Gigablue Announces Largest Ocean Carbon Removal Agreement with SkiesFifty, Capturing 200,000 Tons Over Four Years

NEW YORK, Jan. 14, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Gigablue, a provider of scalable, affordable carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies, announced today that it has signed an agreement with SkiesFifty, a company dedicated to sustainability in the aviation industry, for the sequestration of 200,000 tons of CO2 over the next four years.

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Gigablue

Building on their July 2024 partnership, SkiesFifty is deepening its relationship with Gigablue through a strategic investment in marine-based carbon removal. This agreement for 200,000 carbon credits over four years aligns with SkiesFifty’s mission to invest in scalable solutions for aviation’s net-zero goals.

"The agreement validates the scalability and effectiveness of our technology," said Ori Shaashua, Co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Gigablue. "We are harnessing the basic building blocks of life on Earth – water and sunlight – to create a financially sustainable carbon removal solution. This will be the largest marine carbon dioxide removal offtake agreement to date and proves our technology's viability in the market."

Carbon offsets are an integral part of the decarbonization strategy put forward by the International Air Transport Association (IATA). The industry is increasingly looking to carbon removal solutions because of the widening gap between the supply of sustainable aviation fuel and industry demand, as detailed in a recent report from McKinsey & Co.

Gigablue’s groundbreaking technology offers a new, affordable pathway to scale permanent carbon removal solutions leveraging the oceans. It relies on marine carbon fixation and sequestration (MCFS) method to offer the lowest-cost route to sequestering carbon with innovative biogeochemistry. The announcement, coupled with a growing pipeline of offtake agreements set to be announced in the coming months, puts Gigablue on a path to remove a gigaton of carbon dioxide by 2035.

At the heart of Gigablue’s carbon removal solution is a novel substrate consisting of a contained nutrient shell and a gravity-controlling core that acts as the optimal environment for local phytoplankton to grow and thrive.

Once the phytoplankton multiply and reach a sufficient amount, the controlled sinking trigger activates, and the substrate, together with the attached carbon, sinks to the bottom of the ocean for permanent storage. Using nothing more than sunlight, water, and gravity, Gigablue can safely and efficiently store carbon dioxide at a gigaton scale.

This industrial-scale agreement demonstrates the growing confidence in ocean-based carbon removal solutions and their crucial role in achieving the scale needed for global net-zero goals. Both the United States and the European Union are developing frameworks for validating the measurement, reporting, and verification of marine-based carbon offsets.

"At SkiesFifty, we invest in the technologies that will make a difference to a **carbon-neutral future for aviation,” said Simon Talling-Smith, Founding Partner at SkiesFifty. “We are constantly evaluating projects and we were deeply impressed by Gigablue’s ocean-based CDR solution. It stood out due to its combination of environmental safety, durability, scalability, and robust scientific measurement. We believe CDR will be an important part of the portfolio of solutions that will lead us to net-zero for aviation by 2050.”

The company's proprietary oceanographic platform integrates hundreds of geoinformation data points using artificial intelligence to identify optimal deployment zones and predict the most effective substrate particle compositions.

Gigablue’s MMRV framework, reviewed by New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), ensures reliable and measurable carbon sequestration while supporting marine ecosystems.

“Climate change is a crushingly urgent problem for society,” said NIWA Chief Scientist – Oceans, Mike Williams. “The expertise and the work that NIWA is doing on this problem can be used to support global action.”

For more information about Gigablue's innovative carbon removal technology and future availability, visit www.gigablue.co.

About Gigablue

Gigablue offers a deep science-based solution to combat climate change while helping corporations and countries reach their net-zero goals. Their pioneering carbon dioxide removal system focuses on effectively exporting CO₂ to the deep ocean. Deployed geo-specific engineered substrates sink rapidly and predictably, ensuring long-term carbon storage for thousands of years. Utilizing in-situ sampling and precise measurement techniques to obtain ground-truth evidence of sequestered carbon, Gigablue provides reliable and safe CDR. By collaborating with research institutions and environmental communities, Gigablue is dedicated to delivering substantial benefits for both the planet and its inhabitants.

About SkiesFifty

SkiesFifty is a unique global investment company dedicated to sustainability in the aviation industry. Their investments have the dual objectives of accelerating aviation's journey towards net-zero emissions by 2050 while generating attractive returns for its investment partners. The company is led by senior professionals from the worlds of aviation, sustainability, energy, and investing, with investment strategies focused on sustainable aviation fuel, carbon offset sourcing, alternative propulsion, ground operations greening, materials recycling, and more. skiesfifty.com