Carbon Upcycling Technologies (“CUT”) was formed to use the pollution of today to build the materials of tomorrow by converting CO2 gas into solid products. CUT sells advanced solid products derived from greenhouse emissions and cheaply available solids. Since 2014, CUT has scaled its ability to capture CO2 emissions from point sources, such as power plants, by over a million times. Through its portfolio of CO2-derived solid nanoparticles, CUT has technically validated its solutions for use in the plastics, coatings, epoxy, adhesives, concrete, lithium-ion battery, pharmaceutical industries, and consumer products.

CUT commercialized a corrosion-resistant coating, utilizing its nanoparticles, in 2017, becoming the youngest CO2 utilization company to generate commercial revenue (<2.5 years since inception) and has since been confirmed as one of the top CO2 utilization companies in the world as one of the 10 Carbon XPRIZE Finalists. CUT’s enhanced Supplementary Cementitious Materials improve the compressive strength of concrete by 40%, allowing for a greater substitution of emission intensive materials with CO2-embedded alternatives.

Cemex first invested in Carbon Upcycling in February 2022, but has been working with the carbon utilization company to support their scale-up since early 2020. In June of 2022, the companies began working to establish the world’s first commercial-scale plant that produces cement additives by sequestering CO₂ in glass byproducts. This project, located at Cemex’s Rugby cement plant, is expected to sequester over 1,600 metric tons of CO₂ annually and was awarded £2.3 million in funding from UK Research and Innovation.

In July 2023, Cemex Ventures increased its stake in Carbon Upcycling. Cemex aims to roll out additional carbon mitigation projects in partnership with Carbon Upcycling in selected cement plants across Cemex’s EMEAA, U.S., and Mexico operations.