Watch Jaeson Cardiff, CEO & Co-Founder of CleanO2, go through the inspiration and the process behind founding CleanO2.
CleanO2 is a company on a mission to reduce emissions in the heating industry. Our carbon capture technology, CarbinX, uses a chemical process to convert CO2 captured from heating system exhaust into a stable carbonate used in soaps and detergents. On average, a single CarbinX unit will reduce between six to eight metric tons of carbon per year. That’s the equivalent of 300 trees!
Keep on reading (or watch the video) to learn more.
"The heating industry affects all of us."
"We all like being comfortable and warm. 20% of the emissions in Canada, between 7 and 10% of global emissions come from having heat on, showers, and more. All of the things that we rely on our heating systems are not optional. So the question is how do we make it clean?
"CleanO2 is a company that's sole purpose is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the heating industry."
I grew up in Okotoks, Alberta. My parents split up when I was quite young, When I was 7, I came to live with my dad. My dad was very innovative, very creative, and I think I got a lot of that from him. I used to always see him in the garage, building things, this idea that you could make something in that people will use it and that really stuck with me as I went through life. I worked as a commercial, hitting plumber and was in the industry for just just over 20 years. I stumbled on this article on carbon capture. The article was talking a lot about emissions from power generation, but there was no mention of the fact that everybody has these natural gas fired heating appliances. 70% of the market share for heating appliances, certainly in Canada, are natural gas fired heating appliances. So it was from that moment on that I started learning. I said okay, here's a problem. Nobody seems to be working on it. It's pretty big. I can do something. Carbon Capture is the act of reducing the amount of greenhouse gases entering our atmosphere and either sequestering them and placing them somewhere in storage or converting them into something like a consumer good for example, and that's a great thing about carbon.
A CarbinX™ unit is a modular device that processes the gas that come off of a heating appliance, hot water tank and natural gas turns on combust the gas, we create heat, we heat the water, the spent gas and travel through our system, where we convert it into a different chemical and thereby capture the CO2. So I can say that on average, a single CarbinX™ unit will reduce between six to eight metric tons per year or the equivalent of 300 trees. The units are about the size of two refrigerator back to back. They slide into mechanical room, they get planted on the floor and then it's commissioned and away we go and then in two weeks time technician goes back because they're there for their preventative maintenance anyway, they do the collection of potassium carbonate. That gets brought back to our facility here where then it's turned into all of the soap and detergent products.
We never intended to be a soap manufacturer. We recognize that one of the things that we needed to do was engage the public. The interesting thing about the chemical that we were producing is that it was used in the soap and detergent industry. So we thought well let's make a few batches of substance. We have a tangible good that we can share with people and it took off. We went from making a few batches in my kitchen with my wife to now having an entire factory floor that builds and makes Cold Process soaps.
"We're capturing carbon, we're converting it into consumer goods."
The money that we generate from this chemical that we're producing is given as a rebate back to our customers. The big vision for CleanO2 is to decarbonize not minimal greenhouse gas emissions. The cost to sacrifice the time with my family is a tough sacrifice. One of the greatest joys for me is being a dad, love my son and my wife. The hope is that we can help reduce emissions so that all of this will be worth something. I do believe that there is some inspiration that I can generate. I want my son to see his dad trying so that he can try and can then grab the torch when I can't carry it anymore and go off to try to make the world a better place.