Improving Carbon Removal Practices with Technology

Norway is proving that carbon removal can be real, permanent, and scalable. A Norwegian research team has developed an advanced direct air capture (DAC) system that pulls CO₂ straight from the atmosphere and converts it into solid carbonate rock—locking carbon away for thousands of years. One facility can remove emissions equivalent to 40,000 trees, without relying on land or forests. Here’s how it works: air passes through chemical filters that bind with CO₂. The captured gas is then released, combined with minerals like olivine, and rapidly mineralized—mimicking natural rock weathering that normally takes millions of years. The entire process runs on renewable energy. Norway aims to remove 10 million tons of CO₂ annually by 2030—comparable to taking 2 million cars off the road. Unlike tree planting, which can re-release carbon, this method stores it permanently. The byproduct is even used as construction material, creating a circular economy. At ~$100 per ton (and falling), companies like Microsoft are already investing. A bold question remains: Can we engineer our way out of the crisis we engineered ourselves into? Source: Norwegian Institute for Energy Technology #CarbonCapture #DirectAirCapture #ClimateTech #NetZero #CleanEnergy #NorwayInnovation #CircularEconomy #ClimateAction #SustainableFuture

Rotating Packed Beds Carbon Capture 🟦 I’m always on the lookout for practical innovations in carbon capture, and the recent results from GTI Energy and Carbon Clean caught my attention. Their integrated ROTA‑CAP™ rotating‑packed‑bed system has demonstrated impressive performance, achieving over 95% CO₂ removal and >95% product purity while operating continuously for more than 1,600 hours. With capture costs around $41/tonne, about 10% lower than a comparable Cansolv-based process, and credible scale‑up potential to 4,000 TPD, this technology shows meaningful promise in reducing the footprint and cost of carbon capture. It’s encouraging to see tangible engineering progress pushing us closer to commercially viable decarbonisation pathways. 🟦 Process Description 1. Intensified Contacting Technology The system uses rotating packed beds ROTA-CAP (TM) that spin rapidly, creating very high centrifugal forces. These forces dramatically increase mass‑transfer efficiency, up to 1-2 orders of magnitude higher than conventional vertical towers. 2. Absorption Using a Rotating Packed Bed The solvent enters the rotating chamber from the centre and moves outward through the packing as it rotates. The incoming CO2 rich flue gas enters from the outer region and flows inward, opposite to the solvent flow. This counter‑current contact removes CO₂ from the gas as it passes through two consecutive absorber stages. 3. Gas Conditioning and Treatment The incoming gas is first pressurised to help move it through the system. It is then cooled (in a direct contact cooler (DCC)) to remove heat and excess moisture so the solvent can perform efficiently. After contacting the solvent in two stages, the cleaned gas passes through a polishing section to remove any solvent droplets before being released. 4. Solvent Circulation Through Two Absorption Stages Fresh solvent removes the remaining CO₂ in the second stage of absorption. The partially enriched solvent from this stage is cooled and pumped back to the first absorber stage. After absorbing more CO₂ in the first stage, the now CO₂‑rich solvent is heated before regeneration. 5. Regeneration Using a Rotating Packed Bed The CO₂‑rich solvent enters the regenerator. Hot vapour generated from a reboiler enters from the outside of the rotor. This counter‑flow strips CO₂ from the solvent. 6. Solvent–Vapour Separation and Reuse The regenerated solvent collects at the bottom of the unit, where part of it is boiled to create stripping gas. The vapour returns to the regenerator, while the hot regenerated solvent is cooled using heat recovery and then stored before being pumped back to the absorber. 7. CO₂ Product Handling The distillate vapours leaving the top of the regenerator are cooled. Any condensed liquid is recycled back into the system. The purified CO₂ exits as the final product. Reference: GTI Energy and Carbon Clean Solutions https://lnkd.in/ggFxgcUA This post is for educational purposes only.

Along the U.S. West Coast, engineers have deployed a new class of floating electrochemical platforms designed to extract dissolved carbon dioxide directly from ocean water. Unlike traditional carbon capture systems that target smokestacks or the atmosphere, this technology focuses on seawater—where CO₂ concentrations are far higher and easier to remove. The U.S. breakthrough could play a key role in reducing global climate impacts. The system works by drawing seawater through titanium-coated electrodes that use a small electrical charge to separate dissolved CO₂ into gas form. Once released, the gas is compressed and stored securely, while the treated water is returned to the ocean with minimal chemical change. American researchers improved electrode durability, allowing the platforms to operate for months in harsh marine conditions without corrosion. Because oceans absorb around one-third of global CO₂ emissions, reducing carbon concentration in seawater directly lowers atmospheric CO₂ over time. U.S. scientists validated this through detailed ocean circulation modeling, showing that each platform can offset several thousand tons of carbon annually. What distinguishes the American design is energy efficiency. Solar panels and compact wave-energy units power the entire system, allowing carbon extraction without fossil fuels. This drastically lowers operating costs and enables deployments far offshore, where energy infrastructure is limited. Environmental monitoring is rigorous. Sensors track pH, salinity, and nutrient levels to ensure no ecological disruption. Early trials show that marine life remains unaffected, with fish and plankton populations behaving normally around the platforms. If deployed widely across U.S. waters, these floating carbon-capture systems could become a vital part of America’s climate strategy—turning the ocean itself into a powerful tool for carbon reduction.

