Frontier, an organization supported by Stripe, Google, and Meta, announced a major agreement this week with energy startup Arbor Energy to remove a total of 116,000 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by the end of the decade. The partnership includes a financial commitment of $41 million, which Arbor will use to construct and operate its inaugural commercial-scale power plant in southern Louisiana.
Arbor Energy’s innovative approach involves burning waste biomass to produce electricity specifically designed to power data centers, while simultaneously capturing and storing the resultant carbon dioxide underground. Co-founder and CEO of Arbor Energy, Brad Hartwig, explained that the plant effectively yields two distinct, marketable commodities: carbon-free, baseload energy and net-carbon removals.
This sophisticated technology, known as biomass carbon removal and storage (BiCRS), leverages the natural ability of plants to absorb CO2. As Hannah Bebbington, Frontier’s head of deployment, noted, the “capture” aspect is essentially inherent, as plants already perform the initial extraction of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
While the use of biomass as fuel dates back thousands of years, Arbor Energy integrates cutting-edge technologies reminiscent of space exploration. Hartwig credits his time at SpaceX for the inspiration behind these advances, particularly in turbine machinery technology designs borrowed from rocket engineering.
At Arbor’s upcoming facility, waste biomass is processed into synthetic gas, also called syngas, through proprietary methods the startup developed after finding existing commercial gasifiers inadequate. Under immense pressure, supercritical carbon dioxide—harvested from the plant itself— helps convert the biomass into hydrogen and carbon monoxide. This syngas is then combusted with pure oxygen, releasing heat, steam, and additional CO2. Crucially, CO2 presence in the combustion chamber helps regulate temperatures, protecting equipment components from excessive heat and maintaining structural integrity.
Hot gases subsequently drive turbomachinery, generating between five and ten megawatts of power initially—output that the company plans to grow organically over time. Meanwhile, most of the carbon dioxide outputs will be channelled through pipelines into permanent storage locations underground, while a smaller volume is cycled back into the system for further use.
Arbor claims its process is exceptionally efficient, capturing approximately 99% of carbon emissions produced in the combustion stage. This represents substantial improvement over traditional approaches, offering significant promise for companies striving to meet ambitious decarbonization goals.
Frontier estimates that annually between one and five gigatons of waste biomass could theoretically be available for utilization; however, practical considerations—such as sustainability guidelines and transportation costs—limit this number. Therefore, Arbor and Frontier have pledged to adhere strictly to sustainability metrics when deploying their system.
Although Arbor’s system can technically utilize any hydrocarbon-based fuel, including traditional energy sources like natural gas, its agreement with Frontier requires it to exclusively employ biomass to meet carbon-removal criteria explicitly stipulated by their contract.
Hartwig emphasized the flexibility of the Arbor system while noting the company’s commitment to clean power, underscoring that any future fossil fuel plants built with Arbor’s technology should operate with zero net emissions: “We envision a significant role for BiCRS in powering data centers, industrial electrification, and bolstering grid resilience. But for new fossil energy projects too, we want to ensure their emissions are always captured and prevented from entering the atmosphere.”
