The Carbon Curve

About The Carbon Curve

The world needs to remove billions of tons of CO₂ from the atmosphere — and an entirely new industry is emerging to do it. On The Carbon Curve, Na'im Merchant explores the people, policies, and technologies driving carbon removal forward through conversations with the sector's leading voices. From policy wins and market shifts to breakthrough technologies and global perspectives, each episode unpacks what it takes to scale carbon removal to meet the enormous climate challenge. New episodes every two weeks. carboncurve.substack.com (https://carboncurve.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast)

Publisher

Na’im Merchant

Category

science · technology

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

30 Jun 2022

Latest episode

10 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

28 of 69 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   10 Sept 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Canada's Next Industrial Play: A New Revenue Line for the Mill

   Host Na’im Merchant interviews Bill Adams, Sheila Harrison, and Tina Rasmussen about integrating carbon removal into Canada's forest industry, exploring practical applications and economic viability.

2. 

   26 Aug 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Canada’s Next Industrial Play: What It Takes to Earn a Farmer’s Yes

   Host Na’im Merchant interviews Jim Mann, CEO of UNDO, and Brodie Berrigan, Senior Director at the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, about gaining farmer adoption for carbon removal through enhanced rock weathering.

3. 

   5 Aug 2026

   Carbon removal that utilities actually want

   Episode 67 is with Dr. Joachim Katchinoff, Co-founder and CEO of CREW Carbon In this episode, Na’im speaks with Dr. Joachim “Jo” Katchinoff (https://www.linkedin.com/in/joachim-katchinoff-89838934/), co-founder and CEO of CREW Carbon (https://crewcarbon.com/), about how wastewater treatment plants can become permanent carbon sinks. Jo explains how dosing calcium carbonate into wastewater bioreactors converts microbe-produced CO2 into stable bicarbonate, why closed treatment systems make measurement far easier than open-ocean approaches, how the same intervention helps utilities remove more nitrogen and phosphorus while deferring major capital upgrades, what it takes to scale in a slow-moving regulated sector, and more. This conversation was recorded before some big news from CREW: the company just signed an offtake agreement with Microsoft (https://crewcarbon.com/crew-carbon-signs-offtake-agreement-with-microsoft-for-wastewater-carbon-removal/) for up to 23,602 durable carbon removal units — bringing CREW to more than $40 million in committed carbon removal contracts with buyers including JP Morgan, Google, Autodesk, and Stripe through Frontier. It’s a strong signal that the approach Jo describes in this episode is resonating with the market’s most demanding buyers. Na’im and Jo discuss: * Jo’s Journey From Environmental Consulting To Yale * Commercializing Alkalinity-Based Carbon Removal * How Wastewater Treatment Actually Works * Wastewater Alkalinity Enhancement Explained * MRV Advantages Of Closed Reactor Systems * Co-Benefits For Wastewater Utilities * Scaling In A Regulated, Risk-Averse Sector * What Policymakers Need To Know * CREW’s Series A And What’s Next Relevant Links: * CREW Carbon - Website (https://crewcarbon.com/) * Wastewater Alkalinity Enhancement - CREW’s Approach (https://crewcarbon.com/approach/) * CREW Carbon Signs Offtake Agreement with Microsoft for Wastewater Carbon Removal (https://crewcarbon.com/crew-carbon-signs-offtake-agreement-with-microsoft-for-wastewater-carbon-removal/) * Isometric’s Certified Protocol for Carbon Removal via Wastewater (https://isometric.com/writing-articles/certified-protocol-for-carbon-removal-via-wastewater) * CREW Carbon and Isometric Announce the World’s First Wastewater Alkalinity Enhancement Carbon Removal Credits (https://www.wateronline.com/doc/crew-carbon-isometric-announce-first-wastewater-alkalinity-enhancement-carbon-removal-credits-0001) About Jo Katchinoff: Jo (https://www.linkedin.com/in/joachim-katchinoff-89838934/) is the co-founder and CEO of CREW Carbon, a scientist with multiple patents and over a decade in environmental research and climate modeling. Jo leads CREW’s scientific strategy, partnerships, and commercialization of a novel platform that lets wastewater facilities remove and permanently store atmospheric carbon dioxide. Previously, Jo was a postdoctoral researcher and project manager at Yale, where his work on alkalinity-based carbon removal laid