This sponsored post, part of a series on Asia’s Young Social Entrepreneurs, is brought to you by DBS Bank. In partnership with the National University of Singapore, DBS is a proud supporter of the Social Venture Challenge, an Asia-wide competition for social enterprises.
Venkateswara Rao’s eyes lit up whenever his English teacher spoke about new technology. Once, his teacher was talking about building space elevators using carbon nanotube (CNT), a material that is strong, lightweight, and can bend but will not break. He got so fascinated with the idea that he decided to study nanotechnology in university, and found a program at SASTRA University in India.
Rao describes SASTRA as a place where students work on a variety of scientific research and development projects and hope to create products that can be used for humanity.
During his third year, Rao and his classmates were learning about chemical vapor deposition (CVD), a process where vapor can react with a metal component to form a solid, such as CNTs. For CVD to work, a certain amount of pressure needs to be maintained. This environment is often fabricated so it can cost a lot. But Rao noticed that the conditions would be perfect in industrial chimneys.
Rao and three friends built a reactor and tested it out in the chimney of a rice mill. “Luckily when we experimented we got the CNTs,” said Rao.
The team had successfully developed a device that would convert carbon emissions into CNTs.
Some of the major industries releasing carbon emissions into the environment are cement and steel, says Rao, now co-founder of Damascus Fortune Technologies and trying to bring the new technology to market. One consequence of having large amounts of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere is a rise in sea level. According to National Geographic, it is difficult to predict the exact amount sea level will rise, but studies say it is expected to rise by up to seven metres by 2100. That means in less than 100 years, some of the major cities in the world, of which many are close to the shoreline including London, Los Angeles, and New York, will be submerged in water.
To combat this potentially devastating problem, many governments implement carbon taxation and emissions trading to minimize pollution. Under emissions trading, companies that find it more difficult to cap emissions or have fewer emission rights may buy carbon allowances from those who come under their allocated limit. Carbon-emitting companies essentially pay – and have no choice but to pay unless they innovate – to pollute, which means that carbon still gets released into the atmosphere. But with Damascus’ innovation, companies can both save money and steer away their carbon emissions from the environment.
Currently, the device turns carbon emissions into grams of raw carbon powder. This powder, which Damascus hopes to produce in kilograms by scaling their machine, will be processed into market-grade CNTs to sell. CNTs, prized for being lightweight, strong, and flexible, are typically used as strengthening material for manufacturing anything from car parts to laptops and cell phones. The material is useful because when it is used in car parts, for instance, the weight of the car significantly decreases and it becomes more fuel efficient.
One kilogram of CNT can cost on average $50 for multi-walled nanotubes and $50,000 for single-walled nanotubes, which limits its use. But Rao is confident that Damascus can bring the cost down and spread its application. The question now becomes how to scale their device and company.
“Right now, the reactors we have are made for the production in grams. So we are now moving to large scale in the sense we can produce in kilograms,” said Rao. The team searched for ideas on how to take the company to the next level and learned of the Social Venture Challenge, a competition that helps scale social enterprises in Asia, and decided it was a great opportunity.
Rao, who describes himself as a “pure technical guy”, faces many difficulties running a company. But from the competition’s bootcamp, he picked up new ideas on how to grow Damascus. “You meet people who are doing business in different fields and the strategies they apply to scale it up. You come to know new things and how you can be successful.”
What does success look like for Damascus? Rao said: “We want to reduce the carbon emissions out of all the industries that emit. We can use these carbon emissions that are let out into the environment, convert them into CNTs, and use the CNTs for better applications.”
They may not remove 100 percent of carbon emissions, adds Rao, but he’s optimistic about creating a huge environmental impact and a valuable product at the same time.
Watch this video to learn more about Damascus:
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