287 out of 1133 teams that applied for the carbon removal competition have been named by XPrize as eligible for the milestone awards with the potential to bring fruitful projects to the table.
Over a year ago, Elon Musk first announced a reward of $100 million for winning his XPrize competition for carbon removal solutions.
Those particular teams could end up winning the competition’s fifteen $1 million Milestone Award prizes. And the best part is it doesn’t even include the main prize.
XPrize asked for a lot of effort from the teams to determine their eligibility for the reward. Milestone award has a list of submission requirements such as:
- Demonstration of the model;
- Cost at full scale;
- A plan to scale it on an industrial level;
- Deployment of solutions at gigaton per year capacity
Relevant: Carbofex Brings Scalable Climate Solution To XPRIZE Competition
Winning teams
Team Phoenix and Team Bison Underground are two of the teams with the potential to win the $1 million Milestone Awards.
- Phoenix Pyrolysis by Team Phoenix is a working modified gasifier that converts biomass to bioenergy and biochar.
- Team Bison Underground is using novel carbon injection to increase the levels of carbon in agricultural soils. As a result of modern farming practices, gigatons of carbon have been depleted from agricultural soils. Restoring this carbon in the soil will make it healthy and less needy of fertilizers. Being one of the old student award winners in the XPrize competition, it received $5 million in 2022.
Announcing the winner
XPrize will announce the winners of 15 Milestone awards on Earth Day, April 22, 2022.
Other teams can still win the grand prize of $50 million and $30 million runner up prize which will be further announced on Earth Day of 2050.
Teams wishing to be eligible to win the $50 million grand prize or $30 million runner-up award, need to register and show the proof that they are working on a carbon removal project (scale of 1000 tons per year).
Read more: UW Team Competes In XPRIZE With New Carbon Capture Tech
