Enhanced rock weathering startup Eion secures $33m carbon removal offtake deal with Frontier

[Disclosure: AgFunderNews’ parent company AgFunder is an investor in Eion.]

Eion—a startup with a patented approach to measuring CO2 eliminated by enhanced rock weathering (ERW) on farmland—has struck a $33 million carbon removing offtake cope with Frontier, a $1 billion+ advance market dedication to buy everlasting carbon removing by 2030 established by McKinsey, Alphabet, Meta, Shopify, and Stripe.

Below the offtake deal, its largest to-date, Eion will take away 78,707 tons of CO2 between 2027-2030 by making use of olivine—a mineral it has optimized to climate shortly—on farmland throughout the Midwest and South.

To help deployment at scale, Eion has partnered with ag co-op Growmark, which has a farmer community reaching almost 400,000 prospects, mentioned Eion CEO Anastasia Pavlovic.

“Frontier’s offtake offers a possibility to meaningfully scale enhanced rock weathering within the US. By way of our partnership with Growmark, we’re excited to ship tangible worth to the farmers who’re important to reaching vital carbon removing whereas sustaining operational excellence on the farm.”

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Soil fingerprinting

Relatively than making use of ag lime (pulverized limestone or calcium carbonate) to farmland to cut back soil acidity, Berkeley-based Eion provides farmers with a 1:1 alternative: crushed olivine, a mineral mined in Norway by its associate and investor Sibelco.

Rain and soil acidity dissolve the olivine, which will increase soil pH, improves soil well being, and absorbs CO2 from the ambiance. In the end, it leads to rivers and makes its technique to the ocean, completely sequestering carbon. Utility ranges will differ however are sometimes round one ton per acre.

Based by Dr. Elliot Chang and Adam Wolf in 2020, Eion calculates the carbon dioxide faraway from the ambiance by its mineral weathering course of by measuring hint parts within the soil (‘soil fingerprinting’) reminiscent of magnesium, chromium, and nickel.

Eion takes soil samples earlier than the olivine is utilized and screens modifications within the soil over time to quantify weathering and the CO2 eliminated within the course of. Sometimes, 40-70% of the mineral dissolves six to 9 months after software, happening to zero after one to 4 years, when it may be reapplied.

Eion generates income by promoting carbon credit to corporations trying to offset their emissions, with costs typically within the $300-$400 [per ton CO2 removed] vary, though for the Frontier deal the greenback quantity is slightly below $420/ton.

Requested when Eion would see the cash, Pavlovic advised AgFunderNews: “Revenues from one of these carbon mission are acknowledged yearly as credit are verified and delivered, so income is unfold throughout the years till 2030.

“Farmers obtain a good portion [of that revenue] that subsidizes their prices of utilizing typical ag lime – sometimes this reduces as utilized prices within the vary of 40-60%. The traditional lime price range will be 10% of the crop price range general so it’s a major saving for farmers to take part.”

Enhanced rock weathering: Permanence and scalability potential

Whereas Eion’s enterprise mannequin depends on promoting carbon credit, a few of which have been deemed ‘worthless,’ the satan is within the element, Pavlovic advised us.

“What folks like about enhanced rock weathering is that the permanence and scalability potential could be very excessive however mission ramp-up complexity is low, that means that a considerable amount of carbon removing can occur even within the subsequent few years, versus credit from direct air seize of carbon, which is able to take some years to ramp up given facility building and manufacturing ramp-up time.

“I’ll additionally level out that we don’t view different pathways as rivals. Whereas additionally they take away carbon dioxide completely, all of those pathways shall be wanted to satisfy our local weather objectives as a planet.”

Whereas the temptation for firms shopping for credit on the voluntary carbon market could be to select the most affordable possibility, they’re now dealing with much more scrutiny, which is prompting curiosity in credit from companies reminiscent of Eion that may present much more sturdy documentation to help its ISO-compliant methodology, claimed Pavlovic.

“Most enhanced rock weathering (ERW) offtakes have been within the $300–400 vary within the final 12 months. We have to get to extra affordable scale to cut back fastened prices and generate extra information that can be utilized to cut back dependency on bodily measurement, which is a big a part of the prices.”

To put ERW credit in context of different carbon credit on the voluntary market, she mentioned, “You have got nature-based options reminiscent of forests and soils at $25-$100, biomass and biochar options at $100-250, ERW at $300-400, BECCS (Bioenergy with Carbon Seize and Storage) at $500-700, and direct air seize at $700-2,000. ERW additionally has greater permanence than soils and forest applied sciences; a standards for Frontier offtake, for instance, is that your tech will need to have 1,000+ 12 months permanence.”

Down the highway, Eion can also be producing income from licensing its patented measurement expertise to different gamers within the enhanced rock weathering area, mentioned Pavlovic: “We’re nonetheless evaluating that as a barely totally different tackle our present go to market.”

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