Frontier is focused on making purchases today that increase the likelihood that we will have a low-cost, gigaton-scale portfolio of carbon removal in the future. Since Frontier began, we’ve explored which approaches have the highest potential, what makes a great project, and how to most effectively spend our funds. The pathway points-of-view below reflect this thinking and list the areas we are prioritizing for purchases this year.
Biomass carbon removal and storage (BiCRS) are processes that take biomass or organic waste, which contain carbon captured via photosynthesis, and durably store the embodied carbon.
Direct air capture (DAC) is the process of pulling CO₂ out of ambient air. It is a cyclical process in which a sorbent or solvent undergoes repeated cycles of CO₂ capture and release. The stream of CO₂ can then be coupled with geologic sequestration or mineralization for permanent carbon removal.
Enhanced Weathering and Mineralization (EW&M) are carbon removal processes that speed up the natural weathering of alkaline materials, releasing cations that capture and convert CO₂ into stable, durable compounds. These compounds can either be stored at the site of mineralization or carried by watersheds and rivers into the ocean.
Marine CDR (mCDR) includes a range of approaches that remove CO₂ from the atmosphere and store it in oceanic environments. Frontier’s mCDR purchases focus on abiotic pathways that manipulate the inorganic ocean bicarbonate buffer system to either extract CO₂ or enhance its storage capacity for additional uptake of atmospheric CO₂.
