{ "search_criteria": { "keywords": [ "Direct Air Capture", "DAC", "Enhanced Weathering", "Ocean Alkalinity", "Carbon Dioxide Removal" ], "min_amount": 500000, "months_back": 24, "start_date": "12-24-2023", "end_date": "12-13-2025" }, "total_nsf_grants_found": 35, "cdr_relevant_nsf_grants": 3, "manually_curated_grants": 12, "total_grants": 15, "grants": [ { "abstractText": "The broader/commercial impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project stands to contribute to the creation of viable gigaton-scale Direct Air CO2 Capture (DAC), a key pillar in preventing the worst effects of rising CO2 levels in the atmosphere and oceans. Capturing CO2 for permanent sequestration can play a decisive role in mitigating the impacts of rising atmospheric CO2 levels if conducted as part of wider net zero efforts. According to the Bipartisan Policy Center, gigaton-scale DAC stands to support the creation of a trillion-dollar industry in the United States and underpin the development of thousands of jobs.\r\n\r\nThis project is focused on the development of a novel DAC design that addresses two key hurdles to achieving the scale needed to effectively offset the rising CO2 levels for our planet: cost to build the technology and energy to run it. The company\u2019s technology comprises a contactor in which air is pulled in, a chemically reactive spray of amine solvent is injected into a hollow space with no physical media to resist airflow, and a proprietary, low-pressure-drop separator removing spray from the airflow for re-use and subsequent regeneration. Following successful demonstration of the concept at two-meter scale completed during SBIR phase I, the company will test a commercial scale pilot of the system during SBIR phase II. This pilot will include optimized separator build and testing, construction of one commercial contactor module, and sustained operations targeting 2,816 hours, removing 445 tons of CO2.\r\n\r\nThis award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.", "agency": "NSF", "awardAgencyCode": "4900", "awardeeAddress": "8 THE GREEN", "awardeeCity": "DOVER", "awardeeCountryCode": "US", "awardeeDistrictCode": "DE00", "awardeeDistrict": "00", "awardeeName": "VICTORY OVER CARBON, INC.", "awardeeStateCode": "DE", "awardeePhone": "8085180921", "awardeeZipCode": "199013618", "cfdaNumber": "47.084", "pi": [ "Harrison Rice Harrison@arccapture.com" ], "ueiNumber": "G8C6VBJUFMD7", "estimatedTotalAmt": "1248768", "fundsObligatedAmt": "1248768", "fundAgencyCode": "4900", "fundProgramName": "SBIR Phase II", "id": "2451493", "parentUeiNumber": "", "pdPIName": "Harrison Rice", "perfAddress": "4200 San Jacinto St", "perfCity": "Houston", "perfCountryCode": "US", "perfDistrict": "18", "perfDistrictCode": "TX18", "perfLocation": "VICTORY OVER CARBON, INC.", "perfStateCode": "TX", "perfZipCode": "770044853", "piEmail": "Harrison@arccapture.com", "piFirstName": "Harrison", "piLastName": "Rice", "poEmail": "rmehta@nsf.gov", "poName": "Rajesh Mehta", "poPhone": "7032922174", "primaryProgram": [ "01002526DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT" ], "publicAccessMandate": "1", "date": "06/05/2025", "startDate": "06/15/2025", "expDate": "05/31/2027", "title": "SBIR Phase II: CAS: A Novel Approach for Achieving Scale in Direct Air Carbon Capture", "transType": "Cooperative Agreement", "awardee": "VICTORY OVER CARBON, INC.", "orgCodeDiv": "15030000", "orgCodeDir": "15000000", "divAbbr": "TI", "dirAbbr": "TIP", "initAmendmentDate": "06/05/2025", "latestAmendmentDate": "06/05/2025", "orgLongName": "Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships", "orgLongName2": "Translational Impacts", "progEleCode": "537300", "progRefCode": "1238, 9150", "program": "TECH FOR SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENT, EXP PROG TO STIM COMP RES", "fundsObligated": [ "FY 2025 = $1,248,768.00" ], "histAwd": "false", "activeAwd": "true", "managingPec": "537300", "orgUrl": "https://beta.nsf.gov/tip/ti" }, { "abstractText": "This Research Advanced by Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering (RAISE) award is made in response to Dear Colleague Letter 23-109, as part of the NSF-wide Clean Energy Technology initiative. Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) are collections of distributed energy resources, such as batteries, and rooftop solar, which can be intelligently coordinated to improve the reliability, affordability, and sustainability of the electric grid. Traditional VPP models and programs are afflicted by both barriers and disproportionate risks to participants in disadvantaged communities (DACs). This is, in part, due to insufficient data for understanding how socio-technical factors influence energy flexibility and how providing opportunities for community input can improve the VPP design process. Further, algorithms and computational models for making technology and control decisions have neglected fairness and equity. To address these gaps, this project works directly with DACs in Philadelphia to design and evaluate new approaches to VPP participation that consider the unique conditions within a community along with issues of preference and fairness. \r\n\r\nThe goal of this project is to construct new models for equity-based design and control of VPPs from the ground up, considering the unique conditions and priorities in DACs. It adopts an interdisciplinary fusion of methods and data to solve the challenging problem of characterizing the needs and preferences of potential VPP participants in a way that facilitates new computational methods for design and control. The project uniquely focuses on services-based approaches, rather than considering electricity as a mere commodity, which enables new perspectives on what it means to deliver energy justice and equity within engineered systems. New equity-promoting and privacy-aware algorithms, with the ability to seamlessly resolve misspecification in model parameters by utilizing a learning layer, are studied, which will have broader application to other domains. Further, DAC participation in VPPs can potentially broaden the beneficial impacts of VPPs by monetizing behavioral flexibilities in access to energy services, a novel consideration for the basic science of VPP optimization.\r\n\r\nThis award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.", "agency": "NSF", "awardAgencyCode": "4900", "awardeeAddress": "201 OLD MAIN", "awardeeCity": "UNIVERSITY PARK", "awardeeCountryCode": "US", "awardeeDistrictCode": "PA15", "awardeeDistrict": "15", "awardeeName": "Pennsylvania State Univ University Park", "awardeeStateCode": "PA", "awardeePhone": "8148651372", "awardeeZipCode": "16802", "cfdaNumber": "47.041", "pi": [ "Gregory Pavlak gxp93@psu.edu" ], "coPDPI": [ "Uday V Shanbhag udaybag@psu.edu", "Chelsea L Schelly clschelly@wisc.edu", "Julian Wang julian.wang@psu.edu", "Matt L Stern mstern@philaenergy.org" ], "ueiNumber": "NPM2J7MSCF61", "estimatedTotalAmt": "999790", "fundsObligatedAmt": "999790", "fundAgencyCode": "4900", "fundProgramName": "CET Strategic Investments", "id": "2401036", "parentUeiNumber": "", "pdPIName": "Gregory Pavlak", "perfAddress": "201 OLD MAIN", "perfCity": "UNIVERSITY PARK", "perfCountryCode": "US", "perfDistrict": "15", "perfDistrictCode": "PA15", "perfLocation": "Pennsylvania State Univ University Park", "perfStateCode": "PA", "perfZipCode": "168021503", "piEmail": "gxp93@psu.edu", "piFirstName": "Gregory", "piLastName": "Pavlak", "poEmail": "cread@nsf.gov", "poName": "Carole Read", "poPhone": "7032922418", "primaryProgram": [ "01AB2324DB R&RA DRSA DEFC AAB" ], "publicAccessMandate": "1", "date": "05/23/2024", "startDate": "09/01/2024", "expDate": "04/25/2025", "title": "RAISE: CET: Design and operation of community-informed equity-based virtual power plants for achieving impact in Philadelphia", "transType": "Standard Grant", "awardee": "THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY", "awdSpAttnCode": "37", "awdSpAttnDesc": "Administratively Terminated Award", "orgCodeDiv": "07020000", "orgCodeDir": "07000000", "divAbbr": "CBET", "dirAbbr": "ENG", "initAmendmentDate": "05/23/2024", "latestAmendmentDate": "05/01/2025", "orgLongName": "Directorate for Engineering", "orgLongName2": "Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems", "progEleCode": "268Y00", "progRefCode": "8396, 049Z", "program": "Clean Energy Technology, RAISE-Research Advanced by Interdiscipli", "fundsObligated": [ "FY 2024 = $999,790.00" ], "histAwd": "false", "activeAwd": "false", "managingPec": "764400", "orgUrl": "http://www.nsf.gov/div/index.jsp?div=CBET" }, { "abstractText": "Intensive agricultural production is necessary to feed a growing world population. Unfortunately, modern agriculture can degrade soil ecosystems in ways that compromise the other services we depend on soils to provide for us. Millions of acres of farmland have been retired from production in the Midwestern US in the last few decades, and this land provides an opportunity to restore soil services on a large scale. However, the legacy of agriculture may prevent the successful reestablishment of healthy soil ecosystems, especially when native tree species rely on specialized microbial associations to thrive. This project aims to fill gaps in our knowledge of how soil ecosystems recover, or not, when lands are retired form agriculture, or when trees are planted directly into agricultural systems (agroforestry). It will also develop new methods for enhancing the success of tree planting into formerly agricultural land. This project is a collaboration between researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Savanna Institute, a non-profit dedicated to improving and promoting agroforestry practices in the Midwestern