Interview, Fireside Chat
This Startup Is Trying To Delete 29% Of All CO2 Emissions
- Remora has developed the first carbon capture system designed for commercial trucks and freight trains, a segment responsible for 29% of U.S. transportation emissions.
- The technology retrofits diesel exhaust with pellets that capture CO2 molecules while allowing clean gases to pass, producing beverage-grade CO2 for reuse.
- The system reduces vehicle emissions by at least 80% and currently removes up to 90% of CO2 from semi-truck exhaust.
- Captured CO2 is offloaded as a liquid into pressure vessels and distributed to end users, including food and beverage companies, greenhouses, and water treatment facilities.
- Remora targets the "hard-to-electrify" sectors of long-haul trucking and freight rail, which utilize billions of gallons of diesel annually in the U.S.
- Unlike direct air capture, which extracts dilute CO2 (0.04%) from the atmosphere, Remora uses point-source capture to extract concentrated CO2 directly from vehicle exhaust.
- The company avoids traditional liquid solvent technologies due to their corrosive, volatile, and carcinogenic potential, opting instead for a solid pellet-based system.
- Founder Paul Gross, lacking a science or engineering background, built the founding team by recruiting domain experts like PhD graduate Christina Reynolds.
- Remora operates out of Wixom, Detroit, leveraging the local density of mechanical and electrical engineers with experience in vibration, shock, and packaging.
- The startup is vertically integrated, manufacturing its own components via in-house fabrication, laser cutting, and electronics assembly to accelerate iteration cycles.
- Remora purchased a 4,400 horsepower General Electric locomotive to serve as a mobile test pilot and is building a separate rail car for freight train integration.
- The company utilizes a simulator within a warehouse to model engine performance across various loads and road conditions using a real truck engine on a dynamometer.
- Transitioning from fixed-design systems to modular kits has allowed Remora to significantly improve energy efficiency, system size, capture purity, and adaptability across different vehicle models.
- As of the report, Remora has raised $117 million in venture backing.
- The company has signed evaluation agreements with major industry players including Ryder and Union Pacific.
- Co-founders aim to scale the technology to capture one billion tons of CO2 annually, with potential applications extending to generators, container ships, cement plants, and refineries.
- Key scaling challenges include maintaining product modularity across diverse customer fleets and maximizing in-house production to shorten the engineering-to-manufacturing loop.
- The team views the project as a high-difficulty, high-impact endeavor, operating under the philosophy that tackling the hardest problems attracts the best talent and advisors.