Henrik Karlsson, founder and CEO of Biorecro, is the “New Thinker of the Year” on the 2013 list of “Swedish Super Talents”, published annually by the business magazine “Veckans Affärer”. Biorecro is the first company in the world that can remove large quantities of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and offer this as the service Carbon Cleanup, an alternative beyond traditional carbon offsetting.
After the announcement, Henrik Karlsson stated: “I’m very happy to receive this acknowledgment by Veckans Affärer. I’m also proud of their recognition of Biorecro’s effort to provide a commercially viable process that utilizes Bio-Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) technology, and can reverse the trend in the area of climate change. The announcement is also timely, we have recently launched our sales efforts and are now introducing Biorecro on the international market.”
An article with the headline “The New Thinker”, published in the Veckans Affärer, states the following:
He signed the contract during the intermission between the first and second act while singing Belmonte in Mozart’s ” The Abduction from the Seraglio” at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna, Austria. He initially had the idea for the business while watching TV reruns late one evening.
“I realized that when removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere it would be best to use biomass as the initial source,” he says and describes the process where carbon dioxide is captured after biomass combustion, and then gets stored at a great depth under ground in the United States. Biorecro’s customers are corporations with a commitment to being environmentally responsible – the first one being Inrego. The second customer was the public transportation company Värmlandstrafik.
Henrik Karlsson said: “The voluntary carbon market is currently valued at 3.5 BnSEK, with a predicted growth rate of 40 % per year. I don’t have time to sing professionally now as all my time is focused on saving the climate. I do however still enjoy singing a few High C’s when I get a chance.”
Biorecro is a Swedish cleantech company founded in 2007. The company removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere using Bio-Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) technology. With BECCS, carbon dioxide-generated through photosynthesis in trees and plants-is captured from the atmosphere, and then permanently stored thousands of meters below ground. By applying the BECCS technology, Biorecro achieves a removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The Climate Cleanup service offered by Biorecro is a new alternative beyond traditional carbon offsets. Instead of just offsetting for carbon emissions, through the implementation of BECCS carbon emissions can now actually be permanenty removed from the atmosphere.
In November 2012, Biorecro announced the signing of the first corporate customers for Carbon Cleanup. These companies are Inrego, specializing in refurbishing computers and IT equiment, and Värmlandstrafik/Nobina a provider of public transportation in Hammarö, outside of Karlstad.
Related to their dynamic growth phase, Biorecro has initiated a new offering of shares to fund an expansion of the sales organzation in Sweden, the UK, Germany and other parts of Europe. In addition, Biorecro is pursuing several new production-related BECCS projects in North America, South America and also in Europe.
The world’s first large scale BECCS project is as of November 2011 in operation in Illinois, USA. The planning for two additional BECCS facilities is under way. Biorecro’s vision to return to pre-industrial levels of carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere, below 350 ppm, in order to avoid global climate change.
Biorecro has been awarded the “Climate Solver” prize by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and is one of the finalists in the “Virgin Earth Challenge” launched by Richard Branson and Al Gore. This is a $25 million initiative for the successful commercialization of ways of taking greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere and keeping them out with no countervailing impacts.
The list of Sweden’s 101 Super Talents for 2012 was compiled by “Veckans Affärer”. To be eligible for this list, a person must be under 40 years of age, be active within business, research or the political arena. The selection is based on the talents’ qualities within five areas: knowledge, results, drive, sensitivity to trends and personal brand.
PDF from Veckans Affärer (in Swedish)Press Release Biorecro (in Swedish).
