For much of Baydin’s (Boomerang’s) history, we have been fortunate enough to be able to dedicate a share of our profits to charitable causes. We are committed to making a positive impact and putting people at the center of what we do, so we believe it’s essential to give back.
The impact of our giving has included:
- helping build several schools in Burma
- funding a mobile school bus
- supporting academic labs working on carbon capture technologies
Now, we’re ready to accept applications for this year’s funding to continue the tradition, and we need your help.
Seeking Applications from Carbon Capture Researchers
We’re inviting applications from underfunded, US-based academic labs or research organizations working on carbon capture technology to receive up to $50,000 in funding.
Carbon capture will be a key component of mitigating the effects of climate change and reversing global warming. Many of the big, well-funded players in the space are looking into it. But we’re a startup, and consistent with that ethos, we’re looking for high variance, big swing projects that are still too early for more established funding sources like NSF. Think of this as the pre-seed stage of climate tech funding.
How to Submit Your Proposal
If you are a researcher or a student working on new carbon capture technology and could use some funding, we invite you to submit your application:
Please include:
- Name, Organization, and Contact info
- A one-page proposal attachment describing your proposed or current project details and how you would use the funding
- Confirmation that your organization is 501c3 eligible and you will be able to provide a tax-deductible receipt
The deadline to apply is November 13, 2024.
If you have any questions, please contact boomerang+carbon@baydin.com.
Previous recipients of Boomerang’s carbon capture research funding
This will be our sixth year making a contribution to fund carbon capture research.
- The first year, we donated to an academic lab in Colorado State working on genetically engineered thin film microalgae for carbon capture.
- In year two, the recipient was part of Project Carbon at UC Davis, working on soil amendment for better carbon sequestration while providing better crop yield.
- We chose micro-algae-driven carbon capture research led by Dr. Yantao Li at the University of Maryland for Boomerang’s 2021 Climate Donation. You can read more about Dr. Yantao Li’s work here.
- In 2022, we donated to two projects:
- Professor Maria Maldonado of the University of California Davis on her research into the respiratory proteins of giant kelp to develop respiration-based strategies to enhance net carbon capture
- Professor John Coates’ lab at the University of California Berkeley. His proposal involves working on making bioplastics cheaper to manufacture by adapting a species of bacteria to convert methane into bioplastic polymers using perchlorate respiration instead of oxygen respiration. Our team got a detailed look at his research in 2023, and the potential blew us away.
- We also donated to two projects in 2023:
- Prof. Scott Warren at UNC Chapel Hill’s Department of Chemistry, who is developing membranes for capturing CO2 directly from combustion sources using a material discovered by his research team. This research could potentially lead to a 10-50 fold improvement in membrane performance with reduced energy consumption.
- Dr. Kyriakos C. Stylianou at Oregon State University, leading a project on bioinspired materials for oceanic carbon capture. The project involves synthesizing metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), which, when exposed to UV light, selectively capture oceanic inorganic carbon and convert it into value-added products such as methanol.
And we’re looking for this year’s recipient!
Help Us Spread The Word
Help us find where our donation should go! Please share this blog post far and wide, and let’s do our part together.
