CE-TEK Secures 900 Million KRW Pre-Series A Funding to Advance Carbon Capture Technology

CE-TEK Secures 900 Million KRW Pre-Series A Funding to Advance Carbon Capture Technology

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South Korean wet carbon capture startup CE-TEK has secured 900 million KRW in pre-series A funding from Korea Investment Accelerator. This marks CE-TEK’s first funding round, reflecting high regard for its technology aimed at addressing the climate crisis. CE-TEK was established in December 2020 to commercialize wet carbon capture technology developed through the Korea CCS 2020 project, promoted by the Ministry of Science and ICT for over a decade. In its early days, the company built its research infrastructure with support from SK E&S’s co-prosperity fund and is conducting joint research with SK E&S.

CE-TEK has developed two types of absorbent technologies optimized for varying CO2 concentrations in exhaust gases. The company owns the core technology for MABSol®, suitable for high-concentration CO2 conditions from coal-fired power plants, cement, steel, and chemical manufacturing, and for CT-1®, optimized for low-concentration CO2 conditions from natural gas power plants and ship exhaust gases.

Although wet carbon capture technology is known to be the closest to commercialization, it has been criticized for its high energy requirements for absorbent regeneration. CE-TEK’s MABSol® and CT-1® are innovative absorbents designed with a low-water concept, reducing the regeneration energy needed to separate the absorbent from CO2 by 40-45% compared to commercial absorbents (MEA 30wt%). This performance has been demonstrated in a 0.5MW pilot plant at Taean Seobu Power Plant and a 0.7MW pilot plant at the University of Kentucky’s CAER in the United States.

Additionally, CE-TEK has developed simulation technology that can propose process designs tailored to various CO2 concentrations and emission scales in industrial sites, optimized for these absorbents.

With this investment, CE-TEK plans to accelerate pilot demonstration research for ship carbon capture, build a mobile process for the commercialization of its technology for various exhaust gas sources, and establish an international cooperation network to explore the global market.

Nam Woo-hyun, an investment officer at Korea Investment Accelerator who led this investment, said, “The demand for carbon-neutral technology to combat the climate crisis is rising globally, along with IMO(International Maritime Organization) regulations and the EU’s CBAM(Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism). CE-TEK has demonstrated its potential to solve economic issues, a major challenge in the wet carbon capture technology field, through its performance in the 0.7MW facility in the United States, which was evaluated by leading global competitors. We expect rapid global growth for the company.”

Lee Kwang-soon, CEO of CE-TEK, stated, “Next year, we will successfully promote the pilot demonstration of ship carbon capture in collaboration with HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering and Hyundai Heavy Industries Power Systems, challenging the ship carbon capture market. Additionally, we will accelerate the application of the CT-1® absorbent to natural gas power generation through collaborative research with the University of Texas, which has the world’s leading carbon research foundation.”

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