Carbon removal company CREW Carbon, Inc. has announced an offtake agreement with Microsoft for the delivery of up to 23,602 verified carbon removal units (CRUs), utilizing its patented wastewater alkalinity enhancement (WAE) technology.
Developed at and supported by Yale University, CREW’s technology integrates into existing municipal and industrial wastewater infrastructure. The process uses strategically sourced alkaline minerals, such as calcium carbonate, to optimize pH and alkalinity levels within treatment plants. This improves biological performance and treatment efficiency while permanently locking away carbon dioxide and superpollutant emissions without requiring federal funding or separate permitting.
The agreement expands CREW’s total committed carbon removal portfolio beyond $40 million, building on existing long-term contracts with corporate buyers including JPMorgan, Google, Autodesk, and Stripe via Frontier.
Dr Joachim Katchinoff, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of CREW, stated that the transaction with Microsoft validates the company’s dual approach of delivering durable carbon credits while optimizing wastewater treatment performance. Phillip Goodman, Carbon Removal Portfolio Director at Microsoft, noted that CREW’s method provides a scalable, wastewater-based carbon removal pathway backed by strong measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) certainty.
CREW’s closed-system model employs real-time inlet and outlet plant monitoring, downstream modeling, and independent third-party verification to quantify carbon capture. With global wastewater facilities processing billions of gallons daily, the firm aims to scale its technology toward gigaton-level carbon removal.
