Turnover Labs is producing the most robust and adaptable systems for chemical manufacturers to recycle their emissions on-site. Turnover's proprietary technology reduces the cost of CO2 utilization by producing chemicals out of dirty CO2 emissions without the need for significant emissions cleanup.
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Marissa Beatty
Marissa Beatty recently completed her Ph.D. in the chemical engineering department of Columbia University, where her research focused on developing universal design principles for an emerging class of novel electrolyzer catalyst structures. She now applies these principles towards the design of robust electrolyzers that convert carbon dioxide into valuable chemical fuels, which can operate under harsh or impure conditions without sacrificing device efficiency, selectivity, or lifetime.
TECHNOLOGY
Critical Need
The low selling price of CO₂, compared to the high cost of CO₂ concentration, limits the carbon capture process, which is currently unprofitable without subsidization. Electrochemical devices like electrolyzers convert CO₂ into more valuable chemicals, however, these devices lose product selectivity over time and become deactivated quickly. The problems with these devices are the catalysts, which have to be frequently replaced. Robust, selective catalysts are needed to enable the cheap and efficient conversion of CO₂ and improve the profitability of carbon capture processes overall.
Technology Vision
Turnover Labs’ novel catalyst structures control or prevent the flow of undesired species to the catalyst surface, substantially improving the poison resistance, durability, and selectivity of electrocatalysts used for CO₂ capture. This not only reduces the costs of electrochemical CO₂ conversion, but can extend the application of electrolyzers to harsh and impure conditions without efficiency losses. The tunable nature of these architectures also allow for specific product distributions that would ordinarily require further downstream purification and refinement to achieve.
Potential for Impact
Turnover Labs’ improvements in the profitability of the carbon capture process will help companies expand and scale up their operations to reduce atmospheric CO₂ concentrations at an accelerated rate. Additionally, the production of commodities like syngas, carbon monoxide, and methane from captured CO₂ can reduce demand for those chemicals from traditional, carbon-emitting sources, which can also reduce carbon emissions from fossil fuel processes and make these chemicals effectively carbon neutral.
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Turnover Labs