In this interview I’m joined by Sophia Hamblin Wang to discuss the work of MCi Carbon and how they’re offering a path to net zero for some of the hardest to abate industries; by turning CO2 emissions into a core ingredient within a range of materials applications.
It’s a little different for us to turn our attention to industry but there’s a beautiful parallel to regenerative agriculture here. We’re shifting to see CO2 as an asset; that feeds our plants, or in this case could build our homes.
We hear a lot of noise about the need to meet net zero targets in the near future, but for many industries there simply isn’t a clear path to getting there.
MCi are looking to change that with a particular focus on difficult to abate yet heavily depended upon sectors including steel, cement and mining. As a pathway to transition to a greener future they’re utilising technology to speed up mineral carbonation.
As a natural process CO2 becomes bound and locked into rocks over timeframes of hundreds of millions of years.
You can learn more about it in this episode on accelerated mineral weathering with Kelly Erhart.
But within their engineering plants MCi are speeding the process up to mere minutes!
They can take flue gas emissions and bring that CO2 into a circular economy by utilising it as a significant ingredient within a wide range of materials, including high value plasterboards and cements and concrete.
This is intentionally highly scalable and designed to work with industrial partners to build out localised, circular, industrial ecosystems. And it’s all motivated by profitable models without the need to lean on carbon credits or subsidies.
There’s a huge amount of potential here and it was a great pleasure to dive into the details with Sophia!
