Planetary Hydrogen, a cleantech company that moved from Ottawa to Nova Scotia last year, has been accepted into the New York-based Carbon to Value Initiative, which encourages industrial uses of carbon dioxide.

The company launched in Ottawa a few years ago and last year moved most of its operations to the Halifax area because it was collaborating on research with Dalhousie University.

Now it is one of 10 companies accepted into the first cohort of Carbon to Value, or C2V, which aims to create a thriving innovation ecosystem for the commercialization of carbontech. Like the Carbon XPRIZE, which Dartmouth-based CarbonCure Technologies co-won last month, the goal is to build up an industry that removes CO2 from the atmosphere and uses it for commercial purposes.

"In addition to being absolutely necessary to stave off dangerous climate impacts, carbontech innovations represent a potential $3 trillion market opportunity," said Pat Sapinsley, Managing Director at the Urban Future Lab, one of the C2V partners. "We are excited to welcome 10 startups, each proposing different business models and technology innovations to realize that opportunity."

Planetary Hydrogen – which listed its headquarters as Dartmouth in the C2V announcement – was one of two Canadian companies accepted into the program. The other is Toronto-based CERT, which converts CO2 to chemicals such as ethylene via electrolysis.

The Dartmouth-based company has devised a system that has two components that can improve the environment and make money. First, it produces hydrogen, which is in growing demand as a clean fuel. Second, it injects bicarbonate into the ocean to reduce the acidity of the water and capture carbon, and also sells carbon offsets to generate revenue.

Mike Kelland, the CEO of Planetary Hydrogen, told Entrevestor in January its goal is to remove a gigaton (a billion metric tons) of CO2 from the atmosphere each year by 2035.

C2V is a multi-year collaboration between The Urban Future Lab at New York University, Greentown Labs, and Fraunhofer USA. Its partners include the Consulate General of Canada in New York. The initiative received more than 130 applications from 26 countries, representing a wide variety of carbontech innovations.

The accelerator will hold its first event for participants this week.