Frontier, a carbon removal clearinghouse founded by companies including Google, Stripe, and Shopify, announced today that it is purchasing 115,208 metric tons of carbon removal credits from geoengineering startup Planetary. The deal is valued at $31.2 million.
While most of Frontier’s previous agreements have purchased carbon from startups focused on direct air capture, enhanced weathering, or bioenergy with carbon capture, this new agreement with Planetary is the organization’s first to utilize ocean alkalinity enhancement.
This deal effectively prices each metric ton of carbon at $270. However, Planetary states it has a plan to eventually reduce the cost of carbon removal to under $100 per metric ton. At full scale, ocean alkalinity enhancement has the potential to remove over one billion metric tons of carbon dioxide annually.
For decades, the oceans have been lessening the impacts of climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. While this has slowed the pace of global warming, it also poses a significant threat to many marine organisms. Coral and shellfish, which rely on alkaline waters to build and maintain their calcareous shells and skeletons, are particularly endangered.
The world’s oceans are naturally slightly alkaline. Historically, they had a pH of 8.2, but since the industrial revolution began, that level has fallen to 8.1. This change may seem small, but because the pH scale is logarithmic, it means the oceans are now thirty percent more acidic than they were in the early 1800s. This acidity occurs when carbon dioxide reacts with water to form carbonic acid.
Planetary currently uses magnesium hydroxide to boost alkalinity, which is the same substance found in over-the-counter antacids. The company adds it at wastewater treatment facilities and power plants, sites that are already discharging water into the ocean. This approach helps to minimize coastal disruption and allows Planetary to keep its costs down. The startup currently operates two projects, one in Nova Scotia and another in Virginia.