Carbon capture company wins $5m to scale up
UNDO, founded by Jim Mann, won an Xprize competition offering cash prizes for projects that could combat climate change.
It followed a Newcastle University study at Nafferton Farm in Northumberland which demonstrated that spreading volcanic dust on farmland, a material that captures carbon from the air, could also increase crop yields by more than 20%.
Mr Mann, who is a former Durham University ecology student, said the collaboration with Newcastle University was "instrumental" in advancing the technology.
Basalt rock found in soil in the north-east of England was crushed into dust and given to farmers, in field tests published last year.
What is carbon capture and how does it fight climate change?
Newcastle professor David Manning, who led the study, said: "Research at Nafferton Farm has shown that, in a bad year for crop growth, use of basaltic rock dust gives increased yields, suggesting that it is particularly helpful when plants are under stress."
Following the prize win, Manufacturer UNDO said it would "remain focused on building the foundations for a world where enhanced rock weathering becomes a common farming practice".
The main winner of the XPrize competition was India's Mati Carbon, which was awarded $50m.
UNDO was one of three runners-up, with Canada's Planetary receiving $1m for ocean work and the UAE's Project Hajar awarded $1m for direct air capture.
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Carbon capture volcanic rock 'boosts farm yields'
What is carbon capture and can it fight climate change?
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In regular double-beta decay, two neutrons in a nucleus simultaneously decay into protons, releasing two electrons and two antineutrinos in the process. But if neutrinos can act as their own antiparticles, then the two neutrinos could annihilate each other, leaving only the two electrons and a burst of energy. Stay in the KnowSign up for the Knowable Magazine newsletter today A number of experiments are underway or planned to look for this decay process, including the KamLAND-Zen experiment, at the Kamioka neutrino detection facility in Japan; the nEXO experiment at the SNOLAB facility in Ontario, Canada; the NEXT experiment at the Canfranc Underground Laboratory in Spain; and the LEGEND experiment at the Gran Sasso laboratory in Italy. KamLAND-Zen, NEXT and LEGEND are already up and running. While these experiments differ in the details, they all employ the same general strategy: They use a giant vat of dense, radioactive material with arrays of detectors that look for the emission of unusually energetic electrons. (The electrons' expected neutrino companions would be missing, with the energy they would have had instead carried by the electrons.) While the neutrino remains one of the most mysterious of the known particles, it is slowly but steadily giving up its secrets. As it does so, it may crack the puzzle of our matter-dominated universe — a universe that happens to allow inquisitive creatures like us to flourish. The neutrinos that zip silently through your body every second are gradually revealing the universe in a new light. 'I think we're entering a very exciting era,' says Turner. This article originally appeared in Knowable Magazine, an independent journalistic endeavor from Annual Reviews. Sign up for the newsletter. Solve the daily Crossword
