Newlab has partnered with Greater New Orleans, Inc., along with strategic regional and industry stakeholders including Shell, Battelle, Carbonvert, and Louisiana State University, to launch two Department of Energy-funded programs focused on commercializing carbon management and clean H₂ technologies. By creating a strong coalition of government, industry, and startups players, these programs will also lay the groundwork for Newlab to expand into the Gulf South Region.

The Newlab applied innovation programs in Louisiana are being launched through two U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) funding opportunities that Newlab was awarded to help carbon management and clean H₂ startups accelerate and de-risk their commercialization efforts.

"We're not going to solve climate change with one breakthrough technology. It's going to take hundreds of founders with amazing ideas to create the sea change we need," said CEO of Newlab, Cam Lawrence. "Greater New Orleans Inc. shares that vision, and I can't think of a better place than the state of Louisiana for our work supporting startups developing industrial decarbonization and carbon management technologies."

Called the Energy Program for Innovation Clusters (EPIC), participating startups will receive valuable assistance by developing first-of-a-kind pilot project concepts with regional partners in south Louisiana. Through this work, founders will have facilitated access to technical and commercial insights, regional government and industry partners, and relevant subject matter experts to enable more efficient in-field pilot development and scale-up in Louisiana.

"By aligning and activating infrastructure, industry programs, and venture capital investment, Newlab Louisiana stands to bolster the state's competitiveness in creating and attracting startups across strategic energy growth sectors," said Michael Hecht, President & CEO of Greater New Orleans, Inc. (GNO, Inc.) "We and our public-private partners across the H2theFuture initiative are firm believers that Louisiana is best-positioned to extend its energy leadership while supporting the commercialization of climate technologies such as those participating in the EPIC program."

To seize this moment, GNO Inc.has strategically partnered with Newlab to support their development of a deep-tech venture platform in Louisiana focused on driving strategic investment and startup ecosystem development across integrated energy value chains in the state.

The initiative kicked off with a two-day event that brought the participating companies to Louisiana, where they interacted with the U.S. Economic Development Administration, Louisiana Economic Development, National Science Foundation, Worley, Louisiana State University, Climeworks, The Idea Village, WSP, Exxon and other regional stakeholders. The event included panel discussions on how climate tech innovation can drive Louisiana's energy transition and building community benefit plans in Louisiana, as well as an innovation showcase and a pitch competition.

Startup Selection

Chosen in partnership with the program's industry partners, the startups represent a range of technologies across the carbon management and clean H₂ value chains. The nine (9) startups selected for the program are:

• Airhive: Direct air capture through fluidization
• Arculus Solutions: Natural gas transmission retrofitting for H₂
• Banyu Carbon: Seawater carbon removal
• Encore CO₂: Carbon utilization
• Mantel Capture: Carbon capture using molten borate technology
• Molten Industries: Carbon-negative H₂ and graphite
• Parallel Carbon: Direct air carbon capture and clean H₂
• RepAir Carbon: Gigaton-scale carbon removal
• Vaulted: Biomass carbon removal and storage

For more information about GNO, visit: https://h2-tech.com/articles/2024/july-2024/online-features/online-exclusive-louisiana-s-potential-leadership-in-green-h-sub-2-sub-a-conversation-with-the-gno/