the scientific foundation for CREW’s platform. During his PhD at Yale’s Earth and Planetary Sciences Department, he published in journals like Nature and won the Hammer Prize for Outstanding Geologist. He was also a Marie Curie Fellow at Oxford, studying weathering and carbon dioxide removal. He holds a PhD and MPhil from Yale and a BS in Earth Science from William & Mary. About CREW Carbon: Founded in 2022 out of Yale University, CREW Carbon is a water technology company providing wastewater treatment facilities with a solution that improves performance, lowers cost, and permanently removes greenhouse gases. By dosing carbon-negative alkalinity like calcium carbonate directly into wastewater bioreactors, CREW captures biogenic CO2 as stable bicarbonate while improving biological treatment efficiency. CREW is now deployed at 10 wastewater treatment facilities across the US and Europe, has raised over $35 million in funding including a recent Series A, and holds more than $40 million in committed carbon removal contracts with buyers including Microsoft, JP Morgan, Google, Autodesk, and Stripe through Frontier. You can learn more at crewcarbon.com (https://crewcarbon.com/). This episode was made possible thanks to the generous support of the Consecon Foundation. This episode was created and published by Na’im Merchant. Episode production and content support provided by Tank Chen (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tank-chen/). Na’im Merchant (https://www.linkedin.com/in/naimmerchant/) is the co-founder and Executive Director of Carbon Removal Canada (https://carbonremoval.ca/), a policy initiative focused on scaling carbon removal in Canada. He is on the advisory board of the Carbon Removal Standards Initiative and Terraset, and a former policy fellow with Elemental Impact. He previously ran carbon removal consulting practice Carbon Curve (https://carboncurve.co/), and publishes The Carbon Curve newsletter and podcast (https://carboncurve.substack.com/). Every two weeks, Na’im will release a short interview with individuals advancing the policies, technologies, and collective action needed to scale up carbon removal around the world. Tank Chen (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tank-chen/) is the Head of Content and Community at CDR.fyi (https://cdr.fyi/), a public benefit corporation dedicated to accelerating carbon removal through transparency. He is also the co-founder of CDRjobs (https://cdrjobs.earth/), a career platform for the carbon removal industry. Based in Taiwan, Tank is a carbon removal advocate focused on educating policymakers, corporate leaders, and the public on the importance of carbon removal, using data-driven insights to support communication and policy advocacy. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcast app or subscribe via The Carbon Curve newsletter here (https://carboncurve.substack.com/subscribe). If you’d like to get in touch with Na’im, you can reach out via LinkedIn (http://linkedin.com/in/naimmerchant/). This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit carboncurve.substack.com (https://carboncurve.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

Inside a recent episode

Canada's Next Industrial Play: A New Revenue Line for the Mill

Published 10 Sept 2026 · Transcript excerpt

[…] That's really important. where our carbon footprint is, whereas in the mass timber plants and the sawmills, it's a very small footprint. So really for us, we've got a board that supports that. And when we look at our decarbonization plan, we're doing it in a way, first of all, we're patiently working towards 2030. We've got some great initiatives. We've already made significant reduction in where we were in our baseline year, which was 2019. We're still on track of reaching our target of a 50% reduction by 2030. We've got a major investment in one of our German mills that will basically make it a net zero mill and join a number of mills in the world that are converting our natural gas to biogenic fuel supply for the lime kill. […]

Who has been a guest on The Carbon Curve

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Bill Adams
• Sheila Harrison
• Tina Rasmussen
• Jim Mann
• Brodie Berrigan

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.1 / 5

9 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

20 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 43 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

52

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

85

Contact The Carbon Curve

Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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