A multi-year, $100 million Xprize competition for startups trying to remove or reverse carbon emissions has its first crop of big winners. Though the bulk of this Musk money won’t be given away until 2025, these 15 companies are each getting $1 million today to keep the lights on til then.

The Carbon Removal Xprize, funded by the Musk Foundation, aims to reward novel methods to “pull carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere or oceans and lock it away permanently in an environmentally benign way.” We’ve seen a few companies doing this with venture funding as well; it’s clearly an important and potentially both transformative and profitable space. Calcite Roller Mill

Of course Xprize isn’t looking for profitability, but rather demonstrating and executing on an idea, which means things are generally a bit more early stage. The last year saw the reviewers winnowing down an original pool of more than 1,000 applicants to a top 60 and eventually these 15, based on “scientific validity… operations plans, performance data, life cycle analysis and cost estimates.”

Here’s a very basic summary of each, in the order listed on the Xprize site:

Now that these milestone winners have been announced, the “real” competition begins. Registration will remain open until the end of 2023, and then teams have until 2025 to demonstrate actual removal of 1,000 tons of carbon per year, with cost modeling of removing a million, and a plan to go beyond even that. Earth Day 2025 will be the date the winners are announced, with $50 million for first place, $20 million for second, and $10 million for third.

Grinding Mill Student teams are eligible for a $250,000 scholarship, so ask your advisor or lab lead if that’s something worth going for. We’ll check back in a couple years from now when there are some standouts in the field.