Octavia Carbon is a young start-up based in Nairobi, Kenya with the ultimate goal of capturing carbon dioxide from the air.
The company’s ambition is to fight climate change and end the use of fossil fuels.
The technology proposed by the start-up consists of extracting CO2 from the ambient air, filtering it, and then storing it underground permanently or reusing it.
One of the engineers working for Octavia Carbon explained that the machine takes CO2 from the ambient air using a fan before it is filtered through a chemical filter to extract the carbon dioxide from the air.
The carbon dioxide-free air is then released and the extracted CO2 is stored in tanks.
The tonnes of CO2 extracted per year can be used for sparkling drinks or to reinforce building materials.
CEO Martin Freimüller said that several European and American companies have placed orders for the machine, which costs about $30,000.
Another ambition of the company is to use the tons of CO2 extracted in the generation of electricity from geothermal energy.
Therefore, the choice of Kenya for Octavia Carbon was not a coincidence, according to Martin Freimüller, the motivation is rather environmental, especially since in 2021, almost 90% of the electricity was of renewable origin.