A Multimillion-Dollar Deal to Trap CO2 Using Rocks
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. This deal was brokered by Frontier, a carbon removal initiative led by Stripe, Google, Shopify, and McKinsey Sustainability.
The Terradot Strategy: Enhanced Rock Weathering
Terradot uses enhanced rock weathering (ERW) as its strategy to slow climate change. ERW attempts to speed up the natural process of rock weathering, which takes thousands of years. Rainfall naturally breaks down rocks, releasing calcium and magnesium and triggering a chemical reaction that traps CO2 in water as bicarbonate.
A Low-Tech Tactic for Carbon Removal
The Terradot strategy is considered relatively low-tech compared to other carbon removal technologies. However, it has gained significant backing from big companies like Google and H&M Group. Oliver Jagoutz, a professor of geology at MIT, says, "I mean, it’s a big deal. I think it should go a little out of the academic world into the industrial world."
Terradot’s History and Partnership with Brazil
Terradot was founded by James Kanoff, Sasankh Munukutla, and Scott Fendorf in 2022. The company grew out of a research project at Stanford University. Terradot has partnered with Brazil’s agricultural research agency (EMBRAPA) to use its strategy on over one million hectares of land.
Measuring the Effectiveness of Carbon Removal
Google admits that it’s hard to measure the effectiveness of carbon removal using ERW. However, the company believes that deploying this approach widely will help develop more accurate measurement tools. Terradot plans to take soil samples to assess how much CO2 is captured based on how the rock degrades over time.
Uncertainty and Challenges
Experts say that there are still concerns about the costs, safety, and potential delays associated with carbon removal technologies. Fertilizer in the soil can potentially limit how much carbon is captured through enhanced rock weathering. Jagoutz says, "How much they sequester is still the outstanding question."
The Importance of Carbon Removal
Carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels are already making climate disasters more dangerous. Google’s carbon footprint has grown as it builds out energy-hungry AI data centers. The company has announced plans to help develop advanced nuclear reactors and new solar and wind farms to power its data centers with carbon pollution-free electricity.
A Small Step Towards Carbon Neutrality
Even though Google signed the biggest ERW deal to date, 200,000 tons of carbon removal is still a small fraction of the 14.3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide pollution it was responsible for last year. Kanoff says, "It’s very clear that this is not a substitute for emissions reductions at all… we need both of these tools."
Conclusion
The Terradot strategy using enhanced rock weathering has gained significant backing from big companies like Google and H&M Group. However, there are still concerns about the effectiveness and challenges associated with carbon removal technologies. Carbon removal, at best, is an attempt to counteract some of a company’s legacy of pollution while they make the energy transition.
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