US. \r\n\r\nSocieties depend on landscapes that serve multiple purposes, including food production and ecosystem services like carbon sequestration. However, long term studies find that despite regenerative practices, soil carbon is not effectively sequestered in annual row crop settings. Moreover, high input agriculture leaves soil legacies that can inhibit the establishment of plant communities and soil functions like carbon sequestration. This may be especially likely when incorporating trees reliant on unique plant-microbial interactions. This project will investigate the development of soil ecosystems after agricultural abandonment or the establishment of agroforestry practices, and test how coupled soil carbon and nitrogen cycles respond to variation in soil community states induced by different times since agricultural abandonment and restoration practices. Finally, it will develop restoration strategies that promote soil community structure and function recovery through alteration of tree nursery conditions. This project seeks to transform our understanding of how soil microbial communities and food webs drive carbon and nitrogen cycling by taking advantage of the disruptions caused by agricultural legacies and recovery following land restoration or agroforestry. This project will directly inform conservation practice by setting quantifiable targets for soil biodiversity and ecosystem function in restoration or agroforestry settings and by piloting new tree propagation methods to enhance beneficial microbial associations.\r\n\r\nThis award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.", "agency": "NSF", "awardAgencyCode": "4900", "awardeeAddress": "21 N PARK ST STE 6301", "awardeeCity": "MADISON", "awardeeCountryCode": "US", "awardeeDistrictCode": "WI02", "awardeeDistrict": "02", "awardeeName": "University of Wisconsin-Madison", "awardeeStateCode": "WI", "awardeePhone": "6082623822", "awardeeZipCode": "537151218", "cfdaNumber": "47.074", "pi": [ "Richard A Lankau lankau@wisc.edu" ], "coPDPI": [ "Tyler J Lark lark@wisc.edu", "Cassandra M Allsup allsup@gmail.com", "Violeta Matus Acuna matusacua@wisc.edu" ], "ueiNumber": "LCLSJAGTNZQ7", "estimatedTotalAmt": "970143", "fundsObligatedAmt": "970143", "fundAgencyCode": "4900", "fundProgramName": "Conservation Science&Practice", "id": "2529289", "parentUeiNumber": "", "pdPIName": "Richard A Lankau", "perfAddress": "21 N PARK ST STE 6301", "perfCity": "MADISON", "perfCountryCode": "US", "perfDistrict": "02", "perfDistrictCode": "WI02", "perfLocation": "University of Wisconsin-Madison", "perfStateCode": "WI", "perfZipCode": "537151218", "piEmail": "lankau@wisc.edu", "piFirstName": "Richard", "piLastName": "Lankau", "piMiddeInitial": "A", "poEmail": "lesposit@nsf.gov", "poName": "Lauren Esposito", "poPhone": "7032922129", "primaryProgram": [ "01002526DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT" ], "publicAccessMandate": "1", "date": "08/27/2025", "startDate": "01/01/2026", "expDate": "12/31/2030", "title": "Restoration of soil biodiversity and ecosystem function following agricultural legacies", "transType": "Standard Grant", "awardee": "UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN SYSTEM", "orgCodeDiv": "08010000", "orgCodeDir": "08000000", "divAbbr": "DEB", "dirAbbr": "BIO", "initAmendmentDate": "08/27/2025", "latestAmendmentDate": "08/27/2025", "orgLongName": "Directorate for Biological Sciences", "orgLongName2": "Division Of Environmental Biology", "progEleCode": "347Y00", "progRefCode": "", "program": "", "fundsObligated": [ "FY 2025 = $970,143.00" ], "histAwd": "false", "activeAwd": "true", "managingPec": "347Y00", "orgUrl": "http://www.nsf.gov/div/index.jsp?div=DEB" }, { "awardee": "CarbonCapture Inc.", "title": "DOE Carbon Dioxide Removal Purchase Pilot Prize - Phase 1 Winner", "abstract": "CarbonCapture Inc. won initial award as part of DOE's Carbon Dioxide Removal Purchase Pilot Prize program. As a semifinalist, will compete to win up to $3 million for the sale of carbon removal credits to the U.S. government. Part of DOE's $35 million Carbon Dioxide Removal Purchase Pilot Prize program.", "amount": 3000000, "awardDate": "05/01/2024", "pi": "Unknown", "agency": "DOE - Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management" }, { "awardee": "Global Thermostat (Zero Carbon Systems subsidiary)", "title": "DOE Carbon Dioxide Removal Prize - Direct Air Capture Technology Provider", "abstract": "Global Thermostat won as technology provider for two of the nine Direct Air Capture awards in Phase I of the U.S. Department of Energy's Carbon Dioxide Removal Prize.", "amount": 1000000, "awardDate": "06/01/2024", "pi": "Unknown", "agency": "DOE - Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management" }, { "awardee": "University of Wisconsin-Madison", "title": "Carbon-Negative Ready-Mix Concrete Building Components