Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

The first 100 million funding scheme launched by a science and technology enterprise in the field, 30 winning projects won prizes, and each project team received a bonus of 500000 yuan. The organizing committee of Tencent's "carbon search Project" will select the best from these 30 projects and continue to invest tens of millions of projects.

Since the launch of the "carbon search Program" in March this year, it has received widespread attention and positive response from the community. These 30 teams stand out from more than 300 applications and represent the most cutting-edge and innovative technologies in the national and global CCUS field. These include the relatively blank field of DAC in China (capturing carbon dioxide directly from the air), the world's leading use of microbial gene editing technology to absorb carbon dioxide from industrial exhaust, the absorption of carbon dioxide from construction waste to produce building materials, and the capture of carbon dioxide through shellfish farming.

At a time of continuous global warming, CCUS is considered as an indispensable backing technology to achieve carbon neutralization, but also because of the cutting edge of technology and high risk, there is a lack of sufficient funds and resources in this field. Tencent's "carbon search project" is to fill this gap, encourage more technical teams to join, more institutions to provide support, and ultimately help CCUS technology cross the "death valley" and accelerate innovation.

The 30 teams selected this time include young teams led by the post-90s generation, as well as senior teams who have studied in this field for more than 20 years, including China's top universities and research institutions, including Tsinghua University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Zhejiang University, Chinese Academy of Sciences, etc., as well as high-quality projects supported by "national team" players, including the Ministry of Natural Resources, China Geological Survey, Huairou Laboratory and other units. As the jury expert said, "since the release of the 'carbon search Project', there has been a great social influence, and these 30 teams represent and determine the future development of the CCUS field."

The technological frontier innovation caused a heated discussion among the judges

"CCUS is a brand new industry that is at a crossroads, not before, but now it is because mankind is facing many threats posed by climate change." Tencent Group Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Exploration official website Dawei said in a speech. Precisely because this field is too cutting-edge and innovative, the emergence of innovative technology has also sparked a heated discussion among the judges. The traditional CCUS technology captures carbon at the flue gas emission end, which belongs to "low carbon" or "zero carbon" when the carbon increases, while DAC captures directly from the air, which is called "negative carbon". However, because the content of carbon in the air is relatively low, this technology has aroused heated discussion during the review.

According to Dr. Huang Xini, senior director of the Strategic Development Department of Tencent Group and head of the carbon search Program, 15-20 different CCUS innovation technology routes are covered in the 30 projects selected this time. 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. " We don't need certainty, we need to accept risky and potential technologies before we can explore opportunities for innovation. " Xu Hao, vice president of sustainable social values at Tencent, said. "carbon search Project" has set up three major innovation channels, of which the "pilot support" track is focused on innovative technologies that are still being developed in the laboratory. Tencent will invest several tens of millions of funds to help the technology in these laboratories accelerate out of the laboratory and land in the industrial scene.

Although the field is new, the team has begun to explore.

Although the field of CCUS is still in the exploratory stage, many of these 30 teams have begun the initial attempt to land the industry. For example, Qingquan Zero carbon Company uses CO2 mineralization and regeneration of waste building materials to make new floor tiles, realizing the circular economy model of "building-waste-building", and will build the first commercial project to use carbon-fixed concrete solid bricks in Henglong Square in Hangzhou. Other existing industries have been explored, including the original technology companies that have cooperated with Guodian Electric Power and Sinopec, hoping to permanently mineralize and store carbon dioxide on a large scale and at low cost.

The selection of these projects with landing potential is the original intention of the carbon search Project. As Mr. Wang Dawei said, global warming is increasing, leaving us very little time. "that means we have to start from scratch and achieve a considerable reduction in emissions in a very short period of time. In order to play a positive role in the improvement of the atmosphere and the earth's environment." Because of the tight time and heavy tasks, one of the most important criteria at the beginning of the selection of the carbon search Project is to achieve scale by 2030. In addition to the "pilot support" track, the "start-up incubation" track focuses on start-ups in the CCUS field, and the carbon search program will help them connect with Tencent Qingteng, a co-venture learning platform, and help start-ups achieve scale and commercialization as soon as possible.

Based on this, the evaluation committee of the "carbon search Project" initiated a joint review of academicians, industry partners and investment partners for the first time, representing the technical side, application side and commercial location in the field of CCUS, including Jin Hongguang, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yan Jinyue, academician of the European Academy of Humanities and Sciences, Conch Group, Hegang Group, Matrix Partners, Sequoia Capital China, etc. Ensure that cutting-edge technologies coming out of the lab are validated in the market.

These cutting-edge technologies are also crucial to industrial partners. At the award site, Chen Yongbo, deputy general manager of Conch Group, said: "I come from the cement industry, cement is one of the most difficult industries in our country to reduce emissions. Without CCUS backing, the cement industry can hardly achieve carbon neutralization." Tian Jinglei, chief researcher of Hegang Group, one of China's largest steel companies, also said: "the iron and steel industry consumes 8% of the world's energy and produces carbon dioxide, which is a very important area to achieve carbon neutralization in the future. Thank you very much for Tencent's support for our industrialization exploration."

The team works hard and firmly believes in the future of CCUS in China.

The scientists in this team, both post-90s and well-known scholars with more than 20 years of research experience, are full of confidence in the development of CCUS in China and are willing to take risks and try boldly for it. For example, the two co-founders of Nanjing Gas Biochemistry decided to give up stable key university teaching positions to start a business to develop CCUS technology; the team led by Lin and Professor Chen Xi, chief scientist and founder of climate technology at Columbia University, was the first team in the world to propose direct air capture of DAC. " CCUS has a lot of development opportunities abroad, but I decided to do research and development in China is to believe in the cohesion of the Chinese nation, must be able to do a representative work in the low-carbon field in a short time. " Chen Xi said.

As Xu Hao pointed out, the selected team has "Chinese characteristics". Many start-ups focus on the use of carbon dioxide on the track, which is exactly the technology China needs most at the moment. China has a large industrial base. The current accumulation of technology will certainly accelerate the development of this field. 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 provide the foundation for the development of China's CCUS field and promote the marketization and standardization of CCUS through technical measurement, reporting and certification (MRV).

In 2021, Tencent upgraded its strategy again, taking "sustainable social value innovation" as the base for the company's future business development, and carbon neutralization is an important area of sustainable social value innovation. Since its inception, SSV carbon Neutralization Laboratory has implemented a series of projects, including exploring a pilot project to inject aqueous carbon dioxide solution into basalt mineralization and storage in China, building carbon Live low-carbon innovative connectors for low-carbon technology enterprises, as well as water-saving and drought-resistant rice, virtual power plants, glacier protection, marine blue carbon, etc. Xu Hao, vice president of sustainable social values of Tencent, said in an interview that from personal exit to ecological co-construction, Tencent continues to pay attention to the next generation of technology: "carbon neutralization is not a single option on the road to promoting social sustainable development. In the future, we will use science and technology and innovation capabilities to co-create with many parties to explore sustainable solutions to promote the integrated development of social values and economic benefits."

(appendix: list of winners of the carbon Hunt Project TOP30)

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