Bloomineral

CCU SCIENCE I Exploring CO₂ Mineralisation: A Scalable Path to Net-Negative Emissions   Recent research published in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Energy & Environmental Science Journal closes a critical gap by conducting an in-depth techno-economic analysis of permanent CO₂ storage via mineralisation processes, robust and scalable technologies for emission reduction, avoidance, carbon dioxide removal (CDR) when CO₂ is captured from biogenic sources or the atmosphere.     The study co-authored by our Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) member Christian Breyer examines three main pathways: Ex-situ mineralisation (#CCU), in situ mineralisation (CCS); and enhanced rock weathering. The deployment potentials are mapped globally across nine regions, highlighting mineralisation's feasibility as a long-term CDR solution for net-negative emissions.   Summary of Findings   🔵 Results indicate that costs for all mineralisation options can be kept below 100 EUR per tCO₂ from 2050. From 2030 onwards, in situ mineralisation, with low energy intensity, can be realised at a cost of 131 EUR per tCO₂ , ex-situ mineralisation at 189EUR per tCO₂ , and enhanced weathering at 88EUR per tCO₂. The final energy demand for CO₂ sequestration via in situ mineralisation is 1.8 MWh per tCO₂, via ex-situ mineralisation 3.7 MWh per tCO₂, and via enhanced weathering 1.1 MWh per tCO₂ from 2030.   With falling costs and advancements in renewable energy, CO₂ mineralisation could provide up to 60% of necessary CDR by 2070, requiring modest GDP contributions (~0.06–0.21%) and additional primary energy (~2.5–8.6%).   As we strive for ambitious climate targets, CO₂ mineralisation stands as a viable solution to ensure safe, permanent, and scalable atmospheric carbon sequestration.   Find the paper at https://bit.ly/40Xhsva.

💚 🏭  How can carbon dioxide removal (#CDR) help clean up one of the world’s dirtiest industries? 🏭💚 🤯 Cement accounts for 8% of global emissions. We produce a staggering 4,000,000,000 tons of it every year, making it the most widely used human-made material in the world. 👷 Last week I gathered with industry leaders in Madrid as part of the 2024 #CarbonZero conference to better understand where the industry stands and what role CDR can play in decarbonising it. It was so refreshing to attend an event where I did not know anyone, and where almost no one had heard of CDR. Here my key takeaways: 📈 Demand for cement is only going up, all over the world, particularly driven by the demand for AI data centers, which are huge concrete constructions popping up everywhere. 😱 The sector is already highly regulated by emission trading systems (#ETS). There was visible shock and anger at projections of the EU ETS price going from currently €70/t to around €150/t in 2030, €250 in 2035, and up to €400/t in 2040. CDR at €150-€200/t could be a competitive game changer to stabilise prices in this regard. ⚠️ Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is insanely expensive, almost doubling the CAPEX cost of a new facility at $400m/unit. It seems like there won’t be a business case for it in cement production for a while. 💩 Biochar carbon removal (#BCR) was seen as the biggest opportunity, given the massive amounts of waste biomass available in some of these supply chains. In Pakistan alone, I was told there are over 500Mt of manure waste / year - what an opportunity for BCR! 🛑 The Global South will be hit hardest by increased carbon taxes/prices. Countries such as Turkey (the world’s largest exporter of cement) might be unable to cope with carbon import taxes rising by 4-10x. While carbon taxes are the way forward, we need to plan for negative externalities on some of the world’s most vulnerable. ➡ Overall, it became very clear to me that the sector can only do so much to decarbonise. There will be significant residual emissions. Cement companies risk losing both their social license to operate and their business case if they do not embrace CDR soon. 🌟 I personally gave an intro into CDR, the market and policy, as well as highlighting the important work done by Carbonfuture, Paebbl, neustark, and ecoLocked as great examples of partners for this industry. 🙏  Special thanks to the Industry Link team around Beatrice Ene, Mai Elsomkhraty, Lobna Maged, Eyad Alenani, and Adrian Ene for putting this event together - I had learnt a lot! What is your take? How can and will the cement industry decarbonise? #netzero #carbonremoval

🚀 Announcing Cohort 7 of our Europe CDR Startup #Accelerator Program 🚀 We are thrilled to kick-off the latest cohort of remove's Foundations program and onboard a new set of promising Europe-based CDR #startups! These teams are raising the bar every cohort. The quality of applications we received over the last couple of months is a testament to the fact that this industry is maturing and we are excited to be supporting the key actors driving #carbon removal forward. After careful consideration in a competitive process, our jury of experts selected 20 teams to join us on this journey. 👏 Congratulations to: SuperDAC (Silvia Pugliese), Bloomineral, Residual (Ted Christie-Miller & Laura Fritsch), Porelio, Artio, X-SAF (Benjamin Schulz), Kumo, UAP | Atmosphere Engineering, Bluelotus.solutions, biodiversityX, neo-fossil, Atmosfuture Limited, OXO Earth, Deep Blue BioTech, Bigfoot, Nina.Energy, AEROC, Pyrogen, BCHAR on their selection! We are looking forward to working with this new and exciting group of startups, supporting them with training, 1-on-1 coaching, connections to experts, buyers, investors, other #CDR ecosystem stakeholders, non-dilutive #funding and more. remove is the premier accelerator program focused solely on CDR in Europe and India and we are supported by incredible founding partners: The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, Carbon Removal Partners, and The DOEN Foundation.