Through Direct Air Capture", "abstract": "ARPA-E project developing carbon-negative ready-mix concrete building components through direct air capture technology. Project integrates DAC with building materials to achieve permanent carbon storage.", "amount": 2256250, "awardDate": "09/12/2022", "pi": "Unknown", "agency": "ARPA-E" }, { "awardee": "Multiple Recipients (11 projects across 8 states)", "title": "ARPA-E SEA-CO2: Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal Technologies", "abstract": "U.S. Department of Energy announced $36 million for 11 projects across 8 states to accelerate the development of marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) capture and storage technologies through ARPA-E's SEA-CO2 (Sensing Exports of Anthropogenic Carbon through Ocean Observation) program.", "amount": 36000000, "awardDate": "01/01/2024", "pi": "Multiple PIs", "agency": "ARPA-E" }, { "awardee": "Ebb Carbon", "title": "Depolarized Electrochemical Reactor for Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement", "abstract": "DOE-funded project for ocean alkalinity enhancement using electrochemical reactor technology. Project develops depolarized electrochemical reactor for ocean alkalinity enhancement and facile recovery of high purity carbon (Award # DE-FE0032402).", "amount": 250000, "awardDate": "12/20/2023", "pi": "Unknown", "agency": "DOE - Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management" }, { "awardee": "Burke Hales (lead investigator)", "title": "Electrolysis-driven Weathering of Basic Minerals for Ocean Buffering and CO2 Reduction", "abstract": "DOE Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management and Water Power Technologies Office funded project on electrolysis-driven weathering of basic minerals for long-term ocean buffering and CO2 reduction.", "amount": 1000000, "awardDate": "01/01/2024", "pi": "Burke Hales", "agency": "DOE - Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management" }, { "awardee": "Pacific Northwest National Laboratory", "title": "Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement Modeling and Mesocosm Experiments", "abstract": "Development of a model and mesocosm experiments to evaluate the effectiveness and impact of Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement throughout major coastal areas in the United States.", "amount": 2080715, "awardDate": "01/01/2024", "pi": "Unknown", "agency": "DOE" }, { "awardee": "Precision Combustion Inc. (PCI)", "title": "DOE Grant for Direct CO2 Removal from Atmosphere Technology Development", "abstract": "PCI wins DOE grant to develop new technology for directly removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere using advanced combustion and catalytic processes.", "amount": 1000000, "awardDate": "01/01/2024", "pi": "Unknown", "agency": "DOE SBIR" }, { "awardee": "Multiple Recipients (24 semifinalists)", "title": "DOE Carbon Dioxide Removal Technology Scale-Up Program", "abstract": "DOE's Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management announced 24 semifinalists to receive a total of $1.2 million to scale up their carbon dioxide removal technologies in May 2024.", "amount": 1200000, "awardDate": "05/01/2024", "pi": "Multiple PIs", "agency": "DOE - Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management" }, { "awardee": "Multiple Recipients", "title": "DOE CDR Pilot Projects and Testing Facilities - $100 Million Program", "abstract": "DOE Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management announced up to $100 million in February 2024 to help develop a commercially viable carbon dioxide removal industry. Funding supports pilot projects and testing facilities that demonstrate CDR technologies, including storage in geological, biobased, and ocean reservoirs.", "amount": 100000000, "awardDate": "02/01/2024", "pi": "Multiple PIs", "agency": "DOE - Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management" }, { "awardee": "Multiple Recipients (FY23 NOPP Marine CDR Program)", "title": "NOAA Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal Research - $24.3 Million Investment", "abstract": "NOAA announced $24.3 million investment advancing marine carbon dioxide removal research through the FY23 National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP) focused on marine CDR techniques including ocean alkalinity enhancement and other marine-based approaches.", "amount": 24300000, "awardDate": "01/01/2024", "pi": "Multiple PIs", "agency": "NOAA" }, { "awardee": "SBIR Phase II Recipient", "title": "Distributed Carbon Capture in Buildings", "abstract": "STTR Phase II award for carbon capture project focused on distributed carbon capture systems in buildings (Contract Number: DE-SC0023814, Award Year 2024, Solicitation Number: DE-FOA-0003279).", "amount": 1150000, "awardDate": "01/01/2024", "pi": "Unknown", "agency": "DOE STTR" } ] }