Oh man I would love to be involved in this. Have you had people apply to YC already with ideas in these areas? I'm not familiar with any in the YC portfolio, so they must not have made it. Can you speak to any technical shortcomings of ideas you've already seen (aside from the general cost/scale issues mentioned on the site)?

I'm surprised that people keep trying to direct-air-capture. I was under the impression that the carbon content (as carbonates) in seawater was much higher than in the atmosphere.

I believe the navy has had some initial success in transforming marine carbonates in to petroleum products, which they will probably use as fuel, but I can't wait for the day when we have reverse oil wells pumping carbon back in to the ground..