CDR Monthly Recap - February 2025

We are back with another edition of the CDR Monthly Recap, a monthly round-up of some of the top news, developments, and market updates from the world of durable carbon removal.

After a fairly quiet January, which saw 67K tonnes of CDR sold, February also saw a similar trend with deals worth over 56K tonnes, led by a 47K Frontier purchase from Phlair.

CDR.fyi released the 2024 CDR.fyi Year in Review, analyzing the major trends in the durable CDR market while also publishing our second CDR.fyi Insight, providing a framework for winning CDR policy based on the scaling of BECCS and DACCS across the Nordic region and the US, respectively.

Policy updates, new projects, partnerships, and large funding opportunities and announcements continue to drive momentum for the industry ahead, along with various events in the field.

Read on to learn more below!

Pricing Mismatch in Durable CDR
Explore insights from the Durable CDR Pricing Survey, conducted in partnership with OPIS, to help market participants better understand pricing expectations for durable CDR credits.

Deals and Partnerships

[Image source: Phlair]

Deals

Frontier Buyers signed an offtake agreement with Phlair for $30.6 million to buy 47,000 tonnes of CDR. The tonnes will be delivered between 2027 and 2030 using Phlair's electro-chemical direct air capture technology.

United Airlines Ventures Sustainable Flight Fund secured the right to purchase up to 500,000 tonnes of CDR from Heirloom for SAF production or permanent storage, alongside an equity investment in the company.

TikTok and Two Drifters Distillery purchased 6,000 tonnes from Climeworks' portfolio of CDR credits. As part of the agreements, Climeworks will remove 5,100 tonnes of CO₂ from the air for TikTok through a portfolio of DAC, Biochar, and reforestation while the deal with Two Drifters will focus on DAC.

The LEGO Group committed $2.6 million to four CDR projects via ClimeFi and Climate Impact Partners. The initiatives will support projects across biochar, enhanced weathering, and reforestation.

Swiss financial services company SIX signed a multi-year agreement with Carbonfuture to secure a diversified portfolio of durable CDR credits, supporting methods that include DACCS and Biochar Carbon Removal.

UK’s largest automotive marketplace Auto Trader signed an agreement to purchase carbon removal credits from BECCS company The Carbon Removers (Carbon Capture Scotland). The volume and the pricing of the deal were not disclosed.

Partnerships

Carbon Removal Kenya, a new industry association, launched to promote and support durable CDR in Kenya and across Africa. It includes CDR suppliers, investors, marketplaces, NGOs, policymakers, and supporters.

Swiss green coffee trader Volcafe and CDR company Cotierra issued the first biochar carbon removal credits from Colombia, effectively supporting the decarbonization of coffee farming while benefiting farmers in the country.

Canadian CDR company Arca announced partnerships with the Development Partner Institute to engage stakeholders, the Climate Recovery Institute to grow Australia’s CDR industry, and Wyloo to explore carbon mineralization at mining sites across Western Australia.

Puro.earth and Sylvera partnered to help incentivize investment in CDR by combining Puro’s certification expertise with Sylvera’s project assessments, while also bridging supply and demand through Sylvera’s Connect to Supply platform.

Renewable and circular polymer materials company Avantium entered into an agreement to deliver an advanced high-throughput adsorption testing unit to Climeworks to accelerate their direct air capture (DAC) carbon removal technology.

mCDR company SeaO2 partnered with Svašek Hydraulics to model seawater dilution patterns to advance its understanding of Direct Ocean Removal’s interaction with the marine environment and support the responsible deployment of its technology in the ocean.

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Projects

[Image source: Sirona Technologies]

Sirona Technologies and Cella partnered to launch their pilot plant, Project Jacaranda, in Kenya. The facility, which uses solar-powered DAC and mineralization to capture and store CO₂ underground, marking the world's fastest DAC pilot deployment.

Ebb Carbon, which uses electrochemistry to remove CO₂ from the ocean, announced that its pilot project Project Macoma, has become the first mCDR project to secure a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit.

Captura launched operations at its Kona, Hawaii pilot plant. Developed in partnership with Equinor, this facility is capable of capturing 1,000 tonnes of CO₂ annually and marks a significant step toward large-scale deployment of Direct Ocean Removal technology.

Marine CDR (mCDR) company Planetary successfully removed 1,000 net tonnes of CO₂ directly from the atmosphere through its ocean alkalinity enhancement process, marking a significant milestone in its efforts to advance carbon removal solutions.

Former Oka and BeZero Carbon executives launched Residual, a platform developing large-scale biomass-based CDR projects, prioritizing high-quality credits, risk mitigation, and industrial partnerships.

