Answer extracted from The Pitch podcast — listen to the full episode below.
What four industries can Ventrix's CO2 capture technology transform?
Ventrix targets breweries with captured CO2 for carbonation and preservation, e-fuel makers who blend CO2 with hydrogen to produce methane, construction companies seeking permanent CO2 sequestration to reduce concrete costs, and data centers exploring refrigeration applications. Breweries are the primary market entry point because they simultaneously emit CO2 and purchase it from external gas suppliers—making on-site capture a direct cost and sustainability win.
Why breweries become the first foothold
The brewery use case solves a paradox unique to fermentation industries. During beer production, CO2 naturally escapes into the atmosphere while breweries buy compressed CO2 from major gas suppliers to carbonate the final product. Ventrix's modular unit captures that waste CO2, purifies it, and makes it available on-site—eliminating the procurement cost and delivery logistics entirely.
A real Welsh brewery case illustrates the opportunity. The facility consumes approximately 20 tons of CO2 annually today and plans to expand to 40 tons. Ventrix's capture unit produces 60 to 120 tons per year—more than enough to meet current and future demand. At CO2 prices ranging from £200 to £2,500 per ton (and spiking to £5,000 during supply shortages), even a modestly scaled brewery generates significant savings or can shift to on-site production, discussed at length in the full episode on Listenly.
Three expanding markets beyond breweries
E-fuels represent explosive growth potential, with the sector expanding at 23% compound annual growth. By combining captured CO2 with hydrogen, Ventrix customers produce methane—a synthetic fuel that reduces transportation emissions and can be used across existing infrastructure. The US 45Q tax credit provides $60 per ton of CO2 recycled into e-fuels, creating a direct financial incentive.
Construction materials are the second pillar. CO2 can be permanently sequestered into concrete, reducing material costs while capturing carbon. This market is growing even faster—at 30% annually—and aligns with regulatory pressure to lower cement's carbon footprint. The same 45Q credit applies to CO2 locked into construction, adding an extra revenue layer.
Data centers and refrigeration applications remain exploratory but promising. Listen to the episode to hear how Sonny envisions modular capture units cooling massive server farms while simultaneously capturing their CO2 waste—a dual-value ecosystem previously unavailable at modular scale.
"We can cut the deployment time from years to days, and reduce CO2 costs by up to 50% for our customers."
Sonny — Co-founder and CEO of Ventrix Labs. Sonny brings a background in mathematics and AI, having previously worked at a Sequoia-backed AI startup. He comes from a family rooted in traditional heavy industries—cement, conservation, steel manufacturing, and train manufacturing. He co-founded Ventrix Labs one year and eight months ago while completing his master's degree at Imperial College London, where he met his co-founders through the Climate Entrepreneur Society.
For a deeper look at how Ventrix compares to traditional billion-dollar gas plants and why modular manufacturing changes the economics entirely, explore the full pitch on Listenly.
See also
How does Ventrix's modular approach compare to traditional large-scale gas plants in terms of manufacturing and cost reduction?
Traditional large plants are bespoke for every single plant with learning rates around 3%, so costs have not gone down. Ventrix's modular units are standardized and scalable, enabling cost reductions and faster deployment across industries.
What is Ventrix and what problem does it solve in industrial gas production?
Ventrix builds modular industrial gas plants, starting with CO2, that can be stacked from single units up to thousands together to replace gigantic, billion-dollar centralized gas plants with decentralized, on-site production.
Key takeaways
- Breweries are the immediate target because they waste CO2 while purchasing it externally, creating instant ROI through on-site capture and reuse.
- E-fuels and construction materials are high-growth markets eligible for the US 45Q tax credit ($60 per ton of CO2), dramatically improving unit economics.
- Data center refrigeration opens a dual-benefit use case: cooling infrastructure while capturing waste CO2 for downstream applications.
- Modular deployment cuts installation time and cost by 90% compared to traditional gas plants, unlocking markets previously too small to justify billion-dollar infrastructure.