A California firm that provides smokestack emissions reduction services for container ships, auto carriers, and tankers has raised $40 million in funding, Stax Engineering said today.
Founded in 2016 in Long Beach, California, Stax launched publicly in 2024. The firm offers emissions capture and control without requiring the modification of maritime vessels, providing barge-based, land-based, and mobile capture and control solutions as a service to terminal operators and fleets. Once that exhaust is captured and funneled into the Stax system, it is filtered to remove 99% of particulate matter (PM) and 95% of oxides of nitrogen (NOx) before being released as purified gas, the firm says.
The new funding was provided by the “hybrid growth capital” investment firm Upper90. That capital will finance the build-out of Stax’s fleet of mobile emissions capture and control barges, which is set to accelerate over the next six months to meet increasing demand across container and auto carrier classes as well as broadening coverage to include tankers. As California Air Resources Board (CARB) regulations expand to include tankers beginning in January 2025, this push from Stax will position the organization to service the newly regulated class, the firm said.
Although it’s young, Stax has exclusive service agreements with the Ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Oakland for ports, and with NYK Line and Hyundai GLOVIS for shipping companies.
“The momentum we are seeing from investors, ports and shipping partners reflects the growing and urgent need to achieve and maintain compliance within some of the nation’s most essential shipping ports,” Stax CEO Mike Walker said in a release. “The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has created an ecosystem of regulations that protect air quality surrounding CA ports—and as with other CARB regulations, other states will likely follow suit in short order. Our technology helps organizations meet those high standards without upending their business.”
