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Snakes and river rapids are just some of the challenges with measuring the carbon removed from sprinkling rock dust on cropland, says Terradot CEO James Kanoff.

Why it matters: The technique promises to be a breakout technology if its measurement costs can come down.

Zoom in: Terradot's emergence in December put a spotlight on this method, known as enhanced rock weathering (ERW). Since then, it's attracted some high-profile names: Google as a credit buyer, plus John Doerr, Sheryl Sandberg, and Microsoft as investors.

The company was founded by two Stanford researchers and a professor. It just launched its first carbon removal hub in Brazil.

Axios sat down with Kanoff, who co-founded the company, for an interview after its launch.

"The real excitement and potential of enhanced rock weathering is that we don't have to build anything new.

There's thousands of these silicate rock quarries that already exist all around the world, and they're often surrounded by farmland that rock can be spread on and that can help boost crop yields."

"When you're tracking the carbon, you have to track it through the soil, pore water, down into the groundwater and ultimately downstream to rivers and the ocean.

What this really looks like is taking tens of thousands of soil samples in the field. Hundreds of water samples every time after a rain event. Teams paddling down the rivers to actually measure it."

"If you could look anywhere in the world at the most optimal place to do enhanced rock weathering, you would land on Brazil.

Its tropical climate is warm and wet, which increases the rock weathering rate so you can remove carbon faster.

You also have large-scale agriculture and large-scale quarrying that is surrounded, literally on top of each other, so you have really low transportation distances.

Then you have an entirely clean energy matrix. If you're crushing any rocks, it's really clean from any sort of emissions."

"You can see the cost in the Frontier deal. It's $27 million for 90,000 tons of carbon removed.

That cost is largely driven by measurement and verification, which is a significant portion of the cost today."

Terradot CEO talks snakes, carbon measuring and other ERW challenges

The company sold the largest set of ERW deals to Google and buying group Frontier

Photo illustration of Terradot CEO, James Kanoff.

Terradot CEO James Kanoff. Photo illustration: Axios Visuals. Photo: Courtesy of Terradot

Snakes and river rapids are just some of the challenges with measuring the carbon removed from sprinkling rock dust on cropland, says Terradot CEO James Kanoff.Why it matters: The technique promises to be a breakout technology if its measurement costs can come down.

Terradot CEO talks snakes, carbon measuring and other ERW challenges

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