Xinhua Finance Report — August 2025

In early August 2025, a row of silver metal boxes appeared atop a residential building in Nanjing. These are Jiangsu Green Carbon Nano Technology Co., Ltd.’s (Green Carbon Tech) "air magic boxes," marking the official installation and commissioning of China’s first urban direct air capture (DAC) system for buildings. Unlike Switzerland’s Climeworks carbon capture facility, which consumes 10,000 kWh per ton, these inconspicuous boxes require only 780 kWh—a 92% energy reduction.Green Carbon Tech, founded in May 2017, specializes in carbon dioxide resource conversion and utilization. With this innovative technology, the company completed its Series B financing in May 2025, with GCL Group becoming the exclusive investor and acquiring an 80% controlling stake.

Innovative Technology Tackles the “Energy Paradox”

Direct air capture (DAC) is a carbon reduction technology that absorbs air from the atmosphere and uses physical and chemical processes to separate CO2.

“As 65% of the global population lives in cities, capturing CO2 from urban rooftops could be the black gold that reshapes industrial rules,” said Song Weining, founder of Green Carbon Tech. Song, a 1983 graduate of Peking University and a PhD holder from Canada’s McMaster University (1993), led his team to top 10 in the CarbonX Competition from 2016 to 2020, the only Chinese team to have won. In 2018, he was named a "Global Climate Pioneer" by the UN Global Climate Action Summit. Over the past 30 years, he has focused on the industrialization of waste carbon-based materials.

Song believes that the system developed by Green Carbon Tech can significantly improve indoor air quality, solve “stuffy” air issues, enhance comfort, and turn buildings into carbon sinks with continuous carbon reduction capabilities.

Typically, one cubic meter of air contains 1 gram of CO2. To capture one ton of CO2, the energy required—combining necessary kinetic and thermal energy—would amount to 10,000 kWh. “We can’t afford to create more emissions to capture CO2,” Song said, acknowledging the dilemma that troubled him for years.

He further explained: “For carbon neutrality to be sustainable, it must meet three criteria: it must be ‘cost-neutral’.” In 2023, during a seminar in Suzhou, Song had an epiphany: by adding a device to the existing system, it could become an efficient carbon capture network. The team developed Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOF) and moisture-adsorbent materials, enabling capture modules to be embedded in city buildings, data centers, metro stations, and more. The existing system’s kinetic and thermal energy now performs 90% of the work, with additional energy use limited to just 7%. Cities—home to 56% of the global population—have transformed into enormous carbon mining fields, potentially capturing 21 billion tons of CO2.

A remarkable breakthrough occurred in the cement sector. In collaboration with China Railway, a carbon sequestration project was developed where 1 cubic meter of concrete can sequester 153 kg of CO2—significantly surpassing the industry benchmark of 12 kg set by Amazon’s headquarters.

Building a Strong Technological Moat in the Aerospace Sector

In November 2024, the Long March 12 rocket successfully launched with a world-first carbon nanotube aluminum alloy composite material in its interstage. This material is 10% lighter and 20% stiffer than aerospace aluminum alloy, and at a cost of less than RMB 100,000 per ton, it directly competes with aluminum-lithium alloys costing 40-60% more.

“The real revolution is letting the technology generate its own revenue,” Song explained. By selecting alternative materials, the team aims to reduce the production cost of carbon nanotubes from RMB 50,000/ton to RMB 21,800/ton, which is 25% lower than traditional Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) processes, with a carbon reduction of 2.5 tons over its lifecycle.

While LG Chem sells multi-wall carbon nanotubes at $30,000–50,000 per ton, Song’s team is breaking down these high-cost barriers in China.

Industry Restructuring and the Practical Application of "Negative Carbon Economics"

Green Carbon Tech’s collaboration with GCL Group began after Song attended a conference in the U.S. in 2024. During this event, GCL’s American Research Center extended an “olive branch,” and the center sent representatives to inspect Green Carbon Tech’s projects in Shanxi and Guangdong.

Soon after, Song and GCL Group Chairman Zhu Gongshan met. “I only realized when we met that our company is less than a 10-minute drive from GCL’s headquarters,” Song recalled. The days of relying on property mortgages for R&D were finally over.

