Twelve
Carbon transformation
Twelve, the carbon transformation company, is a new kind of chemical company built for a world battling against climate change. Its breakthrough technology eliminates emissions by turning CO2 into essential products that today are made from fossil fuels. They call it carbon transformation. Indeed, by regenerating carbon into a range of new fuels and materials, Twelve is reinventing what it means to be a chemical company, on a mission to create a climate positive world and a fossil free future.
Twelve is a chemical technology company based in Berkeley, California. They develop technology to convert CO2 into profitable chemicals, such as plastics and transportation fuels. Currently, the company uses metal catalysts to produce synthetic gas (syngas), methane, and ethylene.
Originally launched under the name Obtainium in 2014, and later known as Opus 12, Twelve was officially founded in 2015 by Dr. Kendra Kuhl, Dr. Etosha Cave, and Nicholas Flanders.
The company was part of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s first Cyclotron Road cohort, an incubator program that aids in the creation of environmentally beneficial companies. Since then, it has won multiple awards including the Keeling Curve prize, Ocean Exchange’s WW Orcelle award, the Roddenberry prize, and Forbes’ Change the World competition.
In 2021, Twelve received $57 million in series A funding, the company has also received funding through SBIR grants for projects involving CO2 conversion. This includes generating products such as carbon monoxide, polyethylene, ethanol, ethylene, methane, and jet fuel.
Nicholas Flanders describes the company’s technology as “industrial photosynthesis” to create jet fuel and diesel from carbon dioxide. Their technology has been shown to convert CO2 from raw biogas into carbon neutral methane.
Twelve utilizes polymer electrolyte membrane electrolysis, which splits apart water molecules into its component pieces (O2, electrons, and hydrogen ions) via the application of electricity. By adding a catalyst to the cathode, they are able to split up CO2 into CO and O2
In February 2020, Twelve partnered with Mercedes and Trinseo to create the world’s first C–pillar made with polycarbonate from CO2 electrolysis.
In June 2020, the company partnered with SoCalGas and PG&E to advance their technology for use with CO2 present in biogas, which comes from sources such as landfills, sewage, and dairy farms. This gas, produced by the anaerobic breakdown of wastes, contains roughly 60% methane and 40% CO2; testing is being performed with the goal of achieving high conversion efficiency for long periods of time.
In September 2021 Twelve partnered with LanzaTech to create polypropylene, a commonly used plastic which is traditionally produced from fossil fuels; this is the first time that polypropylene was made from CO2.
Twelve plans to scale up their technology to an industrial-sized shipping container, which would enable them to produce larger quantities of product.