Dartmouth’s CarbonCure featured on CNBC’s Sustainable Energy program

Dartmouth, Nova Scotia’s CarbonCure has been featured in a report on CNBC’s Sustainable Energy, allowing CEO Robert Niven to highlight his company’s carbon sequestration technology for the concrete industry to a general interest TV audience.

The report points out that concrete is a heavy contributor to global carbon emissions, a problem that CarbonCure helps solve not only by making the concrete making process itself cleaner, but also by infusing concrete with CO2 captured from other industrial processes.

“When making cement you start with limestone: that limestone is crushed and heated in a kiln well over 1,000 degrees,” said Niven. “Every molecule of limestone is actually broken in half. One half forms clinker, which is cement, and the other half is released into the air to cause climate change through the release of CO2.”

CarbonCure’s technology uses carbon dioxide gas captured from industry, from smokestacks or industrial emissions, and then chemically converts it into mineral form at which point it is permanently stored inside the concrete, with the added side effect that it reinforces the material.

“We actually use CO2, which is normally a greenhouse gas, and put that to work by injecting it into concrete manufacturing,” said Niven. “The ultimate goal for CarbonCure is to be part of the solution to provide a net zero carbon concrete. We actually want to make a concrete that heals rather than harms the environment.”

CarbonCure’s technology is a double stroke of genius in that it solves an industrial problem for companies looking to lower their CO2 generation footprint by injecting it into concrete, which also happens to make the concrete stronger and more durable.

Earlier this week, Charlotte, North Carolina’s Concrete Supply Co. announced that it would be adopting CarbonCure’s Ready Mixed Technology, joining what is becoming a long list of concrete producer partners, including New York’s Superior Block Corp. and Cind-R Lite from Las Vegas.

In an article called “How to Make Carbon Pay”, CarbonCure was profiled by Alberta Oil magazine as part of the larger drive to lower the carbon footprint of industrial processes.

CarbonCure raised a seed round of $1.6 million led by Innovacorp in early 2012, followed by a $3.5 million round led by BDC Ventures in December 2013, and finally a $3 million round led by Pangea Ventures in May 2015, preferring growth through sales to capital investment.