Tim Sperry is based in Boca Raton, Florida. Carbon Limitmanufacturer of CaptureCrete. He founded the company in 2020 after realizing the enormous cost concrete has to the environment. Concrete accounts for about 6% of annual global emissions. CaptureCrete is a powder additive for concrete mixes that extracts up to 220 pounds of carbon dioxide per ton from the air and traps it in the concrete as stable minerals. CaptureCrete’s impact is only about 25% of that of traditional concrete, taking into account the CO2 it captures. But this wasn’t Tim’s first foray into carbon capture for the built environment. Previously, he developed a paint additive that absorbs CO2 and other pollutants. Carbon Limit was named GreenBiz’s Startup of the Year at the Verge 2023.
The construction and operation of homes, skyscrapers, factories, and highways produces about 10 gigatons of CO2. That’s roughly 40% of the emissions associated with energy use on Earth. The ability to tie carbon credits to buildings and infrastructure projects is key. If carbon removal credits can be sold for about $200 per ton, the cost of a building can change rapidly. For example, building a 40-story tall skyscraper could require about 4,000 cubic meters of concrete. That’s roughly 5,700 tons of material. At $200 per ton, that concrete is a potential subsidy of $1.1 million for the project. For one mile of highway, about 17,200 tons of concrete are needed, and the credits generated by CaptureCrete’s CO2 capture could be worth $3.4 million per mile of road. This is real money, real savings that can get your project to breakeven sooner over the life of your building. For more information about CaptureCrete and Carbon Limit, visit https://www.carbonlimit.com/.
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