Google just landed a deal to capture planet-heating pollution at a huge bargain: $100 per ton of CO2, the price climate tech startups around the world are racing to achieve in order to make their technologies commercially viable. The company announced the agreement today with Holocene, a startup with an even shorter history than others in the emerging carbon removal industry that has nevertheless attracted some big-name backers. '“We think it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Holocene says its technique is more efficient than others because it’s able to continuously run two chemical loops: one that takes in CO2 from the air and another that produces a pure stream of that captured CO2 so that it can eventually be sequestered underground. The first loop involves passing air through water containing amino acids that attract the CO2. Then the chemical guanidine is added to the mix, which reacts with the CO2 to form a solid crystal.