Apply for offtake

Frontier’s goal is to get carbon removal on its best possible trajectory, and the bulk of our spend will go toward offtakes, larger multiyear agreements with companies preparing to scale their technologies.

You can find examples of past offtake purchases here.

About the offtake track

As the first step in applying, please use the table below to understand our program and make sure the offtake track is the right one for your company.

	Track 1: Prepurchase	Track 2: Offtakes
Summary	Low-volume prepurchase agreements to support early-stage suppliers piloting new technologies	Larger offtake agreements to support more mature suppliers preparing to scale
Purchase amount	$500K	~$10M - $50M
Purchase structure	Paid upfront, before tons have been delivered	Commitment to buy future tons at an agreed price if and when delivered
Frontier expectations and risk tolerance	Thorough diligence, higher risk tolerance than offtakes	More extensive diligence, lower risk tolerance than prepurchases
Application cadence	Pre-applications accepted on a rolling basis	Applications accepted on a rolling basis
Application deadline	For consideration in the first announcement wave, please submit a pre-application as soon as possible	No deadline, but we encourage you to express interest as early as possible
Expected status across evaluation criteria
Performance data	There is lab-scale performance and preliminary stability data (preferably for days or more) showing proof of concept that the company’s approach removes CO₂ from the atmosphere.	Tech has been validated, preferably at or beyond small pilot scale, with data establishing performance and stability baseline. Roadmap defined for how the company will narrow gaps between current data and techno-economic analysis (TEA) assumptions.
Monitoring, reporting, & verification (MRV)	Clear MRV approach outlined. For CDR pathways with lower verification confidence levels (VCLs), risks are identified and a method presented for how new data will be generated to reduce quantification uncertainty.	Company has a CDR protocol and is in discussion with one or more credit issuers. Volume offered is discounted based on identified MRV uncertainties (if any) and we have high confidence in the ability to quantify volumes purchased.
Techno-economic analysis (TEA)	A TEA based on a process flow diagram and mass and energy balance, using realistic engineering values (or similar) for equipment pricing, first principles estimates of performance, and basic assumptions for utility costs (format provided).	A high-fidelity TEA based on a pre-FEED design or similar, including a full process model. Key performance assumptions identified and validated with data. Ideally including quotes for major equipment, utilities, and O&M costs for specific locations. Confidence committing to a set price in a multi-year contract.
Ecosystem safety (e.g., impact to soils and oceans)	Compelling case for why this CDR project does not cause additional ecosystem damage, based on experimental data and models. Company identifies potential risks and presents a plan to generate new data to confirm ecosystem safety at scale across early deployments.	Compelling case for why this CDR project does not cause additional ecosystem damage, based on experimental data. Ideally, the supplier has published ecosystem impact data and responded to feedback from the scientific community regarding potential risks. There is manageable remaining uncertainty around ecosystem impact, and company will actively manage deployments using appropriate ongoing ecosystem monitoring.
Community engagement	Clear plans to collect input from stakeholders impacted by the project at early stages and to improve deployment based on that input.	Has proactively engaged stakeholders and revised deployment plans accordingly. Has or is developing a community benefits plan and an ongoing process to collect and act on community input.
Team and operational capability	There is demonstrated expertise on the team for initial development work. Company has a hiring and/or partnering plan for other aspects of the project.	Company has experienced technical and commercial staff in place and project partners are identified and committed.
Business strategy & financing	Key business case assumptions and risks identified. Preliminary plan established for next steps if the project is successful.	Company can define how the project fits within their strategy and the CDR market and policy landscape. Team has a credible path to securing financing and reaching a final investment decision. Company has supply chain, manufacturing, and risk management strategies.

Continue reading if you would like to apply for an offtake. If the prepurchase track is a better fit, please see our prepurchase program.

Offtake focus areas

While there are many early, exciting projects with meaningful climate impact, we are particularly interested in purchasing from companies that address our criteria for what a great project looks like and fill gaps within our portfolio across pathways:

How we evaluate projects

We look for permanent CDR solutions that have the potential to be low-cost and high-volume in the future, even if they’re not today. We use four lenses to make purchasing decisions:

Lens 1: Approach

Does this approach meet our target criteria?

Rigorous external scientific and governance assessment against Frontier’s CDR criteria is the first and most critical qualifying step in Frontier’s purchasing process. Visit our FAQ for a list of approaches that do not meet one or more of our purchasing criteria and are not in focus for our offtake purchasing program at this time.

Lens 2: Execution

Can this team deliver on the proposal, given where the technology is today?

We look for evidence that a team will be able to execute their proposed plan rigorously, quickly, and responsibly. The specifics of what we look for will vary based on the stage of the project, but generally we look for:

Technology readiness level: Is the technology far enough along to make the proposal realistic/plausible? We typically look for an existing proof of concept at or beyond pilot scale, to what extent prior testing mimics operating conditions, and a plausible roadmap to close the gap between current data and assumed performance at scale. We also look at whether the technology has been tested as an integrated system.
Likelihood of successful execution: Is this team set up to deliver on the proposed project? This includes whether the team has the necessary expertise and experience to execute, as well as the qualifications and commitments of potential project partners. We also factor in the stage of project development and the feasibility of securing any financing necessary.
Delivery volume: When will this project start delivering tons? We are looking for projects that can deliver meaningful volume (tens of thousands of tons or more) in the next 2–5 years, with a preference for earlier delivery (i.e., 2026/2027).
Past and expected learning rates: Since this project’s start, how much progress has been made and over what time period? Is this approach fundamentally compatible with fast iteration? How costly is each iteration?
Ambitious but plausible and responsible scaling plans: We are looking for companies to move urgently, but responsibly and realistically. For most approaches, this likely means increasing scale by no more than 10x per deployment, whereas for others, 100x might be acceptable if the applicant includes a justification for that scaling magnitude.

