“It is such a privilege to get to work on arguably the most important problem for our generation with a solution that has a very solid chance of becoming incredibly significant.”
This newsletter features Paebbl, an organization co-founded by Pol Knops, Marta Sjögren, Andreas Saari, and Jane Walerud.
Can you briefly describe what Paebbl does?
We turn gaseous CO2 into solid stone powder using a process called mineralisation. CO2 mineralisation is a natural process that turns carbon dioxide into stone–but as with most geological processes, it takes centuries. Based on 20 years of research, Paebbl has found a way to accelerate the process by a factor of more than a million, with minimal energy use. Paebbl combines captured carbon with abundant minerals to create a carbon-negative raw material which can be used to make products such as paper and concrete.
Initially, this work was Pol’s single man journey. Why were more people later brought in?
Pol: After working alone for more than a decade, I realized that this project was too big for a single man. I needed multiple viewpoints and disciplines, and was lacking some of the required experience, knowledge, and network. I’m very happy to have found a team, or as they would say, they found me.
Marta & Andreas: Independently, we had both scouted the market for a technology ready to be scaled up that would combine permanent CO2 storage and upcycling into a valuable product. The list of such proven solutions is quite short; when you add a wish for a low energy requirement and high verifiability, it gets even shorter. To us, it seemed like accelerated mineralization was a solution completely overlooked relative to its promise, and we were incredibly lucky to have a chance to partner with Pol on building a company around this technology.
What are the goals for Paebbl?
Our main goal is to develop a process to safely sequester CO2 that is both environmentally impactful and economically sustainable, by utilizing the CO2 and by permanently binding it. From a total CO2 footprint perspective, it gets particularly interesting because the mineralized CO2 can create significant avoided emissions; we have already proven that it performs well in concrete, which is one of humanity’s largest emission sources. To that end, Paebbl aims to create the technological infrastructure to turn CO2 sequestration into an opportunity to decarbonise essential materials.
