This article details 10 new clean coal companies that use several latest technologies to reduce the environmental footprint of coal energy. Innovations such as carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS), advanced combustion techniques like supercritical and ultra-supercritical boilers, or integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) enhance efficiency and lower emissions. Emissions reduction technologies, including flue gas desulfurization and selective catalytic reduction, further mitigate pollutants. These technologies reduce greenhouse gas emissions and manage coal byproducts while making coal a cleaner energy source.
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Key Takeaways
Drawing insights from the Big Data & AI-powered StartUs Insights Discovery Platform that provides data on over 4.7+ million emerging companies globally, we explore the evolving landscape of the clean coal industry. This sector is marked by key trends and a substantial workforce, shaping its future. The last update of this report was 5 days ago. If you spot incomplete or incorrect info, please let us know. Here are some key insights at a glance:
- Latest Clean Coal Trends: The latest clean coal trends include carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS), integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC), flue gas desulfurization (FGD), ultra-supercritical boilers, and selective catalytic reduction (SCR).
- Clean Coal Industry Statistics: The clean coal sector comprises 4.1K+ organizations worldwide. Out of these, 450+ new clean coal companies were founded in the last five years, with 2020 as the average founding year. On average, each of these companies employs about 13 people. Moreover, the average funding received by these 450+ clean coal companies per round in the same span is USD 103.2 million.
- 10 New Clean Coal Companies to Watch:
- New Era Cleantech – Coal Gasification Technology
- Carbon BioCapture – CO2 to Microalgae Biomass
- SASA Waste To Energy – Agricultural Waste to Biocoal
- JouleX – Zero Emission Hydrogen & Oxygen
- Cvictus – Coal Seams to Clean Hydrogen
- Green Coal Ethiopia – Elephant Grass to Coal Alternative
- Carbon OxyTech – Coal Non-combustion Technologies
- SuperChar – Feedstock-based Green Biocoal
- Mormair – Chemical Looping Combustion Engine
- Rivalia Chemical – Coal Fly Ash to Rare Earth Elements (REE)
Meet 10 out of 450+ Emerging Clean Coal Companies
In this section, we explore 10 emerging clean coal solutions for cleaner energy production. These technologies address environmental concerns and adapt to evolving regulatory demands. By providing advancements such as carbon capture, advanced combustion, emissions reduction, and waste management, these innovations contribute to a more sustainable future for coal energy.
Note on Signal Strength
One of the unique metrics we feature for each company is Signal Strength, a proprietary data point generated by our Discovery Platform. It gauges the extent to which a company’s influence has permeated the global ecosystem of startups, scaleups, and emerging companies. This proprietary metric serves as a valuable guidepost for understanding a company’s standing in the broader market landscape.
1. New Era Cleantech
- Founding Year: 2020
- Employee Range: 11-50
- Location: India
- Signal Strength: Medium
- What they do: New Era Cleantech develops clean gasification technology for converting coal, biomass, and waste into valuable chemicals. The company’s gasification process produces syngas, which converts into clean, chemical feedstock. This technology offers net-negative emissions and low-cost carbon capture and decarbonizes industrial, power, fertilizer, and chemical sectors.
2. Carbon BioCapture
- Founding Year: 2019
- Employee Range: 2-10
- Location: USA
- Signal Strength: Strong
- What they do: Carbon BioCapture builds microalgal carbon capture systems. These systems use naturally occurring microalgae strains to maximize the capture of CO2, SOx, and NOx from industrial emissions. The process works with raw gasses directly from exhaust points and eliminates the need for pre-treatment. Carbon BioCapture’s photobioreactors, Carbon Farms, connect to coal-fired power and cement plants to produce oxygen, clean water, and generate biomass. The resulting biomass creates bioplastics, biofertilizers, biodiesel, animal feed, superfoods, and nutraceuticals.
3. SASA Waste To Energy
- Founding Year: 2020
- Employee Range: 51-100
- Location: India
- Signal Strength: Medium
- What they do: SASA Waste to Energy converts agricultural waste into green biocoal to reduce pollution. The company collects sugarcane trash during the harvesting season and converts it into green biocoal in proprietary plants. The biocoal is then used as fuel alongside regular coal in power plants to reduce emissions and ash production. The resulting ash, rich in phosphate, creates compost for farmers. This process mitigates air pollution from stubble burning and reduces coal consumption in power plants.
4. JouleX
- Founding Year: 2019
- Employee Range: 2-10
- Location: Australia
- Signal Strength: Weak
- What they do: JouleX’s zero emission H2&O applications for REE convert coal ash and assist with on-site reconstitution and processing. The company’s process begins with emissions from a coal-fired power plant, which include NOx, SOx, CO2, and waste heat. These emissions are directed to an oxidizer to remove SOx and NOx through a chemical process that converts these pollutants into less harmful substances. Following this, an ammonia-based method captures CO2, which reacts with it to form a compound that is separated and stored or utilized. The system recycles ammonia to enhance efficiency and convert the plant to green while lowering the levels of SOx, NOx, and CO2.
