbon Re’s state-of-the-art AI solution has the potential to tackle some of the toughest challenges on the road to a carbon-neutral future. Starting with fuel efficiency in cement, Carbon Re has the ambition and capability to develop a large portfolio of advanced solutions across multiple industries – and substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

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Editor’s Notes

Carbon Re

Carbon Re is on a mission to reduce carbon emissions by gigatonnes every year through the use of AI technology. Its focus is on energy-intensive industries such as cement, steel and glass, which are responsible for more than 20% of global emissions. Carbon Re’s platform for industrial decarbonisation uses deep learning to enable rapid development and deployment of new low-carbon industrial processes, designs and materials. For more information, visit: www.carbonre.com

Planet A

Planet A is an investment fund partnering with European green tech start-ups that have a significant positive impact on our planet while building scalable businesses globally. Our mission is to contribute to an economy within the planetary boundaries. We support innovation in four key areas: climate mitigation, waste reduction, resource savings and biodiversity protection. First in the European VC world we offer scientific impact assessments to support our investment decisions and empower founders to manage and improve their impact. A wide network of experienced founders and experts support our portfolio companies. Investments include Traceless, Ineratec, C1, GoodCarbon and Makersite.