The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on Tuesday announced the 24 semi-finalists selected for the Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) Purchase Pilot Prize (the Prize). The Prize will ultimately provide up to $35M in the form of CDR Purchase Agreements from the DOE. The Phase 1 semi-finalists will each receive $50K to scale CDR approaches across four pathways: (i) direct air capture (DAC) with storage; (ii) biomass with carbon removal and storage; (iii) enhanced rock weathering and mineralization; and (iv) planned or managed carbon sinks. The Prize aims to develop CDR markets, demonstrate rigorous monitoring practices, and model workforce and community benefits.
The Phase 1 semi-finalists under each category of the Prize are:
DAC with Storage
- Avnos, Inc. (Los Angeles, CA). Hybrid DAC technology that produces 5 tons of water per ton of CO2 captured, while eliminating external heat input. Delivery proposal: 3,000 CDR credits.
- Carbon America (Arvada, CO). Carbon America and Global Thermostat leverage Colorado’s diverse assets to demonstrate a scalable model for DAC-powered carbon dioxide removal. Delivery proposal: 3,400 CDR credits.
- CarbonCapture, Inc. (Los Angeles, CA). Stores captured carbon in low-carbon concrete. Delivery proposal: 3,333 CDR credits.
- Climeworks (Austin, TX). Project Cypress, a DAC plus storage project in Louisiana, builds on the company’s Mammoth plant to reach a megaton scale by 2030. Delivery proposal: 3,500 CDR credits.
- Global Thermostat and Fervo Energy (Brighton, CO). Building a high efficiency, zero-carbon energy, integrated DAC, and geothermal deployment. Delivery proposal: 3,500 CDR credits.
- Heirloom (Brisbane, CA). Employs carbon mineralization (using limestone as a feedstock) to remove CO2 from the air, and then permanently store it. Delivery proposal: 3,030 CDR credits.
- 1PointFive (Houston, TX). The Stratos DAC facility will capture up to 500K MtCO2/year when fully operational. Delivery proposal: 3,861 CDR credits.
- 280 Earth (Palo Alto, CA). Uses DAC technology designed for modularity and scalability, integrating mechanical and chemical innovations. Delivery proposal: 3,000 CDR credits.
- 8 Rivers (Durham, NC). Captures carbon through calcite, a calcium-based removal technology. Delivery proposal: 7,200 CDR credits.
Biomass With Carbon Removal and Storage Technologies
- Arbor Energy (El Segundo, CA). Developing a next-generation biomass with carbon removal and storage system that uses forestry waste to produce renewable electricity and carbon dioxide for permanent removal. Delivery proposal: 8,000 CDR credits.
- Carbon Lockdown (Silver Spring, MD). Employs wood harvesting and storage as a method of long-duration carbon dioxide removal to securely store charred woody biomass. Delivery proposal: 17,143 CDR credits.
- Charm Industrial (San Francisco, CA). Removes carbon by using pyrolysis to turn agricultural and forestry residues into a carbon-rich bio-oil and stores it underground. Delivery proposal: 5,000 CDR credits.
- Clean Energy Systems (Rancho Cordova, CA). Negative emissions power generation project utilizes agricultural wood waste as feedstock and proprietary oxy-combustion technology. Delivery proposal: 11,320 CDR credits.
- Climate Robotics (Houston, TX). Mobile platform produces and applies biochar in the field to store CO2. Delivery proposal: 30,252 CDR credits.
- Graphyte (Pine Bluff, AR). Carbon casting technology leverages readily available biomass residues to remove CO2. Delivery proposal: 30,000 CDR credits.
- Vaulted Deep (Houston, TX). Performs geologic storage of slurried organic waste for permanent CDR. Delivery proposal: 10,320 CDR credits.
Enhanced Geological Weathering/Enhanced Mineralization Technologies
- Alkali Earth (Northfield, MN). Removes CO2 through enhanced carbon mineralization of steel slag aggregates in gravel roads. Delivery proposal: 8,108 CDR credits.
- CREW Carbon (New Haven, CT). Utilizes engineered enhanced weathering for permanent and verifiable CDR in wastewater systems. Delivery proposal: 7,500 CDR credits.
- Eion (Princeton, NJ). Scaling enhanced rock weathering on American farmland, delivering diverse benefits to rural communities. Delivery proposal: 9,900 CDR credits.
- Lithos Carbon (Bellevue, WA). Low-cost and scalable CDR while decarbonizing agriculture. Delivery proposal: 8,109 CDR credits.
- Mati Carbon (Houston, TX). Uses enhanced rock weathering CDR to increase U.S. rice productivity. Delivery proposal: 4,561 CDR credits.
Planned or Managed Carbon Sinks
- Ebb Carbon (San Carlos, CA). Accelerates natural ocean processes that safely and permanently remove CO2 from the atmosphere. Delivery proposal: 3,000 CDR credits.
- Equatic (Santa Monica, CA). Seawater electrolysis couples CDR with the generation of green hydrogen. Delivery proposal: 6,521 CDR credits.
- Vycarb Inc. (Brooklyn, NY). Removes and stores excess biogenic CO2 in the upper hydrosphere using controlled in-situ alkalinity reactor. Delivery proposal: 3,000 CDR credits.
Next Steps. Semi-finalists will advance to Phase 2 of the Prize, where they will produce a contract for the purchase of CDR credits, including standards for measurement, reporting, and verification, as well as commercial offtake terms. Up to 10 semi-finalists will be selected as grand prize winners, each receiving a CDR Purchase Agreement award of up to $3M for the sale of their credits to the DOE.
For further information or to discuss the contents of this bulletin, please contact Lisa DeMarco at lisa@resilientllp.com.
*Special thanks to Anuja Purohit for her assistance in preparing this bulletin.