3M is partnering with a Canadian company to develop a material capable of trapping airborne carbon dioxide and permanently removing it from the atmosphere, company officials announced.
After 3M Ventures, the Minnesota-based conglomerate’s venture capital arm, joined Svante Technologies’ latest fundraising round — which brought in $318 million — the company said it had signed a joint development agreement with Svante to help implement its technology in the U.S. and across the globe.
Svante, headquartered in suburban Vancouver, says its technology is capable of coating solid sorbents on laminate sheets, which are stacked into advanced filters that can trap carbon dioxide through direct air capture or at the source of emissions, such as industrial facilities, paper mills, and refineries. The company said the system could be used across some 85% of the world’s carbon capture operations.
3M said it hopes to utilize its manufacturing scale, filtration expertise, and global research and development network to help provide carbon removal products over the next decade “and beyond.” The company noted that “thousands of miles of technical material” would be needed in the next few years alone to meet both Svante’s needs and the world’s goals for combating climate change.
Ray Eby, the president of 3M’s Personal Safety division, said the company is "driven by a need to solve the world’s most pressing challenges,” and its collaboration with Svante is a big part of achieving that.
