Melbourne startup Kapture has unveiled technology to collect carbon emissions from exhaust fumes and embed them in concrete, calling it a groundbreaking development for the greenhouse gas-heavy cement industry.
Its solution can sequester and store carbon emissions from internal combustion engines, including diesel generators, diverting CO2 from the atmosphere while creating a new, high-quality replacement for traditional cement ingredients.
Speaking exclusively to SmartCompany, Kapture co-founder and CEO Raj Bagri expanded on the startup’s revolutionary technology – and her own entrepreneurial journey, which has her convinced she was “born to do this”.
Kapture’s novel carbon capture technology can be retrofitted to the exhaust of diesel generators, capturing the CO2 emissions before they’re emitted into the atmosphere.
“Diesel generators are a prime entry point for deploying our carbon capture technology, due to their global prevalence and high emissions intensity,” she said.
“Kapture’s technology can capture CO2 directly at the point source, and it seamlessly integrates into existing generator systems without disrupting operations.”
According to Bagri, the core technology can be applied to all combustion sources without reducing their efficiency, making the technology applicable to many CO2-generating sources.
Bagri said the byproduct of those captured emissions can be used as a replacement for Portland cement, a key ingredient in concrete and a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in its own right.
“Even though we’re a carbon capture company, we’re going to be in the business of selling the byproduct we’re creating,” she said.
The World Economic Forum notes the cement industry would be the world’s third largest emitter of CO2 if it were a country, accounting for 8% of the total global emissions.
A CSIRO report states in Australia alone, cement production emitted 4.7 Mt of CO2 in 2020-2021 and around 60% of those emissions were process emissions.
The problem Kapture aims to solve is critical, Bagri says, especially since more than half of the carbon emissions in the cement industry are process-related.
For every ton of solvent Kapture uses to sequester CO2 from diesel generators, it claims it can offset between 0.7 to 1.2 tons of CO2 from being released to the atmosphere during the cement manufacturing process, in addition to the reduction in CO2 emissions from the generator itself.
“As a business, we’re tackling emissions from true sources – diesel emissions – and we’re reducing concrete emissions, and there’s no green premium,” Bagri said.
Kapture’s technology is a world-first, she added.
“No one in the world has developed a product that can go into the concrete-making process with no green premium,” Bagri explained.
“It’s a no-brainer for concrete companies to adopt it, because they’re reducing their emissions.
“It seamlessly integrates into the concrete process, so no post-processing is required.
“It goes straight from our system into the concrete and will directly replace a filler or Portland cement.”
Beyond its physical benefits for generator customers and concrete producers, Bagri suggested both sides would be able to earn carbon credits for the CO2 prevented from entering the atmosphere.
For the trials of its technology, the Melbourne startup partnered with PERMAcast, a Western Australian supplier of precast and prestressed concrete products.
The partnership came about very naturally, said Bagri.
“We reached out to them, and it was just the perfect timing, because they were looking for low-carbon solutions and we were looking for a concrete partner in the Perth market,” Bagri shared.
PERMAcast has also invested an undisclosed sum into the startup.
So why Perth?
“Because Perth is actually one of the markets in the world where there are a lot of diesel generators in a small region because of mining, ag and regional communities,” she said.
“And it’s also remote,” Bagri continued, saying the location allowed Kapture to grow its concept and business model away from competitors.
A trial of Kapture’s carbon capture technology is also scheduled for Q1 2025 with an Australian electricity utility provider.
Bagri launched the startup in 2022, and was joined by co-founder and CTO Jacob Youngert in February this year.
But Bagri herself does not come from an engineering background, and originally joined the banking sector as a business graduate.
From there, she founded a couple of successful hospitality businesses, before joining a separate climate tech startup.
“I was working with engineers… and during COVID I started seeing a lot of news about carbon capture,” she said.
“And I realised engineers are not entrepreneurs, so it’s very hard for them to build a business-scale technology and take a product to market”.
