“There's not a scenario in which we get climate change under control without carbon capture and utilization (CCU).”

How did you become interested in this space? 

I've always been interested in and loved working on the edge of innovation, on the newest things that hadn't quite formed yet. I've been in a variety of situations where we've been trying to create a market that didn't exist. For instance, I started in tech, where there wasn't such a thing as cyber security. And, we had to come up with that as a concept and explain to people why there was even a need. And it reminds me a little bit of where CCU is now, because there is much interest in the CCU space, but there isn't a real market, or a real narrative that everybody has been able to rally around. Everything I did after I left tech has been around sustainability and climate change, and what we can do in the world to shift the situation we're in. 

I got interested in this idea that carbon really was something we needed to address. And, I subscribe to this idea that if you're not working to make the world a better place in some way, then maybe you should stop and think about why you are here.  

How would you describe your role on the board?

My role is focused on narrative and translation. This space is full of scientists, brilliant scientists who can do all that work, which I certainly can't. But I work in everyday life with corporate people who need technology to transform themselves and their businesses. I founded an initiative called Bankers for Net Zero, which is both with banks and with parliament in the UK. And, really, all of these people need a translation, so they can understand what CCU is and why they should be motivated to act on it. I see a lot of my role as helping create the right narrative and translate the chemical and academic speak, which is not always easy to understand. How do we translate what we are doing so that normal business people and politicians and regulators can really understand it much faster, because if we don't move it out of the academic language, it's just not going to happen fast enough. It will still happen, but it's just not going to be fast enough. 

The other role is making connections, because I work across all these different groups, and different types of organizations, making links that are helpful for the industry and for the board. How do we all use our efforts to accelerate what's going on? 

What do you like about working in the CCU space?

I like that some of the brightest people are working on this. I'm a born optimist. And it kind of feeds my optimism to see such bright people pull together to try and fix this in such an impressive way.  

I remember sitting in that very magnificent U-M College of Engineering dean's office for the first board meeting. And, by the time we got to the fifth or sixth person introducing themselves, we had basically covered all the energy advisors to the US, the UN, the UK and the EU since the 1970s. 

I also enjoy the innovative aspect and creating something that wasn't there before. In ten years -- maybe five years --  we're going to say, “Oh, do you remember when people didn't know what CCU was?”  

I'm learning all the time. And, I think that's part of what drives me is just to constantly learn and be able to do better.

What are some common misconceptions about CCU?

There are some extreme opinions -- it’s almost like religious wars. Some people think that CCU is going to save everything. And, hence, it doesn't matter about emissions, because we're going to be able to just reuse all the CO2 anyway. On the other hand, there are those that say fossil fuel companies are exaggerating the usefulness of CCU so that these fossil fuel companies will never have to stop emitting. This group of people thinks that all we have to really do is reduce emissions.The truth of the matter is that the only way we get climate change and overheating under control is by using CCU. CCU is not going to save everything, but it's going to be a vital part of sorting out the crisis we're in right now.

What do you see as the future for CCU?

Eventually CCU will go mainstream. The first step is getting investors and government regulations to help scale the technologies so that they can go mainstream. Until then, the pricing will be too high. But, it will happen.  It will have to. There is no scenario in this world where we stay below 1.5 degrees, where we don't remove a lot of CO2 from the air. We have to do this and we have to make it work. But, it will be great when we look back and we've done it.

News in a Nutshell

CCUS Assessment website is now live!

Congratulations European Inventor Award Finalists Walter Leitner and GCI Advisory Board Member, Christoph Gürtler! 

Stratospheric breakthrough in direct air CO2 capture to cut costs

Cleaner Earth, better beer

New York State on its way to becoming a hub of carbon-to-value research and commercialization

A carbon capture game changer?

"Fastest Path to Zero" seminar with Secretary Granholm now available on demand

Carbon Capture Has To Get As Big As Oil Industry In Less Than 30 Years

A Sponge to Soak Up Carbon Dioxide From the Air

Inaugural DACC-A-THON competition now open to all U-M students

GCI Webinar: Life Cycle Assessment and Techno-economic Assessment of Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage

May 12, May 19, & May 26

For more information about this free webinar, please click here or to register, please click here.



BMBF funding measure status conference: "CO₂ as a sustainable source of carbon - Pathways to industrial applications - CO₂-WIN". This virtual conference will be in English and is free.

June 8-9, 2021

For more information, please click here.

Online Renewable Materials Conference

Featuring a unique concept to present all sustainable and renewable material solutions at one event: bio-based, CO2-based and recycled. 

May 18 - 20.

For more information, please click here.

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