C+UP Information

C+UP is an early-stage company in Chicago, working on the direct electrochemical conversion of CO₂, water and renewable electricity into molecules that today come from fossil sources. Most routes to cleaner fuels and chemicals make hydrogen first, then rebuild the carbon across several conversion stages. Every stage adds equipment, energy loss and cost. We are interested in the shorter path — converting CO₂ directly, in a single electrochemical step. It is a harder problem, and a more useful one if it can be made to work at scale. We are early, and deliberate about what we claim. This is a field where the engineering and integration questions matter as much as the chemistry, and most of them are still open. We're glad to hear from people working on carbon utilization, electrochemical synthesis, and the industrial questions around them.