Scaling Climate Tech

Casey Handmer is the founder of Terraform Industries, a startup that produces synthetic fuels by combining CO2 captured from the air with renewable hydrogen.

Fossil fuels are responsible for ~75% of anthropogenic emissions and we need to reduce their consumption as fast as possible. Yet, even under the most optimistic decarbonization scenario, natural gas and oil will still play an important role in our energy systems in 2030-40.

Terraform aims to decarbonize this residual fuel consumption by producing synthetic fuels more cheaply than by drilling the Earth. In this episode, we talk with Casey about:

• how his early career at Hyperloop & NASA led him to look at fuel sources on Mars to then found a ClimateTech startup
• what are synthetic fuels and why they have a role to play in the energy transition
• how falling cost of solar power can make synthetic fuels cheaper than fossil fuel extracted from the Earth
• how to rapidly scale production to replace significant fossil fuel quantities in the near term

Enjoy the show!

To learn more about Terraform Industries and synthetic fuels:

• Terraform whitepaper (~15mn read)
• Terraform website (for HTML enthusiasts) and Prometheus website (for a more visual version)

Hydrogen will play a pivotal role in abating 25% to 40% of US emissions in the so-called "hard-to-abate" sectors: long-distance transportation (aviation, shipping, trucking), industrial feedstock processes (ammonia, methanol, refining), long-duration energy storage, and as a heating fuel for commercial & industrial customers.

Shawn Drost is the cofounder and CEO of Phoenix Hydrogen, a startup building the first commodity marketplace connecting all the players of the hydrogen value chain. To get to critical mass, Phoenix Hydrogen is building one of the largest underground storage facilities (the size of the Empire State) to serve California hydrogen needs.

In this episode, we talk with Shawn about:

• his previous experience as a tech founder and how he transitioned to Climate Tech
• applications for hydrogen today and in the near future
• production pathways for hydrogen and associated climate impact of grey, blue, and green hydrogen
• the transport & storage infrastructure needed to scale the hydrogen economy

Enjoy the show!

To learn more about hydrogen, here are the materials referenced by Shawn:

• IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (2022) - the reference report aggregating the latest science on climate change
• HyBuild LA Initiative - hydrogen Hub near Los Angeles with whom Shawn consulted with
• SHINe Hub - hydrogen Hub in Arizona where Phoenix Hydrogen underground hydrogen storage asset will be located
• Terra.do - a bootcamp-style professional education on climate
• Carbon Brief - reporting on climate science, energy, and policies

Kathy Hannun is the co-founder and President of Dandelion Energy, the US leader in geothermal heat pumps for home heating and cooling. From an idea emerging at Google X in 2017, Dandelion Energy has now installed over 1,000 geothermal systems and raised a total of $60M.

Building heating is a truly massive climate challenge with ~20% of emissions globally due to energy use in buildings, with most of this energy going to space heating (the rest going to power appliances primarily).

In this episode, we talk with Kathy about:

• her early childhood and what drove her interest in climate
• how the Dandelion Energy idea originated at Google X and how it grew into an stand-alone startup
• how do heat pumps work and how can they reduce building heating emissions
• how to scale heat pumps to hundred million of houses

Enjoy the show!

To learn more about Dandelion Energy and heat pumps:

• Introduction to heat pumps (Rewiring America, ~15mn read)
• Geothermal cost vs. fossil fuel heating (Dandelion Energy, ~15mn read)

Paul Gross is the co-founder and co-CEO of Remora, a carbon capture solution for heavy-duty trucks. Using work from Christina Reynold's PhD thesis at the University of Michigan (Remora other co-CEO), they created the company in 2020, joined Y Combinator and raised $5.5M to now be a 45 people strong company about to deploy their product at some of the largest American trucking companies.

In this episode, we talk with Paul about:

• his early childhood and what drove his interest for climate
• how the Remora idea originated at Yale and how he assembled a dream team to get the project off the ground
• what carbon capture is, how it works and why it’s a critical technology to fight climate change
• how can we recycle or store carbon and how is this carbon valuable
• the role of hydrogen, electricity and biofuels for trucking decarbonization
• how to scale their system from a pilot unit to 2m trucks

Enjoy the show!

To learn more about Remora and carbon capture:

• Vox carbon capture primer (~30mn read)
• ClimateTech VC primer on carbon credits (15mn read)
• Christina Reynold original PhD thesis(160 pages!)

Sam Bertram is the Founder and CEO of OnePointOne, an agtech startup that is developing aeroponics vertical farming technology to grow fruits and vegetables more efficiently. Picture this as a warehouse packed with robotics, internet of things and AI systems to automate farming operations and to optimize plant growth

In this episode, Sam walks us through:

• the origin story of OnePointOne from a university prototype to getting first funding
• the vertical farming technology and the plants it can viably grow
• the environmental impact of conventional farming and how can vertical farming mitigate some of this huge footprint
• the challenges ahead to scale vertical farming: bringing down unit economics cost and developing new farm financing models

Enjoy the show!

To learn more about OnePointOne: https://www.onepointone.com/

To learn more about the philosopher referenced by Sam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Z5-P9v3F8w&ab_channel=JustinBieberVEVO

Olympia Yarger is the Founder and CEO of Goterra, an Agtech startup that is building an autonomous system that breeds insects using organic waste as a feedstock. Picture this as a shipping container containing a robotic system that takes in organic waste on one side, breeds insects, and produces proteins on the other side.

In this episode, Olympia walks us through:

• the origin story of Goterra and how she became interested in insects
• the challenges of conventional farming and waste management, and how insects can be part of the solution
• the initial challenges in building a prototype of such a complex & large insect breeding machine
• the first commercial success, how she has scaled the company, and her ambition over the coming years

Enjoy the show!

To learn more about Goterra: https://goterra.com.au/

To learn more about the Hermetia Olympiae: https://waste-management-world.com/artikel/australia-black-soldier-flies-to-upcycle-food-waste/