Tencent invests 100 million yuan to fund CCUS: 30 projects won awards, involving nearly 20 technical routes | Frontline

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Edit | Su Jianxun

Tencent, which has invested heavily in CCUS, has recently taken a step forward.

On September 18, Tencent held the first round of the "Carbon Seeking Program" award ceremony in Shenzhen. The "Carbon Seeking Project" was launched by Tencent in March this year.A large-scale funding program focusing on CCUS-related technology incubation, capacity building and large-scale application, with a capital scale of RMB 100 million.

In the process of coping with global climate change, CCUS is considered to be an indispensable underpinning technology to achieve carbon neutrality, but due to the technological frontier and high risk, the field lacks sufficient financial and resource support.

"CCUS is a brand new industry at a crossroads, which was not there before, and is developing now because humanity is facing many threats from climate change. Dawei, senior executive vice president and chief explorer of Tencent Group, said in his speech.

36Carbon learned at the award site,After the release of Tencent's "Carbon Seeking Plan", more than 300 projects have been declared. Among them, 30 projects won awards in this round, and each project team received a prize of 500,000 yuan.In the next step, the organizing committee of the "Carbon Seeking Program" will select the best from these 30 projects and continue to invest tens of millions of project funding.

The 30 winning teams in this round cover the most cutting-edge innovative technologies in the CCUS field in China and even the world, including:There are many cutting-edge technologies such as capturing carbon dioxide directly from the air (DAC), absorbing carbon dioxide from industrial exhaust gas using microbial gene editing technology, absorbing carbon dioxide from construction waste to reproduce building materials, and capturing carbon dioxide from farmed shellfish.

Because the field is too cutting-edge, the emerging innovations sparked a lively discussion among the judges. Traditional CCUS technology captures carbon at the flue gas emission end, which is captured in the case of increased carbon, which is "low-carbon" or "zero-carbon", while DAC captures carbon dioxide directly from the air, which is called "negative carbon", but because the carbon content in the air is relatively low, the technology has aroused heated discussions during the review.

"We don't need certainty, we need to accept risky and promising technologies to explore opportunities for innovation. Xu Hao, vice president of sustainable social value at Tencent, said. According to reports, the "carbon search plan" sets up three major innovation channels, among whichThe "pilot support" track focuses on innovative technologies that are still being developed in the laboratory.Tencent will invest tens of millions of dollars to help accelerate these technologies out of the laboratory and land in industrial scenarios.

Dr. Huang Xinwe, Senior Director of Strategic Development Department of Tencent Group and Head of the "Carbon Seeking Program", introduced,The 30 selected projects cover 15-20 different CCUS innovative technology routes.The judges are divided into 10 groups and 4 large groups, and the independent review is to ensure that cutting-edge and innovative technologies are fully valued and discussed.

The project has the potential to be implemented and is also one of the important evaluation dimensions. 36 Carbon learned that at the beginning of the selection of the "Carbon Seeking Plan",One of the most important criteria is to achieve scale by 2030.In addition to the "pilot support" track, the "Start-up Incubation" track focuses on startups in the CCUS field, and the "Carbon Quest Program" helps them connect with Tencent Qingteng, a co-creation learning platform, to help start-ups achieve scale and commercialization as soon as possible.

36Carbon learned that among the 30 teams selected this time, there are both young teams led by the post-90s generation and senior teams with more than 20 years of experience in this field; including China's top universities and research institutions, such as Tsinghua University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Zhejiang University, Chinese Academy of Sciences, etc., as well as "national team" players, such as the Ministry of Natural Resources, China Geological Survey, Huairou Laboratory and other high-quality projects.

Official photo courtesy of Tencent

Among the 30 teams, many projects have begun to initially try to industrialize the landing.For example, Zero Carbon Capture will mineralize and regenerate waste building materials into new floor tiles, realizing the "building-waste-construction" circular economy model, and will build the first commercial project using solid bricks of carbon sequestration concrete in Hangzhou Henglong Plaza. Other existing industries are exploring the "Primordial Technology" company, which has cooperated with Guodian Power and Sinopec, and is committed to large-scale and low-cost permanent mineralization and carbon dioxide sequestration.

According to reports, the "carbon search plan" focuses on the cutting-edge technology that comes out of the laboratory to be verified in the market. The judging committee is composed of academician experts, industry partners and investment partners, representing the technical, application and commercial parties in the CCUS field, including Jin Hongguang, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yan Jinyue, academician of the European Academy of Humanities and Sciences, Conch Group, HBIS Group, Matrix Partners and Sequoia China.

At the same time, the team of Professor Zhang Xiliang, director of the Institute of Energy, Environment and Economics of Tsinghua University and head of the National Carbon Market Overall Design Expert Group, is working with Tencent to promote the marketization and standardization of CCUS through technical measurement, reporting and verification (MRV).

"Carbon neutrality is not a single option on the road to promoting sustainable social development. "In the future, Tencent will use technology and innovation capabilities to co-create with multiple parties to explore sustainable solutions and promote the integration of social value and economic benefits." ”