Microsoft Makes First Enhanced Weathering CO2 Removal Purchase From UNDO

[Geoengineering News]

https://carbonherald.com/microsoft-makes-first-enhanced-weathering-co2-removal-purchase-from-undo/

byVasil Velev 

April 13, 2023

Software giant Microsoft continues its spree of carbon removal purchases. The latest contract has been awarded to enhanced weathering company UNDO.

The purchase is the first of its kind for Microsoft with UNDO committing to spread 25,000 tonnes of basalt rock on farmland. The goal in terms of carbon removal will be to sequester 5,000 tonnes (5,511 tons) of CO2 over the next two decades.

Microsoft becomes a corporate client of UNDO’s but the Scottish company does also offer monthly subscription packages to individual customers.

Plans for removing the equivalent of 20, 40 and 150 kilograms of carbon dioxide are all available. Prices range from £10 (~$11) to £75 (~$83) per month and there are also annual subscriptions.

Relevant: Microsoft Buys Carbon Removal Credits Generated By CarbonCapture Inc’s Direct Air Capture Tech

In the past several weeks Microsoft has announced several deals for carbon removal purchases.

In March the company signed an agreement with CarbonCapture Inc, who use a direct air capture technology. February saw a deal with Running Tide, a ocean carbon removal company.

UNDO is part of a growing group of enhanced weathering startups operating in the carbon removal industry. Some of the other prominent names are Project Vesta, Heirloom, 44.01 and Carbon Collect.

Source: Carbon Herald

[Albert Bates]

"The goal in terms of carbon removal will be to sequester 5,000 tonnes (5,511 tons) of CO2 over the next two decades." So, my question is, are the credits kicking in now, and for the next two decades, or are they more appropriately ascribed to the decades that follow the crossover point when there is net CO2 binding beyond the emissions created by mining, grinding, transportation, application and so forth, which can take three or four decades to neutralize? (https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.2c08633)

[Pol Knops]

Hello Albert (and others),

1. The credits are now sold (as the company now needs the money and not in the two decades).

2. Their process is land based, at land the weathering rate is much faster than the alkaline marine environment.

I don't know the reaction speed for basalt, but for olivine this can be seen at 

https://www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/13/2/235

3. Besides the CO2 uptake (depending on the exact location) the material has also nutrient value, so other advantages.

Best regards,

Pol Knops

P.s. Txs I wasn't aware of the paper of Spyros Foteinis, James S Campbell, and Phil Renforth. Txs.

Op zondag 16 april 2023 om 18:14:52 UTC+2 schreef alb...@thefarm.org:

[Michael Hayes]

Can Microsoft make a unique technical contribution to CDR, and vice versa?

The origional post is highlighting mineral weathering on land gaining MS C credit support, yet MS itself may have a rather unique and patented tool that may be technically adaptable to CDR work in mutually supportive ways.

Microsoft received a patent on underwater data centers a number of years ago, and the field trial was successfully completed in 2020. Keeping server farms on the seabed saves on cooling costs. 

https://news.microsoft.com/source/features/sustainability/project-natick-underwater-datacenter/

Artificial upwelling pipes could likely use the server farms' waste heat to cheaply drive deep water up the pipe, and offshore greenhouses will also likely need heat for some crops. Both land and aquatic crops can be grown in offshore platforms. Moreover, dewatering aquatic crops does require lots of heat. 

The server farms, in turn, can likely be powered by the many marine energy conversion methods currently available, and such renewable energy supplies will likely be generated by the mCDR surface platforms for their own use. Even the grinding of olivine should be more sustainable using marine energy conversion methods.

In brief, producing a low cost olivine enriched marine biomass derived Biochar with marine derived organic fertilizer mixed in, should be a product highly acceptable to most crop farmers. The waste heat generated by seabed data centers likely can play a technical role in such a comprehensive land/sea CDR effort to the extent of possibly representing a C neutral or C negative data center operation. 

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[Tom Goreau]

Olivine is a fertilizer on land only for magnesium, and not at all in the ocean The rate at which it generates bicarbonate is much faster on land than in the sea.

 

Thomas J. F. Goreau, PhD
President, Global Coral Reef Alliance

Chief Scientist, Blue Regeneration SL
President, Biorock Technology Inc.

Technical Advisor, Blue Guardians Programme, SIDS DOCK

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Books:

Geotherapy: Innovative Methods of Soil Fertility Restoration, Carbon Sequestration, and Reversing CO2 Increase

http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781466595392

 

Innovative Methods of Marine Ecosystem Restoration

http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781466557734

 

No one can change the past, everybody can change the future

 

It’s much later than we think, especially if we don’t think

 

Those with their heads in the sand will see the light when global warming and sea level rise wash the beach away

 

Geotherapy: Regenerating ecosystem services to reverse climate change

 

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[Tom Goreau]

My statement below needs correction.

