American Supercritical, a Denver-based energy technology company developing next-generation power generation systems, has emerged from stealth with $8 million in pre-seed funding led by Silent Ventures. Other participating investors include Riot Ventures, Harpoon, Reveille VC, Hillwood, Mana Ventures, Climate Capital, Alumni Ventures, and angel investors. The financing will support the commercialization of the company’s factory-built supercritical carbon dioxide power systems, which are designed to convert waste heat from existing gas turbines into additional electricity.
Founded by engineers with experience at Sandia National Laboratories, Kairos Power, and Exowatt, American Supercritical is developing technology intended to improve the efficiency of existing power generation infrastructure.
Its initial focus is on gas turbines operating in simple-cycle configurations, which generate electricity directly from fuel combustion but release substantial quantities of unused energy through their exhaust.
According to American Supercritical, approximately 140 gigawatts of gas turbine capacity currently operate in the United States, representing a substantial opportunity to recover energy that would otherwise be wasted.
The company’s technology uses supercritical carbon dioxide, or sCO2, as the working fluid in a compact power generation system that captures heat from turbine exhaust and converts it into additional electricity.
The approach is designed to provide some of the efficiency benefits of a conventional combined-cycle power plant without requiring the large steam generation systems typically used to recover waste heat.
American Supercritical’s system is installed at the exhaust of an existing gas turbine, allowing the turbine’s waste heat to drive an additional power generation cycle.
The company says its technology can deliver up to 50% more power without additional fuel consumption, while requiring approximately one-tenth the physical space of a conventional steam-based system.
Its proposed installation process is designed to avoid modifications to the original gas turbine and, according to the company, would not require additional permitting.
These characteristics could make the technology relevant to operators seeking to increase electricity generation without undertaking the construction of entirely new power plants.
The initial market opportunity includes existing gas turbine installations serving industrial facilities, utilities, and other customers requiring substantial amounts of electricity.
American Supercritical also sees an opportunity in the growing market for AI data centers, where increasing electricity requirements have accelerated investment in new power generation infrastructure.
Data center developers and other large electricity consumers have increasingly pursued gas turbines to secure reliable power supplies within compressed development schedules.
However, simple-cycle installations can sacrifice fuel efficiency in exchange for faster deployment and lower initial complexity.
American Supercritical aims to address this trade-off by providing a factory-built system that can be installed alongside existing turbines to recover energy from exhaust heat.
The company estimates that converting the existing U.S. fleet of applicable gas turbines could recover tens of gigawatts of additional generating capacity.
It also projects that broad deployment of its technology could avoid approximately 20 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually, equivalent to roughly 10% of emissions from the U.S. natural gas sector, based on the company’s estimates.
These potential benefits depend on the operating characteristics of individual installations and the extent to which the technology is ultimately deployed.
Beyond conventional gas turbine applications, American Supercritical plans to adapt its technology for other sources of high-temperature heat.
Potential markets include small modular nuclear reactors, geothermal energy, concentrated solar power, and industrial waste heat recovery.
The company believes its compact power systems could help developers of these technologies convert heat into electricity while reducing the size and complexity of conventional steam-based infrastructure.
American Supercritical is establishing its operations in a 25,000-square-foot facility in Denver, which will support engineering, testing, and initial low-volume production.
The facility is intended to provide the infrastructure needed to develop and validate its technology as it advances toward commercial manufacturing.
Its engineering team includes professionals with experience at Sandia National Laboratories, Echogen, Hanwha, Blue Origin, Southwest Research Institute, and Google X.
The company is also recruiting engineers specializing in turbomachinery and power electronics as it expands its technical capabilities.
American Supercritical is led by Co-Founder and CEO Simon Shuham and Co-Founder and CTO Matt Carlson, who brings approximately a decade of experience developing supercritical carbon dioxide technology through positions at Sandia, Heliogen, and Kairos Power.
The company intends to use the new financing to advance engineering and manufacturing, expand its workforce, and develop its initial commercial power generation systems.
Its longer-term objective is to establish supercritical carbon dioxide technology as an alternative to conventional steam-based power generation equipment across multiple energy markets.
KEY QUOTES:
“Our first goal is to make wasteful simple cycle gas turbine installations obsolete. Our sCO2 power block converts any gas turbine into a combined cycle plant. We upgrade turbines running today instead of replacing them.”
Simon Shuham, Co-Founder and CEO of American Supercritical
“Compressed timelines pushed operators toward simple cycle turbines. Wasting fuel was never the goal.”
Matt Carlson, Co-Founder and CTO of American Supercritical
