The venture capital arm of Total, Total Carbon Neutrality Ventures is participating in the Series A investment round of Deep Branch – a CO2 reuse company. The company has just announced on March 16th that it raised €8 million for its Series A round.
Investors leading the round are Novo Holdings and DSM Venturing with participation from Total Carbon Neutrality Ventures and Barclays Sustainable Impact Capital. Deep Branch claims it will use the capital for a pilot project to scale up its technology. With the investment from Series A, the company’s total funding comes to about €13 million.
Deep Branch is a company based in Nottingham, UK that recycles CO2 to make food for fish and poultry. The company uses a fermentation process where microbes are fed with CO2 and hydrogen to make a protein product.
“It’s taking waste carbon dioxide and creating a valuable product out of it with nice sustainability benefits,” said Cindi Choi, managing director of Total Carbon Neutrality Ventures explaining the CO2 reuse process.
Carbon Reuse Companies Achieve Total CO2 Reduction
Deep Branch is not the only company using this technology for food production. US-based Air Protein and Finland-based Solar Foods are also developing their processes of converting emissions into protein foods. In India, String Bio is transforming methane gas into a protein for animals.
The company’s approach lowers the pollution caused by raising livestock feed. It avoids deforestation and eliminates the fossil fuels needed to manufacture the fertilizers that would otherwise be used.
CEO Peter Rowe said: “Not only is it a way to produce protein where you don’t require farmland and deforestation or overfishing, but also because the total carbon footprint of it is extremely small.”
The process is cutting 90% of the emissions generated by traditional agriculture. It essentially recycles the CO2 by turning it into feed. Eventually, it is released into the air again after the feed is consumed.
Deep Branch provides an easy-to-produce supply of low emissions, optimally nutritional bulk protein. Companies like that are likely to attract investments from energy producers venturing to reduce their carbon footprint.
