Parallel Carbon announced today they closed a $3.6 million Seed funding round amidst COP28. The financing, led by Aramco Ventures, backs Parallel Carbon’s groundbreaking process of utilizing renewable energy for clean hydrogen production while pulling carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Other key investors include Counteract, expanding their previous investment, Axon Partners, DNX Ventures, Voyagers, Rumbo Ventures, and angel investor Andrew MacKay.
Parallel Carbon is commercialising a cost-effective process to simultaneously slash ongoing emissions while removing legacy carbon pollution from the atmosphere. Their system integrates water electrolysis and direct air capture (DAC) processes to reduce capital costs and better utilise low-cost renewable energy. Parallel Carbon’s electrochemical process operates with intermittent electricity, providing critical advantages compared to high-temperature direct air capture pathways, such as those offered by Occidental Petroleum through their recent acquisition of Carbon Engineering.
Parallel Carbon’s hardware platform promises diversified revenue streams and climate benefits while aligning with the global net-zero emissions challenge. Projects will generate income from producing clean hydrogen, significantly reducing emissions compared to fossil-derived alternatives. Other project revenue comes from pairing DAC with permanent carbon storage underground or in concrete to generate high-integrity carbon dioxide removal (CDR) credits. In effect, projects produce carbon-negative hydrogen which significantly reduces the cost of zeroing global emissions.
“By integrating low-cost production of zero-carbon hydrogen and air-captured carbon dioxide, we’re building a critical tool to ending the world’s reliance on fossil fuels and putting carbon back underground,” said Ryan Anderson, CEO and founder of Parallel Carbon. “Once deployed at scale, our platform will provide affordable carbon removal, reduce the cost of decarbonising grids, and become a scalable foundation for producing sustainable shipping and aviation fuels.”
“Aramco Ventures is thrilled to lead the seed round financing for Parallel Carbon. This approach to co-production of hydrogen with carbon sequestration allows for synergistic cost reduction of these processes. We look forward to working with the team to help scale this innovative solution.” Bruce Niven, Executive Managing Director of Aramco Ventures.
In a strategic move, Parallel Carbon has also officially transitioned to a US-based company, aligning future growth and deployment with incentives provided by the US Inflation Reduction Act. The R&D arm in Manchester, UK continues to expand with the addition of 3 new hires across engineering and operations. The Seed funds will be used to scale their team, technology, and begin delivering carbon dioxide removal (CDR) credits to their customers.
About Parallel Carbon
Parallel Carbon’s mission is to stop climate change by offering an innovative solution that reduces emissions and removes carbon in parallel. They are committed to remediating the climate through a complementary combination of Direct Air Capture (DAC) and Water Electrolysis processes, simultaneously producing the most affordable carbon removal and clean hydrogen. The breakthrough technology is powered by solar and wind power and scales using abundant, hyper-reactive minerals and well-established supply chains. Their goal is to simultaneously capture carbon for under $100 per ton and produce clean hydrogen for $1 per kilogram.