Carbon Removal and Sustainable Aviation Fuel in the News
The team at Tomorrow's Air is always busy tracking the latest trends and developments from the dynamic sectors of carbon dioxide removal and sustainable aviation fuel. Through our technical supply partners and through the conferences, panel discussions, newsletters and research reports we monitor, Tomorrow's Air keeps abreast of what's happening and offers a monthly digest in our Airrow Bulletin.
Here are the highlights from our May, 2024 edition.
Frontier Climate made a $58M investment in Vaulted Deep, a startup that sources “food waste, poop, and other wet, sludgy, organic material and stashes it away underground.” The company will pump waste into “class five” wells–a category including shallow wells used for stormwater drainage or septic systems and deep wells used for geothermal power.
Microsoft and Stockholm Exergi have agreed on what is now the world’s largest carbon removal agreement, supplied via a BECCS plant in Stockholm. (BECCS = bioenergy with carbon capture and storage and you can learn more about it here.) When it comes to carbon removal, BECCS has been recognized by leading scientists and academics as one of the so-called “novel” approaches that will be needed at scale to help our climate (source).
The United States Department of Energy announced up to $500 million for projects to help expand carbon dioxide (CO2) transportation infrastructure to help reduce CO2 emissions across the United States. The goal is to create a safe and reliable system to transport the captured CO2, either for permanent geologic storage or for conversion to useful, durable products.
Another area the team at Tomorrow's Air tracks is the evolution of monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) mechanisms for various types of carbon removal that Tomorrow’s Air supports. A primary objective for MRV is to prove that every ton of carbon dioxide removed is truly additional and durable, that the process does no harm to the environment, and that it creates an actual climate-positive impact. While the removal partners currently in the Tomorrow’s Air portfolio receive third-party vetting, prescriptive standards that would apply industry-wide are eagerly anticipated and in development. Check out the latest mapping done by CDR.fyi HERE.
The dynamic landscape of methodologies and protocols for emerging carbon removal technologies
In late April, the Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance (SABA) announced the largest ever collection of deals to purchase sustainable aviation fuel certificates. The $200M investment (by companies including JP Morgan, Meta and others) equates to about 50 million gallons of high integrity sustainable aviation fuel - equivalent to reducing emissions from 3,000 fully-loaded passenger flights from New York to London. Participants in the deal noted the recent move from the Science-based Targets Initiative to revise its Corporate Net-Zero Standard allowing companies to use “environmental attribute certificates” (which includes carbon offsetting mechanisms) to abate a greater share of their Scope 3 emissions. More details on the directive are expected in July. For travel companies looking to support decarbonization in aviation, Tomorrow’s Air partnership with sustainable aviation fuel supplier Neste can help. Get in touch to learn more.
