Applied Carbon (was Climate Robotics)

Applied Carbon turns crop residue into biochar in the field, with a continuous pyrolysis system that drives through a farm and does the work where the waste already lies. Biochar is carbon removal that lasts: it holds carbon in the soil for thousands of years, and it improves the soil while doing it. The reason it hasn't scaled is logistics. Gathering agricultural waste and hauling it to a central plant costs more than the carbon is worth.

Doing the pyrolysis in the field removes the haul from both ends, since the biochar is produced where it will be spread. There are over a billion acres of American farmland, each capable of a few tons of CO2 removal a year, and the residue is already sitting on them. Most carbon removal is either cheap and impermanent or permanent and unaffordable. This is one of the few routes that could be both, and the obstacle was always a truck.