GREEN METHANOL FOR A FOSSIL-FREE FUTURE

We’re developing an ultra-efficient catalysis to mass-produce green methanol —
enabling the shipping and chemical industry to save gigatons of CO2

WE CAN SAVE GIGATONS OF CO2 WITH GREEN METHANOL

Fossil-free produced green methanol is key to decarbonizing the shipping and chemical industry.

In shipping today, green methanol is the most tangible carbon-neutral fuel alternative to oil. Replacing oil as shipping fuel will save several gigatons of CO2 every year. Green methanol can also replace oil, gas, and coal as a non-fossil carbon source in the chemical industry, resulting in similar CO2 savings.

GREEN METHANOL PRODUCTION IS THE BOTTLENECK TODAY

To make green methanol — in sufficient amounts and at a competitive price — we have to fundamentally re-invent its production.

Large-scale methanol production today relies on a century-old, maxed-out, high-emission catalysis process. This process is so energy-intensive that it is only economically viable in large-scale plants using cheap gas and coal. It is ill-suited for a more decentralized, flexible production needed to tap into green feedstock sources.

Replacing gas and coal with non-fossil feedstocks without changing the production process would make green methanol expensive and economically unattractive.
Atom Visualization

OUR BREAKTHROUGH

A NEW, Ultra-efficient Catalysis
for HIGH-PURITY green methanol

100% fossil free. Competitively priced. Decentralized production.
Atmon visual
3D Rendering of C1 reactor

Using quantum-chemical simulations and lab experiments, we invented a new ultra-efficient catalysis for green methanol.

It enables the mass-production of high-purity green methanol at a competitive price — using decentralized, non-fossil feedstock, low pressures, and low temperatures at any plant scale.

Combined with a cutting-edge, containerized design the C1-reactor makes decentralized green methanol production possible almost anywhere.

C1-CATALYSIS HIGHLIGHTS

HIGHLY-SELECTIVE CATALYST
eliminates unwanted byproducts
Pressure and Energy Reduction
lowers the green premium
EXCELLENT PRODUCTIVITY
enables a
“once-through“ production process
CONTAINERIZED REACTOR DESIGN
provides a decentralized application
HIGH FLEXIBILITY
allows for load balancing operations
TOLERANCE FOR SYNGAS IMPURITIES
enables the use of non-fossil feedstocks

Want more details about the C1-Catalysis process?

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OUR IMPACT

ENABLING A CIRCULAR METHANOL ECONOMY

The ecological impact of our technology is huge: It enables methanol production that locks the carbon used in a continuous cycle instead of adding it into the atmosphere. This empowers industries using green methanol to reach net-zero emissions and save gigatons of CO2.

Existing non-fossil carbon sources — like waste biomass or, in the future, carbon captured from the atmosphere — are converted into syngas

Even if the resulting methanol is burned, it does not add additional CO2 into the atmosphere

Our flexible, decentralized reactor uses our patented C1-Catalysis to synthesize methanol at a lower pressure and heat

The resulting high-purity green methanol is competitively priced and ready for industrial use

Our impact assessment from our investor Planet A Ventures

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OUR MISSION

Re-inventing methanol for a fossil-free future

Carbon One Team The C1 Team

The challenge that lies in front of us is enormous but not insurmountable. However, we need to move fast. In 2021, mankind emitted 36 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.

To secure a future for our children, we have to break our dependency on oil, gas, and coal to cut carbon emissions to net zero by 2050.
Green methanol in the heart of a circular carbon economy can help us achieve this by providing hard-to-abate industries a way to defossilize.  

That is why we are re-inventing every production step from the atomic scale up to the industrial scale. For our planet. And for our children.


MANAGEMENT BOARD

Christian Vollmann

Chief Executive Officer

Christian is a passionate entrepreneur. He has built several companies from zero to successful exit, including a listing on the NYSE. His three kids challenge him to go from contributor to climate change to becoming part of the solution. Christian is dedicated to make a significant contribution to the 1.5 degrees goal of the Paris climate agreement.

