June 04, 2024
CDR Monthly Recap - May 2024
CDR Monthly Recap - May 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. May saw huge developments in the carbon removal market, from the biggest-ever CDR deal for 3.33 million tons to the DOE awarding $1.2 million to 24 different CDR companies. While it was the biggest month so far in terms of durable CDR contract bookings, we continue to see new methodologies, protocols, and reports published and announcements of new broad-ranging partnerships and agreements.
Read on to learn more about them below.
Agreements and Partnerships
[Image source: Stockholm Exergi]
Microsoft signed a 10-year Bioenergy Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) offtake agreement with Swedish energy company Stockholm Exergi to purchase 3.33 million tons of CDR, making it the largest single deal in durable CDR to date.
Microsoft expanded their existing agreement with Ørsted, committing to an additional 1 million tons of BECCS carbon removal over a ten-year period. This expansion brought Ørsted’s total sales of carbon removal to 3.67 million tons and vaulted them back into top spot on the Supplier Leaderboard.
Frontier signed an offtake agreement worth $58.3 million to buy 152,480 tons of carbon removal from Biomass Carbon Removal and Storage (BiCRS) startup Vaulted Deep, making it the largest BiCRS deal to date.
Project Carbonity, a joint venture between Airex Energy, Groupe Rémabec, and SUEZ, entered a forward contract with Microsoft to sell 36,000 tons of biochar carbon removal over a 3-year period. Germany-based First Climate is responsible for the marketing of the credits issued by the project.
Carbonx Climate announced that it purchased 2,699 tons of biogenic carbon removal from Carbon Capture Scotland on behalf of its clients.
Climeworks commenced operations on its Project Mammoth facility in Iceland. Mammoth, the world's largest direct air capture and storage plant, has a capacity to capture and store 36,000 tons of CO₂ annually.
Canadian carbon removal developer Deep Sky and U.S.-based modular DAC company Sustaera signed an MoU to explore the deployment of a Sustaera unit at a future Deep Sky facility in Canada. Once completed, the unit will remove 1,000 to 5,000 tons of CO₂ annually.
Airfix, a subsidiary of South Pole, and project developer Carbon Impact announced a partnership to establish France’s first biogas-based BiCRS initiative. Once completed, the plant will remove around 10,000 tons of CO₂ annually starting in 2026.
CDRjobs announced the launch of its platform, dedicated to jobs in CDR. CDR.fyi has joined as a strategic partner and will provide relevant industry insights to complement the jobs platform.
Financing
[Image source: MOL Mitsui O.S.K. Lines]
Advanced market commitment NextGen CDR released its Request for Proposals (RFP) as part of its 2024 CDR procurement round, highlighting various eligibility criteria in detail for applicant projects and companies.
Frontier opened its 2024 prepurchase application cycle for CDR suppliers. According to its RFP, projects in APAC, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America and those that bring additional revenue outside of CDR credits are of particular interest.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced a $500 million grant for projects that can build a safe and reliable system to transport captured CO2 for permanent geologic storage or conversion to useful, durable products.
XPRIZE announced the top 20 finalists of its Carbon Removal competition. In the next phase, the finalists will be required to remove 1,000 net tons of CO₂ and will be evaluated on the basis of cost analysis, operational efficiency, and scalability.
The DOE also named 24 CDR suppliers in the U.S. as the semi-finalists of phase 1 of its CDR Purchase Pilot Prize, who will be awarded $1.2 million in this round.
DAC startup 280 Earth, which recently began operations in its first DAC plant in Oregon, announced the closing of a $50 million Series B round, led by Builders VC, Gideon Yu, and Alphabet, Inc.
Sweden-based environmental impact platform Milkywire announced the selection of 13 CDR suppliers for its Climate Transformation Fund, with which it aims to sign pre-purchase agreements.
Chinese tech giant Tencent announced an investment of $13.9 million in CCUS and CDR startups in China. The tech giant’s CarbonX program, which finances technologies that support China’s net zero mission, announced 13 winners from 300 applications. Once commercialized, each technology could eliminate 100 million tons of CO₂ emissions annually.
