How CREW Carbon’s Breakthrough Approach is Proving a Verified, Measurable Pathway for CO₂ Removal at Scale

Connecticut Innovations: What inspired the founding of CREW Carbon?

Jo Katchinoff: CREW grew out of my PhD and postdoctoral work at Yale, where I partnered with my co-founder, Professor Noah Planavsky, and other researchers to understand how rocks like basalt and limestone naturally remove CO₂ from the atmosphere through weathering.

CI: Can you explain weathering?

JK: Weathering is a process that occurs when water and CO₂ combine and interact with these minerals. The minerals dissolve and chemically transform CO₂ into a more stable, benign form of carbon, called the bicarbonate ion, that flows to the ocean and is stored for millennia. The process is slow, but we found that grinding the minerals into fine powder and deploying them in environments with abundant CO₂, like rivers, ocean, soils and wastewater plants, accelerates the reaction dramatically, similar to how powdered sugar dissolves faster in hot water than a sugar cube does in cold water. This is the concept of enhanced weathering.

CI: And you knew it had applications for treating wastewater?

JK: Initially, our research explored applying enhanced weathering in agricultural settings. However, we recognized its potential in wastewater treatment systems pretty quickly. Here, carbon in the form of waste from our homes and businesses is channelized to wastewater plants where wastewater operators grow trillions of microbes in wastewater reactors—concrete tanks the size of multiple football fields—where the bugs eat up pollution, including carbon, which is turned into CO₂.

We realized that our enhanced weathering approach could be integrated into these closed-loop wastewater reactors. This allowed for the measurable removal of the biologically produced CO₂ but also enhanced the efficiency of the wastewater treatment process. This increased efficiency leads to a reduction in pollution discharged from the plants, safeguarding our waterways, and importantly, it can generate significant cost savings for wastewater facilities, ultimately benefiting all ratepayers. That insight and research became the foundation of CREW.

CI: Fascinating! How did you validate your solution in the early stages?
JK: We were fortunate to partner early on with the Greater New Haven Water Pollution Control Authority (GNHWPCA), whose team recognized both the climate potential and operational value of our approach. We began with bench-scale experiments that showed promising results, demonstrating that dosing calcium carbonate minerals into wastewater could safely convert CO₂ into stable bicarbonate ions. The team at GNHWPCA supported us further in scaling up to a pilot project at their East Shore Water Pollution Abatement Facility, which treats approximately 40 million gallons of wastewater per day. This pilot allowed us to integrate our enhanced weathering process directly into existing infrastructure.

CI: Carbon removal is a rapidly growing but complex field. How is CREW Carbon different from other solutions in this space?

JK: Most carbon removal solutions face one or more hurdles: high costs, long development timelines, lack of measurability or limited social acceptance. CREW is different in that we remove CO₂ directly within existing wastewater treatment infrastructure. It’s a system that already exists in every community, already centralizes carbon, already is permitted and has social license to operate—I’m pretty sure most folks want their wastewater treated more efficiently and cheaply.

Our approach turns this essential infrastructure into a climate hub: We remove CO₂, generate third-party-verified credits and simultaneously improve wastewater treatment. We don’t need massive new infrastructure or subsidies. And because our process delivers real operational and cost benefits, it creates a win-win for utilities and for the planet.

CI: As a founder in the climate space, how do you balance scientific rigor, regulatory hurdles and the need to deomstrate results to your investors?

JK: One of our core values at CREW is “Science First.” We want to make sure that our approach is leading to real, measurable and durable CO₂ removal and that it’s not having any negative side effects. And we’re lucky that there is a market that wants our product—CO₂ removal—which is inherently based in scientific rigor. Scientific rigor gives your product credibility, especially in carbon removal, where trust is everything. In parallel, regulatory alignment and financial goals need to move together with scientific rigor. Regulatory alignment ensures you can actually deploy and scale in the real world. And investor confidence comes from showing you can execute.

CI: Before becoming an entrepreneur, you worked in environmental consulting. What was the biggest surprise transitioning from that role to helming your own company?

JK: I’ve spent time in both consulting and academia. In fact, I originally went back to academia because I wanted to be a professor at a top research university. Reflecting on that desire, I realize that being a professor is actually a very entrepreneurial job: You’re building a product, which is your research, raising funding through grants, recruiting a team, running a lab and building a reputation around your work. You’re pitching constantly and thinking strategically, just in different ways than in the startup world. When I transitioned into running a startup, it felt like a pretty natural extension of what I was already hoping to do.

CI: Looking back on your journey at CREW, is there anything you wished you’d done differently?

JK: If anything, I wish we had started engaging utilities even earlier, before the tech was fully baked. The feedback and buy-in we’ve received from operators has been invaluable, and I think it would’ve helped shape our product even sooner. I’d recommend any entrepreneur to start talking to stakeholders, like customers, partners and competitors, early and keep the data from those conversations. It’ll help you build a better and faster product!

CI: What do you like about Connecticut as a place to grow a company?

JK: Connecticut is a great place to build. There’s incredible talent coming out of Yale, UConn and other universities, and a growing ecosystem of early-stage companies and climate innovators in places like ClimateHaven. It’s also close to both Boston and New York, which makes partnerships, recruiting and travel easier. And the support we’ve gotten from groups like Connecticut Innovations and ClimateHaven has been a real boost.

CI: What do you do in your spare time?

JK: I love to cook and play soccer and tennis. I also am fascinated by mechanical watches—watches that are run completely on springs powered by winding them up. There’s a tiny engine on your wrist, and if you keep it serviced, it can last for more than a hundred years. Talk about a well-designed product!

CI: What’s next for the company?

JK: We’re scaling up. In the next year, we’ll move from a handful of commercial deployments to a national network of wastewater partnerships, each one removing thousands of tons of CO₂ annually. We’re also investing in expanding our MRV (Measurement, Reporting, Verification) platform to ensure the carbon removal we deliver is trusted, scalable and traceable. International expansion is also on the horizon as we field growing interest from Europe, Asia and beyond.

CI: What advice would you give other entrepreneurs who are starting out?

JK: Start sooner than you think by talking to real stakeholders, including customers, partners and advisors, as  early as possible and identify the problem you’re trying to solve—less of the solution! Build or do simple testing to give validation—it doesn’t need to be perfect but should go to de-risking the major risk areas investors might identify. Be relentless about learning and be willing and able to pivot. Finally, try to surround yourself with people who believe in the mission. When things get hard, and they will, that’s what carries you through.