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We’ve been following Octavia’s progress for a while and have been so impressed with their focus on creating Direct Air Capture and Storage (DAC+S) modularity and scalability with deep co-benefits for the local communities they work within.
We're delighted to be working with them and including their vetted projects in our Carbon Removal Portfolios.
Type: Direct Air Capture and Storage
Permanence of carbon removal: 100,000+ years
Additionality: High
Co-benefits: Medium
Stage: Pilot
Location: Kenya
Octavia is the Global South’s first Direct Air Capture company, based in Kenya. They are developing geothermal integrated DAC technology to facilitate the permanent removal of CO2 from our atmosphere.
Their aim is to leverage Kenya’s geothermal energy, geology, and talent to radically accelerate DAC down the cost curve. By doing this, they aim to make Kenya the world’s most cost-effective hub to build and deploy Direct Air Capture.
Octavia believes that Kenya is the best place in the world to build and scale their DAC technology because:
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The future of DAC is taking shape in Kenya, and we’re honored to be leading the charge. By harnessing Kenya's natural resources, we are developing an innovative DAC solution that not only addresses DAC's intensive energy requirements but will also spur green industrialisation in the region.
Founder/CEO, Octavia
DAC is a comparatively expensive form of carbon removal today, costing up to US $1,000 per ton of CO2 removed from the atmosphere. However, Octavia believes there is a trajectory to bring this closer to $100 per ton of CO2 by 2030 by investing in developing and deploying the technology now.
Similar to other types of climate technology like solar power, DAC has the potential to become more cost-effective quickly, in a timeframe that will help us mitigate human-caused climate change. In doing so it will help us tackle the hard-to-abate emissions in net zero that we aren’t able to reduce or decarbonize.
In terms of carbon removal DAC also delivers a premium product: an exact, directly measurable amount of CO2 is removed from the air and locked up forever by turning CO2 pumped underground into a rock. It’s stored out of the atmosphere on a geologic time frame, safe where it can’t contribute to the continued heating of the planet.
Project Hummingbird will be certified against Puro's Geologically Stored Carbon Methodology. Puro.earth is accredited under the International Carbon Removal and Offsetting Alliance (ICROA), which is a unique mark of quality in the carbon dixoide removal (CDR) space.
Octavia Carbon was founded in March 2022 by Martin Freimüller, an Austrian national who moved his life to Kenya after realizing that it is the best place for DAC. Duncan Kariuki and Mike Bwondera joined him as part of the founding team.
Prior to founding Octavia, Martin had been working as a Strategy Consultant at Dalberg Global Advisors. During this time, he was presented with the question: “How to create 30 million jobs for young Africans by 2030?” This led him to discover carbon removal and DAC, and he became Dalberg's global carbon removal and markets content expert. He recognized the potential of carbon removal as a major emerging industry that could drive job creation in Africa and was convinced that Kenya was the world's best place for DAC.
Duncan, Product Lead, and Mike, Research and Development Lead, had been exploring DAC as a solution to climate change during their engineering degrees at the University of Nairobi. They met Martin through an online community focused on engineered (Carbon Dioxide Removal) CDR called ‘The OpenAir Collective.’ Following this, Octavia officially began operations in June 2022.
The Octavia Family has now grown to a team of 59, and they have built 8 at-scale DAC machines with varied CO2 capture capacities ranging from 1tCO2/yr (1 ton of CO2 in a year) to 10tCO2/yr.
They are now operating a DAC demonstration plant within their facilities ahead of deploying their pilot DAC+S plant in Q4-24. The pilot DAC+S plant, Project Hummingbird, will be the first of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere.
With a net carbon negativity of 90%, high storage permanence, and using abundant local renewable energy, Octavia’s DAC+S has a role to play in solving climate change.
Octavia are building modular and scalable units that utilize low-grade heat to capture the CO2 from the sorbents in the machines. This is a highly efficient process, utilizing waste heat within their process reduces energy consumption.
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Their DAC machines are designed to utilize 80% geothermal waste heat - which is vastly untapped in the region - to filter CO2 from the air, capturing it from the atmosphere so it can't contribute to climate change.
The amount of CO2 captured and sequestered is measured continuously using sensors. Octavia is working with a third party to develop digital MRV that will include tamper-proof sensors that the third party will own, install, and monitor to ensure the credibility of the monitoring and reporting process.
