Vancouver-based carbon removal developer CO280 is emerging as a major player in the growing market for engineered carbon dioxide removal.
The company recently signed multi-million-tonne carbon removal agreements with Microsoft and JPMorgan Chase, helping position CO280 among the world’s largest suppliers of permanent carbon removal credits.
By retrofitting pulp and paper mills with carbon capture technology, CO280 aims to transform biogenic CO₂ emissions into scalable, permanent carbon removal while bringing new investment into North America’s forestry sector.
Techcouver spoke with co-founder and CEO Jonathan Rhone about the company’s recent milestones, the accelerating demand for high-integrity carbon removal, and Canada’s potential role in scaling the industry.
From your recent announcement, you described 2025 as a “landmark year” for CO280. Could you explain why that is? What did CO280 achieve, and what are the impacts for the carbon removal market?
JR: In 2025, CO280 established itself among the top five global suppliers of engineered carbon dioxide removal (CDR) by tonnes sold—contracting over 4.3 million tonnes to date. This achievement reflects two landmark agreements: a 3.69-million-tonne offtake with Microsoft, representing one of the largest CDR transactions on record, and a 450,000-tonne agreement with JPMorgan Chase.
These contracts validate both the quality of our CDR product and the scalability of our project model. By retrofitting existing pulp and paper mills across North America with modular carbon capture units, CO280 has developed an efficient, repeatable platform for delivering affordable,
permanent CDR. Individual projects range from 400,000 tonnes to over 1 million tonnes annually—a scale that positions CO280 to address the global mandate for carbon removal on timelines that matter.
Beyond commercial milestones, 2025 marked CO280’s maturation as a carbon capture and storage (CCS) developer. Our flagship project in the U.S. Gulf Coast has advanced to Front End Engineering Design (FEED) and is on track to reach Final Investment Decision (FID) this year. While carbon capture technology is commercially proven, its deployment has historically been constrained by capital intensity and the resulting “green premium” imposed on industrial outputs.
CO280 is pioneering a first-of-a-kind integration of CCS with the pulp and paper industry—and making the economics work. Unlike CCS applications for natural gas power plants or cement facilities, CO280 captures biogenic CO2 from biomass combustion while mills continue producing essential products like cardboard and tissue. Because the feedstock biomass has sequestered atmospheric CO2 through photosynthesis, capturing these biogenic emissions creates a net-negative carbon effect, generating high-quality CDR credits that improve project economics. This model not only delivers permanent carbon removal but also reduces the cost curve for pulp and paper operations.
A critical proof point for our approach was the field pilot conducted with SLB Capturi—a first-of a-kind application of liquid amine carbon capture systems to pulp and paper biogenic CO2. The pilot operated for more than 4,000 hours, achieving a 95% capture rate while exceeding all key performance indicators for efficiency, energy consumption, and solvent durability. This validation confirms that the technology is ready for commercial-scale deployment across North American pulp and paper mills—and that the delivery of millions of tonnes of permanent CDR by 2030 is an achievable reality.
What kind of corporate buyer is signing these long-term CDR deals—and what does their commitment say about the evolving demand for high-integrity carbon removal?
JR: In addition to Microsoft and JPMorgan Chase, CO280 has contracted approximately 225,000 tonnes with the Frontier consortium in 2024. These buyers represent a market truth: demand for high-quality, permanent CDR is accelerating.
According to Sylvera’s State of the Voluntary Carbon Market 2026 report, the market is maturing as voluntary corporate purchases increasingly shift toward high-integrity credits. This trend is contributing to a supply challenge—high-quality, permanent credits remain limited, and highly rated credits have experienced a third consecutive year of market deficit since 2023 as demand outpaces new issuances.
McKinsey estimates that demand for high-quality CDR could reach up to 100 million tonnes by 2030—double the announced supply as of 2024. This represents a significant and growing market deficit.
CO280 is addressing that deficit by developing the largest CDR project network in the world— one capable of scaling to over 10 million tonnes of permanent CDR annually, on timescales relevant to meeting the global climate imperative.
CO280’s model retrofits existing pulp and paper mills to capture biogenic CO₂. Can you walk us through how this model works—and why it might be a game-changer for scaling CDR affordably?
JR: CO280 transforms biogenic CO2 from a waste stream into a high-value carbon removal product—while investing billions of dollars into North American manufacturing.
Globally, pulp and paper mills emit approximately 600 million tonnes of biogenic CO2 annually, with individual mills averaging about 1 million tonnes per year. This biogenic CO2 originates from managed forests that draw down atmospheric CO2 through photosynthesis and store it in their biomass. These forests supply the timber industry—where CO2 continues to be sequestered in long-lived wood products—and the pulp and paper industry, which utilizes unusable timber residuals such as treetops and sawmill byproducts to manufacture essential products like cardboard packaging.
Historically, biogenic CO2 emissions from pulp and paper production were released directly into the atmosphere. CO280’s model captures and permanently stores these emissions, creating a high-value CDR product that supports rural North American manufacturing.
It is essential to distinguish between biogenic CO2 and fossil-fuel-based CO2. Biogenic CO2 comes from biomass—carbon that has been recently captured by plants through photosynthesis, typically within the last 50 years. Fossil-fuel-based CO2, by contrast, originates from coal, oil, and natural gas—carbon that has been sequestered underground for millions of years.
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From a carbon accounting perspective, burning fossil fuels transfers previously stored carbon from geological reservoirs into the atmospheric pool. Capturing fossil-fuel-based CO2 prevents new carbon additions to the atmosphere—but does not remove carbon already present.
