Adam Torres and Jeremy Mitchell discuss carbon removal.
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Show Notes:
How does carbon removal work? What can atmospheric waste be recycled into? In this episode, Adam Torres and Jeremy Mitchell, Founder & CTO at AtmoWaste, explore these questions and more.
About AtmoWaste
AtmoWaste is working to bring innovative technologies to the world in order to reduce air pollution and plastic waste. We aim to improve life for everyone on Earth by minimizing atmospheric waste, fighting climate change, and conserving natural resources.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest on the show, just head on over to missionmatters. com and click on be our guest to apply. All right. So today’s guest is Jeremy Mitchell and he’s a founder and CTO over at Atmo Waste. Jeremy, welcome to the show. Hey. Thanks Adam. Thanks for having me. Alright, good to have you here, and correct me if I’m wrong, we met at an investment conference recently, right?
Yes, that’s correct. Yeah, end of March we met in Newport Beach. Really? Was that the one in Newport? Yeah, that was one in Newport. How’d you like it? Le How, how did, how did it turn out for you? I know there was a lot of conversations, a lot of going on, like how, how’d it go? Oh my gosh, I met so many interesting people there, I got a lot of good advice.
I think overall it was a win for us, just because we got so much exposure. It was my first conference that I went to representing Atmo Waste. We just stepped out at the beginning of March looking for investments. yeah, it was really a great experience. That’s amazing. And so I’m just saying this because next year I think where I’m going back, like next year, I think I’m going back to me.
I feel like quality of the guests, the people, the conversations I was having, I thought it was amazing. Like for you, you feel like the quality of the crowd, everything was pretty cool there too. I do. I do. I really enjoyed it. I am looking forward to seeing how it evolves over the next year. And then even seeing where I am as a company now versus where I am in a year from now.
I think it’s going to be a really great experience. It’s awesome. All right. So let’s get into, we’re going to talk about about your company, of course, Atmo Waste. We’re going to talk about all that, but I’m just curious, just as an entrepreneur, were you always an entrepreneur? Like, like, how’d you get into this side of things?
Gosh, that’s a great question. So, while I was in college, you know, I think even before college, I’ve always had that entrepreneurial spirit. I, when I was younger, in my late teens, I had a lawn mowing company that I did, you know, I just went door to door and getting people to You know, do some landscaping for them.
When I was eight, I actually delivered newspapers door to door back when it was still little kids delivering newspapers. So, you know what? That’s like my regret in life. I’m like, ever since I read about Warren Buffett and all these people, I’m like, how come I never had a paper route? I, that’s an honest regret from when I was a kid.
I think I skipped from papers and I was selling baseball cards or something, or comic books. I never got to do a paper route though. It’s like, that’s a really The kids, the entrepreneurs of today will never know, right? Like, how many little kids do you see out doing paper routes? Not in my, not in L. A.,
that’s for sure. You see some kid delivering papers in L. A. Yeah, not in San Diego either. Yeah, yeah. So, paper route, all of that, like, like, continue, sorry. I cut you off, I know. Oh, yeah, no worries, no worries. I mean, I won’t lie, I wish I had done the baseball card and comic books. I’d only collected them, I never sold them.
I’m still in the box. You would have been my client. You would have said, yeah, go get, go, go uh, go sell those papers. I got some cards for you when, and this is how much, yeah, that’s how it is. That’s funny. Oh then, okay, so now college, you’re getting into entrepreneurship too, where’s the next steps?
Like, give me those. Yeah, it was so it was kind of an accident in college. I was working in a scientific lab doing biophysics like electrophysiology work and I ended up building a couple devices while I was there and the doctor I worked for was like, Hey, you should go present them at this this conference.
And there was a launch pad called the zip launch pad at the time the zone innovation platform. And I went in there and I showed this pacemaker that I made with an Arduino board that like, you know, was actually taking cardiac heart cells and making a beat on their own. That I use for experiments.
And then I also made these little petri dishes with little glass bottoms that, you know, innovated something that we were doing. And when I presented my technologies there, you know, just kind of like a, a random Thursday afternoon I won a couple of awards and they’re like, Hey, why don’t you join our entrepreneurial society?
