Watch the show on television by downloading the SuperCrowd.tv Channel app to your Roku or Amazon Fire TV or e360tv channel app to your Roku, LG or Amazon Fire TV. You can also see it on YouTube.
Devin: What is your superpower?
Natan: I have the patience to watch market forces that are based off of science come to fruition.
What if we could turn carbon dioxide emissions and surplus renewable electricity into natural gas, helping businesses reduce emissions without replacing the equipment they already own?
That is the opportunity Natan Shahar, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Standard Carbon, is pursuing with a technology that combines captured carbon dioxide with electricity to produce synthetic methane.
The approach addresses two challenges at once. Industrial facilities and buildings need practical ways to reduce emissions, while renewable energy sources such as solar and wind sometimes generate more electricity than the grid can use. When supply exceeds demand, electricity prices can fall close to zero or even become negative.
Natan sees an opportunity in that mismatch.
“There’s this goldmine, for all intents and purposes, sitting in front of us, which is the excess wasted renewable power,” he explained.
Standard Carbon captures carbon dioxide from industrial exhaust and stores it until affordable electricity is available. The company then converts the carbon dioxide into methane, producing fuel that can be stored and used when needed.
The process offers an important advantage over approaches that require businesses to replace their existing energy infrastructure.
Natan founded Standard Carbon after working as a consulting engineer on boiler rooms, microgrids and cogeneration systems in New York. He saw that building owners needed to decarbonize their facilities but could not easily abandon the equipment on which their businesses depended.
“What we’re doing here is we’re feeding an existing multi-trillion-dollar market for natural gas,” Natan said. He believes compatibility with existing infrastructure makes adoption easier than technologies that require a complete replacement of existing systems.
The economics can be compelling, too. Natan described projects serving oil-fired applications in North America where the equivalent fuel could be produced and stored at a cost comparable to $3 per gallon, compared with oil prices of $6 per gallon. He also sees opportunities for businesses seeking more affordable ways to comply with carbon regulations.
This is the kind of innovation I find exciting: technology that connects environmental progress with practical business incentives. When companies can save money while reducing emissions, sustainability becomes more than an aspiration. It becomes an economic opportunity.
Standard Carbon is raising capital and invites interested investors to explore its offering through its website at standardcarbon.com.
The broader lesson is worth considering. We do not always need to replace everything we have built to create a cleaner future. Sometimes, the opportunity lies in making existing systems work differently by using resources we have been wasting.
tl;dr:
Standard Carbon converts captured carbon dioxide and surplus clean electricity into synthetic natural gas to help reduce industrial emissions.
Its technology stores renewable energy as fuel while leveraging existing natural gas infrastructure, reducing disruption and potentially lowering energy costs.
Natan Shahar sees an opportunity where decarbonization regulations meet inexpensive renewable electricity and growing demand for practical solutions.
His superpower is patience: recognizing scientific and market forces early, then persisting until conditions create meaningful opportunities.
By anticipating New York’s building emissions regulations and preparing for enforcement, Natan positioned Standard Carbon to address a growing market need.
Tap below to add Superpowers For Good as a trusted source.
How to Develop Patient Persistence As a Superpower
Natan’s superpower is his patience in recognizing when scientific principles and market forces will eventually align to create an opportunity. With Standard Carbon, he saw two powerful forces converging: regulations requiring businesses to reduce carbon emissions and surplus renewable electricity that needed buyers. He understood that replacing existing infrastructure would be difficult and expensive, creating an opportunity for a practical alternative. As Natan explained, “I have the patience to watch market forces that are based off of science come to fruition.” He has continued pursuing the opportunity because he believes the underlying science and economics support it, even when others question the timing. He puts it plainly: “I promise you what we’re working on will succeed. I can’t promise you that I’ll be the guy who manages to pull it off.” His patience combines long-term conviction with a willingness to keep working toward a goal whose timing and ultimate champion remain uncertain.
When Natan founded Standard Carbon in 2019, a new New York City law aimed at decarbonizing buildings helped inspire the business. A colleague dismissed the law as unrealistic and predicted it would be repealed. Natan believed the broader movement toward decarbonization would continue and suspected the law would remain in place. Although enforcement did not begin until 2025, he kept the opportunity in mind while the company explored other markets and applications. When enforcement finally arrived, building operators began calling because Standard Carbon had a solution to a problem many had assumed would disappear. His patience helped position the company for a market shift years before it fully materialized.
Tips for Developing Patient Persistence
Identify forces grounded in science. Look for physical, technological or economic realities that support the outcome you anticipate.
