You can’t read an article or turn on the news without hearing about AI at the moment. Chat-GPT, Bard, new Bing, Midjourney have all entered mainstream discussion, almost overnight. And just last week more than 1,000 tech leaders including Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak signed an open letter calling for the development of AI tools like these to be paused while society catches up with their profound impacts and implications. And it is right to be cautious – there’s already too much misinformation in the world and we need to guard against generative AI systems flooding the internet with more.
 

But, these language and image platforms are not representative of all AI. There are many other areas where AI is starting to make serious inroads. The complex data modelling and simulations enabled by AI allow us to address some of the fundamental challenges facing us. At Carbon Re, we are harnessing the power of AI and machine learning to reduce carbon emissions from the production of ‘foundational’ materials like cement, steel and glass (and save producers millions of dollars along the way).
 

And looking into the future, we are convinced that the application of AI to the physical sciences has the potential to help us gain new understandings of scientific principles, develop new technologies and novel materials as part of a zero carbon future. Yet, in discussions about AI, these applications are often overlooked.
 

While we’re taking a long-term view about how AI can positively change our world, we’re rapidly building Carbon Re and I’m delighted to be able to send you an update about some of the things we’ve been focusing on in the first quarter of 2023. Thanks for reading and please do get in touch if you would like to talk.
 

From Sherif

CEO & Co-founder

Company Milestones

Identifying the most impactful technologies

In February we released our whitepaper ‘Three technologies to reduce climate change’. The report built on the findings from research we conducted with a materials engineer at the University of Oxford, which assessed 20 technologies related to the decarbonization of cement production and focused on those with potential to make an impact in the next decade. The research identified 13 existing technologies that can be implemented today to reduce carbon emissions by 0.8 gigatonnes per year. Of these, 3 technologies, substitution cementitious materials, alternative fuels and AI-powered process improvements, provided over 80% of the impact. The research was well received by the cement industry and the media and a follow-up piece was featured in Forbes.

More features for Delta Zero®

The engineering team have been hard at work delivering new features, and have released a new pre-calciner temperature recommendation system. This is an important upgrade that will deliver fuel savings for our customers, lowering their operating costs and CO2 emissions.

We’ve also rolled out our new webhook integratIons. This allows us to send recommendations directly to a plant’s control systems so that we can make smaller, more frequent changes to the kiln’s operating state.
 

New partnership to accelerate cement decarbonization

Our strategic partnership with cement manufacturing consulting firm A³&Co.® was announced in February. A³&Co.® has a team of cement industry experts offering advisory services ranging from Strategic Business Consulting and project management to their globally unique concept solution of Digital Maturity, with a key focus on sustainability. This strategic partnership with A³&Co.® will enable even more cement producers to benefit from the operational savings offered by AI as they tackle the challenge of cutting carbon emissions and rising fuel prices.

Industry experts join the team

Our rapidly expanding team is nearly bursting at the seams as we welcomed four new employees. Marta Gonzalez Ferrero, ex MADE.com and Huddle, joins us as a Product Manager following an extensive career in software engineering with 20+ years of experience in both quality assurance and product management. Enrico Graziani, a hydrographic surveyor turned software engineer, from the BBC and Cazoo, joins our software engineering team with a passion for creating innovative solutions. Eva El Ali a doctoral researcher at the UCL Energy Research Institute, has also joined the team as a part-time research intern. Santiago Ruesta Teran joins us as a consultant Vice President of Sales, from an extensive career in the cement and mining industries. Having spent over 20 years working globally for industry leaders such as Lafarge, Holcim, thyssenkrupp and FLSmidth, Santiago brings a wealth of industry experience to the team.

Machine learning team on site

A subset of the machine learning team were thrilled to be given a private tour of Breedon Hope Cement Works in Derbyshire. While the ML team benefits from our internal industry knowledge from the cement industry experts working across our product and sales teams, being able to visit a plant and talk directly to the professionals we are building our products for, has immense value.

Carbon Re cements its global presence

The year has started off with a bang with the Carbon Re team attending events across the globe including CemTech MEA in Dubai, the UK Innovate Foundation Industries programme to India, Global CemProducers in Munich and Decarb Catalyst, the Norway-UK Business Summit, and AI UK in London.

Buffy Price, COO and co-founder, was invited to represent the UK tech community at a Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Select Committee meeting where she made a number of proposals as to how the UK government could help nurture and grow the UK tech industry and become global leader in climate tech.

Articulating our purpose, vision and mission

We’ve spent time as a team this quarter setting out our core ‘DNA’ that will take Carbon Re forward as a business. Our four founders were passionate about establishing a successful business that can create a real, measurable impact on climate change and our purpose, vision and mission are the result of that passion.

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.