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Remediiate (Rii) is pleased to be awarded a £2.1 million grant from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero under the £20 million CCUS Innovation 2.0 programme; part of the department’s £1 billion Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP)
Remediiate, albeit under different guises, has several years of expertise in the culturing of natural microalgae. We are way past laboratory experimentation. We are at the final materials selection stage for gigatonne deployment. Our industrial partner, Vale Group a USD50bn conglomerate, together with our academic partner, Swansea University have won a United Kingdom government support grant of £2.5m to industrialise our microalgae growth platform by automating the manufacture of the hardware modules and reduce the capital cost. It will grow to handle all 36k tonnes of CO2 emitted from nickel production at Vale Europe in South Wales. Starting April 2023, it’s codenamed ‘Project LightARC’.
CO2 is an asset not a liability, Rii converts it using microalgae into valuable biomass. Two tonnes of CO2 will make circa one tonne of biomass and one tonne of oxygen. The initial volume market for this biomass is the animal feed industry. ForFarmers, the largest feed company in Europe, has a collaboration agreement with Rii and sits on our scientific advisory board. Our loaded cost of production is very competitive and will begin to displace soybean protein in the food chain.
The carbon footprint of our biomass is lower than the soybean alternative. We asked Anthesis, a leading global pure-play sustainability advisory and solutions firm, to undertake a life cycle analysis of our process and compare it to the production of soy. Rii emits four tonnes less CO2 for each tonne of sustainably grown soybean. For soybean grown from land use change e.g., cleared rain forest, then we save even more CO2. Remediiate is environmentally sustainable.
Animal feed uses 260m tonnes of soy per year, the feed industry aims to displace 15% (40m tonnes) with alternative protein. Out of the global industrial emissions of around 20bn tonnes, Rii will need 80m tonnes of CO2 or about 2,000 industrial emitters to satisfy the need.
Remediiate’s work with the feed industry for protein displaces CO2, we are also working with them to stop bovine methane production. Methane accounts for about 10% of greenhouse gasses but has a short-term, 20-year, global warming potential 80 times greater than CO2. Work is ongoing at Nestlé and their supply chain of 90m dairy cows.
About a year behind in market development, we also work on permanent and auditable physical carbon removal. The ALGA Foundation and partners will use decentralised block-chain technology to trace and track every tonne produced and evidence a credible carbon offset platform.
Our design philosophy is to enable the construction and deployment of our platform by our partners, and to be installed where the CO2 is emitted globally, by using a ‘cookie cutter’ blueprint. Remediiate will license the technology, provide services & support.
In conclusion, the UK Government grant will enable Remediiate to accelerate deployment globally to reduce CO2.
Nick Major, Corporate Affairs Director • Supply Chain, ForFarmers said “ForFarmers is involved in a number of projects aimed at developing alternative proteins including the use of microalgae in animal feed. These measures and research efforts are aimed at contributing to a more circular food system and reducing the reliance on imported protein. We look forward to being involved in this very exciting project which also explores the carbon capture potential of microalgae at scale.
Darren Poland, Managing Director, Vale Europe commented, “We are optimistic that the project can eliminate costs on our journey to become a Net Zero company here in Wales”.
Paul Crewe, Chief Sustainability Officer & Executive Director, Anthesis Group added, “It’s potentially a disruptive game changer by sequestering COâ‚‚ and noxious gases to high value microalgae for many uses such as animal feed, soil rejuvenation, and methane reduction in cows.”
Professor Andrew Baron, Swansea University, Chair of Low Carbon Energy and Environment | Cadeirydd Sêr Cymru Ynni Carbon Isel a’r Armgylchedd noted ”This is a welcome adjunct to the university’s Reduction In Carbon Emissions (RICE) programme and we are very keen to see it make a big contribution to the Welsh national initiatives”.
About Department for Energy Security and Net Zero
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero will provide dedicated leadership focused on delivering security of energy supply, ensuring properly functioning markets, greater energy efficiency and seizing the opportunities of net zero to lead the world in new green industries.
The funding from the CCUS Innovation 2.0 programme comes from the department’s £1 billion Net Zero Innovation Portfolio which provides funding for low-carbon technologies and systems and aims to decrease the costs of decarbonisation helping enable the UK to end its contribution to climate change.