The Climate Tech Podcast with Fexingo: Energy, Sustainability, and Decarbonization Companies

In this episode of The Climate Tech Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore how a small startup called Fungalytics is using specially engineered fungi to degrade polypropylene plastic — one of the most common and hardest-to-recycle plastics. They dive into the science: how the fungus produces enzymes that break down polymer chains at room temperature, the pilot plant in Ohio that processes 10 tons of plas...

Episode 102 of The Climate Tech Podcast explores a surprising use for captured carbon: synthetic diamonds. Lucas and Luna dive into how one startup, Aether Diamonds, is pulling CO2 directly from the air and using it to grow gem-quality diamonds in a reactor. Unlike mined diamonds or even other lab-grown diamonds that use methane feedstocks, Aether's process is carbon-negative per carat. They discu...

Concrete is everywhere — but its production generates about eight percent of global CO2 emissions. In this episode of Climate Tech Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore how a new generation of startups is turning concrete from a carbon source into a carbon sink. They look at one company in particular: CarbonCure, which injects captured CO2 into fresh concrete, where it mineralizes and stays permanently....

In this milestone 100th episode, Lucas and Luna explore an emerging frontier in carbon removal: direct ocean capture. They focus on one startup, Ebb Carbon, which uses an electrochemical process to remove CO2 from seawater while producing hydrogen as a byproduct. Lucas explains the chemistry—how the process creates an acid and a base stream, with the base being returned to the ocean to absorb more...

Episode 99 of The Climate Tech Podcast explores thermoelectric generators — devices that convert waste heat from industrial processes into usable electricity. Lucas and Luna dive into a specific startup, Heat2Power, which has deployed its solid-state modules at a German steel mill, capturing 500 °C exhaust heat to generate 1.2 megawatts of power. The conversation covers the physics of the Seebeck...

Episode 98 of The Climate Tech Podcast explores the growing challenge of solar panel waste and the startups turning it into a resource. Lucas and Luna dig into the numbers: by 2030, the world will have generated over 8 million metric tons of decommissioned panels. They profile one company, SolarCycle, that has developed a process to recover 95% of the materials — including silver and high-purity s...

Episode 97 of The Climate Tech Podcast explores a surprising solution to synthetic fertilizer's massive carbon footprint: desert algae. Lucas and Luna dive into how one startup is harvesting extremophile microalgae from the Sahara and turning it into a biological nitrogen fertilizer that could slash agricultural emissions by 30 percent. They break down the science — desert algae fix nitrogen witho...

Fresh water is becoming one of the most valuable resources on a warming planet. This episode drills into how one startup, Source Global, has developed hydropanels that pull water vapor from the air using only sunlight. Lucas and Luna break down the technology—a hygroscopic material that absorbs moisture overnight, then uses solar heat to release it as liquid water—and the economics: the panels cos...

Carbon offsets have a trust problem: buyers pay for credits, but how do they know the trees are still standing? In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how one startup uses satellite imagery and machine learning to verify carbon projects in real time. They unpack the scale of the voluntary carbon market — a two-billion-dollar market growing at over 20 percent annually — and how AI can spot over-cr...

Lucas and Luna dive into the emerging market for blue carbon credits, focusing on mangrove restoration as a nature-based climate solution. They explore how projects in Indonesia and Kenya are generating verified carbon offsets, why blue carbon is valued higher than forestry credits, and the challenges of measuring and monetizing coastal ecosystem restoration. The episode examines the economics, ve...

Lucas and Luna explore why a growing number of property developers and cities are mandating all-electric buildings instead of buying offsets. They walk through a specific case: a 12-story mixed-use building in Denver that chose heat pumps, induction stoves, and battery storage over gas connections — and saved $700,000 in upfront utility costs. They discuss how the Inflation Reduction Act's rebates...

Episode 92 of The Climate Tech Podcast dives into a surprising climate solution: enhanced rock weathering. Lucas and Luna explore how a Canadian startup called Carbin Minerals is taking mining tailings—waste rock from copper and nickel mines—and accelerating their natural ability to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere. The episode centers on a single mine in British Columbia where the company has deplo...

