Energy + Climate + Nature

NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE

Turning CO₂ Into Products

Duration
2015 - 2021
Phase Awarded
Prize Purse
$20 Million

Designed to transform CO₂ from environmental liability into economic opportunity, this prize challenged teams to develop breakthrough technologies that convert emissions into useful products and ignite a circular carbon economy.

Impact

Teams raised $110M to scale their solutions

Breakthrough solutions have prevented 500,000 metric tonnes of CO₂ from entering the atmosphere

7.5 million truckloads of lower carbon concrete mixes delivered by the winning team

Winners

Winners in both tracks, CarbonCure in the Natural Gas Track and CarbonBuilt in the Coal Track, developed strong, cost-effective, low-carbon concrete that locks away CO₂ permanently. Since winning the competition, their technologies have been adopted at hundreds of plants and manufacturing sites worldwide.

Products Made of CO₂
Vodka (Air Co)
Air Co. makes pure and sustainable vodka out of thin air. They use solar power to capture excess carbon from the air, which is distilled and filtered to produce ethanol, the base for alcoholic drinks.
Hand Sanitizer (Air Co)
At the height of the pandemic, Air Co produced an ultra-refined, carbon-negative antibacterial spray that protects against germs while quantifiably improving the air we breathe.
Sunglasses (Carbon Upcycling-NLT)
Huntington Beach-based Newlight Technology makes stylish accessories from their AirCarbon material, a meltable, moldable biomaterial that can be used to help replace plastic and leather.
Purses (Carbon Upcycling-NLT)
Huntington Beach-based Newlight Technology makes stylish accessories from their AirCarbon material, a meltable, moldable biomaterial that can be used to help replace plastic and leather.
Wallets (Carbon Upcycling-NLT)
Huntington Beach-based Newlight Technology makes stylish accessories from their AirCarbon material, a meltable, moldable biomaterial that can be used to help replace plastic and leather.
Phone Sleeve (Carbon Upcycling-NLT)
Huntington Beach-based Newlight Technology makes stylish accessories from their AirCarbon material, a meltable, moldable biomaterial that can be used to help replace plastic and leather.
Laptop Sleeve (Carbon Upcycling-NLT)
Huntington Beach-based Newlight Technology makes stylish accessories from their AirCarbon material, a meltable, moldable biomaterial that can be used to help replace plastic and leather.
Straws (Carbon Upcycling-NLT)
Newlight makes carbon-negative straws and cutlery from its AirCarbon material. The plastic substitute is FDA food contact-approved, doesn’t get soggy, is dishwasher safe for reuse, & ocean degradable.
Cutlery (Carbon Upcycling-NLT)
Newlight makes carbon-negative straws and cutlery from its AirCarbon material. The plastic substitute is FDA food contact-approved, doesn’t get soggy, is dishwasher safe for reuse, & ocean degradable.
Watches (Carbon Upcycling-NLT)
This watch features carbon-infused concrete. Carbon Upcycling Technologies makes nanomaterials from CO₂ emissions sequestered into solids. Its tech sequesters up to 150kg of CO₂ per ton of material.
Pens (Carbon Upcycling-NLT)
This pen features carbon-infused concrete. Carbon Upcycling Technologies makes nanomaterials from CO₂ emissions sequestered into solids. Its tech sequesters up to 150kg of CO₂ per ton of material.
Coasters (Carbon Upcycling-NLT)
This coaster features carbon-infused concrete. Carbon Upcycling Technologies makes nanomaterials from CO₂ emissions sequestered into solids. Its tech sequesters up to 150kg of CO₂ per ton of material.
Yoga Mats (Carbon Upcycling-NLT)
This yoga mat features carbon-infused concrete. Carbon Upcycling Technologies makes nanomaterials from CO₂ emissions sequestered into solids. Its tech sequesters up to 150kg of CO₂ per ton of material
Crayons (Carbon Upcycling-NLT)
These crayons are made with upcycled CO₂ emissions. Use them to draw your dreams and imagine a future where CO₂ is part of a vibrant circular economy.
Rings (Carbon Upcycling-NLT)
Perfect as a wedding ring or as an environmentally beneficial fashion statement. The black inlay of this beautiful titanium ring is embedded with CO₂.
Bracelet (Carbon Upcycling-NLT)
The Negative bracelet contains CO₂ captured from air & converted to solid form. Each one helps accelerate tech to tackle the climate crisis & pays to directly capture enough CO₂ to be carbon-negative.
Fuel (Breathe)
India's team Breathe is developing a fuel with 15% methanol to help cut transport emissions. A methanol economy could help reduce India’s carbon emissions by 33–35% by 2030. Car by Impossible Labs.
Slippers (C4X)
C4X can bubble CO₂ from emissions and air into plastic to create foam, so it stays there. By making foam this way, we could help green a market worth $100-120 billion. Slipper by Impossible Labs.
Toothpaste (Carbon Capture Machine)
CCM makes calcium carbonate from CO₂ emissions. It’s 30% of this toothpaste—equal to 22g of CO₂. The mineral, found in chalk and marble, helps scrub teeth clean. Prototype by Impossible Labs.
Dumbbells (CarbonCure)
The world uses 4B tons of concrete yearly. CarbonCure injects CO₂ into mixes, creating stronger, greener concrete. Their CO₂ savings equal 50K acres of forest a year. Dumbbell by Impossible Labs.
Tiles (CO₂Concrete)
CO₂Concrete turns captured CO₂ into building materials for homes and infrastructure. If all concrete used this method, it could save over 2B tons of CO₂ yearly. Prototype tiles by Impossible Labs.

