Partner Profile: Etosha Cave


When I envision the future, I still see CO2-made materials being a big part of everyday life. It’s going to be a huge infrastructure change to use CO2 instead of merely throwing it away.


In celebration of women's history month in March, this issue features Dr. Etosha Cave, Co-Founder and CSO of Twelve and history-making woman.


 Dr. Cave is the co-founder and CSO of Twelve (formerly known as Opus 12), a start-up company dedicated to recycling carbon dioxide and water into higher-valued products–such as jet fuel–using metal catalysts, and electricity. Twelve recently received $20 million in funding from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. She is also a Member of the NREL Advisory Board. A Houston native, she earned a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford.

You lived in Antarctica for 5 months. What was that like?


Antarctica was great. An Antarctic summer is equivalent to a Michigan winter. You need a lot of cold weather gear, e.g. heavy, fancy parkas, insulated boots, etc. There are about 1000 people on the station, so you develop a great sense of community. I had a lot of amazing conversations with interesting people in the evenings. 

You are an amazingly accomplished individual. What do you feel some of your most gratifying accomplishments have been?


I am really proud of how Twelve has grown and developed. Our team is really diverse, and we have all been able to come together as a team and create a strong company. Our goal is to drive technology as far as it can go globally. It has also been very gratifying to have one's work in graduate school become a reality.  


You’ve talked about how growing up as a teenager next to an abandoned oil and gas site helped ignite your passions to become an engineer. You wanted to clean up the waste from oil or gas energy production. It sounds like you were always a big picture person, even as a child. What do you see as the big picture for CCU in the next few years?

That abandoned oil and gas site had tanks that were buried under ground and there was some type of organic waste that leached into the water supply. There were two failure points: leaking tanks and water lines not secured from leaks. No one talked about the site until it became apparent that there was something wrong with the water. It was indeed something that altered my course towards building a future that is absent of industrial waste adversely affecting our environment.  

 

With respect to the future of CCU, carbon underpins our known world. But we are building this future in which we can still have this carbon molecule do all of the amazing things it does, but we are able to lessen its harmful consequences when it is merely thrown away.

You’ve been quoted as saying “Our main competitor is the status quo, as in most places it is still free and inconsequential to throw CO2 into the atmosphere.” How do you compete with the status quo?


It requires a multi pronged approach.Our part is to develop a pathway to easily utilize atmospheric carbon dioxide. However, we also need policy to make it such that it’s not ok to toss out CO2 into the atmosphere. We need an approach that utilizes both the carrot and the stick, with the policy being the stick and the carrot being the fact that you can create revenue by converting CO2 into something useful. 


Also, consumers can support this effort by asking for lower carbon materials. When I envision the future, I still see CO2-made materials being a big part of everyday life. It’s going to be a huge infrastructure change to use CO2 instead of merely throwing it away.

What inspires you and keeps you going?


I’m inspired by people around me who get really excited about what we are doing. Sometimes I am so focused on the day to day, that I don’t think about the big picture. It’s important to celebrate the little victories. For example, at Twelve, we have a slack channel just for celebrating the daily wins.

What advice do you have for othersespecially for women of colorwho are interested in doing what you do. 


This is a golden time for entrepreneurshipthere’s a ripe capital market, and a lot of interest in climate and climate tech. It’s nice to be part of a movement and it is particularly enjoyable to be part of a solution to a problem that’s bigger than one’s state, country, etc. I encourage people to find their place in climate change. 

What do you wish I had asked you?

“What do I do in my personal life to keep my carbon footprint low?”


I like to create a passive way to take care of the bigger items such that I don’t have to think about a lot of smaller choices every day. For example, with my living situationI live in a communal space with 13-14 young professional adults, which reduces heating and cooling needs. My personal footprint is much lower and it is more fun. I’m also a minimalist; I aim to have very little stuff. Overall, I like to spend energy and time looking at the less obvious, but more impactful sustainability opportunities.

News in a Nutshell

CEQ Issues New Guidance to Responsibly Develop Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Sequestration


U.S. Department of Energy Announces Up to $96 Million to Advance Carbon Capture Technologies for Natural Gas Power and Industrial Sectors


Canada needs to cut carbon, not try to capture it

Note: GCI counters that, at this stage of the game, we need to do both cut carbon and capture it, especially since we can use the captured carbon to make products and avoid having to exploit more fossil carbon feedstock sources.


U.S. Department of Energy Announces $19 Million for Carbon Utilization Funding Opportunity


Catalyst Grants Support Key Steps Toward Sustainability, Justice


AirMiners Slack merges with AirMiners Launchpad

Imminent Events

NASEM Energy and Environmental Systems: Technology Infrastructure, and Policy for Carbon Utilization

March 1- 3, 2022


Join this event to discuss market opportunities, infrastructure needs, and policy, regulatory, and societal considerations for carbon utilization. Read more.

Launch Event for the Techno-Economic Assessment & Life-Cycle Assessment Guidelines for CO2 Utilization (Version 2.0)

March 17, 2022


During this event, the CO2nsistent team will present new versions of the guidance documents “Techno-Economic Assessment & Life-Cycle Assessment Guidelines for CO2 Utilization (Version 2.0)” and “Making Sense of Techno-Economic Assessment & Life Cycle Assessment Studies for CO2 Utilization: A guide on how to commission, understand, and derive decisions from TEA and LCA studies (Version 2.0)”. Read more.

Conference on CO2-based Fuels and Chemicals 2022

March 23–24, 2022


The conference is one of the most established worldwide and has developed into a unique meeting and networking place for the entire Carbon Capture & Utilisation (CCU) and Power-to-X industry and its customers. Read the program here. For a 10% registration discount, use code MGCI22. Register here.

The Future of Direct Air Capture Policy

March 17, 2022


In this virtual fireside chat, Climeworks' head of policy, Christoph Beuttler, and Carbon180 executive director Erin Burns will discuss the future of DAC, with a special focus on how policies can best support the field, incentivizing new innovations and equitable deployment. Register here.

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