Bagri said she saw a “huge opportunity” in carbon capture technology.
“I’m really good at the business side, so if I can get the tech right, this is a huge opportunity, because there’s not a lot of people out there solving this problem.”
In her research, Bagri found the solvent used in other carbon capture technologies is toxic, making it hard to meet regulatory requirements.
“Second problem, most competitive technologies are highly energy intensive, so I wanted to develop tech that’s low energy, and then thirdly, a real, scalable product,” she said.
“All the technologies out there are very big, too hard to scale. So these were my three criteria.”
That led her to spend 18 months in deep research.
“I honestly read everything online, and it’s like, ‘I don’t want anything more than to achieve this goal… Of helping change the world and making a huge impact,’” she said.
So when you’re that passionate and that hungry to make a difference or achieve something, you just give it more than what anyone else is giving to solve that problem.
Raj Bagri, Kapture
The work over those 18 months eventually led Bagri into a Startmate cohort, where Kapture raised its first round.
“We built our first prototype, and we captured 45% carbon emissions,” Bagri said.
“From there, I realised that I needed a co-founder, and I met Jake on LinkedIn.
“We just first connected and started chatting.”
“Within a week he was ready to quit his [engineering] job in the US and join, so it happened very fast,” she continued, calling the pair “aligned” and “hungry to go change the world.”
“He changed the hardware, we changed the chemicals, but it’s still the same chemical reaction,” she said.
“And we’ve now built a really great technology that can be scaled and have different applications.
“We think we’re about to build a huge company that’s going to change the world: that’s our goal and vision.”
The startup’s latest prototype, built in July and deployed in the US state of Michigan, has shown huge energy savings, according to the co-founder.
“Our power draw is 5%, so we’re using 5% energy,” she said.
“Our competitors are up to 60%, so it’s a very big difference.”
Bagri is an outsider in the local startup scene in more ways than one.
First, she is not from a technical background, but is the founding CEO of a deep tech company.
Second, she is of South Asian origin.
Her parents migrated to Australia in the late sixties, with her father working as a taxi driver and her mother employed in a factory.
Third, she’s 41 and a mother of two, which is at direct odds with the stereotypical image of a young startup founder who has dropped out of university to pursue a radical idea.
“That’s why I say I’m born to do this, because it’s not really normal for me to come from a migrant family and go through this [journey],” she said.
“And you know, it wasn’t easy being a non-technical person trying to sell carbon capture because of just the perception, and there’s a lot of stigma… It’s hard for people to believe that I’ve done this, because I know the tech.”
Bagri said the textbooks she’s been reading are the same used in university courses, giving her the same kind of insight.
“When people found out I came from a non-tech background, I faced a lot of challenges,” Bagri continued.
“But I think that was my superpower. Because I was able to think differently about everything, like how the tech is built, how we’re going to commercialise, how we’re going to build this company.
“I see that as a huge strength…”
“I founded Kapture to build a scalable solution for the planet. I wanted to show the world that innovation and sustainability can co-exist, and inspire females, and show them that women can lead companies that will shape our future and make an impact for generations to come.
“Working with a purpose is the highest reward and we take our work seriously because we will change the lives of many through our technology,” she shared.
Despite all the challenges, Bagri explains she’s not afraid, and is eager to keep pushing on.
The startup has its eyes set on commercialisation early next year, following its ongoing pilot, before expanding its technology into the shipping industry and undertaking a new fundraising round.
For now, Bagri believes she and Youngert “have got all the weapons to execute” their vision without taking on extra staff.
“The beauty of me and Jake not building a team this year was we get to know our technology inside out,” she said.
“It’s like raising the first year of your child. No one’s gonna know it better than us as we build this company.”
“And that’s a huge advantage.”
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Prior to joining SmartCompany, Mrinaal was the content head at Lawctopus. She has a dual degree in business and law, with a Masters in constitutional law. You can follow her on Twitter at @mrinaaldatt.
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