The excitement around carbon capture technology is palpable.

From new startups being launched to landmark partnerships, carbon capture is making a lot of noise. And the world is taking notice.

Who is making moves:

• New carbon capture startup Spiritus came out of stealth and announced an $11M raise led by legendary venture fund Kholsa Ventures
• Spiritus believes they have an innovative new approach to direct air carbon capture through a material that collects carbon passively
• Vaulted Deep also came out of stealth mode and announced an $8M seed round led by Lowercarbon Capital to advance biomass carbon removal
• Notably, Vaulted Deep is actually a spin out from Texas based Advantek Waste Management Solutions
• Frontier, the public benefit corporation from Stripe, announced $7M in carbon removal purchases from a dozen different carbon companies on behalf of Stripe and Shopify (NASDAQ: SHOP)
• The companies chosen by Frontier were Airhive, Alkali Earth, Banyu Carbon, Carbon Atlantis, CarbonBlue, CarbonRun, EDAC Labs, Holocene, Mati, Planetary Technologies, Spiritus Technologies and Vaulted Deep

Going deeper:

• In one of the most important announcements yet in carbon capture, Microsoft and Heirloom have entered into one of the largest carbon dioxide removal deals ever
• Microsoft will purchase 315,000 metric tons of CO2 removal from Heirloom over the period of multiple years
• Heirloom notably also was recently awarded up to $600M in matching funds from the United States Department of Energy
• Between the Department of Energy funding and the Microsoft deal, Heirloom has unlocked all the necessary capital to go build out more direct air capture facilities and pursue more infrastructure
• Investors in Heirloom include Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Carbon Direct Capital Management, Prelude Capital, Lowercarbon Capital and others

The intrigue:

• The United States Department of Energy has a project called ’The Carbon Negative Shot’ which is pushing for innovation for direct air capture to be able to remove and store carbon for under $100 per metric ton
• To reach net zero emissions in the United States alone, carbon capture technology would need to be removing gigatons of CO2 from the atmosphere every year
• One gigaton of CO2 is roughly equal to a fifth of all carbon emissions per year in the United States

The fine print:

• Direct air capture for carbon is in its infancy and is still an expensive process
• Aside from technical challenges of building the infrastructure, carbon capture has other costs associated with it including transporting and storing carbon dioxide
• Carbon capture projects have had some early failures, including over $600M spent by the US government to retrofit six coal plants with carbon capture technology that led to only one successfully coming online
• Former Vice President and climate advocate Al Gore has been a notable critic of direct air capture technology, saying he believes it to be an ‘improbable' way to deal with emissions

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