Study the market conditions. Identify the needs, regulations and economic incentives that could make your solution increasingly valuable over time.
Separate the outcome from the timing. Recognize that a trend can be durable even when the path to adoption is uncertain.
Prepare before demand arrives. Build capabilities, explore markets and refine your approach while waiting for the conditions to align.
Visualize inevitable natural forces. Natan recommends thinking about an ocean wave that builds and eventually crashes. Use that image to remind yourself that some developments take time but still arrive.
Stay committed without assuming success is guaranteed for you personally. Keep working toward the goal while acknowledging that execution and timing remain uncertain.
Look for signals that the moment is approaching. Watch for changes in regulation, economics or customer behavior that indicate a long-anticipated opportunity is becoming real.
By following Natan’s example and advice, you can make patient persistence a skill. With practice and effort, you could make it a superpower that enables you to do more good in the world.
Remember, however, that research into success suggests that building on your own superpowers is more important than creating new ones or overcoming weaknesses. You do you!
Guest Profile
Natan Shahar (he/him):
Founder & Chief Strategy Officer, Standard Carbon
About Standard Carbon: Standard Carbon is a New York energy technology company developing the Carbon Bridge, a modular system that converts carbon dioxide and electricity into synthetic natural gas, or eNG. The Carbon Bridge captures CO₂ at the point of emission, produces hydrogen from water using electricity, and combines the hydrogen and captured carbon to manufacture methane that can be used in existing boilers, power plants, pipelines and other natural-gas infrastructure. Rather than requiring customers to replace their existing energy systems, Standard Carbon’s approach is designed to decarbonize the fuel those systems already use. The company has demonstrated the technology in Israel and deployed a Carbon Bridge system at The City College of New York.
Website: standardcarbon.com
Other URL: invest.standardcarbon.com
Biographical Information: Natan Shahar is the founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Standard Carbon and a licensed Professional Engineer in New York. A mechanical and energy engineer, he has spent his career working on the practical economics of energy systems, buildings and infrastructure. He founded Standard Carbon around a straightforward engineering question: rather than replacing trillions of dollars of existing equipment that depends on gaseous fuels, why not manufacture a low-carbon replacement fuel that can work with the infrastructure already in place? That question led to the Carbon Bridge, Standard Carbon’s modular platform for capturing CO₂ and converting it with electricity and water into synthetic natural gas. The technology has progressed from an operating system in Israel to deployment in New York City at The City College of New York, with Standard Carbon now pursuing commercial applications in buildings, power generation and other energy-intensive facilities.
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/natan-shahar-3ba84920
Impact jobs this week
Office Manager II or Senior Office Manager — NYSERDA · Albany, NY · 70,139–101,118/yr
Venture Capital Senior Associate (Hybrid) — CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield · Washington, DC · 107,064–212,641/yr
Vice President, Energy Transition — AllianceBernstein · New York, NY · 160,000–195,000/yr
Coming up
Oct 13, 8 PM ET — Impact Member networking session (members get a private invite). Upgrade to join
Oct 21, 9 AM PT — SuperCrowdHour: Before You Click “Invest”: Due Diligence for Crowdfunding Investors, with Devin Thorpe. Register
Nov 19 — Superpowers for Good Live Pitch: raising through Reg CF? Pitch live to active investors — free if selected. Apply by Oct 29 →
Feb 4, 2027 — SuperGreen Live, the global virtual gathering for climate solutions and capital. SuperGreenLive.org
Thank you
Our Max-Impact Members: Alisa Evans, Mission Enrollment | Brian Christie, Brainsy | Cameron Neil, Lend For Good | Carol Fineagan, Independent Consultant | Dion Whitman, Call4USA | Eric Coury, Arthia AI | Joey Hayes, thru | John Berlet, CORE Tax Deeds, LLC. | Justin Smith, Contractor+ | Justin Starbird, The Aebli Group | Ken Steele, Rotarian | Lory Moore, Lory Moore Law | Marcia Brinton, High Desert Gear | Mark Grimes, Networked Enterprise Development | Mike Babbit | Coledger Solutions | Mike Green, Envirosult | Nick Degnan, Unlimit Ventures | Paul Lovejoy, Stakeholder Enterprise | Pearl Wright, Global Changemaker | Scott Thorpe, Philanthropist | Sharon Samjitsingh, Health Care Originals | Add Your Name Here
Our sponsors: SuperCrowd Membership and SuperGreen Live.
Manage the volume of emails you receive from us by clicking here.
We share educational information—not investment advice. Some links may generate compensation. See our full disclosure.
We use AI to help us write compelling recaps of each episode.
