The New Frontier of Carbon Capture: Tech-Heavy Fund Invests $33M in Using Rock Weathering on US Farmland
Does a highly dissolvable mineral hold the cost-efficient key to carbon capture and removal?
A collaborative corporate commitment by some of the nation’s best-known tech companies is investing $33 million that this is so. Frontier buyers are purchasing carbon removed on farmland by startup Eion using a process called extreme rock weathering.
The Frontier advance market commitment members include companies such as Stripe, Google, Shopify, Autodesk, JP Morgan Chase, Workday and Salesforce.
Under the contract, Eion will remove 78,707 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) by applying olivine, a mineral which absorbs a high rate of carbon, on farmland across the Midwest and southern U.S. The application is part of an offtake deal with agricultural cooperative Growmark.
Olivine is a magnesium iron silicate commonly dispersed in the subsurface of the earth’s upper mantle. It weathers quickly on the surface and is finding interest as a less expensive means of sequestering CO2.
“Frontier’s offtake provides an opportunity to meaningfully scale enhanced rock weathering in the US,” said Anastasia Pavlovic, CEO of Eion, in a statement. “Via our partnership with Growmark, we’re excited to deliver tangible value to the farmers who are critical to achieving significant carbon removal while maintaining operational excellence on the farm. This work will provide impact through economic stimulus and soil health benefits to rural communities, which is core to Eion’s mission.”
The Growmark collaboration with Eion in using olivine is touted as also producing environmental benefits for farmers. Several reports indicate that olivine enhances soil fertility by conditioning soil pH or acidity.
Eion promises that every soil sample taken is analyzed for the presence of trace elements such as nickel and chromium, which are naturally present in agriculture soils but need to be at acceptable levels.
Those samples will be benchmarked against the company’s safety guardrails. The guardrails enable Eion to be a responsible land steward and trusted partner to farmers and rural communities, as informed by verified data and risk exposure models from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Time magazine named Eion's Extreme Rock Weathering technology as one of the 200 Best Inventions in 2023.
The Frontier commitment funds carbon removal on numerous fronts, while also working to ensure markets for sequestered CO2. Frontier previously negotiated $30.6 million in offtake agreements with Phair for its commercial-scale direct air capture facility in Alberta, Canada.
Another $80 million deal by Frontier buyers is with CO280 and CREW Carbon to remove more than 296,000 metric tons of industrial CO2 by 2030. CO280 partners with paper and pulp companies to remove CO2 produced in the manufacturing process, while CREW integrates carbon removal into wastewater treatment processes.
Overall, the Frontier buyers hold more than $1 billion in advance market commitments to purchase carbon removal. The group also includes McKinsey Sustainability and technical reviewers with Boston Consulting Group, Arizona State University and other institutions.
