The Carbon Removal Challenge

The 2023 OpenAir Carbon Removal Challenge

The Carbon Removal Challenge Showcase

The 2023 OpenAir Carbon Removal Challenge was a worldwide challenge for students to create new processes, approaches and prototypes to remove carbon from the land, waters, or air.

With guidance from researchers and industry experts, student teams will design and build creative, open-source solutions to the carbon pollution problem.  The very best approaches were selected for an in-person showcase at New York University in April 2023.

Carbon removal is far from where it needs to be in the near future to avert the worst effects of climate change.

The Carbon Removal Challenge provided students from colleges and universities around the world an opportunity to work towards safeguarding their future. They not only designed and built machines that remove excess carbon from the environment, which will to help accelerate carbon tech innovation, but also built connections that will bring the next generation of talented engineers, thinkers, and designers into this important sector.

Please join us in congratulating or 2023 Carbon Removal Challenge Finalists:

Monash Carbon Capture and Conversion (MC^3)
Winner: Best Visionary Plan
Team Members:
Hiruni Liyanage, Madeleine Buckingham, Joanna Laurence, Nicholas Goode, Charley Wang, Jayden Cooke & Jennifer de Jager
Advisor: Paul Webley
University: Monash University Australia
Location: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Description:
MC^3’s technical teams are developing 6 CCUS solutions, utilizing both biotechnical and synthetic methods. The teams long term goal is scalable carbon removal and durable sequestration for up to 100 years, across three different process pathways.

Viridian (Engineers without Borders Waterloo)
Winner: Most Detailed Project
Team Members:
Anjiya Sharif, Hussein Hassanali, Laurel Pierroz-Wong, Kami Feng, Katherine Nguyen, Caleb Moore, Francisco Jao, Minji Lee, Sophia Caleca, Sonali Patel, Druthi Padamati, Peter Song
Advisor: Dr. XioYu Wu
University: University of Waterloo
Location: Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Description:
Viridian is a CO2 capture and sequestration prototype developed (1) to remove CO2 from air using a moisture-swing sorbent and (2) to grow microalgae using the CO2-enriched water byproduct. Currently, it has a capture efficiency of 14%.

SPARCC (Semi-Passive Algae Rooted Carbon Capture)
Winner: Best Immediate Business Plan
Team Members:
Tyler Bartolome, Betsy Richardson, Anna Miller, and Bryan Coronado
Advisor: Edward Kelley
University: Drake University
Location: Des Moines, Iowa, USA
Description:
A Semi-Passive Algae Rooted Carbon Capture device using natural water flow to grow algae. SPARCC Collects carbon through photosynthesis while also cleaning local rivers of Nitrate pollution due to Agricultural runoff.

The University of Victoria’s Synchronized Water Amine Nexus (SWAN)
Winner: Best Engineering
Team Members:
Satria Brunner, Ammar Shoaib, Darian Langeler, Jasmin Ford, Heather Norton, Marshall Kodar Hurlbut, and Nick Faulkner
Advisors: Devin Todd, Curran Crawford
University: University of Victoria
Location: Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Description:
UREC has designed a moisture swing DAC unit inspired by OpenAir’s VIOLET project. This DAC method aims to use the adsorption/desorption properties of a sorbent material to filter CO2 out of ambient air with alternating wetting and drying cycles.

CO2 Electrolyzer
Winner: Best Literature Review and Research
Team Members:
Somnath Guria, Vaibhav Trivedi, Shubham Kumar, Piyali Majumder, Vikram Vishal, and Arnab Dutta
Advisor: Arnab Dutta
University: Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB)
Location: Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Description:
We have developed a unique CO2 electrolyzer that can convert carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air to a high-value product carbon monoxide (CO). This setup establishes the gateway for a true carbon-negative solution.

Playlist for Info Sessions, Webinars, and Related Videos

From December of 2022 through Feb 2023, Carbon Removal Challenge participants were invited to attend multiple info sessions, webinars, and office hours. This is playlist of the sessions what we anticipated would be valuable beyond this year’s cohort.

