CDR Monthly Recap - July 2024

CDR Monthly Recap - July 2024

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. July saw some big deals in durable carbon removal, from the largest-ever agreement in Direct Air Capture (DAC) for 500,000 tonnes to a $40 million deal for 61,571 tonnes of CDR. Other developments such as large funding rounds, new methodologies, projects, and partnerships continue to drive momentum for the industry ahead, along with a host of events in the field.

Read on to learn more about them below.

Join over 400 companies and sign up for the Portal to gain durable CDR market insights, showcase your company’s profile and progress, and get on the CDR map: get started here!

Deals and Partnerships

[Image source: 1PointFive]
Microsoft and 1PointFive signed an offtake agreement on a deal for 500,000 tonnes of CDR. As the single largest Direct Air Capture (DAC) deal to date, the CDR credits for Microsoft will be enabled by STRATOS, 1PointFive’s first industrial-scale DAC facility currently under construction in Texas.

Frontier signed a $40 million offtake agreement to purchase 61,571 tonnes of CDR from Direct Air Capture (DAC) company 280 Earth. The tonnes will be removed from 2024 to 2030 at 280 Earth’s pilot facility in Oregon, while the offtakes will help them build and operate additional modules at the facility.

Biochar project developer agriCARBON entered into an agreement with Carbonfuture to sell 6,000 tonnes of CDR from its pilot - MicroCHAR project, based in Brno, Czech Republic.

Climeworks and Swiss bank Zürcher Kantonalbank announced a new multi-year contract which included a purchase of 1,750 tonnes of CDR to complement the Swiss bank’s net zero strategy.

The Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team announced an investment round in carbon removal initiatives, starting with a project by Frontier. This supports their commitment to reduce emissions by 75% by 2030 and achieve SBTi-aligned net zero goals by 2040.

Leading DAC company CarbonCapture Inc. and material science company W. L. Gore & Associates (Gore) announced a multi-year collaboration to develop advanced structured sorbents for more efficient atmospheric carbon removal.

Berlin-based startup SQUAKE, which provides carbon calculations for travel and logistics emissions, announced a new partnership with Biochar developer Planboo to leverage their strengths to grow the CDR industry in the Global South.

CDRjobs launched its Job Board for AFEN (French Association for Negative Emissions) and DAC Coalition. The Job Board is a new product from CDRjobs which allows organizations to display their customized, up-to-date CDR jobs directly on their website.

Climate Vault's Tech Chamber, led by former U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, awarded its 2023 CDR Innovation Award to Carbon Lockdown and Octavia Carbon. These projects, selected out of 50 applicants after its RFP round for innovative CDR projects, have the combined potential to remove 15,000 tonnes of CO₂.

Mangrove Systems announced a partnership with Carbon Capture Scotland to introduce the world’s first digital MRV system designed to support the precise tracking of CO₂ from biogenic carbon removal projects.

Puro.earth announced that it will update its service fee structure in October to ease market entry for CDR suppliers and increase transparency in the VCM. The new fixed cost per CO₂ Removal Certificate (CORC) will be based on reported removed tonnes rather than trading value.

Projects

[Image source: NetZero]

NetZero launched its new biochar project in Brazil in the state of Espírito Santo. The new facility will produce 4,000 tonnes of biochar annually from crop residues supplied by nearly 250 coffee growers, thus improving their yields while removing over 6,000 tonnes of CO₂ per year.

Coastal Enhanced Weathering company Project Vesta announced the successful deployment of its Coastal Carbon Capture pilot project in Duck, North Carolina. The project is estimated to remove 5,000 metric tonnes of CO₂ after accounting for project emissions.

Munich-based DAC company Phlair (formerly Carbon Atlantis) announced that its new plant in Rotterdam, Electra 01 - will start operations in 2025. With a capacity to remove 260 tonnes of CO₂ per year, the plant will use Phlair’s patented Hydrolyzer technology, in collaboration with storage partner Paebbl.

Netherlands-based Carbon Neutral Initiative initiated its first Enhanced Weathering (EW) pilot project in Spain. The pilot aims to build local partnerships, gather input from scientific experts, and test and develop its monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) protocol in a real-life setting.

