Mantel Capture is a deep-tech climate company commercializing a fundamentally new approach to point-source carbon capture for heavy industry. Spun out of Professor Alan Hatton's lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the company has developed a carbon capture system built around molten borates - the only known high-temperature, liquid-phase CO2 capture material. This allows Mantel to capture carbon dioxide directly at the high temperatures found inside industrial equipment such as boilers, kilns, and furnaces, something that has not been practical with existing technologies.
The key advantage of operating at high temperature is energy efficiency. Conventional carbon capture relies on amine solvents that work at low temperatures and impose a large energy penalty to regenerate the sorbent and release captured CO2. Because Mantel's molten borate system absorbs CO2 at high temperatures, it recovers high-grade heat during absorption that can offset much of the energy needed for regeneration. The company says this can cut the cost of carbon capture by more than half compared with the most mature amine-based systems, making decarbonization far more affordable for hard-to-abate industrial sectors.
Mantel targets some of the largest and most difficult sources of industrial emissions, including cement and lime kilns, natural gas and coal power generation, combined heat and power systems, and bioenergy facilities. These sectors are notoriously challenging to decarbonize because their emissions are intrinsic to high-temperature industrial processes, making an efficient, retrofittable capture technology especially valuable. The company's goal is to enable affordable, reliable, clean energy and industrial production by capturing CO2 at the source.
Founded by Cameron Halliday (CEO), Danielle Rapson, and Sean Robertson, Mantel raised a $30 million Series A in September 2024, co-led by Shell Ventures and Eni Next, with participation from Engine Ventures, New Climate Ventures, Hartree, bp Ventures, Arosa Ventures, Vale Ventures, Newlab, and MCJ Collective. The funding supports a demonstration project at an industrial site and paves the way for full-scale commercial deployment.