While many carbon capture technologies rely on solvents to capture carbon from industrial emissions, French start-up Revcoo is betting on cryogenics.
The company aims to secure €20m ($22.7m) in its latest funding round, with the capital earmarked to scale up its CarbonCloud system, which captures CO2 through a patented freezing process known as reverse sublimation.
The technology works by capturing waste gases from industrial manufacturing before separating the CO2 from the other gases by freezing it before processing as a liquid or gas.
The captured CO2 can be sequestered or can be utilised in sectors such as the food industry, building material production, the pharmaceutical industry or for manufacturing e-fuels.
The approach differs from traditional post-combustion CO2 capture devices, which typically use monoethanolamine (MEA) – a solvent that selectively absorbs CO2 through a series of chemical reactions.
Revcoo’s industrial pilot in Hauts-de-France ©Revcoo
The EU’s push to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030 is putting pressure on industry to adopt scalable decarbonisation technologies like CCUS.
While a few firms, including Carbon Clean and Svante, have explored hybrid or alternative capture methods, most industrial carbon capture projects still rely on amine-based solvents.
While solvents such as MEA dominate the carbon capture landscape, research into greener alternatives is growing. Some companies are now developing amino acid-based or water-lean solvents with reduced toxicity and energy requirements. However, uptake remains limited and cryogenic solutions like Revcoo’s could soon deliver a chemical-free alternative.
One downside of solvents is that they degrade over time and need to be renewed, which is a process that comes with a high energy cost. MEA is also toxic and can cause corrosion to process equipment. In contrast, Revcoo claims its process to be non-toxic and solvent-free.
President and Founder Hugo Lucas said the company wanted to accelerate carbon capture in France and internationally.
“We aim to contribute in our own way by rolling out a [100% electric] solution to maintain sustainable growth, while reducing its impact on the environment,” he added.
The company’s technology is now being deployed in a pilot project at a lime production site in Hauts-de-France, where it captures two tonnes of CO2 per day.
Revcoo said the funding would go towards the development of an industrial demonstrator with a capacity ten times greater than its existing pilot. This forms part of the company’s goal for each installation to capture 100,000 tonnes of CO2 per day from 2030 onwards.
