Lithos Enhanced Rock Weathering

Lithos specialises in Enhanced Rock Weathering, a carbon removal method

Lithos specialises in Enhanced Rock Weathering, a carbon removal method that involves applying up-cycled volcanic rock fines to actively managed land. Lithos partners with quarries that produce millions of tons of basalt dust as a waste byproduct, and carefully sources materials that are appropriate for rapid carbon capture in 2-3 years. Lithos then works with farmers to rapidly decarbonise the crops grown and improve soil health, while paying farmers carbon revenue. To ensure verified removals, Lithos only delivers ex-post and empirically quantified carbon removal.

Info

Purchase type

This project is a pre-purchase for carbon credits that will be generated in the future and can be retired when issued at a future date.

Active since: 28 February 2021

Categories

Carbon Enhanced Rock Weathering

Background

Why did we choose this project?

Their nutrient-rich dust prioritises safety and cascading co-benefits for farmers. Basalt replaces liming, an essential aspect of farming to balance acidic soils, and releases many micronutrients not present in limestone. Their partner farmers accrue significant benefits including drought and pest resistance, crop yield increases of up to 40%, and topsoil regeneration. Lithos provides an easy-to-adopt path for underserved rural communities to tap into an additional, permanent and durable form of carbon removal.

How does it work?

When rainwater falls on the exposed basalt, it reacts and dissolves the rock, kicking off a chemical process that traps the CO₂ as bicarbonate. It makes its way into the oceans where it supports corals and shellfish and counteracts ocean acidification, ultimately turning into solid limestone under the ocean floor. In this form, it remains permanently locked away from the atmosphere. The technology developed by Lithos provides site-specific guidelines to maximise the amount of CO2 captured per ton of basalt and optimise each site’s crop yields.

How do we know it's working?

Lithos has developed a simple, robust, and cost-effective approach based on measuring the abundance of trace and major elements in a soil sample. Its software and isotope trace model were built and tested live over several years of development by world-class researchers and scientists at Yale University and Georgia Tech. Lithos has sold permanent carbon removal to leading organisations in the field such as Frontier Climate, an industry-leading advance market commitment between Stripe, Alphabet, Shopify, Meta, and McKinsey, and Microsoft.

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Location

Seattle Washington, USA

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Lithos Carbon has been named a semifinalist for the U.S. Department of Energy's (@energy) Historic Carbon Dioxide Removal Purchase Prize! 🏆 The Carbon Dioxide Removal Purchase Pilot Prize represents the first-ever direct CDR purchase by the U.S. Federal Government. 📋🏗 Semifinalists were selected by a team of technical experts at DOE and National Laboratories based on a detailed evaluation of technical, business, operational, and community benefit plan proposals that included input and feedback from domestic communities.

We’re thrilled to share that Lithos Carbon has been selected as a Top 20 Finalist in the prestigious #XPRIZECarbonRemoval Competition! 🌍♻️ This $100 million global competition, funded by the Musk Foundation, aims to address one of humanity’s greatest challenges: rebalancing Earth’s carbon cycle. Finalists were rigorously evaluated across three key areas: Operations, Sustainability, and Cost. We’re proud to stand out as the only US-based and US-deployed team recognized in the Rocks category. 🪨 At Lithos Carbon, we’re passionate about collaborating with generational farmers to harness the power of Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW) for a sustainable future. Our innovative approach not only permanently removes CO2 from the air but also enhances crop yields and soil health. 🌱🧑‍🌾

Rick Bennett from Bennett Ag Services spreading a Lithos basalt rock dust delivery.

Lithos' hauling partner, Cutting it Close Hauling, delivers basalt rock dust ahead of farmers' spreading it on selected fields. This removes carbon and improves crop yields and soil health for farmers.

In this snippet from @npr @wbur’s Here and Now podcast, our co-founder and CEO Mary Yap takes journalist Chris Bentley to a quarry in one of our Deployment Hubs, where 42,000 pounds of explosives kick-start a circular economy that fights climate change. Learn how enhanced rock weathering, a natural carbon removal method, is being accelerated with the basalt dust and the partnership of forward-thinking farmers like Russell Hedrick.

Appearing on the My Climate Journey podcast, Mary - CEO and co-founder of Lithos, gives background on the natural carbon cycle and how it has a thermostatic way of modulating the climate. This explanation is crucial to understanding how we enhance and accelerate a process already occurring in nature through upcycling leftover fine particulate basalt rock from quarries and partnering with farmers who, in turn, spread on carefully selected agricultural fields.

Lithos Carbon has been recognized by Fast Company as the Winner of the General Excellence award in the World Changing Ideas of 2023. They are also a finalist in the Climate category and an honoree in the Agriculture and North America categories! https://www.fastcompany.com/90878749/lithos-carbon-volcanic-rock-dust

Lithos Enhanced Rock Weathering was verified by Pinwheel

Lithos Enhanced Rock Weathering joined Pinwheel!