TerraFixing, a leader in cold climate direct air carbon capture (DAC) technology, secured a $10 million CAD ($7.34 million) agreement with Tugliq Énergie Co and $1.5M in financing to develop two carbon capture units for deployment in the Canadian North.
Policy and Research
[Image source: Climeworks]
Climeworks became the first DAC company to be certified under Puro Standard and announced that it has achieved 3rd party certification for its carbon removal activities at the Orca facility, the world's first commercial DACS plant, in collaboration with Carbfix.
Equatic, EcoEngineers, and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) released a new methodology for monitoring and verifying electrolytic ocean-based carbon dioxide removal. It is now open for public consultation until June 10, 2024.
Rewind, a BiCRS company, announced the release of its new protocol, “Framework Protocol for Marine Terrestrial Biomass Storage,” which includes a detailed approach to quantifying net carbon removal while monitoring and preserving the aquatic environment.
Carbonfuture released a new guide for CDR buyers, which aims to help companies understand the latest policy changes in the US and EU and deep-dive into regions such as Germany, Denmark, and California (US).
The Enhanced Weathering Alliance (EWA) launched a new map on its website highlighting the locations of Enhanced Weathering (EW) projects and company headquarters worldwide.
Reports
[Image source: BMW Foundation]
The BMW Foundation, in collaboration with remove and sus.lab | ETH Zurich, released a report on CDR buying strategy. The report, which uses case studies of early adopters to provide six essential building blocks and insights into the strategies, serves as an entry point for buyers into the carbon dioxide removal (CDR) ecosystem.
XPRIZE released a report analyzing the top 100 teams in its carbon removal competition and the scaling trajectories and projections for reaching the first megatonne in carbon removal for each of the projects.
Leaderboard Updates
4,542,483 tonnes were sold by suppliers in May, making it the largest month ever by sales of durable CDR to date. While only 39,400 tonnes were sold in April, May’s figure nearly matches 2023’s full-year total of 4.6M tonnes.
Supplier Leaderboard
Purchaser Leaderboard
- Where Do We Grow From Here?
CDR.fyi co-founder Alexander Rink published a recap following Carbon Unbound East Coast 2024. The article reflects upon the need for more buyers to enter the durable CDR market and explores where they are likely to come from. It also shares insightful figures around market growth and adoption of CDR among SBTi-engaged companies.
Events round-up - May 2024
[Image source: Carbon Unbound]
This year’s edition of Carbon Unbound East Coast was held in New York City. Over 400 business leaders, investors, buyers, and policy-makers convened to discuss the future of carbon removal. CDR.fyi co-founder Alexander Rink was pleased to contribute by presenting the state of the durable CDR market at the conference.
Carbon Direct organized a webinar discussing SBTi's guidance on beyond value chain mitigation, covering investment in carbon removal, choosing the right strategy, and communicating impacts to stakeholders.
CUR8 hosted a webinar titled How To Build and Execute a Net Zero Strategy With Carbon Removals, in which the panel discussed practical steps and insights from sustainability leaders on executing carbon removal strategies and their integration into companies’ near-term net zero goals.
Capture6 featured leaders from Carbon Business Council, Terraset, Elemental Excelerator, and the U.S. Department of Energy in a panel discussion about maximizing the environmental, social, and economic benefits associated with CDR activities.
Check out the CDR Events Calendar to stay updated with upcoming CDR events in April and beyond.
CDR.fyi Updates and Research
- Standards, Methodologies, and Protocols of Durable Carbon Removal:
Our most popular piece this month in May was the article on Standards, Methodologies and Protocols in durable carbon removal, written by Tank Chen and Nadine Walsh. In this article, we analyzed and integrated 35 different methodologies and protocols into a downloadable resource to aid stakeholders and enhance transparency and trust.
CDR Trivia
Welcome to the CDR Market Trivia - a new section of this month's recap! 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 May. Delve into some captivating facts and insights that you may have missed out on, even if you’re the most ardent follower of all things CDR. PLAY NOW or click here to get the link to share.
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