Lucas and Luna dive into the world of methane pyrolysis, focusing on a startup that captures methane from landfills and converts it into hydrogen and solid carbon — avoiding CO2 emissions entirely. They walk through the technology, the economics, and why this approach could complement green and blue hydrogen. Specific numbers include the startup's pilot plant producing 1.5 tons of hydrogen per day...

In this episode of The Climate Tech Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore a surprising source of renewable fuel: the spent coffee grounds from your morning espresso. They dive into the story of Bio-bean, a UK startup that collects coffee waste from cafes and office buildings and turns it into a biodiesel blend that powers London's double-decker buses. Lucas explains the chemistry—how oil is extracted fr...

Methane from livestock manure is 80 times more potent than CO2 over 20 years. But instead of letting it escape into the atmosphere, a growing number of dairy farms are capturing it and upgrading it into pipeline-grade renewable natural gas, or RNG. In this episode, Lucas and Luna dive into the story of Brightmark, a startup that builds anaerobic digesters on large dairy farms, turning a pollution...

Seasonal thermal energy storage could reshape how we heat buildings. Lucas and Luna dig into Polar Night Energy, a Finnish startup that builds giant sand batteries — silos of heated sand that store solar and wind heat from summer for use in winter. They explore the physics of thermal storage at grid scale, the cost advantage over lithium-ion for heat, and the real-world test in a small Finnish tow...

Episode 87 of The Climate Tech Podcast dives into a surprising climate solution: feeding livestock methane-derived protein. Lucas and Luna explore the startup Calysta, which uses natural gas fermentation to produce FeedKind — a protein powder that replaces soy and fishmeal. They break down the numbers: soy farming drives deforestation and emits roughly 250 million metric tons of CO2 annually, whil...

Episode 86 of The Climate Tech Podcast. Lucas and Luna look at ground-source heat pumps — a decades-old technology that's suddenly cost-competitive thanks to a new generation of compact drilling rigs and federal tax credits. They focus on Dandelion Energy, a startup spun out of Google's parent company Alphabet, which has drilled over 4,000 residential geothermal systems in the Northeast U.S. The h...

Steelmaking accounts for roughly 7 percent of global carbon emissions, and the conventional blast furnace process is notoriously hard to clean up. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how green hydrogen is beginning to replace coke as the reducing agent in steel production, with a focus on the HYBRIT project in Sweden and the startup H2 Green Steel. They break down the chemistry, the economics,...

Episode 84 of The Climate Tech Podcast explores a surprising new player in sustainable aviation fuel: algae. Lucas and Luna dive into the science and economics behind one startup's pilot facility in Texas, which claims it can produce drop-in jet fuel at under $3 per gallon by 2028. They discuss why previous algae-to-fuel attempts failed in the 2010s, how this company's proprietary strain and conti...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna dig into the emerging industry of vermicomposting at scale — using earthworms to process agricultural waste into high-quality organic fertilizer. They profile a California-based startup, Worm Power Inc., that processes 50,000 tons of dairy manure annually and sells its castings at a premium to vineyards and organic farms. Lucas explains the market inefficiency: synt...

Episode 82 of The Climate Tech Podcast explores how advanced software platforms are enabling real-time optimization of the electricity grid. Lucas and Luna dive into the specific case of startup 'GridAI' (a composite example), which uses machine learning to balance supply and demand across thousands of distributed energy resources like solar panels, batteries, and electric vehicle chargers. They d...

When Hurricane Ian hit Florida in 2022, Babcock Ranch — a town powered by a solar-plus-storage microgrid — never lost power while millions around it sat in the dark. In this episode, Lucas and Luna dig into the microgrid revolution, focusing on how a single Florida community became the proof-of-concept for resilient, decentralized energy. They break down the economics: Babcock Ranch's microgrid, b...

Concrete is responsible for roughly 8 percent of global CO2 emissions — more than aviation and shipping combined. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how one startup is tackling that problem by recycling demolition waste into new concrete that actually absorbs carbon as it cures. They break down the chemistry behind carbon-negative aggregate, the economics of selling a material that costs more...

Episode 79 of The Climate Tech Podcast explores how a startup called Electrode leverages artificial intelligence to dynamically match wind farm output with hydrogen electrolyzers, solving the intermittency problem that has long plagued green hydrogen. Lucas and Luna dive into the technical details of how the AI predicts wind patterns hours ahead and adjusts electrolyzer load in real time, cutting...