- Brinc and CO2CRC announce a strategic collaboration offering direct air capture companies in Brinc’s inaugural Climate Tech accelerator program the opportunity to access a globally unique test center to validate their technology
- Alongside direct air capture, Brinc will provide mentorship, funding, and networking opportunities to founders focusing on other permanent removal approaches, utilization opportunities, and enabling technologies
- Applications to Brinc’s Climate Tech Accelerator Program are open now until January 29, 2023
Brinc, a global venture accelerator committed to creating a more sustainable, equitable, and inclusive future, and CO2CRC, a world-leading carbon capture, utilization and storage research organization, announce their strategic collaboration to support global deployment of direct air capture (DAC) at CO2CRC’s Otway International Test Centre (OITC) located in south-west Victoria, Australia.
The collaboration is part of Brinc’s newest 12-week fully-remote Climate Tech Accelerator Program. Scheduled to launch in early 2023, the program focuses on carbon removal technologies and aims to aid the most promising startups in the space from around the world.
From chosen program participants, the top relevant startups will receive support from Brinc to access the OITC to validate their DAC technology over the course of at least a two-month period. Moreover, they will have the option to begin testing during the program or access support up to 12 months after completion. Additionally, Brinc will serve as a pipeline to validate interest in the OITC and streamline access for other eligible startups from the applicant pool.
The program will target startups with a working prototype of their carbon removal technology looking for tailored support in scaling up. This includes connections to relevant mentors and industry experts to address challenges such as IP, supply chain, refining their business model and go-to-market strategies, techno-economic/financial/impact modeling, and pitch preparation. Subsequent to the program, startups will receive ongoing support from Brinc’s portfolio team and be connected to a global network of investors.
Strategic alignment with organizations such as CO2CRC are critical to help startups accelerate commercialization through third-party validation, onsite access for prototype development, and product requirement insights. The OITC offers infrastructure for DAC field testing such as state-of-the-art monitoring systems to ensure safe and permanent storage of CO2 and seven purpose-drilled wells.
DAC, a technology that removes carbon dioxide from the air, is one approach to combating climate change that Brinc has committed to supporting. Brinc also anticipates including permanent carbon dioxide removal (CDR) solutions (such as mineralization, ocean CDR, biomass carbon removal and storage (BiCRS), and biotech CDR) in the program, along with utilization startups (those focused on aviation fuels and building materials), and enabling technologies (such as measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) tools).
DAC is a promising innovation as its limited resource requirements mean plants can be sited almost anywhere. Furthermore, in terms of carbon credit quality, DAC with geological storage can provide permanent removal alongside a MRV process that provides a high-integrity carbon credit. It is estimated that 0.5–5 Gt CO2 per year is a sustainable global removal potential for DAC by 2050.
The OITC has the potential to become a DAC testing and demonstration hub, which would lower barriers to entry through shared infrastructure and accelerate technology deployment by providing verification of key performance metrics in field operations. As a third party, CO2CRC would also be able to audit the approach used by these companies and support their evaluation and certification process. Startups in early technology development, or interested in validating their technology in an alternate geography, stand to benefit from a simplified permitting process. Additionally, startups expanding out of the lab can operate at OITC at the scales necessary to be eligible for submission to the US$100M Carbon Removal X Prize.
Manav Gupta, CEO and Founder of Brinc, said: “Gigaton-scale carbon removal is necessary to reach net zero targets by 2050. There is an urgent need to scale up efforts to reach this goal. Brinc’s new Climate Tech accelerator program is focused on supporting emerging technologies with the resources and a global network to do so. We look forward to seeing what applicants propose to combat this omnipresent issue.”
Dr. Matthias Raab, CEO of CO2CRC, said: “CO2CRC’s Otway International Test Centre is dedicated to demonstrating the environmental integrity of low-emission technologies, such as DAC with geological storage. This exciting partnership will accelerate the development of an essential technology for a net zero future.”
Both Brinc and CO2CRC are active members of the DAC Coalition and committed to increasing global collaboration and deployment to reach gigaton-scale carbon removal.
About Brinc
Headquartered in Hong Kong, Brinc is a leader in global venture acceleration and operates 13 multidisciplinary accelerator programs across seven countries. Brinc accelerates startups focused on blockchain technology, artificial intelligence, connected hardware, robotics, climate tech, clean energy, food technology, and Internet of Things (IoT) with a view to creating a more sustainable, equitable, and inclusive future.
Brinc also supports corporations with investment services, distributed innovation strategies, sourcing of new startups and technologies, as well as venture-building Web3-enabled businesses. Global corporations (Manulife, Huawei, Schneider Electric, Puma, Batelco, Merck, Omantel, Linrun Group, Zhihui Park), government organizations (Hong Kong Science Park, NEOM, MBRIF, Guangdong Soft-tech Park), tertiary institutions (HK City University, National University of Singapore) and leading venture funds (Artesian, LeverVC, Tamkeen, EDB) have all run programs with Brinc. In 2021, Brinc announced a series of venture funds to invest in high-potential early-stage companies through accelerators and provide LPs with a dedicated innovation platform and access to Series A+ co-investment opportunities.
Learn more about Brinc
About CO2CRC
CO2CRC is Australia’s leading carbon capture, utilisation and storage research organisation with over 19 years of experience safely capturing, storing and monitoring CO2. In collaboration with internationally respected industry, academic and government partners CO2CRC delivers low emission technology solutions to the world.
CO2CRC has a successful track record of supporting and developing novel and cost-effective capture and utilization technologies. CO2CRC’s Otway International Test Centre (OITC) is dedicated to delivering innovative research, products and services designed to improve the cost-effectiveness and demonstrate the environmental integrity of CCUS technologies and methodologies including direct air capture (DAC).
Learn more about CO2CRC
