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As the global energy transition accelerates, utilities are under increasing pressure to deliver solutions that are not only cleaner, but also more reliable, resilient, and economically viable. At Energy Capital Ventures®, we believe the most impactful energy innovations are happening at the molecular level, where science meets scalable infrastructure.
This month, we highlight three Green Molecules® portfolio companies - Osmoses, Furno, and Cemvita - that are redefining how natural gas is produced, separated, and repurposed. These companies are building novel platforms that help utilities decarbonize their gas infrastructure, turn emissions into valuable feedstocks, and unlock new pathways to low-carbon growth.
With each breakthrough, our portfolio companies are demonstrating how Green Molecules® can serve as a foundation for a more sustainable, secure, and resilient energy future.
What They Do: Osmoses is transforming one of the most energy-intensive parts of the gas value chain: the separation process. Their membrane technology enables the cost-effective purification of hydrogen, methane, and carbon dioxide, delivering cleaner molecules with significantly lower energy consumption.
Core Technology: Gas separation today relies heavily on thermally driven methods, such as cryogenic distillation, amine scrubbing, and pressure swing adsorption—processes that are capital-intensive, complex, and highly energy-consuming.
Osmoses replaces these with a new class of engineered polymer membranes designed at the molecular level to maximize selectivity and permeability, two properties that rarely go hand-in-hand. These membranes act like molecular sieves, allowing only specific gases to pass through while blocking others based on size, shape, and chemical affinity.
Their breakthrough was born at MIT, where researchers developed proprietary polymers that resist plasticization, maintain stability under pressure, and function in harsh industrial settings. The result is a modular, membrane-based system that operates at lower temperatures and pressures, reducing operating costs and emissions.
Where They Are Today: Osmoses has raised significant seed capital, and is working with industrial and utility-scale partners to pilot their membrane systems in carbon capture, hydrogen purification, and RNG upgrading projects.
Their systems are being built to be containerized, scalable, and adaptable to diverse feedstocks, from raw biogas to refinery off-gases, making them a high-impact, plug-and-play tool for utilities and other users transitioning to cleaner molecules.
Why It Matters for Utilities: As utilities integrate RNG and hydrogen into their infrastructure, efficient, low-carbon separation becomes increasingly essential. Osmoses enables cleaner gas streams, lowers purification costs, and supports decarbonization mandates. Their technology serves as an enabling layer for tomorrowʼs gas network, one that seamlessly integrates legacy assets with emerging clean fuels.
Core Technology: Most cement today is made in massive kilns that are expensive to build, slow to scale, and emit significant CO₂. Furno’s solution is a first-of-its-kind modular cement reactor, small enough to deploy anywhere and smart enough to meet stringent performance standards.
The system is powered by natural gas and incorporates advanced features such as material chemistry monitoring, optimized grinding, and machine learning-driven combustion control to produce ASTM-compliant clinker with lower emissions. The process also generates a purified CO₂ stream, ready for capture or use, eliminating the need for costly carbon capture retrofits.
The result is ASTM-compliant clinker with significantly lower energy input and emissions. Notably, their process generates a purified CO₂ stream, ready for sale, utilization, or storage.
Where They Are Today: Furno is advancing from lab and pilot demonstrations to early commercial deployments. With $6.5 million in seed funding, the company is preparing its first commercial pilot, developed in partnership with Ozinga, one of the largest independent concrete producers in the U.S. The project will demonstrate how Furno’s modular kiln technology can be deployed close to demand centers to produce low-carbon cement at scale. By targeting high-growth, underserved markets where traditional cement plants are too costly or too slow to build, Furno is redefining how—and where—cement gets made.
Why It Matters for Utilities: Cement production accounts for nearly 8% of global CO₂ emissions, and reducing its climate impact is becoming a top priority for communities and regulators alike. Furno’s modular, natural gas-powered system enables the production of low-emission cement close to the point of demand, giving utilities an opportunity to support cleaner construction in their service territories. By leveraging existing gas infrastructure, Furno helps utilities meet decarbonization goals without overhauling their energy mix, while reinforcing the role of natural gas and distributed energy systems in a resilient, lower-carbon future.
What They Do: Cemvita is redefining carbon as a resource. Using synthetic biology, the company engineers microbes that convert CO₂ and industrial byproducts into fuels, feedstocks, and fertilizers. Instead of storing emissions, Cemvita up-cycles them—transforming carbon liabilities into low-carbon assets across the energy, chemicals, and agriculture sectors. Their biomanufacturing platform turns waste gases into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), bio-derived oils, and high-performance fertilizers, enabling a truly circular bioeconomy.
Each of these companies, Osmoses, Furno, and Cemvita, is solving a high-impact problem at the heart of the natural gas value chain. Whether it's unlocking clean hydrogen, electrifying cement kilns, or transforming CO₂ into fuel, they are proving that Green Molecules® aren't science fiction, they're deployment-ready.
At Energy Capital Ventures®, we back teams who think boldly and build practically. Technologists who understand the infrastructure, regulatory, and economic realities of the natural gas sector. These companies embody that spirit. Together, they form a blueprint for a cleaner, more resilient, and more flexible energy system, one molecule at a time.
