Svante, headed by Claude Letourneau, is developing a carbon capture technology for industrial companies, particularly in the cement and pulp and paper sectors.
The initiative is inspired by the 135-year-old work of Svante Arrhenius. The company is working with Climeworks to extract CO2 from the atmosphere using special filters.
With 16 years of research and development behind it, Svante has managed to raise 500 million dollars to finance its activities. It is currently building a factory to produce these filters, with the aim of equipping 10,000 CO2 capture installations over the next three decades. The process of setting up a carbon capture project with a partner company takes around four years, including the discussion and construction phases.
In 2022, Svante raised $318 million, with Chevron as its main investor. Letourneau stresses the importance of support from the oil and gas industry and calls for greater involvement of private equity infrastructure funds to accelerate the deployment of these technologies.
He also notes that public acceptance of carbon management is a slow process, comparing the situation to domestic waste management. He highlights the difficulty for the public to perceive the need to manage CO2, an invisible and odourless waste, unlike household rubbish.
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