Newlab and Greater New Orleans Inc. launch programmes to support decarbonisation start-ups

By creating a strong coalition of government, industry, and startups players, these programmes will also lay the groundwork for Newlab to expand into the Gulf South Region.

The Newlab applied innovation programmes in Louisiana are being launched through two US Department of Energy (DOE) funding opportunities that Newlab was awarded to help carbon management and clean hydrogen startups accelerate and de-risk their commercialisation efforts.

"We're not going to solve climate change with one breakthrough technology. It's going to take hundreds of founders with amazing ideas to create the sea change we need," said CEO of Newlab, Cam Lawrence. "Greater New Orleans Inc. shares that vision, and I can't think of a better place than the state of Louisiana for our work supporting startups developing industrial decarbonisation and carbon management technologies."

Called the Energy Program for Innovation Clusters (EPIC), participating startups will receive valuable assistance by developing first-of-a-kind pilot project concepts with regional partners in south Louisiana. Through this work, founders will have facilitated access to technical and commercial insights, regional government and industry partners, and relevant subject matter experts to enable more efficient in-field pilot development and scale-up in Louisiana.

"By aligning and activating infrastructure, industry programs, and venture capital investment, Newlab Louisiana stands to bolster the state's competitiveness in creating and attracting startups across strategic energy growth sectors," said Michael Hecht, President and CEO of Greater New Orleans, Inc. (GNO, Inc.) "We and our public-private partners across the H2theFuture initiative are firm believers that Louisiana is best-positioned to extend its energy leadership while supporting the commercialisation of climate technologies such as those participating in the EPIC programme."

Chosen in partnership with the programme's industry partners, the startups represent a range of technologies across the carbon management and clean hydrogen value chains. The nine startups selected for the programme are:

• Airhive: Direct air capture through fluidisation
• Arculus Solutions: Natural gas transmission retrofitting for hydrogen
• Banyu Carbon: Seawater carbon removal
• Encore CO₂: Carbon utilisation
• Mantel Capture: Carbon capture using molten borate technology
• Molten Industries: Carbon-negative hydrogen and graphite
• Parallel Carbon: Direct air carbon capture and clean hydrogen
• RepAir Carbon: Gigaton-scale carbon removal
• Vaulted: Biomass carbon removal and storage

Louisiana has a generational opportunity to harness its energy legacy and existing industrial base, infrastructure, and workforce to be the national epi-center of future energy technologies. To date, Louisiana has been awarded US$10.2 billion in federal funding for energy transition initiatives in renewable energy, carbon capture, synthetic fuels, and clean hydrogen.

Read the article online at: https://www.globalhydrogenreview.com/hydrogen/14082024/newlab-and-greater-new-orleans-inc-launch-programmes-to-support-decarbonisation-start-ups/