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Sponsors

Sponsors fund the prize journey from bold idea to breakthrough—shaping each competition, supporting global teams, and accelerating solutions that scale. Their backing powers impact that lasts well beyond the prize.

Teams

Partners

Partners play a hands-on role in our prizes—co-designing competitions, supporting operations, and helping scale solutions with their expertise, resources, and global reach.

Advisors + Experts + Operations

Each year, billions of tonnes of CO₂ are released into the atmosphere, driving the climate crisis, yet these emissions are still treated as waste. The challenge: capture CO₂ to create resources, rather than pollution.

Winning teams proved that CO2 can be converted into real products with value. From turning emissions into concrete to creating consumer products, finalists demonstrated real-world carbontech solutions that reduce emissions and make economic sense, accelerating a new market.

The $20M NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE challenged the world to reimagine CO₂ as a resource. Launched in 2015, this six-year global competition called on innovators to develop breakthrough technologies that convert CO₂ emissions into valuable products, at scale, and under real industrial conditions.

To facilitate this, XPRIZE partnered with the governments of Alberta and Wyoming to build two first-of-their-kind carbon conversion test centers: the Alberta Carbon Conversion Technology Centre and the Wyoming Integrated Test Center. These sites, backed by over $50M in public-private partnerships, allowed teams to demonstrate their technologies using flue gas from working coal and natural gas power plants.

Finalist teams poured more than 2.5 million hours into R&D, driving a 76% surge in patents, shaping ISO standards for carbontech validation, and attracting over $987M in follow-on investment. The prize not only accelerated breakthroughs but also ignited a global carbon-to-value market—setting a new benchmark for innovation in the field.

Grand Prize Winners CarbonCure and CarbonBuilt showed that emissions can be permanently stored in concrete while improving material performance. Chosen as Grand Prize Winners for their groundbreaking carbon-to-concrete technologies, CarbonCure and CarbonBuilt proved that CO₂ emissions can be permanently stored while improving material performance. Their solutions are scaling worldwide—turning a climate liability into an economic engine.

Launched in 2015, the prize concluded in 2021 with CarbonBuilt and CarbonCure named winners of their respective tracks. Finalists tested their tech at live power plants in Wyoming and Alberta, supported by $50M in infrastructure funding—moving carbontech from lab to market.

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