Carbon Ridge raises $9.5M to accelerate onboard CCS commercialization

Carbon Ridge says its onboard carbon capture and storage technology allows for non-disruptive integration to vessel exhaust systems and enables up to a 75% reduction in process equipment size and volume

Los Angeles-headquartered onboard carbon capture and storage (CCS) start-up Carbon Ridge Inc. reports that it has raised $9.5 million in funding, bringing its total funding to date to $15.5 milliom. The round was led by Crosscut Ventures and Western Technology Investment (WTI), with participation from existing investors the Grantham Foundation, Berge Bulk, Rusheen Capital Management and Plug and Play Ventures. Katapult Ocean, Incite, Spitzer Industries and Canopy Generation Funds also participated in the round.

With this investment, Carbon Ridge will advance the commercial demonstration of its patent-pending onboard carbon capture & storage solution (OCCS).

As we reported at the time, in December of last year, with support from MARAD’s Maritime Environmental and Technical Assistance (META) program, Crowley and Carbon Ridge initiated an advanced, pilot project to reduce emissions impacts using the Crowley containership Storm, which serves the U.S. and the Caribbean Basin.

The companies and MARAD have executed a cooperative agreement for the pilot program to operate, measure and optimize the Carbon Ridge technology’s effectiveness in actual maritime environments at port and ultimately at sea. The collaboration includes the engineering, manufacturing and integration of a small capacity version of Carbon Ridge’s full-scale carbon capture system.

Carbon Ridge’s system uses a novel reactor designed for process intensification of carbon capture, enabling a 75% reduction in footprint when compared to conventional CO2 capture technologies while limiting additional energy consumption to <5%. In addition to capturing CO2, Carbon Ridge’s OCCS technology eliminates over 99.9% of particulate, NOx and SOx emissions. It says that this performance translates into an ~5x cost reduction versus alternative fuels such as methanol and ammonia.

Carbon Ridge notes that technology allows for non-disruptive integration to vessel exhaust systems, enables up to a 75.0% reduction in process equipment size and volume in comparison to conventional CCS technologies, and is designed for the rigor of commercial maritime operations. In addition to its onboard OCCS technology, Carbon Ridge provides an end-to-end decarbonization solution for its shipping customers, including CO2 transportation, sequestration and credit monetization.

“With ever more apparent cost and supply limitations of alternative clean fuels for shipping, onboard carbon capture is critical for the global maritime industry to decarbonize,” said Carbon Ridge founder and CEO Chase Dwyer. “Carbon Ridge has developed the most modular, low cost and operationally efficient carbon capture solution in the market to address current and future decarbonization targets. We are thrilled to welcome Crosscut Ventures, WTI and the other new investors to the company, and are appreciative of the continued participation of our existing investors.”

“Carbon Ridge exemplifies our climate tech thesis: find world class management working to solve the most pressing problems contributing to climate change,” said Rick Smith, co-founder & managing director at Crosscut Ventures. “The company’s ingenious solution to nearly eliminate emissions from large maritime vessels is tackling head-on one of the main sources of man-made carbon emissions in a cost-effective manner.”

“At RCM, we continue to believe that the most capital efficient method for CO2 reduction in the maritime industry is via post-combustion capture and storage. Carbon Ridge’s OCCS technology is by far the most manufacturable, easily integrated and therefore cost-effective solution being developed,” said Jim McDermott, co-founder & managing partner at Rusheen Capital Management.