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Financing

[Image source: Mast Reforestation]

Leading post-wildfire reforestation company Mast Reforestation raised $25 million in Series B funding to scale its expansion to Biomass Direct Storage. The round was co-led by Pulse Fund and Social Capital.

The Canadian government announced that it is investing $9.5 million (CA$14 million) in six projects under the Energy Innovation Program to advance carbon capture, utilization, and storage technologies for next-generation CO₂ capture, storage, and transportation.

Arca secured $8 million from investors, including Side Stage Ventures and Saniel Ventures to help scale its carbon removal technology at Western Australian mine sites.

Mineralization company 44.01 received an additional $5 million in Series A investment from Norwegian sovereign investor Nysnø Climate Investments and MENA-focused VC fund Jasoor Ventures, bringing its total Series A funding to $42 million.

Stockholm-based project developer ReCarber, which focuses on BECCS (bioenergy with carbon capture and storage) raised €5.1million in its first funding round, led by Luminar Ventures, Spintop Ventures, and Course Corrected.

Washington-based ag-tech company Qualterra raised $4.5 million boosting its plans to launch the sale of biochar carbon credits from its operations. The company recently moved to a new facility allowing it to increase its plant production 10-fold.

CarbonZero.Eco, a Los Altos-based ag-tech company empowering carbon removal through biochar, emerged from stealth and raised $3.5 million in seed funding to expand operations, enhance soil quality, and scale biochar production.

The British Columbia Centre for Innovation and Clean Energy (CICE) announced a new funding opportunity for CDR innovation with up to $3 million in non-dilutive investment available to support early-stage, CDR solutions.

Midori Climate Partner secured pre-seed funding led by Tokio Marine Holdings to develop biochar carbon removal projects across Asia, starting with a launch in Cambodia targeting over 10,000 tonnes of durable CDR.

Sweden-based environmental impact platform Milkywire released its CDR purchasing strategy outlining its approach to catalyzing growth for the CDR ecosystem across different methods and stages. *Disclosure: CDR.fyi Co-founder Robert Höglund is Manager of the Milkywire Climate Transformation Fund

remove selected 8 CDR startups for the second phase of its Europe accelerator program. The cohort for the next phase includes Artio, Kumo, SuperDAC, Bloomineral, Atmosfuture, neo-fossil, Octavia Carbon, and Nina.energy.

CDR marketplace CEEZER announced the launch of CEEZER Carbon Coalition, a program that helps early-stage project developers in bridging the gap between ideation and commercialization.

Airminers announced the graduation of its 14th batch of startups from the Launchpad accelerator, a 6-week program for early-stage CDR startups, developed in partnership with XPRIZE and Creative Destruction Lab.

Climate non-profit Third Derivative announced the graduation of its new cohort of startups that includes CDR companies such as Airhive, Capture6, Cella, Greenlyte, RepAir Carbon Capture, Rewind, and Travertine.

Microsoft shared its “Progress on the Road to 2030”, a post highlighting increased investments in long-term CDR, clean energy procurement, and emerging technologies to further reduce its operational emissions.

Frontier opened the application window for its 5th prepurchase round, shifting to a rolling review and targeting projects that fill key carbon removal gaps in the field and its portfolio.

Recently, on Carbon Removal Day in Ottawa, the Government of Canada announced the launch of a new Request for Information (RFI) to engage the industry on procurement options for carbon removal services.

Altitude launched Ascent 1, a CDR purchasing facility, with an initial commitment to procure 50,000 tonnes of CDR, with a focus on biomass-based technologies.

Policy and Research

[Image source: Carbon Gap]

Carbon Gap launched its new Carbon Removal Policy Tracker, covering 620 EU funding opportunities related to CDR along with in-depth analyses of carbon removal policy in all EU member states and major European economies.

The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) launched five expert working groups to refine the Corporate Net Zero Standard, with interim carbon removal targets as one of the key areas of focus.

A new bill was introduced in the California Senate, proposing an $80 million investment to procure CDR credits between 2026-2030, supporting DAC, biomass carbon removal & storage, Enhanced Weathering, and mCDR on behalf of the state.

The European Commission published the Clean Industrial Deal in which, despite acknowledging the urgent need to create a business case for permanent CDR, it fails to propose tangible deployment incentives for CDR scale-up in the short and medium term.

The Carbon Removal Alliance launched its Scientific Advisory Board to bring together top scientific leaders who will help shape effective policies by addressing science and commercialization challenges in CDR.

A new paper was launched by Dr. Noah Planavsky of the Yale Center for Natural Carbon Capture exploring the efficacy of enhanced weathering and how agriculture in the U.S. can be transformed for carbon removal up to 0.5Gt/year scale potential by 2070.

