Large corporations such as Google, H&M Group, and Salesforce have collectively agreed to pay Terradot $27 million to remove 90,000 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere using a process called enhanced rock weathering (ERW). This technology involves crushing rocks into fine powder and spreading it over large areas to increase the surface area exposed to rainfall, which naturally weathers the rocks releasing calcium and magnesium. These minerals trigger a chemical reaction that traps CO2 in water as bicarbonate.
Terradot has partnered with Brazil’s agricultural research agency (EMBRAPA) to use this strategy on more than one million hectares of land. The startup takes basalt from quarries in southern Brazil to nearby farms, where farmers can use the finely-ground basalt to manage soil pH and carbon removal is a bonus. This approach is relatively low-tech but has gained significant backing from big names.
Enhanced rock weathering attempts to speed up a natural process that might otherwise take thousands of years. Rainfall naturally weathers rocks, releasing calcium and magnesium, triggering a chemical reaction that traps CO2 in water as bicarbonate. Groundwater carrying bicarbonate eventually makes its way to the ocean, which stores the carbon and keeps it out of the atmosphere.
Accelerating this process is simple: crush up rock and spread it out over a large area, increasing exposed surface area reacting with CO2. Terradot’s 2029 deadline for the Frontier deal requires them to capture 90,000 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. They also aim to capture an additional 200,000 tons for Google by the early 2030s.
Terradot takes basalt from quarries in southern Brazil to nearby farms. Farmers can use this finely-ground basalt to manage soil pH and as a bonus they get carbon removal. Terradot has struck up a partnership with Brazil’s agricultural research agency (EMBRAPA), allowing them to use this strategy on over one million hectares of land.
The tricky part will be counting how much CO2 Terradot manages to trap. Google admits in their announcement that it is hard to measure precision, but the only way to develop highly rigorous measurement tools is to deploy this approach widely in the real world. That’s why their support aims to help Terradot’s solution get out of the lab more quickly.
Terradot says they’ll take soil samples to assess how much CO2 is captured based on rock degradation over time. However, it’s harder to figure out how much calcium, magnesium, and bicarbonate makes it to the ocean to permanently sequester CO2. Fertilizer in the soil can also potentially limit carbon capture through enhanced rock weathering.
"How much they sequester is still the outstanding question," says Oliver Jagoutz, a professor of geology at MIT. "But he doesn’t think that uncertainty needs to stop trials in the real world. I also think why not try?…I don’t think we have the luxury to overthink it right now."
Carbon dioxide removal encompasses a suite of strategies to take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. These technologies could potentially help slow climate change by trapping some of the pollution fossil fuels have already released over the years. There are still concerns about its costs, safety, and potential to delay transition from fossil fuels to carbon-free energy.
Experts say carbon removal is no substitute for preventing greenhouse gas emissions in the first place. Enhanced rock weathering attempts to speed up a natural process that might otherwise take thousands of years. Rainfall naturally weathers rocks, releasing calcium and magnesium, triggering a chemical reaction that traps CO2 in water as bicarbonate.
Groundwater carrying bicarbonate eventually makes its way to the ocean, which stores the carbon and keeps it out of the atmosphere. Accelerating this process is simple: crush up rock and spread it out over a large area, increasing exposed surface area reacting with CO2.
Terradot has partnered with Brazil’s agricultural research agency (EMBRAPA) to use this strategy on more than one million hectares of land. The startup takes basalt from quarries in southern Brazil to nearby farms, where farmers can use the finely-ground basalt to manage soil pH and carbon removal is a bonus.
This approach is relatively low-tech but has gained significant backing from big names. Terradot grew out of research at Stanford University, where CEO James Kanoff and CPO Sasankh Munukutla were undergraduate students at the time. Shortly before graduating in 2022, they co-founded the company along with Kanoff’s former professor Scott Fendorf, who is now Terradot’s chief scientist.
Enhanced rock weathering attempts to speed up a natural process that might otherwise take thousands of years. Rainfall naturally weathers rocks, releasing calcium and magnesium, triggering a chemical reaction that traps CO2 in water as bicarbonate. Groundwater carrying bicarbonate eventually makes its way to the ocean, which stores the carbon and keeps it out of the atmosphere.
Accelerating this process is simple: crush up rock and spread it out over a large area, increasing exposed surface area reacting with CO2. Terradot’s 2029 deadline for the Frontier deal requires them to capture 90,000 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. They also aim to capture an additional 200,000 tons for Google by the early 2030s.
