Graphyte, a carbon removal startup company backed by investment firm Breakthrough Energy Ventures, has signed American Airlines as its inaugural customer. Under the agreement, a purchase of 10,000 tons of carbon dioxide removal (using new Carbon Casting Technology) will be delivered in early 2025.
Highlighting the deal as a “landmark agreement” for both companies, CEO of Graphyte Barclay Rogers noted the “growing demand for affordable and scalable high-quality carbon removal credits” and the ability of Graphyte’s proprietary technology to “make a significant impact in the fight against climate change in the very near term”.
Described as being ‘relative to existing carbon removal approaches’ by Graphyte, the Carbon Casting process leverages readily-available biomass to make CO2 removable ‘quantifiable and permanent’ using a process Graphyte says will use ‘substantially less energy and at a substantially lower cost’. The biomass is then dried, converted into carbon blocks and monitored in an underground storage facility. The first commercial-scale deployment of the process will take place at a facility in Arkansas.