Kenyan Start‑up Turns Air into Carbon Credits with Geothermal Power

Kenya is once again making global headlines—not for coffee or wildlife, but for cutting-edge climate innovation. This week, Octavia Carbon, a Nairobi-based start‑up, unveiled its pilot direct‑air carbon capture (DACC) technology. Using Kenya’s abundant geothermal energy from the Great Rift Valley, the start‑up is capturing CO₂ directly from the air, pioneering a promising solution for climate change that’s both home‑grown and globally significant.

Octavia operates four experimental units that each extract about ten tonnes of carbon dioxide per year—roughly the same amount that 1,000 mature trees would absorb. These units capture CO₂ using chemical filters, powered by cheap, clean geothermal steam. Once removed, the carbon is either permanently stored in volcanic basalt rock formations underground or repurposed as tradable carbon credits to offset emissions from hard‑to‑decarbonize sectors like steel and cement.

The Kenya‑based team has already secured about US$3 million worth of carbon credit purchases, half of it prepaid, covering roughly 40 % of the planned pilot plant’s lifetime output. Their ambition is bold: scale from tens to thousands of tonnes next year, and eventually to millions annually, positioning Kenya alongside only a handful of nations like Iceland with subsurface CO₂ storage capacity.

Despite skepticism that carbon capture may serve fossil fuel interests, the UN’s climate panel emphasizes that such technologies are essential to meeting 1.5 °C warming limits—especially in industries that can’t fully decarbonize otherwise. Octavia’s success would also show that African‑based solutions can lead the global climate response.

Under co‑founder Martin Freimüller’s leadership, Octavia aims to position Kenya not merely as a carbon sink but as a source of scalable climate technology. Freimüller states clearly: “Technology made in Kenya and developed in Kenya, for the use of the world.” This achievement shines as a powerful example of African ingenuity in the fight against global warming.