Project Overview
The Carbon Reforming to Economic Additives for Transitioning into an Emission-less Era (CREATE) project was a collaboration between Emission Reduction Alberta (ERA), Holcim Group (Switzerland), Sika AG (France) and Carbonova Corporation. The project was funded through ERA’s Accelerating Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCUS) Technologies (ACT) 3 challenge and aimed to accelerate carbon capture and utilization (CCU) technology for large CO2 emitters by converting waste heat and industrial CO2 streams into valuable products.
Utilizing CO2 to Improve Concrete and Reduce Emissions
The core technology for this project was Carbonova’s process that converts industrial CO2 and waste heat into carbon nanofibers (CNF), a high-performance additive for cement and concrete applications. In the process, Carbonova’s carbonization reactor receives a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen from a dry methane reforming reactor and converts it into a solid carbon product. Integrating CNFs into cementitious mixtures presents a significant opportunity to address critical challenges in the construction industry. CNFs can enhance compressive strength and refine the microstructure of cement pastes, mortars and concrete. By improving the performance of cementitious materials, CNFs enable reductions in Portland cement usage, leading to lower material consumption and an approximate 15 to 20 per cent decrease in CO2 emissions per cubic meter of concrete. Beyond strength improvements, CNFs have also demonstrated potential in conductive and self-sensing concrete, opening new possibilities for electrically heated pavements, smart infrastructure, and real-time structural health monitoring. To achieve these benefits, the project focused on scaling CNF production, improving methods to evenly distribute CNF, integrating the Carbonova process into cement plants and validating performance through extensive laboratory testing carried out with the project partners.
Validating Technical Feasibility and Developing Business Strategies
The project’s lessons learned emerged directly from the combination of technical challenges and key successes. One major challenge was CNF dispersion. CNFs tend to agglomerate in aqueous solutions, creating the risk of uneven dispersion in the cementitious mixtures and reduced performance enhancements per unit mass of CNF added. The team successfully overcame the dispersion challenge during this project, but the long-term stability of the dispersion will require further research and development efforts, which Carbonova continues to undertake. This challenge demonstrated that performance benefits depend not only on the CNF material itself but on mastering how it is incorporated. Additionally, the team found that achieving cost-effective large-scale production is necessary for widespread adoption in the construction industry, and prices must be reduced from the current price of $35 per kilogram to $10 per kilogram to break even.
At the same time, project successes provided additional learning. Through CREATE, Carbonova demonstrated a viable path for industrial decarbonization by transforming CO2 emissions into a high-performance advanced carbon nanomaterial. Over the course of this project, the pilot-scale carbonization reactor was successfully scaled by doubling its diameter. As a result, production from the pilot increased by a factor of four, allowing Carbonova to produce larger volumes of CNFs for testing and giving partners the ability to assess real-world performance. The main objective during the CREATE project was to develop business and market strategies in the cement and concrete industry. Partnerships with major industry players like Holcim and Sika provided critical market insights. Engaging stakeholders early ensures alignment with industry needs and improves the chances of commercialization success. The project’s findings provide a foundation for future commercial deployment, with potential to drive sustainable innovation in the cement and concrete sectors. Additionally, the project resulted in several conference presentations and three publications in scientific journals and conference proceedings.
What’s next?
Partnerships to drive towards commercialization: After the project’s completion in 2025, Carbonova plans to explore partnerships for co-developing novel solutions for construction materials. The organization states that efforts will focus on further optimization of CNF formulations, developing scalable manufacturing processes and conducting additional field trials. The successful outcomes of CREATE reinforce Carbonova’s potential to contribute to a low-carbon future by transforming industrial CO2 emissions into high-value materials that enhance the durability and sustainability of infrastructure.
Secured follow-on equity, leveraging ERA grants: Carbonova has closed an oversubscribed $5.1 million equity financing round following a recently awarded $4.38 million follow-on ERA grant. This is a significant achievement leveraging ERA grants to build organizational credibility and progress towards the first-of-a-kind Commercial Demonstration Unit (CDU-25). Additional funding for the CDU-25 will be raised through strategic cash investments, in-kind participation from partners, and capital raised in prior rounds.
To date, the company has completed the CDU-25 pre-FEED study in collaboration with a local Engineering, Procurement and Construction firm. Carbonova aims to launch a FEED study, then commission and start-up of the CDU-25 in Q2 2026. Following the successful completion of the CDU-25 project, Carbonova hopes to move into the design and construction of its first commercial unit.