MEET OUR ADVISORS: Caroline Thaler, PhD, is an elected board member of AFEN, the French Association of Negative Emissions (the French CDR association). Caroline has over a decade of academic experience specializing in CO2 mineralization and biomineralization. She is the CEO of Bloomineral, a pioneering CDR startup that biomineralizes CO2 into minerals to replace cement. Bloomineral is hosted at the prestigious French Environment and Climate Science Laboratory, home to IPCC experts in Saclay, France. Caroline holds a PhD in biogeochemistry from Université de Paris and a master’s degree in biogeosciences from Université Paris cité. Her work is at the forefront of integrating cutting-edge science with practical solutions to combat climate change while accelerating the transition of hard to abate sectors to carbon negative processes. Caroline's expertise spans CO2 mineralization and geological storage, geochemistry, construction materials decarbonation, and marine biology.

🌻The drop had a strong focus on CDR (Carbon Dioxide Removal) 👓I believe I haven't yet lost my geochemist’s perspective, and I wanted to share with you three numbers that caught my attention 🥸 💯 Million 🎯 Two years ago, there weren’t many investors daring to talk about 100 million tons, instead of 1 billion tons, as the target for each CDR startup. However, just like industries that produce billions of tons of materials (cement, steel, etc.), a single CDR approach on the scale of gigatons could have negative effects by relying on only one type of resource 😶 💪The Drop 2024 showed that these conversations are now more common—discussing how to design a real CDR ecosystem! 🌍A healthy ecosystem is defined in ecology: It consists of multiple niches, each filled by variations of the same function. This type of ecosystem is less resource-depleting. So, be proud to advocate for 100 million tons—it’s not because a tech could reach 1Gt that it should ⚖️ 🏭 3 🧑🏭 like in scope 3-related CDR—basically, carbon-negative materials or chemicals that are useful for industry—was a major focus. This complements the former SBTI (Science-Based Targets Initiative) approach of "reduction first, removal after." The promises are twofold: ✴️Reducing the industry's carbon footprint by no longer using carbon-intensive raw materials but using carbon negative ones instead ✳️Insetting (rather than offsetting) the remaining carbon footprint—this could automatically target CDR efforts toward hard-to-abate emissions. As we say at Bloomineral : "Reduction first, removal in the meantime !" 🌊0.002🌊 This is roughly the level of alkalinity in seawater, 2.2 mmol/L... an utterly useless piece of information... or maybe not? I found it interesting that no one asks about alkalinity anymore: —"What is alkalinity?" "What do you mean by alkalinity?" —you just never hear these questions anymore! 😑 I might be a bad example, but it took me more than 5 years in academia to even partially grasp the concept of alkalinity. I fear that newcomers may no longer dare to ask...😶🌫️ Did you know that switching from oxic to anoxic conditions can lead to increased alkalinity? Did you know that photosynthesis removes CO₂, lowers dissolved inorganic carbon, but barely affects alkalinity? NEVER stop asking about alkalinity, and thanks Pale blue dot for a great event!

😎We caught the attention of the french press with Bloomineral ! 📰 🗞️Our industry and technology specialized journal "Usine Nouvelle" published an article about our technology to decarbonize the construction industry. https://lnkd.in/eQ6t-s9Q 🏭 The readers might be in contact with the word "Biomineralization" for the industry for the first time, and that's definitely a big win ! 💪 Let's change our vision of what is bioproduction, still interesting molecules, still carbon in it, but not something we should burn or eat as it's billions of year permanent 🤩 (3.4 Billions to be precise 😉)

🌍 My first Climate tech conference! 🌎 Next week, I'll be attending the Drop 🌋 Some of you already reached out ✋but for those I never met I'll be super happy to connect in real life 😍 Please come say hi if you're interested by what we are building at Bloomineral as well as with Association Française pour les Emissions Négatives (AFEN) or if you want to have a nerd conversation about alkalinity 😜 💎At Bloomineral, we’re building an innovative solution to decarbonize the construction industry through biomineralization, turning cement into an atmospheric carbon sink and reducing emissions. 🎙 With AFEN, we’re pushing for greater adoption of CDR across industries in France. Tagging my Marble friends that will probably be around! Jerome Unidad, Silvia Pugliese, Sébastien Fiedorow, Benjamin Tincq Jonny Everett #TheDrop #ClimateTech #Biomineralization #AFEN #NetZero2050

