New Delhi, July 17, 2024: Global steel company ArcelorMittal has named the inaugural winners of its XCarb® India Accelerator Programme, selecting three startups for their pioneering climate technologies.
The programme attracted over 50 applications and following an extensive review process by ArcelorMittal’s XCarb® Innovation Fund and research and development teams, UrjanovaC, AgroMorph Technosolutions and Susstains Engineering Solutions have been selected as the winners. Each will receive prize money of USD 50,000 and mentoring aimed at developing their technologies and business models.
UrjanovaC is developing a CCUS (Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage) technology that aims to support the decarbonization of hard-to-abate sectors including steel. The technology uses a patented catalyst and wastewater to convert industrial CO2 emissions from flue gases into useable by-products such as PCC (calcium carbonate) and soda ash (sodium carbonate) that could find use-cases in multiple industries.
AgroMorph Technosolutions is creating a modular, algae-based CCUS system designed to remove carbon from industrial flue gases and absorb nutrients from wastewater. The process offers a clean method of carbon capture through natural photosynthesis instead of using chemicals and offers a broad spectrum of nutrient-rich algae-based products.
Susstains Engineering Solutions, founded by IIT Madras PhD students, is developing technology that aims to offer biochar to the steel industry as a replacement for coal. The biochar production technology is based upon biomass carbonisation, with innovative methods in place to increase the yield, productivity and quality of the biochar produced.
Irina Gorbounova, Head of the XCarb® Innovation Fund, said: “We congratulate the winners of the XCarb® Accelerator programme in India, all of which presented novel ideas that hold significant industrial decarbonisation potential. We intend to support these innovative young companies as they look to develop and scale their technologies. The last 11 months provided us great insight into the start-up landscape of India and the opportunities it presents. It was a pleasure collaborating with IIT Madras and we look forward to continued engagement them.”
ArcelorMittal launched the XCarb® India Accelerator programme in July 2023, in collaboration with IIT Madras’s GDC – Centre of Innovation & Entrepreneurship, and supported by ArcelorMittal’s joint venture in India, ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India (AM/NS India).
Prof Vikram Vishal, Director & Co-Founder, UrjanovaC, said: “The early recognition of UrjanovaC's groundbreaking CO2 management technology by ArcelorMittal through the competitive XCarb® Accelerator Programme strengthens our team's resolve to tackle one of the grand challenges of this century. Our sustainable, practical, low-cost, and scalable decarbonisation technology based on a patented catalytic process captures CO2 from air as well as emission gases and stores it permanently as carbonate salts. We deeply appreciate the invaluable experience gained at the XCarb® Accelerator Programme, and extend our gratitude to ArcelorMittal, AM/NS India, GDC-IIT Madras, and SINE-IIT Bombay for their pivotal role in facilitating the competition and nurturing our start-up for an early market entry. The team at UrjanovaC envisions translating net-zero pledges into reality through rapid deployment and is thrilled about the upcoming partnerships across borders and sectors.”
The programme was designed to support ArcelorMittal’s climate ambitions and India’s extensive community of start-ups developing technologies that hold the potential to support the global climate transition.
Dr Akanksha Agarwal, Founding Director, AgroMorph Technosolutions, said: “ArcelorMittal’s XCarb® Accelerator Programme was a great opportunity for AgroMorph as it helped us explore decarbonization challenges via algae. The program provided in-depth understanding and perspectives of the steel industry, which is a great value-add for start-ups.”
Dr Muthu Kumar, Founder, Susstains Engineering Solutions, added: “At Susstains, we envision to create a sustainable ecosystem around biomass to biochar business with our novel technology. The XCarb® Accelerator programme was a great opportunity, as it helped us understand the potential use of biochar in the steel industry. Moreover, testing our biochar samples at the AM/NS India facility gave us the confidence that, with some fine-tuning, our biochar could potentially replace coal. We are grateful to AM/NS India for this opportunity and for the invaluable insights from the XCarb Accelerator. We also appreciate GDC-IITM for shaping our business model.”
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