Carbon Management

The Arca carbon sandbox project

THE PROBLEM

The Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) has identified that 5-15 GT of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) per year is required to limit global warming to 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels. Mine tailings produced from critical mineral mining are ideal materials for carbon mineralization - a geochemical process that removes atmospheric CO2 and permanently stores it as rock. As such, mine tailings present a unique opportunity for large-scale, permanent CDR that could contribute significantly to IPCC requirements. However, carbon mineralization cannot scale until it is trusted; in their 2021 Carbon Mineralization Roadmap, the Innovation for Cool Earth Forum (ICEF) identified a lack of measuring, monitoring and verification as one of the largest barriers to the adoption and scaling of carbon mineralization.

THE SOLUTION

Arca is developing carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies dedicated to realizing this CO2 storage potential – estimated to be 175 Mt-CO2/year today and increasing up to 6x by 2040 to support demand from the clean energy transition. In addition to CDR technologies, Arca is developing a purpose-built measuring, monitoring and verification (MMV) technology for quantifying and validating CDR via carbon mineralization in alkaline waste.

While its CDR technologies are focused on mine tailings, the MMV technology will be applicable to all methods of surficial carbon mineralization – which are estimated to have a total carbon dioxide removal  capacity in excess of 1 billion tonnes per year. The accuracy of the MMV technology will facilitate verified carbon credits, provide confidence in additionality, and build trust in mineralization as a CDR method. By the end of this project, Arca’s fully autonomous MMV technology will be ready for commercial deployment.

PROJECT STATUS
Active
PROJECT CATEGORY
Carbon Management
FUNDING RECIPIENT
Arca
CICE FUNDING AMOUNT
$776,000
PROJECT VALUE
$3,367,244

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Announcements
SEPTEMBER 13, 2023 

CICE Funds Arca Project to Remove CO2 Using Mine Tailings 

The B.C. Centre for Innovation and Clean Energy is pleased to announce it has granted Arca $1.25M to fast-track the commercial scaling of its air-to-rock carbon mineralization solution.
CICE Funds Arca Project to Remove CO2 Using Mine Tailings 
  • "This project is a crucial step in Arca’s path to commercialization. Without a trusted MMV solution, Arca (and similar companies) cannot validate our removals and thus, our CDR solution cannot scale. Funding from CICE is helping Arca to fast-track the development of our MMV technology so that we can deliver verified carbon removals sooner."
    SEAN LOWRIE, HEAD OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS AT ARCA VISIT ARCA