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CleanO2 Carbon Capture Technologies Inc.

Calgary

Jaeson Cardiff is a plumber and gas fitter by trade who started his company, CleanO2, developing technology to strip carbon dioxide from furnaces. Now he is marketing soap with natural ingredients to some of Canada’s best-known retailers.

The two go hand in hand. The reaction unit Mr. Cardiff invented removes carbon from the flue exhaust of commercial boilers, and, using heat, the reactor produces potassium carbonate.

The company mixes the white, powdery substance into its lines of soaps and cleaners, with benefits similar to a water softener.

The soap started as a novel marketing tool, but that changed quickly, as the company realized retailers and consumers liked the products.

“I had multiple conversations with Kathi Fischer, our chief science officer, saying something to the effect of, ‘We’re never going to be a soap company. I don’t want to be a soap company. We’re a carbon capture company. We will not make soap,’ ” Mr. Cardiff said. “Now we’re making soap.”

The liquid hand soap and body bars have names such as Wilderness Lager, Spearmint & Clay and Mulled Merlot, and the company produces car wash detergent.

“You’d have to be fools not to notice attraction of a product made from carbon that was sequestered from a heating appliance. And you have to be even bigger fools not to modify your business strategy to incorporate that,” he said in CleanO2’s fragrant East Calgary office and manufacturing centre.

Besides removing CO2, the reaction unit, called CARBiN-X, also provides more efficiency to buildings by generating its own heat that can be used for water.

A single unit, which is about the size of a couple of refrigerators side by side, removes six to eight tonnes of carbon a year.

Mr. Cardiff developed the first units 15 years ago for home use. The technology worked, but the business didn’t.

The breakthrough came with the decision by the founders to increase the size of the reactors for commercial operations, such as businesses and hotels, and make a viable product with the residue.

CleanO2 has carbon capture units set up at sites across Canada, as well as locations in United States and Japan. Eventually, it plans to set up soap manufacturing at those sites as well, partly to reduce the CO2 emitted during shipping.

One hotel in Minneapolis uses CleanO2’s technology to scrub the carbon from its furnace, and puts the soap products in its rooms, effectively closing the CO2 loop.

Canadian Tire, Sobeys and Safeway, as well as Walmart’s Canadian e-commerce site, are among retailers that already carry CleanO2’s soaps.

Power companies such as Fortis BC and Atco Ltd. also purchase the products. CleanO2 is just at the start of an expansion that will see it go from shipping 5,000 units to 100,000 units over the next three months.

Now, Mr. Cardiff says he expects the company to be financially self-sustaining in the next two to three months.

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2021-07-31T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-07-31T07:00:00.0000000Z

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