And we think it would be great. And I was just like, what? So they gave me like a little scholarship. I won an award. And then they induct me into this launchpad, this startup. Thing, and you know, it went from there. Hmm, so you’re an inventor. Yeah, huh. you created new things, like, products that drew people, and you got some recognition, and you’re like, wow, like, how far can I take this, right?
Yeah, basically, you know , I see where there’s a problem where there needs to be a solution. And I guess it’s the way my brain’s wired. I just start thinking of ways to fix it. Yeah. Those are, those are the most, to me, those are my, favorite type of entrepreneurs to follow just to see like, like how they think of that or why, or like, how come nobody else thought of that?
Or what’s this like to me that I’ve never been an inventor. So I’m just saying that whenever I see somebody that’s created something like that, I’m like, wow, that’s, They’re like just chicks a little bit differently. Like they do different things. let’s get into your, present day project and company.
So at Mo Waste, like where did the seed of this idea start? Wow, that’s a great question. So, originally, while I was in college, actually, you know, my brain spinning, trying to think of all these cool things. I’m a physicist. I was doing biophysics at the time at San Diego State University. And while I was there you know, Climate change is something that we’ve heard about for decades now, but you know, you’re either on the one side of the fence where you believe it, or you’re on the other side where you don’t.
I think these days, it’s kind of shown that it’s getting a little bit worse and worse as the years go on. So, I thought about it a little bit, and then when I left college I was giving it a lot of thought, and I even applied at SpaceX, and where did I apply? Worked at SpaceX for a short period of time, and I originally applied to do some life support safety system stuff ECLSS, they call it, and I thought I was going to be doing, like, carbon capture, you know, like, in a module or something like that, like, that people breathe in and out for space travel.
And instead they were like, Oh, hey, actually we have this need over here to build rocket engines. We need to make them reusable 10 to 100 times with refurbishment. It was like the block five project. And so I kind of got shuffled over there and I was like, Oh my gosh, I really, I’m really interested in carbon capture though.
And like how we can actually physically capture carbon and do something with it. And I started sending emails to everybody while I was still working there, and I never really got the responses I was looking for, especially since Mars has so much carbon dioxide on it. So I was like, you know what, when I had the opportunity and left SpaceX, I was like, hey, you know what, I’m gonna start a company.
That directly tries to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and turn it into a usable product, right? Because you have to have the business end of it, too. Like, what can you turn it into? So that’s kind of where it all started. And then I got into another launch pad right after I left SpaceX and 1 month in, you know, like, almost exactly a month in, COVID hit and everything shut down.
so during that period of time, that hit us. Oh, yeah, we could have a moment for that one because I was tough on all entrepreneurs and especially like the timing of things right when they thought that’s why I’m always so like, it’s like a miracle that a company ever works when you think about all the external forces that can stop everything.
Right? Right. you’re right. I just needed a moment of silence for those COVID happening. at some point you re engage in this and how does that work out for you? I did. So one of the very serendipitous moments, you know, a happy accident happened during COVID.
Elon Musk came out of the woodwork and he was like, Hey on earth day, he said he was going to fund a hundred million dollar competition for Through XPRIZE and they call it the Elon Musk carbon capture competition for companies to come up with their novel technologies to remove carbon dioxide from the air.
Directly from the air in some way, shape or form and turn it into a company or a business. So there was a little bit of a little bit of relief that, wow, everybody finally is going to take this seriously. And then there was always also that feeling of like, wow, now there’s like another 10, 000 teams coming out with their own ideas.
And they all want to be the winner of this contest. So that was a moment where I had to make a pivot after I was in the contest. I’m still in the contest right now. It ends in 2025 with one of my novel technologies. However, the company Atmo Waste now is not that entity. It is a brand new C Corp, a brand new corporation I started.
And we’re no longer just trying to use one technology to pull carbon dioxide out of the air. And turn it into, what my project was, was turning it into diamonds, green diamond machine, right? I thought, what, what can carbon turn into, you know, graphite pencil, lead, you know diamonds and I really had a smaller view at the time.
