Australian-founded startup KC8 Capture Technologies has raised $10 million to accelerate the deployment of its carbon capture technology to critical and hard-to-abate industries.
The funding round was led by local and global leaders in energy, construction and chemical manufacturing including Woodside Energy, Cemex Ventures, and a major petrochemical company.
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Founded in 2021, KC8 provides essential, yet hard to decarbonise, industries such as cement, steel, power generation and chemical production with a lower-cost, and lower potential environmental impact CO2 capture technology compared to conventional amine-based processes.
Its technology can capture up to 95% of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from heavy industrial sources at a capital cost up to 50% lower than amine-based solutions and at an improved energy efficiency of up to 15%.
Traditionally, the Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) industry uses amine-based solvents on these hard-to-abate industries. KC8 has developed a proprietary non-toxic solvent that’s derived from a naturally-occurring material. This allows KC8’s technology to treat low pressure, high volumes exhaust gases at lower cost to help these industries meet their net zero targets.
Woodside vice president carbon solutions Jayne Baird said KC8 technology had the potential to assist Woodside’s efforts to reduce emissions from its operations.
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“As a global energy company, we understand the need to innovate and develop efficient and cost-effective ways to produce safe, lower carbon, affordable and reliable energy through the energy transition,” she said.
“We want to ensure we enable the technological innovation required to do this.”
