Travertine secures US$8.5 million to reduce waste and emissions in mining, fertilizer, and cement production
Published by Jack Roscoe,
Editorial Assistant
World Fertilizer,
Travertine Technologies, Inc. has announced the closing of its US$8.5 million financing to commercialise a novel electrochemical platform that enables carbon-negative production of fertilizer and critical elements like lithium and nickel while eliminating chemical waste.
The financing was co-led by Holcim MAQER Ventures, with participation from the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment and venture capital firms Clean Energy Ventures and Bidra Innovation Ventures.
Travertine's award-winning platform technology upcycles industrial sulfate waste and CO2 captured directly from the air into sulfuric acid and carbonate advanced cement components that permanently sequester CO2. Sulfuric acid is the leading industrial chemical used to extract phosphorus, lithium, nickel, and other critical elements from ores. By eliminating sulfate wastes produced by conventional extractive processes, Travertine's technology solves an environmental problem that has challenged the fertilizer and mining industries for decades.
Holcim, a global leader in innovative and sustainable building solutions, plans to support the scaling of the Travertine Process for decarbonising cement production. "The global energy transition is driving huge demand growth for critical elements such as lithium, copper, and phosphorus, as well as the sulfuric acid needed to extract and refine them", said Laura Lammers, PhD, founder and CEO of Travertine. "Travertine maximises value and brings circularity to these processes. Partnering with major industrial leaders like Holcim is critical to building a new decarbonised economy at scale."
In addition to funding, Travertine will benefit from access to Holcim's large network of global operations and longstanding technical expertise in everything from material science to carbon capture and beyond.
Based in Boulder, Colorado, USA, Travertine spun out of Lammers' lab at the University of California, Berkeley in 2022. Travertine received one of the first pre-purchases of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) credits from the Frontier Climate Fund and has won multiple awards, including Chemical & Engineering News' Top Startups to Watch in 2022, BloombergNEF Pioneers Award in 2023, and a DOE ARPA-E grant.
Travertine has successfully upcycled sulfate waste from major fertilizer and mining companies across the globe in its fully-integrated, continuous-flow pilot and is currently focused on engineering and scale-up for a first commercial demonstration plant.
Read the article online at: https://www.worldfertilizer.com/special-reports/26062024/travertine-secures-us85-million-to-reduce-waste-and-emissions-in-mining-fertilizer-and-cement-production/
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