Leading The ERW Charge

We had looked at Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW) as a simple and easy way of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) in an earlier article in this series. To recall, “ERW is nothing but weathering of rocks at an accelerated and enhanced pace and is a nature-based solution to lock away carbon dioxide”. The powdered rock, which is spread over a large area to scale up weathering exponentially, also acts as a natural fertiliser. In this article, we will look at some of the pioneers in ERW, which were briefly mentioned in the earlier article.

The Brazilian Pioneer

InPlanet is a Brazilian company and is one of the pioneers in ERW, which itself is a developing area. The main action area of InPlanet is the Serra da Mantiquiera, which translates as ‘Mountain that Cries’ and spans three Brazilian states: São Paolo, Rio de Janeiro, and Minas Gerais. The modus operandi is simple in its applications: basalt rock dust is spread over 1000 hectares of sugarcane plantation at the rate of 10 tonnes per hectare. While the science is simple, measuring the carbon dioxide removed and concluding that this was because of ERW can be tricky. InPlanet uses statistical tools such as sub-samples of soil, pooled data of soil samples, pairing and rarefaction analysis for an optimal sample size, to do this analysis: what they call the ERW Isometric Protocol. The data is used to analyse how much CDR has happened as a result of the ERW: a comparison of baseline soil samples before weathering and the post-weathering soil samples. Recognising the robustness of their Statistical methods, InPlanet generated its first carbon credits in January 2025, which were verified by Isometric, a global carbon credits registry. Adyen, a payments platform, purchased these credits and the whole process was facilitated by Climefi, a French company which connects the demand and supply sides in CDR.

American Leaders

While Terradot is an American company, with its headquarters in Stanford, USA, its area of operation is Brazil. More specifically, they are partnering with EMBRAPA, Cerrados and operating in the agricultural areas of the Cerrados Biome in Central Brazil. Terradot was in the news at the end of 2024 when it raised USD 60 million from Google, Microsoft, John Doerr and Sheryl Sandberg to remove 3,00,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the air. The first credits from the Brazil project are expected only at the end of 2025. Terradot has a robust MRV (Monitoring, Reporting and Verification) framework to measure the carbon dioxide removed as a result of ERW. Terradot uses Reactive Transport Models (MIN3P), Geostatistical models to analyse various soil samples, Regression analysis and Life Cycle Assessment of the ERW process.

Project Vesta, on the other hand, is doing its work in coastal areas where it spreads olivine powder (olivine is a basalt rock) on the coast and the oceans, where it reacts with carbon dioxide and gets converted into carbonate ions. The first field pilot began in July 2022 in North Sea Beach, Southampton, New York, where 500 cubic yards of olivine dust was scattered on the beach. The company aims to measure the carbon dioxide removed and side effects, if any.

Indian Trailblazers

Altcarbon is involved in CDR through ERW, by spreading powdered basalt rock, which it calls ‘Hari Mati’ or Green Soil, over large tracts of agricultural land in North Bengal in India. It intends to cover 5,00,000 hectares by 2030. They have a science-based approach and aim to measure carbon dioxide in the soil and water before and after application of ‘Hari Mati’ in a world-class Laboratory (the Darjeeling-Climate Action Lab) set up by them. Altcarbon recently raised US$12 million in a seed round to begin its field work. It has also signed a carbon credit agreement with Mitsubishi Corporation.

Mati Carbon is another company of Indian origin (even though it is headquartered in Houston, Texas, USA) involved in CDR through ERW in the states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand. Mati Carbon was in the news recently for having bagged the USD 50 million in the XPrize Carbon Removal Global Competition. The company also has operations in Zambia and Tanzania.

ERW is a novel, niche area, taken up by very few companies globally. While the science behind ERW is well established, its effectiveness in carbon dioxide removal is a work in progress.