A select group of 15 teams out of over 1.100 entries were chosen by 70 judges to receive a Milestone Prize of $1 million each. 

 For its two winning submissions, Carbfix partnered with Heirloom and Verdox. Carbfix provides the company’s tried and tested technology of safe and permanent underground mineralization to sequester the CO₂ captured by Verdox’s and Heirloom’s novel and innovative carbon capture technologies. 

All entries remain eligible to compete for the $80 million in Grand Prizes to be awarded in 2025. 

To win the Grand Prize, teams are required to demonstrate CO₂ removal at the 1,000 tons per year scale, model costs at the million tons per year scale (megaton), and present a plan to sustainably reach 1,000 million tons per year scale (gigaton) in the future. 

“We’re immensely honoured to receive such a solid recognition in this prestigious and highly competitive global competition,” said Edda Sif Pind Aradóttir, CEO of Carbfix. “We’ve already been applying our method of underground CO₂ mineralization for 10 years. Presently, we are aiming for significant upscaling of our tried and tested technology, an ambition which will be greatly supported by our XPRIZE success and our excellent partnerships in those projects.” 

"Low-cost, permanent carbon removal is essential to hit our climate goals, but the costs of Direct Air Capture have to come way down to make a meaningful impact on climate change," said Shashank Samala, Co-founder and CEO at Heirloom. "Utilizing low cost, earth abundant minerals as both sponge and storage for CO₂ is key to making the economics work. We're thrilled to partner with Carbfix as an XPRIZE Milestone 1 winner and turn our Phase 1 idea into reality."

“We are delighted to receive this competitive award together with our partners at Carbfix. We believe carbon removal will be essential to humanity’s sustainable development, but it will never be deployed at a significant scale if the required energy and cost cannot be reduced significantly. We launched Verdox two years ago on the promise of our novel electrochemical carbon capture system, which has been shown to reduce the energy penalty for capture by up to 70%. XPRIZE’s recognition of Verdox and Carbfix’s combined potential is yet another signal that the future of carbon removal will be electric,” said Verdox CEO Dr. Brian Baynes.

On Carbfix: 

Carbfix is the world‘s first CO₂ mineral storage operator, having mineralized CO₂ underground in Iceland for 10 years using proprietary technology. The Carbfix process injects CO₂ dissolved in water into basaltic rocks, where it turns to stone in under two years through a technology that imitates and accelerates natural processes, providing a permanent and safe carbon storage solution. More information can be found at www.carbfix.com.

 

On Verdox:

Verdox is making scalable, cost-effective carbon capture and removal a reality. Founded in late 2019 by Dr. Brian Baynes, Prof. T. Alan Hatton, and Dr. Sahag Voskian, the company is commercializing its electroswing adsorption (ESA) platform technology, originally developed at MIT, to remove carbon dioxide from industrial emissions and the air with 70% energy savings versus conventional approaches. More information can be found at www.verdox.com.

 On Heirloom:

Naturally occurring minerals are one of our planet's most vital carbon sinks. Over geological timescales, carbon dioxide in the air and water chemically bind to these minerals and permanently turn to stone. Heirloom's direct air capture technology enhances this natural process, called carbon mineralization, and pairs it with a simple, modular, passive air contactor to help minerals absorb CO₂ from the ambient air in days, rather than years. More information can be found at www.heirloomcarbon.com.