Ebb, a climate and water technology company, has signed a prepurchase agreement with Google to remove 3,500 tonnes of CO₂ from the atmosphere. The agreement follows Ebb’s recent partnership with the Saudi Water Authority to deploy its system across desalination facilities in Saudi Arabia, with the potential to reach up to 85 million tonnes of carbon removal capacity each year once fully scaled.
Ebb’s work builds on recognised science showing ocean alkalinity enhancement as a promising, scalable method for carbon dioxide removal. The process increases the rate at which carbon dioxide from the air converts into stable bicarbonate in seawater. The ocean already acts as a long-term carbon store and has absorbed about 30 percent of all human-emitted CO₂ since the beginning of the industrial era.
Ebb’s deployment strategy focuses on integrating its modular technology into desalination facilities, which process large volumes of seawater daily. The system intercepts brine discharge before it returns to the ocean and processes it through an electrochemical system. This converts the brine into an alkaline solution that helps remove CO₂ from the air once released back into the ocean. The process also increases freshwater output and produces chemical by-products that desalination operators can use or sell.
By using existing desalination infrastructure, Ebb aims to lower deployment cost and complexity. Current capacity across global desalination plants could support carbon removal at the scale of billions of tonnes per year.
“We’re thrilled to work with Google to scale low-cost carbon removal with Ebb’s technology,” said Ben Tarbell, CEO of Ebb. “The natural systems in the ocean represent the most powerful and rapidly scalable path to meaningful carbon removal. By integrating our technology with desalination facilities, we’re transforming what has historically been a waste stream into a climate solution. Perhaps most importantly, Ebb’s technology can support our desalination partners’ core business through additional freshwater recovery, energy savings, and valuable chemical co-products. Our ability to remove CO2 at scale becomes the natural outcome of smart business decisions – a powerful financial incentive that will drive expansion of our technology.”
Ebb has also been working with X, Alphabet’s innovation division, to explore ways of using the acid by-product created during the alkalinity enhancement process. X developed a method that uses this acid to recycle concrete waste, which could support about 100 million tonnes of carbon removal each year if applied widely, while supporting circular use of building materials.
“Combining Ebb’s electrochemical approach to ocean alkalinity enhancement with X’s acid utilisation technology has the rare potential for cost-negative carbon sequestration. It’s rare for waste streams to become revenue streams and we hope our research provides the industry with a blueprint for harvesting this untapped value,” said Antonio Papania-Davis, Project Lead, X The Moonshot Factory.
“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.
The collaboration builds on an existing link between both organisations. Two of Ebb’s founders, Ben Tarbell and Matt Eisaman, previously led climate and carbon removal initiatives at Alphabet before establishing Ebb in 2021.