Carbonaide raises 1.8M euros to make manufacturing concrete carbon negative

Carbonaide, a spin-off of VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, has raised 1.8 million euros ($1.9 million) in seed funding to go toward its technology designed to enable the manufacturing of carbon-negative concrete. The funding round, led by Lakan Betoni and Vantaa Energy, was completed with public loans and in-kind contributions from Business Finland and other Finnish concrete companies and investors.

The company will use the funding to integrate its CO₂ curing technology into an automated production line at its precast concrete factory in Hollola, Finland. With its factory-sized pilot unit and fully operational value chain, Carbonaide says it can mineralize up to 5 tons of CO₂ per day and increase production by 100-fold of its carbon-negative concrete products.

The concrete industry is responsible for 8 percent of global CO₂ emissions, with most of the emissions originating from portland cement manufacturing, according to the company. Carbonaide says 1 metric ton of ordinary portland cement creates from 800 to 900 kilograms (1,760 to 1,980 pounds) of CO₂ emissions.

Carbonaide’s technology is based on a carbonation method that binds carbon dioxide into precast concrete using an automated system at atmospheric pressure. The company says its technology can halve the CO₂ emissions of traditional portland cement concrete by reducing the required cement content and mineralizing CO₂ into concrete.

When industrial byproducts like industry slags, green liquor dregs and bio ash are used in the binding process instead of normal cement, the result is concrete with a negative carbon footprint. In the process, CO₂ permanently is stored and removed from the carbon cycle.

“We have demonstrated in the pilot unit that our technology is capable of reducing the CO₂ emissions of conventional concrete by 45 percent,” Carbonaide CEO Tapio Vehmas says. “Last autumn, we demonstrated lowering our products’ carbon footprint to less than 60 kilograms (less than 132 pounds) per cubic meter by replacing portland cement with slag. Our first pilot unit had limited capacity, so we’re grateful to our investors for the chance to upscale our technology to a factory-sized pilot and demonstrate the technology full scale.”

With governments introducing taxes, emission trading mechanisms and renewable energy targets and consumers willing to pay a premium for low-carbon products, material producers and construction companies have recognized the need to comply with the new market situation.

“As innovations take ground, the demand for low-carbon products will likely increase,” says Juho Hiltunen, CEO of Joensuu, Finland-based Lakan Betoni Oy, one of the concrete companies that invested in Carbonaide. “New technologies, such as Carbonaide, provide the means for the industrial-scale production of affordable low-carbon products.”

Carbonaide’s vision is to open 10 operational facilities in Northern Europe by 2026 and bind approximately 500 megatons of CO₂ annually by 2050, corresponding to from 10 percent to 20 percent of the concrete market.

The project has been part of VTT LaunchPad, a science-based spin-off incubator where VTT researchers and technology are brought together with “the best business minds and investors out there” to renew industries, Carbonaide says. VTT LaunchPad supports incubator teams to develop VTT-owned intellectual property rights into fundable spin-off companies.