The 4-year global competition invites teams from anywhere to create and demonstrate solutions that can pull carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere or ocean

AUSTIN, TEXAS, USA, October 12, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Kepler Carbon ReCapture, a diverse, global interdisciplinary team of experts from the fields of biochemistry, oceanography, and naval architecture, with activities anchored in the U.S, Canada and Portugal, has officially registered for the $100M XPRIZE Carbon Removal, aimed at tackling climate change by asking global innovators to develop solutions that can pull carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere or oceans and lock it away permanently in an environmentally benign method.

“1,000 tonnes per year is a tall order but our team is rising to the occasion,” said team leader Debi-Lee Wilkinson. “This is geo-engineering on a scale humanity has never attempted. We got this!”

Kepler Carbon ReCapture’s team members share a love for challenges.  Our commitment to rebalancing Earth’s carbon cycle has brought us together with the express purpose of competing in -- and winning -- the Musk Foundation’s $100M XPRIZE Carbon Removal Competition. As we align the machinery of man with the machinery of nature, Kepler ReCapture aims to become the vanguard of this emerging multi-trillion dollar market.

Officially launched on Earth Day 2021, XPRIZE Carbon Removal is a four year global competition. To win the $50M grand prize, the winning teams must demonstrate a working solution at a scale of at least 1000 tonnes removed per year; model their costs at a scale of 1 million tonnes per year; and show a pathway to achieving a scale of gigatonnes per year in future. All demonstrations must be validated by a third party.

“The goal of this CO2 Removal XPRIZE is to turn ideas into demonstration, and turn Power Point solutions into hardware,” said Peter H. Diamandis, founder and executive chairman of XPRIZE. “By launching the largest prize competition in history, our hope is to focus the brainpower of engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs around the world to build solutions that actually work, at low-cost and at massive scale.”

Throughout the competition, $100 million in prize purses will be distributed in the following manner:

Teams can enter the competition at any stage. XPRIZE is looking for the best solutions, whether they competed in earlier rounds or not. After 1 year of competition the judges will review the progress of competitors at that time and award up to 15 Milestone Prizes of $1 million each.

XPRIZE will also award up to US$5M to student teams in the Fall of 2021. These awards may fund participation in the XPRIZE Carbon Removal or the development of key supportive technologies.

In 2024, after developing their solutions, teams are invited to apply to be considered as Finalists, and be visited by XPRIZE to validate their solution’s performance in person. In 2025 after 4 years, judges will select the winners:

US$50 million paid to the single Grand Prize Winner
US$30 million to be distributed among up to 3 runners up

For more information on XPRIZE Carbon Removal, to view the prize guidelines or to register, please visit xprize.org/carbonremoval.  

About Kepler Carbon ReCapture:

Kepler Carbon ReCapture (trading as Kepler ReCapture) was founded in May of 2021 and is a division of Austin, Texas based aerospace consulting firm Kepler Shipyards. We are a global, interdisciplinary team of 20+ professionals from the fields of biochemistry, oceanography, naval architecture, information technology, business development, and finance. 

Our mission is to rebalance the Earth’s carbon cycle to near pre-industrial levels while competing in -- and winning -- the Musk Foundation’s $100M XPRIZE Carbon Removal Competition. 

Kepler Carbon Recapture is the world's first fully autonomous, ocean-based, sustainable, CO₂ mining operation set to reach the IPCC’s critical gigaton-scale by 2035.  As we align the machinery of man with the machinery of nature, Kepler ReCapture aims to become the vanguard of this emerging multi-trillion dollar market.

Kepler’s approach to the XPRIZE Carbon Removal Contest is applying an ocean-based, autonomous platform that extracts excess CO₂ (from air and oceans) and converts it into durable product streams that never decompose back into greenhouse gasses.

For media inquiries, contact Mike Harris, Marketing & Communications Specialist m.harris@keplerrecapure.com or media@keplerrecapture.com
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/kepler-carbon-recapture
Website: https://keplerrecapture.com

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Mike Harris
Kepler Carbon ReCapture
media@keplerrecapture.com