Puro.earth listed
Quantity
41 265
CORC Price
299 €
Production Timeline
Q1 2024-Q1 2026
About the project
Everest Carbon is a US-based technology company developing and operating innovative Enhanced Rock Weathering projects in India.
The company uses Wollastonite, a natural mineral that weathers particularly fast, and their methodology is based on the academic work and field trials of their scientific advisor, Prof. Rafael Santos, who is a leading scholar on Enhanced Rock Weathering with Wollastonite worldwide. Notably, Prof. Santos also advised on the development of the Puro Earth Enhanced Rock Weathering methodology.
Wollastonite weathers orders of magnitude faster than typical weathering materials, which puts Everest Carbon in the unique position of being able to directly measure their highly durable and irreversible carbon removals in the form of additional solid inorganic carbon content in their soil samples.
The Wollastonite is sourced from local mines in the districts of Ajmer and Udaipur in Rajasthan where each ton of Wollastonite leads to 449.5kg of CO2e gross removals, including a 19% uncertainty discount to conservatively account for any potential leakage and uncertainty. Due to the close proximity of their fields, cradle-to-grave project emissions are only 59.74kg of CO2e per ton of Wollastonite or 13.3% of gross removals.
For a detailed carbon footprint description email contact@puro.earth
Beyond high-quality carbon removals, Everest Carbon sets itself apart by combining its Enhanced Rock Weathering projects with Nature Restoration projects in rural areas of India. To do so, the company collaborates with local communities, thereby delivering socio-environmental co-benefits that truly stand out. Last but not least, India has highly advantageous geo-climatic conditions that make it ideal for Enhanced Rock Weathering.
Everest Carbon's mission is to reduce the cost of Enhanced Rock Weathering to below $100/t well before 2030 and scale up to a capacity of 1 billion tons of annual carbon removal before 2035, thereby providing a critical piece of technology to humanity's fight against climate change.
How it works
Enhanced Rock Weathering is the acceleration of the Earth’s natural carbon cycle. Enhanced Rock Weathering removes CO2 from the atmosphere by crushing and grinding natural alkaline silicate rocks, like Wollastonite, to fine powders and spreading them in soils. The small particle size and large contact area with the atmosphere will then increase the effective weathering rate by multiple orders of magnitude, therefore enhancing the natural weathering process.
The rock's silicate dissolves upon contact with water, releasing base cations (e.g. Ca2+) that convert atmospheric CO2 into dissolved inorganic carbon in the form of liquid bicarbonates or solid carbonate precipitation. Land surface runoff will then transport the stored carbon to the ocean where it is safely stored for tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of years.
The methodology is possible to be replicated in many new locations and the company aims to scale quickly across India. The carbon removal purchases help them accelerate their capacity scale-up, which will bring down costs through economies of scale and learning effects, all the while directly restoring nature and biodiversity on the lands they operate on.
Key Project Data
- Type of projectNew facility or site
- Carbon removal methodologyEnhanced Rock Weathering
- Durability of carbon removal in years (number)1000
- Co-benefits
By running its Enhanced Rock Weathering projects on degraded lands specifically, Everest Carbon minimizes risks and maximizes socio-environmental co-benefits:
1) Wollastonite is known to improve soil health and acts as a catalyst for their nature restoration activities.
2) Their nature restoration projects expand the biosphere which directly enhances biodiversity, has an immediate cooling effect on the region and prevents groundwater evaporation and soil erosion.
3) The additional fertile land alleviates pressure on land use and secures a healthy sustainable future food supply.
4) The liberated cations from the Enhanced Rock Weathering projects help reverse ocean acidification thereby preserving life below water.
5) By working hand-in-hand with local communities during their projects and the ongoing nature restoration, Everest Carbon also brings urgently needed employment opportunities to rural areas of India.
- Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
- Production facility countryIndia
- Site visits are possibleYes
- Project start date01/07/2023
- Expected certification and issuance date01/07/2023
- Annual carbon removal capacity in tCO2e (number)8780
- Additionality
The carbon removals of Aeon 1 are fully additional. First of all, the company does not receive any other revenue apart from carbon finance. Secondly, by working on degraded lands and with a mined mineral specifically, the counterfactual scenario would have been passive soil and rocks in the earth's crust. And last but not least, there are no other financial incentives available for applying Wollastonite to soils in India.
The carbon removal payment will help increase their capacity to run Enhanced Rock Weathering projects and lower costs in three ways:
1) Increasing steady feedstock procurement to build stronger partnerships with suppliers and allowing them to boost monthly production capacities for us. Leading to volume discounts, and hence, the ability to reach a broader customer base with our credits.
2) Reaping learning curve effects will optimize operations, shorten project delivery times, further minimize project emissions, and lower costs.
3) Getting more data from real-life projects will further improve our methodology and measurement accuracy, allowing us to scale more quickly across India and increase efficiency.
- Implementation of this project is subject to receiving funding (equity or debt)Yes
- Implementation of this project is subject to permits (building, environmental, etc.)Yes
- Implementation of this project is subject to reaching minimum pre-CORC commitmentsYes
- The above conditions are expected to be fulfilled on this date26/06/2023
- Link to high resolution images/media assets
About the supplier
Everest Carbon
Everest Carbon runs innovative Enhanced Rock Weathering projects in India for irreversible, highly-additional, highly-durable, and affordable carbon removals. The company uses Wollastonite, a natural mineral that weathers particularly fast, and their methodology is based on over 5 years of academic work and field trials of their scientific advisor, Prof. Rafael Santos, who is a leading scholar on Enhanced Rock Weathering with Wollastonite worldwide. Notably, Prof. Santos also advised on the development of the Puro Earth Enhanced Rock Weathering methodology.
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