Dutch climate tech company Skytree announced the availability of Skytree Stratus Hub, its modular DAC solution for markets such as cement, efuels & chemicals, and food & beverage, to name a few. Optimized for any climate, the Stratus Hub can capture 10,000 to over 1 million tonnes of CO₂ per site annually.

Financing

[Image source: Pexels, Efrem Efre]

The European Union (EU) approved the aid of €3 billion program to support projects removing biogenic CO₂ emissions through permanent CCS in Sweden. The aid will be awarded through a competitive bidding process, with the first auction expected in 2024.

Oman-based 44.01, which provides solutions to eliminate CO₂ captured from the air or from hard-to-abate industrial processes by turning it into rock, through its technology to accelerate the natural process of CO₂ mineralization, announced a $37 million Series A funding round which was led by Equinor Ventures and Shorooq Partners.

CDR startup Graphyte closed a $30 million Series A funding round to accelerate its CDR technology and operations. The round was co-led by Prelude Ventures and Carbon Direct Capital, with participation from Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Overture.

Applied Carbon (formerly Climate Robotics), a biochar technology company, raised $21.5 million in a Series A funding round led by TO VC, with participation from Congruent Ventures, Grantham Foundation, and Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, amongst others.

Cowboy Clean Fuels, a climate tech and energy transition company, raised approximately $13 million in Series B equity financing. The funding will help the company in commercializing its technology, termed as “Biomass with Carbon Removal and Storage, plus Renewable Natural Gas (BiCRS+RNG).”

Climate-tech startup CarbonBlue completed a seed funding round, raising $10 million. The financing will support global expansion and advancement of its water-based CDR technology. The investment round was led by Ibex Investors and Fresh Fund.

DAC startup Yama, which uses hybrid electrochemical technology to deploy large scale CDR, has raised $3 million from Grantham Foundation, Susquehanna Sustainable Investments, Kibo Invest, Voyagers, and Plug and Play Tech Center.

Perth-based biomass storage startup InterEarth secured an $8.25 million deal with Germany’s Securing Energy for Europe (SEFE) to advance its CDR technology. This revenue-sharing partnership will help InterEarth scale and commercialize its carbon removal solution.

Australian DAC startup Fugu Carbon closed its Seed funding round of $1.67 million. The investment round was led by Investible, with participation from Counteract, Jelix Ventures, and Electrifi Ventures.

Biochar developer Bio-logical raised $1.3 million in funding. The funding round, led by high-net-worth individuals and investors including CrossBoundary, Redshaw Advisors, and the Steyn Group, will expand Bio-Logical's Mt. Kenya biochar facility to meet the growing demand for carbon removal and support climate resilience for Kenyan smallholder farmers.

The 4 Corners Carbon Coalition, a group of cities and counties in the Western U.S.,awarded $335,000 to four projects aimed at combating climate change and reducing wildfire risks. These projects will use advanced CDR approaches to transform organic waste into valuable resources like biochar.

Leading European CDR accelerator, remove, which recently selected 8 startups for the 2nd stage of its Europe accelerator program, has also opened applications for the inaugural cohort of its India CDR Accelerator Program. remove has also partnered with Carbon Removal India Alliance (CRIA) to amplify its impact, as part of its geographic expansion to the region.

Airminers opened applications for its next cohort of Airminers Launchpad - a 6-week program for early-stage startups removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. The program is developed in partnership with XPRIZE and Creative Destruction Lab.

Policy and Research

[Image source: OpenAir Collective]

OpenAir Collective released a new Large Language Model (LLM) exclusively for building knowledge on CDR. The AI tool deepens science-based understanding of CDR and is free for everyone - policymakers, journalists, and the general public.

The Austrian government unveiled its carbon management strategy along with its plans to ramp up its CDR efforts. The strategy, developed by the Austrian Federal Ministries of Finance and Climate Action with stakeholders and a scientific advisory board, focuses on CCS, CCU, and CDR to address residual emissions from industries and other sectors, aiding Austria in meeting its climate commitments.

Carbon Gap published a new analysis on how the European Union and the United States can better support the deployment of CDR over their territories, discussing various financial instruments, policies, procurement programmes and contracts meant to increase uptake of CDR in the two regions.

