Greennex × Arbon: Delivering Carbon Removal at the Speed of Reality

As billions in U.S. federal funding pour into carbon removal, a divide is emerging in the DAC space: between gigaton-scale visions and companies delivering real tons. While the DOE’s DAC Hubs remain in permitting limbo, buyers — under pressure to prove MRV and durability — are turning toward systems that are verifiable, distributed, and operational now.

Arbon, a New York–based startup, drawing strong interest for its modular, humidity-driven DAC platform. With its next unit heading to Governors Island, Arbon is turning carbon removal from projection into practice — and helping reshape what near-term climate delivery looks like.

We spoke with Xiaoyang (Yang) Shi, Arbon’s founder and CEO, to unpack why smaller systems might be the smarter path to scale — and how the company’s chemistry, business model, and field data are positioning it ahead of the curve.

1｜Why Modularity Might Be the Only Path to Scale

Greennex: The carbon removal narrative is full of gigaton roadmaps. Why is Arbon intentionally avoiding that scale-first framing?

Yang: Because climate delivery needs to start now — not in 2030. There’s a fundamental mismatch between most DAC planning and what the carbon market actually demands today. We’re seeing growing pressure from both industrial emitters and carbon credit buyers for small, verifiable, durable tons — not just long-term promises.

Modularity isn’t a compromise. It’s an operating strategy. A 1,000-ton per year unit may look small on paper, but if it’s fast to deploy, low-capex, and independently verified, it becomes the backbone of a scalable system. That’s how solar and wind scaled — not by building monuments, but by replicating what works.

Greennex: You’ve said Arbon is “designed for where we are, not where we wish we were.” Can you elaborate?

Yang: A lot of DAC companies are still optimizing chemistry in lab settings or waiting for pipelines and sequestration permits. We took a different approach: start with robust, manufacturable chemistry that can be deployed under today’s infrastructure conditions. Our patented humidity-swing sorbent uses water instead of heat to release CO₂ — cutting energy use significantly. It runs on ambient or low-grade heat, which means we can plug into real-world sites: cement plants, island grids, or university campuses.

Our sorbent also works across both flue gas and ambient air, which is uncommon. That dual-mode design gives us the flexibility to deploy in both industrial decarbonization and voluntary carbon markets — without reinventing the system every time.

2｜Operating in Reality: What the Carbon Market Really Wants

Greennex: What assumptions about carbon removal markets do you think are most out of sync with reality?

Yang: That scale equals impact. Most buyers today are not chasing multi-decade procurement plans — they’re navigating 12-month ESG reporting cycles. If you can’t deliver real tons, verified by a third party, with clear MRV logic, you’re not solving their problem.

And many buyers are now moving from “any credit is fine” to “show me your stack” — feedstock, process, traceability, and permanence. That’s where modular, digitally verifiable systems like ours are uniquely positioned.

Greennex: Arbon’s first unit will operate on Governors Island — not exactly an industrial zone. What does that signal?

Yang: Symbolically, it’s big. This will be one of the first publicly visible DAC systems in North America, running in the open, in New York Harbor. It’s proof that DAC doesn’t have to live in remote deserts or behind pipeline easements. It can run near cities, near people, near regulators. And for a tech category under scrutiny, that visibility is important.

Practically, it’s also a pilot for future deployments — urban campuses, ports, small utilities, and scaling up to hundreds of thousands of tons of capacity in open areas in the near future. Our unit has logged over 2,000 hours already. Governors Island is the next test bed — and a chance to make this tangible.

3｜Execution > Hype: What Investors Are Actually Looking For

Greennex: DAC has attracted big venture rounds — but also criticism for being overfunded and under-deployed. How did you approach your first raise?

Yang: We didn’t raise on renders. We raised on results. When we closed our seed round in March 2024 — led by Grantham Foundation and Toyota Ventures, with support from Activate, Corning, and Frontier — we had hardware running in the field, operational data, and validated system performance. Our pitch was: “this works — here’s the proof.”

And we stayed lean. The last thing DAC needs is another $500M moonshot with no deployment plan. We’re showing that you can build DAC systems that are shippable, verifiable, and grid-ready without betting the whole cap table on version 1.0.

Greennex: You trained under Klaus Lackner at Columbia University, one of DAC’s founding figures. How has that shaped your approach?

Yang: Klaus taught me that DAC will only work when it meets the market on its own terms. That means being compatible with today’s infrastructure, today’s data expectations, and today’s budgets. The science has been around — the challenge is building systems that survive contact with the field.

We’ve tried to carry that realism into every part of Arbon — from sorbent design to system packaging to our MRV stack. If we can’t put it on the ground and prove it with data, we’re not solving anything.

4｜Final Word: Scaling With Credibility, Not Complexity

As carbon removal accelerates, the companies that win won’t be the ones with the best slides — they’ll be the ones delivering verified, replicable tons at the edge of infrastructure.

Arbon isn’t scaling through ambition. It’s scaling through presence.

In a carbon market demanding clarity, permanence, and action, that may be the most deployable innovation of all.

Greennex Interview with Arbon is in collaboration with Net Zero Insight, and was originally published on May 29, 2025 at netzeroinsights.com/resources/arbon-carbon-removal.