5. Cvictus
- Founding Year: 2018
- Employee Range: 2-10
- Location: Canada
- Signal Strength: Very Strong
- What they do: Cvictus utilizes its proprietary enhanced hydrogen recovery (EHR) technology to produce clean hydrogen from ultra-deep coal seams. This technology extracts hydrogen without mining and turns coal into a carbon sink by creating space for geological CO2 sequestration. EHR produces syngas (H2 + CO) for easy conversion into various chemical feedstocks and reduces CO2 emissions. The method requires minimal land and water, using horizontal wells to access extensive coal resources while leaving most carbon underground.
6. Green Coal Ethiopia
- Founding Year: 2020
- Employee Range: 11-50
- Location: Ethiopia
- Signal Strength: Weak
- What they do: Green Coal Ethiopia makes GreenCoal, a product derived from farmed or waste domestic elephant grass, bagasse, and prosopis. The process begins by drying these input materials before entering a torrefaction reactor. Here, they undergo heating in an oxygen-free environment to produce a coal-like material. This material then undergoes densification to convert it into the final GreenCoal product. The use of elephant grass and prosopis rehabilitates degraded lands and makes them productive again. Furthermore, this process captures carbon dioxide in the soil to enhance fertility and support sustainable agriculture.
7. Carbon OxyTech
- Founding Year: 2020
- Employee Range: 2-10
- Location: Canada
- Signal Strength: Medium Strong
- What they do: Carbon OxyTech produces high-quality humic acid solutions derived from rich coal reserves. The company’s products, SoilFuel and SoilFuel+, offer high concentrations of humic substances with low ash and heavy metal levels to ensure superior purity and effectiveness. These products enhance micronutrient uptake and are used for drip irrigation and hydroponics, and do not clog spray nozzles. SoilFuel+, enriched with nitrogen and calcium, increases crop yield and soil structure to optimize plant growth. SoilFuel’s humic acids provide nutrients for agricultural applications, improve water-retention capacity, minimize weed growth, prevent soil erosion, repel toxins, and reduce nutrient leaching.
8. SuperChar
- Founding Year: 2021
- Employee Range: 2-10
- Location: Australia
- Signal Strength: Medium Strong
- What they do: SuperChar produces sustainable plant-based green charcoal, green coal, biomethanol, and biofuel using bana grass as the primary biomass feedstock. The company’s process involves drying the bana grass, followed by heating it in an oxygen-free environment and producing a high-calorific value green charcoal. The fully automated plants utilize oils and gasses produced during processing to generate the required energy. This approach eliminates toxic emissions and supports carbon neutrality while generating substantial carbon and reef credits.
9. Mormair
- Founding Year: 2022
- Employee Range: 2-10
- Location: UK
- Signal Strength: Medium
- What they do: Mormair develops the Goldberg Generator, a zero emission, zero waste micro-combined heat and power (CHP) system utilizing a chemical looping combustion engine. It extracts rare earth elements like neodymium, praseodymium, and dysprosium from industrial waste, such as coal fly ash. The system features a Mormair Reactor that takes in air and fuel. Within the reactor, oxygen from the air reacts with the fuel, producing energy, CO2, and metals as byproducts. The energy generated drives a turbine and converts heat into electricity. Thus, this system captures critical raw materials from waste and sequesters CO2.
10. Rivalia Chemical
- Founding Year: 2022
- Employee Range: 1-10
- Location: USA
- Signal Strength: Very Strong
- What they do: Rivalia Chemical recovers REEs from coal combustion residuals, such as coal fly ash using a recyclable ionic liquid. This method combines extraction and separation and reduces the need for total solid digestion while streamlining downstream processing. The process operates under mild conditions and lowers chemical consumption and waste generation. Recovering REEs from coal fly ash addresses both the supply chain sensitivity of critical minerals and the environmental hazards posed by ash storage ponds.
Quick Tip to Find New Clean Coal Companies
Utilizing a SaaS platform like the Discovery Platform for identifying new clean coal companies provides significant benefits compared to traditional scouting methods:
- Streamlined Efficiency: The Discovery Platform offers advanced tools that streamline the scouting process. It replaces hours of your conventional desk research, saving time and resources in identifying clean coal innovations.
- Access to Real-time Insights: Gain a competitive edge with up-to-date information on the latest trends in the clean coal industry. The platform keeps you informed with near real-time updates on emerging clean coal companies and news, enabling you to make swift and informed decisions.
- Tailored Exploration: Customize your search to focus on specific niches within the clean coal sector, such as coal non-combustion technologies, elephant grass waste conversion, or chemical looping combustion engines. The platform’s diverse filtering options allow you to target your scouting efforts precisely, ensuring that you find the most relevant and groundbreaking companies in the field.
Ready to Explore All New Clean Coal Companies?
We’ve explored the dynamic landscape of the clean coal industry, examining the latest trends and spotlighting exceptional companies driving innovation. To dive deeper, download our free Clean Tech Report or schedule a demo of the Discovery Platform for a customized exploration of these groundbreaking developments. We seek partnerships with industry experts to deliver actionable insights into startups and tech. Interested? Let us know!
