Paebbl, the Dutch startup that permanently stores carbon dioxide (CO2) in building materials, has named Fernando Sosa as CEO of its first-of-a-kind (FOAK) commercial facility, bringing in an industrial scale-up specialist to take the company from its research phase to full production.
Sosa most recently served at Novo Energy, where he oversaw engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) execution for their FOAK facility, a 120-person operation that delivered outside battery limits (OSBL) infrastructure at 50% below typical cost benchmarks.
Before that, he spent six years at Tesla scaling manufacturing, including the Reno gigafactory, after a decade at Fluor, where he started his career, grounding his approach in rigorous project governance and large-scale EPC delivery.
Relevant: Paebbl Launches World’s First Continuous CO2 Mineralization Demo Plant
Sosa had previously been advising Paebbl on FOAK strategy, supporting site selection and laying the foundations for program structure and engineering milestones, before his appointment to the executive team as a full-time leader.
Paebbl co-founder and co-CEO Marta Sjögren said Sosa’s rare combination of first-of-a-kind plant experience, below-benchmark delivery costs, and cultural fit made him the right person to lead the company’s most critical program to date.
A notable aspect of Sosa’s approach is his emphasis on community-first deployment, integrating stakeholder engagement and local ecosystem involvement into the project program from the outset—mirroring the strategy that Paebbl credits for the success of its Rotterdam research and development (R&D) center.
“The opportunity to build infrastructure that permanently stores carbon at scale is rare, and I’m committed to making this FOAK plant a benchmark for what industrial deployment should look like,” Sosa said.
Paebbl’s mineralization demo plant in Rotterdam has been running continuously since late March 2025, and the company has also received a $4.7 million (€4 million) grant from the European Innovation Council (EIC) to develop next-generation carbon-storing cement binders.
Read more: Paebbl Lands €4 Million EU Grant To Turn Concrete Into A Carbon Sink
