Pond Tech Revolutionizes Carbon Capture Market with Scalable Algae Platform

The following post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga.

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Each year, humans emit over 40 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions into the atmosphere from fossil fuel extraction and burning, manufacturing, and other industrial and everyday activities. Of that, about 25% is safely recaptured by forests, farms, and grasslands. About 30% is absorbed by our oceans, leading to water acidification and massive ecological destruction for sea life. Another 45% is stuck in our atmosphere, causing intensifying natural disasters and dangerously poor air quality. 

To counteract these harmful effects, scientists estimate we need to eliminate at least 10 billion tons of emissions per year. 

Alternative phrasing: To counteract these harmful effects, scientists estimate that we need to lower emissions by at least 45% of 2010 levels by 2030.

To help get there, Pond Technologies, Inc. PNDHF, a leading algae-based tech company based in Ontario, Canada, has pioneered a scalable, cost-effective, and profitable way to capture carbon and turn it into useful, revenue-generating products. 

Its advanced algae platforms offer one of the most efficient, compact methods for farming algae to capture emissions, which will help the world’s biggest carbon emitters across multiple industries reduce their carbon footprint.

Pond Tech Demonstrates Potential By Tackling the Cement Manufacturing Industry

More than 4 billion metric tons of cement are made each year. For each metric ton of cement manufactured, nearly 1,800 pounds of CO2 are released into the atmosphere — meaning that cement manufacturing produces over 3.5 billion tons of carbon emissions every year, or more than 8% of total global CO2 emissions.

Even so, cement is the most widely used construction material around the world because of its long lifespan, resilience to natural disasters, and the fact that it doesn’t rot, rust, or burn. As cities and towns around the world work toward building climate-resilient cities to withstand the effects of climate change we’re already experiencing, cement will likely play a vital role in that climate resilience. 

Reducing the carbon footprint of making cement will be key to ensuring we can still use the resilient and versatile building material even as we transition to a sustainable future.

At Pond Tech’s demonstration algae plant in St. Marys, Ontario, the company has taken the first step toward doing just that. In operation since 2017, the algae plant houses a 25,000-liter tank connected to a series of pipes that run directly from the smokestacks at St. Marys Cement, a subsidiary of major cement manufacturer, Votorantim North America.

Each ton of algae grown in the tank captures about 2 tons of carbon from the cement factory, and the tank can yield approximately 7 tons of algae per year. What’s more, that algae can be used to make a variety of profitable products ranging from animal feed to health supplements to biotech applications in diagnostics and therapeutics.

Widespread Industry Potential for Pond Tech’s Scalable Algae Platform

While various entities have explored the potential of algae to capture carbon emissions, it’s widely been considered too difficult to scale to really make a meaningful impact on climate change. A 2017 report from the U.S. Department of Energy argued that an algae farm “would have to be thousands of acres to offset facility emissions” for most power plants.

That’s where Pond Tech stands out. Its proprietary algae platforms are housed in large tanks, fitted with lights and sensors to optimize conditions, and harvested regularly to ensure that algae can grow continuously.

In effect, the platform yields denser growth to increase carbon capture per square foot compared to an outdoor algae farm — meaning industrial-scale carbon-capturing can be achieved at a mere fraction of the “thousands of acres” needed for an outdoor algae farm.

The platform can be custom built to the needs of each customer, scaling it up or down to the size needed and including the suitable algae strains for the exact gases emitted to offset a factory’s emissions.

By offering one of the first and most advanced scalable algae-based solutions, Pond Tech aims to help industry leaders ranging from Associated British Foods ASBFY in the agricultural sector to CSV in the oil and gas sector.

The preceding post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga. Although the piece is not and should not be construed as editorial content, the sponsored content team works to ensure that any and all information contained within is true and accurate to the best of their knowledge and research. This content is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investing advice.