Ebb, a climate and water technology company, has signed a prepurchase agreement with Google for 3,500 tons of carbon dioxide removal, marking a new step in the company’s efforts to scale its ocean-based CO₂ removal approach. The announcement follows Ebb’s recent partnership with the Saudi Water Authority to deploy its technology across desalination facilities in Saudi Arabia, which the company says could enable up to 85 million tonnes of annual CO₂ removal capacity at full deployment.
Ebb’s process accelerates the natural conversion of atmospheric CO₂ into bicarbonate in seawater, a stable storage form that the ocean can hold for thousands of years. The company focuses on integrating its electrochemical system into desalination infrastructure by treating brine discharge before it is released back into the ocean. The treated, more alkaline solution absorbs CO₂ from the atmosphere, while the process also increases freshwater yield and produces chemical coproducts that can be reused in desalination or other industries.
Ebb says leveraging existing desalination plants could significantly reduce deployment costs and complexity, noting that global desalination capacity is already large enough to support carbon removal at scale.
“We’re thrilled to work with Google to scale low-cost carbon removal with Ebb’s technology,” said Ben Tarbell, CEO of Ebb. “By integrating our technology with desalination facilities, we’re transforming what has historically been a waste stream into a climate solution.”
Ebb and Alphabet’s X, the Moonshot Factory, have also been working together on how to utilise the acid coproduct from Ebb’s process. X has developed a method that uses this acid to recycle concrete waste, which the team says could potentially support around 100 million tonnes of CO₂ removal annually if paired with ocean alkalinity enhancement.
“Combining Ebb’s electrochemical approach to ocean alkalinity enhancement with X’s acid utilization technology has the rare potential for cost-negative carbon sequestration,” said Antonio Papania-Davis, Project Lead at X.
Google echoed the importance of exploring new CO₂ removal pathways. “The possibility of highly affordable carbon dioxide removal is extremely exciting. The combination of ideas from Ebb and X are the kind of creative thinking that we need to solve the climate crisis,” said John Platt, Google Climate & Science Fellow.
Two of Ebb’s cofounders, Ben Tarbell and Matt Eisaman, previously led climate and carbon removal initiatives at Alphabet before founding the company in 2021.