Dr. Marek Checinski

Chief Scientific Officer

Marek discovered his enthusiasm for natural sciences already as a teenager. He gained early laboratory experience at Lise-Meitner School of Science. After studying chemistry at the Humboldt University of Berlin and earning his doctorate in catalysis at the Leibniz Institute for Catalysis (LIKAT), he recognized early on the importance of quantum mechanical simulations for the future of chemical research. He established CreativeQuantum GmbH, one of the world's leading service providers in this field. Marek is the inventor of C1 technology and uses his pioneering know-how at C1 purposefully to develop climate-friendly chemical processes.

Dr. Ralph Krähnert

Chief Technology Officer

Ralph is passionate about scientific knowledge and its technical application. As a habilitated engineer (LIKAT, TU Berlin and BasCat), he develops novel catalyst technologies. His contribution to the success of the green transition are novel electrodes for efficient water electrolysis as well as catalysts for the direct conversion of hydrogen into chemical storage molecules.

Dr. Christoph Zehe

Chief Commercial Officer

Christoph is a sustainable technology enthusiast. Holding a PhD in chemistry, he developed lithium-ion batteries at Bosch and Continental before consulting companies in cleantech and climate change at Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Christoph’s vision is to contribute to climate protection by developing and implementing sound technological solutions.

Haik Mehmke

Chief Financial Officer

Haik understands how to finance and commercialize first of it‘s kind technologies – based on his US clean tech start-up and blue chip global industry leader experience. He strongly believes that the most efficient way to fight climate change is to leverage deep technology and world-class know-how.

TEAM

Lisa Suntrup

Catalysis Laboratory

Lisa's goal is to contribute to a successful energy transition with her experience in homogeneous catalysis and sustainable processes. As a chemist in our catalysis lab, she tests and optimises reaction conditions.

Akash Kaithal

Catalysis Laboratory

Akash has gained extensive experience in homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis, mainly focusing on sustainable chemistry under high pressure conditions. As a chemist in our catalysis lab, he now optimizes the reaction under mild reaction conditions.

Daniel Franz

Synthesis Laboratory

As a chemist in our synthesis lab, Daniel improves our technology and builds the catalysts of the future. His research interest has always been catalysis under mild conditions with environmentally friendly systems.

Reike Clauss

Synthesis Laboratory

As a chemist, Reike is responsible for scaling up and optimising our catalyst synthesis. His research horizon ranges from organometallic catalysis to phosphorus chemistry and environmental chemistry.

Timo Wiegner

Chemical-Technical Assistant

Timo successfully completed not only one apprenticeship, but two. He is both a chemical-technical assistant and a mechatronics engineer, making him the Swiss army knife in the C1 laboratory when it comes to technology.

Wenke Radmer

People & Culture

As a business psychologist, Wenke is passionate about working with people. She supports C1 in all things that move us forward as a team.

Hamid Reza Godini

Chemical Engineering

Hamid has extensive experience as a group leader in sustainable process design. With his creative and interdisciplinary attitude, he develops and implements the process concepts in the C1 engineering team.

Felix Pohl

Process Engineering

In the process engineering laboratory, Felix is the link between the chemistry and the technical process. He acquired his skills at BasCat, where he modified a catalytic miniplant for a novel process.

Stephan Ost

Chemical Engineering

Stephan considers himself a problem solver, whether it's calculation errors in the heavy equipment, scorched components in the prototype, delivery bottlenecks or emotional support for colleagues. Always with his sleeves rolled up and getting his hands dirty, but preferably in a good team.

Daniel Haßkerl

Process automation

Daniel is a process control engineer trained in different areas ranging from process automation to data analytics. He acquired his degree at TU Dortmund and makes sure that our plants are operated optimally.

Julius von der Ohe

Strategy

Julius ambition is to get sound ideas to reality. With a PhD in physics, he led the design and implementation of strategic programs at NOW GmbH to enable innovation and technology scale-up. This experience he contributes to C1 strategy now.

Thorsten Rösler

Pilot project chemistry

Thorsten developed and piloted advanced homogeneous catalysis technologies during his PhD. At C1 he transfers our novel reaction from laboratory scale to our first industrial pilot project.

SUPERVISORY BOARD

Dirk Radzinski

Chairman of the Board

Dirk is CEO and Co-founder of xolo GmbH, deeply rooted in photochemistry excellence. He is a deep science serial entrepreneur and shaped the initial vision of C1 together with Marek. Dirk has a clear focus on translating excellence in science into reality and combining the execution and scaling speed of start-ups with the brain power and thoughtfulness of scientists.