And then I realized that there were so many other companies out there turning carbon dioxide into things already. From a different XPRIZE competition, and I was like, wow, you know what we really should do is not focus on just one technology and one thing it can be recycled into. We should focus on taking all the different carbon capture technologies and all the different recycling technologies and putting them together under one roof so that we can have atmospheric waste management service, if you will.
That is kind of what my dream was, is turn this into a public utility, kind of like electricity became a public utility. Wow, that’s interesting. That’s interesting. I do wanna take maybe just like a step back. I don’t wanna assume that everybody understands part of even how this works. So let’s just the layman’s view.
how does carbon removal even work? that’s a good question. Think about it like this. In the air that we’re breathing right now it’s made up of a bunch of different gases. You know, there’s a lot of nitrogen in it kind of an inert gas. We just breathe it in and out. But when we breathe in oxygen in our bodies, you know, we convert it into carbon dioxide and then it goes out into the world, right?
So, kind of the way that carbon dioxide is made in general is, you know, oxygen goes into a system, it’s combusted. And then outcomes carbon dioxide. So whether it’s a fire, you’re burning gasoline in your car or a bonfire at the beach, you know, you have this oxygen being turned into carbon dioxide. So it’s just another little molecule in the air floating around.
And what we’re trying to do is basically vacuum up the air, if you will, and collect that carbon dioxide. And sort it so that we keep only the carbon dioxide and then put the rest of it. You know, the clean oxygen, the nitrogen, all the other gases back into the air. So we’re just kind of like vacuuming the air and filtering out the bad stuff and then putting the good stuff back out.
Yeah, and like use case scenarios, you mentioned some of them, but maybe just go just a little bit further for me. So, like, in terms of okay, so now we have this waste, right, this atmospheric waste, and we’re thinking about recycling it into different things. And so I’m just trying to take it maybe a step back on, or, excuse me, a step further on, especially as you get into creating this public utility of it, like, what some of the use cases are going to be for that, for that that waste set that’s recycled.
Sure. Yeah. So some of the really innovative things that they’ve come up with are taking this carbon dioxide that we’ve collected and turning it into things like green concrete is what some people call it or net zero concrete. It’s where you’re actually able to take carbon dioxide and make more concrete out of it than you normally would be able to.
People are able to make some things called biochar which help with agricultural farming and it’s also Kind of like a form of charcoal, if you will. It’s just like pure carbon that’s able to be sequestered into the earth a little bit more. And there are even some really interesting companies that are able to make different construction materials, carbon fiber, and even a company, I’m going to tell you this right now that’s making vodka.
Out of carbon dioxide that’s collected. Come on, come on, really? I’m not kidding, yeah. Jeremy, why are humans like that? And I’m a human too, so when I say this, I’m gonna say it, and I’m not dissing this thing, but it’s like, okay, the first thing is like, I wonder, can we drink it? No, right? How’s this gonna And you always know how that idea starts.
Starts like I don’t even have to conduct the interview with that founder. I could do it one side. So tell me XYZ founder, how did you get the idea for your vodka out of carbon let me see, what’s the answer everyone can guess. Well, I was having a drink at the bar and I thought I was breathing out and I thought, why not?
Why not? It’s amazing, by the way, it always goes back to a couple of things. I won’t go to the other ones, but. But you know, driven? Oh, no, no. I totally get Yeah, we’re driven. We’re driven. . Oh yeah. the human race. bunch of characters, that’s for sure. Oh, that’s amazing. Like, then that’s the one that everybody wants to crowd, like, oh my gosh.
Like, let’s taste it. Right. It is like, . Oh, I know I’ve been so interested to see what it tastes like. They’re sold out online though. I’ve tried so many times. I mean, we’re both guilty. Me too. Right. Yeah. I’m sure right after this, you’re going to start Googling it and then find out the same thing.
It’s just sold out right now. Waiting for that to come through. Oh, funny. So now taking it, let’s just continue the, maybe continue the story here. So now we, I think we’ve gotten a, we’ve covered, you know, quite a bit. So we covered the concept of it, like what things that they’re making with it.
