Ukrainian Climate tech startup fights carbon pollution with its unique, newly developed technology.

Climate change is humanity’s most significant health threat, and health professionals worldwide are already responding to the health harms caused by this unfolding crisis. The climate crisis threatens to undo the last fifty years of progress in development, global health, and poverty reduction and further widen existing health inequalities between and within populations. There are different ways to fight carbon pollution, and one of the most advanced and innovative ways was proposed by Ukraine’s climate tech startup Carbominer.

The 3-year-old Ukrainian startup has developed new modular Direct Air Capture technology to help companies decarbonize and achieve net zero. The startup’s main competitive advantage is capturing CO2 using intermittent renewable electricity. Also, Carbominer uses a combination of the dry and wet approaches to CO2 capture, further decreasing costs.

Carbominer’s technology was and is aimed at owners and operators of commercial greenhouses. Plants grown indoors are subject to fluctuating levels of CO2 in the air around them. Therefore, growers seeking the most significant yield add supplementary carbon to boost photosynthesis and promote faster growth. To provide a sustainable source, Carbominer’s machine extracts carbon from the air outside and feeds it into the greenhouse, with energy efficiency as a critical factor. Given the demand for supplementary C02 and its growing abundance in the atmosphere, Nick and Viktoria Oseyko saw apparent market demand.

Company founder Nick Oseyko explains that much progress had been made before Russia’s invasion. Within its first two years of operation, Carbominer raised $500,000 and built the first MVP Direct Air Capture module. The team subsequently secured another $400,000 from Ukrainian VC Fund SMRK. This funding has enabled the company to hire more people. “In September 2021, we built our first machine,” he adds.

In 2023, the Carbominer’s team has already completed a pilot of a 1.2t Direct Air Capture (DAC) machine with the largest international building materials group in Vyshneve, Kyiv region, Ukraine. The pilot’s goal was to serve as proof-of-concept for Carbominer’s DAC technology, measure its key performance indicators, and obtain a third-party validation report.

Direct Air Capture of CO2 combined with durable storage creates a carbon removal process and is a proven means for companies to reach their net-zero goals. Carbominer is one of a few companies offering movable DAC modules for local CO2 capture. The technology and expertise to store CO2 permanently in concrete

The results of this two-week pilot have shown that Carbominer’s DAC technology works, providing little water usage and higher-than-expected CO2 purity (99.5%). The full pilot report was delivered at the end of February 2023.

Carbominer plans to raise a $1.5M seed round this year, and such a third-party validation is very much appraised by investors in the company’s network. The round will finalize R&D and build a bigger DAC machine of 46 tons/year.