Neustark to deliver high-quality carbon removal in a multi-year offtake agreement with Microsoft

Neustark’s founder and co-CEO Valentin Gutknecht in conversation with Microsoft’s Chief Sustainability Officer, Melanie Nakagawa

Read the original announcement here

• Neustark will deliver 27,600 tons of carbon removal credits to Microsoft over the course of 6 years.
• This agreement highlights Microsoft’s front-running role in scaling carbon removal solutions in a manner that focuses on high quality credits.
• Neustark has developed and deployed a solution for durable carbon removal, capturing CO₂ at point source and storing it within mineral waste, such as demolition concrete.
• Offtake agreements like the one with Microsoft help scale carbon removal solutions. Neustark continues to grow rapidly, with 14 sites in operation today with an aggregate capacity of over 5,000 tons of CO₂ per year.

Neustark, a Switzerland-based carbon removal developer, has entered into a multi-year offtake agreement to provide Microsoft with 27,600 tons of high-quality, durable carbon dioxide removal (CDR) over the course of six years.

Neustark has developed a novel process that enables CO₂ to be captured, then permanently stored within existing mineral waste streams such as demolition concrete.

Lisa Braune, Head of CDR at neustark, said, “We turn the world’s largest waste stream – demolition concrete – and other mineral waste material into a carbon sink. Our solution makes an impact now: we have removed more than 1000 tons of CO₂ to date, and we are expanding our footprint quickly. Working with such carbon removal pioneers such as Microsoft significantly helps to scale our impact and the CDR industry as a whole.”

Microsoft’s agreement with neustark further underlines the tech giant’s leading role in carbon removal as part of its commitment to be carbon negative by 2030.

Brian Marrs, Senior Director of Energy & Carbon Removal at Microsoft, said, “Neustark deploys a model for delivering high-quality, highly-durable carbon removal that is both scalable and measurable to help organizations towards a sustainable future. Through this six-year purchase agreement, we are excited to continue working with neustark to advance Microsoft’s carbon removal purchasing towards our goal of becoming carbon negative by 2030.”

In 2022, Microsoft and neustark joined forces to store first tons of CO₂ together. The new 6-year offtake agreement expands this collaboration.

How neustark’s novel solution works

Neustark’s technology repurposes concrete from demolished buildings as permanent storage for removed CO₂, using a process known as mineralization. Biogenic CO₂ is captured from partnering biogas plants, then liquified and transported to partnering construction waste recycling sites. There, as an add-on to the existing recycling process, the carbon is injected into demolition concrete granules. Neustark’s technology triggers an accelerated mineralization process, thus binding the CO₂ permanently to the pores and surface of the granules. The carbonated granules can then be used by recyclers to build roads or to produce recycled concrete.

Neustark’s CDR is measurable, verified by the Gold Standard, and permanent. The mineralization process stores the captured CO₂ for hundreds of thousands of years, and the risk of reversal is proven to be slim to none.

14 sites in operation, 20+ under construction

Together with partners, neustark has 14 carbon removal and storage plants in operation in Switzerland and Germany, with a total annual removal capacity of over 5000 tons of CO₂. More than 20 further plants are currently under construction across Europe, and many more in the pipeline. Neustark is scaling up rapidly, on track towards its ambition of permanently removing one million tons of CO₂ in 2030.