Twelve (company)

Originally launched under the name Obtainium in 2014,[9] and later known as Opus 12,[10] Twelve was officially founded in 2015 by Dr. Kendra Kuhl, Dr. Etosha Cave, and Nicholas Flanders.[1] The company was part of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's first Cyclotron Road cohort, an incubator program that aids in the creation of environmentally beneficial companies.[11] [8][12] Since then, it has won multiple awards including the Keeling Curve prize,[13] Ocean Exchange's WW Orcelle award,[14] the Roddenberry prize,[15] and Forbes' Change the World competition.[16][17] In 2021, Twelve received $57 million in series A funding;[10] the company has also received funding through SBIR grants for projects involving CO₂ conversion. This includes generating products such as carbon monoxide, polyethylene, ethanol, ethylene, methane, and jet fuel.[18]

Twelve has also been featured on the television show Inside Bill's Brain as a company providing a potential solution to greenhouse gas emissions.[19]

Nicholas Flanders describes the company's technology as "industrial photosynthesis" to create jet fuel and diesel from carbon dioxide.[20][21] Their technology has been shown to convert CO₂ from raw biogas into carbon neutral methane.[22][23]

Twelve utilizes polymer electrolyte membrane electrolysis, which splits apart water molecules into its component pieces (O₂, electrons, and hydrogen ions) via the application of electricity. By adding a catalyst to the cathode, they are able to split up CO₂ into CO and O₂.[24]

In February 2020, Twelve partnered with Mercedes and Trinseo to create the world's first C-pillar made with polycarbonate from CO₂ electrolysis.[25]

In June 2020, the company partnered with SoCalGas and PG&E to advance their technology for use with CO₂ present in biogas, which comes from sources such as landfills, sewage, and dairy farms.[26] This gas, produced by the anaerobic breakdown of wastes, contains roughly 60% methane and 40% CO₂; testing is being performed with the goal of achieving high conversion efficiency for long periods of time.[27]

In September 2021 Twelve partnered with LanzaTech to create polypropylene, a commonly used plastic which is traditionally produced from fossil fuels; this is the first time that polypropylene was made from CO₂.[28]

Twelve plans to scale up their technology to an industrial-sized shipping container, which would enable them to produce larger quantities of product.[8][24][12]