Putting the green back in greenhouses
Hot Lime Labs is on a mission to empower greenhouses across the globe to embrace the transition to renewable energy sources, while simultaneously taking their yields and profits to new heights.
Wellington-based cleantech start-up Hot Lime Labs is revolutionising the way greenhouses operate with technology that supplies a renewable and sustainable source of carbon dioxide.
Growers pump carbon dioxide (CO2) into their greenhouses as a method to boost plant production. Their reliance on fossil fuels as the sole source of CO2, either as a by-product of burning natural gas for heat or in the form of a liquid CO2 from refineries, poses a significant problem. Due to the shortage and rising costs of both natural gas and liquid CO2, growers are experiencing disruptions in crop production and in turn, the costs of produce for the consumer are increasing.
Hot Lime Labs is meeting this vast demand with their pioneering technology that provides a renewable source of CO2.
The core technology of Hot Lime Labs is the ‘Hot Lime,’ a patented limestone material that extracts clean CO2 from crop and wood waste. When distributed back into the greenhouse, it can boost yields by up to 25 percent. The ‘Hot Lime’ technology is the culmination of a decades-worth of research by Founder and CTO of Hot Lime Labs, Dr Vlatko Materić, who developed the CO2 capture material at Callaghan Innovation.
Vlatko was a founding participant of the KiwiNet Emerging Innovator Programme, which kickstarted funding for Hot Lime Labs, and he was named Breakthrough Innovator at the 2018 KiwiNet Awards.
Dr Vlatko Materić, founder and CTO of Hot Lime Labs, displaying the company’s patented lime pellets.
At Callaghan, the technology was initially developed for the power industry to capture CO2 from chimneys, however after identifying an unmet demand for clean CO2 from growers, Vlatko redirected his focus.
He started Hot Lime Labs and scaled the technology to a successful pilot unit, leading to installation of its first commercial-scale system in Gourmet Mokai Limited’s Taupō greenhouse in 2024. Exciting developments lie ahead for Hot Lime Labs as they explore future innovation and direction for their technology.
Their most recent discovery is for the potential uses of biochar, created as a by-product of the CO2 capture process. The biochar is made from biomass and can be used to filter wastewater while capturing valuable nutrients. Next, biochar is buried in the ground, sequestering the carbon while also releasing valuable nutrients into the soil - leading to the creation of carbon negative greenhouse ‘hubs.’
Since inception, Hot Lime Labs has grown from a team of three people working out of Vlatko’s living room to a team of 24 with full-scale premises.
The global demand for CO2 offers ample opportunities for Hot Lime Labs to expand. However, their imminent mission is to decarbonise the horticulture industry by helping 50 percent of the global greenhouse industry transition to renewable energy in the next 30 years.
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