Charm Industrial Announces Successful Sequestration of 1,000 Tons of Carbon Dioxide; Signs New Contract with Shopify to Sequester an Additional 3,000 Tons

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 2, 2021
Media Contact: Brian Willis, Brian.Willis@pioneerpublicaffairs.com

San Francisco, CA — Today, Charm Industrial announced the successful sequestration of 1,000 tons of carbon dioxide using its proprietary biomass-based process for Shopify, its largest client, and the signing of an expanded agreement to remove an additional 3,000 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by the end of 2023. 

“The completion of our largest carbon removal order to date and the subsequent signing of a contract to remove an additional 3,000 tons of carbon dioxide not only proves our technology’s utility as a fast-scaling and permanent climate solution, but also promotes the case for more investment in the carbon removal sector,” said Peter Reinhardt, co-founder of Charm Industrial. “As the debate over climate solutions intensifies and becomes more impactful, the business, political, and environmental communities must recognize the indispensability of carbon dioxide removal as a climate solution and progressively work with our space to meet the demands of our warming world.”

Charm uses an innovative approach to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.  It  converts biomass from farms, ranches and forests — which would ordinarily decompose into carbon dioxide — into a carbon intensive bio-oil. Charm then sequesters the bio-oil deep underground using existing injection wells, like a reverse oil company, where it will remain harmless for tens of thousands or potentially millions of years. 

“Charm has successfully completed its proof of concept, having now sequestered significant volumes of CO₂e,” said Stacy Kauk, Director of Shopify’s Sustainability Fund. “To ensure that Charm continues to have the support they need to scale up from here, we are expanding our purchase agreement to give them more resources to accelerate their progress toward gigaton scale.”

Companies building high quality carbon dioxide removal technologies like Direct Air Capture Sequestration (DACS) and bio-oil sequestration have announced a total of approximately 1,600 tons of CO₂e removed to date, and Charm alone has delivered approximately 90% of that volume. While traditional offsets, sold at $20/ton CO₂e or less, look dramatically cheaper than Charm’s $600/ton CO₂e removals, additionality and leakage issues increase the average real price of a traditional offset to $740/ton CO₂e.

Charm is currently advocating for Congress to expand the range of technologies eligible for the 45Q tax credit (carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration) to include those that store carbon in liquid and solid forms in the upcoming reconciliation bill moving through Congress. Such a change in federal law could dramatically accelerate efforts to take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and help the United States meet its international greenhouse gas emission pledge.