Key Dates

 

October 13, 2022 Competition announcement, Applications open
Fall 2022 OpenAir provides carbon removal webinars and videos to participants
January 8th
November 30, 2022		 Applications closed
Winter 2022-2023 12 to 50 teams work with faculty advisors and OpenAir mentors to build carbon removal prototypes
February 28, 2023
March 6th, 9am EST 		Teams submit designs and documentation of final prototypes
March 30, 2023 Judges choose 5-10 teams for the final showcase at NYU
April 21, 2023 Final showcase at NYU

Why Carbon Removal?

There is already too much CO2 in the atmosphere, and some essential industries – namely, commercial aviation and steel and cement manufacturing – will be very difficult to decarbonize in time. Any chance we have of limiting average global temperature change to a survivable threshold (1.5C or below) must include the removal of carbon from the atmosphere. The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has called for Carbon Dioxide Removal (Negative Emissions Technologies), to help us stay below 1.5C above preindustrial temperatures – the threshold scientists agree is the point at which we will irreversibly impact our climate for the worse.

Goals

  • Introduce a new generation of students to the world of carbon capture
  • Highlight and showcase the carbon removal work already happening in higher ed
  • Give students a hands-on opportunity to create brand new solutions to the carbon pollution problem
  • Promote new innovations through open source licensing, which will allow more rapid advancement of students’ technologies and enable others to build on the success of earlier submissions
  • Build talent networks for employers and future job seekers

Teams

Each team must submit an application, complete with a full list of team members, a faculty advisor, and an overview of their design, by the end of November 2022 Jan 8th. Suggested team size is 2-8 members.

Judges / Mentors

Gloria See
• Climatebase Founding Fellow 2022
• Chief Engineer, Edge Effects
• Cofounder, Cquestration
Expertise: sensor design, semiconductor materials, photonics, hardware testing, entrepreneurship policy, algae-based CDR, precision agriculture, wearable sensors
Duncan Kariuki
• Engineer, Octavia Carbon
Expertise: Mechanical Engineer
Kristian Gubsch
• Co-Founder and Vice President of Feedstock Development Mars Materials
Expertise: Reactor design, direct air capture sorbent selection, process modelling, capital and operating expense estimation, and project planning and management
Grant Faber
• Carbon-Based Consulting
Expertise: Techno-economic and life cycle assessment, strategy
Blair Simmons
• Assistant Arts Professor at NYU ITP
Expertise: Critical Technology Theorist and Digital Fabricator
Dr. Luis Estevez
• CEO of Advanced & Innovative Multifunctional Materials
Expertise: Material science
Florian Schabus
• Investor at Planet A
Expertise: Climate Tech Investing
Marian Krüger
• Co-Founder and Co-Lead, Carbon Removal ClimAccelerator
Expertise: Climate Tech
Laurin Bonkowski
• Business Development Manager at Climeworks
Expertise: everything commercial around DAC/td>
Martin Srna
• Commercialization at Living Carbon
Expertise: product management, commercialization, carbon removal DAC

Advisors

Tom Igoe Dr. Lehman Marks
• Founder of the Solar Car Challenge, the top project-based STEM Initiative helping motivate high school students in Science, Engineering, and Alternative Energy
• Long time Educator
• Extensive Experience in Project Development & Management
Tom Igoe Tom Igoe
• Co-founder of Arduino
• Professor, NYU ITP
• Area Head for Physical Computing
Dr. Evvan Morton Dr. Evvan Morton
• American Association for Advancement of Science
Science & Technology Policy Fellow
Dr. Gregory Nemet Dr. Gregory Nemet
• Professor, University of Wisconsin
• Lead Author, UN IPCC Report
• Author, How Solar Became Cheap
Michael Weinberg Michael Weinberg
• President of the board of the Open Source Hardware Association
• Executive Director of the Center on Innovation Law and Policy at NYU

Questions? Or do you want to be Sponsor or Mentor?

Want more info about the Challenge?

Check out the Carbon Removal Challenge FAQ!

Still got questions or just want to contact us? Are you interested in being part of a participating team, being a mentor, or sponsoring the challenge, but need more info? Contact us using the form below:

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