Technology developer Aqualung Carbon Capture has raised $10 million in new equity funding from investors including Nasdaq-listed Golar LNG and US-based Standard Lithium as the Norway-based outfit looks to move its membrane carbon dioxide capture and separation concept closer to commercialisation.
Aqualung holds the licence to a patented membrane technology developed by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology that selectively extracts high-purity CO2 from industrial emissions.
The technology has been successfully piloted at two cement installations in Europe and is also currently deployed at a pilot project being run by Standard Lithium at a natural gas processing site in Arkansas operated by Mission Creek Resources.
Aqualung said the new funds will allow it to increase the scale of the US pilot, employ more staff in Europe and the US, as well as launch projects with other industrial users in the hope of bringing commercial-scale units into use before 2025.
Marine liquefied natural gas specialist Golar LNG and Aqualung said, in particular, that they hope the technology can play a role in decarbonising the LNG supply chain.
Also among the new investors are London-based shipowner Global Ship Lease and Geneva-based metals trading services group MKS Pamp.
Aqualung founder and president Henrik Utvik said raising the equity funding lays the foundation to take the concept “to the next level”.
Aqualung chief executive Andrew Robbins said: “We are extremely proud of the partners we have assembled.
“Aqualung will lean on the entrepreneurial, engineering and scale up experience of our investor group to commercialise and roll out this technology at a pace no one thought was possible.”
Standard Lithium chief operating officer Andy Robinson said: “We began working with Aqualung in 2021, and we are confident in its underlying technology and excited to invest in the company’s drive to commercialisation.
“One of our goals is minimising all CO2 emissions, and we look forward to scaling up our existing pilot project with Aqualung in support of this ambition.”
Both Robinson and a Golar LNG representative will join the Aqualung board.
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