This Q&A first appeared in Newsweek and Investment Reports
Elimini launched last year during New York Climate Week, backed by Drax Group. What does it signal about large-scale carbon removal technology's place on the global stage?
Drax had spent a considerable amount of time thinking about its role and the importance of climate change mitigation. It already had a deep base of knowledge in sustainable biomass and its use. Elimini was launched as a wholly owned subsidiary to carry forward a business plan around carbon removals, with bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) as part of that. We felt comfortable with our business plan, had contracts to announce, and the beginnings of a project pipeline. Almost a year in, we feel good about our progress. We’re in what I like to call the “deal flow”, seeing a lot of development projects come our way, both greenfield and brownfield.
We know from studying last year’s voluntary carbon market that the total volume of engineered removals was up 66 percent year-over-year, and 2025 is already crushing those records. We’re confident we’ve entered the market at the right time to have a meaningful impact.
You’ve described last year as a breakout year for BECCS. What’s driving real-world demand right now?
It's been a really important year. In 2024, BECCS dominated other engineered removals in the voluntary carbon market (VCM), experiencing an 84 percent increase in volume while transactions were up by 156 percent year-over-year, according to CDR.fyi. And it’s attracting even greater success in 2025. For example, in April, Microsoft made the largest carbon dioxide removal (CDR) credit purchase of all time with Fidelis company AtmosClear for a massive 6.75 million tons of carbon—to be generated via BECCS.
What's so interesting about BECCS technology is that it's one of the few technologies that can both generate renewable power and remove carbon.
Globally, and in the U.S. specifically, there’s growing demand for 24/7 reliable power, especially with the rise of AI and data centers. BECCS is a carbon-free form of baseload power and it’s renewable, offers multiple revenue streams, and supports rural economies that have had limited opportunities to share in the benefits of the global energy transition. In the U.S., unlike the UK, there is a large forest products industry, where sustainable forestry is an established business practice. Our business plan integrates with this industry, particularly in the U.S. South, and it helps to incentivize landowners to keep forests as forests. It's a key part of how BECCS works here.
You’ve soft-launched the Elimini Forest Stewardship Program. Why was it important to include that in your supply strategy?
The Elimini Forest Stewardship Program supports local, family forest landowners in the sustainable management of their forestlands.
The sustainable biomass industry supports U.S. forest landowners who’ve lost markets as pulp and paper declined. These are powerful value chains—climate, economic, and social. A portion of the biomass for our BECCS facilities will come from this program and it will meet our high sustainability standards. While we will also source from larger landowners, we want to ensure that family forest landowners within local communities can participate in the value chain.
You’ve mentioned the importance of building trust when introducing new or unfamiliar technologies. What does long-term community engagement look like in practice?
It’s crucial. From my experience in the energy industry, the most important thing when developing any infrastructure project—BECCS included—is to sit down and talk to people. Any community has concerns, especially when new or unfamiliar technology is introduced. We have a great team focused on engagement at the local and state levels.
We introduce ourselves, meet with community groups, civic organizations, schools, and others early on in our development cycle. We share information: what BECCS is, where biomass comes from, what “sustainable” means, how carbon stocks are measured, what the site will look like, what the permits are, and what the jobs will entail. That process starts well before the project is fully designed.
U.S. policy and tax credits like 45Q play a major role in making projects like yours viable. How are you navigating that uncertainty as the policy landscape shifts?
Uncertainty is never good for business. Having said that, the reconciliation package recently approved showcased the strong support for carbon capture technologies. The most important incentive for our project, 45Q, was fully preserved and included improvements for carbon utilization methods. We’re cautiously optimistic. The administration is pursuing top priorities like winning the AI race and spurring reindustrialization, but they’ll need baseload power to succeed. We believe we’re part of that solution.
There’s uncertainty, but we’re as comfortable as we can be, and we’re actively monitoring the situation like everyone else. About half of our team is in the U.S. and half is in the UK. In addition to the U.S., we’ve always explored options in Europe, and we're actively engaged in some project development activities there. About half of our team is in the U.S. and half is in the UK; that balance is good for us, and we’ll continue developing both markets.
You’ve committed to “removing carbon for good” as part of your broader strategy. What kinds of partnerships do you see as most impactful in advancing that goal?
To achieve our purpose, we’re convening a spectrum of stakeholders—including engineers, environmentalists, communities, investors, and innovators—to scale the market for carbon removals, with the aspiration of transforming our economies from carbon emitters to carbon removers. From a CDR technology standpoint, we’re integrating robust methodologies – including the BECCS methodology we developed in partnership with Stockholm Exergi and Drax – to ensure that the carbon we capture is stored permanently. Beyond BECCS, we’re looking at other forms of carbon removals like biochar. Biochar is created by applying heat in low oxygen to carbonize biomass, a process which can also generate renewable energy, and the end product can be used to improve soil health for agriculture while sequestering carbon.
Biochar is appealing because it builds on our deep expertise in biomass and biogenic carbon, with roots in sustainable forest management, and some of the technologies we’re exploring are quite promising. And while BECCS dominated total volume of CDR sales, biochar represented 86 percent of all durable CDRs that were delivered in 2024. We’d likely enter that market through partnerships, which could move us in faster than BECCS projects—because even retrofitting biomass power stations with CCS takes time. We’re also focused on job creation and training. Partnerships with universities and community colleges are critical to ensuring a sustainable workforce over the long term. That supports rural and community development, which is a vital part of removing carbon for good.
BECCS has been linked to a range of potential applications across industries. Which sectors do you think could benefit most from it?
Aviation is interesting, especially with sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). We’re in discussions with SAF project developers, and BECCS combined with SAF is compelling. Instead of storing the CO2 produced via power generation, it can be utilized in a SAF plant.
In Europe, regulations require a certain percentage of jet fuel to be SAF, which is incentivizing new projects. That opens co-location opportunities with BECCS plants, which would leverage sustainable biomass to produce biogenic carbon streams and renewable electricity for SAF with minimal transportation.
With so many moving parts—technology, regulation, infrastructure—what are the biggest hurdles or turning points you expect in getting BECCS projects off the ground over the next few years?
Everyone talks about interconnection—it’s a real challenge, but it’s not insurmountable. Every country has grid issues as it struggles to keep up with demand because we’ve transformed how we consume power. We're plugging in generation in all sorts of places while climate extremes strain the grid. Regulatory systems aren’t keeping up. ISOs in the U.S. often don’t have the digital infrastructure to process interconnection requests—some still use email or phones. So, imagine the delays. A project can get stuck for several years.
The way through is really about bringing the right people into the room—smart, agile teams and collaborators who are willing to work through problems one by one, often in parallel. When that happens, what feels like a major barrier becomes just another milestone. To find solutions, it’s about building agile teams to tackle each issue, often in parallel. That’s what keeps us focused.
9/24/25