The global industrial sector contributes approximately 30% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) responsible for 60--70% of these emissions (OECD, 2022). In the UK, small- and mid-sized industries face significant challenges in implementing cost-effective emissions reduction solutions. This issue is especially critical in South West Wales (SWW), home to over 90 breweries, predominantly micro and small-scale, family-owned enterprises essential to the region's £800 million drinks industry. These breweries emit two to three times the CO₂required during fermentation processes while also relying on unstable, expensive external CO₂ supply chains, creating an unsustainable financial cycle and considerable supply chain risks.
The Welsh government emphasizes the urgent need to support SME decarbonisation, recognizing their limited resources, knowledge, and financial capacity (Feb, 2025). Additionally, the South Wales Industrial Cluster (SWIC) highlights the strategic importance of carbon capture and utilisation (CCU), particularly in Carmarthenshire, Neath-Port Talbot, Pembrokeshire, and Swansea, regions with significant direct emissions.
Traditional carbon capture technologies are too large, costly, and energy-intensive for SMEs. Ventrix Labs addresses this critical market gap with an innovative modular, ultra-low-energy carbon capture solution that capitalizes on waste energy available in existing building infrastructures. Ventrix's system integrates directly onto subsystems like those in breweries, or seamlessly into non-process buildings, such as offices on industrial sites, enabling efficient, cost-effective CO₂ capture without disrupting core business operations. Each modular unit captures up to 30 tonnes of CO₂ annually, simultaneously reducing emissions and ensuring a secure, onsite CO₂ supply for breweries and beyond.
In collaboration with an industry partner and an academic institution, Ventrix Labs aims to validate the technical and commercial feasibility of their modular carbon capture technology, initially focused on breweries. This demonstration will examine scalability and replication potential across diverse emission-intensive SMEs, creating a secure, resilient, and decentralized regional CO₂ supply chain.
The widespread adoption of Ventrix's modular technology can significantly enhance demand for decentralised CO₂transport infrastructure, fortifying national decarbonisation strategies and enabling SMEs to lead regional climate action. This pioneering approach directly strengthens local economic resilience by lowering operational costs, stabilising supply chains, and facilitating sustainable business growth. Ventrix's model serves as a replicable blueprint for effective industrial decarbonisation, aligned closely with the UK's Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy (UKGOV, 2021). Its success in SWW will showcase a scalable, decentralised CCU infrastructure that can drive transportation and storage use cases at scale, driving robust economic and environmental impact across the UK and globally.