Dive Brief:
- Frontier — a decarbonization initiative backed by Stripe, Alphabet, Meta, McKinsey, JPMorgan Chase and others — said it inked a $58.3 million offtake agreement with carbon removal company Vaulted Deep Wednesday.
- Vaulted Deep — a spinoff of industrial waste management company Advantek — removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by injecting carbon-heavy organic waste deep into the ground for permanent storage, according to the release. The deal will allow the startup to put an order for three new wells to enhance biomass feedstock availability, transportation operations and well capacity.
- Frontier buyers are expected to benefit from 152,480 tons of permanent carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere between 2024 to 2027, in addition to providing options to purchase more at a lower cost for future projects. The agreement builds on Frontier’s goal to purchase $925 million of permanent carbon removal between 2022 and 2030.
Dive Insight:
Frontier members also served as Vaulted Deep’s first customers when it launched in September last year, purchasing the equivalent of 1,666 tons of carbon removal. At the time, Vaulted launched with two operational injection sequestration sites and aimed to attract customers looking for “high quality, lower-cost carbon removal” to offset their emissions.
Vaulted’s carbon extraction process is initiated through plants, the company said, which naturally draw carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. Most of this ends up as waste that is rich in carbon in the form of manure, food, biosolids and even agricultural waste. This waste is then landfilled or incinerated, causing the formerly captured carbon dioxide to be released back into the air.
However, Vaulted said it prevents this re-release of CO2 by transforming the waste into a carbon-dense slurry, which is then injected into deep disposal wells which permanently store the carbon. The volume of carbon extracted is measured by weighing how much of it exists in biomass form, and then subtracting the emissions generated during every stage of the process, including its transportation and the energy used during the conversion, Vaultedsaid in the release.
The bio-waste carbon removal startup said its process is cheaper than other removal alternatives and offers a “believable path” to driving the price of carbon well under $100 per ton. Vaulted said this is due to the fact that the carbon capture process is executed through plants via photosynthesis, and since this is a natural phenomenon and, hence, incurs no costs. Additionally, the waste is also produced by existing industrial infrastructure, which helps reduce costs. Vaulted’s association with Advantek further increases its expertise in waste disposal and the technology needed for deep well waste injection, per the company.
"Vaulted's technology, developed by Advantek, has been primed to address carbon removal for decades, even before there was a market,” Vaulted Deep’s CEO Julia Reichelstein said in a press statement.
The startup said it is looking to become more economically viable by lowering its transportation costs, an operational process it said is a “big driver of cost today.” Vaulted said it would work with waste partners in the future to co-locate injection wells directly onto its carbon removal sites, which could further reduce or eliminate transportation expenses
