Shell, Eni Invest in Carbon Capture Tech Using Molten Borates

Shell plc and Eni SPA are investing in a new carbon capture firm with technology that uses molten borates.

Mantel Capture, Inc. has raised $30 million in Series A funding co-led by Shell Ventures and Eni Next, the Boston-based company said in a news release. Additional participating investors include Engine Ventures, New Climate Ventures, Hartree, bp Ventures, Arosa Ventures, Vale Ventures, Newlab, and MCJ Collective.

The funding will be used to implement a demonstration project at an industrial site and help pave the way for full-scale commercial deployment of Mantel’s high-temperature carbon capture systems, according to the release.

Mantel said its technology has already demonstrated carbon capture at lab scale of half a metric ton per day, and the upcoming project will be around 10 times larger, rated to capture 1,800 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per year at an industrial site.

Mantel leverages molten borates, the only high-temperature liquid-phase carbon capture material, to capture CO2 at the source of emission. By operating at high temperatures Mantel’s systems recover high-grade heat when capturing CO2, offsetting the energy necessary to regenerate the molten borate material, according to the release.

The process enables Mantel to capture CO2 from industrial emissions efficiently, reducing capture costs by more than half compared to conventional amine-based carbon capture technologies, which helps render installing Mantel’s carbon capture technology at heavy industry sites economically feasible. As more carbon capture equipment is installed, it is expected that this will prompt more investment in infrastructure, further driving down costs of carbon capture, transport and storage, the company said.

“With support from both investors and industry leaders, we are eager to showcase the effectiveness of Mantel’s technology across industrial applications and demonstrate its potential to be the lowest cost pathway to net zero emissions for our industrial customers,” Mantel Co-Founder and CEO Cameron Halliday said. “This investment enables us to transition from lab-pilot success to working with customers to design and prepare for the deployment of full-scale commercial projects”.

“Shell Ventures is pleased to support Mantel and the development of its innovative carbon capture technology,” Hector MacQuarrie, Principal at Shell Ventures, said. “We believe carbon capture and storage offers a way to reduce emissions, especially for hard-to-abate sectors. However, for widespread adoption of carbon capture to be feasible, it must be cost effective. Mantel’s innovative solution has the potential to significantly lower carbon capture costs and can be applied across diverse sectors, including natural gas power plants and hard-to-abate industries like cement, steel and chemicals”.

“For Eni Next, carbon capture and storage is a key lever for the energy transition. Mantel's technology offers the potential to significantly decrease the cost of capture thanks to its innovative solvent. Making carbon capture affordable is key to its deployment across hard-to-abate industries,” Eni Next CEO Clara Andreoletti said. “Eni Next is looking forward to teaming up with Mantel to make it a success”.

“Point source carbon capture is a critical piece to cost-effectively decarbonize heavy industry,” Michael Kearney, Mantel Board Member and General Partner at Engine Ventures, said. “With new capital and commercial opportunities emerging across the world, Mantel is positioned to rapidly scale its low-cost carbon capture technology”.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates 2030 carbon capture capacities will only amount to 40 percent of the 2050 Net Zero Emissions target of capturing and storing 1 gigaton of CO2 each year. Far more carbon capture deployments are needed to achieve this target, Mantel stressed.

Mantel was founded in 2022 by Halliday, Danielle Rapson, and Sean Robertson as a spin out from the Hatton Research Group in MIT’s Department of Chemical Engineering. The same year, the company raised a $2 million seed round and joined the Breakthrough Energy Fellows program.

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