Carbon data platform Sylvera launched a new Biochar Ratings Framework, which evaluates biochar CDR projects to ensure they meet robust criteria for carbon removal, permanence, and economic feasibility.

Puro.earth updated its Enhanced Rock Weathering methodology for public consultation, improving CO₂ quantification, enhancing transparency and usability, and aligning with the latest Puro Standard updates.

Isometric launched a Changelog to improve transparency on its Registry and Certify platforms, while in partnership with the Coalition for Negative Emissions, it explored Energy-from-Waste (EfW) with Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS for durable CDR credits and certified a new biochar storage module for low-oxygen burial.

Non-profit climate fund Terraset released the findings of its survey of over 50 CDR suppliers, in which it aimed to understand the funding gaps holding back the growth of the durable CDR market, from a supply-side perspective.

XPRIZE released a blog post on its carbon removal competition, exploring the rigorous testing of participating teams, the diverse solutions, and also the market impact of carbon removal emphasizing scalability, sustainability, and verification as CDR grows to meet IPCC’s 2050 targets.

Reports

[Image source: European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change]

The European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change published a report outlining key recommendations to the EU to accelerate the deployment of CDR, emphasizing innovation while addressing opportunities and risks.

Cascade Climate released a report outlining key policy actions to advance Enhanced Weathering in the U.S. and EU through research, financial support, and regulatory frameworks.

Carbon Unbound released the “2024 CDR Market Insights Report” highlighting the biggest trends shaping carbon removal technologies with insights from industry leaders including Google, CDR.fyi, AirMiners, Terraset, and Northstar Clean Energy.

Leaderboard Updates - February 2025

Over 56,000 tonnes of CDR were purchased in February, while around 67,000 tonnes were sold in January.

Listed below are the February leaderboards for top suppliers and purchasers:

Supplier Leaderboard

Purchaser Leaderboard

Events Round-up - February 2025

[Image source: CUR8]

CUR8 hosted a webinar featuring their lead scientists who delved into how carbon removal projects are assessed and highlight the latest innovations shaping the future of carbon removals.

Carbon Gap hosted an event to mark the launch of the Carbon Removal Policy Tracker 2.0, examining Europe’s progress in advancing CDR policy. Speakers shared insights on EU and national policies, funding opportunities, and the role of open-access data in scaling durable carbon removal.

CDR.fyi Co-founder Robert Höglund spoke at a webinar by Grain Ecosystem, exploring the journey of CDR technologies, from inception to large-scale implementation.

Oxford Net Zero held a webinar featuring James Mwangi, climate action advocate, and investor, and Dr. Steve Smith, Executive Director of CO2RE and Oxford Net Zero, discussing the role carbon removal plays in getting to net zero.

Check out the CDR Events Calendar to stay updated with upcoming CDR events in March and beyond.

CDR.fyi Updates and Research

Keep Calm and Remove On - CDR.fyi 2024 Year in Review

Our biggest release in February was the CDR.fyi 2024 Year in Review, in which we analyze the major trends in the durable carbon removal market.

The blog post is an abridged version of the full report which contains detailed analysis across Suppliers, Purchasers, and Methods, exclusive to CDR.fyi Data Partners and and Platform Subscribers. For access to the full report and further information, kindly contact us at partners@cdr.fyi.

CDR.fyi Insight: Winning Durable CDR Policy

We recently published our second CDR.fyi Insight titled Winning Durable CDR Policy, exploring the nature of different policies that have helped scale growth in the market for BECCS and DACCS across the Nordic region and the US respectively. The article outlines 3 major drivers, upon which a framework can be built for selected regions worldwide where durable CDR may flourish in the future:

Identifying abundant natural resources.
Leveraging existing industrial infrastructure.
Designing strategic policies to lower costs and accelerate deployment.
A Global View of CDR - Insights from the Carbon Removal Map

In February, we also published an article sharing new analyses that highlight some key insights based on a snapshot of where carbon removal organizations are located, how they’re categorized, and which regions are seeing the most activity.

The insights are based on the CDR.fyi Carbon Removal Map that encompasses 563 organizations from 49+ countries and 6 continents.

Stay connected

We'd love to hear from you! Reach out to us anytime with suggestions or comments at team@cdr.fyi.

Disclosure

CDR.fyi is a public benefit corporation operating globally. The company has numerous contributors, some of whom have affiliations with companies in the industry, including Milkywire, Charm Industrial, CDRJobs, and DVNE. Data and content published by CDR.fyi, including This Week in CDR, this Monthly Update, and our Quarterly Market Updates, are vetted and reviewed by CDR.fyi representatives with no conflict of interest.

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