Planetary

The Approach

Planetary enhances the ocean’s natural carbon sink by adding dissolved alkaline minerals to coastal surface waters. The added alkalinity converts dissolved CO2 into stable bicarbonate ions, a form of carbon that stays locked in the ocean for over 10,000 years.

Rather than build new infrastructure, Planetary doses through existing coastal outfalls such as power-plant cooling-water discharges. The minerals are fully dissolved before release, which removes uncertainty about where and when they take effect and keeps the process working through the ocean’s chemical buffer rather than its biology.

The Case for Planetary

It has a credible path to low cost at very large scale. Planetary targets removal below $100/ton, with the long-run potential to remove billions of tons per year at roughly $50–160/ton.

It avoids disrupting marine life. Because it works through the ocean’s chemical buffering system rather than its food web, the approach sidesteps much of the ecological disruption that biological carbon methods can cause.

Operations are built around safety and monitoring. Planetary screens its feedstock, runs real-time sensor networks to monitor discharge water and surrounding ecosystems, and maintains a defined stop-trigger plan if any measurement approaches a safety threshold.

Measurement is rigorous. Alkalinity effects, including air–sea gas exchange, are quantified with sensor data and validated computational models, and Planetary makes binding commitments to share results under FAIR data principles and the Carbon to Sea protocol.

There are local co-benefits. Raising nearshore pH and carbonate saturation improves conditions for shell-forming species such as oysters, shrimp, lobster, and crab.

Pricing and Delivery

Frontier buyers’ total offtake is $31.3M to deliver 115,211 tons between 2026 and 2030. The price accounts for both the removal itself and the measuring, reporting, and verifying (MRV) needed to confirm that each ton is durably stored.