This is a milestone for neustark and the carbon removal (CDR) industry: a bit over one year after our first commercial storage site went into operation, we have permanently removed 1,000 tons of CO2
from the atmosphere. And this is just the start...
After testing our mobile pilot “Pioneer” in 2021 and 2022, we launched our first commercial CO2 storage sites at the end of 2022 in Switzerland. Since then, neustark has deployed 14 capture and storage sites in Germany and Switzerland. These sites have an aggregate storage capacity of over 5,000 tons per year.
Though capacity (aka what we can store and remove in the future) is important, what’s even more crucial is the impact we’re already having now. And at the beginning of February 2024, we reached a big milestone: we have permanently removed 1,000 tons of CO2!
In the bigger scale of things, you may ask yourself: 1,000 tons, is that even significant? The answer is: yes! Of course, we need gigatons of CO2 removed – next to massive emission reductions – in the years to come. But the carbon removal industry is a nascent one, and many technologies are just starting to test and deploy their solutions.
Rock-solid proof
One of neustark’s ambitions is to make a climate impact now. And grow this impact exponentially every year from now – on our way to our goal of removing 1 million tons of CO2
in 2030. As one of the only non-biochar CDR providers to reach the 1,000 tons removed milestone, we’re doing exactly that (source: cdr.fyi).
In other words, “it’s rock-solid proof of what we’re doing actually works”, as our founder and co-CEO Valentin Gutknecht puts it. Our end-to-end business model – i.e. capturing biogenic CO2
at point source and storing it in mineral waste material such as demolition concrete and slag – has proven to be effective as well as commercially viable. As well as scalable: we currently have 12 storage plants and 2 capture sites up-and-running, 25 more under construction in various European countries, and many more in the pipeline.
What’s more, our solution stores the CO2
permanently. Mineralization is the most durable method of carbon removal known to date. Durable means: the fraction of carbon dioxide stored through mineral carbonation that is retained after 1,000 years is virtually certain to be 100%. The risk of reversal, i.e. that the carbon sequestered is released again into the atmosphere, is negligeable.
But is our solution ecologically viable? Well, we have an LCA-backed 93% efficiency rate, which is also proving true in practice at our current sites. This means that a typical neustark end-to-end solution re-emits around 7% of the carbon dioxide it captures – one of the highest efficiencies out there amongst durable CDR technologies. Of course, we strictly sell the net carbon removal of our plants, meaning that we compensate for these (very low) grey emissions.
So yes, this is a big milestone to celebrate. But we will surely not rest on our laurels!
We are full steam ahead on our journey to durably removing 1 million tons of CO₂ in 2030. In the next years, you will see us scale up our reach (number of capture and storage sites) and impact (number of tons removed) – exponentially!
Has it been easy? Clearly not; we’ve certainly had our fair share of challenges along the way. But who doesn’t love a good challenge...
Along with our brilliant group of partners, clients, suppliers, supporters and, of course, our fantastic team, we will continue to tackle these challenges head on. And we will continue to optimize our technology, invest in building trust and transparency in the CDR market, and listen and adapt as we continue on this wild ride to making a climate impact, together!