Capturing carbon at the source with the first carbon capture technology designed to operate at the high temperatures found inside boilers, kilns, and furnaces.
THE CHALLENGE
Mantel was in a race against time to validate its technology and sign its first customers. To get the data it needed to scale, the team needed mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) modifications done on a timeline that matched the speed of the team.
THE SOLUTION
The Engine facilities team was able to provide the power and HVAC modifications to Mantel’s lab at a cost and timeline that met their needs. By August 2023, they were 18 months ahead of schedule on their technical milestones, leading to a very successful Series A funding round.
“Moving into The Engine gave us access to world-class equipment and support we simply couldn't find anywhere else. Having The Engine team to manage our labs and office has allowed my team to move quicker on de-risking our science.”
Cameron HallidayCo-founder and CEO, Mantel
Every day, factories spew thousands of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. Between power generation, cement, steel, and chemical refining, the industrial sector is responsible for over 50% of global carbon emissions, making it a prime target for efforts to mitigate the worst effects of climate change.
But the demand for these industrial products isn’t going anywhere, and neither are the factories. Even with carbon-neutral technology to manufacture these products, it would be impractical to rebuild every existing factory. In the meantime, the most practical way to reduce the industrial carbon footprint is to capture the carbon emissions directly. But for carbon capture to succeed at scale, it needs to be installed on existing factories at a low cost to the manufacturer.
Mantel is aiming to do just that. The company, spun out of MIT’s Department of Chemical Engineering, is developing the first carbon capture technology designed to operate at the extreme temperatures found inside boilers, kilns and furnaces. The compact, modular system bolts on to the factory stack with no modifications to existing equipment. And unlike previous carbon capture approaches that require massive amounts of energy, Mantel’s approach generates energy that can be reused by the factory.
With existing regulatory incentives, Mantel’s approach is so efficient it could be the key to making carbon capture profitable for manufacturers for the first time. But to get buy-in from customers and investors, Mantel had to prove it. Carbon capture has been around for decades, but it has always been too expensive for widespread adoption. Could Mantel be different?
Time was of the essence. Companies working on new technologies like Mantel need capital-intensive infrastructure to build out and validate their technology. Time spent finding and setting up a lab, or negotiating with a landlord can quickly sap a company’s resources between funding rounds. What’s more, favorable regulatory environments can swiftly change with a new administration. Mantel had a narrow window to achieve technical milestones that could build trust with investors and customers before momentum stalled and funding dried up.
“This is a technology that could radically change the energy industry."
Proving their technology in a short timeline would be no easy feat. To build a proof of concept, Mantel would need a lot of mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) modifications to whatever space they occupied. There were few spaces that would allow the scale of MEP modifications Mantel needed, and even fewer that could implement them on Mantel’s timeline. The Engine was the exception, with few restrictions on modifications to the facilities.
Mantel became a resident at The Engine in 2022, shortly after the company’s founding and a $2M seed round led by Engine Ventures. They quickly got to work building their proof of concept in The Engine’s high-bay industrial space.The Engine’s facilities team quickly implemented the power and HVAC modifications the Mantel team needed to build their lab-scale carbon capture demonstration, handling all the project management on Mantel’s behalf — at a cost and timeline that met the team’s needs.
“Moving into The Engine gave us access to world-class equipment and support we simply couldn't find anywhere else,” said Halliday. “Having The Engine team to manage our labs and office has allowed my team to move quicker on de-risking our science.”
The support from The Engine allowed Mantel to move quickly. By August 2023, the team was 18 months ahead of schedule on their technical milestones. These milestones, demonstrating lab-scale carbon capture at a rate of half a tonne per day, allowed the team to raise another $30M in a Series A backed by energy industry leaders including Shell, Eni and bp in 2024.
Credit: Kruger Inc
More importantly, the rapid momentum allowed Mantel to skip building a costly pilot-scale facility and move directly to a full-scale demonstration with a customer. In November 2024, the Canadian pulp and paper giant Kruger Corporation invested $23.75M Canadian dollars to implement Mantel’s carbon capture demonstration project at its Wayagamack plant in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, with a $17.7M investment from the Canadian government. The project is expected to capture 1,800 tonnes of carbon emissions a year.
Mantel’s success is a testament to what’s possible when bold ideas meet the support and resources they need to scale. With The Engine and an ecosystem of public and private partners in their corner, Mantel is proving that decarbonizing the hardest-to-abate sectors is not only possible, but a technically and financially feasible reality.
