Lithos

The Approach

Lithos accelerates the natural ability of rocks to absorb CO2 by spreading superfine crushed basalt on farmlands and measuring the removal empirically. They source the finely ground basalt from existing quarries who produce it in large quantities as a waste by-product. They then transport this basalt to farmers, who use it as an alternative to existing, often costly inputs for soil deacidification.

The basalt rock reacts with rainwater and locks up atmospheric CO2 as bicarbonate, which ultimately makes its way to the ocean for permanent storage. Lithos measures the dissolution of the rock over time in soil samples using mass spectrometers to quantify the carbon removed.

The Case for Lithos

Enhanced weathering offers a promising path to permanent carbon removal at scale. Enhanced weathering describes a variety of approaches to accelerate the natural ability of rocks to absorb CO2 from the air. By grinding up alkaline rocks like basalt to increase their surface area, and spreading them on agricultural fields, the result can be achieved in just a few years. Models suggest these approaches could collectively represent up to 40% of the global carbon removal portfolio in 2050, removing 2-4 gigatons per year.

Lithos’s core innovation is its measurement technique. As an open system, enhanced weathering faces a major challenge in accurately quantifying how much carbon has been removed. Lithos is tackling this challenge by pioneering a new technique that combines soil samples with high-precision elemental measurements, enabling high-frequency sampling without ballooning costs.

Lithos has an impressive track record of execution. In under two years, Lithos has secured partnerships with multiple quarries and deployed on more than 80 farms across nine US states, with more than 160,000 acres on their waitlist and millions of acres of immediately deployable farmland in their network.

Lithos has a feasible and near-term path to low-cost, high-volume removal. Lithos’s path to $100/ton by 2030 relies on getting better at transport and spreading logistics, as well as developing predictive models that reduce the reliance on soil sampling. Their price today has already fallen 26% since they joined Frontier’s prepurchase portfolio in 2022.

Pricing and Delivery

The total offtake amount from Frontier buyers is $57.1M for 154,240 tons. The price accounts for both the removal itself as well as measuring, reporting and verifying (MRV) that each ton is safely and permanently stored. More than half of the contract volume is expected to be delivered in the first two years. The agreement includes requirements for ecosystem impact monitoring, data sharing with researchers in the field, and a community benefits plan.