Swiss carbon dioxide removal (CDR) startup Tivano has been awarded a CHF 500,000 ($606,000) rollout grant from REPIC, a Swiss platform promoting renewable energy and resource efficiency in international cooperation. The financing will support Tivano in transitioning its flagship terrestrial biomassBiomass is a complex biological organic or non-organic solid product derived from living or recently living organism and available naturally. Various types of wastes such as animal manure, waste paper, sludge and many industrial wastes are also treated as biomass because like natural biomass these More storage operation, Project Dragonfly, from a demonstration facility into a large-scale deployment in Namibia. In addition to expanding Project Dragonfly, the grant funding will support Tivano’s Project Butterfly initiative, where construction is already underway on its first dedicated carbon storage vault.

Sub-Saharan grasslands face severe ecological degradation caused by bush encroachment, the aggressive proliferation of woody plant species that suppresses native biodiversity and disrupts local ecosystems. While removing dense, invasive biomass is necessary for grassland restoration, managing harvested woody waste without returning stored carbon to the atmosphere via natural decomposition, decay, or open burning poses a significant operational challenge.

To resolve this issue, Tivano developed a terrestrial biomass storage model that links ecological restoration directly with durable carbon removal. The process involves removing encroaching woody vegetation across targeted Namibian savannas and sealing the harvested biomass within monitored underground vaults engineered to prevent decomposition and carbon release over long durations. The initial demonstration phase of Project Dragonfly successfully restored 120 hectares of land, sequestered over 1,000 tonnes of CO2, and issued 1,049 certified carbon removal credits under Puro.earth.

The REPIC rollout grant provides key capital to scale Tivano’s operational model and construct dedicated infrastructure for long-term carbon storage. By expanding Project Dragonfly and deploying the Project Butterfly carbon vault, Tivano establishes a commercially viable, scalable framework for terrestrial biomass storage that combines verified durable carbon dioxide removal with grassland ecological restoration.