Microsoft has signed a carbon removal agreement with Crew Carbon for up to 23,602 carbon removal units generated from Crew’s wastewater alkalinity enhancement (WAE) technology.
– Crew Carbon
Crew’s proprietary process works by dosing alkaline minerals, such as calcium carbonate, into wastewater treatment plants in order to reduce the carbon footprint of the plants' operations. Wastewater treatment plants produce CO2 as a byproduct, which is usually released into the atmosphere. Crew claims that through its WAE technology, it can convert dissolved CO2 into stable bicarbonate ions instead of letting it escape as gas. The inert bicarbonate is subsequently discharged into oceans, rivers, or aquifers.
Instead of building new infrastructure, the company integrates the process within existing wastewater treatment plants, claiming it can take a plant from initial assessment to full deployment in about three months.
“Microsoft’s offtake agreement with Crew supports the advancement of a novel, wastewater-based approach that is highly durable and measurable,” said Phillip Goodman, carbon removal portfolio director at Microsoft. “Crew has shown that carbon removal in the wastewater sector is implementable and scalable with high Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) certainty.”
