July 8, 2025
Arbor’s process has the dual benefit of removing CO₂ while producing clean electricity.
Arbor’s system captures 99% of CO₂, compared to the average 90% capture rate.
As hyperscale data centers expand, Arbor offers a promising way to meet energy needs while lowering emissions.
Frontier has facilitated offtakes with Arbor, a Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) company that uses waste biomass to create clean energy while removing CO₂. Frontier buyers will pay Arbor $41 million to remove 116,000 tons of CO₂ between 2028 and 2030. BECCS is a promising carbon removal pathway because it could remove multiple gigatons of CO₂ per year by 2050 (source), while also producing low-carbon heat and electricity. These offtakes will enable the launch of Arbor’s first commercial facility and test the viability of a new, highly efficient BECCS approach for generating clean electricity and removing CO₂. The facility, located near Lake Charles, LA, is expected to become fully operational in 2028.
Arbor’s approach enables a CO₂ capture rate of over 99% and increases the efficiency of converting biomass to electricity by more than 30%—significantly higher than comparable bioenergy systems. Those advantages, as well as Arbor’s modular design, position it to substantially reduce costs while meeting the increasing demand for clean electricity, particularly for data centers. Importantly, the process doesn’t produce any exhaust or air pollution, unlike traditional bioenergy plants.
The process starts with converting waste biomass into syngas, a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, using a new gasifier design. This gas is then sent to an oxycombustor, a specialized furnace that burns the gas with pure oxygen instead of air, producing supercritical CO₂ and water. This supercritical CO₂ drives a turbine to generate clean electricity. For every ton of CO₂ that’s removed, Arbor’s system also supplies up to 1,000 kWh of clean electricity (the average household’s monthly electricity use). What’s unique about Arbor is that it is the first carbon removal company to combine three complex processes—biomass gasification, oxycombustion, and supercritical CO₂ turbomachinery—into a single system.
The case for Arbor
Arbor’s system addresses the growing demand for clean baseload electricity. As hyperscalers build more data centers, they need to balance their commitments to reduce emissions with the requirement for constant, dependable electricity. Arbor meets this double imperative by generating clean electricity and capturing CO₂, effectively reducing fossil fuel emissions while removing carbon from the atmosphere. Furthermore, Arbor’s system produces excess water as a byproduct of the biomass gasification and oxygen combustion process. In future projects, Arbor plans to sell this excess water for uses such as irrigation and data center cooling, minimizing the need for extra cooling water in their operations.
Arbor’s technology can remove more CO₂ than BECCS approaches using conventional CO₂ capture technologies, such as amine solvents. Arbor’s process burns biomass with pure oxygen, producing supercritical CO₂ and water as the main byproducts. In contrast, other approaches often use regular air, resulting in exhaust that contains various gases. This complex mix makes capturing CO₂ more costly. In contrast, Arbor’s exhaust consists mainly of water and CO₂, simplifying collection and storage and enabling capture rates exceeding 99%.
Arbor’s process could be the lowest cost approach to BECCS. Its compact design features an 18 MW turbine about the size of a car engine, allowing for efficient scaling and cost reductions. By integrating CO₂ capture directly with power generation, Arbor eliminates the added costs of separate capture units. This approach enables a ~10x increase in power and carbon removal for every 2-3x increase in size, potentially driving costs below $100 per ton of CO₂ removed.
Arbor’s project meets Frontier’s sustainable biomass sourcing principles. The company’s commercial facility will source biomass from thinnings of managed timber plantations, in areas where (1) the growth-to-drain ratio (the amount of biomass grown vs. harvested) is either stable or increasing, and (2) where pulp and paper mills that historically utilized these thinnings have shut down. Arbor is working with a credit issuer, Isometric, to quantify the emissions from their project so they can be deducted when calculating the net carbon removal.
Frontier has facilitated purchases on behalf of Frontier Founding Members Stripe, Google, Shopify, and McKinsey Sustainability, as well as Autodesk, H&M Group, and Workday. Aledade, Canva, Match Group, Samsara, SKIMS, Skyscanner, Wise, and Zendesk will also participate with purchases via Frontier’s partnership with Watershed.
Brad Hartwig, CEO, Arbor: “Carbon removal approaches that deliver both net removal and decarbonization benefits will scale quickly. That’s what sets Arbor’s approach apart. This offtake agreement with Frontier buyers accelerates a model that removes carbon while generating the reliable, zero-emission energy our power grid needs.”
Hannah Bebbington, Head of Deployment, Frontier: “We need to remove gigatons of CO₂ from the atmosphere and we need a lot more clean electricity to meet the pace of AI’s development. Though they are two separate challenges, Arbor tackles both with a single solution.”