🌳CDR and Common Goods🐿️ Let's not hide it; there are certain approaches to CDR that are harder for us—and the public—to accept. We feel a kind of discomfort 🙈 These techniques often rely on the irreversible dispersion of something into an open system 🤔 🪣Something into the sea, rivers (with Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement - OAE), into fields, into forests (with Enhanced Rock Weathering - ERW, biochar burial). ❤️🩹We mustn't deny or ignore this discomfort; it's reasonable and has a solid foundation: ⛑️ We want to protect our common goods 🌳🐿️🐚 The sky, the sea, soils—they are our common goods. It's NORMAL to want to protect them 🪖 Human activities have always affected our common goods—fishing 🛥️, for example, the use of pesticides🪳, air pollution from cars🚙, and sometimes recreational activities in nature🚠... So, tampering with our common goods is not something we reject on principle. There's a benefit/risk balance to consider ⚖️ So, what can we do? Understand ! 🔭☝️✨ Our problem isn't that these activities "touch" our common goods; our problem is that we want to avoid three things: 1. Avoid that our activities directly harm our common goods ❤️🩹 2. Avoid that changes in the state of these common goods (not necessarily in a bad way—think of a meadow turning into a forest, for example) indirectly have negative consequences 🐸 3. Avoid that the exploitation of these common goods generates a benefit (including climate benefits) that is unfairly distributed 💼 💪To address this, we need to ensure that CDR practices meet these criteria: 🔍Anticipate all impacts🔍(not just positive, not just negative—all impacts) that CDR might have. ▶️This is done by involving independent, high-quality research alongside startup initiatives, and by having carbon credit purchase platforms that seriously study life cycle analyses. 🏕️Leave the place in a better state than we found it🏕️(like the Scouts 😊—those who spent their summers camping like me will remember this phrase). ▶️This is the very principle of CDR, as we are addressing a climate problem. But it also stems from the fact that there is almost always a co-benefit to the practice of CDR. 🌊OAE reduces ocean acidity 🌾 ERW provides decarbonized nutrients to soils 🦠biochar can help the soil microbiome develop. 🤔I personally even wonder if we should focus exclusively on CDR with co-benefits...and this can even apply to DAC! Imagine if the installation of a DAC project was always accompanied by a local community electrification/renewable energy transition project ✨ 🤝Ensure a fair sharing of benefits🤝 ▶️This is where carbon accounting policies must be rigorous. It's also where financial benefit rules should be set, taking into account the financial risks involved, yes, but also the historical ownership of the resources. ✋🏻Who else feels this discomfort ?

💫 What is the next major innovation in MRV (Measurement, Reporting, and Verification) for mineralization processes? At first glance, isn't verifying CO2 mineralization straightforward? We just count the rocks, right? ⚖️ No we don't 🤓 In reality, this mineralization occurs in an alkaline environment that likely already captured and mineralized CO2 🪨 Therefore, it will be necessary to measure what solely formed during the the climate tech process and thus verify the additionality of the climate tech process compared to what would have happened naturally.🪨🪨 It is also possible that seawater is used. In this case, it will be necessary to distinguish between minerals formed from CO2 captured from the atmosphere + new cations, versus carbonates already present in seawater. Again, if I precipitate carbonates already present in seawater with calcium already present in seawater, without restoring alkalinity: 0 additionality, and on the contrary, CO2 is emitted 💀(see my previous posts). So, are we doomed to track every CO2 molecule? 🔎 Do we have to measure everything continuously? Accumulate data, store it, process it with AI... in short, consume data?💻💾💿 💡Not necessarily 💡 Any technology that generates a product—in our case a mineral... can use methods to analyze these products and deduce the conditions under which they were formed. If we need to check if food is contaminated by bacteria, we cannot always check if standards were followed during its production... No, we take a sample and measure its bacterial content. 🦠🧫 The same goes for identifying fraudulent aromas or wines 🍷with the wrong origin 🌎 Products carry chemical signatures of the processes that formed them, we "just" need to decrypt them 👨💻 For carbonates, we have a secret weapon: 70 years of geochemical composition analysis of carbonates formed on Earth, to determine their formation conditions 🧑🏫. --> The pH, temperature, salinity, alkalinity, DIC concentration, precipitation rate, source of CO2... Each different mineralization process will have its own signatures, and calibrations will need to be done, just like we did for so many different microfossils...🐚 We're talking here about the possibility of verifying, retrospectively, the "carbon-negative" nature of a mineral formed by a particular process compared to a similar but less effective one, with just a single sample 🤯 ...and even 10 million years after their formation if we want 😂 I believe that all carbonate geochemists working in climate tech today are clearing the path 👏 Let's check back in 10 years to see the results 🤓