carbon utilization

Today’s guest is Moji Karimi, CEO and Co-Founder of Cemvita Factory. 

Cemvita Factory’s mission is to deploy nature-inspired economical technology to empower the energy transition and create a brighter future. This is done by a portfolio of industrial biotechnology solutions across Cemvita’s three verticals: CO2-based biomanufacturing, biomining, and subsurface biomanufacturing. On the surface, it sounds like the company is tackling an impossible number of initiatives for an early stage startup, but that’s part of the excitement of what's happening in synthetic biology right now. Cemvita’s de-siloed and deverticalized approach to innovation requires cross-functional expertise and problem solving. 

Moji and Cody have a great discussion about biomining for lithium and copper, subsurface biochemical production, including gold hydrogen, and biomanufacturing of waste carbon dioxide into other end products. Plus they talk about the different use cases as businesses, and Cemvita Factory's cross-disciplinary approach to innovation. Solving climate change requires new ways of thinking, and Moji’s background and work at Cemvita is an excellent example of this. 

In today’s episode, we cover: 

• [5:35] An overview of Cemvita Factory and the company's origin
• [8:35] How Moji transitioned from deep space exploration into working on energy 
• [10:32] Meaning of biomimicry 
• [12:28] Cemvita's go-to-market applications 
• [17:26] Use cases for biomining and issues with lithium extraction today 
• [19:27] An overview of leaching 
• [24:17] Risky byproducts associated with using microbes and biomaterials for extraction
• [27:28] An overview of subsurface biomanufacturing and gold hydrogen 
• [34:05] An overview of carbon biomanufacturing and how it can generate sustainable aviation fuel 
• [41:54] An overview of renewable natural gas
• [45:24] How Cemvita's different pathways are interconnected 
• [50:50] How Cemvita is sourcing solutions 

Get connected: 
Cody's Twitter
MCJ Podcast Twitter
MCJ Collective Twitter

*You can also reach us via email at info@mcjcollective.com, where we encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.

Episode recorded on August 8, 2022.

Get connected with MCJ: 

• Jason Jacobs X / LinkedIn
• Cody Simms X / LinkedIn
• MCJ Podcast / Collective / YouTube

*If you liked this episode, please consider giving us a review! You can also reach us via email at content@mcjcollective.com, where we encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.

Today's guest is Marcius Extavour, Chief Scientist, Executive Vice President Energy and Climate at XPRIZE.

XPRIZE is a global future positive movement of over a million people and rising. They are a trusted, proven platform for impact that leverages the power of competition to catalyze innovation and accelerate a more hopeful future by incentivizing radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity. The organization began supporting climate projects with a $20 million prize for breakthrough technologies to convert CO2 emissions into usable products. Now, they’re hosting their largest prize initiative in history funded by Elon Musk and the Musk Foundation, and awarding $100 million for Carbon Removal solutions.

This episode covers XPRIZE’s mission, how they decide on and evaluate competitions, key takeaways from their climate prize experiences, and how they measure success. We also dig into some of the nuances of the carbon removal conversation, how Marcius deals with naysayers, and why he focuses on solving the climate crisis instead of punishing polluters. 

Enjoy the show!

You can find me on Twitter @jjacobs22  (me), @mcjpod (podcast) or @mcjcollective (company). You can reach us via email at info@mcjcollective.com, where we encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.

Episode recorded July 1, 2022.

In today’s episode, we cover: 

• An overview of XPRIZE and the organization came to be
• XPRIZE's model expansion over time 
• Where XPRIZE's money comes from 
• How the org's external partnerships help XPRIZE support an innovative ecosystem
• Marcius' climate journey and background in academia, utility, policy, and fundraising
• An overview of the AAAS Science & Technology Fellowship Program
• Characteristics XPRIZE uses to determine where prizes can be helpful, including impact, an identifiable problem, public awareness, and a specific and measurable goal 
• Differences between short and long-term impact 
• The NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE and key takeaways from the competition
• How XPRIZE started to explore climate topics 
• The moral hazard argument 
• XPRIZE Carbon Removal, the org's largest incentive prize in history with Elon Musk and the Musk Foundation
• How Marcius responds to critics 
• XPRIZE's plans to improve CDR measurements
• Differences between measurement processes and tooling across solutions MRV 
• 3 evaluation factors, including operational performance, cost, and scalability 
• Marcius' predictions for how CDR can develop 
• His thoughts on the role of voluntary and compliance markets 
• Marcius' stance on whether we should punish polluters or focus on solving the climate problem
• How people can get involved with XPRIZE and the org's new Carbon Removal cohort
• The community's role in moving things forward, growing globally, and maintaining inclusivity

Get connected with MCJ: 

• Jason Jacobs X / LinkedIn
• Cody Simms X / LinkedIn
• MCJ Podcast / Collective / YouTube

*If you liked this episode, please consider giving us a review! You can also reach us via email at content@mcjcollective.com, where we encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.

What does it take to turn an idea that could help fight climate change into a self-sustaining business? We often hear the glamorous stories of startups that have made it, but little about the struggles, the learning, and the luck required to get there.

Pol Knops, Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Green Minerals, joined Climate Now to share his ongoing journey to design, develop and market a process that transforms carbon dioxide emissions into a useful product.

Green Minerals speeds up the natural process of mineralization, in which CO2 chemically reacts with iron, magnesium or calcium-rich minerals to form a new mineral, permanently trapping the CO2. 

The Green Minerals mineralization process uses olivine to react with captured CO2 to create feedstocks for the concrete and paper industries. 

Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

Contact us at contact@climatenow.com

Visit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.