Innovation to bind carbon dioxide
Greenlyte Carbon Technologies at Falling Walls Venture 2024
- 07.11.2024
Entrepreneurial potential in science is honoured at the Falling Walls Summit in Berlin: the start-up Greenlyte Carbon Technologies, nominated by the University of Duisburg-Essen, is one of the 25 winners selected from over a hundred finalists of the world's most innovative science-based start-ups to pitch today on the Falling Walls Venture platform. Greenlyte, a start-up from the Ruhr area, is competing with an innovative technology to reduce the CO2 content in the atmosphere.
Greenlyte's Direct Air Capture technology actively contributes to the reduction of atmospheric CO2. The technology, which has been researched for over 15 years, comes from Dr Peter Matthias Behr, who worked in the Department of Energy Process Engineering and Energy Systems at the University of Duisburg-Essen. In 2022, Behr, together with mechanical engineer Florian Hildebrand and Dr Niklas Friederichsen, founded Greenlyte Carbon Technologies in Essen with the support of the Centre for Start-ups and Innopreneurship at the University of Duisburg-Essen, GUIDE. Since its foundation, the company has secured over 25 million euros in equity and funding.
The business idea: a technology that captures atmospheric CO₂ while producing hydrogen as a by-product – and that is more energy and cost efficient than existing methods. Greenlyte has been operating a pilot plant since 2023 that removes around 100 tonnes of CO₂ from the air annually – a volume comparable to the annual sequestration capacity of around 10,000 trees. In early 2025, another plant with the same capacity, offering full integration of all process steps and autonomous operation, will be delivered to a customer. Greenlyte Carbon Technologies impressed the renowned jury of Falling Walls Ventures with this technology and was selected as one of 25 start-ups from 115 international finalists. Nominated by the University of Duisburg-Essen, the Essen-based start-up will present itself and share its entrepreneurial vision with a broad audience at the international conference in Berlin on 7 November. The team also has the chance to win the title ‘Science Breakthrough of the Year 2024’ in the Science Start-ups category with their pitch. The event will be streamed live.
Image: The founders of Greenlyte (from left to right): Florian Hildebrand, Dr Niklas Friederichsen and Dr Peter Behr with UDE rector Prof. Dr Barbara Albert.
Livestream on 7 November, starting at 2 p.m.:https://falling-walls.com/livestream2024
Further information:
https://falling-walls.com/programme/falling-walls-venture-sustainability
Britt Knautz, Greenlyte Carbon Technologies GmbH, britt.knautz@greenlyte.tech