system. The presence of a primary product will support early deployment." Finalist competing with BECCS design: Biorecro, Sweden Direct air capture Direct Air Capture is the process of capturing carbon dioxide directly from ambient air using solvents, filters or other methods. Subsequent to being captured, the carbon dioxide would be stored with carbon capture and storage technologies to keep it permanently out of the atmosphere. Finalists competing with direct air capture designs: Carbon Engineering, Canada Climeworks, Switzerland Coaway, US Global Thermostat, US Kilimanjaro Energy, US Enhanced weathering Enhanced weathering refers to a chemical approach to in-situ carbonation of silicates, where carbon dioxide is combined through natural weathering processes with mined minerals, such as olivine. The idea was based on the work of Dutch geoscientist Olaf Schuiling, whose ideas continue to be explored in the Netherlands, with promising results. Finalist competing with enhanced weathering design: Smartstones – Olivine Foundation, The Netherlands Grassland restoration Changed management methods for grasslands can significantly increase the uptake of carbon dioxide into the soil, creating a carbon sink. This and other land use change methods is not generally considered among negative emission technologies because of uncertain long-term sequestration permanence. Finalist competing with grassland restoration design: The Savory Institute, US after receiving criticism from many respected scientists has been removed from the finalist list and no longer appears on the Virgin Earth Challenge website. Discontinuance The finalists who were announced in 2011 were kept in suspension for nine years, with many additional requests for information and data, as contestant Global Thermostat reported. Another contestant, Carbon Engineering received notification in 2019 that they fulfilled all technical criteria and were selected for the final judgment. Subsequently they were informed that the prize was "indefinitely put on hold". At the end of 2019, the prize was discontinued and the website taken offline. Carbon Engineering was informed by the Virgin Earth Challenge that "the market conditions necessary to support commercial and sustainable investment in the relevant carbon removal techniques were not foreseeable". Nevertheless, Carbon Engineering had raised 95 million dollar in investments by other parties, including Bill Gates. Contestant Graciela Chichilnisky of Global Thermostat, another direct air capture contestant, who had raised 60 million dollars in investments from other parties, expressed strong criticism in Dutch daily Volkskrant: "If you want to encourage scientific progress with a prize, it's not enough to open your mouth and say "25 million dollars." None of