A UK grant has been awarded to a joint project between ASTUTE Centre of Excellence at Swansea University and the Carbon8 project. The project will focus on ASTUTE’s use of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to advance Carbon8’s carbon capture and use technology.

The project will run for seven months and will also receive an Innovate UK grant, worth £102,000. The project will be receiving such a high grant due to the benefits it will provide to industries and the environment, through the effect it will have on the decarbonisation industry. Carbon8’s Accelerates Carbonation Technology (ACT) will be able to help hard-to-abate industries decarbonise their operations, whilst simultaneously transitioning to a more circular operation. The technology will do this through combining industrial residues with captured Co2 emissions from flue gas, this will produce low carbon materials, which can then be used in the construction industry, consequently decarbonising industries and repurposing and storing captured carbon in useful materials.

This system has also been made easy to use and convenient, through this Carbon8 solution being able to be housed and deployed in the CO2ntainer. This is a compact Plug ’n Play process which has the advantages of being both scalable and modular. This system comes with many benefits, such as, being able to be applied directly to an industrial site, easy implementation, it avoids disruptions in production, is helpful to hard-to-abate industries and is also able to capture carbon from the source and permanently store it within the output materials, generated from the process.

Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Carbon8, Dr Paula Carey, commented, “Thanks to the grant support of Innovate UK, we can collaborate with Swansea University’s ASTUTE in advanced statistical analysis and machine learning and undertake this project. With this collaboration and the support of Innovate UK, we expect to see an even greater improvement in the efficiency and competitiveness of our CCUS process, and so strengthening our business case to clients.”

Technical Director, Dr Fawzi Belblidia, added, “Swansea University’s ASTUTE Centre of Excellence R&D team is excited to contribute its advanced statistical analysis and machine learning expertise to the Carbon8 collaborative project, made possible by Innovate UK's grant support. This collaboration marks a significant step in refining Carbon8’s CCUS process, with the development of innovative data analysis tools. The integration of ASTUTE’s skills is expected to drive efficiency improvements, enhancing Carbon8’s competitiveness in the carbon capture technology sector. This collaboration not only strengthens Carbon8’s business case but also positions ASTUTE as a key player in advancing such sustainable solutions.”