Another one bites the dust – US carbon removal developer Alkali Earth is closing down, the company announced on LinkedIn Tuesday. The developer was focused on decarbonising steel mill operations via mineralisation and received federal funding to advance on its approach, but struggled to commercialise. Alkali Earth will publish its findings openly over the coming months, it said.

A Swiss developer of forestry projects and a China-based manufacturer of biomass pyrolysis technology on Tuesday announced a partnership to develop durable carbon removal (CDR) projects in Paraguay.

A Danish public utility has signed a deal with a US-based carbon removals (CDR) company to look at the potential for developing a large-scale bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) facility in Copenhagen, the companies announced this week. 

DAC for data - Avnos, a US-based direct air capture (DAC) technology company, is promoting its hybrid DAC (HDAC) system as a way to reduce the environmental impact of data centres amid rising demand from artificial intelligence. The company says its system can use waste heat from data centres to capture CO2 emissions, generate water for cooling needs, and lower overall energy use. According to the company, data centres are projected to emit 2.5 bln tCO2 by 2030 and consume millions of gallons of water daily, raising concerns over emissions and water scarcity. Avnos claims its modular HDAC technology can help operators cut emissions and water use without affecting performance.

Cordoba province has launched a subnational carbon credit standard for methane emissions reductions, underpinned by local demand from an infrastructure compensation programme, which is part of a regional 58% GHG reduction target by 2030.

A US-based company has secured its first methane monitoring contract worth approximately $800,000 under a federal emissions reduction programme, it announced this week.

A carbon trading startup, headquartered in the UK and specialising in blockchain technology and removal projects, will cease operations due to insolvency.

Two European companies announced their merger on Tuesday, creating a single forest carbon project developer with more than 80,000 hectares of forest under contract.

Russian offsets – Center-Invest Bank, the leading private bank in southern Russia, has purchased 300 carbon offset credits from EL5-Energo, an energy generating company, according to a statement by the Russian carbon registry, published on July 28. The statement did not provide details of the transaction, such as the price paid by Center-Invest Bank. The offsets were verified and result from the construction of a new wind farm, called Azovskaya WES, the statement said.

The administration of Japan's domestic J-Credit scheme has approved 51 projects capable of creating around 1.5 million units over their lifetimes, according to a recent notice.

Mango pilot – India's largest development bank has begun a pilot project in the southern state of Karnataka to generate carbon credits from mango plantations that are less than five years old, the Times of India reported on Monday. The pilot involves 3,500 mango farmers, and will use biomass management. The earning potential for farmers lies between INR 20,000-40,000 ($230-430) per ha, the officials said, citing a similar project in a neighbouring state. According to the newspaper, farmers in the region don't understand the concept of carbon credits and one farmer activist said the project is exploiting farmers' vulnerability as mango prices have crashed.

Boomitra has made its first steps into biomass carbon removal with a project in Botswana, with an initiative that goes beyond soil credits.