🫤 “Yeah yeah, carbon removal—nice concept flying in the sky. But do you have any actual examples on the ground?” That’s what one veteran from the pulp and paper industry once asked me after a presentation. Well, I do now. 🙃 🇨🇦 Canadian CDR developer CO280 just signed a deal with Microsoft, following a recent agreement with and Frontier, for 3,909,446 tonnes of carbon removal combined. 🌲The removals will come from capturing and permanently storing biogenic CO₂ emissions at an existing pulp and paper mill on the U.S. Gulf Coast: a facility that will be retrofitted to integrate carbon capture. ❓Why This Matters: 🌡️ Paper production is energy-intensive: heat required to evaporate large volumes of water during drying. 🏭 The pulp and paper industry accounts for ~2% of global industrial emissions. And demand is growing, driven by population and economic growth.  Think more 📦 boxes, 🥡 containers… and 🧻 tissues. 🙁 Meanwhile, we’re not on track to decarbonize the sector at a pace aligned with 2050 net-zero goals. 🏃🏽➡️ 🏃🏽♀️➡️ 🏃🏽♂️➡️ We need to >2X the speed. 🎓 How It Works: 🔥 In pulp and paper, roughly half of total GHG emissions come from fuel use. 95% of which is fossil-based. One solution? Fuel switching❗And bioenergy (like black liquor from primary pulp) is particularly promising. 💡 Black liquor is the leftover byproduct from pulp processing. It’s typically burned in a recovery boiler to recycle chemicals and provide heat and power to the mill. ☁️ Today, most of the resulting biogenic CO₂ is vented to the atmosphere. 🤩 This is where CO280 steps in: Their technology captures CO₂ from the recovery boiler stack, transports it, and stores it permanently in Class VI geologic wells, removing it from the atmosphere. 🔑 Why This CDR Approach is Promising: ✔️ Scale: U.S. pulp and paper mills emit ~88 million tonnes of biogenic CO₂ annually ✔️ Sustainable biomass: Feedstock comes from certified, managed plantations ✔️ Storage access: 75% of U.S. pulp and paper mills are within 100 miles of viable geologic storage 🌍 The Takeaway: 🪵 Capturing and storing biogenic CO₂ from biomass fuel use at mills around the world offers a unique opportunity to slash emissions and retrofitting existing facilities could significantly reduce cost compared to greenfield projects. ⭐ The lessons learned will help reduce cost and time for similar projects across the industry and beyond it. 😃 I guess what makes this and most other CDR projects exciting is that this is a proof point. And we can use more of them. 🤯 Lastly, tissue paper production has the highest carbon intensity [1720 kgCO2e / metric tonne of finished product] - Tomberlin, et al. #PulpAndPaper #CarbonRemoval #碳移除 #造紙業

Carbon capture isn't just about removing CO2. It's about transforming our climate crisis into sustainable opportunity. I recently discovered Nellie Technologies through The Climate Hive Show What Do You Solve? - Their approach to carbon capture is revolutionary. Instead of just capturing carbon, they're growing it. Here's how their system works: 1. They grow microalgae (tiny green biomass) that rapidly absorbs CO2 2. The biomass is dehydrated to remove water 3. Through pyrolysis (heating without flame), they convert it to biochar 4. This biochar stores carbon for extended periods What makes Nellie Technologies different from other carbon capture companies? • They control their entire supply chain by growing their own biomass • Their process is significantly cheaper than traditional direct air capture • The end product (biochar) has commercial applications in agriculture • Their system is modular and easily deployable on post-industrial land As founder Stephen Milburn explains it: "We're like a bakery that grows our own ingredients, bakes our own buns, and can guarantee stable pricing because we control the entire process." The business model is brilliant - they generate carbon dioxide removal certificates (CORKs) as their primary revenue stream, with biochar as a valuable byproduct. Their goal? 100,000 tons of carbon removal annually by 2028, scaling to 250,000 tons per site at maximum efficiency. What's most impressive is how they've eliminated the supply chain volatility that plagues other biochar producers. By growing their own biomass, they've created a stable, predictable system that can scale with market demand. The climate tech space is filled with promising technologies, but Nellie's approach stands out for its simplicity, scalability, and commercial viability. As Stephen puts it: "We build technologies that fix the climate." And they're actually doing it. Check the full interview here https://lnkd.in/gsAzbxyG

