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Welcome to the Lectrolyst Livewire, where we bring you regular updates on our game-changing advancements in the fast-growing electrochemical CO₂ utilization space. Stay informed on the latest innovations and applications of this technology that are shaping our future. If you wish to unsubscribe, simply click the link at the bottom of this page.

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(April 29th, 2025) Wilmington, Delaware – Lectrolyst today announces a large leap towards the commercialization of their patented technology and is now seeking investment for a pilot facility. Lectrolyst has just successfully demonstrated the world’s largest electrolyzer capable of harnessing carbon emissions to make acetate at a production scale of 4 metric tons per year. This 12,400 cm² , 10 kW system represents a 10x advancement in scale over the previous record. The demonstration of the 10 kW system marks the completion of the core milestone of a broader project supported by funding from the Gates Foundation and the Novo Nordisk Foundation as part of Phase I of the $28 million Acetate Consortium, where Lectrolyst has worked closely with Washington University in St. Louis to improve and scale this technology. The goal of this consortium is to transform carbon dioxide into acetate that can be used to produce edible fermented protein. Using this technology, emissions from Egypt’s cement industry alone could feed 1 billion people while freeing up a land area larger than Argentina.

Lectrolyst is now gearing up to scale their technology to an even larger pilot plant. To achieve this, Lectrolyst has teamed up with Johnston Engineering to design the new plant with support from the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Technology Transition’s Voucher Program. Additional investment is being sought to construct the facility once designed.

For decades, scientists have been trying to develop greener pathways to produce ethylene and acetate, but these efforts have been plagued by relatively high energy requirements. Lectrolyst has developed a new green pathway that utilizes electrolysis to unlock more cost-effective energy efficient chemistry to co-produce ethylene and acetate from CO₂ and water using renewable electricity. Lectrolyst’s tandem CO₂ electrolysis technology works by first electrochemically converting CO₂ to CO then electrochemically converting CO to ethylene and acetate co-products. Unlike direct CO₂ electrolysis, the tandem approach allows for the production of multi-carbon products (acetate and ethylene) at high carbon selectivity (>90%).

Ethylene and acetate are two of the most widely used commodity chemicals with a combined global market size of >$200 billion. These two chemicals are necessary for everyday products from plastics to pharmaceuticals. However, the production of acetate and ethylene generates large quantities of greenhouse gas emissions and relies on petroleum feedstocks. Together, the global production of ethylene and acetate accounts for 289 million metric tons of CO₂e per year, 31% of total chemical industry emissions.

In addition to offering large environmental benefits to the chemical industry, Lectrolyst’s tandem CO₂ electrolysis technology is also being used to produce sustainable protein. The green acetate generated from Lectrolyst’s tandem process is being coupled with precision fermentation to generate proteins, tapping into the growing sustainable protein market. Lectrolyst’s new electro-agriculture technology provides large reductions not only in greenhouse gas emissions but also uses 60% less fertilizer, 95% less water, and 88% less land than traditional farming methods while also eliminating the need for pesticides.

Other Key Updates

• Lectrolyst Receives up to $250k of Support from the U.S. Department of Energy: The DOE Office of Technology Transitions recently awarded a voucher to Lectrolyst to work with Johnston Engineering to further scale our technology. Read more about it here.

• Lectrolyst Awarded 2025 Overall Carbon Technology Innovation of the Year. This recognition was after a thorough assessment of innovation, performance, ease-of-use, functionality, value, and impact by the CleanTech Breakthrough Awards. See the full list of awardees here.

• Lectrolyst-partnered $26 Million Engineering Research Center Kicks-off. This center will be led by Lectrolyst co-founder, Prof. Feng Jiao, as co-principal investigator. Lectrolyst is a key corporate partner of the new center that is focused on using our CO₂ electrolysis technology to generate intermediates like acetate for unlocking new biomanufacturing capabilities. Discover more here.

• Lectrolyst’s Technology Awarded "Discovery of the Week” by Forbes Magazine. This recognition resulted from new findings on electro-agriculture published in the journal Joule. See Forbes’ announcement contained in a recent edition of The Prototype here.

• Lectrolyst, Co-founder & President, Dr. Greg Hutchings, Interviewed on Entrepreneur’s Enigma Podcast. Watch/listen here or anywhere you get your podcasts.

• Lectrolyst Co-founder, Prof. Feng Jiao, Interviewed by Popular Science and Smithsonian Magazine. Here, he lays out the benefits of using tandem CO₂ electrolysis for powering electro-agriculture. Read the full Popular Science article here and the Smithsonian article here.

Want to Get Involved?

Lectrolyst is actively pursuing lead investors for an upcoming $2 million pre-seed VC fundraising round. We are also exploring new partnership opportunities to accelerate our growth and innovation. If you’re interested in joining us on this exciting journey, please reach out to Dr. Greg Hutchings at [email protected]. For more information on our groundbreaking work, visit us at www.lectrolyst.com.