Dr. Jürgen Hambrecht

Vice Chairman of the Board

Jürgen Hambrecht obtained his doctorate in Chemistry in 1975 from the University of Tübingen, Germany and worked for BASF for more than 45 years in various roles worldwide, most recently as Chairman of the Executive Board (2003-2011) and Chairman of the Supervisory Board (2014-2020). He served on the Supervisory Boards of Lufthansa, Daimler, Fuchs Petrolub and others. Currently he is Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Trumpf GmbH & Co. KG, Member of the Supervisory Boards of Aya Gold & Silver Inc (Canada), Nyxoah S.A.(Belgium) and founder/ investor in a number of start-ups.

Dr. Udo Jung

Board Member

Dr. Jung was a senior partner at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) from 1990 to 2019. He founded and led both the chemical and petrochemical sectors at BCG. He is a proven expert in chemical distribution and chemical circular economy. Since 2019, Dr. Jung has been a senior advisor at BCG. In addition, he is active as an investor and business angel in start-ups with a chemical and life sciences focus.

SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD

Prof. Dr. Matthias Beller

Prof. Beller obtained his doctorate in chemistry at the University of Göttingen. After a scientific guest stay at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he worked for five years in the chemical industry in Frankfurt am Main. In 1996 he took over the professorship for "Inorganic Chemistry" at the Technical University of Munich. Since 1998, he has held the professorship for catalysis at the University of Rostock and heads the Leibniz Institute for Catalysis (LIKAT) there. He deals with one of the key technologies of the new millennium: catalysis

INVESTORS

Jim Hagemann Snabe

Private Investor

Jim Hagemann Snabe is Chairman of Siemens. From 2017 till 2022 he was Chairman at Maersk, the world's largest container shipping company. Before that, he was CEO of SAP. Snabe has also been an Adjunct Professor at Copenhagen Business School since 2016 and is a member of the board of trustees at the World Economic Forum.

Prof. Wolfgang Reitzle

Private Investor

Prof. Wolfgang Reitzle was CEO of Linde AG from 2003 to 2014 and Chairman of Linde plc from 2016 to 2022. Previous positions include Chairman of the Board of Directors of LafargeHolcim (cement), Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Continental AG and CEO of BMW.

Planet A Ventures

Venture Capital

Planet A Ventures is a venture capital firm based in Hamburg, Germany, providing early-stage funding and partnering with European green tech start-ups that have a significant positive impact on the planet while building scalable businesses. The fund is the first European venture capital fund to rely on its own scientific team to assess the environmental and climate impact of an innovation.

SquareOne

Venture Capital

SquareOne is a venture capital firm focused on pre-seed and seed investments in B2B technology. With its network of leading executives, tech entrepreneurs, and investors, SquareOne builds the foundation for large and profitable category leaders in B2B software and deep tech businesses across Europe. The Berlin-based VC, formerly known as Paua Ventures, was founded in 2010.

Maersk Growth

Corporate Venture Capital

Maersk Growth is the Venture Arm of A.P. Moller–Maersk – with the mission to digitise, democratise, and decarbonise supply chains. Maersk Growth invests in, and partners with talented startups, scaleups, and visionary innovators focused on the supply chain.

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NEWS & PRESS RELEASES

August 15, 2023
Green methanol for shipping and industry: €10.4 M. for "Leuna100" pilot
Consortium of Fraunhofer, DBI, TU Berlin and C1 makes industrial history at the Leuna site (near Leipzig) / German Ministry of Transport promotes ecological re-invention of 100-year-old methanol production process
March 28, 2023
C1 presents own reactor for green methanol
Milestone on the way to industrial production of green methanol at competitive prices
January 12, 2023
Maersk backs C1 to make zero-carbon shipping a reality faster - and cheaper
Berlin-based start-up found a way to mass-produce green methanol at a competitive price / Partnership with the global pioneer in decarbonisation of shipping enables faster scale and technological cooperation
March 31, 2022
With Quantum Chemistry and Prominent Investors to Green Methanol
Berlin-based start-up aims to make the chemical industry more sustainable and less dependent on fossil imports / Jürgen Hambrecht, Wolfgang Reitzle and Jim Hagemann Snabe among investors