Duranium YC Application

Summer 2025Active

Duranium went through Y Combinator in the Summer 2025 batch as a Industrials company. Below: what the company does, who founded it, and its application to YC, reconstructed question by question in the real YC form.

YC batch: Summer 2025
Industry: IndustrialsManufacturing and Robotics
Team size: 10
Status: Active
Launched: 2025

Founders

Brenden Prins-McKinneyFounder/CEO
Berkley NobleFounder/CTO

What Duranium does

China and Russia control the world’s critical minerals. We can produce Titanium, Magnesium, Aluminum, Zirconium & Hafnium in the U.S. more profitably than any existing process, and carbon neutrally via co-production. Carbochlorination is the primary process for producing critical metals like titanium, hafnium, and zirconium, and was once the standard for magnesium. The problem: conventional carbochlorination relies on purchasing carbon feedstocks, wastes valuable byproducts, and is highly CO₂-intensive. Duranium changes this with a novel reactor that recycles CO₂ emissions back into feedstock (CO) while generating a valuable co-product (bleaching agents). This closed loop slashes emissions and delivers Chinese-level metal pricing without subsidies - unlocking the full potential of carbochlorination for U.S. critical mineral production.

Duranium's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Duranium, Summer 2025 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Duranium

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Reshoring critical metal production

What is your company going to make? Please describe your product and what it does or will do.

We built a novel carbochlorination reactor that produces titanium, magnesium, aluminum, zirconium, and hafnium. Our process recycles CO₂ emissions back into feedstock and generates valuable co-products, enabling U.S.-based critical metals production at prices competitive with Chinese suppliers but without subsidies and carbon emissions.

Where do you live now, and where would the company be based after YC?

We live in San Francisco, CA, and the company is based here as well.

Explain your decision regarding location.

San Francisco is where we built the core technology and assembled our team. It's a hub for deep tech and climate startups, and we have easy access to investors and talent.

21 more answers in the full application

Founders, Progress, Idea, Equity, Curious, Batch Preference are in the full version. Create a free account to open it in YC Insights, next to every other YC batch.

See full application

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this the real Duranium YC application?

No. Y Combinator keeps submitted applications private. This is a reconstruction: the real YC form questions, answered from Duranium's public data (launch notes, founder backgrounds, product description). It shows how a company like Duranium would present itself to YC, not the text they submitted.