Time names UCLA’s Gaurav Sant among 2024’s top influential climate leaders

Gaurav Sant, the Pritzker Professor of Sustainability at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, has been named one of 2024's biggest drivers of climate action worldwide by Time. Sant was selected for the annual TIME100 Climate list for his role in building North America's first commercial-scale, ocean-based carbon removal facility. The technology, which leverages seawater to capture and store atmospheric carbon dioxide while producing green hydrogen, has had a breakthrough year in manufacturing developments promising to help make carbon removal affordable.

"I am deeply honored and humbled by this recognition for the translational research and commercialization activities undertaken at UCLA's Institute for Carbon Management," said insitute director Sant, who holds faculty appointments at the departments of civil and environmental engineering and materials science and engineering. "I am fortunate to work alongside a dedicated team of scientists and engineers who are committed to delivering affordable, accessible and timely solutions for climate change mitigation."

The Equatic technology uses a flow-electrolysis process to activate the ocean's natural ability to absorb carbon dioxide like a sponge, removing atmospheric carbon accumulations and trapping the greenhouse gas in the form of calcium and magnesium-based materials in a durable and safe manner. The method also yields hydrogen gas as a co-product, which can be used as a clean fuel.

In 2019, the Equatic process - formerly known as Project SeaChange - developed by Sant and others at UCLA won first place in the global 2021 Liveability Challenge backed by the Temasek Foundation in Singapore. Within two years, the technology transitioned into the startup Equatic Inc., launching pilot operations in Los Angeles and Singapore. It is currently building the world's largest ocean-based carbon dioxide-removal plant in Singapore.

In June, Equatic, along with Canadian carbon removal project developer Deep Sky, announced that engineering had started on North America's first commercial-scale ocean-based carbon dioxide removal plant - a facility slated to remove 109,500 metric tons of carbon dioxide and produce 3,600 metric tons of green hydrogen in its first year.

Equatic was named one of Time's best inventions of 2023 and was a finalist for the 2024 Earthshot Prize - a global initiative launched by Britain's Prince William in 2020 to search for and scale-up the most innovative solutions to the world's greatest environmental challenges.

Founded in 2019, the UCLA Institute for Carbon Management searches for promising concepts and accelerates the commercialization from bench-scale to startup. In 2021, the UCLA CarbonBuilt team, led by Sant and his colleagues, won the grand prize in the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE global competition for creating a breakthrough process that converts carbon dioxide into concrete. UCLA, the first university team to win the XPRIZE, received $7.5 million.

In addition to CarbonBuilt and Equatic, the institute is advancing other technologies to manage carbon emissions. Sant and other ICM collaborators recently developed "ZeroCAL," a process to decarbonize cement production, which could help significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions in the industry.

Sant, who joined the UCLA faculty in 2010, is a member of the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA. He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers and earned support from federal and state agencies, international governments, philanthropic foundations and Fortune 500 companies for his research and technology translation activities. In September, Sant was named as a Forbes Sustainability Leader. He has also received awards from the National Science Foundation, American Concrete Institute and the American Institute for Chemical Engineers.