US based Mantel raises $30 million to develop efficient carbon capture for the heavy industrial sector

Mantel Capture, Inc., a start-up based out of Cambridge in Massachusetts, working on a Carbon Capture technology using molten salt (borates), has announced successful raising of $30 million in Series A funding, co-led by Shell Ventures and Eni Next. Other investors include Engine Ventures, New Climate Ventures, Hartree, bp Ventures, Arosa Ventures, Vale Ventures, Newlab, MCJ Collective, among others. The funds will be deployed for a demonstration project at an industrial site, setting the stage for the commercial rollout of Mantel’s high-temperature carbon capture systems. The company has already achieved lab-scale carbon capture of half a tonne per day, with the new project aiming to capture 1,800 tonnes of CO2 annually.

Carbon capture involves collecting CO2 from large sources like power plants and industrial facilities. The captured CO2 is then compressed, transported, and either used for various applications or stored underground to prevent its release into the atmosphere. As decarbonization efforts progress, interest in carbon capture continues to grow. However, the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that by 2030, carbon capture capacities will only reach 40% of the 2050 Net Zero Emissions target of capturing and storing 1 gigaton of CO2 annually. Significantly more carbon capture projects will be required to meet this goal.

“With support from both investors and industry leaders, we are eager to showcase the effectiveness of Mantel’s technology across industrial applications and demonstrate its potential to be the lowest cost pathway to net zero emissions for our industrial customers,” said Cameron Halliday, co-founder and CEO of Mantel. “This investment enables us to transition from lab-pilot success to working with customers to design and prepare for the deployment of full-scale commercial projects.”

Mantel says that molten borates are designed to operate at the high temperatures found inside boilers, kilns, and furnaces and this results in a highly efficient process of carbon capture. The captured carbon can have several industrial uses too, and Mantel claims that their process has the potential to reduce energy losses by more than half, thereby significantly reducing the costs in half.

“Point source carbon capture is a critical piece to cost-effectively decarbonize heavy industry,” said Michael Kearney, Mantel Board Member and General Partner at Engine Ventures. “With new capital and commercial opportunities emerging across the world, Mantel is positioned to rapidly scale its low-cost carbon capture technology.”

Mantel was founded in 2022 by Halliday, Danielle Rapson and Sean Robertson as a spin out from the Hatton Research Group in MIT’s Department of Chemical Engineering. The same year, the company raised a $2 million seed round and joined the Breakthrough Energy Fellows program.

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