Sumitomo Bets on Thousand-Year Carbon Storage With US Startup; NYK Buys the CreditsA · FULL TRANSLATION
- Graphyte and Sumitomo form a 51:49 US joint venture for carbon-removal credits
- The Loblolly project seals compressed biomass underground, fixing carbon 1,000+ years
- Over 15,000 tons of credits issued, scaling toward 50,000 tons annually; NYK signs as buyer
The carbon-removal market has long been all demand and no supply — and two Japanese giants just voted with capital on the same day. Arkansas startup Graphyte's method is almost counterintuitively simple: compress and seal biomass residue from farming and timber, bury it, and lock carbon away for a millennium — no costly direct-air-capture hardware, hence structurally lower costs, with commercial operation running since 2024. Sumitomo takes the supply side via a 51:49 joint venture to create and sell CDR credits across North America; NYK signs as a buyer, insuring against shipping emissions it cannot engineer away on the road to 2050 net zero. The trading-house playbook is consistent: in a seller's market, own the supply. Manufacturers and shippers everywhere will face the same residual-emissions math.
[Summary translation of JETRO business brief] Graphyte, a carbon-removal startup operating in Arkansas, announced on June 3 a joint venture with Sumitomo Corporation and a carbon-removal credit purchase agreement with shipping line NYK. Graphyte's Loblolly project processes, compresses and seals biomass residues from agriculture, forestry and timber processing for underground storage, fixing carbon for over 1,000 years; commercial operation began in 2024 with more than 15,000 tons of credits issued and expansion toward 50,000 tons annually underway. The US joint venture (Graphyte 51%, Sumitomo 49%) will enter the creation and sale of CDR credits — a market where demand far outstrips supply — with multiple North American projects in view. NYK's purchase contract supports its 2050 net-zero goal, offsetting shipping emissions that remain technically and economically unavoidable. (Source: JETRO, Houston, June 11, 2026)