Right. And now. Let’s just kind of pull it all together. So now what would be, let’s dream for a moment here. We’re, we’re all entrepreneurs. Many entrepreneurs listen to this. So now circling back to Atmo Waste, like what would be your vision? You know, five, 10, whatever years out that you’d like, like, where do you see this going?
Where I see this going is complex in its simple way. So depending on what kind of technology there is and what kind of recycling there is, you know different technologies work in different climates. So, what works in the desert at sea level might not work in the mountains, you know, a mile up when it’s a little bit colder, right?
So where I see this going is finding places around the world near different population density centers, like different cities. That we pair up a technology. With that kind of. Climate that kind of, you know, geological or geospatial area. And then we also pair that with a recycling technology that is more in tune to what that culture is interested in, you know, different parts of the world.
You know, it is illegal to drink alcohol. So, you’re not going to, you’re not going to pair that up, right? It’s not going to pair up the vodka machine with that country, at least, you know, a country like that might be interested in some of the technologies that can actually. Turn carbon dioxide into gasoline.
I guess I didn’t say that before. That was probably one of the ones that I should have brought up first. Everybody wants some, some easy gasoline, but yeah, you know, or being able to concrete for building and developing countries that prefer like, like, I get it. Go ahead. Please continue. Yeah, no. So some of the less developed areas being able to, to have concrete that stretches farther and with less of an impact on the environment.
I recently went to Tanzania and I was kind of blown away while I was in Arusha and saw how many buildings are in half construction phase because they don’t have the materials all the time. They can’t stretch it far enough, So some of these green concretes that might be a little bit more economically sound You know, would work great in these developing countries.
That’s great. . So, this ecosystem that you create. Like Atmo Waste would be able to help facilitate this so that ultimately like the, you know, it’s, you’re creating a lot of win win situations, right?
So that the, obviously the local markets are benefiting the, obviously the environment’s benefiting, like that’s a given in the entire conversation for your direction and mission for the company. But then also like businesses the local economies and the businesses, whether it’s the, The companies that develop the technologies, the people that are using them, that are benefiting from the end product, like, I just see a bunch of wins, the employment, the, you know, jobs, like a lot of different wins here, huh?
Yeah, 100%. That’s kind of the goal is to have this new emerging industry, you know, be a win, win for everybody. I don’t want to own the technology per se, for all these different Machines and recycling and capture things. What I want to do is be like the trash man. They’re not making trash trucks.
They’re not making trash cans and selling them to you. They’re providing a service and that’s what we see this being is the service of cleaning up the atmosphere and You know trying to get everybody a win on their belt Love it. Well, Jeremy, I think that’s a great way to end it. Let’s let’s get some wins.
That being said, if somebody is listening to this and they want to learn more about Atmo Waste, follow your journey get connected. I mean, how do they do that? Sure. Well, you can follow us on LinkedIn. That’s one of the few social media channels we use at the moment. Atmo Waste, if you search us through LinkedIn atmowaste.
com, M. O. W. A. S. T. E. dot com. We have some really cool visuals on their 3D globe showing different carbon emission sources and stuff like that. Go check it out. It’s fun. We built the website from scratch. So it was a fun project. You can also email me or the company at Jeremy J. E. R. E. M. Y. Atmo waste.com or Mm-Hmm.
Go online and fill out one of our forms on the website and we’ll get back to you shortly. Amazing. And for everybody listening, we’ll put that link to the website, in the show notes so that you can just click on it and head right on over and connect and check out the projects.
And speaking of the listeners, if this is your first time with us and you haven’t done it yet, hit that subscribe button because we have many more mission-based individuals coming up. This is a daily show, so. Each and every day, we’re bringing you new content. We don’t miss a day. So if you don’t hit that subscribe button, you’re not going to get the notification.
So hit the subscribe button. And Jeremy, thank you again so much for making some time and I expect and to continue to hear more and more about Atmo waste in the news and otherwise, and I’ll be following your progress in XPRIZE as well. So thanks again for coming on. Thank you very much, Adam.
And one more thing, guys, just hit subscribe, hit subscribe right now. Thanks again.