Microsoft announced on Thursday that it will purchase 3.6 million carbon removal credits from a biofuels plant in Louisiana owned by C2X. The facility is scheduled to begin operations in 2029. It will process forestry waste into methanol, a fuel that can power ships and airplanes and serve as a raw material for chemical manufacturing. The plant is expected to produce over 500,000 metric tons of methanol annually. As part of its process, approximately 1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide will be captured and stored, most likely underground.
This purchase is part of a series of major carbon removal agreements Microsoft has made recently. In the past year, the company secured a 4.9 million metric ton deal with Vaulted Deep, a 3.7 million metric ton agreement with CO280, and a 7 million metric ton purchase from Chestnut Carbon.
Microsoft’s rapid expansion of its data center footprint has challenged its commitment to become carbon negative by 2030, a pledge to remove more carbon from the atmosphere than it emits. While the company also buys significant amounts of renewable and nuclear power, these large-scale carbon removal purchases are intended to help offset its future fossil fuel emissions.