Terradot takes basalt from quarries in southern Brazil to nearby farms. Farmers can use this finely-ground basalt to manage soil pH and as a bonus they get carbon removal. Terradot has struck up a partnership with Brazil’s agricultural research agency (EMBRAPA), allowing them to use this strategy on over one million hectares of land.
The tricky part will be counting how much CO2 Terradot manages to trap. Google admits in their announcement that it is hard to measure precision, but the only way to develop highly rigorous measurement tools is to deploy this approach widely in the real world. That’s why their support aims to help Terradot’s solution get out of the lab more quickly.
Terradot says they’ll take soil samples to assess how much CO2 is captured based on rock degradation over time. However, it’s harder to figure out how much calcium, magnesium, and bicarbonate makes it to the ocean to permanently sequester CO2. Fertilizer in the soil can also potentially limit carbon capture through enhanced rock weathering.
"How much they sequester is still the outstanding question," says Oliver Jagoutz, a professor of geology at MIT. "But he doesn’t think that uncertainty needs to stop trials in the real world. I also think why not try?…I don’t think we have the luxury to overthink it right now."
Terradot grew out of research at Stanford University, where CEO James Kanoff and CPO Sasankh Munukutla were undergraduate students at the time. Shortly before graduating in 2022, they co-founded the company along with Kanoff’s former professor Scott Fendorf, who is now Terradot’s chief scientist.
Enhanced rock weathering attempts to speed up a natural process that might otherwise take thousands of years. Rainfall naturally weathers rocks, releasing calcium and magnesium, triggering a chemical reaction that traps CO2 in water as bicarbonate. Groundwater carrying bicarbonate eventually makes its way to the ocean, which stores the carbon and keeps it out of the atmosphere.
Accelerating this process is simple: crush up rock and spread it out over a large area, increasing exposed surface area reacting with CO2. Terradot’s 2029 deadline for the Frontier deal requires them to capture 90,000 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. They also aim to capture an additional 200,000 tons for Google by the early 2030s.
Terradot takes basalt from quarries in southern Brazil to nearby farms. Farmers can use this finely-ground basalt to manage soil pH and as a bonus they get carbon removal. Terradot has struck up a partnership with Brazil’s agricultural research agency (EMBRAPA), allowing them to use this strategy on over one million hectares of land.
The tricky part will be counting how much CO2 Terradot manages to trap. Google admits in their announcement that it is hard to measure precision, but the only way to develop highly rigorous measurement tools is to deploy this approach widely in the real world. That’s why their support aims to help Terradot’s solution get out of the lab more quickly.
Terradot says they’ll take soil samples to assess how much CO2 is captured based on rock degradation over time. However, it’s harder to figure out how much calcium, magnesium, and bicarbonate makes it to the ocean to permanently sequester CO2. Fertilizer in the soil can also potentially limit carbon capture through enhanced rock weathering.
"How much they sequester is still the outstanding question," says Oliver Jagoutz, a professor of geology at MIT. "But he doesn’t think that uncertainty needs to stop trials in the real world. I also think why not try?…I don’t think we have the luxury to overthink it right now."
Carbon dioxide removal encompasses a suite of strategies to take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. These technologies could potentially help slow climate change by trapping some of the pollution fossil fuels have already released over the years. There are still concerns about its costs, safety, and potential to delay transition from fossil fuels to carbon-free energy.
Experts say carbon removal is no substitute for preventing greenhouse gas emissions in the first place. Enhanced rock weathering attempts to speed up a natural process that might otherwise take thousands of years. Rainfall naturally weathers rocks, releasing calcium and magnesium, triggering a chemical reaction that traps CO2 in water as bicarbonate.
Groundwater carrying bicarbonate eventually makes its way to the ocean, which stores the carbon and keeps it out of the atmosphere. Accelerating this process is simple: crush up rock and spread it out over a large area, increasing exposed surface area reacting with CO2.
Terradot has partnered with Brazil’s agricultural research agency (EMBRAPA) to use this strategy on more than one million hectares of land. The startup takes basalt from quarries in southern Brazil to nearby farms, where farmers can use the finely-ground basalt to manage soil pH and carbon removal is a bonus.
This approach is relatively low-tech but has gained significant backing from big names. Terradot grew out of research at Stanford University, where CEO James Kanoff and CPO Sasankh Munukutla were undergraduate students at the time. Shortly before graduating in 2022, they co-founded the company along with Kanoff’s former professor Scott Fendorf, who is now Terradot’s chief scientist.
