Launching OpenAir's 2026 Carbon Removal Challenge, a student CDR competition!
Join us for the launch of the OpenAir Collective's 4th annual Carbon Removal Challenge (CRC), a global university student competition!
Learn about how you can participate in the CRC as a student, faculty member, judge, mentor, panelist, or sponsor. Hear first hand from 2025 student finalists about their experiences participating in the program and presenting at Carbon Unbound in New York City.
Our panelists will be Julian Barth from EPFL (Switzerland), Robert Duff from University of Waterloo (Canada), Ethan Milroy from Western University and Ivey Business School (Canada), Faith Qin from Stanford (US), and Aidan Mickleburgh from University of Michigan (US). Moderating will be Sue Dorward, who leads the CRC for OpenAir.
If you're curious about the finalists' carbon removal solutions, see below or watch the recording of the 2025 Final Showcase at the Carbon Unbound East conference: https://youtu.be/qp1O5v21nT0
For more information about the CRC, visit https://openaircollective.com/crc/
EPFL Carbon Team
Team Members:
Alizée André, Julian Barth, Patrick Menegalli, Nicola Zali, Eloi Bernier, Arsenijs Danilko, Renata Mendoza, Matteo Piras, Estelle Baumann
School:
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Location:
Lausanne, Switzerland
Summary:
The EPFL Carbon Team, based in Lausanne, is developing a Direct Air Capture system to capture CO2 directly from the atmosphere. With a hybrid approach combining adsorbants and graphene membranes, we aim to create scalable, energy-efficient solution.
WatAir: Open-Source Moisture-Swing DAC System with Microalgae CO2 Sequestration
Team Members:
Robert Duff, Laurel Pierroz-Wong, Katherine Nguyen
School:
University of Waterloo
Location:
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Summary:
The WatAIR prototype is an open-source, open-access direct air capture (DAC) device employing a novel phosphate-activated moisture-swing adsorbent in fluidized bed reactor configuration and C. vulgaris microalgae for CO2 sequestration.
Carbon Capture Direct
Team Members:
Ethan Milroy, Robbie Carey, Harrison Waddell, Mateen Khalatbari, Peter Fleming
School:
Western University & Ivey Business School
Location:
London, Ontario, Canada
Summary:
How do we decarbonize effectively in a competitive business environment? CCD disrupts the CO₂ market by using an efficient DACC device. Promising low cost and on-site CO₂ to users. Low cost, reliable, innovative, Carbon Capture Direct.
ELECTROCEAN
Team Members:
Jason Qin, Faith Qin, Gabriel Boyd
School:
UC Berkley
Stanford University
Purdue University
Locations:
Berkeley, California, USA
Stanford, California, USA
West Lafayette, Indiana, USA
Summary:
We present a novel mCDR solution leveraging in-situ seawater electrolysis to durably sequester CO₂ as limestone while enhancing coastal ecosystems and co-producing hydrogen and aquaculture, yielding profits independent of carbon markets.
Terrapump
Team Members:
Aidan Mickleburgh
School:
University of Michigan
Location:
Ann Arbor, Michigan, US
Summary:
Terrapump seeks to utilize the solubility pump and kinetics of liquid-gas reactions to improve the durable sequestration of CO2 in the ocean by using a wave-powered compressor to push air through the water column through microbubbles.