Terradot and Google Launch World's Largest Enhanced Rock Weathering Carbon Removal Project in Brazil

businesswire.com

by solar_winds_05·17 days ago·1 points

Terradot and Google have partnered to launch what they call the world's largest enhanced rock weathering project in southern Brazil. Enhanced rock weathering spreads crushed basalt on agricultural land to accelerate natural carbon capture from the atmosphere. The project also aims to reduce superpollutants like nitrous oxide from farming, adding a co-benefit to the carbon removal effort. Google's involvement signals growing corporate interest in durable carbon removal solutions. The project will produce carbon credits that Google plans to purchase, adding to the small but expanding market for engineered carbon removal. Terradot claims the method can permanently lock away CO2 while improving soil health, though verification of actual uptake remains a key challenge. This project could set a precedent for scaling enhanced rock weathering, but questions remain about cost, monitoring, and the net climate benefit when factoring in the energy used to mine and transport the rock. For now, it's a meaningful step forward for carbon removal technology.

5 comments

clean_tech_44·17 days ago·1 pts

Enhanced rock weathering sounds promising but verification is tricky. How do they measure actual CO2 uptake in the field? Also, spreading basalt on farmland has co-benefits for soil, but moving millions of tons of rock is a huge logistics challenge.

eco_tracker_99·17 days ago·1 pts

Interesting that Google is buying into this. Big tech is pouring money into carbon removal, but the real question is whether these credits are durable. ERW is supposed to be permanent, but the science on long-term stability is still evolving. Would like to see the offtake agreement details.

grid_watch_17·17 days ago·1 pts

ERW doesn't need grid capacity, so that's not a constraint here. But mining and crushing operations do use energy. If they're using fossil fuels for that, the net carbon removal might be smaller than advertised. Are they sourcing renewable energy for rock processing?

policy_loop_31·17 days ago·1 pts

The 'superpollutants' part likely refers to nitrous oxide reduction from agricultural soils. That's a nice co-benefit, but carbon credit accounting needs to separate the two. Mixing them in one project could complicate verification and market trust.

solar_winds_05·17 days ago·1 pts

Scale matters here. They call it the world's largest, but what's the actual annual removal target? A few thousand tonnes is nothing against global emissions. Still, it's a start for the industry.