CDR registry Isometric released a new protocol biochar carbon removal for public consultation. Developed by Isometric's Science Team and experts from the Isometric Science Network, the protocol will now undergo full public review. It has also released two more protocols for durable CDR through Electrolytic Seawater Mineralization (ESM) and Subsurface Biomass Carbon Removal and Storage.

Planetary Technologies and Dalhousie University researchers started field trials to study the efficacy of Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement (OAE) in removing CO₂ from the atmosphere. This involves adding alkalinity to Halifax Harbour, Canada, between July and December.

Isometric released a protocol for durable CDR through Electrolytic Seawater Mineralization (ESM), which has entered public consultation with Equatic. Isometric also released another protocol for durable CDR through Subsurface Biomass Carbon Removal and Storage.

Reports

[Image source: Carbon Direct, Microsoft]

Carbon Direct and Microsoft released the 2024 edition of “Criteria for High-Quality Carbon Dioxide Removal” - a science-based guidance defining quality for a multitude of carbon removal solutions. Carbon Direct also released a buyers guide on Enhanced Weathering in croplands.

Circular Carbon Network released its mid-year report, highlighting investment trends in the circular carbon industry in the first half of 2024, which also includes CDR as a solution type. The report covers metrics such as number of deals, average and median deal size, and cumulative capital raised in the first half of 2024.

Institute of Policy Integrity, NYU published an expert elicitation on CDR - a result of a survey on an interdisciplinary group of 699 researchers who have published at least one article on CDR in leading academic journals. Topics include the projected cost and scale of various CDR approaches; key barriers and risks; and desirable policy options.

Leaderboard Updates

622,555 tonnes were sold by CDR suppliers in July, marking a huge jump from June’s total of 143,809 tonnes sold.Listed below is the July leaderboard for top suppliers:

Supplier Leaderboard

Purchaser Leaderboard

Events round-up - June 2024

[Image source: Trellis]

Trellis’s (formerly GreenBiz) latest episode of Climate Pioneers featured Nan Ransohoff, head of Frontier and Stripe Climate. The conversation delved into Stripe’s CDR investment evaluation, a progress report on Stripe Climate, her motivation to co-found Frontier, amongst other topics.

International Biochar Initiative and Kita partnered up for a panel and interactive discussion to dive into what’s available now regarding biochar project finance and where the industry is heading.

CUR8 hosted a webinar on how some of the world's leading carbon removal operators have built and executed their carbon removal strategy. The panel featured leaders from organizations such as Ripple, British Airways and Accenture.

Isometric hosted a webinar discussing some of the latest developments in Direct Air Capture (DAC) with topics across best practices in monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) according to current scientific consensus; emerging technologies in the space; and challenges and opportunities for scaling the sector.

Carbon Business Council and Climate Collective hosted a webinar focused on Digital Infrastructure and Carbon Removal, featuring panelists from Climate Collective, Alcove, Covalent, and UNDO. Check out the CDR Events Calendar to stay updated with upcoming CDR events in June and beyond.

CDR.fyi Updates and Research

2024 Q2 Durable CDR Market Update - Microsoft: Market-Maker:

Our biggest update in July was the launch of 2024 Q2 Durable CDR Market Update. In this report, we analyzed and uncovered some key trends from the durable carbon removal market in Q2 2024. A comprehensive report with trending, sectoral, and geographic analysis and other insights is available exclusively to our Data Partners and Platform Subscribers. For access to the full report or further information, kindly contact us at partners@cdr.fyi.

Growing at the Speed of Transparency: Earlier this month, we published an article acknowledging companies demonstrating leadership in building trust in durable CDR, exemplified through their commitment towards transparency, sharing important data about their operations, credit agreements, and project details.

CDR Trivia Welcome to CDR Market Trivia! Even if you have read the recap until here, this might be a good opportunity to test your knowledge of what transpired in the durable CDR market in July. Delve into some captivating facts and insights you may have missed, even if you’re the most ardent follower of all things CDR.

In the last edition, which had 156 participants, the average score stood at 5.0/10, while 4 participants got a perfect score. Click here to get started with the CDR Market Trivia!

Stay connected

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

Join over 400 companies and sign up for the Portal to gain durable CDR market insights, showcase your company’s profile and progress, and get on the CDR map: get started here!