#15 Carbon Crusher

Building carbon negative roads

Read time: 5 minutes

Hi, I’m Javi Gascón.

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Today we’ll distill a company that created a road repair process that uses recycled asphalt combined with a plant-based adhesive that is faster, cheaper, and actually sequesters carbon: Carbon Crusher ????

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What Problem Does Carbon Crusher Tackle?

They deal with the many-sided problem of road maintenance and its environmental impact. So what are these issues?

1. Environmental Impact: Building a one lane mile of urban highway generates approximately 3,500 tons of CO2 over a 50 year period. There’s over 64 million kilometers…Most of those emissions come from the materials and the fuel consumed by all the transportation and equipment.

2. Infrastructure Costs and Deterioration: Repaving a road can cost over $1 million per km. Damage is widespread, with 1 out of every 5 miles of highway or major road in the United States being in poor condition.

3. Durability and Maintenance Needs: Traditional roads require frequent repairs, which further increases the carbon footprint associated with road maintenance.

Basically, we need a more sustainable, cost-effective, and durable approach to road construction and maintenance.

Product / Service ??

Carbon Crusher transforms existing roads into carbon-negative infrastructures through a innovative process . Let me explain:

Recycled Materials: The process uses a specialized crusher machine to break down old road materials on-site, which are then mixed with a plant-based adhesive, such as bio binders derived from the forestry industry or lignin from trees. This eliminates the need for new raw materials and reduces transportation costs and emissions.

Carbon Sequestration: The bio binders naturally sequester carbon dioxide, making the roads carbon-negative. 51 tons of CO2 are sequestered per mile of road repaired!

Cost and Time Efficiency: The method is up to 30% faster and 20% cheaper than traditional road-building methods.

New Roads: Their main focus is road rehabilitation (hence their philosophy "The world doesn't necessarily need new roads, it needs better roads"), but the bio binder can also be used for making new roads.

Durability: The treated roads are 40-70% stronger and have a longer lifespan, reducing maintenance costs and the need for frequent repairs.

Predictive Maintenance: Carbon Crusher's Sky Roads software enables real-time monitoring and predictive maintenance with AI, ensuring optimal road upkeep.

If this isn’t a game-changer for a massive industry, I don’t know what is.

Market ??

The global road construction market was valued at approximately $1.4 trillion in 2023. The segment focused on sustainable and carbon-negative road technologies is way smaller, but it’s growing rapidly due to increasing environmental regulations and consumer demand.

Just remember… there are over 64 million kms of roads requiring regular maintenance.

Other Key Players

SONIA Green Technology ????: They use patented technology to modify polymers for easy and fast dispersion in asphalt and spray seal applications.

The Climate Change Company ????: Developed “Littar” technology that converts plastic and glass waste into an eco-friendly alternative for traditional asphalt used in road foundations.

Driven Plastics ????: They upcycle plastic waste and use it to improve the quality and cost of asphalt.

Founding Story ??

Carbon Crusher was founded in 2021 by Haakon Brunell, Hans Arne Fl?to, and Kristoffer Roil. Haakon Brunell, the CEO, is a serial impact-tech entrepreneur and also co-founded and led Katapult, a prominent impact accelerator in Scandinavia.

Hans Arne Fl?to, the COO, has extensive experience in various industries, including defense, energy, and electronics, and has founded over 20 companies. Kristoffer Roil, a passionate tech entrepreneur, has been involved in several successful startups and exits since 2005 and is an angel investor in numerous companies.

All of them were driven by a shared goal to combat climate change through innovative solutions. What’s funny is Hans Arne had actually created the first road using their method 14 years ago in his hometown, which served as proof of concept when the three founders later came together.

In 2022 they received some funding from Y combinator and in 2024 they raised $15 million from Lowercarbon Capital . Quite impressive for a 3 year old company.

Top Impact Stats ??

1. They’ve sequestered more than 10,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide through refurbishing 1.5 million square meters of roads.
2. Their process has achieved a carbon-negative impact of 150 tonnes of CO2 per mile of road, combining both carbon sequestration and emission reduction.
3. The Carbon Crusher machine can sequester 2 tons of CO? per hour.

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Thanks for reading today’s issue! If you liked it feel free to hit the ?? button and share it with someone who might like it too. See you next Sunday :)