Cracking the Carbon Capture Challenge with Mantel

My Climate Journey

Cameron Halliday is the CEO and Co-founder of Mantel.

Mantel is developing a point source carbon capture solution, which means they're developing technology that can sit next to industrial equipment and capture its emissions. Mantel's key innovation lies in their utilization of a high-temperature liquid-phase material for carbon capture, enabling operation at temperatures as high as 600 degrees Celsius. Allegedly, this material can cycle between capture and release without experiencing deterioration or decay.

Point source carbon capture is somewhat controversial, as detractors argue that it extends the life of high-emissions processes. Promoters argue that we need all solutions on the table to reduce emissions in hard-to-abate sectors. Cameron and Cody discuss this at the start of the episode, before diving into his technology and go-to-market solution. He articulates a unique approach to go-to-market, wherein he's determined a way to minimize the integration dependency that his industrial customers would have to take on in order to get a pilot up and running with Mantel. Cameron maintains a close affiliation with MIT, having earned both his PhD and MBA there. In 2022, Mantel secured a seed round of funding, led by The Engine—a venture fund founded by MIT with a focus on tough tech.

In this episode, we cover:

• [02:06]: An explanation of point source capture
• [04:12]: Controversy around its use
• [09:20]: An overview of Mantel, their mission, and their tech
• [12:37]: Cost impact for companies, early adopters, and motivations
• [16:47]: Introduction to amine technology
• [18:18]: General overview of carbon capture concepts
• [21:16]: Mantle's molten salts technology
• [25:42]: Their "crawl, walk, run" approach to commercializing
• [31:17]: Potential to apply Mantel's tech to biogenic sources of carbon
• [33:05]: Physical configuration of Mantle's systems which connect to smokestacks
• [34:20]: Cameron's background and his dual PhD/MBA from MIT
• [39:46]: Mantle's founding team and investors like The Engine
• [41:39]: Process of identifying and mitigating risks for Mantle's technology
• [43:30]: Customizing Mantle's system for different industrial use cases
• [46:05]: Parting words on the urgency of deploying point source capture

Episode recorded on Nov 13, 2023 (Published on Dec 21, 2023)

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