Carbon removal company Andes has just released the world’s first Microbial Carbon Mineralization (MCM) methodology.
The company has developed this new ISO 14064 methodology together with EcoEngineers, a carbon consulting, auditing, and advisory firm specializing particularly in developing monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) approaches for carbon removal.
Andes has a unique approach to removing CO2 from the atmosphere in that the company has learned to harness the natural ability of microorganisms to speed up the conversion of carbon dioxide into minerals, which is a process known as carbon mineralization.
The microorganisms are added to agricultural soil along with seeds like corn and wheat, thus boosting the soil’s capacity to sequester and store CO2.
Launching the methodology is an important milestone in setting a high standard for reliable carbon dioxide removal (CDR) quantification and MRV of microbial mineralization on agriculture soils.
We spoke to CEO and co-founder of Andes Gonzalo Fuenzalida to better understand the impact of this MCM methodology on Andes’ approach to carbon removal.
Relevant: Andes Completes $30 Million Series A Funding For Carbon Removal Technology
“This methodology is designed to be a transparent blueprint to quantify and credit Microbial Carbon Mineralization (MCM). It will enable Andes to be independently validated and verified by expert third parties for carbon removal activities and provide assurance to our future CDR buyers. It is a critical milestone enabling our scale across the US and towards our ultimate goal of reaching gigaton scale carbon removal in years, not decades. We’d like to thank the renowned experts that dedicated their time working on this,” Fuenzalida said.
Fuenzalida also told the Carbon Herald what the methodology will come to mean to the CDR sector at large: “This document is setting a high bar for transparency, accountability, and conservatism within the context of open terrestrial system.”
“We believe our methodology is paving the way for CDR companies to sustainably scale up activities, while promoting maximum visibility and transparency in methods. Ideally, it could also usher in new wave novel projects that use microbial approaches to remove carbon from the atmosphere and promote collaboration to advance our collective understanding of the science,” he said.
Inorganic C is not a panacea, and its accrual within the soil profile will affect P availability whilst simultaneously raising the pH of the soil. This will further stress and reduce production our Ag fields and make producers less efficient in a quickly changing world. Additionally, it takes one CO2 to produce the requisite carbonate which will be released into the atmosphere whereas prior to the microbial introduction those two bicarbonates would have traveled deeper into the profile, into the ground water, or precipitated out on its own. For every carbonate precipitated one CO2 is released back into the atmosphere. This is shortsighted at best, and dangerous if widescale adoption is attained.