Reviewer 2 does geoengineering

@geoengineering1 interviews Rudolf Wessels, Director of Technology and Innovation at Avantium R&D Solutions in the Netherlands (founded in 2000 as a Shell spin-out). The discussion examines Avantium’s contribution to advancing Direct Air Capture (DAC) through high-throughput experimentation platforms designed to accelerate the discovery and optimization of sorbent materials, enabling rapid, parallel testing under controlled conditions.Wessels also discusses the company’s recent collaboration with the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Carbon Dioxide Removal Consortium, focused on improving measurement protocols, benchmarking practices, and validation in DAC systems. The episode highlights how standardized testing, process optimization, and material innovation can support the scale-up and credibility of carbon removal technologies.Links: https://rds.avantium.com/products/direct-air-capture-solutions/https://rds.avantium.com/avantium-joins-nist-to-accelerate-dac-innovation/To stay updated on all things geoengineering-related, subscribe to:Carbon Removal Updates Substack: https://carbonremovalupdates.substack.com/Solar Geoengineering Updates Substack: https://solargeoengineeringupdates.substack.com/

@geoengineering1 interviews Cory Sanderson, CTO and co-founder of Sustaera, a North Carolina-based Direct Air Capture (DAC) startup focused on low-cost carbon capture, separations chemistry, and process scale-up.Sanderson traces his journey from Air Products, where he worked on vacuum swing adsorption CO₂ capture for an SMR hydrogen plant and encountered economic and infrastructure constraints, to founding Sustaera. He also explains the company’s shift from CO₂-to-methane materials, which depended on costly clean hydrogen, to a pure DAC approach.He then outlines Sustaera’s system, which utilises a fixed, cartridge-based monolithic contactor with laminar-flow channels and a conductive, structured sorbent that integrates resistive (Joule) heating directly into the material, thereby improving efficiency, stability, and regeneration speed.He highlights the novelty of the design, noting that Sustaera has achieved over 90% heating efficiency in lab tests, 20-30 minute adsorption cycles, and multi-year sorbent lifetimes. With a modular, catalytic-converter-style manufacturing approach, the company is currently at TRL 5, has pre-sold removals at $700/ton to Stripe and Shopify, and is raising $8.6M to build its first outdoor commercial unit.For more details, visit: https://www.sustaera.com/To stay updated on all things geoengineering-related, subscribe to:Carbon Removal Updates Substack: https://carbonremovalupdates.substack.com/Solar Geoengineering Updates Substack: https://solargeoengineeringupdates.substack.com/

@geoengineering1 interviews Paolo Piffaretti, co-founder of ClimeFi (https://www.climefi.com/), on how durable carbon dioxide removal (CDR) credits are verified and delivered for corporate buyers.ClimeFi acts as a buyer-side agent, helping organizations define contribution vs. compensation goals, run reverse-auction RFPs, build diversified portfolios, conduct due diligence, negotiate contracts with risk-mitigation clauses, and monitor suppliers through delivery.They also unpack how CDR deals work in practice, covering offtakes, pre-purchases, and newer call options for flexibility, along with what is changing in the market and how buyers manage risk in a space where many projects fail.ClimeFi has also recently opened its Beyond 2030 request for proposals (RFP) on behalf of multiple buyers. It is the company’s most ambitious procurement to date, targeting 100,000 to 500,000 tonnes of durable carbon removal. All pathways are eligible, provided permanence of 200+ years. Submissions close on Wednesday 8 April. Details: https://www.climefi.com/blog-posts/climefi-launches-beyond-2030-rfp-for-durable-carbon-removalTo stay updated on all things geoengineering-related, subscribe to:Carbon Removal Updates Substack: https://carbonremovalupdates.substack.com/Solar Geoengineering Updates Substack: https://solargeoengineeringupdates.substack.com/

In this episode, @geoengineering1 is joined by Britta Clark, a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University, to unpack why solar geoengineering is increasingly compared to opioids. They discuss how this framing casts SRM as temporary “relief” from climate warming and why it raises concerns about potentially slowing emissions cuts. The conversation focuses on how climate models, policy debates, and public discourse can quietly shift expectations about how fast emissions reductions should happen once solar geoengineering is considered, even when people say it should not delay the energy transition. Together, they explore why this tension matters and what it could mean for future climate decisions.Paper: Clark, B. (2025). Solar geoengineering, delay, and addiction. Climatic Change, 178(11), 209. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-025-04059-3Open access version: https://philpapers.org/rec/CLASGD-2To stay updated on all things geoengineering-related, subscribe to:Carbon Removal Updates Substack: https://carbonremovalupdates.substack.com/Solar Geoengineering Updates Substack: https://solargeoengineeringupdates.substack.com/

In this episode, @geoengineering1 interviews Athar Hussain, physicist and professor of atmospheric science at COMSATS University, Pakistan, about his recent study examining how SAI could influence malaria transmission across South Asia. Using the VECTRI malaria model, the research compares an unmitigated high-emissions pathway (RCP8.5) with the GLENS-SAI scenario, which stabilizes global temperatures at 2020 levels, across seven countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Iran, India, Nepal, and Pakistan.The discussion highlights that while SAI could reduce overall malaria transmission intensity across much of the region by lowering vector density, entomological inoculation rates (EIR), and case numbers, its effects are spatially uneven, with localized increases projected in parts of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, and Nepal. The conversation also explores the public-health implications of these shifts, the potential risks and trade-offs of solar geoengineering, and the importance of region-specific strategies, local expertise, and international collaboration in addressing climate-related health risks.Paper: Hussain, A., Shoaib, M., & Latif, M. (2025). Malaria transmission dynamics under climate change and solar geoengineering in South Asia: a GLENS-based assessment. Malaria Journal, 24(1), 439. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-025-05666-2To stay updated on all things geoengineering-related, subscribe to:Carbon Removal Updates Substack: https://carbonremovalupdates.substack.com/Solar Geoengineering Updates Substack: https://solargeoengineeringupdates.substack.com/