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They’ve partnered with Cella, a carbon mineralization company with operations in Kenya, to handle the CO2 storage phase. Cella will pump the captured CO2 underground into basaltic rock layers where it is safely stored and can't escape. Once injected the CO2 transforms into carbonate minerals, meaning as rocks and is stored permanently and safely for thousands of years.
The world’s first commercial DAC plant - by Climework’s - only started operating in 2021, so this new - and promising - technology has some way to go. Government policies and private sector initiatives are currently helping to catalyze amazing technological progress.
While DAC technology will always be energy-intensive, Octavia’s approach is tailored to utilize geothermal waste heat - that remains unused in the region - for more than 80% of their energy needs. Notably, unlike in most regions where the geothermal sector is mature and limited, Kenya is experiencing rapid growth in this sector with the current supply exceeding the demand. This gives Octavia a great foundation on which to build up its removal capacity.
Octavia’s first plant - Project Hummingbird - is scheduled to come online during 2024. This plant will act as a benchmark and inform their scaling plans in the subsequent years. By 2030, they aim to scale their annual removal capacity to thousands of tonnes and be at the forefront of carbon removal efforts globally.
For this pilot project, they are working with Puro.earth and are already listed on their third party registry. Puro will handle both certification and carbon credit issuance. Additionally, Octavia is developing a Carbon Management System in collaboration with a third-party expert. This system will provide transparent access to plant operational and performance data, including energy consumption, enhancing transparency throughout the carbon crediting process.
Zopeful's Carbon Removal Portfolios primarily look at solutions that are as-permanent-as-possible-for-the-$, combined with additionality and verifiability. As you may know from our climate courses, we're very conscious of climate justice issues as well. There can be no full transition to a zero emissions world that isn't just. We're including carbon removal partners in the portfolios that engage and include local communities in the countries they operate in.
Octavia’s Project Hummingbird embodies this ethos. The project seeks to foster climate justice for local communities in the region whose livelihoods have been devastated by the climate crisis. Octavia is working with the local communities region to co-develop a comprehensive benefits plan that addresses their specific needs and concerns.
Through educational forums and ongoing dialogue, they strive to empower these communities to advocate for their rights and participate actively in the project's development.
Project Hummingbird will unlock numerous co-benefits in the region including increasing electricity access for Kenyans and creating a reliable and sustainable source of livelihood for the local communities.
Kenya currently lacks adequate industrial demand for the renewable energy it produces. On average, 1000Mhw of geothermal electricity goes to waste daily, leading to increased electricity prices for the end consumers who incur the cost of the excess capacity produced.
By integrating into Kenya’s geothermal sector, Project Hummingbird and its successor projects will utilize the excess capacity, making electricity access more affordable in Kenya. This will extend electricity access to both rural and urban communities and drive green industrialization in Kenya, incentivizing investment in the renewable energy grid.
Octavia are committed to transferring knowledge, skills, and expertise to the local workforce as they develop and operate this project. Through the creation of a sustainable source of livelihood, Project Hummingbird offers hope to local pastoral communities whose traditional livelihoods have been devastated by multi-year, climate-change-induced droughts. The capacity building achieved through Project Hummingbird will have long-lasting benefits as the project would nurture a generation of local leaders who can continue to address environmental challenges in Kenya and beyond with carbon removal.
We believe that true climate action goes beyond reducing carbon emissions; it must also uplift and empower local communities. Zopeful's commitment to this ideal aligns with our mission. We're honored to be featured in their carbon removal portfolio to drive lasting change that benefits both the planet and its people.
Commercialization Lead, Octavia
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Slowing and reversing climate change not only requires us to drastically reduce emissions from current levels, we also need to take out hundreds of billions of tonnes we’ve already added to the atmosphere over the last 200 years. The natural carbon cycle already absorbs about half of humanity’s excess emissions, and we need it to do more.
To achieve Net Zero (& beyond) we need to grow global carbon removal capacity to somewhere between 5 to 10 billion tonnes per year by 2050.
Direct Air Capture is one of a range of promising carbon removal solutions that can help us achieve that. Octavia are doing incredible work to both scale DAC to meaningful levels while also bringing the cost down to make it more accessible as a carbon removal solution. We’re delighted to be partnering with them on this incredible adventure. .
Read more about Direct Air Capture and why we include it in our Carbon Removal Portfolios 👇
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