Enhanced rock weathering attempts to speed up a natural process that might otherwise take thousands of years. Rainfall naturally weathers rocks, releasing calcium and magnesium, triggering a chemical reaction that traps CO2 in water as bicarbonate. Groundwater carrying bicarbonate eventually makes its way to the ocean, which stores the carbon and keeps it out of the atmosphere.
Accelerating this process is simple: crush up rock and spread it out over a large area, increasing exposed surface area reacting with CO2. Terradot’s 2029 deadline for the Frontier deal requires them to capture 90,000 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. They also aim to capture an additional 200,000 tons for Google by the early 2030s.
Terradot takes basalt from quarries in southern Brazil to nearby farms. Farmers can use this finely-ground basalt to manage soil pH and as a bonus they get carbon removal. Terradot has struck up a partnership with Brazil’s agricultural research agency (EMBRAPA), allowing them to use this strategy on over one million hectares of land.
The tricky part will be counting how much CO2 Terradot manages to trap. Google admits in their announcement that it is hard to measure precision, but the only way to develop highly rigorous measurement tools is to deploy this approach widely in the real world. That’s why their support aims to help Terradot’s solution get out of the lab more quickly.
Terradot says they’ll take soil samples to assess how much CO2 is captured based on rock degradation over time. However, it’s harder to figure out how much calcium, magnesium, and bicarbonate makes it to the ocean to permanently sequester CO2. Fertilizer in the soil can also potentially limit carbon capture through enhanced rock weathering.
"How much they sequester is still the outstanding question," says Oliver Jagoutz, a professor of geology at MIT. "But he doesn’t think that uncertainty needs to stop trials in the real world. I also think why not try?…I don’t think we have the luxury to overthink it right now."
Terradot grew out of research at Stanford University, where CEO James Kanoff and CPO Sasankh Munukutla were undergraduate students at the time. Shortly before graduating in 2022, they co-founded the company along with Kanoff’s former professor Scott Fendorf, who is now Terradot’s chief scientist.
Enhanced rock weathering attempts to speed up a natural process that might otherwise take thousands of years. Rainfall naturally weathers rocks, releasing calcium and magnesium, triggering a chemical reaction that traps CO2 in water as bicarbonate. Groundwater carrying bicarbonate eventually makes its way to the ocean, which stores the carbon and keeps it out of the atmosphere.
Accelerating this process is simple: crush up rock and spread it out over a large area, increasing exposed surface area reacting with CO2. Terradot’s 2029 deadline for the Frontier deal requires them to capture 90,000 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. They also aim to capture an additional 200,000 tons for Google by the early 2030s.
Terradot takes basalt from quarries in southern Brazil to nearby farms. Farmers can use this finely-ground basalt to manage soil pH and as a bonus they get carbon removal. Terradot has struck up a partnership with Brazil’s agricultural research agency (EMBRAPA), allowing them to use this strategy on over one million hectares of land.
The tricky part will be counting how much CO2 Terradot manages to trap. Google admits in their announcement that it is hard to measure precision, but the only way to develop highly rigorous measurement tools is to deploy this approach widely in the real world. That’s why their support aims to help Terradot’s solution get out of the lab more quickly.
Terradot says they’ll take soil samples to assess how much CO2 is captured based on rock degradation over time. However, it’s harder to figure out how much calcium, magnesium, and bicarbonate makes it to the ocean to permanently sequester CO2. Fertilizer in the soil can also potentially limit carbon capture through enhanced rock weathering.
"How much they sequester is still the outstanding question," says Oliver Jagoutz, a professor of geology at MIT. "But he doesn’t think that uncertainty needs to stop trials in the real world. I also think why not try?…I don’t think we have the luxury to overthink it right now."
Conclusion:
Enhanced rock weathering is a promising approach to carbon dioxide removal but there are still many uncertainties surrounding its effectiveness and scalability. Terradot, with its partnership with EMBRAPA, has made significant progress in this area but more research is needed to fully understand how much CO2 can be captured through this method.
In the meantime, it’s essential to continue investing in carbon capture technologies like enhanced rock weathering. These efforts could potentially help slow climate change by removing some of the pollution that fossil fuels have already released into the atmosphere.
However, experts warn that carbon removal should not replace reducing greenhouse gas emissions but rather supplement them. Governments and companies must continue to prioritize transitioning away from fossil fuels to clean energy sources.
As the world continues to grapple with the challenges of climate change, it’s essential to explore all available options for reducing our reliance on fossil fuels and mitigating the impacts of global warming.
Enhanced rock weathering is just one piece of this puzzle but its potential should not be overlooked.