Episode 3: Removing Carbon Dioxide: One Vodka Bottle At A Time

A total of 36573 Metric tons of Carbon dioxide or CO2 were emitted into the atmosphere in 2018. CO2emissions are primarily due to combustion of fossil fuels. CO2 traps the heat from the sun and raises the temperature of the Earth. This process is called global warming and has bad consequences. To tackle this challenge, 195 countries of the world signed the Paris Agreement in 2015. One of the key goals of the agreement was to reduce CO2 emissions by 20% in 2020 compared to 1990 levels. While the efforts of individual countries to attain this goal is unclear, there is one company in New York that aims to remove CO2, one vodka bottle at a time. Founded in 2017 by Dr. Staff Sheehan and Dr. Gregory Constantine, Air Co. “transforms carbon dioxide from the air into the purest alcohols on the planet”. The company was a finalist in the $20M NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE, a global competition to develop breakthrough technologies that will convert CO2 emissions into valuable products. Today, we are joined by Dr. Staff Sheehan, the CTO of Air Co. Staff has a PhD in Chemical Physics from Yale University. Staff is a serial entrepreneur and is one of the co-founders of Dream8, Catalytic Innovations and more recently, Air Co. Staff has won numerous recognitions, including the Forbes 30 Under 30 All-Star Alumni, EarthX 30 under 30: The Green Generation and the Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN) Magazine’s Talented 12.