Today’s digest covers 3 CDR stories. Themes: global, science. Across today’s stories, a consistent thread emerges: the CDR field is moving from proof-of-concept to deployment — with capital, policy, and measurement catching up to the science. Today’s stories#14-Year Field Study Confirms Biochar Immobilizes Heavy Metals While Sequestering Carbon Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement Captures CO₂ in Gulf of Maine: Updated Results From Loc-Ness Microalgae Carbon Capture in Indian Cities: From Kochi to Mumbai ...

We first covered the Loc-Ness OAE trial when initial results emerged in March. Now the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution team has presented detailed findings at the Ocean Sciences Meeting 2026, and the data is more complete. The picture is encouraging. The Experiment#The Loc-Ness project (named for its combination of Loring Air Force Base logistics and the Ness of monitoring) ran a six-day field trial in August 2025 in the Gulf of Maine. The setup: ...

Climeworks is the most recognized name in direct air capture. The Swiss company operates Orca in Iceland (4,000 tCO₂/year), is building Mammoth (36,000 tCO₂/year), and has become synonymous with permanent, technology-based carbon removal. Its brand is DAC. So why is Climeworks now integrating biochar into its product offering? Because portfolio construction logic is replacing single-pathway thinking across the CDR market. And Climeworks is smart enough to follow the signal. The Cost Curve Argument#DAC is expensive. Current costs are $600-1,000+ per tonne CO₂. Even at projected scale (millions of tonnes per year), costs are expected to remain above $200-300/tonne for at least a decade. The permanence is excellent: CO₂ is captured from air and injected into geological storage, where it mineralizes over thousands of years. But the price tag limits the buyer pool. ...

Two weeks ago, we covered Tapestry’s initial 10-year DAC deal with Climeworks. New details have emerged: the partnership now explicitly includes biochar alongside direct air capture, making this a multi-pathway CDR portfolio commitment. That distinction matters. Single-pathway purchases are bets. Multi-pathway portfolios are strategies. What Changed#The original announcement focused on direct air capture. Climeworks operates Orca in Iceland (4,000 tCO₂/year) and is building Mammoth, which will capture 36,000 tonnes CO₂/year when operational. DAC is permanent, verifiable, and expensive: current costs run $600-1,000+ per tonne. ...

The CDR market has a transaction cost problem. Corporate buyers want to purchase carbon removal credits, but finding, vetting, and verifying projects requires expertise that most procurement teams don’t have. The result: buyers either overpay for the comfort of a big-name supplier, underpay for credits that turn out to be low-quality, or simply stall because the due diligence burden is too high. CUR8 and Isometric just launched a product designed to solve exactly this: the 2030 Portfolio, bundling market intelligence with third-party verification into a single offering. ...

Enhanced weathering has been the CDR pathway with the widest gap between theoretical potential and commercial deployment. That gap just got smaller. Mombak, the Brazilian carbon removal developer, has generated its first Isometric-verified enhanced weathering credits. Rock dust applied to working agricultural land in Brazil, monitored and verified by one of the most rigorous third-party certification bodies in the CDR market. Why Brazil Is the Right Place for EW#The science of enhanced weathering favors tropical conditions. High temperatures accelerate mineral dissolution rates. Heavy rainfall drives the chemical reactions that convert silicate minerals into dissolved bicarbonate, which eventually reaches the ocean and stores carbon as alkalinity. Acidic tropical soils provide the low-pH environment where weathering reactions proceed fastest. ...

Microalgae-based carbon capture is being deployed at street level in Indian cities, and the numbers are surprisingly concrete. A Scroll.in / Deutsche Welle documentary follows companies Lo Carbon Solutions and Zaara Biotech as they install bioreactor systems in Kochi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru. The technology uses microalgae’s Carbon Dioxide Concentrating Mechanism (CCM), which allows these organisms to sequester CO2 faster than land plants, even in polluted urban conditions. The Hardware#Two systems are featured: ...

The CaptainDrawdown CDR Company Directory has grown to 825 companies — the most comprehensive public database of active carbon removal organizations worldwide. This month’s update adds 4 new entries spanning 4 CDR pathways and 4 countries. New Additions by Category#Direct Air Capture: 1 newIndustrial Process: 1 newNature-Based: 1 newCarbon Market Infrastructure: 1 newGeographic Spread#United States: 1 newUnited Kingdom: 1 newSierra Leone: 1 newSwitzerland: 1 newNotable Additions#Ctrl-S#Ctrl-S is a startup focused on salvaging and preserving valuable IP, experimental data, and ’negative learnings’ from direct air capture companies that fail or pivot. By acquiring this IP and making it accessible to materials-discovery AI models and new entrants, Ctrl-S aims to accelerate DAC develo ...

A market-heavy day. Four stories with deal and product announcements, anchored by a quiet but significant EPA regulatory first. The CDR procurement ecosystem continues to professionalize — and the buyer base keeps widening. What We Published Today#CUR8 and Isometric Launch a New “2030 Portfolio” CDR Offering Carbon removal market intelligence provider CUR8 and verification platform Isometric have launched a joint “2030 Portfolio” — a curated CDR offering designed to give corporate buyers access to a diversified mix of high-quality, Isometric-certified removal credits with delivery by 2030. This is the CDR market’s version of a managed fund: curated, verified, and structured to reduce buyer risk. It signals that the intermediary layer between CDR suppliers and corporate buyers is maturing fast. ...

The Misconception#“Carbon credits are all scams” This is CDR Misconception #4 in our weekly series debunking common myths about carbon dioxide removal with data and evidence. The Math#The legitimate grievances: Some REDD+ projects credited forests never under threatCookstove offsets with flimsy MRVPermanence gaps: forests sold as 30-yr sinks that burned in year 5Baseline manipulation to inflate claimed reductionsThe 2023 Verra REDD+ exposé was real. The critics aren’t wrong about these specific projects. ...