Biomass, however, actively draws down and removes carbon from the atmosphere to store it temporarily in wood. When CO280 captures and permanently stores biogenic CO2 through pulp and paper CCS, we are removing CO2 from the atmospheric pool.
The transformative aspect of CO280’s model is its repeatability. Kraft pulp and paper mills operate with standardized equipment worldwide—each employing recovery boilers that combust biomass and emit the same flue gas composition. If you can isolate, capture, and store biogenic CO2 from one mill’s flue gas, you can replicate that process at any pulp mill globally.
This model appears to have significant economic upside for the pulp and paper sector. What role do you see CO280 playing in revitalizing rural industry and creating new job opportunities? What value does CDR integration unlock for the pulp and paper industry?
JR: CO280 represents an opportunity to invest billions of dollars into the North American forestry industry. We partner with operating pulp and paper mills to protect and create thousands of jobs.
Pulp and paper mills serve as economic anchors in rural communities across North America— particularly in Canada. In British Columbia alone, forestry contributes $17.4 billion annually to GDP, and the average pulp mill contributes $200 million per year. The British Columbia pulp and paper sector supports over $9 billion in wages and $6.6 billion in purchases from provincial suppliers. This economic impact extends across Canada.
Recent years have seen mill closures throughout Canada—each eliminating hundreds of direct jobs and thousands more across trucking companies, equipment services, and small businesses dependent on mill operations.
CO280 addresses this challenge by unlocking new revenue streams for pulp and paper mills through carbon capture. By transforming CO2 from a waste product into a high-value CDR product, we introduce long-term, contract-backed profitability that improves the financial performance of mills across North America—in some cases doubling EBITDA.
With corporate forward offtakes and government tax incentives like Canada’s Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage Investment Tax Credit (ITC), CO280 has the capacity to revitalize the pulp and paper industry while delivering sustained economic benefits to rural communities.
As a Vancouver-headquartered company, do you think that Canada is poised to become a global leader in CDR? Why or why not?
JR: CO280 is a Canadian company, and we are committed to contributing to Canada’s leadership in high-quality CDR development.
Canada possesses several distinct advantages for CDR deployment: ideal geology for permanent storage, robust governmental and policy support including the ITC, existing CO2 infrastructure paired with a skilled workforce in subsurface and pipeline engineering, and a renewable energy grid capable of powering carbon removal operations.
Western Canada’s saline formations are exceptionally well-suited for permanent carbon storage. It is estimated that between 200 and 700 gigatonnes could be sequestered across Canada—compared to North Sea storage capacity, which is limited to 50 to 250 gigatonnes. Western Canada also benefits from longstanding CO2 infrastructure developed by the energy industry, coupled with a skilled workforce capable of scaling CO2 infrastructure for permanent storage. These factors translate to faster, more cost-effective CDR deployment at the scale required.
As a signatory to the Paris Agreement, Canada is eligible for an Article 6 transfer mechanism. Canada can utilize, trade, and finance CDR across borders—allowing CDR to count toward nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and to be transferred internationally. This positions Canada to accelerate permanent CDR by unlocking new buyers, financing structures, and public-private partnerships globally.
How is CO280 approaching project development in Canada? How is CO280 positioning itself within the voluntary carbon market in Canada?
JR: CO280 is developing multiple high-potential projects across Canada in partnership with North America’s largest pulp and paper companies to deploy pulp and paper CCS. While we cannot disclose specific project partners at this time, CO280 is actively advancing a robust Canadian project pipeline.
From a buyer perspective, CO280 is engaging Canadian corporations active in CDR planning and procurement. As a Canadian company, Canada represents a priority market for CO280, and we will have further announcements in 2026.
More broadly, from CO280’s perspective, what policy, investment, or partnership shifts are most needed to accelerate the growth of permanent CDR?
JR: Accelerating the growth of permanent CDR requires stable government support, capital investment, and corporate action. Carbon removal is a high-value service, and CDR tonnes represent a high-value product. Government, private companies, and investors each have distinct roles in recognizing and supporting that value.
Tax credits like Canada’s ITC and the United States’ 45Q represent effective government support. These incentives enable CO280 to deliver high-quality, permanent CDR at price points that make large-scale forward offtakes financially viable. The market requires these tax credits to continue and expand to secure voluntary corporate purchases. Additional opportunities for government support include direct funding of CDR project development and procurement of CDR credits. For example, the Canadian government has committed to purchasing at least $10 million in carbon removal services by 2030—a strong foundation with significant room for expansion.
On the project finance and capital investment side, investors must focus on CDR technologies capable of scaling. This means identifying and supporting mature, commercially proven systems with high technology readiness levels (TRL). CO280 is technology-agnostic, selecting only high TRL, commercially proven systems to de-risk project development. We have validated this approach in the market with lenders to develop bankable solutions that deliver millions of tonnes of high-quality CDR.
For corporate CDR buyers, the imperative is clear: secure high-quality carbon removal now. High-quality carbon removal is in demand and in short supply. The only pathway to securing high-quality carbon removal at the necessary scale is to initiate forward offtakes today. Without guaranteed demand, projects cannot advance to FEED, FID, or delivery.
Last but not least: what is one thing that our readers should know about CO280 in 2026?
JR: Since our inception in 2022, CO280 has worked with project partners and investors to create a foundation for market acceptance, growth, and momentum as a leading global supplier of high quality, permanent CDR. 2026 will be a consequential year for the company as we’re poised to achieve FID on our first project in North America.
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