US start-up explores funding opportunities for marine CDR MRV

Quantum Commodity Intelligence – US start-up Oceanid MRV is seeking to tap US Department of Energy (DoE) funding to support measurement, reporting and validation (MRV) technologies in the marine carbon dioxide removal industry.

Oceanid MRV said it is working with US firm Impossible Sensing and the Net Zero Group as part of a funding opportunity provided by a $45-million DoE Advanced Research Projects Agency Energy scheme announced last month.

"Our goal is to develop novel sensor capabilities and MRV methodologies for evaluating coastal enhanced rock weathering," Oceanid MRV said Tuesday as part of a wider company update on LinkedIn, adding that pilot projects are expected to follow.

It said that in partnership with OtherLab and Stanford University a separate submission has been made for grant funding under the NOAA Ocean Acidification Programme.

"This project focuses on the development and pilot deployment of their upwelling rotor system and means of evaluating nutrient delivery and stimulated phytoplankton growth," Oceanid MRV said.

Oceanid provides verification, reporting and carbon credit services for companies using ocean pathways to do atmospheric CO2 removal.

Marine CDR techniques take advantage of the ocean's natural carbon removal processes, taking place across large surfaces or volumes of the ocean over comparatively long periods of time.

The start-up has also signed collaboration agreements last month with California-based Capture6 and direct air capture firm Pronoe, which are working on developing innovative approaches to ocean alkalinity enhancement, to serve as their MRV partner.

Oceanid is also collaborating with its partners at the First Gigaton Carbon Removal Collective on developing measurement and verification standards for their kelp cultivation and sink-to-sequester operation.

First Gigaton, which works with subsistence seaweed partners in the Global South, seeks to remove 1 million tonnes of atmospheric carbon a year by 2030, and 1 billion t/y by 2040.

"Throughout all of this, we're pursuing our seed funding round," it noted.