Every year, we are adding 51 billion tons of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. If we want to achieve our net zero goal, we must cut that down to zero. However, that alone is not sufficient. Because what is done is done, all those greenhouse gas emissions over the past decades are coming back to haunt us in the form of climate change. Now, we must find ways to remove the billions of tons of greenhouse gases already in the air.
A really good analogy is the bathtub analogy. Imagine a bathtub that is overflowing because the tap water is left running. As a result, the bathroom is slowly being flooded. Now, we must not only quickly turn off the tap, but we must also start removing the water from the flooded bathroom, or else we won’t be able to use it.
Fortunately, a lot of tech companies are paying attention to this. For example, an initiative called Frontier that is co-launched by Stripe, Alphabet, Shopify, Mckinsey and Meta is funding carbon removal startups to accelerate research and development.
In this guide, I ranked and reviewed the top 5 carbon removal startups in 2022.
- Climeworks
- CarbonCure
- Heirloom
- Carbon Engineering
- Verdox
Carbon capture and storage (CSS) is a subsector under climate tech, and an important one. Some people argue that trees are the best carbon removers, but experts say that planting trees alone will not be enough to fix climate change. We need to use technology to more efficiently pull greenhouse gases out of the air and store or use them.
Some environmental startups harness the power of artificial intelligence to make CCS more efficient, while others focus on improving existing technologies like Direct Air Capture (DAC). Whatever they do, we need all of them to scale quickly.
What are the Top 5 Carbon Removal Startups in 2022?
My top picks are Climeworks, CarbonCure, Heirloom, Carbon Engineering and Verdox.
1. Climeworks
Climeworks is a Swiss startup that removes CO2 using a technology called “direct air capture”. Captured CO2 is then put deep underground where it can no longer contribute to climate change.
Climeworks runs the largest direct air capture plant in the world, and the only one that is in operation.
The startup is funded by Stripe Climate and counts leading companies including Audi, Microsoft and BCG as its customers.
Visit their website for more information.
2. CarbonCure
CarbonCure is a Canadian startup that removes carbon by injecting recycled CO2 into concrete. Once injected, the CO2 is mineralized and permanently embedded. This results in concrete with less cement content without compromising performance.
Many new green buildings are using this type of concrete, and CarbonCure’s stated mission is to “make concrete a climate solution and reduce embodied carbon in the built environment by 500 million tons annually by 2030”.
Visit their website for more information.
3. Heirloom
Heirloom wants to remove 1 billion tons of carbon dioxide by 2035 using Direct Air Capture. The startup uses a technology that speeds up the naturally-occurring carbon mineralization process to help minerals absorb CO2 from the ambient air in days, rather than years. They do this by using widely available, low-cost minerals to produce oxide that naturally bind to CO at ambient conditions, which are then exposed to the air passively rather than relying on energy-intensive and high-cost air contactors. Finally, it is injected underground into geological structures and stored there permanently.
Visit their website for more information.
4. Carbon Engineering
Carbon Engineering develops and commercializes affordable and highly scalable carbon removal technology. Its first large-scale commercial facility to utilize its Direct Air Capture technology is expected to capture one million tons of CO2 from the atmosphere annually when complete, which is equivalent to the carbon removal work of approximately 40 million trees.
Visit their website for more information.
5. Verdox
Unlike other carbon removal startups, Verdox uses only electricity to remove carbon dioxide both directly from the air and from emission sources. The company has a patented technology that can control the capture and delivery of CO2 simply by applying a current at select voltages, and their systems run entirely on renewable electricity. As a result, it uses 70% less energy, and can capture CO2 at any scale and concentration.
Visit their website for more information.
Summary
As we strive to reduce our carbon footprint, we must also start seriously looking at CCS startups. Without sufficient funding from willing buyers, CCS startups cannot survive long enough before we find how the captured carbon can be utilized meaningfully at a large enough scale. Obviously, we already have the tech to pull carbon from the air and store or utilize them. Now what we are lacking is a viable carbon market, which will create incentives for startups to develop better and more efficient technologies to remove more carbon. A lot of parties will need to work together hand-in-hand if we are to accelerate our pace to achieving net zero.
CCS is a potentially gigantic market, and when we find the silver bullet, the valuations of these startups will skyrocket. Which carbon removal startup do you think will become a unicorn?
