Carbon Re has raised over €4.7 million (£4.2 million) for this AI-based approach to decarbonization.

London-based Carbon Re uses AI to cut emissions at the most energy-intensive industries, for example, glass, cement, and steel. Its technology can develop a ‘digital twin’ of an individual plant by analyzing the sensor data gathered on a minute-by-minute basis by Distributed Control Systems. In a cement plant, this creates a high-resolution digital model that captures the properties of a given kiln (the thermodynamics, and the physical processes of clinker production). AI agents can therefore learn these processes in a simulation, so to speak, and then act in real time to maximize the plant efficiency. (EU-Startups)

Greenhouse Gas (GHG): The heaviest hitters

Energy-intensive industries such as cement, steel and glass, are responsible for more than a fifth of global GHGs and are most difficult to decarbonize.

Carbon Re, a spin-out from Cambridge University and UCL, uses the above AI technology and its Delta Zero AI platform to cut emissions at cement plants by 50 kilotonnes of annual CO2 emissions per plant, or as much as 11,000 cars.

The AI optimizes the plant processes to ensure the lowest possible CO2 output and fuel use, reducing operational costs and carbon emissions to otherwise unachievable levels, with no capital expenditure.

The seed round was led by Berlin-based Planet A Ventures, with participation from Clean Growth Fund, UCL Technology Fund and Cambridge Enterprise.

Jan Christoph Gras, General Partner at Planet A, said: “Energy-intensive materials, such as cement and steel, are the backbone of modern economies but they account for more than 20% of global CO2 emissions. Carbon Re’s state-of-the-art AI solution has the potential to tackle some of the toughest challenges on the road to a carbon-neutral future. Starting with fuel efficiency in cement, Carbon Re has the ambition and capability to develop a large portfolio of advanced solutions across multiple industries – and substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

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