Lens 3: Portfolio

Will this purchase help us build a diverse, risk-adjusted portfolio?

We believe it will take a portfolio of CDR solutions and companies to achieve the gigatons of removal required each year. Frontier’s goal is to build a risk-adjusted portfolio that maximizes the likelihood of that happening. This means that there is a possibility that even if a company meets our criteria, we may not make a purchase if, for example, we’re over-indexed on that type of solution.

Lens 4: Acceleration

Will a purchase now be catalytic to the company and broader field?

We assess whether a Frontier offtake would accelerate a company’s trajectory or the CDR pathway overall:

Does a Frontier offtake clearly help an organization meet a critical milestone needed for scaleup?
Can we quickly, with reasonable effort, facilitate an offtake?
Does this offtake advance the field (e.g. advances new technology, research, measurement techniques, business strategies, etc)?

To give you a sense of how we have applied these lenses in the past, please take a look at past offtakes Frontier has announced.

Offtake diligence process

Frontier facilitates offtake agreements from high-potential CDR projects on behalf of a number of buyers. We run a thorough technical, commercial, and governance diligence process. Our process includes several stagegates to help us make decisions while also doing our best to be cognizant of your team’s time.

Step	Details
1. Offtake expression of interest	Companies submit an offtake expression of interest with basic information on the proposed project and capacity. We may ask for a short conversation to clarify any questions. We consider offtake candidates on a rolling basis, but encourage you to submit interest in our program as early as possible.
2. Candidate screen	Frontier reviews submissions to assess: (1) whether the project is an eligible, compelling candidate for a Frontier offtake; and (2), if so, when to sequence diligence. Frontier invites a subset to submit full applications. Note: For some candidates, we may opt to delay an invitation for application until a later date given our team’s bandwidth (e.g., you might be proposing an offtake for CDR pathway X, but we are focusing on CDR pathways Y and Z first).
3. Offtake application	Company prepares an offtake application, including a techno-economic analysis (TEA) spreadsheet.
4. Application review	Frontier staff, as well as a team of scientific, commercial, and governance experts, review each application. Company is invited to respond to Frontier’s questions and feedback. After application review, we will notify applicants whether Frontier would like to: Progress with diligence now (i.e., we are excited by what we’ve learned so far and would like to advance to a site visit) Pause diligence (i.e., we have significant open questions, and it makes sense to pause for multiple months while the team collects the necessary data) Halt diligence entirely (i.e., we are not able to continue considering the company’s candidacy at this time)
5. Frontier site visit	Company hosts a ~half-day Frontier team site visit to meet the team in person, discuss the project in more detail, and see the current system. Topic areas include reviewing your performance data, TEA, life cycle analysis, project partners, etc.
6. Diligence memo	The Frontier team determines whether to propose the project to Frontier buyers for purchase. If Frontier elects to move forward, we draft a thorough diligence memo which summarizes our assessment of the project against Frontier’s purchasing lenses (see below) so our buyers have a detailed understanding of the project—both the potential for impact and the risks. This step will involve close discussion between Frontier and the project as we dig into the details. We may follow up with additional requests for information as relevant. Frontier facilitates a meeting with Frontier buyers so the company can engage with the buying group directly to answer any remaining questions they might have.
7. Offtake agreement negotiation	Price, removal volumes, and timing will be discussed throughout the drafting of the diligence memo. The final step will be to review the terms and conditions in Frontier’s offtake agreement and discuss project-specific content such as milestones before each buyer signs.

Submit offtake expression of interest

Other considerations

Transparency and confidentiality

Frontier recognizes that we ask for a lot of sensitive information in order to make informed purchases. As such, we will not post offtake application materials publicly on our GitHub repository. Application information will remain confidential among Frontier staff and our expert review team (who have non-disclosure agreements in place with Frontier).

However, because commercial-scale permanent CDR is a nascent field, we want to be transparent about what we’re purchasing. Thus in order for Frontier to sign an offtake agreement, we will work together with companies to draft a public summary of the project so that external stakeholders can understand what the project is, including details such as volumes and average price over the term of the agreement. You can see examples of offtake summaries here.

Contracting

Our offtakes are pay-on-delivery, multiyear purchase agreements. The contract includes conditions precedents, specific to each project, that must be accomplished in order for a supplier to be able to start delivering carbon removal credits to the buyer. Delivery windows are typically from first delivery through 2030. Frontier works with each supplier to identify the volume and price per year of the agreement, and then each Frontier buyer signs an identical contract populated with the volume specific to their organization.

Communication

All communication related to Frontier’s offtake purchasing should be sent to suppliers@frontierclimate.com.