Air2Energy

The challenge

Reducing emissions without replacing existing systems

What if the exhaust pouring out of gas boilers could do more than contribute to emissions?

Every day, large volumes of energy are lost through boiler exhaust systems across industries such as manufacturing, energy generation, and food processing.

For founders Kirah Godsell and Andrew Smithyman, that question sparked the creation of Air2Energy, a climate-tech team developing technology designed to convert waste exhaust emissions into usable electricity.

Air2Energy explores whether exhaust from existing gas boilers can become an input to a retrofit system that both reduces emissions and generates additional electricity.

The system is designed to attach to a boiler’s exhaust. It filters carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the exhaust stream and uses an electrochemical process to convert the captured carbon dioxide into electricity for use in the building.

"As founders, we're constantly asking how we can create practical solutions that work in the real world," says Kirah.

"We saw an opportunity to transform something traditionally viewed as waste into something valuable."

Designed to operate alongside existing infrastructure with minimal disruption to normal building operations, the technology offers a potential retrofit pathway for reducing emissions from existing gas equipment while also generating additional onsite electricity.

Through CSIRO’s ON Innovation Program, co-founders Kirah Godsell and Andrew Smithyman tested where the technology could create the strongest commercial value and identified commercial gas boilers as their initial target market.

The team is now preparing for pilot trials with potential commercial partners.

Our response

Finding the first market and learning from customers through ON

Like many early-stage innovators, Kirah and Andrew began with a strong technical idea but faced a challenge: understanding whether there was a market need and how to translate their research into a scalable business.

That journey led them to CSIRO's ON Innovation Program.

Through ON Prime and later; ON Accelerate, they worked closely with mentors, industry experts and potential customers to understand where their technology could create the greatest value in the market.

The experience encouraged the team to shift its focus from the technology itself to the problem it could solve.

One of the team's most significant decisions came during their time with ON Accelerate. Through customer conversations and market validation activities during Immersion Week, the founders identified a stronger near-term opportunity in commercial gas boiler systems.

This insight helped refine their market focus and accelerate their pathway towards commercial deployment. While the technology continued to evolve, the founders were equally focused on identifying where it could deliver the greatest commercial impact.

"One of the biggest lessons was learning that building great technology isn't enough," says Andrew.

"You need to understand where the market pull exists and be willing to adapt as you learn. The ON Program helped us ask those questions earlier and with more confidence."

The team also benefited from access to experienced mentors and networks, helping them strengthen both their commercial capability and confidence as founders.

The results

Building evidence for pilot trials

Air2Energy's progress has been supported by a growing network of researchers, universities, industry partners and startup programs.

For Kirah, that support has played a critical role in the company's development.

"Every early-stage founder needs people willing to back the vision before it's proven," she says.

"We've been fortunate to have strong supporters who believed in what we were trying to build and helped us keep moving forward."

The founders credit a network of supporters, including the University of Technology Sydney, startup and accelerator programs such as the ON Program, advisors and industry collaborators.

The learnings and advice helped transform an ambitious concept into a venture ready for real-world validation.

 Validating technical and commercial value

Developing breakthrough technology rarely follows a straight line.

For Air2Energy, progress has required persistence, experimentation and a willingness to work through technical challenges as they emerged. Along the way, the team has refined not only the technology, but also its understanding of the market, building momentum through industry engagement and pilot opportunities.

A significant milestone came with the successful deployment of Air2Energy's field-testing system, marking a new chapter for the venture as the technology moves beyond laboratory development and into real-world testing.

For Kirah, the achievement represented far more than a technical outcome.

"It's hard to put into words the amount of excitement, drive and hard work that's gone into reaching this stage," she says.

"This milestone belongs to everyone who believed in us, supported us and worked alongside us to bring the vision to life."

She particularly credits co-founder Andrew Smithyman and the broader Air2Energy team for helping turn a shared vision into reality.

"Innovation is never a solo journey," she says. "Every obstacle has been something we've worked through together. That's what makes milestones like this so rewarding."

With the field-testing system now operational, the team can begin generating evidence about how the technology performs under real operating conditions, while exploring what is required to scale and integrate it into industrial environments.

This next phase will be critical in understanding not only the technology's technical performance, but also its commercial potential.

Engagement with industry partners is helping Air2Energy explore potential applications, understand customer needs and identify where the technology could deliver the greatest value.

For the founders, that commercial perspective has been an important part of the journey.

Through ON, they were able to test assumptions, engage with potential customers and refine their pathway towards commercialisation well before pilot deployment became possible.

Air2Energy's journey demonstrates how innovation evolves when scientific curiosity is combined with customer insight, commercial capability and the right support network.

What began as a university research project has grown into a venture developing practical solutions to one of industry's most pressing challenges: reducing emissions while making better use of existing resources.

As the testing program expands and industry partnerships develop, the focus is now firmly on proving the technology's value in the environments where it could ultimately be deployed.

"We're now at the stage where we're taking what we've learned in the lab and validating it in the environments where it will ultimately be used," Andrew says.

"Every round of testing improves our understanding of how the technology performs in real operating conditions and brings us closer to delivering a practical solution that helps industry reduce waste and emissions."

For Air2Energy, the vision remains clear: to transform waste exhaust emissions into a valuable energy resource and help organisations unlock new pathways towards sustainability.