You think Silicon Valley is the future of climate tech? You couldn’t be more wrong... The most meaningful progress is happening far from the venture bubble, in small labs, research stations, and community workshops where the focus is on solving practical problems rather than chasing scale. 2025 has been a record year for climate tech investment. But the real story isn’t how much money is being raised. It’s what that money is building. The direction of innovation is shifting toward systems that are modular, verifiable, and built for real-world conditions. These technologies can be deployed quickly, maintained locally, and adapted to places that can’t wait for large infrastructure to arrive. 🌱 Releaf Earth (YC 2025) converts food waste into biochar that restores soil, locks carbon, and produces renewable power for local microgrids. Their portable reactors make it possible for small communities to build their own carbon markets. Biochar now accounts for more than 90 percent of all durable carbon removals delivered globally, showing how central this technology has become to practical decarbonization. 🌱 Modular Green Hydrogen startups in programs such as RMI’s accelerator are proving that hydrogen production doesn’t have to rely on billion-dollar plants. Their systems use renewables and recycled water to power rural transport and small industries, aligning closely with the U.S. 45Q incentive for low-carbon hydrogen. 🌱 Recyclable wind turbines built from bio-resins and nanocellulose are beginning to close the loop on renewable energy. They address a long-standing issue in the sector, how to manage the waste created when turbine blades reach the end of their life. 🌱 Bamboo-based cooling panels, now emerging from university and startup labs, use natural condensation to lower indoor temperatures without electricity. Early trials in Asia and Africa suggest they could offer low-cost cooling in regions already struggling with extreme heat and limited access to power. 🌱 AI and satellite mapping tools from companies such as Astraea are providing live, high-resolution data on climate risks. What used to take months of modeling can now be updated continuously, helping governments, insurers, and local planners make faster, better decisions. These examples point to a wider shift. Climate technology is no longer defined by size or spectacle. It is defined by systems that are reliable, measurable, and designed for real contexts. Policies like the European Union’s Carbon Removal Certification Framework are reinforcing this trend, directing investment toward solutions that can demonstrate genuine and lasting impact. The next phase of climate innovation will not be driven by how much it raises or how fast it scales. It will be judged by how well it works, consistently, locally, and over time.

One of the most exciting ideas in carbon removal right now is the integration of removal mechanisms into existing industrial processes. Mining is a great example. There are billions and billions of tons of mining waste globally. Some of it — like the magnesium-rich waste at BHP's Mount Keith mine in Australia — will capture CO2 if exposed to the air. For the past 18 months, BHP's partner Arca has been using a rover to churn the surface of the waste heaps to trigger more capture. The results from pilot are promising, the company told me. If the economics of this and other mechanisms work out, this could be a no-brainer for the industry. The waste is a liability that companies can now monetize via carbon credits. The companies I spoke with said that tax credits or other government incentives are not required to make it work. In some cases that's because the removal process also produces valuable products — sulfuric acid, in the case of the startup Travertine, which has been backed by Stripe and others via the Frontier coalition. Mining is not the only industry with this kind of win-win potential. Cara Maesano authored a useful report for RMI exploring options to integrate removal into wastewater treatment and other areas. My Trellis Group article on CDR and mining: https://lnkd.in/gviJVTmG "Seizing the Industrial Carbon Removal Opportunity," by Cara, Eli Mitchell-Larson and others: https://lnkd.in/gr8PuUCH

Durable carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is transitioning from scientific research toward large-scale deployment. But achieving that growth depends on how fast costs can come down. In our latest collaboration with XPRIZE, we analyzed the scaling strategy of 20 Carbon Removal finalists to understand how they are driving cost reductions and scale. Despite using different technologies, these innovators share a common blueprint: · Scaling and modularization to enable learning effects and efficient replication, and economies of scale. · Process optimization and automation to improve operational performance · Alternative revenue streams such as valuable byproducts to lower net removal costs · Future technology advancement to enhance efficiency and reduce capital intensity Together, these approaches are already demonstrating meaningful cost reductions and form a roadmap for how durable CDR can achieve commercial viability and climate relevance at gigatonne scale. Grateful to my co-authors: Karan Mistry, Neil Slighton, Paulina Ponce de Leon Barido, Habib Azarabadi, Luke Chapman, Nikki Batchelor, and Michael Leitch | https://lnkd.in/gpjzUx5d

I remember the first time I got a tour at the Charm Industrial facility. The carbon removal machines were...smaller than I expected? It turns out we get that question a lot — "𝘴𝘰 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘣𝘪𝘨𝘨𝘦𝘳?" Today our carbon-sucking pyrolyzers can squeeze into a shipping container or ride on the back of an 18-wheeler....and while they'll get slightly bigger in subsequent generations, we plan to keep them small, mobile, and agile But can Charm have planetary-scale climate impact with such a small unit? 🚨 Enter new peer-reviewed TEA research we're sharing today 🚨 Researchers out of Iowa State University was published recently that studied modular pyrolysis similar to the approach we're taking at Charm. It's called a TEA — techno-economic analysis that looks at the cost of different technologies as they scale. It's a helpful benchmark, especially in climate where big marketing claims are easy to make and hard to fulfill The research found that Charm’s modular, distributed system unlocks efficient scale without the downsides of centralized biomass processing infrastructure, with less energy and CAPEX than other approaches to carbon removal So exciting to see peer-reviewed research putting the Charm claims to the test and validating the approach, link below if you wanna learn more