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Today’s interview is with Daniel Babin, Lead Scientist, Sinkco Labs.
What is Sinkco Labs?
For those unfamiliar, what is Sinkco Labs, and how does it uniquely contribute to the CDR ecosystem?
Daniel Babin - Sinkco Labs does carbon removal in sediments below coastal environments for the purpose of restoring and fortifying wetlands. We want to address a very pressing and very local facet of the climate crisis — coastal erosion and subsidence — while removing carbon at the same time.
This is a spin on biomass carbon storage. performs biomass carbon storage, but our storage container is the anoxic layer below coastal sediments. We get the biomass down there with an injection system, and we use the injections to raise the elevation of the water bottom to benefit sinking coastal marsh ecosystems. Most people who I speak with this about have never heard of anything like this, but we need to be trying everything. Biomass burial is popular because it’s scalable and affordable, but we need to make use of what we’re burying. Louisiana, where I’m from, is profoundly impacted by coastal land loss. This is a unique biomass storage solution with a unique benefit that can help solve a bipartisan issue in my home state.
CDR Process
Sinkco Labs' approach involves injecting biomass into marine sediments for permanent carbon storage. Could you elaborate on how this process works and why it's considered both immediate and permanent?
Daniel Babin - We take residue from forest and agriculture that has captured CO2 during its lifetime, but would otherwise be wasted. Our feedstock is ground down and mixed with seawater onsite to make a slurry. That slurry pumped down below the seabed through a small pipe (the size of a coffee cup) using less pressure than the water line to your house. Below the mud, the injection spreads out laterally and is ultimately contained by the weight of the sedimentary overburden itself.
There is abundant geologic evidence that wood, if buried quickly, can be “mummified”. This is not petrification. There are samples of wood from 19 million year old sediments in the Bengal Fan that are texturally and geochemically identical to modern wood samples. Another really cool example of this are 40 thousand year old buried cypress forests along the Gulf Coast. The rapid burial is key because oxygen is the enemy when it comes to preservation. Bacteria rely on oxidants to break down buried organic matter in the same way that you and I rely on oxygen to make energy. Sinkco’s injection immediately put the biomass into the geochemical zone in sediments where preservation is perfect.
MRV
Measurement and verification are critical in carbon removal. How does Sinkco Labs ensure transparency and trust in its carbon sequestration process, particularly in marine environments?
Daniel Babin - A real strength of Sinkco’s strategy is that MRV is physically, chemically, spatially simple. Material from our deposits could be retrieved from below the seabed with a sediment core, and the quality (carbon content) can be inspected at regular intervals. The mass of stored carbon is measured on the way down, but the extent of the deposits can be measured post-burial using geophysics. Earlier this year, we proved this concept using a type of low-frequency sonar device called a sub-bottom profiler. We were able to measure the shape of the buried wood deposit with remarkable precision, 1 month post injection. I love that our deposits are stationary in space and time, and there are no assumptions required about how things diffuse or degrade. It is possible to visit the location and measure aspect of what we promise.
Key Learnings
Your pilot deployment in the Gulf of Mexico marks a significant milestone. What have been the key learnings from this initiative, and how do they inform future scalability?
Daniel Babin - It’s a tough time politically for carbon markets. I believe that if we succeed in scaling up in the Gulf Coast, it will be because we put energy into listening to what the people who live there care about. Somehow, climate is a divisive issue. In the Gulf, coastal protection is not. In some states, regulators would ask us about whether or not our injections would uplift the seabed like it was a bad thing. There, they ask us like it’s a good thing. Louisiana has $19 billion set aside over the coming decades to try to preserve what they can against the onslaught of sinking wetlands and rising seas. In listening, we have found not only a path to derisk large scale carbon removal and powerful co-benefits, but we’ve found a viable, billion-dollar market that desperately needs innovation.
Co-Benefits
Sinkco Labs is developing carbon-negative products like proteins, ethanol, and antioxidants. How do these products contribute to industrial decarbonization and offer co-benefits beyond carbon removal?
Daniel Babin - We’re exploring ways to create value from biomass before burial — using low-energy extraction to produce carbon-negative compounds like ethanol and proteins. Because the leftover biomass still gets stored, the overall process remains deeply carbon negative.
These ingredients can replace existing materials in consumer goods, helping decarbonize supply chains from the inside through carbon insetting. It’s a way to address Scope 3 emissions directly, and it opens up new revenue streams beyond carbon credits — turning waste into products that are both useful and climate-positive
Collaborations
The carbon removal market is rapidly evolving. How does Sinkco Labs position itself within this landscape, and what collaborations or partnerships are pivotal for your growth?
Daniel Babin - Many Gulf states, including Louisiana, Texas, and Florida, have built out ambitious plans to shore up their coastlines over the coming decades. These projects have pricetags in the tens of billions of dollars. For our success, we need to demonstrate how our technology can help the state agencies in charge of implementing these plans meet their goals at a low cost.
Scaling
Given the complexities of marine carbon storage, what are the primary challenges Sinkco Labs faces in scaling its solution globally, and how are you addressing them?
Daniel Babin - Maybe it’s just a product of what my role in the company is, but the biggest challenges I see for Sinkco is the trust of regulators, buyers, and the public. We are fairly radical innovators within the already radical space of marine CDR. I think it’s natural that people have questions. I believe we’ve imagined a way that CO2 can be stored with minimal cost and high permanence that can be used to fight coastal land loss, a very real problem that already has billions committed to fight it. I think the only way to allay these worries is to actually go out and do it — demonstrate the chemical and physical stability of the deposits and generate uplift. That’s why we’re all steam ahead on executing our South Louisiana Pilot.
Challenges
Looking ahead, what is the biggest challenge in storing CO₂ permanently, and how does Sinkco Labs' technology address this issue to ensure long-term climate benefits?
Daniel Babin - I don’t think that the greatest risk to storing carbon permanently is technological. There are hundreds of companies in existence right now that if adequately funded could provide high quality, durable, carbon removal at scale. I am afraid that the challenge we face is from the market itself. We need to find or invent carbon negative processes with a strong market demand that already exists. Biochar and enhanced rock weathering companies have done this really well. Until the era of compliance arrives, those of us dedicating our lives to cleaning up carbon might need to think hard about creating co-benefits that are robust enough to be fundable aspects of the technology.
