Solidec is capturing yesterday’s emissions and generating tomorrow’s fuels. The company extracts molecular building blocks from water and air, then upgrades them into pure chemicals and fuels without carbon emissions. Solidec’s mission is to reverse decades of emissions and produce sustainable chemicals and fuels for years to come.
FELLOWS
Ryan DuChanois
Ryan DuChanois is the co-founder and CEO of Solidec, a Houston-based startup redefining chemical manufacturing. DuChanois has spent his career developing and deploying technologies around the globe. He previously completed a master’s degree in sustainability at Cambridge University, a Ph.D. in engineering at Yale University, and postdoctoral training at Rice University. He has published 20 peer-reviewed articles and received numerous awards, including the Gates Cambridge Scholarship and NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.
Yang Xia
Yang Xia is the co-founder and CTO of Solidec, a climate-tech company developing a next-generation electrolyzer that extracts molecular building blocks from air and water, and then upgrades them into emission-free chemicals and fuels. Xia completed a B.S. at Northwestern University and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering at Rice University. He is an electrochemistry and reactor design expert with over five years of experience in carbon capture and chemical synthesis.
TECHNOLOGY
Critical Need
Chemical manufacturing, as performed today, endangers human and environmental health. Synthesizing, distributing, and storing chemicals requires costly risk mitigation (at best) or produces tragic accidents (at worst). Chemical and petrochemical products also account for over 40 percent of industrial carbon emissions because they use fossil resources as an energy source and feedstock. Fossil-free methods for chemical production at the point of use, on the other hand, could lead to a chemical industry that is more safe and sustainable.
Technology Vision
Solidec has developed a platform of technologies for manufacturing chemicals and fuels using only air, water, and renewable electricity. In doing so, they can produce chemicals and fuels nearly anywhere in the world without carbon emissions. By decentralizing and decarbonizing the production of chemicals and fuels, Solidec is reducing the hazards and costs associated with production today. Over the long run, Solidec aims to redefine manufacturing for a host of chemicals and fuels, ranging from hydrogen peroxide to aviation fuels.
Potential for Impact
With their innovation, Solidec can potentially prevent tragic chemical accidents and produce emission-free chemicals and fuels. Their solution reduces carbon emissions of chemical production through direct CO2 removal from the atmosphere as well as abatement of conventional production. Consequently, Solidec offers a pathway to considerably reducing industrial carbon emissions. They are on a mission to abate one gigaton of CO2 annually by 2050 to minimize climate impacts as quickly as possible.
Website
Solidec