Latest news with #Xprize
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Startup awarded $50 million for volcanic rock technique with potential to address growing crisis: 'This … is going to go a long way'
What if fighting the changing climate was as easy as spreading dust on a field? Mati Carbon, a startup using crushed volcanic rock to pull carbon from the air and strengthen soil, just won the $50 million Xprize for Carbon Removal, TechCrunch reported. The win is turning heads across the climate tech world. Mati's technology is based on a naturally occurring process called enhanced rock weathering. The company grinds up basalt, a volcanic rock, into fine dust, which is then spread across farmland. As the rock weathers, it reacts with CO2 in the air and locks it away in mineral form for thousands of years, all while enriching soil and improving crop yields. "This material is the difference between having a crop and having no crop," Mati founder and CEO Shantanu Agarwal said. "We've seen that in Zambia this year. There were farmers who put this in half of the field — and half of the field was like normal — and there was no crop [in the] normal half because everything died because there was a drought." While the idea sounds low-tech, that's exactly its advantage. Enhanced rock weathering doesn't require fancy machinery or rare minerals. Basalt is widely available, often as a byproduct of construction, and the process itself has been happening in nature for millions of years. Mati's innovation is that the company found a way to scale it for modern agriculture. Mati provides the basalt dust to farmers at no cost, funding the program through carbon credit sales and grant funding. "You deploy that into carbon removal, you get more than a gigaton of removal every year while increasing income of these farmers who are extremely poor," Agarwal said. By Mati's estimates, around 200 million smallholder farms across low-income countries (covering nearly 900 million acres) could benefit from this soil-boosting, carbon-sequestering dust. The company's approach is especially appealing because it solves multiple problems at once, pulling carbon from the air, reviving degraded farmland, improving water retention, and boosting productivity — up to 70% in struggling soils. All this could also mean more income and food security for farmers in places such as Zambia, India, and Tanzania, where Mati is already operating. To scale faster, Mati is offering free licenses to its enterprise platform for any organization willing to share at least 50% of profits with the farmers they serve. "I want to build a market mechanism and scale a nonprofit to global scale, which allows for a large portion of the value to accrue [to] the farmer," Agarwal said. "This Xprize is going to go a long way to push us in that direction." By the early 2030s, Mati hopes to sell carbon credits for under $100 per ton — a competitive price point in the carbon removal market. In the long run, it wants to go even lower. The startup expects to deliver up to 6,000 tons' worth of credits in 2025. And with fresh funding from the Xprize, Mati is one big step closer to turning farmland into one of the most powerful climate action tools. Do you think America has a plastic waste problem? Definitely Only in some areas Not really I'm not sure Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Join our free newsletter for weekly updates on the latest innovations improving our lives and shaping our future, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Carbon capture company wins $5m to scale up
A carbon capture company has won a $5m international prize to scale up its work. 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. Follow BBC North East on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram. Carbon capture volcanic rock 'boosts farm yields' What is carbon capture and can it fight climate change? Could 'magic dust' help cool the planet? UNDO XPrize Newcastle University
BBC News
03-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
UNDO carbon capture company wins $5m XPrize to scale up
A carbon capture company has won a $5m international prize to scale up its founded by Jim Mann, won an Xprize competition offering cash prizes for projects that could combat climate 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 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. Follow BBC North East on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
