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Past Fortnightly

CO2 Transformation Using Electrochemistry to Reduce GHG Emissions Within Supply Chains: A Q&A with Dr. Etosha Cave

October 19, 2021

We need to reduce carbon emissions to zero in the near future. But today, we extract hydrocarbons out of the ground only to burn them and release the waste carbon into the atmosphere – and then dig up more carbon. How could a net-zero carbon economy actually work?

Enter Twelve, a company building technology to transform CO₂ emissions into the building blocks for essential products that are currently made from fossil fuels. Now, instead of using fossil carbon to make everyday products – such as sunglasses, clothing, and liquid fuels – we can use industrial carbon from CO₂ emissions.

In this Q&A, Twelve Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Etosha Cave will talk about CO2, electrochemistry, and entrepreneurship. She will talk about the origins of Twelve, developing early-stage technology, and how they leveraged public-private partnerships to build a carbontech company.

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    Guest bio

    Dr. Etosha Cave

    Dr. Etosha Cave

    Co-founder and CSO of Twelve

    Dr. Etosha Cave is co-founder and CSO of Twelve, a new kind of chemical company built for the climate era that is making everyday products from air, not oil. Etosha earned a B.S. in engineering from Franklin W. Olin College as a member of the first class. She subsequently worked at the McMurdo Station in Antarctica, where she tested a spectroscopy system that was being designed for a NASA Rover mission. She went on to earn a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Stanford University. Etosha is an Accel Innovation Scholar, an Echoing Green Fellow, and a Smithsonian Institution Innovator to Watch. Twelve was supported in their seed stage by Activate with an entrepreneurial fellowship at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and by Elemental Excelerator.

    Co-hosts - Meet our field experts.

    • Dr. Austin Sendek

      Dr. Austin Sendek

      CEO Aionics