Delivery Matters in Durable Carbon Dioxide Removal

Biomass-Based Approaches Are Breaking Away

When it comes to carbon removal, practicality has taken center stage with the techno-idealism of years past fading into the background. We’re no longer talking about technologically uncertain solutions that might reach $100/tCO2 in 2050; no, we’re talking about solutions that work today at reasonable costs and that are sufficiently de-risked to be financed by banks. The durable carbon dioxide removal (CDR) market has changed a lot in the past year.

One of the telling signs in the durable CDR market is actual deliveries (i.e., companies who are actually removing CO2 from the atmosphere today).  Isometric, the dominant registry in the durable CDR market, issues credits when CO2 has been removed. Over 100 suppliers work with Isometric and have collectively removed 37,727 metric tons of carbon dioxide (tCO2) to date. But 3 suppliers, all of which are in the Biomass Carbon Removal Solution (BiCRS) category, really stand out in terms of deliveries as illustrated in the graph below: Vaulted Deep, Graphyte, and Charm Industrial, which have collectively delivered 94% of the total durable CDR credits issued by Isometric. The total capital raised by these companies is just over $215 million -- Vaulted Deep at $48.3 million, Graphyte at $43.5 million, and Charm Industrial at $125 million.

Let’s put this in context by comparing these companies to Climeworks, a direct air capture company. The Financial Times recently reported that Climeworks removed a total of 205 tCO2 over the past 13 months – less than 1% of the removals made by Vaulted, Graphyte, and Charm over this same period. Climeworks has raised over $1 billion.

The CDR world is taking shape, and biomass-based solutions are the way forward.