Petrochemicals are in all sorts of products. This startup makes the same compounds out of captured CO2
Your home is filled with fossil fuels in the form of petrochemicals, used to make everything from the foam in your sneakers to your yoga mat, shampoo, makeup, and more—including laundry detergent, plastic packaging, aspirin, toys, appliances, clothes, speakers, bike tires, solar panels, the veneer on wooden furniture, and the paint on your walls. By one estimate, the chemicals are in at least 6,000 products; the real number is likely much larger.
In the Bay Area, a startup called Twelve is developing technology that makes some of the same chemicals from captured CO2 instead of crude oil, gas, or coal. Manufacturers can use the CO2-based chemicals in exactly the same way that they used petrochemicals. “They’ll be identical to conventional products [but] made from recycled emissions,” says Nicholas Flanders, cofounder and CEO.
The company, which just announced that it raised $57 million in Series A funding, is one of the first to commercialize a process called artificial photosynthesis. Inspired by the way plants turn CO2, water, and sunlight into carbon, the company uses renewable electricity and water to make carbon from CO2. That carbon can be turned into products like ethylene, a basic ingredient in making plastic.