Now, just 76 days after joining GCL Group, Song shared that his schedule for August was already fully booked. Green Carbon Tech’s carbon conversion equipment and research facility in Shanxi’s Datong coal-fired power plant are set to officially relocate, integrating into GCL Group’s silicon, lithium, and carbon industry chains. The world’s first carbon capture and conversion system—transforming CO2 into carbon nanotubes—had previously been halted due to power policies but now has the platform to thrive.

Thus, the “Three-Foundation Industry” blueprint that Zhu Gongshan presented to investors in Q2 has completed another piece of the puzzle, with carbon-based materials now joining silicon and lithium as the three key pillars of GCL Group’s future development. Song’s carbon nanotube technology serves as the golden link tying together these industries.

Creating Economic Sustainability Through Materials Innovation

“Economic sustainability is the bottom line,” Song said, aligning with GCL Group’s business logic. Green Carbon Tech’s innovative technology, including carbon nanotube manufacturing, promises to significantly disrupt the market. By utilizing the price premium of materials, Song aims to cover carbon reduction costs.

Lithium battery conductive slurry is the first application. Green Carbon’s carbon nanotube conductive agent reduces internal resistance to 22.8 Ω·cm, 60% lower than imported carbon black. GCL plans to kick off carbon nanotube projects this year, with an annual capacity goal of 10,000 tons of carbon nanotubes to support the production of one million tons of conductive slurry. “By 2030, carbon nanotube production is expected to create a market worth RMB 64 billion,” Song said.

Looking further ahead, carbon nanotubes can revolutionize materials. “At a final cost of RMB 20,000 per ton, this material is 80% lighter and cheaper than copper,” Song noted, pointing to a sample of carbon nanotube-copper composite fibers. This material, seven times stronger than copper and with similar electrical conductivity, can now replace copper in lithium batteries, enhancing energy density and lifespan, and reduce costs in transparent conductors, replacing traditional ITO materials.

In the future, carbon nanotubes can be combined with aluminum to create vehicle body panels or structural components, reducing the weight of new energy vehicles—just as Lamborghini’s Terzo Millennio concept car used carbon nanotube panels to achieve a 30% weight reduction.

Global Battle: Green Energy Technology Paves the Way

The countdown to the 2027 EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) looms over China’s lithium battery industry. “If the EU does not accept green energy data from Chinese production zones, the cost of lithium iron phosphate batteries will rise by 22.5%,” Song warned. More concerning is that China’s current carbon emissions for lithium batteries—10.5 tons/GWh—far exceed the EU’s threshold of 4.5 tons.

GCL Group is planning zero-carbon parks to break through international trade barriers. Future carbon nanotube production demonstration bases will feature green electricity supply systems. “After absorbing 50,000 tons of carbon emissions from green electricity, we’ll be close to EU standards,” Song said.

The battle extends to technology standards. During a visit to Amazon’s HQ2 carbon-sequestering building, Song noticed a carbon capture label of 12 kg per cubic meter of concrete. “Our 153 kg data hasn’t even been added to the national standard yet,” he remarked. He hopes that DAC projects like the one in Nanjing, which has caught international attention, can push forward China’s lagging construction standards. Its energy consumption is less than 10% of international mainstream equipment.

The competition extends to the more covert frontier of technology. In April 2025, the X-Prize for carbon removal, funded by Elon Musk with $100 million, was announced. Despite a highly similar solution from the Chongqing No.1 High School team, Song’s team missed the finals due to lack of funding and inability to build a practical application system within the competition’s time frame. He calls for more societal support for original technologies.

Zhu Gongshan’s vision for GCL Group’s Central Research Institute is addressing this gap. The institute has already begun researching materials like silicon carbide powders and silicon-carbon anodes, leveraging GCL’s 600,000 tons of silane gas production capacity. The resulting cyclical innovation ecosystem will ensure original technologies no longer face the dilemma of fragmented support.

With the world’s first CO2-to-carbon nanotube production device about to restart, the DAC system on the Nanjing rooftop will capture CO2 exhaled by residents, which will then be absorbed by concrete. These two technological routes converge within the GCL industrial ecosystem, pointing to the same goal: turning carbon neutrality from a cost center into a profit engine.

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