ClimeFi facilitates a new €1m round of carbon removal purchases

by ClimeFi | Mar 16, 2023 | Company news

In its latest purchase round, ClimeFi has facilitated over €1m of carbon removal purchases from five CDR projects, covering several removal pathways, including Direct Air Capture (DAC), Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), Biochar, and Coastal Capture. 

The five projects – CarbonCapture, UNDO, InPlanet, Sonnenerde and Project Vesta – were selected on the merits of their work to date and their potential to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere durably at scale.

The CDR purchases have been thoroughly evaluated and allocated for their potential impact on contributing to the following criteria:

• Gigaton potential: the potential to support the deployment of gigaton scale of operations needed to meet Paris Agreement Objectives
• Technological innovation: potential to drive innovation and improvement in CDR technologies and associated scientific measurement activities
• Removal velocity: the potential to rapidly remove large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
• Advanced Market Commitment (AMC): potential to support further investment certainty incentivising the deployment of CDR technologies
• Cost reduction: the potential to support economies of scale needed to reduce costs and foster market-wide adoption of CDR technologies
• Regenerative benefits: the potential to contribute and support sustainable land and ocean use

In addition, projects have met ClimeFi Quality Criteria and undergone ClimeFi’s rigorous commercial and technical risk assessment. 

ClimeFi aims to catalyse climate commitments into high-impact projects that can contribute to removing billions of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The permanent elimination of carbon dioxide is part of all scenarios to stay in line with the Paris Accord and avoid the worst effects of climate change. Predictions indicate that by 2050 we will need to consistently remove billions of metric tons of CO₂ from the atmosphere yearly.

THE PROJECTS

CarbonCapture 

Direct Air Capture | Los Angeles, US | Website

CarbonCapture makes modular Direct Air Capture (DAC) machines that can be connected in large arrays with the ambition to remove large amounts of CO₂ from the atmosphere. Due to the modular architecture of its technology, the project is particularly promising due to its combination of renewable energy (wind & solar) with geological storage close to the plant and first-time utilization of Class VI injection for permanent carbon dioxide storage in deep saline aquifers.

UNDO

Enhanced Weathering | Edinburgh, Scotland | Website

UNDO accelerates this natural weathering process by spreading crushed basalt safely on croplands, which helps increase the inorganic carbon impact in the soil. Their approach uses leading scientific models to project the CO2 impact, whilst also helping to measure the positive impact on soil health and crop yield. The team is scaling their MRV approach to better measure the CO2 impact over time, alongside plant-tissue studies to understand the positive ecosystem impact.

InPlanet 

Enhanced Weathering | Sao Paolo, Brazil | Website

InPlanet uses the power of enhanced rock weathering (ERW) to sequester CO₂ and revive tropical soils. InPlanet will be partnering with local mines and quarries for rock sources and the University of São Paulo to set up MRV field stations,which will collect data on how different silicate rocks weather under various weather and soil conditions throughout Brazil. While most ERW studies have been conducted in Europe and North America, InPlanet is bringing this technology to Brazil, where warmer and wetter conditions are expected to lead to increased weathering rates and faster CO₂ sequestration.

Sonnenerde

Biochar | Burgenland, Austria  | Website

Sonnenerde uses pyrolysis, a process under which waste biomass is heated without oxygen to produce carbon-rich biochar, which is highly stable and can sequester carbon for multiple centuries. Biochar also acts as a soil enhancer when applied in soil, reducing erosion and increasing soil fertility. Sonnenerde is a European biochar production pioneer, with its first biochar facility built in 2012.

  

Project Vesta

Coastal Capture | San Francisco, US | Website

Project Vesta is developing a coastal weathering solution to store CO2 permanently. The process accelerates the natural chemical weathering of the mineral olivine by spreading large amounts of ground olivine-containing rock onto coastlines where it can dissolve in seawater, thereby increasing the rate of CO2 absorption by the ocean. The process also helps counteract ocean acidification.

JOIN US FOR OUR NEXT PURCHASES

If you are interested in becoming a buyer through ClimeFi, please contact us at contact@climefi.com

If you are a carbon removal supplier in the pre-commercial or deployment stage and meet our Standards Criteria, please contact us at cdr@climefi.com