 

Magnesium from olivine (Mg2SiO4) dissolution is NOT a fertilizer in the ocean because magnesium, an essential element for life, is present in vast excess.

 

However, the silica released from olivine dissolution is a fertilizer for diatoms, silico-flagellates, and sponges because silicon is an essential element for them that can be highly deficient in surface waters.

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[Michael Hayes]

Tom and Stephen, et al.,

Tom, that is the most concise description of the aquatic mineral input into the microbial loop that I've found, that you.

A Modified Salter's Duck for Olivine Grinding:

Coupling offshore microalgae cultivation tech with olivine grinding tech, for that microbial level olivine 'nutrient' support, water pH adjusting services, or basicly mimicking a mountain stream yet in an offshore platform, likely can use a modified Salter's Duck for the grinding services, wave breaking services, and renewable electrical supply etc..

An internally armored Salter's Duck' that grinds olivine while generating electricity sounds doable to me as a technologist, yet Dr Salter needs to judge if it's a truely feasible option. Feeding the MS seabed data centers quality power in bulk while also grinding olivine for C management, cultivation needs, may not be hard to sell to MS as the technologies, individual and in combination, seem rather straightforward.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salter's_duck

Best regards to both of you.

[Tom Goreau]

Olivine is not much of an ocean fertilizer. Ocean primary production is almost everywhere limited by Nitrogen and Phosphorus (absent in olivine), with silica (which olivine releases faster than any other silicate) also being crucial for diatoms. The ocean has almost all essential elements other than N, P, and Si in excess, except for iron in areas not downstream from river and wind-blown dust sources.

https://carbonherald.com/microsoft-makes-first-enhanced-weathering-co2-removal-purchase-from-undo/

 

Software giant Microsoft continues its spree of carbon removal purchases. The latest contract has been awarded to enhanced weathering company UNDO.

The purchase is the first of its kind for Microsoft with UNDO committing to spread 25,000 tonnes of basalt rock on farmland. The goal in terms of carbon removal will be to sequester 5,000 tonnes (5,511 tons) of CO2 over the next two decades.

Microsoft becomes a corporate client of UNDO’s but the Scottish company does also offer monthly subscription packages to individual customers.

Plans for removing the equivalent of 20, 40 and 150 kilograms of carbon dioxide are all available. Prices range from £10 (~$11) to £75 (~$83) per month and there are also annual subscriptions.

Relevant: Microsoft Buys Carbon Removal Credits Generated By CarbonCapture Inc’s Direct Air Capture Tech

In the past several weeks Microsoft has announced several deals for carbon removal purchases.

In March the company signed an agreement with CarbonCapture Inc, who use a direct air capture technology. February saw a deal with Running Tide, a ocean carbon removal company.

UNDO is part of a growing group of enhanced weathering startups operating in the carbon removal industry. Some of the other prominent names are Project Vesta, Heirloom, 44.01 and Carbon Collect.

Source: Carbon Herald

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[Greg Rau]

But see this:

 https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.04.08.536121

We found both positive and neutral responses but no evident toxic effects for two silicifying diatoms, a calcifying coccolithophore, and three cyanobacteria. In both single and competitive co-cultures, silicifiers and calcifiers benefited from olivine dissolution products like iron and silicate or enhanced alkalinity, respectively. The non-N2-fixing picocyanobacterium could use synthetic olivine-derived iron for growth, while N2-fixing cyanobacteria could not. However, other trace metals like nickel and cobalt supported cyanobacterial growth across both groups. Growth benefits to particular phytoplankton groups in situ will depend on species-specific responses and ambient concentrations of other required nutrients. Results suggest olivine dissolution products appear unlikely to cause negative effects for marine phytoplankton, even at high concentrations, and may support growth of particular taxa under some conditions. Future studies can shed light on long-term evolutionary responses to olivine exposure, and on the potential effects that marine microbes may in turn have on olivine dissolution rates and regional biogeochemistry."

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[Brian Cady]

Grinding rock is dusty. Gyroscopes need non-dusty working bearings. Grinding rock involves low speed motion, perhaps well suited to wave energy. Perhaps one should either grind rock or generate electricity in any given duck.

Brian

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[Michael Hayes]

Brian, 

High pressure water jets can also give us the ultra fine dust. 

I've played with the idea of creating rock sculptures with the water jets mounted on a 5 axis milling machine. In today's tech world, a virtual reality user on land could likely control the offshore milling machine, and thus create their own stone sculptures. 

I've seen onshore olivine grinding operations and they do loose a lot of the fine dust regardless of their filters. Water jet cutting seems to be a reasonable alternative to grinding as it requires less in the way of hardware. Converting wave energy into high-pressure water should not be a problem.