carbon capture client

Oxy's cleantech arm scores Amazon DAC investment

Amazon has agreed to buy 250,000 metric tons of carbon removal credits from 1PointFive’s first DAC plant. Photo via 1pointfive.com

Houston-based cleantech company 1PointFive is among the recipients of e-commerce giant Amazon’s first investments in carbon-fighting direct air capture (DAC).

Amazon has agreed to buy 250,000 metric tons of carbon removal credits from Stratos, 1PointFive’s first DAC plant, over a 10-year span. That commitment is equivalent to the amount of carbon stored naturally across more than 290,000 acres of U.S. forecasts, says Amazon.

Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

1PointFive is a carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration (CCUS) subsidiary of Houston-based energy company Occidental Petroleum.

The carbon captured for Amazon will be stored deep underground in saline aquifers — large geological rock formations that are saturated in saltwater.

As Amazon explains, DAC technology filters CO2 from the atmosphere and stores it in underground geological formations. Aside from being stored, removed carbon can be used to make building materials like bricks, cement, and concrete.

1PointFive is constructing its first DAC plant in Ector County, which is anchored by Odessa. The facility is expected to be the world’s largest DAC plant, capturing up to 500,000 tons of CO2 per year. Amazon Web Services (AWS) will provide real-time performance data for the plant.

“Amazon’s purchase and long-term contract represent a significant commitment to direct air capture as a vital carbon removal solution,” Michael Avery, president and general manager of 1PointFive, says in a news release. “We are excited to collaborate with Amazon to help them achieve their sustainability goals.”

1PointFive broke ground on the Stratos plant in April. Its project partners include British Columbia-based Carbon Engineering and Australia-based Worley. The plant is expected to be fully operational by mid-2025.

1PointFive envisions establishing more than 100 DAC facilities around the world by 2035.

The Amazon deal isn’t the only major deal for 1Point5 this summer.

In August, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced a $600 million grant for a 1PointFive-operated DAC hub that will be built in South Texas. The more than 100,000-acre hub, comprising 30 individual DAC projects, eventually may remove and store up to 30 million metric tons of CO2 per year.

Also in August, Japan’s All Nippon Airways (ANA) said it reached an agreement with 1PointFive to buy 10,000 metric tons of carbon removal credits per year over a three-year period starting in 2025. The credits will be generated by 1PointFive’s Stratos plant.

In the U.S., DAC has gotten a huge boost from the federal government. The Inflation Reduction Act, passed in 2022, includes tax credits for capturing and storing carbon via DAC.

The International Energy Agency says 27 DAC plants have been commissioned around the world, with at least 130 more in the development stage. One forecast predicts the value of the global market for DAC systems will climb past $2.3 billion by 2030.

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A View From HETI

Houston-based Mati Carbon won the global XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition, funded by The Musk Foundation. Photo via LinkedIn.

Houston-based Mati Carbon has won the $50 million grand prize in the XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition, backed by Elon Musk’s charitable organization, The Musk Foundation.

Mati was selected in 2024 as one of 20 global finalists. The company removes carbon through its Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW) program that works with agricultural farms in Africa and India.

The 3-year-old startup accelerates the natural process of rock weathering (ERW) by applying pulverized basalt to croplands of partnered smallholder farmers, free of charge. Mati says the farmers it partners with are some of the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

“Winning this XPRIZE competition is an incredible honor and a definitive validation of our research and development, and building out the infrastructure needed to impact millions of farmers while delivering verifiable carbon dioxide removal at a gigaton scale,” Mati Carbon Founder and CEO Shantanu Agarwal, said in a news release. “I couldn’t be prouder, not just of the Mati team, but of our collaborators, research partners and the thousands of smallholder farmers who let us be part of their lives. This XPRIZE recognition will allow us to collaborate with local partners to accelerate the use of enhanced rock weathering across the Global South.”

Mati reports that it plans to use the award to “scale its efforts working with smallholder farmers worldwide.” Apart from the XPRIZE funding, Mati plans to grow its model through the sale of CDR credits. According to the company, it counts Shopify, Stripe, and H&M among its early carbon credit buyers.

“Mati Carbon’s deployments bolster farmers’ livelihoods through improved soil health, reduced agricultural inputs, and increased income at zero cost to them. Mati Carbon’s team has developed a scientifically rigorous approach to monitoring and verification, and excelled across each of XPRIZE’s prize evaluation criteria – operational, sustainability, and cost metrics – giving the XPRIZE judges the highest confidence in Mati Carbon’s solution’s long-term scalability,” the XPRIZE judges wrote.

Houston-based Vaulted Deep took home the second-runner-up prize in the competition and $8 million for its organic waste storage process. The company provides permanent carbon storage by injecting nonhazardous organic waste deep underground. It spun off with $8 million in seed funding from Advantek Waste Management Services in 2023.

"Our approach is grounded in geomechanical injection techniques that have been safely deployed globally for decades by our team and predecessors," Omar Abou-Sayed, co-founder and executive chairman of Vaulted, said in a separate release. "XPRIZE recognized that this is a proven approach—already in use, delivering impact, and built on the kind of reliability the industry needs to scale responsibly."

Launched in 2021, the four-year XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition challenged global innovators to deploy scalable solutions for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and oceans. More than 1,300 teams from 88 countries competed. XPRIZE finalists were required to remove at least 1,000 tonnes of CO2 over a one-year demonstration period.

French company NetZero took home the first-runner-up prize of $15 million, and London-based UNDO came in as third-runner-up with a $5 million prize.

Since the announcement of the XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition, the Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency has cut climate funding for agencies, projects and research. While the Musk Foundation sponsored the XPRIZE event, it is not affiliated with the California-based organization, according to the Associated Press.

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