North Dakota’s Red Trail Energy (RTE) on Tuesday announced issuance of its carbon dioxide (CO2) removal credits on the Puro.earth Registry, making it the first ethanol production facility to generate CO2 Removal Certificates (CORCs) in the voluntary carbon market (VCM) and the largest durable carbon removal project registered to date. RTE will be offering its CORCs through its marketing arm RPMG.

RTE worked with clean energy advisory firm EcoEngineers to successfully register its project under the Puro Standard, the world’s leading crediting platform for engineered carbon removal. The carbon dioxide removal (CDR) credits are generated through bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) from ethanol production in compliance with Puro’s Geologically Stored Carbon Methodology. Prior to the issuance of CORCs, RTE underwent an independent verification and successfully met all requirements of feedstock sustainability, carbon sequestration permanence and financial additionality.

RTE sequesters CO2 from the fermentation process at its ethanol plant into a permitted underground Class VI well located approximately 6,500 feet directly beneath its facility. This carbon removal will be available as CORCs to help buyers complement their emission reduction activities in pursuit of net-zero targets.

Through Puro.earth and with EcoEngineers’ guidance, RTE was issued more than 150,000 CO2 Removal Certificates from the first 14 months of BECCS operation.

Red Trail Energy CEO Jodi Johnson joined Puro.earth CEO Antti Vihavainen making the announcement Tuesday, along with EcoEngineers CEO Shashi Menon and David LaGreca, Managing Director of VCM Services at EcoEngineers. Listen to the press conference below: