The largest XPrize competition ever conducted has given out its first prize money, with 23 student teams receiving cash injections to further their carbon removal technologies. Among the winners are a mix of forward-thinking projects that take aim at the problem of mounting carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and several that look to solve more than one environmental problem at a time.

The US$100-million Carbon Removal XPrize kicked off back in February, and is aimed at accelerating technologies that can remove CO2 from the ocean and the air. Funded by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, the contest will take place across four years and see competing teams demonstrate not just how carbon can be captured from the air, but safely stored for a minimum of 100 years.

As part of the broader competition, $5 million was set aside for a Student Awards purse. The thinking behind this was to inspire the next generation of climate innovators, and 195 teams from 44 countries threw their hats into the ring. Their submissions involved detailed proposals on their technologies to convince a panel of judges that not only were they scientifically viable, but that the students had the technical know-how to execute on their plans.

Twenty-three teams were selected as winners, 18 of which were handed $250,000 to continue developing their technologies with the option of competing in the main competition. Five others were awarded $100,000 to develop their technologies designed to support the measurement, reporting or verification of carbon removal in a broader sense. Let’s take a look at some interesting examples from this crop of winners.

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