XPRIZE Carbon Removal Team Matchmaking Series Spotlight

Ten exciting teams working on everything from ocean alkalinization, solar biomass digestion, robotic mineralization, and carbon negative building materials


On July 14, XPRIZE Carbon Removal hosted its first team matchmaking webinar. Ten exciting teams working on everything from ocean alkalinization, solar biomass digestion, robotic mineralization, and carbon negative building materials signed up to pitch a 2-minute overview of their carbon removal solutions and the specific skillsets they are looking to recruit on their team.  

These teams are looking for talented individuals across engineering, plant genetics, marketing, CSR investments, building materials, legal, fishing, farming, finance, construction, and more. We always encourage teams to get in touch with one another, share resources and talent if it make sense for you. If you’re interested in getting in touch with any of these teams, you can reach out on the Prize Operations Portal. Check out the recap below or watch the full recording here.

Team C-Negative

Team C-Negative is using direct air capture of CO2 with full dissociation and ion-flow separation to achieve gigatonne scale conversion. They are looking for interested parties in all fields of expertise to join their team. Please check their team page for further information and to apply.

Team Hydrogenate Everything 

Team Hydrogenate Everything transforms the CO2 into CO2-negative building materials. The huge scale of building material production matches perfectly the gigatonne need for CO2 removal to stop climate change. They transform CO2 directly or in the form of biomass or waste to methane with their  Hydrogenate technology. Then methane is further transformed into solid carbon with oxidation level 0: Carbon Zero. Carbon Zero will be a new resource for carbon-negative products as carbon-negative bricks or carbon-negative concrete.

Team Kepler Carbon ReCapture 

Team Kepler Carbon ReCapture is dedicated to using a mix of industrial and biological approaches to win this competition with the lowest cost process and an ocean based solution. The team is sponsored by the aerospace company Kepler Shipyards, headquartered in Austin, Texas, with teams and activities anchored in the US and Canada with a global interdisciplinary team of experts. 

Team Seawater Solution

Flooding and restoring Laguna Salada in Baja California Mexico as direct carbon capture with extension to Salton Sea to enhance the North American Monsoon to restore the Colorado River Basin for indirect carbon capture. This can be replicated around the world for similar efforts.

Team Biosol 

Team Biosol uses advanced solar heated agricultural biomass digestion to capture methane and/or hydrogen for transportation with geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide gas. They use no-till agriculture with a photovoltaic system to retain water in soil and return carbon to depleted soils with cultured nutrients to remove greenhouse gases at .

Team RockFarm

Team RockFarm enables a pleasant life on a clean planet for everyone. Their  sustainable robots mineralize large amounts of CO2 while building large walls and even entire factory structures. RockFarm will cut the cost for mass production of sustainable products.

Team Hybridity

Gigatons of Carbon Dioxide could be sequestered daily through Team Hybridity’s Building Prototype Technology. Team Hybridity’s structure not only filters air, but also filters water through its Cascade Implementation, while the façade allows for Solar Energy to be absorbed and produced for its own electrical and sustainable applications. Through this project a new terminology is introduced, Architectural Energy, and that is what the project is consistently developing whether through sustainable applications in the building’s direct approach.

Team Whale

Whale's artificial upwelling technology will capture carbon through photosynthesis while being profitable thanks to sustainable fishing. Whale's goal: Farming the Ocean.

Team Quilibrium

The Quilibrium team has grown around one question "Wouldn’t it be great if we could use saltwater botany to sequester carbon at large scale, while revegetating and protecting coastlines?" We plan to cultivate a variety of botany options grown atop a unified, scalable, removable platform to assist coastline revegetation, habitat restoration and erosion protection. The team is an affiliation of technology and academic specialists, crossing multiple countries and regions of the world.

Team Evolution

Team Evolution is utilizing Iron fertilization & planting hemp and trees on clearcuts. There have been approximately 2.3 billion acres of clearcuts globally. Planting hemp on half of the existing global clearcuts would filter and sequester 15 billion tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere per year.  Iron fertilization in iron deficient areas will nourish the phytoplankton, enhancing biological productivity and allowing for carbon dioxide sequestration to become accelerated.


Source:

X Prize, press release, 2021-07-28.