The Frontier commitment has signed a first-of-its-kind river liming carbon removal deal with Canadian company CarbonRun.
The $25.4 million investment by Frontier will be used for the permanent removal of 55,442 tons of carbon dioxide in the period between 2025 and 2029.
River liming is a process in which rivers polluted by acid rain are treated with crushed limestone, balancing the alkalinity of the water and repairing the acidity damage.
While there are records of this method successfully repairing acidified rivers, its further adoption and development are hindered by high costs.
Exploring the process of river liming, CarbonRun found that adding limestone to rivers increases their capacity for extracting CO2 from the air.
Once the limestone is put into the water, it combines with the atmospheric and land-based carbon found in rivers, producing bicarbonate that makes its way to the open ocean via the river flow, where it is permanently stored.
The recent Frontier deal will boost the activities of CarbonRun, focusing on rivers acidified by pollution and climate change and stimulating work that will result in both CO2 removal and ecosystem benefits such as salmon and shellfish population restoration.
CarbonRun will use this financial injection to deploy its technology to multiple sites, with the inaugural one planned for Nova Scotia.
Relevant: Frontier Facilitates Third Round Of CO2 Removal Purchases
When applied to pH-neutral rivers, liming has the potential to reach a gigaton carbon removal scale.
Recognizing this possibility, Stripe is granting an additional $1 million to CarbonRun for the research and development of this technology, hoping to gain insights on its capacity for CO2 removal and ecosystem restoration.
Founded by Stripe, Alphabet, Shopify, Meta, McKinsey, and a myriad of companies using Stripe Climate, Frontier is an advance market commitment (AMC) that aims to accelerate carbon removal development.
The movement has pledged to buy an initial $1B+ of permanent carbon removal between 2022 and 2030.
Relevant: New Offtake Agreements Template By Frontier To Stimulate More CDR
